Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great little book, which certainly puts the history of superheroics into a really new light and intellectual genealogy.
It was at its best when investigating the paradigms of mythological heroes, their influence on the pulps, and the influence of pulp material on golden age comics. There is a definite (and often demonstrable) influence at work here.
The book is far less convincing in substantiating some of the claims of a more direct influence of the occult milieu on early comics. One supposition is that Aleister Crowley was the model for Superman's enemy Lex Luthor. This is possible, but the evidence marshalled by Knowles to prove this is circumstancial and slight.
The other major claim, that Batman was 'linked to the Kabbalah' is product merely of Knowles' own definition of Batman as a 'Golem' style hero: no direct evidence from the comics or from Bob Kane's biography are cited in order to substantiate this claim. The 'link' is therefore a fabrication.
Concerning the earier sections of the book, which read breezily and very well, the research could have been substantially better. Some of the sources emplyed by Knowles to discuss the Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians, etc are rather dubious (Howard's 'The Occult Conspiracy' for example). This leads to some errors: for example Knowles states that both Bram Stoker and Sax Romer were members of the Golden Dawn, which is simply not true. He was here following a fabrication that first appeared in the 1960s (in Pauwels and Bergiers' 'The Morning of the Magicians')and has been repeated uncritically ever since.
Also, for readers who are not experienced comic fans (such as myself, a more helpful bibliography could have been included. It is all very well to know that Dr. Doom appeared in 'Fantastic Four #7' (or elsewhere), but is this comic still available today? Has it been reprinted?
But these are only minor quibbles, which do not distract from the major argument of the book, which links modern superheros to archetypes established in the mythology of yesteryear. As Knowles demonstrates, these archetypes have been constantly re-formed and reformulated in order to suit the needs of the contemporary reading audience. Good stuff.


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