Did the Justice Leaguers go to college?
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| Villains almost always go to college. And Marvel heroes, but I don't make much distinction between the two groups. |
When I say "Leaguers", I am speaking of, you know, the real original Leaguers
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| The ones who will their clothes off whenever they feel a funny tingling sensation. Just in case. |
Because who really cares about the likes of the Mighty Bruce or the Yazz? I mean Barry, Arthur, Clark, Ollie (almost original), Hal, Bruce, Diana, and J'onn; did they go to college?
One time when I dared raise the issue of the class and educational status of superheroes, it burned down the internet. Fortunately, nowadays no one reads blogs so I feel safe(r). So, this next series of posts will examine this question for each of these iconic heroes. And Ollie.
This interests me, at least, because--and you presumably already know this, since they're your posts--some are obligatory for job or story reasons, some didn't live somewhere with accredited colleges, and most probably change slightly as continuity shifts. And at least one has an origin that mandates going to college repeatedly, but always dropping out.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, by "original," you mean up through Detroit. The fact that the team's membership drifts younger on averages over time seems like that might interact in interesting ways. The likes of Hawkman and Zatanna are probably also interesting to look at between continuities.
As for the linked post about class, I suspect (without much evidence other than the known censorship stories) that the Comics Code might have been involved; regardless of what the literal Code might have said, the actual functionaries seemed to push back on aspirational stories. It could also be related to the shift from writers coming from a world without comic books to writers growing up as comic book fans.
The implication is pre-Crisis so Clark, Bruce, Barry: yes. Hal, Arthur, Diana: no. J'onn: I know nothing about the Martian educational system, but he was mos def educated.
ReplyDeleteOllie: probably. Katar, Sheira: see J'onn. Ray, Ralph: yes. Dinah, Zatanna: no. Ronnie: yes, but I don't know how far he got. Red Tornado: n/a.
ReplyDeleteHal probably yes, DanielT. Hal was a test pilot, which usually points to a prior career as a military pilot (especially given the number of military jets he was testing). That requires he either graduate the Air Force Academy or an Air Force ROTC program.
ReplyDelete-- Jack of Spades
On the Marvel side, I am a firm believer that Victor von Doom is NOT a doctor. He got kicked out of college. I think I saw a post over on CBR where they tried to claim von Doom got his degree from a Latveria college but I don't buy it. Maybe that is why Reed calls him Victor so often.
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