"Our Gods Wear Spandex" Reveals Secret History of Comic Book Heroes

[CLKnowles]

I just find the prsentation of it all bizarre...

If it was just a "hey, look at this painting! Do you think it inspired the ACTION cover?", everyone would go "huh! maybe!"

But the "Look at this DIRECT SWIPE that proves a lot of occult stuff!" is a bit too hyperbolic for me.

Thanks for all of the criticism. It's really inspired me to really dig deeper into all of this and better understand this whole story. I'll sketch out the hypothetical narrative sometime over the weekend.

And the very word "Superman" came into popular usage through occult groups like the Theosophists.

Quote of the Day:

But the coming Superman is of the type of the Masters: They are Masters of Compassion; not only Masters of Knowledge, but of love and knowledge together, which make Wisdom, and it is Wisdom which shall be the characteristic of "the Coming Race". - Annie Besant, 1917

[eti]

One day I'll look up my first post here, if it's still searchable or something. But I seriously doubt it was anywhere near the quality of this one.

No, it's not

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...636#post775636

[JeffreyWKramer]

And the very word "Superman" came into popular usage through occult groups like the Theosophists.

Extremely unlikely. More likely, the word "superman" entered popular usage because the typical English translation of Nietzche's concept of the uberman was "superman."

[Paradox]

Yup. Theosophy had it's little fad popularity in the early 20th century, but "superman" was around long before that.

[Typo Lad]

Someone please, get this man a step-stool so he can stop reaching.

No offense man, but scholarship this ain't.

[Ray R.]

Extremely unlikely. More likely, the word "superman" entered popular usage because the typical English translation of Nietzche's concept of the uberman was "superman."

Yup. And you can go all the way back to the Greeks in terms of the concept of mortals with superhuman powers.

Probably the first caveman wished he could fly.....

[Michael P]

Yup. And you can go all the way back to the Greeks in terms of the concept of mortals with superhuman powers.

Probably the first caveman wished he could fly.....

You would too, if there were man-eating sabretoothed tigers around who couldn't.

[CBR News]

Chris Knowles is back, taking a deep look at the role Astrotheology played in Superman’s creation the iconic poses of Hercules throughout history.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...m.cgi?id=12491

[Indigo Al]

So getting back to why everyone is angry at me, that pose of Superman on the cover of "Action" #1 is essentially the same pose that artists had been depicting Hercules and his equivalents in for literally thousands of years. And they did so because that pose is based on the constellation of Hercules. And an early-unfinished cover lays it on the line in black and white- to Siegel and Shuster, Superman is the new Hercules.

Chris, for one: how can you honestly state that as some sort of proven conclusion?

[Matt Algren]

WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW YOU'LL SEE!!! has come, and the stretching has been stretched even further. Now the fact that Superman was drawn with his hands above his head is a reference to hieroglyphics and the constellation of Hercules. Come on.

How did this get labeled News and who does Chris Knowles know to get this much publicity out of CBR? Aren't there other, bigger stories that are actually news? I'm not trying to be rude, and no offense, Knowles, but this is just way out in WTF land.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

But some of the reactions I've gotten to my theories on "Action" #1 remind me a lot of some of the reactions I've seen surrounding the Shroud of Turin, or Creationism, or biblical inerrancy.

What were you thinking when you typed that?

I mean it made me laugh out loud, but probably not for the reasons you intended.

[CLKnowles]

Extremely unlikely. More likely, the word "superman" entered popular usage because the typical English translation of Nietzche's concept of the uberman was "superman."

I said "popular usage." The Theosophists and their offshoots were very popular for a time, whereas Nietzsche was more an academic concern.

More people probably heard the term Superman from Shaw than Nietzsche, and Shaw's mistress Florence Farr was a member of the Golden Dawn, one of the groups that emerged in the wake of Theosophy.

[CLKnowles]

Chris, for one: how can you honestly state that as some sort of proven conclusion?

Yes. Don't take my word for it, there are hundreds of images of Heracles/Hercules in the same position of the constellation, as well as other characters who were equated with him.

Anyhow, I've shown multiple examples of variations of that pose, Siegel's repeated usage of Hercules or Hercules imagery (though looking at early issues of Action it all looks like Hercules to me- war machinery taking the place of the monster Hercules fought), and the correspondences in placement and angles. I've shown that the Hydra image was available to the creators at the time, the fact that Superman's appearance is taken directly from Antico, cited examples of other artists adapting reference for other uses, shown that the pose is based on an ancient constellation based on a revered god ( which a scifi obsessive like Siegel would very well been aware of) and shown that equipment would have been available to work from the image which an artist with fading eyesight might well have used to work from reference, since the record states unequivocally that his vision was so bad that he passed the finished artwork off to his staff early on. The usage of an opaque projector squares the correspondences of the two pieces- Shuster may well have blown up the art and marked the key points since the evidence shows he may not have been able to work from a small reproduction in a book, and then gone in with his own interpretation of the story. Again, which is something professional commercial artists do as a matter of course.

Let me add that Alex Ross, who works using similar methods with reference to the way I describe this piece may have been created, fills his art with many symbols that are familiar to people who study mythology and esotericism. He also incorporated the basic pose of the constellation of Hercules in both Superman and Captain Marvel in the original book cover of Kingdom Come.






I think all of this is evidence enough for a serious, respectful discussion of the issue.

I'd like to thank Jonah for his interest in this topic and thanks to the people who've emailed and PM'd me.

[Michael P]

What were you thinking when you typed that?

I mean it made me laugh out loud, but probably not for the reasons you intended.

Yeah, that's totally the way professional academics respond when their work and conclusions are questioned.

[Indigo Al]

Yes. Don't take my word for it, there are hundreds of images of Heracles/Hercules in the same position of the constellation, as well as other characters who were equated with him.

What you are stating here is that the artists who carved the Marduk and Horus reliefs based them on the Hercules constellation.

Can you give some dates and reference for the Marduk and Horus pieces in the article?