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GLADIATOR

                                             July 14-21, 2008


   Philp Wylie's "Gladiator" (1930).               Originally
                                                   written: 1926.
   The superstrong and nearly
   invulnerable hero of                               A little too
   "Gladiator" is well adapted                        weird for a first
   to war time -- he leaps                            novel, so they held
   from trench to trench,                             off for a few years.
   running through them
   crushing human skulls in                             http://superman.ugo.com/books/gladiator/
   his hands as he goes; but
   in peace time, he has no        He releases someone
   place in the world, and         trapped in a bank vault,
   ends up a pathetic figure,      and is regarded with
   working as a circus strong      extreme suspicion rather
   man.                            than gratitude --
                                   obviously, a satire of
      "Gladiator" is a grim        the O'Henry story.
      vision of the absolute
      futility of being a
      "super-hero", though
      it was published           MUTATION
      decades before they
      were "invented".


   Superman was essentially a
   flattened out "Gladiator";            Arguably, Stan Lee's
   "Gladiator" with the                  great innovation in
   intelligent themes subtracted.        the '60s was to add some
                                         of them back in.
     The Siegel and Schuster
     Superman is a little
     kids impression of being
     the "Gladiator" --
     enthralled with the                     WASTES
     surface, and missing the
     point.                                  THE_FALCON

               And yet, if
               you're going to
               apply a measure
               such as "the          Did Jerry Siegel have
               test of time",        "something to say"?      MAKING_WRITERS
               with Superman
               up against
               the Gladiator,
               there's no doubt
               who'd win.


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