Many superheroes are orphaned characters. “Orphan of adventure” fiction influenced the superhero. Each stories required an origin that separated the hero from his or her family. The simple solution was to make the character an orphan. Orphan superhero stories remain popular throughout the century and were told and retold in various forms and media. As historical conditions changed, the stories were adapted to express changing ideology.
This thesis examines the orphaned superheroes, different adaptations of each character’s origin story and the integration of the hero into traditional or non-traditional family units. This thesis focuses primarily on the American superheroes Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. These three superheroes have lasting popularity, which is evident in the continued telling of their stories, and popularity of their merchandise. This inquiry examines various stories within their context with changing definitions, demographics, experiences, and representations of the family in twentieth-century America.
The early comic book creators in the 1930s were Jewish and orphaning was a tragedy with which they were all too familiar. A tragic orphaning also had a side effect of making the character, which often was more god-like than human, seem more “down to earth.” The reality of the 1930s was that there were many war orphans which society could clearly see. In post-World War II America, readers wanted child-friendly stories, and the lonely child was downplayed in favor of creating families to which the superhero could belong. The orphan adventure story was reinvented with the emergence of Spider-Man when he was responsible for fighting crime and responsible for his Aunt May. By the 1980s, Superman’s orphan origins had been wiped almost completely in favor of making it clear that he had a human, American, family, to which he could turn. Simultaneously greater stress was asserted on Batman’s orphan status with the complete destruction of the Batman Family. In contemporary times the audience for comic books got older and the orphan has come to stand for the struggles of that older audience, such as alienation from society. Films and comic books continue to recycle and adapt these orphan narratives seventy years later to audiences.