I know I'm pretty late, as this was an inauguration issue of the Amazing Spider-Man!1 but it came back to mind after seeing this via Twitter via Questlove via Toure via some guy's comic book blog. It's one of many attempts by various comic book series to ironically throw race relations in the face of a comic book demographic that typically has "relations" rarely, if at all. The particular issue of Superman in the link, for those of you who don't want to bother reading it, basically revolves around Lois Lane becoming a (way hotter) Black version of herself in order to do an assignment in the "Little Africa" section of Metropolis. Of course, in typical comic book style, this can only be done using a machine(the Plastimold) that has virtually no utility outside of this particular story 2,3. One flip of the transformoflux pack (what?) and Lois Lane gets blown off by a taxi, stared at on the subway and shot at by gangsters in no time; the everyday Little Africa (read: Black) experience.
This type of (albeit corny) socially aware comic is not that rare. There have been other times in which topical issues were woven into comic book storylines. This was most common in the Silver Age, which not surprisingly occurred during the bulk of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. When my grandfather went to the hospital to stay shortly before he died (I was six or seven when he left), he gave me a dozen or so comic books, some older than others, dating back to the 70s. A few of them were Green Lantern comics, some with John Stewart, the native of fictional South Nambia. This particular issue not so subtly puts South Africa on frontstreet about Apartheid and racial injustices in the country. I believe I remember one frame in which a guy gets whipped, which I thought was bizarre, since by first grade a rather mild depiction of slavery was the only experience I had with such a scene. This comic, combined with the A, B, and C encyclopedia "collection" we had, I was soon the youngest kid in the neighborhood that knew the politics of South African Apartheid (Thanks, Green Lantern!)
At any rate, I think that it's pretty cool that guys like Denny O'Neill and whoever wrote that Green Lantern issue would incorporate whatever racial issue of the day into a media with a fanbase who could probably give a f*ck less about Apartheid or what it's like to blow out an afro. Even if it is out of some cheesy attempt to appeal to Black people (doubtful), they still deserve props, in my opinion, for stepping out of the box when it wasn't popular, unlike Stan Lee and the minds at Marvel, who had waited until Obama took office to try and capitalize on a first Black president. Not to mention the obvious "Terrorist Fist-Jab" thrown in.
1. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I feel like Peter Parker would be way too goofy to effectively "pound it".
2. Apparently this is an issue of "Lois Lane", which was basically a noncanonical offshoot of the actual Superman series exclusively about the exploits of Lois Lane (cooking, cleaning, reporting). Which explains how this ridiculous machine was introduced several issues back.
3. Doesn't the Plastimold remind you of the machine they used in Interstella 5555 (made popular by Daft Punk in "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger")? It must have been the prototype.
currently listening to:
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
by Daft Punk
Discovery