Discover Top Posts Tagged with #the 40s

Supermay II: Superman Vs the Klan of the Firey Cross!

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Supermay II: The Sequel You Knew Was Coming. Not brought to you by Kellog's Pep. That's P-E-P PEP!

This review couldn't of come at a better time honestly: With Facisim on the rise, blatant xenophobia and tranpshobia used by the right as an easy tool, and people's bigotry being cashed in for big dollars, there's no better time to talk about both times superman smashed the KIan. First up is the original, a 16 part serial on superman's Radio Show titled Klan of the Firey Cross.

The Adventures of Superman debuted only a year and some change after Superman's debut in Action Comics #1. It was clear the man of steel was a massive hit and getting a big radio program only incresed it. It's also a key foundational piece in the superman mythos: It's where he learned to fly (solidfied by the Flescher shorts a year after), first encountered Kryptonite and met his pal JImmy Oleson, all of which was quickly ported back into the comics, also showing adaptations influcing comics is as old as the medium itself.

This 16 part marvel came about thanks to Stetson Kennedy, someone I had never heard of before doing the research but now want to know everything about. Stetson Kennedy, no relation. Stetson was a civil rights advocate, his views shaped at a young age when his maid and second mother Flo was beaten and raped by the klan. It showed him the lie of the Klan being good cristian men. Stetson was a hero, collecting folklore, diving into racisim and going against racist policies like Poll Taxes and White Primaries, both the kind of thing you just.. know are bad on instinct.

His biggest target ended up being the Klan. Since like yours truly he had a bad back, Kennedy couldn't participate in World War II and being a damn good man decided to still try and do some good. So with the help of the anti-defimation league, crated a second identity and inflitrated every white suprmacist group he could, settling in to primarily target the KKK, from joining the campaign of KKK friendly goverenor, facist and asshole I don't have time to cover here Eugene Talmidge (Check out the podcast behind the bastards excellent 4 parter on the guy).

Kennedy knew just how to attack them: He first planned to explore their weird, hilaroiusly dumb rituals, from calling the days of the week " "Dark, Deadly, Dismal, Doleful, Desolate, Dreadful, and Desperate" to using K words for everything, he recognzied a tool that modern activists have against facists and cult leaders today:

Now you have to be careful with this, not undermine or ignore the fact the people your mocking are a threat, we've made that mistake with Trump and Musk, but don't let them have the prestige they crave. Don't let them be taken completely seriously. Make it VERY clear that they are clowns. It's a strategy that almost worked in the election. If you take away your foe's aura of strength, it makes it that much easier to nail them for the shit their doing.

He also knew to hit them where it hurt. See something I didn't realize till watching behind the bastards despite "Superman Smashes the Klan" pointing it out.. was that the Klan was a pyramid scheme. You recurited whoever you could to your hate group to try and rise up a rank. The people who revvived the Klan for the 40's were more concerned with money than racial purity, like certain folks who shall remain nameless but your certainly thinking their names as hard as you can today. So he kept campanging with the georgia goveneor till he eventually removed their non profit status.

He wasn't done either: He worked hard to publish a book Southren Exposure, that threw back the curtain on the structural racisim in the south, with a damming chapter on he Klan, kept on them with the help of radio and even shoed up to huac in his own klan robes to try and get their attention. It didn't work because the far right comitte trying to use anti-communism as an excuse to get rid of anyone they didn't like was never going to give a shit about the Klan, but he gets points for pissing them off, and the Klan who put a bounty on his head.

So he decided to do one better: He was aware the Klan had ties to the goverment and law enforcment so while he had gone through proper channels and such, he knew that wouldn't be enough and could get snuffed. So once again ahead of his time he realized pop culture was a valuable tool in the fight against facists and racists.

So he wrote a letter to the producers of Adventures of Superman asking them to do a story on the Klan, or what ended up as a very thinly veiled stand in. They agreed because hey, they needed new bad guys why not and thus the Klan of the Firey Kross was born, a MASSIVE hit for the show and the Klan's attempt to boycott kellogs, the shows sponsor, was a non starter: Kellogg's was making WAY more money off the show than it would loose from any boycott. So the Klan throughly lost on this one. There was apparently a rumor about codes said on the show being real.. but this feels like an urban legend as having listened to all 16 parts, complete with ads... the Klan nor anyone smashing them never uses code.

