Guiding the way: Talking about "Justice League" 02: History? pay tribute? Easter eggs? 32 things you have to know about "Justice League"
1. A history of DC, how many heartfelt tears
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The origin of the art form of comics can be traced back to Japan in the 18th century and Europe in the 1830s. However, comic books or comic magazines were born in the 1930s. Of the United States. In 1933, the publisher assembled a strip of comics previously serialized in newspapers into a volume and reprinted, and the first comic book in the modern sense—"Famous Funnies"—was born. Since then, a magnificent world has appeared. This is a world where justice and evil, fantasy and reality are intertwined. It is self-contained and reflects history. It has become a unique social and cultural symbol that affects generations of people.
In this world, there is a company that cannot be ignored, and it is the famous DC Comics.
Like all stories, DC Comics has a humble beginning. In the autumn of 1934, a major named Malcolm Willer Nielkeson founded the National United Publishing Company with the purpose of trying to turn his company back into profit. In order to make money, the company decided to enter the pulp comic market that was emerging among young readers. In February 1935, they launched their first comic, New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine. This comic was a small success, at least they have enough profit to publish the second comic. In December 1935, the company launched New Comics. This publication will become an important part of the history of comics for a long time, and it will establish the standards of comics that comic artists and historians call.
In March 1937, the National Joint Publishing Company released their third publication "Detective Comics". This is a comic about the tough guy detective Slam Bradley who is investigating cases and fighting crimes. However, the good times did not last long. Due to the growing debt problem, Nielkesen had to sell the detective comics to others. Soon after, Detective Comics Inc. was established, but Nixon’s financial problems did not alleviate. Instead, the company was swept away. Soon, the Detective Comics Company acquired other publications of the National Joint Publications, and the Detective Comics Company was later known as DC Comics (DC Comics).
At the same time that the National United Publishing Company was struggling, two high school students also rushed around for their comic works. The two high school students named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both of whom are fans of science fiction, wrote a story called "Superman Dynasty", telling an extremely clever The story of Professor Bald's doing evil with his mind-very similar to the later Superman enemy Lex Luthor (Lex Luthor), but the plot has nothing to do with the later Superman. However, the two of them bumped into walls everywhere. Even if the story was changed to Superman using his superpowers to help the weak, the mainstream still didn't help, and they were so angry that they tore up all the original manuscripts.
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History is so magical, Maxima will eventually meet Bole. Siegel and Schuster met the National United Publishing Company and became staff members of DC Comics as the company changed.
The two works they submitted were accepted on condition that they had to be repainted on drawing paper-at that time Siegel and Schuster were so poor that they had to paint the original on the back of the old wallpaper! With the initial fee of $20, the two 17-year-old boys finally stepped into the newly emerging comic industry.
Siegel and Schuster got a fixed job, drawing original comics, including humor, spy, and horror comics, and created the image of the tough guy detective Slam Bradley for "Detective Comics."
Finally, in 1938, DC editors noticed the "Superman" in the manuscript when they discovered strip comics. He found the then boss MCGaines (later Gaines also created EC comics), who also liked it very much, hoping to publish it-then they found that the author of Superman was already his own employee.
DC immediately started editing and changed the story from the original strip format to the comic book format. Suddenly, the scissors and glue flew together, and the ink was all white. Part of the frame was deleted, and the plot was shortened to 13 pages. Ask someone to add color to this story (most of the other stories in the book are still monochrome). And on the cover with a big "Action Comics" (Action Comics) words-this comic was born, and also declared that the repeatedly negated idea has since become the world's number one superhero.
The golden age of American comics began.
——Excerpt from Multivac's "Stories of Gods: American Comic Romance"
Remember the "Detective Manga" mentioned above? In 1939, when the manga was released to the 27th issue, another detective hero was born.
In 1939, DC planned to create another hero for its other publication, Detective Comic, to rival Superman. At that time, the publication had been in publication for more than two years, and it had published a variety of detective and adventure stories, but there was not a single character in the soul position. The 26-year-old painter Bob Kane took over the task.
If Superman originated from the creativity of genius, then the second hero of the American comics came from a deliberate design. Kane referenced Leonardo’s sketches, the movie "Zorro" starring Douglas Van Punk, and even the vampire horror film to draw the prototype of this character. The screenwriter Bill Finger added a hood and gloves with sharp ears to it, _ changed the wings in the original case into a cloak, and changed the original bright clothes to black and gray. This is the Batman who became known later-Batman.
——Excerpt from Multivac's "Stories of Gods: American Comic Romance"
The golden age of comics has arrived, and it is at this time that Detective Comics is called DC Comics. In 1940, the psychologist and writer William Morton Marston became the educational consultant of DC Comics. He criticized that the heroes of DC Comics at the time were all male heroes. In order to change this male monopoly, he and his wife Elizabeth Harlowe Marston decided to create a female comic hero-another star in DC in the future, known as the "Wonder Woman" of one of the DC's Big Three. At the suggestion of his wife, Marston, who has studied ancient Rome and ancient Greek civilization, set Wonder Woman as the daughter of Zeus, the king of gods in Greek mythology. The name Diana is derived from the goddess of the moon and hunting in Roman mythology. She is as beautiful as Venus, as smart as Athena, more agile than Hermes, stronger than Hercules, she fights for justice, love, and peace, she tells the girls to be brave, strong and independent, and The bad guys fight, and their own lives are in charge, thus becoming a symbol of feminism. In December 1941, Wonder Woman made her debut in the 8th issue of All Star Comics (All Star Comics #8). At the same time as her debut, there was another DC character that cannot be ignored-Aquaman (Aquaman).
