Left-Wing and the 'Other' History: The Australian History Wars

Whenever academic history and popular history intersect during a major shift in historiography we see intense debates about the study of the past. Often they become embroiled in a 'culture war' with Left-wing and Right-wing figures becoming associated with a certain viewpoint of history. For example, there were the volatile debates about 'truth' and 'accuracy' surrounding the testimonio of Guatemalan Maya activist Rigoberta Menchu; there were intense discussions in Poland on culpability in the Holocaust following the publication of Jan Gross's Neighbors in 2001, which detailed the Jedwabne pogrom; and, around the centenary of the start of the First World War there were debates in Britain over the war in British popular memory. One of the most famous examples of this clash is the History Wars in Australia. Especially prominent in the 1990s and 2000s academics and historians were split into two: those who argued that Australian identity is built on the backs of the genocide of Aboriginals, and those who argue this is an exaggeration. 

Background

In World History we looked at the settlement of Australia, which you can read here, and reading it you can see which side of the debate I take. The 'History Wars' have had a long precursor, and what is most important to remember is that these debates were largely between white academics. Although, indigenous voices are present - especially in the accounts of the Stolen Generation resulting in a 1997 report - it is white academics and politicians who are making these debates. I want to emphasise this as Aboriginal Australians have been emphasising this aspect of Australian history throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In academia the seeds of the History Wars were planted in 1968 when anthropologist William Stanner used the term the 'Great Australian Silence' during a publicised lecture. He argued that a 'cult of disremembering' characterised Australian historiography and national identity, where the history of the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders becomes a footnote. Furthermore, the genocidal violence done against them, and the continued repression were forgotten, and a consequent result was that Australian history was 'incomplete'. Stanner's lecture was clearly inspired by two major changes rocking both Australia and the world: the New Left and subaltern rights. 

A portrayal of the Stolen Generation entitled The Taking of the Children on the 1999 Great Australian Clock, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, by artist Chris Cooke

The 1960s, especially around 1968, saw a resurgence in libertarian Left-wing thought which has become known as the New Left. This was an umbrella term for a wide range of activists and political theorists - this ranged from the hippy movement, anti-Vietnam War activism, post-modernism, a new wave of anarchist thought, and a new wave of Maoist thought. Linked to this was increased activism from subaltern peoples worldwide desiring greater rights - this included African-American activism, the rise of Second Wave Feminism, the gay rights movement, and the birth of the West Papuan independence movement. In Australia, there was also a movement by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to challenge racism and discrimination which they faced in society. Among the claims were for a return of stolen land, respect for indigenous rights, and justice for the 'Stolen Generation'. The Stolen Generation was actually a series of generations, technically beginning under British rule in the 1860s and ending in the 1970s, where indigenous peoples were forcibly taken from their families to be 'fostered'. This policy was not limited to Australia - America and Canada also had similar policies. The indigenous rights movement and Stanner influenced a new wave of historiography which aimed to tell Australia's history from below; it aimed to write indigenous communities back into history.

Beginning of the History Wars

In the 1980s and early-1990s the History Wars started to begin. By this time Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders were pushing for the return of land, equal rights, and justice for the Stolen Generation, but now they were getting gains. As expected, any movement of a subaltern is met with a reactionary movement, and there were pushbacks against these developments. It took form in quite unusual ways as well - in Crocodile Dundee (1986) the titular character says that Aboriginals and whites are both 'fleas on the land' about the return of land. This created a false equivalency between the two parties. What really kicked off the History Wars was the government of prime minister Paul Keating (1991-1996). Keating wanted to move further away from Britain, such as wanting Australia to put less emphasis on ANZAC Day as an example. Part of this was Keating's intervention in history by supporting the new line of historiography and emphasising that Australia had to recognise the continued repression of indigenous communities. Among this, was the creation of an inquiry in 1995 about the Stolen Generation policy resulting in the Bringing Them Home report of 1997 which aimed to highlight the trauma and consequences of the policy based on oral testimony. Part of this was a genuine attempt by Keating to foster a sense of 'One Australia' by encouraging an embracing of multiculturalism. However, it was also a cynical political move. Keating's Labor party had a long history of involvement in the Stolen Generation, and the White Australia Policy - a virulently racist immigration policy. Unfortunately, Keating was using the trauma of indigenous peoples to distance Labour from its culpability in the past. However, his involvement is what sparked the History Wars.