So with that it's time to tackle this 16 part behemoth itself, around 3 hours without adds.. which is literal as Kev watched a cut that cut out all the ads and despite me mentioning the ads, didn't bring up this was a thing that existed. I reacted... measured and maturely...

So let's take a look as superman takes on bigots in a shockingly chilling and timeless tale.

Klan of the Firey cross begins from a chillingly mundane place: Young Tommy Lee beans fellow player Chuck Riggs with a baseball after Chuck won't stop crowding the plate, sore that Tommy's replaced him as star pitcher. It's the kind of thing we're used to. Sure superman is there.. but as Clark Kent, while Jimmy Oleson isn't turning into a turtle or anything he's just managing the Unity House Baseball team (Some kind of rec center judging from Smashes the Klan which is all I have to go on as this serial never explains what Unity House actually is. )

It's what starts the story.. and what makes it work so well. What starts this is just a simple scuffle between kids and one kid refusing to apologize and getting thrown off the team as a result. In a better world this would at worst lead to Chuck's uncle being a dick about it. Instead.. Matt Riggs is a monster. Matt Riggs is an abuser, with Chuck afraid of him and afraid to even get into the incident and it later being clear his sister in law, Chuck's mom, only puts up with him because it's Matt's house and being incensed when Chuck starts talking back to her too, refusing to take it from her own son. Chuck thankfully only does because he's worried, we'll get to that, but it shows just how bad Matt is before we learn just what a monster he is: Matt Riggs is a terrifying presence from the jump. While I do think this serial's adaptation does a good job making Matt blend in better, I still like this matt: the kind of evil that even superman can't easily deal with. An abusive monster.. who happens to be a racist.

The second Matt hears the story, the wheels turn and he coaches Chuck on the incident, wanting him to say it was deliberate when even Chuck realizes it was an accident. Matt dosen't see his nephew.. but a solider for a righteous cause.. a spark to light the flame and burn down those he sees as lesser. He takes a horrified Chuck with him into the hills.. and shows him a Klan meeting. The meeting.. is geninely creepy, matt's oration being genuinely unerving as it should be, his gravely voice echoing as he calls for action. Tommy Lee.. is chinese. His father Dr. Lee recently got a job with the health department. And Matt will not rest till they either leave town.. or leave this mortal coil.

The transition really helps... we know where Matt's taking the poor boy but Chuck has no idea and is utterly horrified to find out what his uncle is. ... but has no idea what to do.

Chuck however.. has already struck. The next day Tommy shows up.. to quit, being terrified after the Klan lit a cross on his lawn. Jimmy convinces him to still pitch but asks Clark to look into it. Why would the Klan do this.. but the answer is simple: Because they exist. The baseball incident was simply an excuse, the kind of thing bigots used all the time back then and now as an excuse. "They pushed me" "They pushed my kid" "they etc etc" when it was the other party that started it. But it dosen't matter. They have what they want: a thin excuse to beat up someone they deem unacceptable or kill them. Whatever gets rid of them. The writers of the show may of been lookign for a new villian.. but they understood HOW these racists worked. They wanted the lees gone already.. Matt just wanted a thin justification to avoid arrest. While the police aren't demonized here, with the police helping best they can, it's clear Stetson Kennedy's words got to them and the subtext I get is that Matt knows he can't be caught easily unless he's caught red handed. And even then eh dosen't care. The cause goes on, the fire burns and the all white future he wants gets closer.

