Reading Habits: Superheroes and Spandex
It's no secret that the West Port team are fond of curling up with a book to read - but what do we choose? First to divulge what they're reading right now is our general manager, Kay, who has no compunction whatsoever in owning up to being a comic book geek.
Men of Tomorrow: The True Story of the Birth of the Superheroes by Gerard Jones (2004, Random House)
Superheroes are quite weird when you really think about it - and I say that with the loving heart of a shameless geek. Firstly and obviously, there's the outfits. No-one I've ever met would willingly wear that much clingy spandex, and if they do, I probably don't want to know about it. There's tragic character histories that make the fairytale pre-occupation with evil stepmothers look downright fun and startling extremes of poverty and obscene wealth. There's world-saving heroics married with improbable humility: they can be the ultimate attention-seekers, but that doesn't mean they always like it. More poignantly, there's the paradox of being a beloved outsider, forged in strange circumstances.
Men of Tomorrow: The True Story of the Birth of the Superheroes is concerned with the stories of the people who would imagine Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Captain America and it's a tale more intricate and strange than a radioactive spider bite to the hand. Watching as the main players grow up, waiting for them to collide, watching how the first group to call itself a 'fandom' chose to define itself in an age long before livejournal et al – it's impossible to look away.
There is something incredibly sad about the escapism of it all; men with too much experience of harsh reality building fantastic worlds with a flagrant disregard for the laws of physics or even good taste. Men of Tomorrow describes the melting pot of early twentieth-century New York, where Jewish immigration, socialism, capitalism, escapism and a magazine industry boom all came together. You can glimpse the edges of themes and devices that would come to define a genre, see the first tentative steps of a character who'd go on to save the world (repeatedly).
Indeed, there's so much going on that it's incredible that Gerard Jones' history not only makes for an enjoyable and coherent read, but also shows how the people who started the whole comic book craze really mattered – and of course still do. It's certainly a testament to their skill that Superman and Spiderman are better know than their shadowy creators, but it's fascinating to trace the relationship between modest man and techicolour superhero.
Writing with a pace and immediacy not dissimilar to the thrill of reading a comic for the first time, Jones has pulled off a superhuman feat [sorry]. KB
Posted by Kayleigh Bohan on April 15, 2010.