The History Wars

In 1993 conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote an article which attacked both Keating and the new historiography. His coining of the names for the two 'sides' has since became the common terminology during the History Wars, so I will use the terms here. Blainey said that Australia was moving away from the 'Three Cheers View', which emphasised a positive rendition of Australian history, to an unwarranted 'Black Armband' history, which emphasised the legacies of racism and colonialism. This began a series of heated debates, which translated into popular mediums like TV and paper opinion pieces, between the 'Black Armband' and 'Three Cheers View' of Australian history. However, it fully became a 'war' when Keating's successor, John Howard, intervened. Howard was from the conservative Liberal Party, so he opposed the re-evaluation of Australian history by the new historiography. Howard fiercely criticised the 'Black Armband' and used the typical tropes of a Right-wing culture war stating that 'soft-left' political-correctness was 'infiltrating' universities. His Labor successor, Kevin Rudd, further criticised the 'Black Armband' history stating that:

Time to leave behind us the polarisation that began to infect our every discussion of our nation's past. To go beyond the so-called "black arm" view that refused to confront some hard truths about our past, as if our forebears were all men and women of absolute nobility, without spot or blemish. But time, too, to go beyond the view that we should only celebrate the reformers, the renegades and revolutionaries, thus neglecting or even deriding the great stories of our explorers, of our pioneers, and of our entrepreneurs. Any truthful reflection of our nation's past is that these are all part of the rich fabric of our remarkable story ...

Two key topics surrounded the History Wars: the question of genocide and Stolen Generation. Conservative historians argued that allegations of genocide were either exaggerated or entirely fabricated by more Left-wing historians. One of the key figures in this was Keith Windschuttle who wrote two books entitled The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - the first calling the genocide of Tasmanians an exaggeration or an outright fabrication, and the second that the Stolen Generation was a myth. His main opponent in the ring was Robert Manne who ended up accusing Windschuttle of genocide denial. Among the claims by Windschuttle, Blainey, and other academics arguments was the the sources used to 'prove' a genocide happened. However, key historians showed how flawed Windschuttle's book Fabrication was - Henry Reynolds highlighted how Tasmanian settlers regularly used terms like 'extermination' in their diaries, and Lyndal Ryan has corroborated this by showing how there are many sites where massacres took place. What is particularly insidious, 'Three Cheers View', mainly social commentater Andrew Bolt, went as far as to call Bringing Them Home was an outright lie! Robert Manne tore Bolt apart with a basic point - Bolt never actually used sources to back up his claim. 

Since the 2000s

In 2016 the History Wars continue

The History Wars have continued to periodically plague discussions of history. At the end of the first peak of the History Wars in 2003 Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark released The History Wars, a book which I used a lot in writing this post, to explain the debates. It is an understatement to say that the 'Three Cheers View' did not like it - Windschuttle accused it of making the 'Three Cheers' a 'caricature', while Greg Melleuish said the book comes from 'pro-communist polemics of the Cold War'. I would criticise Anton Froeyman's attempts to discuss the History Wars and German Historikerstreit, a series of debates on the Holocaust, who argued that the highly personal attacks by both sides in both debates meant that an 'objective' history could not be written. However, Froeyman does not acknowledge that this was not like other historical debates, such as whether the famous African Olaudah Equiano was actually born in Nigeria or the US, but about whether a genocide happened (in the case of the History Wars). This is especially a shame as his discussion on the History Wars is extremely insightful. An 'objective', meet-in-the-middle history cannot be written when one side was denying genocide. As Australia is facing a similar rise in xenophobia and Right-wing governments, the History Wars will still rage on. In settler societies the nation is always built upon the exploitation, and often the outright genocide, of the indigenous communities. Consequently, any history which wants to entirely portray the nation as spotless will result in the denial of genocide.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Stuart Macintyre and Anna Clark, The History Wars, (Melbourne: 2003)

