In my last post here (sorry about the delay!) I discussed Supergirl donning a new outfit in Adventure Comics #397.
There’s something else about the issue I want to cover, the way it foreshadows what’s coming to comics a couple of years from now: Satan!
As I wrote in the earlier post, “Now … Comes Zond,” written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky, has Supergirl take down an evil cult leader with the help of her former enemy Morgana. Following that stunning splash page, the story proper kicks off when Supergirl helps a young college student suckered into joining a devil-worshipping cult.
(Yes, I’m aware Supergirl is not a telepath).
While I wouldn’t say college devil worship and Satanism are relevant the way riffs on the Chicago Seven were, the idea was very much a product of the time. Kids and young adults in the counter-culture were largely skeptical about organized religion and turning to alternatives such as Eastern mysticism (which is not Satanism but I’ve known plenty of Christians who think that’s potayto/potahto). Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in the mid-sixties, presenting His Infernal Majesty as a rebel against oppressive authority. Multiple Satanism-themed movies hit the screens in the 1960s, culminating in the classic Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. The early 1970s would then give us The Exorcist, first the book, then the film.
Before long Christian books such as The Satan Seller (the completely bullshit autobiography of Satan-worshipper Mike Warnke) and Hal Lindsay’s Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (Lindsay confidently predicted the Rapture would happen in his lifetime. Like so many others, he died with no End Times in sight) cashed in on the interest in Satanism by pitching for the other side. Meanwhile comics would plunge into the netherworld with Ghost Rider —
— and following him in Marvel Spotlight, the Son of Satan.
Part of this explosion of interest was undoubtedly the unsettled nature of the 1960s, when Kids Those Days seemed intent on tearing down everything, African Americans and women were demanding equality and it felt to many people like the country was falling apart. But beyond that, there’s something in American society that makes lots of people susceptible to this stuff.
Some of it, as archivist Alex Hernandez says, part of the way a group solidifies is by identifying The Other and demonizing them “If there is no other, they have to build one. And for some reason, throughout history, it always involves drinking baby’s blood and sacrificing people to some unseen dark powers.”
Case in point, when America conceived itself as a Protestant nation — meaning Catholics were seen as sinister and alien, like Muslims in the 21st century — several women penned best-selling lurid stories about what those Catholic fiends had done to their innocent selves. Outraged Protestants, happy to have proof how evil Catholics were, burned convents, attacked churches, assaulted priests and went wilding in Catholic neighborhoods. Catholics died as a result.
Similarly, Satan Seller author Mike Warnke’s bullshit collapsed like a pricked balloon as soon as two reporters took a look at it. Warnke claimed before his conversion he’d been a Freedom Rider in college. As he attended college in the late 1960s and the Freedom Rides took place during the Kennedy administration, that was obviously impossible.
As Dan Shewan says, there are no Satanic cults matching the pop-culture image but Americans keep believing in them. Multiple police departments have devoted resources to fighting Satanic activity in their community. In the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, people went to jail for years based on claims of Satanic ritual abuse that were complete bullshit. No evidence? That’s because Satanists are so brilliant they can cover up anything (one believer admitted later it was absurd, in hindsight, to think 200 people were being killed and eaten a year in her small town)! Did the kids point fingers at cops or prosecutors? Well, we’ll just ignore that — all the other accusations are good! Warnke’s lies were brought up as evidence — see, this is proof that Satanists do bad things!
As liberal evangelical Fred Clark says, a lot of people wanted it to be true. The Catholic hell Maria Monk endured in the 19th century. They swallowed Mike Warnke’s lies rather than question. As the Qanon paranoia and Pizzagate shows, some people still want to believe. The fantasy is lurid, exciting, proves that The Other are monsters and conversely you’re a wonderful human being. Cheering on the police as they investigate Satanists proves you care about children … right?
Happily Mike Sekowsky and Zond can’t be blamed for all that.
Ghost Rider cover by Rich Buckler, Son of Satan by Herb Trimpe.
