- Narrator: Newspapers were saying no. But another newer medium held out some promise, comics books! Selling on newsstands for a dime, comic books were originally just reprints of newspapers strips.
- Narrator: [first lines]
- Narrator: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, The Hulk! Comic book superheroes have thrilled and inspired generations of readers. While critics have dismissed them as nothing more than kid stuff. But if you go behind the mask, and beneath the cape. You'll see a more complicated story. Ever since the Great Depression, superheroes have dealt with deep personal social and political issues, and in every era. The Forces that have shaped our world, have transformed theirs! Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked!
- Narrator: One of the biggest changes of all happened to Superman's arch-enemy. For 45 years, Lex Luthor had been a mad scientist. That had no longer been grim and gritty enough. So he was transformed into the most evil thing on Earth: a 1980s businessman.
- Narrator: But maybe comics' darkest moment came when DC decided to kill Robin. Not the original Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson; he'd been allowed to grow up, go to college and become a character called Nightwing. This was a new Robin named Jason Todd, a replacement sidekick whom many people hated.
- Denny O'Neil: You hear about characters taking on a life of their own. Jason was the best example of that I've ever personally encountered. Nobody set out to make him an obnoxious little snot, but he kind of was that.
- Narrator: In 1988, Batman's crazed, white-faced foe, the Joker, captured Jason, beat him to a pulp and set off an explosion. DC left his fate up to the readers.
- Denny O'Neil: If they dialed one 900 number, he survived the explosion. If they dialed the other, the kid didn't make it. And we waited.
- Narrator: DC received 10,614 calls. The verdict? Death, by 72 votes. When the mainstream press got wind of this, they were outraged.
- Denny O'Neil: I think most people thought it was Dick Grayson. People had an emotional investment in Robin, even if they hadn't seen a comic book in 20 years. I used to have a little Batman symbol on my jacket lapel. I went into a Fifth Avenue deli to buy a tunafish sandwich and the guy looked at that and asked who I was. I said, "I edit 'Batman'." "Hey this is the guy that killed Robin!"
- Narrator: Batman later found a third Robin: a nice kid named Tim Drake, whom fans did accept. But the death of Jason Todd continues to haunt Batman... and Denny O'Neil.
- Denny O'Neil: I thought I was a guy writing and editing fiction. I realized that no, the Batman editor and the Superman editor are more than that. We are the custodians of folklore.
- Narrator: In 1938, the first and greatest superhero of them all. Superman! Leaked from the pages of Action Comics #1, into the imaginations of children everywhere.
- Denny O'Neil: Faster than a speeding bullet, more power from locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.
- Narrator: Today, Superman has become a national icon. And that 10-cent comic could sell for over three hundred thousand dollars, but the Man of Steel nearly didn't published, at first. Only two people believed in him, his creators. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
- Jim Steranko: In 1931, there were two 17 year old kids from Cleveland, Ohio. Who were obsessed with science fiction.
- Narrator: Jerry Siegel wrote the stories. And his pal Joe Shuster Illustrated them, the creations were never sold. Yet these poor Jewish kids dreamed that their sci-fi, fantasies would someday will bring them fame and fortune. In the 1930s, the big new trend in newspapers was the adventure comic strip.
- Michael Chabon: There was quality in the writing, there was quality in the drawing there was just a general air of capital Q quality associated with newspaper comics, that's what Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster wanted for themselves.
- Narrator: Siegel and Shuster zero combined elements of everything they're read, from comic strips to pulp magazines. He would be the last survivor of a dead planet. Rocketed to earth, like a science fiction Moses, with the strength of Hercules, fighting for the common man. Superman.
- Narrator: Many years later, Jerry Siegel wrote about his inspiration he recalled. 'I had crushes on girls who didn't care I existed. So it occurred to me, what if I was really terrific. Jumping over buildings or throwing cars around'. Superman was sent to every newspaper syndicate in the country... They all said no.
- Will Eisner: I wrote back to them and told them this very patronizing letter that they weren't ready for primetime that they should stay in Cleveland for another year until they developed their art style, because the art was quite crude. So much my great editorial judgement.