While the Man of Steel has battled all manner of foe during the course of his long career, you need to go back to the 1946 radio serial The Adventures of Superman to find what may be his first run-in with one of the most insidious brands of villain. And now, a new podcast is digging in on that story to shine a light on Kal-El himself, his evolution as a hero over the years, and how the radio story is as relevant today as it was almost 80 years ago.
My old friend (and former IGN colleague) Roth Cornet cohosts the five-part Superman vs. the KKK, which she describes as “the story of the world's first superhero battling America's oldest hate group, each representing an oppositional – and not entirely real – version of America.” So I asked her some questions about the new podcast.
Cornet had previously produced the Galaxy Quest documentary Never Surrender. When she and her team were looking for a new story to tell, they found themselves leaning into another tale about “the power of fan culture.” But this time they wanted to take things even further.
“We wanted to find a project that highlighted the ways that these stories and characters – [and] the fans who love them – really do have the potential to create a potent and quite real positive change in the world,” she says.
This led them to the book Superman Versus the KKK: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate, by Rick Bowers. What would eventually become their podcast was partly inspired by the book, although Cornet says they’re ultimately very different animals.
“We loved, loved the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster,” she explains of the Superman co-creators. “[By] looking at the life events that created the recipe for his character – what Jerry and Joe were listening to, inspired by, surrounded by, the families they came from – we illustrate that Superman was, in essence, born to fight the ideology of hate.”
The Bowers book explores how the KKK of the 1920s was “lying fallow,” Cornet says, until a PR company of all things was brought in to rebrand it.
“They used the tools of the media with terrifying effectiveness to bring the hate group back – ultimately making an obscene amount of money in today's terms,” she continues. “They packaged, sold, and even franchised ‘hate.’ … This stopped me in my tracks, because I realized that this was the story of two forces using the power of media … to try to persuade an audience to embrace their [very different] versions of what it means to embody ‘Truth, Justice, and the American Way.’”
The podcast makes the point that if you want to understand American culture “in any given era,” as Cornet says, “you ought to look at the depiction of Superman.” The theory is that the Man of Steel is reflective of the status quo, either standing as a symbol of it or responding to it in some way. That brings us back to “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” and the question of what that iconic Superman motto really means as well as “how it evolves over time, and depends on who is defining those things.
“[The podcast is] about how we think of ourselves as individuals and as Americans,” continues Cornet. “Importantly, it’s about the influence the media has on the development of our sense of self, our place in the world, our country, and our culture. In many ways, it’s about the media itself; how it can be used – for good or for ill – to attempt to manipulate or control us. If you think about the fact that the KKK basically marketed itself to people, with great success, you realize we absolutely need to understand how the media is working, which is challenging because, in many ways, it’s invisible to us. It’s in and a part of everything we do.”
Ironically, the term “The American Way” was also used by the Klan.
“We talk about [the 1940s] in the podcast and about how the character of Superman was a part of the spread of this version of ‘The American Way’ – how he was perhaps perfectly suited to represent it, from his very origin,” she says. “The KKK had created their own, violent, version of ‘The American Way.’ The podcast is about how these contrasting visions of America were invented, disseminated, and battled for dominance in a fight that is going on even today.”
Not only does Cornet hope that Superman vs. the KKK will help people come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Superman as a character, but also of what the power of art can do. The themes that were tackled in that radio serial in 1946 are as relevant now as they were then, and she hopes that the podcast will also reflect those ideas.
“I’d love people to … see how genuinely important it was for that character to take on the Klan, then and now,” she says. “To really value and celebrate the power of these characters and stories. That’s said very sincerely. If there’s just one thing though, I’d love listeners to have even just a little more of a sense about how the media really can and does influence our thoughts and emotions, and that in turn creates actions. It’s so important to have tools to assess factual accuracy, and that’s getting harder and even more crucial with each passing day. Also, though, we need to start to notice when our emotions are being activated or even manipulated, and to step back. It’s challenging, and I am not perfect at this by a long shot, but I’m working on it. We don't need to hate each other. We really never do.”
All five episodes of Superman vs. the KKK, hosted by Roth Cornet and Marc Bernardin, are available to stream now.
Talk to Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!