-Lorenzo Veracini, 'A Prehistory of Australia's History Wars: The Evolution of Aboriginal History during the 1970s and 1980s', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 52:3, (2006), 439-454

-Neil Levi, '“No Sensible Comparison”? The Place of the Holocaust in Australia's History Wars', History and Memory, 19:1, (2007), 124-156

-Anton Froeyman, 'The ideal of objectivity and the public role of the historian: some lessons from the Historikerstreit and the History Wars', The Journal of Theory and Practice, 20:2, (2016), 217-234

-Bringing Them Home

Thank you for reading, for other Left-Wing and the 'Other' History posts we have a list here. For other blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Galactus

Created by the legendary pair Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Galactus is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. The only beings more powerful are the beings which literally embody aspects of the universe, or the universe itself. Galactus is if a hurricane had the powers of a god - a natural force beyond concepts of good and evil with the ability to create and destroy. Does to his popularity Galactus has made a regular appearance in comics since the 1960s with him appearing in many major events, even just briefly, ranging from Infinity Gauntlet to Age of Ultron. First, we need to see why Galactus was created by Lee and Kirby.

Creation

In his biography of Stan Lee Bob Batchelor has described the 'Marvel Revolution' of the 1960s as being a slightly fraught time despite successes. Marvel's owner Martin Goodman was only interested in profit, so he kept a close eye on comic sales, and if a genre started to dip he would pull the plug. Lee and Kirby knew how fickle the comic market could be, so they experimented a lot with characters and concepts with the view that Goodman could cancel it at any moment. As a result, writers at Marvel were eager in the 1960s to experiment with storytelling because otherwise they might not have another chance. This led to the creation of Galactus. Lee was interested in creating an ultimate villain, one which potentially was beyond good and evil. Kirby was smitten with the idea, and can be credited with creating what would become Galactus. Looking for inspiration for a villain, and his heralds of destruction, Kirby turned to the Bible:

My inspirations were the fact that I had to make sales and come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. In other words, I couldn't depend on gangsters. I had to get something new. For some reason, I went to the Bible and I came up with Galactus. And there I was in front of this tremendous figure, who I knew very well because I've always felt him. I certainly couldn't treat him in the same way I could any ordinary mortal. And I remember in my first story, I had to back away from him to resolve that story. The Silver Surfer is, of course, the fallen angel. When Galactus relegated him to Earth, he stayed on Earth, and that was the beginning of his adventures. They were figures that had never been used before in comics. They were above mythic figures. And of course they were the first gods.

DC fans might notice that this inspiration may have shaped the later New Gods when Kirby was writing for DC. Anyhow, the duo planned to go all out with Galactus creating which would become known as the 'Galactus Trilogy'.

The Galactus Trilogy

The trilogy would begin in Fantastic Four #48 debuting in March 1966. The Fantastic Four had always been used to investigate Marvel's space and celestial stories, and the comic opens with their enemies, the Skrulls, desperately trying to hide their planet from the angelic Silver Surfer. The Fantastic Four are visited by a tall, bald humanoid calling himself Uatu the Watcher. Watchers are an ancient and near-immortal race which vow to watch the comings and goings of the universe, but Uatu could not resist interfering in the events of Earth. It turns out that Uatu had been manipulating the planet's atmosphere with the hope that doing so it could hide Earth from the Heralds of Galactus. The Heralds are scouts who find planets for Galactus to consume, and his most famous one is the Silver Surfer. The Surfer arrives but is knocked out by the Thing, only for Uatu to inform the Four that it is too late. Galactus has arrived. The comic ends with the mighty Galactus declaring 'My journey is ended! This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life! So Speaks Galactus!'. Cliffhangers had long been used in comics, but such a cliffhanger left readers eager for more. Issue #49 sees the Fantastic Four try and fail to negotiate with Galactus, and then fight him, but they cannot fight a literal god. Meanwhile, friend of the Four Alicia Masters treats the defeated Surfer who begins to respect humanity. Although, there are some things he had to learn - such as why humans eat. Finally, in #50, the Human Torch is sent to Galactus's ship to steal a valuable weapon called the Ultimate Nullifier while the Surfer joins the Four in attacking Galactus. The Torch gives Mr Fantastic the Nullifier which actually frightens Galactus. The Nullifier is a weapon so powerful that it can wipe out galaxies, but the weapon itself can consume the user and become out of control. Eventually, Galactus concedes 'The prize is not worth the battle', and vows to leave Earth in return for the Nullifier. However, before he goes, in punishment for betraying him Galactus creates a force field which prevents the Silver Surfer from leaving the planet - it took until the 1980s for Surfer to be freed.

