Hoverboy: The Racist Superhero
|
Before Superman, there was an earlier costumed superhero. A misogynistic, utterly xenophobic and all-out racist bucket wearing people's hero, Hoverboy. Actually when he first appeared, he unsurprisingly went down like a lead balloon. Initially appearing not in comic books, but stashed away in the back pages of pulp sci-fi magazines, Hoverboy started life as a character in a series of short stories. But he soon transitioned into a full-blown costumed comic book superhero. Almost a full year before Superman first appeared.
Hoverboy was created by Chicago ad execs Bob Stark and C.L. Nutt, and despite his initial lack of popularity, he gained a following during WWII and into the MacCarthy "Red Scare" years of the 1950s. He dealt with the "Yellow Peril" and bashed Nazis, as well as anyone who wasn't an all-white down-home good American. He didn't discriminate, Hoverboy beat up everyone. Be they black, yellow, red, Irish or Jew. It was rumoured that Hoverboy creator Nutt, was actually a Nazi sympathiser. |
|
One story that points to Nutt's possible Nazi leanings, or at the very least his far-right political views is in the 1938 short story "Nazi Robots of Futures Past", the Hoverboy battles Nazi robots from an alternate future dimension. They have travelled through time to help the Third Reich win WWII. The robots capture Hoverboy, and take him back to the future, where they show him a utopian future, in order to get him to join them. The story was serialised as a comic strip in 1941, in which he spends a whole six strips beating up and killing members of the French resistance. Landing in France with the line, "I thought I smelled surrender!"
Hoverboy's first comic book appearance was in Somewhat Fun Comics of August 1937. Which featured a front cover of him beating up African-Americans. Apparently he told readers it wasn't racist to beat them up, as they were criminals. Although he does spend most of the comic beating-up African-Americans, to prove to readers he doesn't discriminate, he beats-up an Irishman and a Jewish man, for a bit of variety. The comics lumped all foreigners together as un-American, except the British. One comic described the Brits as "noble", but showed them simple peasants, whom Hoverboy makes fun of for "talking queer". His hatred of all things not American meant that Hoverboy spent most of WWII fighting domestic enemies. This may have something to do with Nutt himself being classified 4-F and unfit for military service. |
Somewhat Fun Comics #4, August 1937.
|
A Fastaction Story, Whitemore Books, 1947.
|
During the war he appeared in a series of stories called the "Yellow Peril", in which he fought against the supposed internal threat Japanese-Americans posed to the country. In one such story "Night Of The Terror", he hunts down an escapee from am internment camp in Arizona. Bizarrely the man is never a threat, and does nothing untoward to warrant his eventual fate. The only tenuous threat is that a woman drives off the road, having swerved to avoid the escapee. She exclaims, "I was sure he was going to eat my baby!" To which Hoverboy reassures her, "It's not true that Japs eat babies... But, he would have killed both of you without a second thought." Eventually it turns out that the escapee was shot and killed earlier, and is in fact an innocent man. To which Hoverboy exclaims, hands-on-hips and the Star Spangled Banner billowing behind him that, "...He was guilty of one thing... Being a Jap!" (Scans of the whole story are below.)
After the war, Hoverboy continued his crusade in both comic books, short stories and even a radio show by this point. One example is 1947's Hoverboy vs. the Immigrants. Which starts with Hoverboy on Ellis Island, punching immigrants as they get off the boat. He ends up spying on a Greek family, he doesn't trust, finally confronting them on Good Friday. The reason he gives is because the family, "…doesn’t use the same calendar that decent Americans use…" to determine when Easter is. |
The police intervene to stop Hoverboy, but in a typical twist, this is to show that the police should not be trusted. And that vigilantism is the only way forward for all good citizens of America. The final eight pages are a direct appeal to every Johnny and Janey America to do their part to "clean up your town".
The comic strip version of "Nazi Robots Of Futures Past" from 1941.
Fantomah: The First Kick-Ass Female Superhero - The first ever female superhero, the guardian of the jungle Fantomah. Flying around changing into an angry blonde haired skull creature.
|
The Rapeman: The Weirdest Japanese Superhero?! - Originally a manga series in 1985, the bizarre anti-hero character of The Rapeman has spawned both an anime and movie series.
|
|
Okay, it's time to come clean. Hoverboy is actual a brilliantly conceived, designed and beautifully illustrated spoof. Cleverly embedded into comic book history. The work of Canadian comic book artist Ty Templeton and Canadian TV personality Rick Green. So wonderfully elaborate in its depth and scope, that it has fooled a lot of people. The supposed single episode of the Hoverboy animation series from the 1950s, is all over the Weird Wide Web, with many people believing it to be from the period. Rather than a computer generated animation, given a vintage animation feel. Produced not in 1956, but in 2000, and funded by the National Film Board of Canada. It was written and directed by Marcus Moore, and produced by Brad Abraham.
|
|
Punching Hitler: WWII Era Comic Book Covers - Comic books were in their infancy when WWII broke out, and it wasn't long before the industry joined the war effort in defeating the enemy.
|
Reds Under The Bed: Early Cold War Comic Books - The crazy days of McCarthyism and the propaganda comic books that were spawned by all the "Red Scare" madness.
|