In terms of race, comic books most definitely offer stereotypes. Comic books often follow the stereotypes of the current times and it does the same with race. One of the most prevalent cases of racial stereotypes in comic books comes from the stories of Luke Cage. Cage was the first black super hero to be published in comic books and his background story is extremely stereotypical. The story of Luke Cage is that he is from Brooklyn, New York and while in jail some experiments go bad and he then receives super strength and impenetrable skin. No white super hero attained their powers by going to jail, but of course the comic book writers had to make the first black super hero a inmate. Cage was also supposed to reflect the basic actions of a Civil Rights activist during the times. He had an approach similar to the one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but his girlfriend shared more of an approach that would go along with activists like the Black Panthers. In the defense of the comic book creators they do follow stereotypes even with white characters. The history of Superman is that he is raised by a midwestern family and is a working middle class citizen. This was something that does follow the social stereotypes of the times. The comic book creators also follow stereotypes when creating women comic book characters. The women comic book characters are all depicted as being weaker than their male counterparts. Although comic book writers are stereotypical with characters such as Luke Cage, they are also extremely stereotypical with white and female comic book characters.
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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