Batman "Solves" The "Paul Is Dead" Conspiracy Theory

Batman knew the real truth behind the "Paul Is Dead" rumor -- and it's a shocker!

Batman #222, published in 1970, featured a very Beatles-looking band called "The Oliver Twists." Robin investigates the rumor that band member Saul Cartwright (Paul McCartney?) had died in a freak motorcycle accident and was replaced by a double. Luckily, Batman/Bruce Wayne is the major stockholder in The Oliver Twists' music label Eden Records (or, Apple Corps), and the two have access to the band.

What is the true shocking secret of the story "Dead...Till Proven Alive?" Saul is Saul -- it's the rest of the band members who are fakes, the originals having died in a tragic plane crash.

Featuring a cover that looks like that of Abbey Road but from a different angle, Batman #222 just proves how utterly pervasive the rumor of Paul McCartney's death and "replacement" was in pop-culture, just a scant year after it started.

Source: Oddball Comics

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Skyfall, Spyfall, And The Ouroboros Of Fantasy And Reality

Does anybody else find it strange that the U.S. military/government is currently embroiled in a spy scandal the same week James Bond spy thriller "Skyfall" is #1 at the box-office?

Is there any connection between these two narratives -- one real, one fictional?

We have the "Bond Girls" -- beautiful, at times treacherous:



And the "Bond Girls" are sort of like the "draw" for the movies, aren't they? They're like the "Godzillas" of the movie series. Like when you turn on a Godzilla movie, you're really tuning in for the monsters, not the exposition. The Bond Women are like the Monsters -- Distractors from the core elements of the plot.

What comes first in these queer intersections of the real and the unreal? Does the movie come first, and then reporters shape the narrative of real-life events to mirror the movie -- as to market the news?

Or is it all more a strange precognitive thing on the part of our fantasy-makers...no, to call it "precognitive" sounds too fanciful, too wacky. Is it like-energy attracting like-energy...the idea of the world outside ourselves as a mirror of our own lives?

Fantasy weaving into reality -- here's another example:

The Drudge Report, one of the most popular news sites in the world, links to an article called "Talk Host Calls For Second American Revolution":

The link to that news story takes you to (surprise!) Infowars.com, whose marquee headliner story is:



...and we are now back to a movie narrative, that of "The Matrix." (Click here for the story about how a bunch of Georgia GOP lawmakers recently discussed theories similar to that of Jones in a closed-door session that was conveniently videotaped). Another headline on Infowars today is this one:

A "storyline" that has been "predicted" months ago in a comic book:

Now let's go to another item on the same Infowars marquee:

This of course refers to the recent Hurricane Sandy. Which was eerily prefigured by last month's "Batman" comic:



...the widespread lack of power and "third world conditions" left in the storm's wake echoed in the NBC show "Revolution," heavily promoted this Fall:

And on, and on. What comes first here, the chicken or the egg? I subscribe to no hard-and-fast theories; if I had to guess, I'd say it's an omelet of many theories -- or perhaps something too weird to even fully comprehend. But it sure is interesting. I could just go on and on with examples, each leading into each...

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Egyptian God Triads And "Superhero Families"

Holy Family, Batman!

Is there anything more heartwarming to a comic book fan than memories of the classic "superhero families" characters like Superman & Batman had? It often seemed to be a trio: Batman, Robin, Batgirl. Superman, Superboy, Supergirl. Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel. Even Space Ghost, Jace, and Jan. What made that particular grouping so perfect, so catchy? The answer may lie in Ancient Egypt.

A swingin' Two Girls And A Guy triad

It was Egyptian custom to have one's gods/goddesses in sets of three: triads. These triads fell into two basic types: Father/Mother/Son or Two Girls And A Guy. While Two Girls And A Guy might have evolved into your basic Archie/Veronica/Betty and Jack/Janet/Chrissy, the Father/Mother/Son proved to be the preferred triad in Ancient Egyptian society. Father/Mother/Son was considered "perfect" because it represented the standard family unit.

The Osiris Family

One of the most famous of the triads is Osiris/Isis/Horus. Isis was her own "character," but often female goddesses were invented from male gods to round out a triad on the spot, forcing a crude "feminization" of an established name. For example, Horus would have a feminine suffix attached to it, creating Horît. And from Amon came Amonît.

Superman beget Supergirl...

...and Superman makes the Trinity

Now let's go back to the comic books and see how a similar phenomenon plays out. To complete the Batman triad, "girl" is added to Batman creating Batgirl. Now we have the triad of Batman/Batgirl/Robin. From Superman comes Supergirl, completing the triad of Superman/Supergirl/Superboy. Interestingly, the women in these superhero triads are not usually mothers, but "girls."

