The Nuclear Narratives Behind Today's Superheroes

Photo: Jens Mortensen

From Spider-Man to the Fantastic Four, comic books are rife with nuclear-fueled origin stories. No matter that in the real world a strong dose of radiation can cause cancer and bone necrosis, destroy chromosomes, and ruin reproductive organs. Why have so many comics ignored scientific fact and linked radiation with superpowers instead of superimpotence? Blame the December 1953 issue of proto-DIY magazine Mechanix Illustrated, which featured the article ?How Nuclear Radiation Can Change Our Race.?

The piece begins, ?Now hear this, Earth! I am Mutant Man, Homo Superior! You created me in your blind, savage, senseless war of atomic radiation. You have only yourselves to blame if I turn out to be your?Frankenstein Monster!? After that bold warning, there?s a feeble attempt to cite real science, like x-ray research, Hiroshima victims, and ?Darwin and his theory of evolution, which burst like an atomic bomb into human thought in 1859.? Then the author makes a deductive broad jump to the idea that radiation produces creatures ?as far beyond us as we are beyond the ape-man.? It has the breathless tone of a superhero comic, which isn?t surprising. The author, Otto Binder, was a prolific comic book writer who created Superman?s foe Brainiac and pet dog, Krypto. Illustrator Kurt Schaffenberger was an artist for Superman and Captain Marvel comics.

Binder?s piece presents a half-dozen scenarios, all of which became comic book mainstays. He posits that radiation could create ?savage sub-men ? of inferior mind??a description that conjures the Incredible Hulk, who debuted in 1962. He foretells that these nuclear ?bermenschen ?might be comparatively rare, say a million against Earth?s two billion humans,? in which case we would persecute them, just as in X-Men. Marvel owes the man a monument.

Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/P0me3dxGIR4/

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