The Klan fail on their attempts on Tommy and Jimmy so they try another way: have another kid plausably injure tommy during the game. Thankfully superman is there and just zooms in and out.. which leads to a thankfully hilarious part of this dark tale: Radio Superman is AWFUL at keeping his identity a secret. Just the worst. Jimmy rightfully brings up botht he blur and Clark vanishing and Clark is just like "Well jimmy you see OH LOOK GAME'S STARTING FOCUS ON THAT FORGET ALL ABOUT SUPERMAN WHO SAID SUPERMAN NOT ME GAME GAME GAME" Radio Clark is five SECONDS from accidently blurting out "I'M SUPERMAN" at any time. It's the best

Matt decides to do the hate crime himself , preparing to tar and feather tommy, a truly horrifying sequence as the klan show up, grab tommy and beat up his dad for trying to stop them. This leads to a tense sequence as tommy escapes...but you feel every second of it desperate for these bigots to not harm this poor child. You feel tommys fear , hearing every crunch. Tommy is caught but falls in a river.

The tension ratchets up as Tommy's only hope is chuck. The boy heard....but doesn't want to call Jimmy as he'd identify him. So he tries calling Clark. This sequence couldve been tedious, tommy trying to reach Clark, reaching the night desk then getting shoed away from the booth. All normal stuff ...but the life of a child being on the line all makes it agonizing.

So Tommy is saved, goes to the hosptial and is.. not seen again the rest of the serial. While Clan of the Firey Cross still gets a lot.. it's still a 40's radio serial. It does not give one Iota of a shit about his trauma having the Klan attack his home, kidnap him and nearly kill him. He's done what he was supposed to in the story.

Tommy is what tv tropes dubs "A Special Aseop Victim" He's there to be introduced, trotted out and usually die. Tommy does not die, but he still gets threated by racists, nearly blown up (In a scene that was apparently missing from my copy or I missed as the racists apparently try a bike bomb), kidnapped, nearly tarred and feathered , nearly drowns and breaks an arm all to show Racisim is what bad without actually ever once asking what he thinks about all this. While some cases of this CAN be better, Tommy's whole purpose is to suffer to show Racisim is bad so that the main characters can solve it for them. He's there as a prop. It's not suprising for the times but in an episode that's so progressive in so many way, that's speaking out about hate showing how it works showing just how TERRIFYING being on the receiving end of one of these hate mobs is.... it's disappointing. Tommy can and should of been the protaganist or deutragonist with Chuck if they had to. But he's not. He's shoved into a closet somewhere forgotten until he's mentioned in the finale and even then STILL dosen't get to show up.

So with Tommy injured Clark decides to look into this like any journalist: Have Perry put out a letter telling the boy who anonomusly contacted him and was clearly afraid for his life to come forward for all the children everywhere.

JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY!

The intentions are good.. but he's betting a lot on Chuck both getting to him unscathed and that the kid dosen't have a relative in his house in the klan or in his neighborhood or somewhere near bye where they can stalk and beat him should he choose to confess. Which is exactly what Matt threatens a little later in the story after easily figuring out Chuck was the informant as he was the only non-klan member to see their secret hq. I get superman had some trouble with empathy back in those days

But even for him this is a lot to just ignore for the greater good. Chuck should come forward.. but Superman should do more to look for this kid than paint a giant target on the child's back.

Perry White has a better idea; A bounty: A thousand bucks a piece for the identity of any Klansman. Matt naturally takes this about as well and rationally as you'd expect and has the clan burn a cross on Perry's lawn, a truly chilling cliffhanger.

So the main trio go to look for Poco. You are not ready for Poco. I was not ready for poco. Poco.. is a fat alien who lives as Perry White's cook who came to earth and just.. stayed and speaks entirely in rhyme.

Yeah even in a mythos that would later include a flying dog, a 5th dimensional imp, a clone that was one half him one half his arch enemy, 80 types of kryptonite, a bunch of swell kids from the future, Jimmy oleson being married to a gorilla with superman officiating the wedding in his most racist costume, superman as pope, supergirl's horse having a crush on her, Lex Luthor posing as his own Australian but compitent son after cloning himself, Pa Kent throwing himself into a tornado to prove a point about how his son shouldn't help people, a half batman half superman super fighting robot, Lex Luthor stealing 40 cakes and that's terrible, and a whole ass musical... that this might be the silliest thing i've ever heard. Not just "let's give superman's boss an alien chef/butler/best friend to do shenanigans" but deciding to crowbar that into THIS story, AND get beaten up by the racists. You can use alien's a a metaphor for what immigrnats go through, Superman is an excellent example of this as is the Martian Manhunter and as this story's adaptation proves, you can absolutely do it in the same story with a real minority group if you do it with grace and tact. Having perry white's comedy relief sidekick who I assume looks exactly like this

Is the opposite of that. Unsuprisingly Gene Leun Yang did not adapt this beloved and treasured character.

