The Socionomics of Superheroes

Saturday November 5, 2011

Superman was created in 1932 and first appeared in DC Comics in 1938. Both dates are near the stock market lows of that decade. 

Batman first appeared in May 1939  in another DC Comics publication. 

Green Lantern showed up in July, 1940.

The original Flash aka the Scarlet Speedster, appeared in January, 1940. 

Wonder Woman was a bit late to the party first appearing in December, 1041, the same month Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

Individuals with super powers are nothing new. Beowulf was created as an Anglo Saxon hero. His timing is believed to take place in the  late 5th century. . He was created however to give a country that had no particular heroes, just that. In the same way that Greeks and Romans created their own gods with super powers, people in need of heroes, well create them. 

The long depression followed by WW II certainly created a desire for a super human being to fight crime, depression, and presumably later the Axis Powers. 

Well guess what. After the long running 24 series featuring near super hero Jack Bauer, yes, Kiefer will be back in Spring, 2012. In Touch he plays the  a Father of a son with Super Powers. The son can only communicate via mathematics. Let's hope this sparks an interest in junior and senior high math. Even that rings true. 

The Shadow debuted on radio in, yes, July, 1930. The real crash on Wall Street was just beginning. The DOW had actually recovered half its loss into the Spring of 1930. Then a slide began that would eventually erase 90% of its 1929 high at 390. The Shadow could cloud men's minds so they could not see him, a handy device for the radio show. In a similar fashion, only someone who can express themselves mathematically will be able to 'text' the Superhero in Touch. 

 

View the You tube trailer here.   Keifer likes the script. No wonder, it is precisely the right socionomic prescription for the time. To succeed at the theater or on tvelvision, a story must mesh with the social mood. The desire for superheroes is strong in times of stagnation. We suspect Fox has another winner here.