WI: No Comic Book Hearings?

Wolfpaw

Banned
Right there on the tin.

What if Kefauver's Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency had never held its 1954 hearings on comic books?

Likely there'd be no Comics Code Authority but, other than that, what other butterflies could result of comic books being spared their OTL mid-century demonization? What would some of the cultural butterflies be?
 
Good question. Super hero comics had waned after WW2, except for some of the bigger names. The hearings didn't help. No CCA, might mean no super hero revival or possibly a different one. You might not get DC comics introducing the Silver Age versions of characters, like The Flash, Atom, Hawkman, Green Lantern etc... Without them, there is no push for Marvel to create their lineup. No Spider-man, X-men, Iron Man etc... Culturally? There might not be the strong idea that heroes don't need to kill the bad guys that came out of the Silver age. For example, Batman might survive, but be much darker, like his original appearance.

Torqumada
 
The Comic Book Hearings killed most non-superhero comics in the US, from what I recall - especially horror and 'true crime' comics.

The Batman TV show pretty much followed (in tone) what was going on in the comics in OTL; I'm not sure what it would've done if Batman comics were darker in tone.
 
IIRC, Eisner was actually planning on getting comics into schools as text books, just like he had with the army, but was thwarted by Wertham's book and the uproar it caused.
Are you planning a timeline on comics, Wolfpaw? Between this and the Superman thread you seem to be looking for some ideas.
 
I agree with Torq. The early Batman could and did kill his enemies--Superman might have as well.

I also agree with anon--the superhero ones survived by getting "lighter and softer" but the horror/crime ones were hurt badly.

(When I was a kid, I owned "The Dark Book" about comic book villains. I might still have it in my closet. It has a lot of stuff on the history of comics, the CCA, etc.)
 
Perhaps Marvel's 50s superhero revival might have been more succesful. Not saying it would lead to the creation of spider man or anything but it may give marvel a push to bring back the rest of their 50s superhero lineup (destroyer, angel, blonde phantom, miss america, whizzer, etc) and possibly create new characters as well. The stories would likely be more "down-to-earth" as well, with communists and thugs being the main villains.
 
No CCA, might mean no super hero revival or possibly a different one.
I can see things getting a great deal worse, actually. The opposition to horror comics could have spilled over into outright bans on comics of all kinds. (It happened in Canada.:eek::eek::mad:) You might end up with publishers forced to turn to new formats, like magazines, or comics might end up like underground comix much earlier. (Think Heavy Metal meets Wacthmen, or Little Annie Fannie, written by R. Crumb & drawn by Wrightson.:eek:) They'd be aimed at adults, not kids, who couldn't pay the higher cover cost.

You'd almost certainly see an end to violence in the mainstream books, so the Archies, romance, & funny animal books proliferate; they'd probably be the main sellers. Chances are good pirate, detective, & Western, & monster books do much better than OTL. War books might be OK, in the postwar era: very sanitized violence, tho. (Westerns, too.)

When superhero books return (presuming they do), you might see heroes with much more fancy weaponry: webshooters, nets, paste-, gas-, or stun guns, but nothing lethal.
You might not get DC comics introducing the Silver Age versions of characters
I can see it happening a great deal later, presuming comics do survive as a mainstream medium.
Without them, there is no push for Marvel to create their lineup. No Spider-man, X-men, Iron Man etc...
The Marvel Age had as much to do with Timely being about to go out of biz as with DC. Might be Timely goes under, unless they get their Western lineup well underway in time. (Kid Colt & Rawhide Kid, frex, might be a great deal more significant.)
Culturally? There might not be the strong idea that heroes don't need to kill the bad guys that came out of the Silver age. For example, Batman might survive, but be much darker, like his original appearance.
Some of that was driven by the realization it hurt sales for bad guys not to come back. The Joker, frex, was a continuing baddie in the '40s already. Some of the "don't kill the baddie" was a product of a senior DC editor's decision.
Perhaps Marvel's 50s superhero revival might have been more succesful. Not saying it would lead to the creation of spider man or anything but it may give marvel a push to bring back the rest of their 50s superhero lineup (destroyer, angel, blonde phantom, miss america, whizzer, etc) and possibly create new characters as well.
I find that very doubtful. It seems to me many of the characters familiar now would be unknown, including Subby, the original Torch, CA & Bucky, certainly the Whizzer & Miss A. Probably a lot of SA characters, like IM & Spidey, would have happened much later, maybe not at all, so Falc, frex, might have waited longer. Chances are excellent Cap Marv would never have sold a million copies a month.:eek:

OTOH, we might've gotten underground books that were much more graphic in both violence & sex, in the '60s. They might especially feature black heroes, because blacks were barely seen in mainstream to begin with. (Might have gotten black cowboys, in the vein of Danny Glover's character in "Silverado", or something, in mainstream.)

That said, Panther or Falc would probably be closer to the original Cage, or Punisher, or Wolvie. Appearing in b&w mags, they wouldn't be CCA limited in approach or subject: the notorious Speedy story in GA could happen much sooner, & much more realistically. In short, the mags would be aimed at adults.
The stories would likely be more "down-to-earth" as well, with communists and thugs being the main villains.
I'm not sure how you get that. It seems to me the more fantastic villains, or monsters, would be the baddies of choice: less chance of influencing "impressionable children"...:rolleyes: In the same vein, I can see heroes & villains being more evenly matched, to avoid the impression of heroes "bullying" (or, arguably, being bullied...). (This may be a much to 2011 concern.:rolleyes:)
 
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