The Green Lantern is written by a jounralist who was very involved with the civil rights movement, Denny O'Neil. This is interesting to hear and is very apparent in his comic stories. Of all the comics we have read thus far, it seems that the Green Latern, while quite a Batman rip off, has many good messages that other stories never bother to touch. The 1960s and 1970s were a difficult time for the United States because of all the racial and gender struggles. The nation was not only battling soviet influence and active in Vietnam War, but there was a major issue over women's, black's, native-american's, and chicano rights. Basically everyone needed and deserved an equal voice in the United States and this was the beginnings of a better way of life in our country. As i mentioned before, I think that O'Neil had great messages in his comics. He was able to introduce a character that was brave, strong, intelligent and capable of thinking critially about issues. He also had a sidekick that was capable of doing all those things too. They often helped one another in situations that called for thinking critically. One example is the comic that we read, which showed the Green Lantern not thinking before he acted and it was his sidekick, the Green Arrown, that helped him to understand what he had done wrong. This is a simple example but there were other examples of violence and racial problems that the Green Lantern was able to battle. O'Neil really took a "B" character and touched on issues that were previlant for decades to follow. Some stories are quite relavant even today, because we are still battling with issues that are racial and gender motivated. :)
Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
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