The Golden Age of Comics | The Culture of Comics
The Golden Age of Comics | The Culture of Comics
The Golden Age of comics began in 1938 when Superheroes exploded onto the scene. The majority of modern civilization recognizes Superman to be the first comic book superhero, making his debut in Action Comics #1 in June of 1938. However, Superman wasn’t the only superhero to debut in that comic. In fact, Zatarra Master Magician also debuted in the same issue.
One hero made her first comic book appearance earlier than that. Sheena the Jungle Queen made her debut in WAGS #46 in January of 1938, beating Superman to the title of First comic book superhero. Sheena went on to claim another victory in comics by becoming the first female comic book character with her own title in the Spring of 1942. By contrast, Wonder Woman made her first appearance in All-Star Comics #8 in 1941 and then featuring for the first time in Sensation Comics #1 in January of 1942. Wonder Woman actually didn’t receive her own self-titled series until the Summer of 1942 with Wonder Woman #1.
In 1939, The Avenger broke onto the scene and assembled the first ever Team in comics, Justice Inc., beating The Justice Society of America to the title as they made their debut appearance in All Star Comics #3 in the Winter of 1940. Dynamite comics would later retell this origin story and join the Avenger with Doc Savage and The Shadow as Justice Inc.
Also in 1939, two separate heroes with the same gimmick would appear in comics across America. Batman and The Black Bat. For years since, a quiet battle has raged over which came first. The Black Bat however, would go on to inspire both Daredevil and the Batman villain Two-Face. The character of the Black Bat was an attorney who was blinded by a mob boss with a vile of acid and gained a sonar sense. As many know, the origins of both Two-Face and Daredevil are extremely similar. Daredevil came into being when the son of a boxer was involved in an accident involving toxic waste that fell off a truck and got into young Matt Murdock’s eyes, blinding him but giving him a sonar sense as well. The Batman villain Two-Face was a district attorney who was prosecuting a mob boss when, while on the stand, the crime boss threw a vile of acid into Harvey Dent’s face, scarring it and breaking his psyche in two. Marvel’s Daredevil in turn inspired the creation of pop culture icons the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who’s origins were shown to coincide with Daredevil’s as being the result (unofficially) of the same toxic waste which fell from the truck that blinded Matt Murdock and gave him his abilities.
Daredevil however, wasn’t only inspired by The Black Bat. The character’s own superhero identity was actually taken from a superhero by the same name who made his debut in Silver Streak #6 in 1940. This original version of Daredevil was mute due to the psychological trauma of seeing his father murdered when he was just a boy and himself being branded with a red hot iron. The boy went on to be raised by aborigines and became an expert with a Boomerang. Today, the character is known as The Death Defying Devil, having lost the copyright on his name, prior to Marvel’s DareDevil’s debut and falling into the public domain.
While most of America recognize Captain America as the nation’s first patriotic hero, there was actually one before him. Debuting in Pep Comics #1 in 1940 which later went on to become Archie/MLJ Comics, The Shield beat Captain America to the title of America’s first star spangled hero. In fact, the Shield is actually the reason why Captain America went from a triangular style shield in his first few appearances to the saucer shaped shield we’re all familiar with. This is because of the character The Shield’s design. His original costume was a suit of armor that had a triangular shaped shield over the entire torso, protecting the character which was nearly identical to Captain America’s original weapon of choice.
In 1941, comic book artist Tarpe Mills became the first major female comic book artist when she created the character The Black Fury. Due to another male character of the same name debuting about the same time however, The Black Fury was later renamed to Miss Fury. During World War 2, US wartime pilots painted depictions of the character Miss Fury on their planes to help inspire and motivate them, along with model Betty Paige. Mills paved the way for future female comic book artists and writers, due to her name. At the time it was unheard of for women to work in comics. However, being that correspondence between Mills and the publisher was mainly via mail, the publisher thought the name Tarpe was actually a male name and didn’t find out until later that the contributor was actually female, and by then it was to late. Miss Fury would go on to inspire the Batman villain/anti-hero Catwoman as both characters dawn stylized cat suits and burglarize the wealthy, Miss Fury’s suit however grants her enhanced strength, speed, and agility.