Johnny, Sue, and Reed

Even superheroes we might not think of as making the typical triad sort of fall into this pattern. For example, Reed Richards/Sue Richards/Johnny Storm. What about Ben Grimm? The two Richards and Storm are actual related family: a triad of two father/mother types and one younger "kid."

Classic "Holy Trinity" (with technically the feminine aspect divided up between Mary/Holy Spirit)

The reason the triad has been so long-lasting through the many centuries is because it is a primal archetype that has been "burned" in our collective unconscious. I mean, look at the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (an entity which is often considered "feminine"). Or Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity.

One thing to note is when superhero "families" get too big and bust out of the trinity archetype, they have less of a primal pull on the imagination of the public. For example, Batman now has several "boy"/Robin type figures in his "Bat Family" at the moment, as well as a Batgirl and Batwoman. In these cases, it is recommended that said "family" pare back down to the trinity structure, as to keep that iconic quality intact.

Current "Bat Family"

We then have to wonder if archetypal arrangements such as this were/are purposely used as a -- for the lack of a better term -- "marketing" tool. A better way to "sell" the idea of a Holy Trinity, for instance.

 

...and some more, a bit more unconventional:

Harry is around the same age as the rest, but he's more mature and "mentally" older

They seem all the same age here, but remember than Doctor Who is ancient, and thus the "paternal" figure"

Han is "coded" older, while Luke is more or less a "boy"

No females, but McCoy is "coded" female, in a sense, because he's the "sensitive" one (a bit sexist, but there you go)

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Recession Superheroes: Impersonators and Millionaires

This photo series by Nicolas Silberfaden, "Impersonators," features superheroes and other pop-culture icons literally "crying" over the economic crisis in the United States. Most of these seeming "cosplayers" are really celebrity impersonators who make their living posing for photos in Los Angeles...and are technically unemployed themselves.

You might recognize Superman, above, from the documentaries "The Reinactors" (2008) and "Confessions of a Superhero" (2007).  Christopher Dennis, perhaps more so than any other living actor, comic book creator, or Man of Steel enthusiast, currently contains the true Superman zeitgeist -- pounding the pavement extolling Kryptonian virtues, keeping his spit-curl jet-black, living in a small apartment crowded with comic book-themed collectibles, and choosing "superhero" as his official life-role.

every good American superhero knows to drink their milk

As textured rubber and military-style body armor replace nylon bodysuits and satin as the superhero costumes of record, Dennis and his fellow Hollywood "impersonators" get "priced out" of the game; who can afford a decent suit resembling Henry Cavill's upcoming movie Superman, for instance?

"Man of Steel": ribbed, for her pleasure

There might even come a time when the "classic" Superman costume design will be forgotten among the newest generations, the bright red-and-blue with the cape resembling no more than a naive glyph from another time.

Silberfaden's photo series also touches upon non-superhero icons as well, such as Rambo:

At which I could only think of my post "Twilight Of The Action Movie Gods." These classic heroes have been handed a pinkslip, victims not only of aging but changing times. They seem too vulnerable in their long-underwear and muscle-displaying wife-beaters. Even the original Robocop seems too quaint, his rebooted makeover giving him more of that military-grade Dark Knight look:

Batman with a Power Rangers helmet: the rebooted Robocop

And that is why there is one superhero you will never see in Silberfaden's photo gallery:

It took many decades, but Iron Man is the superhero of our current times -- Tony Stark has the good sense to be fabulously wealthy, and, unlike head-cases such as Bruce Wayne, is unashamed to be so:

Millionaire-as-superhero: it seems like a premise tailor-made for the Reaganite 1980s. In fact, during the  "meat" of that decade, there were no major/successful superhero movies (the Superman films and "Batman" sort of bookending those ten years at opposite poles). And I believe this is because nobody thought to make that "rich guy superhero" movie. Tony Stark in the comics was too busy atoning for his fiscal sins by fighting alcoholism.

This leads into my final point in this post -- I firmly believe we are stepping into another Eighties scenario. In such a climate, will a Superman movie (especially a "dark, gritty" one) really do well? Won't the Millionaire Superheroes (Batman, Iron Man, Green Arrow) plus the Patriots (Captain America) lead the day, complimented on the opposite side by radical/anarchist heroes the kind of which I don't know if mainstream comics are capable of producing anymore (though certainly it's the subliminal reason the "Watchmen" characters were dusted off). 

In fact, if I had to guess, this is the next hero DC will reboot:

Now, there's a superhero for our times!

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Who Is The Master Who Makes The Flash Run?

