No Superman

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson · Oct 12, 2004

Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are either a) never born or b) never meet each other. Either way, no Man of Steel.

How does this effect the infant comics medium? Wither the concept of superheroes or does someone else's idea (maybe the Shadow, from the radio plays) fill the void? Or instead is it all by now just. . .comics about pirates?

Heh heh.*

* A virtual cookie to whoever gets the reference!

American_Samurai · Oct 13, 2004

Don't pirate comics usuaully come about when Super heroes are real. Some naked and blue. others wearing goofy masks that change dsesign and others dessed like noctunal raptors

Mako-Chan · Oct 13, 2004

Heh, Watchmen references are always good.

Anyway, comics weren't always dominated by superheroes (and today there's considerably more diversity in that medium). Crime, Sci-fi, Horror, Action, War, Romance, etc. have all been popular genres over the years, so chances are at least some of those would emerge and become successful.

Out of all of those, Crime/Adventure comics and generic "Cartoons" did particularly well during the 30's. I could see Detective Comics (pre-Batman) dominating the market. Maybe when WWII comes along (assuming it does in this TL), action comics take off. They were pretty racist towards Asians, so that could make them good entertainment/propaganda for the troopsâ€¦

Fiji · Oct 13, 2004

how about the Phantom ... doesn't he predate superman & batman?

or the Cat?

and in a way, Popeye is a superhero.

In short, I doubt the concept of superheros dies if we remove superman

Landshark · Oct 13, 2004

The Crimson Avenger predates Superman by several months.

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson · Oct 13, 2004

Landshark said:
The Crimson Avenger predates Superman by several months.

Interesting character he, sort of a proto-Batman. Like our friend in Gotham he has no superpowers, but lots of wonderful toys. I think without Superman (but with CA, Batman, the Phantom, etc.) things may well lean more towards the "Masked Avenger" type - i.e. a realistic person with gadgets - rather than going whole hog into ASB territory ala Superman, Green Lantern, and the rest. This could bring them closer to the other comics genres that existed at the time: crime, westerns, adventure, that sort of thing.

Could this be a good POD for a timeline where comics today are not dominated by superheroes and are more widely read?

Fiji · Oct 14, 2004

didn't stories about people with one distinct special (dis)ability exist before Superman? (invisible man comes to mind)
maybe the comic scene goes straight from masked avengers into mutants without ever passing by stuff like Spiderman, fantastic four, the Hulk ...

Robert Sullivan · Oct 14, 2004

With no Superman, there would definately be no Batman, Wonder Woman, or Captain Marvel (Fawcett version). No Captain Marvel means no Captain Marvel Jr. No Captain Marvel Jr. means no Elvis costumes (he was inspired by the book). Heck, yeah history would change.