SuperMedia- First in a series of papers for Polisci Classes

Super Reporters

The mainstream comic book industry could change the way many people think of the news media if they adapted their stories about journalists to the way most reporters behave. Many comic books that majority of people are familiar with have journalists as main characters, and those characters show the stereotype that comes to mind when people think of reporters. They ask the tough questions and follow leads into, sometimes, dangerous situations for truth no matter what the cost. Or they are the head of a newspaper focused on deadlines and selling the most papers. Of the comics that come to mind with these journalistic caricatures Superman and Spider-Man are the ones that come to mind as the most stereotypical and familiar. Superman’s secret identity is Clark Kent reporter for the Daily Planet, his love interest Lois Lane: investigative reporter whom is constantly getting into sticky situations. Spider-Man, Peter Parker, is a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle run by J. Jonah Jameson.
When I think of a journalist I formerly thought immediately of people like those in comic books that are ready for to find the truth and tell the people what corporations and the government are hiding from us. Now, unfortunately, I think more of pundits and women with too much hairspray. The changes in journalism are now reaching even comics books as in the recent Civil War story arc in the Marvel Universe The Daily Bugle is portrayed as the rightward leaning Fox News equivalent of a newspaper. The comic book medium has to react and change to the new styles of reporting. The Edward R. Murrow days of reporting have long since pasted and have been replaced with new methods. These methods have biases that are not ideological, but instead using storytelling to make certain items look like they should be news that are not necessarily helpful to democracy or they are inane. The ideas in comic books are changing, and there are some comic book authors that address the issues of the new media, but the mainstream comics are still trying to hold on to the wholesome image of the working class reporter.
The some of the first attempts to change image of media and journalists in mainstream comics have been in the Marvel: Civil War story arc. The Civil War plot shows the reactions to a large explosion in a small town. A group of amateur super heroes with a reality television crew following them found a group of villains that were out of their league and they decided to engage them. One of the villains had the ability to make large explosions, and in an attempt to get away he used his power, and destroyed a school, killing 600 people, many of them children. There was a media feeding frenzy and the heroes got the blame. The US government quickly passed a super hero registration act to try and curtail some of the bad press. The Marvel super heroes were cut down the middle on whether or not they should register and risk their families’ lives or not register and be hunted down be fellow super heroes that had agreed to sign the act and were in favor of full disclosure. The media is used in this series in a more realistic way than focusing on individual journalists that are seeking truth. The media is used as a catalyst to set off this story, and they use a single woman to dramatize the story of the children’s death. The woman’s son died in the explosion and she is seen on television and the front pages of newspapers protesting against super heroes.
While comic books are trying to change the image of the media, and perhaps shed some light on the subject of how media has changed, the audience to comic books is limited because many people don’t see past the large breasted women in spandex and villains with metal faces. In recent years comic books have been focusing less on adventures and increasingly on political issues. They have always been a commentary on society, but now they are becoming more critical of society. If it were not for their appeal to a minority, an increasing minority, comic books could be the catalyst that changes the way the public views media.

Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto (w), Medina, Angel, Crayton Crain, Sean Chen (p) Civil War: Peter Parker, Spider-Man. Ed. Joe Quesada, NY: Marvel Comics, 2007.
Bennett, Lance W., News: The Politics of Illusion, Pearson Longman: New York, 2007: 61.