Galactus was Kirby's baby, and the Silver Surfer was Lee's, so it was Kirby who decided what to do with Galactus. While Lee regularly had Silver Surfer interact with other characters, Kirby really wanted Galactus to be a one-off. If he was going to appear, he wanted it to be a monumental moment which inspired awe. Galactus's next two appearances, in Thor #134 and Daredevil ##37, were two non-speaking cameos. However, fans wanted more of Galactus, so over the years he began appearing more and more until he became a mainstay of the Marvel Universe.

Origins

Galactus's popularity meant that Kirby had to create an origin story for the 'Devourer of Worlds' in Thor #169. Galactus was once a regular humanoid called Galan from the planet Taa. The people of Taa had effectively created a paradise with no forms of inequality, disease, or trouble, but they were unable to fend off the end of their universe. As radiation started wiping out the last individuals on Taa, Galan proposed going on a last-ditch space mission to destroy the 'Cosmic Egg' which was emitting radiation. Everyone on board was killed, except for Galan. Instead, as one of the last living things in the universe, he was merged with the embodiment of his universe. Locked inside the Cosmic Egg they merged, and was reborn in a new universe which had just been created via a Big Bang. Over eons the new being slept as life evolved, and they were discovered by a Watcher called Ecce. Seeing the potential that the sleeping being had to destroy worlds Ecce went to destroy the slumbering giant, but was stopped by the other Watchers. They reminded Ecce of their purpose: to watch and not interfere. While the Watchers later realised that Galactus was a natural part of the universe, like a hurricane or volcanic eruption, Ecce still felt guilt over his inaction, for the billions killed by Galactus's hunger. Ecce woke the energy being, and using the newfound Cosmic Eternal, (the literal power of the universe itself), it constructed a suit to contain its immense energy, and went back to sleep. That is, until eons later when the Cosmic Egg was accidentally attacked in a war. A newly awakened and hungry Galactus wiped out a nearby fleet as easily as someone swats a fly, and fed on their homeworld of Archeopia. Using the energy of the Cosmic Eternal he created an immense ship named Taa II to inhabit as he swept through the cosmos.

Taa II

There was some mortal still left within Galactus, but he also needed energy. The immense power of the Cosmic Egg needed an immense number of kilocalories to sustain itself. Not wanting to repeat the fate of Archeopia he consumed lifeless planets, only for them to not give him the sustenance which he needed. Using his cosmic powers he easily shut off that aspect of his mind. Eventually, Galactus arrived on the planet of Zenn-La, much like his own Taa, in Silver Surfer #1. A brilliant scientist called Norrin Radd pleaded with Galactus to spare Zenn-La arguing 'for even ants have a right to live'. Galactus, instead, gives us a good insight into the psychology of a force of nature. 'In order to live Galactus must have energy which only a healthy planet can provide. If some must fall, so that Galactus may endure... it is lamentable'. Galactus does not consume out of malice or hatred. Instead he consumes because he has to. Radd managed, however, to strike a deal. In return for becoming his herald and scouting out planets, Galactus would spare Zenn-La. Galactus can do virtually anything - even resurrect the dead. With his power he turned Norrin Radd into a virtually mortal being known as the Silver Surfer. Norrin initially took Galactus to lifeless planets, however Galactus eradicated the Surfer's empathy so he would seek out planets with life.

