CORRESPONDENCE
MORE SUPERSEX
SIRS:
I wish to swing in as a self–
proclaimed "real champion of the
comic books" in regard to Richard
Kluger's review ["Sex and The
Superman," PR, Winter
1966].
One of the points raised in the
ar~cle
(perfectly punctuated, I
might add): Superman - Kent–
Lois Lane. Who was he really?
True, he was sent to earth by his
scientist father minutes before the
planet exploded (Holy Remaind–
ers!) and wasn't called Super–
man there (he was named
Kal-El
as any comic maniac should know)'
but was adopted on earth and
given
the identity of K ent. A bit
of research into the "Superbaby"
stories of a few years ago (prefer–
ably not around dinner time)
would show you that his parents
told him to assume the alter ego
so as never to be suspect as Su–
perman. But his home and real
life were on Krypton, from which
he got his powers.
As to Mr. Kluger'S suggestion
that he wanted to be loved as
Clark Kent, true, but he didn't
"keep saving her"; she threw her–
self off cliffs and enacted other
newsworthy events; she kept him.
He couldn't and wouldn't marry
for spouse-safety. (Though he did
succumb to an occasional kiss!)
Batman and Robin's relation–
ship (William Dozier be damn–
ed! ) were in fact, as you say,
somewhat - er - unusual. Wanna
know why? In spite of Feiffer's
alibis, they were the dream life of
arti~t
Kane, himself not quite a
puntan.
Wonder Woman was
not
a
transvestite, and, if you read the
story in Feiffer's book as well as
n~me.rous
others of the time, you
Will fmd her infatuation with Steve
Trevor was condescending in a way
Superman never was.
"Why, for example, did Super–
man and others fail to spearhead
t~e ~merican
war effort?" Are you
kIddm~?
The Fighting American,
Captam
A~erica,
even Captain
Marvel JUllior fought Nazis, Japs
and Ites. Referral to said Wonder
Woman story reveals this.
Th~
above - mentioned Cap
Amenca (recently revived in the
Avengers, whose roster now con–
tains direct copies of the Flash,
and Green Arrow and a witch)
"was a McCarthyite figure"? Look,
A new volume
of poems by
John Ashbery
Rivers and
Mountains
"Mr. Ashbery writes
with
remarkable
delicacy and
ease."-DENIS DONOGHUE
The New York Review
0/
Books
'
"Today's most radically original Ameri–
can
~oet."-JoNATHAN
COIT,
The New
Amencan Arts
$3.50 from y,?ur bookseller, or direct
from the pubhsher.
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC.
383 Madison Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10017
