I’m reading Michael Schumacher’s Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics. One day, Siegal and Schuster’s Superman submission came in to the Eisner-Eiger shop. It had been making the rounds. Pretty crude, it was another costumed hero – a genre Eisner felt inherently childish. Even then he hoped the field could be elevated to adult sensibilities.
What really put him off was the name. The Nazis were rising, and throwing the “Aryan Superman” term around a lot. A Jew, Eisner found it somewhat offensive, or at least a name with unpleasant associations.
I don’t imagine too many publishers would be keen to launch a hero called The Jihadist today, even though it means, literally, “the struggler.”
Interesting. I certainly can't blame Eisner, as when you put it that way, it is easy to see how it would have been a rather embarrassing idea to bring up in the context of Eisner's perspective at the time. Funny how that perspective is the polar opposite of the conventional narrative of the creation of the character of Superman...that Superman was a power fantasy of two Jewish kids from Cleveland that empowered the oppressed. Still, it leaves one to wonder what might have been if Eisner had taken to the idea somehow.
Posted by: Bob Swanay | October 08, 2014 at 05:20 PM
I always wondered about the name with its Nietzschian undertones. It probably would have been a more creator friendly environment for Siegal and Schuster, though. Too bad they didn't hard sell it more. Could have been a great team-up.
Posted by: Brad Teare | June 26, 2015 at 02:10 PM
Hello Paul, where and what are you working last days, are you illustrating or publishing any new story? Its Concrete´s over?
From Argentina.
A very huge fan
MAU
Posted by: mau | March 08, 2016 at 11:32 AM