Throughout this site I will refer to Namor the Sub-Mariner as a hero. True, he ravaged the surface world almost as badly as the world war he helped fight, and true the world faced destruction more then once at his hands, but he was at his heart, a hero.

He was a scourge of the sea as far as the surface dwellers were concerned. He did everything in his considerable power to make their lives hard. But as far as he and his fellow Atlanteans were concerned, all of his actions were well justified. The surface dwellers have destroyed their homes, trashed the oceans, and pilfered it's riches and sea-life. He was their avenging son. He fought for them when they dared not fight for themselves. And when he felt enough was enough, he declared war on the surface dwellers, and his people were behind him all the way.

That's not to say that Namor never did anything that the land lovers wouldn't find admirable. Aside from the few times he lashed out blindly against them in his first encounters with surface humans, he spent much of his time on the surface trying to bring justice to those who could not get it themselves, just as he would for his own people. The initial catalyst for this change of heart was a beautiful young surface woman named Betty Dean. She saw the nobility in Namor's attacks, and made an effort bring a little order to that nobility. He was soon stopping crime on the surface as well as under the waves. This did not stop his rampages of course, even after he met Betty Dean, like when he first met the pride of New York's finest, the Human Torch. He didn't really start helping the surface dwellers until German and Japanese armies started fighting pitched battles both above and below the oceans. Namor decided to join the war effort on the side of the Allies. Although this fermented his position as a hero in the eyes of the people on dry land (at least the ones on the side of the allies), it also damaged his position in the eyes of his fellow Atlanteans. They grew further and further away from him after he helped form the Invaders, and more and more of his time was devoted to fighting the war among the surface dwellers. They even grew to distrust their prince so much that one time they even joined forces with the Nazi's in hopes of bringing him home. He eventually was able to repair his relationship with his people, but to the day, he continually falls back and forth between both hero and villain to his people, and to the surface dwellers.

FREDRIC WERTHAM, M.D.

The American public at times can be easily influenced and easily scared. The 1950's was one of those times. During the 50's America was at the height of the "Red Scare", and the people were looking for anything that might be subverting, corrupting, or otherwise perverting society. Many forms of popular entertainment were suspect, including comic books.

The entertainment genre of comic books had its height in the 1940's, when it outsold other publications such as newspapers and magazines. When main-stream comics with funny animals and super-heroes fell out of favor, a few (very few) publishers began to make adult-themed comics. Some psychologists saw troubled children reading these comics, and saw them as the root of societies ills.

Leading the crusade against comics was a highly respected psychologist named Dr. Fredric Wertham. He had gained well deserved notoriety as a champion of civil rights and a proponent of desegregation. Looking for his next cause, he found comics. As part of his job, he worked with some of the most disturbed children in the nation. He noticed that a great many of these children read comic books, little realizing that at that time, most of the children in the country read comics, good kids and bad kids.

In 1954, Wertham published his findings in his book, SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT. In it, he points out how "crime comics" (as he calls all comic books) are corrupting the nation's youth. "Crime comics" to him meant not only "cops and robbers" comics, but everything from Flash Gordon, to Tarzan, to Superman, to Loony Tunes.

He categorized Superman as a Nazi who used force to rise above everyone else (ironic because Superman was created by two anti-Hitler Jews), Batman and Robin as the "wish dream of two homosexuals", and Wonder Woman as a bondage fetish. He and his fellow psychologists saw some seemingly ridiculous things in their patients. One doctor saw a drawing of a pirate that one of his patients based on a comic book as "bristling with phallic symbols". To him everything from the arm, to the belt buckle, to the shape of the boot had sexual undertones (causing one to wonder about the doctor).

In his book, Wertham attacked comics of every form. Super-hero comics, horror comics, even romance and funny animal comics were at risk. A comic featuring Loony Tunes could be accused of having "ducks shoot atomic rays and threaten to kill rabbits."

To prove the validity of his claims he interviewed many children, all of whom were patients, and pointed out how comics had corrupted them. For example, he would tell children "fables", and ask them to finish the stories. These fables were often so contrived that any child would have answered them as his patients did.

Fable: A baby bird falls out of a tree. "He knows how to fly a little."

Answer: "He will die because he can't fly so well."

Other answers clearly indicate the child has far more serious issues to be dealt with.

Fable: A family member has taken a train and will never return. Who is it?

Answer: "The mother. She can go out of the country. Maybe she doesn't come back because she is mad at the father"... "The mother could be dead."

Wertham even finds a term for children demoralized by comics, "comic-book syndrom". Symptoms could include feeling "spontaneously guilty about reading violent, sadistic and criminal stories, and about the fantasies stimulated by them" (like the ones in Superman). He shows case after case of troubled children who, despite having poor home lives or other psychological problems, have obviously been influenced by comics. He sites comics that they describe in detail to them as proof of their illiteracy (one wonders how a kid who can't read can recite every word he didn't read). Also causing illiteracy problems are the kinds of words that are used in comics to express pain or a sound effect, words like "oww" and "arrgg". Later he goes on to describe in gruesome tales of crimes committed by patients of his who read comics. Crimes of murder, arson, and other violent crimes, that it seems could only come from the mind of one who reads comics, in Wertham's opinion anyway. As if case studies and interviews weren't enough, he includes pictures taken from actually comics (how can you have a book about comics without having it illustrated?). A picture of a fallen woman is assumed by the doctor to have been "raped and murdered", and even the shading in a heroes shoulder has been accused of being an implied image of female genitalia "for children who know how to look."

Looking back retrospectively, one might wonder what effect, if any, such a book would have on the American public. Most of Wertham's claims were ludicrous, even laughable. During the 1950's no one was laughing at them.

Word of Wertham's claims soon spread like wildfire. Parents became frightened and outraged at the prospect of something subverting their children's morals so horribly, and right under their noses. Quickly books were pulled from shelves and government representatives were notified. The public moved into action by burning comics by the hundreds, the government went into action by calling a Senate subcommittee to investigate the claims. Just as communist trials threatened to destroy Hollywood, so too did these trials threaten comic book publishers. Trying to prevent the kind of hysteria eating at the movie industry, many large publishers banded together to form the Comics Code Authority. The CCA was formed so that comics could police themselves, as opposed to having a government agency do it for them. For the public, the matter was settled, but Wertham thought it was just a clever ruse to avoid punishment. But the industry did change.

Years later, Wertham apparently had a change of heart himself. He wrote the book THE WORLD OF FANZINES (fanzines being magazines created by fans) in 1973. In that book he seemed to express the feeling that comic book fans had healthy, active imaginations. Unfortunately the damage had already been done. Comic books went from being popular American entertainment to being considered kid stuff with a cult following.

It's scary that such outrageous claims could spark such a reaction in the 20th century. Every time society thinks it has evolved beyond such reactionary states of mind, it seems to prove itself wrong by falling into old form.

For another perspective, see: Fredric Wertham - Anti-Comics Crusader Who Turned Advocate