From classic superheroes like Superman or Batman to the Paracuellos by the Spaniard Carlos Giménez, many comic protagonists are orphans or have traumatic childhoods. The exhibition Superheroes, Orphans and Origins: 125 years in comics, which opens in London today, explores this tumultuous shared fictional past.
The Foundling Museum (“Findel” in Spanish) is dedicating a room through August 28 to explore, through vignettes and posters, how the world of comics has portrayed abandoned, adopted and fostered minors for more than a hundred years. This often makes them extraordinary characters with superhuman powers, but they often transcend the clichéd image of the traditional superhero.
The epic journeys of these inspirational characters from the comic world often begin without parents.
The baby falling to earth in a spaceship. The boy who witnesses his parents being murdered in an alleyway. The little girl with curly hair waiting to be adopted in an orphanage. They all seem to share a past marked by trauma and identity struggles.
The exhibition features works by authors such as Bex Glendining, who does not recognize herself in the gender binary (“Seen: Edmonia Lewis, Penultimate Quest, Rolled & Told, Lupina); or Taiyo Matsumoto, whose characters, the orphaned Kuro brothers (” Black ) and Shiro (“White”) survive as pickpockets in the shady streets of Treasure Town on a mission to protect the city from the organized crime threat.
Adventures of Superman, Tarzan, the little orphan Annie, Magnus Robot Fighter, Barefoot Gen, Batman, Astro Boy and Black Panther…
The identity dilemma
Caro Howell, director of The Foundling, states that “seen as a group, these characters inspire debates about identity, trauma, autonomy and social belonging”.
A statement highlighted that their stories “provide a unique lens through which feelings of isolation, uneasiness and resilience can be better understood.”
On one of the walls is a quote from writer, artist, and graphic designer Woodrow Phoenix (“SugarBuzz!”, “Rumble Strip”), reminding us that “almost all child heroes have traumatic origins, catastrophic circumstances ending in the deaths of their parents and… an abandoned child”.
“We measure a protagonist’s heroism by the depth of the difficulties they have faced. And what could be more terrifying for a child than to have their whole world come crashing down on them?” he says.
One of those great heroes who has been beaten from childhood is Superman with his superhuman strength, ability to fly and three different identities – Kal-El, the name given to Clark Kent by his birth parents, that of Jonathan and Martha Kent was adopted, and Superman, who struggles to reconcile these three personalities.
His story begins on February 14, 1921, when mechanic Walt Wallet finds a baby in a basket on his doorstep with an anonymous message. Walt raises him like his own son, nicknames him “Skeezix,” and the father-son relationship grows in real time.
Tito Paracuellos
There are also the vignettes of “Tito” from the Paracuellos comic book series by Carlos Giménez, based on his childhood memories.
In these stories with a hard social background, published since 1975, the author tells the life of some children who were interned in a nun-run children’s home after the Franco war.
Giménez’ vignettes, which witnessed life in these boarding schools at first hand, were first published half a year after Franco’s death and tell directly and harrowingly of a tremendous childhood in which the little ones lived tormented and frightened the nuns
It also saves the story of little orphan Annie, Harold’s character, published in the Chicago Sunday Tribune from 1924 to 2010 – better known for the musical bearing his name – who displays ingenuity and quick thinking to help herself to meet the challenges of the orphan
There is a space dedicated to the symbolic meaning of the mask for some superheroes, who use it as an essential accessory to obtain protection and camouflage, and also to mark the passage from idea to person.
The sample looks back to the making of Spiderman or Black Panther, whose beginnings are marked by violence and never overcome the trauma that shaped their fate.
Batman, by Bob Kane/Bill Finger, is the superhuman identity Bruce Wayne assumes as a child and witnesses the murders of his parents, a tragic experience that leads him to live his life of justice on the streets of Gotham as a… to dedicate to Batman.