Other stories

Galactus's popularity has meant he has appeared in lots of stories, as is expected from a Lee-Kirby creation. It is interesting to see the evolution of the character over the years. Although Galactus has always been presented as being above concepts of good and evil, and still is seen as a villain, over the years comics have presented the World Devourer in different lights. In several Fantastic Four stories in the early-1980s we find out that Galactus does feel remorse over his consuming of worlds, he just cannot help himself. In the Secret Wars event of 1984 and 1985 Galactus played an important role. Another god-like being, (Marvel has a lot), called the Beyonder was intrigued by the concept of powered individuals, and wanted to see the ultimate battle between good and evil. Creating a planet known as 'Battleworld' he took heroes and villains to duke it out - whichever side won would get a wish. This story introduced many new concepts and characters: the villain Titania, the new Spider-Woman, Spider-Man's black suit (giving rise to Venom), and Magneto as a grey hero. Galactus was also brought in on the side of evil, but he declared himself neutral in the battle. The heroes had an issue, how could they defeat Galactus, who could anything, without the Ultimate Nullifier? Meanwhile, Dr Doom had a plan. While the other villains wanted to just fight the heroes, Doom wanted the power of the Beyonder. Why settle for a wish, when with the Beyonder's power you could get whatever you wished? To get the Beyonder's power, he needed that of Galactus, and that is easier said than done. Throughout Secret Wars Galactus literally wipes out Doom's plots with little effort, although the villain ended up obtaining the powers of Beyonder.

Galactus and Gah Lak Tus

At the end of Age of Ultron (2013) a series of missions to change time in order to stop Ultron rising to power weakened the fabric of reality. This resulted in Galactus falling into the Ultimate Universe. In the early-2000s Marvel created the Ultimate line of comics which aimed to reboot the Marvel Universe without directly impacting the mainstream comics. The Ultimate version of Galactus was not a god-like being, but instead a hivemind of city-sized robots called Gah Lak Tus. Created by the ancient Kree to 'purify' the universe, i.e. kill their enemies, it became out of control having the aim to wipe out all life in the universe. Gah Lak Tus was fighting in the Chitauri-Kree War when Galactus fell into the Ultimate Universe. Unexpectedly, Gah Lak Tus merged with Galactus forming a greater, united being; some of the robots were even used as new heralds. When he attacked that universe's version of Earth he was trapped in an in-between dimension where no life exists called the Negative Zone. As expected in comics, Galactus wasn't left for too long to starve in the Negative Zone and was eventually returned to his original self. Recently, Galactus crashed on Asgard after seeing a vision that Thor would kill him - to avoid this he converted Thor into his herald, the Herald of Thunder...

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Paleo Profiles: Pikaia

When we think of important fossil discoveries we might think of Sue, the near-complete Tyrannosaurus, the Archaeopteryx, whose feathers provided a 'missing link' between dinosaurs and modern birds, or the Tiktaalik, which we looked at last time in Paleo Profiles. However, there is another, and is so important that it might help shed light on the evolution of chordates, back-boned animals. This evolutionary question was the Pikaia. First appearing in the fossil record over 500 million years ago this tiny creature has become one of the most discussed and controversial fossils in the study of evolution.

Discovery and Fossils

The first Pikaia fossil was found in Alberta, Canada by geographer and palaeontologist Charles Walcott. Alberta and British Columbia are well known in palaeontological circles for the abundance of fossils dating from the Cambrian period - the earliest part of the 'Phanerozoic Eon', a time lasting from over 500 million years ago to now where plant and animal life as abundant. Especially with the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, has allowed palaeontologists to understand the abundance and diversity of animal life which emerged millions of years ago. Finding the little fossil near the Pika Peak in Alberta, Walcott named the fossil Pikaia in honour of the mountain. However, due to the regularly segmented body of the animal, he classified it as a worm. This was not particularly an unusual find - Walcott himself would discover a vast array of worm species from Canada. Nearby Burgess Shale would allow palaeontologists to find a plethora of Cambrian fossils, including the Pikaia. Today, we have over 100 Pikaia fossils with most coming from the Burgess Shale. In 1979, Simon Conway Morris, who specialised in the Cambrian, went back and looked at the Pikaia fossils at hand. He did this again in 2012 as more Pikaia fossils were unearthed. Paleontologists often look back on discovered fossils to find things which might have been missed, or to relate them to new findings. Conway Morris found that Pikaia was not a worm, instead he argued it was a very primitive chordate. Quite possibly, Pikaia was a stem chordate - the ancestor to every back-boned animal to exist since then.