Incensed that his beloved comic relief was ruffled, Perry vows to increase the bounty to 5000, which is a hundred thousand and some change in modern dollarbucks to keep perspective.

Matt decides to go back to his old tried and true.. he's gonna tar and feather em. Clark ends up being the only one who gives a fuck, with everyone else assuming the klan would NEVER attack a high powered businessman to make a point that their just all talk cowards. This... is a message I love as Lois and the Police are both HORRIBLY wrong. What they fail to realize, and what Clark picks up on.. .is the power of belief. Many bigots either participate because it's easy or because of money, something we'll see more of soon.. but Matt TRULY believes in the Klan. He's a white nationalist through and through and will "Cleanse" this nation if it costs him everything. IT's the kind of fire modern right wingers play with: They talked about how the 2020 election was rigged, how it was fake, how they should overturn it... and then tried to wash their hands when it lead to a violent insurrection they definitely helped cause. It keeps happening because humans just can't belivie someone would REALLY pull the trigger... and someone doing so keeps getting people killed again and again and again in mass shooting after mass shooting. I"m just.. so tired of it. Yes they would. They absolutely would and i'm as frustrated as clark hearing so many people assume violence won't happen.

But happen it does as Jimmy and Perry are kidnapped to be tarred and feathered. To Perry's credit he tells the klan to go fuck themselves and refuses to take back the bounty or stop and demands they pull of the mask and face him like a man. They don't because the bulk of them are cowards and Matt, while a monster, is not stupid. Jimmy.. is scared out of his mind but also refuses to back down, only admitting his fear in private when the Klan need to go get more tar.

Something that's fantastic about this arc... is how powerless superman is. He CAN solve things in seconds: when the klan actually fight him at any point it's a one sided fight and the catharsis of having a pure hearted, good man with the powers of a god easily swatting facist racist monsters left and right is orgasmic. But for a lot of the story Superman can't swoop in... for realistic reasons. He combs the county but they have Perry and Jimmy hidden, he has x-ray vision but he dosen't have the time to cover every inch of metropolis and it's surroundings. He has no idea where the Klan meets, where to find them, and thus they have the upper hand.

It's Clark Kent who can do something. He goes with his original plan: publicly appeal to the boy who sent it to get him to confess with a morning edition of the planet, something Lois agrees to before she peaces out of the story. It still feels a bit wrong to publicly shame a child who fears for his life, but I get it: Perry and Jimmy have been missing for days, he has no other options and the two soon find themselves in deadly danger: after they try escaping, they only manage to pull matt's hood off.... so he can't let the live to the shock of his fellow Klansmen. I do wish the show didn't treat this as an easy thing for superman to do, that risking this child's life was something he struggled with.. but superman was a bit more detached in those days.

Yeah I went easy on him in the Krypto review and that.. was a mistake. SECONDS after saying she wouldn't be alone... he's like "No that'd make MY life harder, to the orphanage you go!" So I completely buy he'd risk a child's life because "it's the right thing" versus modern clark who'd ONLY do it if there was NO other way and exaust every other option first. "I mean I can't ask every boy in town". Your superman. Yes you can. Clark just.. refuses to use superman to rally the children to find this boy or something less public that puts Chuck in direct danger.

And it does. Chuck sweats it out iwth guilt but his mom enoruages him to come forward.. well the boy but given how his mom is not being at all subtle with her speech and how she reacts with fear with Matt suddenly comes home, I get the implication she knows.. but knows she can't say it and knows matt would come after them if she just packed up and left.

