Heroes Have Problems, Too

As the 1960's dawned on America, the nation was a place of pride and paranoia. The American economy was an awesome economic engine. John Kennedy brought youth and promise of a better world, lead by American might. America was strong, a world leader at the peak of its power.

But fear and unease was not far from the surface. Communism, in general, and Russia specifically seemed to be encircling the U.S.; beating America to the punch in many ways. Russian space programs seemed more advanced after Yuri Gagarin cirlcled the globe in April of 1961. The U.S. was able to launch its first sub-orbital flights in 1961 as it struggled to compete.

Russia also showed its military potential by detonating the world's first 50 megaton hydrogen bomb. Cuba, only 90 miles from U.S. mainland, was a Soviet client state and the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with the island nation in 1961. They fiasco at the Bay of Pigs followed and for all its might, the U.S. seemed to be facing some of its greatest challenges.1

Into that cultural uncertainty, a small, but persistent comic book publisher soon to be renamed Marvel Comics, turned loose Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two veteran comic book geniuses, to try and reinvent the superhero genre. Their first entry, in November 1961 chronicled a team of superheroes, the Fantastic Four. These four heroes had gained their abilities as a result of cosmic radiation in space. The radiation had transformed them into Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing.

These were not your normal, flawless, handsome, happy superheroes. These heroes had problems. One character even sought to give up his powers, and the grotesque physique that went with them.

The villains invented to battle this super group were as interesting as the heroes. Some of the best villains were also heroes in their own right. The villains, too, were complex characters with strong, even cosmic, motivations and emotions. The situations in which the heroes and villains battled often involved complex emotional situations; father and son conflicts, family responsibilities vs. heroic obligations, feelings of rejection and inferiority despite super-abilities, complexities that were not normal fare for normal superhero comic books. Thus, this new breed of comics reflected the conflicted times in which they arose.

1. 1961 Information Please