Biology

Conway Morris's and Caron's reconstruction

Compared to later vertebrates, the Pikaia was a very simple chordate. With segmented bodies and two tentacles on the head it strongly resembled a worm. It was also very small at just 38 millimetres in length, it could easily fit on your fingernail. Within this tiny body there was a relatively complex system for respiration and digestion, so much so, it could potentially question when diversity of life exploded. Traditionally, the Middle Cambrian has been described as the 'Cambrian Explosion' for the diversity of life which emerged, so the complexity of Pikaia at such a period could indicate that this occurred even earlier. Palaeontologists have compared the Pikaia to an animal still in existence today - the lancelets (shown below).

Lancelets, like Branchiostoma above, bear a striking resemblance to Pikaia - a streamlined respiratory system and filter-feeding on plankton and zooplankton. Quite possibly it may have been somewhat see-through just like the lancelet. During the Middle Cambrian the earliest fish, or what would evolve to become the earliest fish, have been preserved so palaeontologists could see their organs - Haikouichthys from China is a good example of this. Thurston Lacalli has further analysed the segments of the Pikaia's body and found that they would likely have been a fairly slow swimmer, a bit like a hagfish. There are still controversies around where Pikaia fit into the evolution of chordates. Simon Conway Morris has argued that it was a stem chordate, so Pikaia could have been one of several species which served as the ancestor to the chordates. However, it is not certain as Pikaia could instead be a close relative of the stem chordates.

When and Where

Pikaia has only been discovered in Canada, with most of them being discovered in the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. The Burgess Shale has allowed palaeontologists to uncover a wide range of plant and animal life from the Cambrian period - roughly 514 million years ago. The world of the Cambrian was incredibly different from the world of today. There was one continent, clustered around the southern hemisphere, which made the planet's climate much colder; the Earth was further recovering from the 'Snowball Earth'. As a result, the Cambrian was cold. Oxygen content was two-thirds the level than it is today, and the levels of carbon dioxide was seven times the level than it was before the Industrial Revolution. The ozone layer is believed to have only came into existence around 600 million years ago, so by the Middle Cambrian it had started shielding the planet's surface from the sun's radiation. This meant that the surface was dangerous for life, but it was safer in the seas, (which covered most of the planet). The Cambrian, as mentioned earlier, saw the 'Cambrian Explosion' where the diversity of life exploded.

Pikaia's Habitat

A Burgess Shale reconstruction by Carel Brest van Kempen

The Burgess Shale of the Middle Cambrian resembled that of a modern coral reef. The large amount of soft-bodied animals and plants to be fossilised at the Burgess Shale indicates that it had muddy grounds. Quite possibly, a big reason why the animals and plants died at Burgess Shale was because of mud slides which buried the life underneath. Due to this, palaeontologists have managed to unearth such a wide range of life, and find well-preserved fossils, such as the Pikaia fossils. The Cambrian was home to a very bizarre group of animal life. Periodically through the planet's history there are explosions of diverse life adapted to very specific ecological niches, however, extinction events often wipe out the variety of life so the truly unique species vanish without descendants. In Burgess Shale we see the first jellyfish, hard-bodied arthropods, worms, trilobites, and sponges. However, alongside Pikaia were truly weird animals. Among them included Hallucigenia, a tentacled worm with spikes, Wiwaxia, a soft-bodied mollusc with spikes, and Anomalocaris, a prawn-like predator designated the world's first 'superpredator'. One, Opabinia, caused laughter when it was first revealed for its jaws on the end of tentacles and five eyes. Quite possibly, Pikaia could have been preyed upon by Opabinia and Anomalocaris.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-'Pikaia', Prehistoric-Wildlife.com, [Accessed 09/04/2020]

