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Why blame comics for societal failure?

With the end of WWII and the baby boomer generation, the construction of the family system changed. With the end of the war came an influx in financial development, which led to a shift in the economic development of the country. The middle class became a much larger group of people because of the heightened economy, which saw many families move to the suburbs to explore the "realities" of life. However, once there, families realized that the father was no longer a dominant force in the child's life, and there was worry about the child's ability to retain the same morals and values that their parents represented during the war. With the father gone, the mother busy with housework or away at work, the children were left to play in suburbia or to entertain themselves somehow. This is where the advent of comics comes into play. With the introduction of comics, children were reading much more, but not about the morally perfect Superman fighting for the good of society. Rather, they were reading true crime stories and horror stories and science fiction stories that played on the reader's interests and depraved imaginations.

Although the war was over and a time of peace and prosperity was in vogue in America, the Cold War was not far off. Consequently, society wondered if children would be able to fight in a war with the same American values and morals that their fathers did. Thus, comic books were singled out for their "obscene-ness" that didn't reflect the values that the superheroes had at one time.

However, comics were not a major problem. Comics were blamed because children heavily read comics, and psychologist like to believe that the depraved images and stories developed in comics would influence children to mimic their behavior. Comics, however, were blamed because society couldn't figure out how to solve their other problems. While Superman was obviously a changed character that no longer fought for social justice, society was left to fight for themselves. In this personal battle, they realized how powerless they were to institute change, and fought for change they could institute: societal failure influenced by comics.

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