AFTERTHOUGHT
Superfreak
JOHN WELLS
Some concern is being expressed by classical comic strip enthusiasts in the United States at the present tendency of the publishers, faced with falling circulation, to bring Super- man, Batman, Spidermaii and others more into line with fashionable liberal opinion and thus increase sales at the universities. Super- man, we are told, has abandoned the old
active life of Pow, Zowie and Splat for a more thoughtful preoccupation with ecology, pollution and similar problems. It seems a literary influence that can only spread to this country, and there are indications in the current issue of Zombie, the official Conser- vative Party Comic Strip, that the rot has already begun.
The Zombie, as readers of the Paper will remember, is a dull, ordinary civil ser- vant in everyday life who is able with a shout of the magic words 'Good Evening!' to transform himself into a massive, clank- ing, biologically dead giant with complete im- munity to bullets, bombs or good advice. So far the Zombie's targets have always been the mysterious 'Reds', an alien race plotting to undermine England from within, the many-tentacled monster 'EnocW, a prehis- toric creature called the 'Cue, and a sinister, long-legged humanoid known as `Mr Rising Price'. Summoned reluctantly from his peace- ful, music-loving obscurity, the Zombie usually undergoes several setbacks of an ap- parently insurmountable nature, and then returns at the last minute, uttering spine- chilling vocal grunts, to snatch the victory from the hands of the villains.
A typi,.:al Zombie adventure that held its readers enthralled -earlier this year was a fight to the death with the 'Red' leader. After a number of breathtaking encounters in which the Zombie is constantly outman- oeuvred by the Red Leader, pushed over cliffs, blown up, caught in elephant traps and exposed to- the ridicule of the Red fol- lowers, the Zombie is captured and strapped to a fiendish machine of the Red Leader's own invention. Controlled by an inhuman computer, the machine predicts to the near- est second the hour of the Zombie's de- struction, and the Red Leader sits chuckling as the clock ticks mercilessly towards the fatal moment. Unable to move, the Zombie chants in its spine-chilling monotone a hymn of defiance, the terrible black muscles about the mouth stretching and contracting as the Red Leader watches contemptuously. Then the Red Leader takes his seat at the control panel and waves a last sneering farewell to the doomed Zombie. But Fate is on the Zombie's side. Against all apparent pos- sibility, the Death Machine explodes, de- stroying the Red Leader, and leaving the Zombie to grunt his bemused relief.
Now, it seems, the whole approach to the story line has been changed. In the trad- itional adventures the Zombie may have remained to a great extent a passive. victim, but the aggressive energy of his enemies always ensured a good red-blooded conflict, not without a whiff of politics and patriot- ism. In the new 'story-boards', however, pre- sumably in order to appeal to a 'hippy' or `dropout' audience, the Zombie is portrayed as an apolitical introvert, obsessed with the concept of non-involvement and 'peace'. In ordinary life he remains the same boring and
dull civil servant, but at the mention of the magic words he now sprouts a `golly'-style wig, panchromatic vest and crushed velvet bell-bottoms, and falls back in a loose-limbed sitting position puffing at a cork-tipped reefer.
It will no doubt be argued that his subse- quent behaviour is more to the modern taste than the old blundering, tank-like incompe- tence of the Zombie, and that his mumbled exclamations of 'Peace, man', 'Beautiful' and 'Crazy, doll' are more in keeping with current usage than the old cries of 'Peaouw!' `Zeaowie!'_and Sir Alec!' It may be sug- gested that the new Zombie exhibits the same reassuring symptoms of death as his mdre active predecessor, and that the tradi- tion will be roughly preserved. But this is not so. In the new stories the essential element of conflict is missing. The Zombie, after a barely coherent speech in which he renounces `the whole aggressive bit' and old-style con- flict, turns away too from individual heroism and surrounds himself with an undistin- guished group of 'Numbskulls' and 'Thick- heads'—underground expressions denoting anyone whose reasoning faculties have be- come dimmed by the use of drugs—and relapses into contemplative inactivity.
The Red Leader and his followers also abandon their flowing red capes and devil masks, and at the mention of their magic word `Hello' are transformed into tiny stoop- ing round-shouldered academics who shuffle to and fro on knotted sticks, carrying heavy bundles of proof sheets and reference material, exchanging involved opinions of a speculative nature, and apparently prepared tcrlive in peace with the Zombie and to give up their undermining of the country for the common good. Even the monster 'Enoch' is pictured as lying asleep, snoring steam and smoke. Optimistic fans continue to hope that `Mr Rising Price' or the prehistoric 'rue will once again inject some drama into the story, but they are not optimistic.
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