-Simon Conway Morris and Jean-Bernard Caron, 'Pikaia gracilens Walcott, a stem-group chordate from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia', Biological Reviews, 87, (2012), 480-512

-Jon Mallat and Nicholas Holland, 'Pikaia gracilens Walcott: Stem Chordate, or Already Specialized in the Cambrian?', Journal of Experimental Zoology, 320:4, (2013), 247-271

-Thurston Lacalli, 'The Middle Cambrian fossil Pikaia and the evolution of chordate swimming', EvoDevo, 3:12, (2012)

Thank you for reading. For other Paleo Profiles we have a list here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E

CW is soon to release their new TV series Stargirl, so it is quite fitting that we look at her today. Stargirl has been consistently one of DC's second tier characters meaning that she has had a regular background role in the comics, or membership in superhero teams, but has not been seen as one of the main heroes. Similarly, we cannot discuss Stargirl without her partner S.T.R.I.P.E who was introduced all the way back in 1941 under the name Stripesy. Today we'll look at both characters and their history in the DC Universe.

The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy

Even before the United States entered the Second World War, there was a feeling that they would soon enter and feared espionage from the Axis powers. In 1941, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war, a wave of US-themed, nationalistic heroes came into being. The most famous would, of course, be Captain America, published by Marvel's forerunner Timely. All the comic book publishers had some form of nationalistic character to whip up patriotism: the Fighting Yank from Nedor Comics, Yank and Doodle from Prize Publications, and Miss Victory from Helnit Comics being some notable examples. DC had a plethora of patriotic heroes with names such as Uncle Sam, Liberty Belle, and Miss America. Debuting in Star Spangled Comics #1 in October 1941, (although one had been introduced in the earlier Action Comics #40), was a new patriotic duo fighting Nazi agents: the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Sylvester Pemberton was a spoiled rich kid and Pat Dugan was his bumbling chauffeur. However, they were secretly honed acrobats and athletes, and donned costumes forming the duo Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. In a story created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and artist Hal Sherman this duo of non-superpowered heroes fought against Nazi spies wanting to take down America. The two were noted for flipping the superhero genre. Normally, the younger character was the sidekick, but it was the older Stripesy who was the sidekick. That is the only thing innovative about the duo. Publishers wanted to make sales on the popular 'patriotic hero' genre, and it was certainly quantity over quality. Stripesy's appearance is literally a well-built man in a red-and-white striped shirt, and his abilities were acrobatics and being a good engineer. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for the duo to be relegated to a team of B-tier heroes.

By the end of 1941 writer Mort Weisinger was tasked in creating a new superhero team, due to to massive popularity of the Justice Society. Leading Comics #1 introduced a new team: the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Comprised of largely newly created characters the Seven Soldiers were: the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy; Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy; the cowboy-themed hero Vigilante; Shining Knight, a member of the Knights of the Round Table frozen in time; and the Crimson Avenger, DC's answer to the Green Hornet. What was interesting about this time, in contrast to the Justice Society, was that each member did not have superpowers - instead they relied on their own physical skills, abilities, and gadgets to fight crime and spies. Throughout the war they remained popular, but the end of the war came with the end of their popularity. Western, romance, and animal stories started replacing superheroes in popularity, and wartime heroes suffered as a result. By the mid-1940s the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy had stopped their appearances.