Holding a trident and wearing a gold armor, Sea King Arthur Curry (also translated as Aquaman), the son of Atlantis, was published in "More Fun Comics" Issue 73 (More Fun Comics) in November 1941. ) Debut. The original Aquaman only played soy sauce as a supporting role in major comics. For example, he once served as a stand-in for a super boy. However, his tendon flesh is too dazzling, coupled with his powerful ocean control ability, his popularity gradually rose and he eventually became a place. Yiba. What’s interesting is that Sea King has a half-brother (later changed to half-father) who fell in love and killed each other, Ocean Master (Ocean Master) Om Curry, his brother has been living in the shadow of Sea King. , Has been trying to usurp his brother's position, which is quite similar to the god couple (ah, no, brothers) next door.
The golden age of comics is in World War II. People need heroes. A large number of heroes such as Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman have appeared. They are the same as Wonder Woman, Superman, Together, Batman brought spiritual comfort to American soldiers and group owners and became a symbol of the golden age of comics. After the end of World War II, the comics industry ushered in a boom beyond hero comics, and all kinds of love, western, thriller, and science fiction comics appeared one after another. However, behind the prosperity lies a crisis, and a nightmare like a "magnetic storm infantry" is waiting for them.
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In the 1950s, American comics faced the biggest challenge-not facing alien invaders or ambitious enemies, but the U.S. Senate. A psychologist named Dr. Fredric Wertham wrote a book "Seduction of the Innocent" (Seduction of the Innocent), launched a full-scale killing operation on the comics.
——Excerpt from Multivac's "Stories of Gods: American Comic Romance"
Wanting to add to the crime, Wittheim listed the eight crimes of comics on the grounds that reading comics induces juvenile delinquency. One of them is that comics can lead to illiteracy. Not only that, he also teamed up with a Tennessee Congressman Kefauver who longed for the presidency to "declare war on juvenile delinquency," which sounds like he can get a lot of political points.
Therefore, in the spring of 1954, a three-day hearing was held in the U.S. Senate specifically for the publication of comics. At the meeting, Wittheim was both a consultant and a main witness. He promoted that "Compared with the comics industry, Hitler is just a novice." The media quoted this phrase widely, conflating cartoons with Nazism in the past. In some places, people even burned comic books.
——Excerpt from Multivac's "Stories of Gods: American Comic Romance"
Since then, the comics industry has been hit hard. Within a year, comic book sales have fallen by 75%, while the rate of juvenile crime has not dropped at all. In this nightmare, EC company, which publishes horror comics, was a serious pioneer, and Marvel’s predecessor Atlas was also forced to close, and could only distribute its own comics through DC. At that time, the big company DC Comics had to self-castrate. The comics were full of absurd stories like Batman vs. Aliens, instead of focusing on reality.
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In the mid-1950s, with the emergence of Julius Schwarz's new Flash, the superhero renaissance began. The Flash has already appeared in previous comics, but in October 1956, the fourth issue of "Showcase" (Showcase #4) was completely overhauled.
After the big transformation, the Flash was very popular, and then DC transformed the Green Lantern, which was also very popular. On this basis, a superhero team of unconstrained superheroes came out-the Justice League of America (Justice League of America). It is precisely this small revival that fans refer to this period as the "Silver Age" of comics.
During this period, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other protagonists have also undergone a complete transformation, including Superman's family relationship and the expansion of the Bat family. Batman is reemphasized as a detective rather than a funny actor who fights alien monsters, and Wonder Woman is re-adventuring in the context of mythology. This series of fantasies was not only valued by DC, but also inspired Marvel's Stan Lee, Marvel's Fantastic Four and X-Men were born under this background.
What's even more incredible is that the screenwriter Gardner Fox and the painter Joe Giella introduced a very pioneering concept at the time—parallel universes in Flash#123. The characters of the golden age are set to live on a parallel earth called Earth 2, while the heroes of the present live on Earth 1. This revolutionary idea laid the foundation for the later multiverse and provided a basis for the restart and revision of superheroes and their resurrection.
The Silver Age gave way to the Bronze Age in the 70s and 80s. After experiencing multiple baptisms of anti-war, hippies, sexual liberation, and underground comics (COMIX, X means X-level restriction), the review of comics has gradually loosened, and comic books have become a mature way to explore dark themes. A large number of works that reflect social reality, focus on the darkness of human nature, and focus on the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Among them, Alan Moore's "Watchmen" and Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" are the most legendary. In "The Dark Knight Returns", Batman becomes deep and possesses a tortured and tragic personality. The success of "The Dark Knight Returns" not only affected Batman's character, but also ultimately changed the entire history of comics.
Since then, comics are no longer so-called children’s books, nor are they evil publications that induce crime, but an art form that combines literature and painting. Later, DC’s "Heaven Is Coming" and Marvel's "Wonderful People" "It has created a new height in comics. Nowadays, a large number of movies are adapted from comics, which has become a special cultural phenomenon.
Two, reference materials
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Multivac , the author of the American comic book of the Gods and Gods
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DC Comics official website
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DC Comics-Comic Book DB
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