Last time, the book said that the first appearance of superheroes in the field of film was not outstanding. After World War II, the first wave of superhero craze ended, and the superhero genre was also snubbed. However, at this time, the American comic book market was in a prosperous stage, almost all children read comics, and there were also comics for adult horror, criminal investigation, crime and other themes, and everything seemed to be developing in a good direction.
Until the appearance of a person.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a senseless disaster</h1>
After 1950, the juvenile delinquency rate rose and people were confused and did not know what to do. At this time, a psychologist named Fredric Wertham found that many children read comics, so he came to the conclusion that reading comics leads to crime!
Witthan, who is reading a comic
This reasoning process and conclusion are very ridiculous, just like "eating will lead to death" and "swimming will lead to drowning". But Witthan seems to have identified this. In 1953, he also wrote a book called Seduction of the Innocent, which listed the eight "sins" of comics.
1. Comics can lead to illiteracy.
2. Criminal cartoons form a culture of cruelty and deception.
3, comics make people susceptible to bad temptations.
4. Comics stimulate incomplete fantasies.
5. Comics give rise to criminal or sexually perverted thoughts.
6) Comics rationalize crime and sexual perversion.
7) Cartoons provide forms of expression and technical details for illegal desires.
8. Cartoons can decisively lead to psychological abnormalities or juvenile delinquency.
These eight points seem to be sworn, but in fact they are all partial generalizations. Although their technology is at the top of the world, most people from top to bottom are conservative Christians and it is easy to believe such unrealistic gossip. Many parents forbade their children from reading cartoons, and some areas have launched a centralized burning campaign.
Wei Tehan took advantage of the victory to pursue, and almost all the subjects were marked as "instigating crimes". For superhero comics that have nothing wrong to pick, Witthan simply put forward a violent argument: "Superhero comics lead to homosexuality!" "Batman has been criticized as "gay" and "pedophilic" because of a young man as a partner, Wonder Woman with a boyfriend has also been labeled "lesbian" and "anti-male", and Superman's great character is regarded as "worship power" and "not modest enough"... In the end, even famous books and textbooks cannot escape blame, only because they show "black slaves in shackles" and "dying people and corpses"! Witthan was now a fanatic who caught who bit whom.
At the same time, Witthan received support from the government, and a member of the government planned to use Weitmann's influence to help him run for president. Under his mediation, in the spring of 1954, the United States Senate held a three-day hearing specifically for the publication of comics. At the meeting, Witthan was both an advisor and a main witness, doing everything he could to disparage the comics, and his appearance did seem to be a very decent gentleman, and finally the comics industry had to compromise and establish an industry censorship mechanism to control all comics.
As a result, the comic book industry was completely destroyed. Comic sales shrank by 75% a year, comic companies have collapsed, only DC is left with the main body, and Marvel has only one office, which is still borrowed from DC.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > a beautiful view of his family's fields</h1>
The comic book industry is on the verge of destruction, and the adaptation of superhero comics has also fallen into a low ebb, and no live-action movie related to superheroes has been published in more than a decade.
In 1965, Columbia Pictures took out two Batman movies from more than 20 years ago and cut them into a four-hour version. Because Witthan's remarks are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, in the eyes of the audience, the film has long changed its taste, becoming a comedy that tells gay stories, attracting many non-mainstream young people.
In 1966, the famous 66th edition of the Batman TV series was broadcast, which quickly became popular in the United States with its funny and nonsensical comic style, becoming a classic in the hearts of a generation of Americans (similar to the 89th edition of "Journey to the West" for Chinese). The producers saw this scene and immediately launched a 66-version of the "Batman" movie a few months after the TV series was broadcast. This movie continues the team of TV series, the performance is still in a funny and funny style, the plot is simple but very in line with the tone of the comedy, and finally the box office reputation double harvest. Originally, the producers also planned to produce a second one, but due to the decline in popularity of the TV series from the third season to the end, the sequel also followed the stillbirth.
The Batman Movie (1966)
In 1967, a movie, Batman v Dracula, was released. Amazingly, the film was produced and released in the Philippines across the ocean, completely without permission from DC. Today, the film has been lost, leaving only posters and some vague fragments, and even viewing reviews can not be found.
Batman v Dracula (1967)
At this point, the superhero movie fell silent again. In the past decade, American comics have survived the brink of crisis and ushered in a new boom period known as the "Silver Age", and the Avengers as we know it today were basically born in this period; superheroes have also stepped on the TV screen, and Marvel and DC have successively launched a number of superhero-themed TV series, becoming a generation of classics. However, the movie side has been ignored, and only a few TV series edited episodes have been released. It wasn't until 1978 that the superhero finally returned to the big screen.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > legend returns</h1>
In 1978, "Superman" was released.
Superman (1978)
Accompanied by John Williams' rousing soundtrack, the man who represents the American spirit once again took to the big screen, announcing the return of the superhero. The film has a strong cast, a classic plot, and the special effects were excellent at the time, and it was a great success in the end. Christopher Reeve's superman image is a classic of a generation, becoming the embodiment of superman in the minds of the American people. But more importantly, he declared that the superhero theme is not only children's direction, not just funny direction, superheroes can also be serious drama, and superheroes can also be successful with serious plots.
The success of Superman mobilized Hollywood's enthusiasm, and in the years that followed were several superhero movies. But the quality of these films is so overwhelming that there is almost nothing to say except to talk about the historical significance of a certain comic book character. Once again, the public doubted the existence of superhero movies, and the reputation of superhero movies was in jeopardy. It wasn't until 1989 that a Dark Knight stepped forward to turn the tide.