The 7 Least-Faithful Comic Book Movies

[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.

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...?

Thanks for jogging my memory,it's been year since i saw it.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

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

Well, that could have been written before the Nazi movement - before people realized what that kind of thinking could really lead to.

In that quote they could have meant "breeding" as nothing more than an attitude of "not marrying beneath you"....and science as good medical care...cures for physical problems that we still don't have (because we're too busy inventing ways to kill people).

Also - as David J. Skal says on his commentary for the movie Freaks about some of the reasons critics used to ban certain things in movies - some people at that time took Darwin's theories and twisted them to both justify their prejudices and theorize how the world could be improved.

[Tripe]

Actually they probably do mean breeding in the sense of Animal Husbandry because that's exactly what Eugenics is.

However while eugenics is hideous it should be born in mind that it was a reaction to new ideas without much forethought about what it might piratically mean or even thought about how humans really behave.

One minor silver linings to the Third Reich was that ensured that people had a concrete example of exactly why we didn't want to go down the eugenics route.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

One minor silver linings to the Third Reich was that ensured that people had a concrete example of exactly why we didn't want to go down the eugenics route.

Well....we also thought that it ensured that nothing like "ethnic-cleansing" would ever happen again either the world saw what happened in the camps.   

And we not only have had it happen over and over (and as we speak in a couple of places) but there are still people trying to deny that it even happened.

[Tripe]

One minor silver linings to the Third Reich was that ensured that people had a concrete example of exactly why we didn't want to go down the eugenics route.

Well....we also thought that it ensured that nothing like "ethnic-cleansing" would ever happen again either the world saw what happened in the camps.   

And we not only have had it happen over and over (and as we speak in a couple of places) but there are still people trying to deny that it even happened.

See I didn't say it wouldn't happen again, but Eugenics is tied fast to the NAZIs (as we see from earlier in this thread) is what I meant.

Genocide's a different matter, the NAZI's weren't doing something out of the ordinary there, the action that is. The clinical nature of it absolutely was unusual but the actual act was heavily precedented.

But their shit racial theories were a death stroke for anybody taking eugenics seriously again.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

But their shit racial theories were a death stroke for anybody taking eugenics seriously again.

And yet you have someone like Bree Walker who got a lot of crap back in the 1990's for having children knowing that she had a 50/50 chance of passing on her congenital condition called ectrodactyly.  According to this article, she thinks speaking up for herself hurt her career - not the person who actually suggested that the "handicapped" like her shouldn't reproduce.

God help us all if they ever prove with absolute certainty that homosexuality is genetic.....

[gbeenie]

BTW, I found the passage Doctor Who was referring to. It's from the first untitled Fleischer Superman cartoon (the one where a mad scientist tried to hold the city to ransom). As far as I know, it's the only one to have this intro. The narrator describes life on Krypton:

"A planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and had brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection."

So, eh. Probably not in keeping with modern attitudes, but hardly an endorsement of Nietzsche, either. Keep in mind also that Superman's origins had not been filled in particularly well in the comics at this point.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

"A planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and had brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection."

But you'll notice that that quote doesn't say anything about science or any sort of manipulation....just that the society on the planet before it blew up was advanced beyond ours as of the 1940's.  Hell, the fact that they were able to send a rocket from there to Earth made them more advanced at the time.

The quote just infers that because they had an advanced civilization the result was a population who were the best they could be.

And that could have happened just though plain old study, hard work and natural evolution....

[Doctor Who?]

BTW, I found the passage Doctor Who was referring to. It's from the first untitled Fleischer Superman cartoon (the one where a mad scientist tried to hold the city to ransom). As far as I know, it's the only one to have this intro. The narrator describes life on Krypton:

"A planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and had brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection."

So, eh. Probably not in keeping with modern attitudes, but hardly an endorsement of Nietzsche, either. Keep in mind also that Superman's origins had not been filled in particularly well in the comics at this point.

Thanks for finding that.

I clearly got that part mixed up with some of the stuff Hitler said.

Sorry about that it has been years since i saw that Tune.

[gbeenie]

It's all good. I've been there myself; now that we have teh_internets, I don't have to remember shit. 

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

These are the panels I was thinking about. It could be argued, I suppose, that from the context we have no idea how high up the window is.

Spoiler

It can also be argued that these men are jumping rather than being taken to the police by Superman.

BTW, have you ever read the 1954 Comics Code after the whole "Seduction of the Innocent"/EC Comic thing played out?

1954 Code highlights
- Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
- If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
- Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
- In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
- Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
- No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.
- All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
- All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
- Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
- Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
- Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
- Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
- Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
- Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
- Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.
- Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.
- Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
- Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.

No wonder I gave up DC for Warren Publications in Junior High....   

[RoninFox]

- Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.

(insert a moment here for deafening roars of laughter)

[Tripe]

- Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.

(insert a moment here for deafening roars of laughter)

Could we send Rob Liefeld back in time and perhaps add some draconian penalties for violating the code

[RoninFox]

These are the panels I was thinking about. It could be argued, I suppose, that from the context we have no idea how high up the window is.

Spoiler

It can also be argued that these men are jumping rather than being taken to the police by Superman.

Okay, I'll give you that one, but this guy's definately boned.

Spoiler

Except that Superman was fully aware there was a lake behind those trees.     I'm more worried about what the hell happened to his shield in the second panel.  Did he have to peel it off and throw it at Non again?

[bratpop]

Okay, I'm passing out Nerd Drool Cups. Who needs one?