Return

In the 1970s, nostalgia for the 'Golden Age of Comics' of the 1940s, and searching for new and interesting stories, DC decided to bring back the Seven Soldiers of Victory. How could they though? The Seven Soldiers had not been published since 1945! The writers of Justice League of America had the answer. From issues #100-102 in 1972 we found out why the Seven Soldiers vanished, (other than the publisher's desire to jump on new trends), and how they were brought back. On a mission in 1950 a problem in time scattered the team throughout history, so the Justice Society and Justice League teamed up to rescue them. Stripesy was rescued from ancient Egypt by Batman, Hourman, and Starman, and the Star-Spangled Kid was rescued from a cave 50,000 years ago by Aquaman, Wildcat, and Green Lantern. Brought back to the 1970s, and not 1950, the rescued Seven Soldiers made a new life. Stripesy gets married to someone called Maggie, but she eventually left him taking their son with her. The Star-Spangled Kid continued with heroics helping Dugan regain his lost patents, and fighting his nephew who had used the family estate to fund supervillains. In a revived All-Star Comics he grew close to Starman - a scientist who constructed a powerful rod which could manipulate energy. When Starman was injured, he gave Pemberton his rod which the young hero used to create a streamlined version of the rod in the form of a belt. With this he adopted the moniker Skyman. However, it would end in tragedy. While fighting alongside a new team called Infinity Inc. he was killed by the hulking zombie Solomon Grundy. 

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E

Finally, we've arrived at when Stargirl arrives on the scene in the comic series Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Debuting in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E #1 in 1999 we see the origins of a new pairing. A retired Pat Dugan remarried and moved to Nebraska, with the new life and marriage came a stepdaughter - Courtney Whitmore. Courtney was resentful of Pat coming into her life, and moving the family to Nebraska, so was not the biggest fan of her new stepdad. That is, until she came across his old keepsakes. There she found out that her stepfather Pat was actually the former hero Stripesy, so she decided to pull a prank on him. Going to a fancy-dress party she donned a costume similar to that of Stripesy's old partner, and included his old belt. However, during the party an old enemy of the Seven Soldiers, who survived the war until now, called the Dragon King attacked leading to Courtney using the cosmic belt of the old Star-Spangled Kid to defend herself. At the same time, Pat knew that one day he might have to return as a superhero, so he put his engineering skills to the test. Creating a suit, resembling a mix between the Iron Giant and Iron Man, he adopted the new moniker S.T.R.I.P.E - Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer. He joined Courtney and together the beat the minions of the Dragon King; seeing how well the formerly feuding pair worked together they decided to make it a permanent pairing. Courtney became the new Star-Spangled Kid, and together they formed Stars and Stripes. Courtney, in particular, proved to be popular with fans thanks to her charm and bubbly personality. A big reason behind this was that writer Geoff Johns based her off of his sister who had tragically died in a plane crash, so Courtney became a tribute to her. The quaint pairing and stories made Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E a welcome part of the DC Universe - even if they never became as popular as other characters.

Becoming Stargirl

The popularity of the duo meant that they soon appeared in wider comics, namely the Justice Society. Courtney and Pat added a familial aspect to the Justice Society which extended to the rest of the team. It was through this that the duo became a mainstay of the DC Universe, even if it was a minor one. In Starman Vol. 2 #80 Starman had been impressed by Courtney's dealing of the dark magic using Klarion, and decided that she was the best person to inherit his Cosmic Staff. Accepting it, and to honour the older hero, she adopted the moniker Stargirl. Armed with both Skyman's belt and Starman's staff this gave Courtney enhanced strength, durability, speed, and agility, as well as energy projection and flight. During her time with the Justice Society she became close friends with Power Girl, and even started dating Captain Marvel, (Shazam). The team had such a close bond that, in full costume, the entire Justice Society came to her house for a surprise party after she got back from the dentist. Meanwhile, S.T.R.I.P.E remained a loyal member of the team helping build equipment and supporting Stargirl. In JSA #81 Courtney found out that her absent biological father had died, which sent her world into crisis. While wanting to hate him for abandoning both herself and her mother, she couldn't find the hatred. Instead, she chose to find love, and realise that she always had a father - Pat. From there, they grew closer as a father and daughter superhero duo. Following the reboot of the DC Universe in The New 52 the duo shifted to the Justice League as the Justice Society was written out of the timeline, but then Doomsday Clock changed things. In Doomsday Clock we found out that Dr Manhattan from Watchmen had been manipulating the DC timeline, which cause the JSA to be written out of existence. However, at the event's end when he returned things to 'normal', the duo were part of the Justice Society.

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