That fear is sadly justified. The stories biggest strength is once again in it's realism: Matt Riggs is just as much a realistic portrayal of a zealous bigot as it is a potrayal of a domestic abuser whose family is trapped with him due to economic reasons. Keep in mind this was 1946, 18 years before the first women's shelter would open in the US. The Riggs have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide and Matt is on the surface a well respected member of the health department. No one suspects him of being what he is so there really is no escape. The way everyone acts around matt gives me the vibes of someone who at the very least is verbally abusive and likely has hit both his sister in law and nephew. The fact matt is blunt, saying "if the klan knew they sure would be watching that boy and sure would tar and feather him" the fact he has no qualms about harming his nephew or scarring the boy into not doing the right thing... it says a lot. Matt is chilling in that he exists: there are many matt riggs out there and many people who WANT to escape their bigoted families but can't. Imagine if Chuck was LBGTQ+... would Matt even bother with veild threats? Would Chuck still be alive if he were queer? It's only the heat it'd bring that keeps Chuck alive.. and only for so long.

So Chuck understandably is trapped. The right thing to do is tell someone.. but he can't and we never find out if Matt's warning is real or not. Given how the rest of the Clan is shown to be not nearly as loyal to the cause, he could be bluffing.. but to a child that dosen't matter.

Thankfully Clark does figure out that Chuck has probably been silenced.. and where he likely came from, as they mentioned the unity house team meaning the boy is likely one of the players. He explains this to.. some random copy boy that sounds like a stork. Why this couldn't of been tommy and saved us an episode or been lois I don't know. He has the copyboy interview players, tapping his pen if their voice dosen't match. It's a sequence that goes on a bit long, but works due to the tension: We know Jimmy and Perry are not far from the grave, Chuck is trapped and every second counts. We know who their looking for .. and that he's not there and that every second they don't know he's not there is a second they don't have to waste gone.

Thankfully Mugs, the assitant coach and Jimmy's friend who was in the story earlier but not releviant till now, points out Chuck is missing.. and Clark easily pieces the rest together and heads to chuck's house.

Chuck clams up at first... not willing to say anything and just wanting to be left alone. Clark eventually gets the truth out of him.. and the promise that Superman can protect him. Why once again Clark didn't just go as superman in the first place I have no clue. He's beaten up domestic abusers before.

But it works and him showing up gives Chuck the confidence to unmask his uncle and Superman takes the boy flying to find matt's secret lair. The Klan has departed from there by now, and is digging Jimmy and Perry's graves. Thankfully superman finds them and smashes the Klan before they can do anything, capturing many. He's understandably disturbed to find that Matt.. has escaped. While they've captured the Klan and gotten many red handed with Jimmy and Perry's testimony to put them away, Matt persists.

Chuck is put somewhere safe the next day as Jimmy prepares for the game and once again the police ignore the obvioust hreat of Matt returning. Surely after all this he woudln't keep going.. forgetting he just attempted murder on a big newspaper editor and his child sidekick and beat his comic relief into the floor.

Matt is not having a great time though and in a great sequence he meets with the head of the firey cross.. who berates matt for making things so public. It's a sequence so well done that it's the only one taken almost word for word and hardly altered at all for smashes the klan.

That last part is part of Smashes the Klan's own additoins to it but everything else is beat for beat and it's a great scene as it shows both just how much Matt believes in it... and exposes the Klan for what it and many hate groups like it are: a pyramid scheme. This is something I didn't know reading Smashes the Klan the first time but the Klan at the time REALLY was a racist pyramid scheme, set up more to get money than actually do hate crimes. For those at top Hate is just good money. It's a song as old as time and still true today: As Trump puts people in camps and flails desperately to become a dictator on day whatever we're up to, he still hocks nfts, gold, merch and other scams. Former Infowars owner and paranoid asscrack Alex Jones hocks god knows how much overpriced bullshit. The Daily Wire tried getting into the movie business. While some of the far right are ride or dies for this bullshit.. a lot just want money, power and whatever they can scam. The bulk just want to ride the outrage train to the bank and don't care how many people get hurt, how many lives are ruined.. as long as they get paid.

Naturally grand scorpion man plans to murder Matt as a loose end, but Matt instead murders the fucker because that's what happens when you tell the unhinged monster you helped create the cause is bullshit: they won't believe you, they won't back down and they WILL NOT stop.