“They say I'm The Flash! If it only were true I could help them! Please make it come true God!”

I've decided to give this blog a bit of a refocus. There's a billion comic book blogs out there, and I feel if I can't contribute some original thoughts beyond "I like this, I hate that; look at some coming attractions," this is a complete waste of my and your time.

I am specifically interested in the way comic books reflect -- and sometimes shape -- culture and politics. I can take an esoteric step beyond that and say that I'm very interested in the way comics reflect, shape, and even seemingly "predict" the elements of our very reality.

I think that last sentence really is the litmus test as to whether you want to keep reading this site.

Obligatory image at this point:

Sometime around the start of the 1990s, comics became Self Aware, due in large part to Grant Morrison's run on "Animal Man." Such a "meta" approach had been teased for many decades -- often though we already had those cute "the creators meet their creations" storylines such as "The Day I Saved The Life Of The Flash" in 1974, where writer Cary Bates appeared as himself to help the Scarlet Speedster out:

"Who is the mystery man that controls every move of the Flash's life?"

That caption makes me think of when Robert Anton Wilson discusses this Buddhist question:

"Who is the master who makes the grass green?"

In both cases, that Master is ourselves (or, in the case of Cary Bates, the person who wrote the cover copy). These stories and heroes are not created, maintained, and presented in a vacuum; we -- and our world -- are always a part of it. And the color of grass is dependent on how our senses and brain interpret it. Everything is dependent on our perception. 

This is why I think some fans get really psychotic over changes to, or "wrong interpretations" of, their beloved characters; because in their perception, Batman or Spider-Man or whomever really is -- in some timeless, objective way -- the way they perceive it to be. And a challenge to their personal experience of this character -- a challenge to their personal reality, which they see as an objective reality -- is taken as an act of "blasphemy" or even war.

One of my theories is that comics=religion to some people, even to those -- and sometimes especially to those -- who consider themselves "free" from religious belief. That's grist for what will do doubt be a lively future post.

Bates really got the ball rolling on the whole "metafiction" idea in comics, but Morrison wove it into the very heart and soul of "Animal Man" -- and, by implication, into the entire DC Comics universe as well, leading to such myriad self-referential elements in their comics such as the DC memorabilia-themed diner in Kingdom Come, the Bat-Mite/Mxyzptlk one-shot "World's Funnest," and a large portion of the animated series "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." 

Welcome to the Cafe Nostalgia; you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave

But whereas Morrison was getting at larger questions regarding the nature of reality and the totemistic qualities of these very familiar heroes, the "meta fad" in comics which started in the late 1990s and sort of slouched through almost every aspect of The Aughts, was obsessed and entranced with Nostalgia. In fact, "ultimate fanboy" Bat-Mite -- whose two appearances on the "Brave and Bold" cartoon pushed the "meta" button almost to unwatchable lengths -- became sort of the patron saint not only of transgressing the Fourth Wall, but of this whole period in comic book history.

Bat-Mite's meta-fart

Constantly fixating on and rehashing your Sacred Cows and favorite "gods" can be quite decadent -- and I see the last decade or so's obsession with nostalgia in both the comics industry and comics fandom as being the direct result of the anticipation of massive change on the horizon. There was a sense like every aspect of the Beloved -- heroes, retro-cool, key scenes, landmark issues, primal moments of adolescent pleasure -- needed to be honored and embalmed in the most elaborate and exclusive of collector's sets of all time. You know, before the impeding cataclysm (bad economy, corporatization, the death-knell of the paper format, steadily dwindling audience as the result of insular marketing strategies) wiped them away from the active stage.

And whereas these meta stories by Bates and Morrison posited the comics creator as the master who made the grass green and The Flash red -- increasingly the Artist's sovereignty was getting pushed to the side, as the Ultra Fanboy (as personified with our dimension-hopping Bat-Mite) duked it out with  what was revealed to be the true Creator (in the Old Testament sense of the word): the Company.

From the ultra-meta "Action Comics" #9 (analysis of the issue here)

In the war between Fan and Company, what is the role of the Artist?

And further: in such an environment, what becomes of the comic book hero itself -- his or her soul, the essence of the character? (It is my belief that they, too, have lives and existences of their own)

These questions -- and their answers -- are key to Understanding Comics in the present period. 

Morrison: "It's only a comic."

Animal Man: "It's not! IT'S NOT ONLY A COMIC! IT'S MY LIFE!"

And as we understand the comics, we can expand our vision and see what it says about our culture, our  reality, and our future.

I expect that only a relative few will take this blog journey with me; but if you do, I assure you it will be worth your while. Or at least give you a few blips until the next series of blips.

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