The 7 Least-Faithful Comic Book Movies

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Superman would rarely go and kill Nazi soldiers though, right? I always thought he and Batman were taking down those nasty "fifth columnists" that were infiltrating the US.

Don't know enough about that era of comics to say for sure, I do have the 1943 era Batman movie serial though, where Batman's secret is known to the US Government who uses him as a special agent, and he fights a Japanese agent that's hiding in the emptied out "Little Tokyo" section of Gotham.

Can't speak for Batman but two things I can tell you about Superman...

First, Superman fought the Japanese - at least in the cartoons:

And I once heard an old "Superman" radio episode (on TV - we had a UHF channel here based in South Beach who thought it would be cool to spend a couple hours a day with a camera trained on people walking up and down the street while they played old radio shows...don't ask me).

There was one they played that had Perry White waxing philosophical that the Nazi's might have the right idea about how they treat criminals....

I couldn't believe it either.

[Doctor Who?]

Well if you remember Superman was origanaly based on the NAZI idea of the perfectly bread Superman,He was really just a mouth piece for Hitler in the early years.

It wasn't until WW2 got into full swing that DC decided to make him an American hero instead of a NAZI one.

[Tripe]

No no Nietzsche's Übermensch is only a NAZI idea because his sister co-opted it.  Nietzsche was no more a NAZI than Wagner wasn't a virulent Antisemite.

In fact the break in the friendship between Nietzsche and Wagner was primarily over the latter's pernicious racial views.

[RoninFox]

the term Superman was used for a couple characters before the character we know as Superman came to be.  There was a short story I know about a character known as the Superman that was entirely different from the classic superhero, but I think as soon as the comic character was "born" it was credited as fighting for "truth, justice, and the American way"  funny considering that the original basis for Metropolis in the comics was Toronto, not New York.

[Tripe]

Have to say, having walked the streets of both in the early hours of the morning, Toronto is probably a much better home for Supes than NY, now Batman on the other hand...

[gbeenie]

Well if you remember Superman was origanaly based on the NAZI idea of the perfectly bread Superman,He was really just a mouth piece for Hitler in the early years.

It wasn't until WW2 got into full swing that DC decided to make him an American hero instead of a NAZI one.

What the hell are you talking about?

[Doctor Who?]

Have you read the early captions about his origin?

It could have been written by Hitler himself.

Don't get me wrong I love the Man of steel,but i love what he became once the NAZI became our enemies not what he was created as.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Well if you remember Superman was origanaly based on the NAZI idea of the perfectly bread Superman,He was really just a mouth piece for Hitler in the early years.

It wasn't until WW2 got into full swing that DC decided to make him an American hero instead of a NAZI one.

Hmmm.....I don't know where you heard that but....you need to read this....

Badly.

[Junkyard]

Yeah, Superman just has a creepy, Neechee (I'm not going to try to spell it properly,) name.

[Doctor Who?]

Well if you remember Superman was origanaly based on the NAZI idea of the perfectly bread Superman,He was really just a mouth piece for Hitler in the early years.

It wasn't until WW2 got into full swing that DC decided to make him an American hero instead of a NAZI one.

Hmmm.....I don't know where you heard that but....you need to read this....

Badly.

Thanks for the link.

So maybe they didn't mean to do it,but you have too admit all that stuff about science bringing forth a race of Supermen that was in the early comics,cartoons,and radio shows does sound an awful lot like what Hitler was saying.

[RoninFox]

Good info PSCD, I should have remembered that Siegel and Shuster were both Jewish, I read a book on the history of Superman a long time ago and I think it did make the point that Superman was in part a creation against anti-semitism.  (If he were really a nazi Superman, he would have been blond after all)  It's a bit surprising just how much the comic industry owes to Jewish artists though, at least it's something I hadn't thought of much.

[gbeenie]

Have you read the early captions about his origin?

You're talking about an early for a villain using the name (from Nietzsche) that had nothing to do with the character that eventually saw print in Action Comics #1 in 1938.

http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html#Ubermensch

Don't get me wrong I love the Man of steel,but i love what he became once the NAZI became our enemies not what he was created as.

Again, what the hell are you talking about?

[Doctor Who?]

I already said i was wrong about him being NAZI inspired.

But in one of the early comics or cartoons I clearly remember see or hearing this...

"on a distant planet advenced science and Breeding brought forth a race of Supermen"

That is what led me to believe he was NAZI inspired.

[gbeenie]

I already said i was wrong about him being NAZI inspired.

But in one of the early comics or cartoons I clearly remember see or hearing this...

"on a distant planet advenced science and Breeding brought forth a race of Supermen"

That is what led me to believe he was NAZI inspired.

The line is from the beginning of the old Fleischer cartoons. I don't remember the breeding part, but my DVD of those cartoons is in storage (along with most of my DVDs) so I can't check right away. Maybe youtube...?

[gbeenie]

By the way, has no one in this thread mentioned Swamp Thing? Great googly-moogly.