Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way

2. “Crime Doesn’t Pay”: A Brief History of Crime and Justice Themes in Comic Books

20 2 “CRIME DOESN’T PAY” A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRIME AND JUSTICE THEMES IN COMIC BOOKS Dan Richards graduates last in his class at the police academy, but his talent for fighting crime outshines even the “honor man” among the graduates. During his academy days, Richards had secretly built an extensive file of known criminal personalities. When a Mafia thug frames him and a classmate for the murder of his rival, corrupt politician Al Armaud, Richards uses the file to track down the culprit—a man who uttered the odd catch phrase “tickle the stars” during the commission of the crime. According to Richards ’s file, “tickle the stars” is the hallmark utterance of Johnny Consentino, also described as head of a protection racket, who has a “dark moustache” and is a “loud dresser.” Now acting as a vigilante, Richards dons a black mask and hunts for Consentino with his fierce and trusty black dog, Thor. Finding Consentino’s hideout, Richards and Thor ambush Consentino and his associates . “Who . . . who’s dat guy!?” one associate calls out in the scuffle. On the fly, Richards replies, “Manhunter!!” thereby christening his alter ego. This story, published in 1942 in Police Comics #8, introduces readers to “Manhunter,” a character who has since been reimagined in the DC Universe and lives on in many crime-fighting adventures. Manhunter represents an early American comic book vigilante who acts as an adjunct to law enforcement and, indeed, serves as an official member of law enforcement himself when not his alter ego. In the early 1940s, comic books featuring “Crime Doesn’t Pay” 21 such vigilante superheroes as Manhunter had significant impact on the public imagination. They set the tone for a medium that would often be a vehicle for law-and-order messages throughout its history. During World War II, titles like Captain America that depicted heroes battling foreign enemies riveted readers at home and servicemen abroad, selling nearly a million copies a month.1 After the war, however, attention turned instead to a type of comics that featured grisly tales of misdeeds. This crime genre involved twisted tales of suspense inspired by true-life events. Yet, as with the superhero titles, these comics also possessed a bias toward plots that ultimately extolled law and order. Sales of these gory comics eventually took a dip due to public resistance to the graphic depictions of violence and wickedness. Ultimately, superhero comic books reemerged in the mid-1950s, becoming the best-selling genre in the comic book industry that it still is today. This chapter provides a brief history of comic books, focusing on the emergence of superheroes, the rise and fall of the crime genre, and the shift in depictions of heroes from defenders of the status quo to figures that are capable of challenging the dominant rules of society. The War on Crime Begins Many of the first comic books were reprints of newspaper comic strips and panels.2 Crime-related strips during the 1930s, such as Dick Tracy, Detective Dan, and Secret Agent X-9, featured plainclothes detectives and investigators determined to stamp out crime. Among these hard-boiled characters, Dick Tracy is considered by comic historian Mike Benton to be the first “crime-fighting detective” in comic strips and the first “to introduce brutality , gun play, and torture to the comic page.”3 According to Benton, strips such as these capitalized on the public’s anticrime sentiment in the 1930s and coincided with the rising popularity of G-Men as heroic crime fighters. J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was so convinced of the importance of crafting a positive media image of the FBI that he consulted with a journalist to craft a comic strip based on real-life FBI cases, titled War on Crime. War on Crime, like virtually all of the 1930s crime-related comics, focused on crime fighters as moral role models who “show readers why ‘crime does not pay.’”4 “Crime Doesn’t Pay” 22 The 1930s also ushered in the popularity of lurid and thrilling tales known as “pulps.” For example, Detective Comics, published in 1937, featured pulp-inspired characters and was one of the first titles to focus on crime fighting. The following year Superman was introduced in Action Comics.5 Superman emerged as a savior figure for Americans fighting social injustices beyond mere crime-fighting. In his cultural history...