Riggs finds no allies though: He goes from Klansman to Klansman and they all reject him, throw him out. The serial makes sure it's clear it's not morals, it's not a realization of what they've done: it's fear. Their being hunted as long as they keep their mouths shut and do nothing, their fine. The cause was good racist fun when it was just bullying a child, kidnapping people, bullying the powerful.. but now there's actual consequences they run. While the Matt Riggs of the world are the most dangerous their thankfully not the most common and the police were PARTIALLY right: the klan did mostly back down out of fear... what they got wrong was assuming EVERYONE is a coward who once their not behind a hood or a keyboard, will back the fuck down. The mask of anonminity was all they had a separation that let them do whatever they wanted. And now it's over their all afraid.

Matt however.. has lost it. Whatever thin scrap of sanity he had is gone. He wants to kill jimmy, perry.. and chuck. His own nephew is expendable and he believes if they all die no one can rat on him. He's spiraled down down and his voice actor does a fantastic job portraying his madness. His plan is nonsensical, has no chance of working but it must work. The cause MUST survive.

So he goes to his house and we get easily the most chilling cliffhanger of the serial: him sneaking into Chuck's bedroom murder in his eyes. Fortunately, Chuck isn't here, he's at Jimmys. Unfortuantely his mom is and while she refuses to tell, he figures it out and her protesting too much gives it away and he ties her up.

He ropes another klansman whose less willing but trapped with this monster to go to the house but seeing i'ts too guarded gets a better idea: they'll all be at the game tomorrow, with Chuck back on the team, so he'll just snipe all three in quick succession. Surely no one will catch him. Especially not superman.

So the game comes, the finals with chuck replacing tommy which feels wrong and the officer once again refusing to believe matt would do anything

So Matt gets to the roof of the stadium and plans to snipe them. It's chilling in how prescident this is.. a man with a rifle killing people en masse for darring to belive diffrent than him. Or trying to anyway. It's tense as hell.. but thankfully Matt is so obsessed with getting three perfect shots off at once so he can quickly flee he gives time.. and Clark eventually notices the glint of his rifle and in an awesome scene catches each speeding bullet as their fired before confronting riggs.

The day is saved, the championship continues.. and superman has smashed the Klan. Their may be more like them but he'll face them. We end on everyone getting golden baseballs .. but chuck has jimmy refuse his as he wants to give it to tommy. I do like that Chuck feels guilt, that he realizes he screwed up and shouldn't be here.. but that the story forgives him. He fucked up.. but he's more than risked himself to make up for it and perry already had an extra made just in case. They all go to see tommy and our story ends.

POCO DIED BACK ON THE WAY TO HIS HOME PLANET

Superman and the Klan of the Firey Cross is excellent. It's a bit padded in places and if you listen to the ads your bound for a bad timne. There are about 80 of them for Kellogs pep, all the same add copy. It's like 30 youtube sponsorship bits in a row it's a lot. I'm glad that breakfast cereal burning in hell where it belongs.

While I've had my issues, the objectification of tommy lee, the padding to fill out episode and the random alien sidekick. ... i'ts still a fine tale about standing up to bigotry, that really gets WHY bigots exist how they operate and the diffrent kinds from the grifters to those who will drop it the second it's a danger to their livelyhood to the true frothing mad believers. It holds up shockingly well and the goofy bits don't detract from the narrative. It's a strong, chilling tale of hate and standing up against it. It completely deserved the adaptation it got, a comic that takes all the good that was here.. and gives it depth, heart , and character arcs galore and next week we'll see it all as Superman smashes the klan. For this week expect the death of superman tommorow and thanks for reading. If you liked this article follow for more and subscribe to my substack or patreon to help me keep the lights ona nd get exclusvie reviews from substack. Next month starts an exclusive retropsective of the oblongs for paid subscribers and continues the critic retrospective for free ones. Don't miss it

A 30 something who writes reviews of all sorts of media primarily cartoons comics and film. Will do reviews on commission or via patreon. No

creating Animation And Comic Reviews

#the 40s

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#the 40s