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Trivia
is largely the purview of nerds. Often, after it's discovered
that social skills, sports, and a healthy grasp of what's
"cool" have eluded them, a nerd will turn inward, focusing
on the realm in which they excel: learning. As trivia is learning
for learning's sake, it could be argued that it is the purest
of the nerd arts, honed and brandished at comic-cons and internet
message boards across the land. And when the subject of said
trivia is comic books, one experiences a singularity of pure
nerdgasm that can alter the very fabric of space-time. Somewhere
at the center of that vortex is a copy of Was Superman
a Spy?: 256 pages of pure, unadulterated, black tar comic
trivia.
Brian
Cronin, author of the blog Comics Should Be Good, writes
a regular feature called "Comic Book Legends Revealed" in
which he explores popular tales of comic book lore, exposing
them as fact or fiction. Was Superman a Spy? collects
many of his favorites from the blog, as well as several dozen
new legends, into one handy volume. Want to know which comic
book almost got a guest appearance by Jesus Christ? Care to
know how Donald Duck and ping pong balls fit into Swedish
patent law? Any guesses how many comic book companies Alan
Moore has a blood feud with? (Answer: damned near all of them.)
While some of these pieces of trivia will be familiar to those
with even a casual interest in comics, this book offers a
good deal of new information to titillate one's yen for pop
culture minutiae.
The book
is divided up into sections on DC, Marvel, and other comic
companies, with each company getting further subdivisions
focusing on specific (higher profile) characters such as Batman
or the X-Men. While having 28 straight pages of Batman trivia
sounds like it could become dry or tedious, Cronin's conversational
writing makes the subject readable. It's not the finest prose
in the world, but bear in mind this book was born in a blog.
Besides, if 28 pages of Batman trivia doesn't sound like your
cup of tea, it's shocking you've made it this far in the review.
Seemingly
unintentionally, Was Superman a Spy? gives readers
a tremendous back story on the history of comic books, as
well as pop culture and U.S. history in general. Stories relating
to the Comics Code Authority and the first African-American
characters depict times in America's history rife with witch
hunts, censorship, and the effects of the civil rights movement
on other mediums. Simply by virtue of these tales, Cronin
provides the reader with a triangulation on American history.
Captain America fights Hitler, then the "commies." The stories
contained are diverse enough to span from comic books' inception
pre-World War 2 all the way through modern day film adaptations,
making this book an excellent primer on the entire subject.
Was
Superman a Spy?—for being blog-caliber writing, centering
on a niche topic, and featuring infinitely more stories on
comic book litigation than anyone thought possible—is
a light, fairly entertaining, and informative read. This book
promises little-known stories about comic book history, and
it infuses these stories with enthusiasm and fun. It's doubtful
that even the most dyed-in-the-Wolverine-T-Shirt comics nerd
was previously aware of all of Cronin's tales, making this
a safe bet for socially awkward fact-collectors everywhere.
(June,
2009)
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