The (Really) Further Adventures of Superheroes


D-Day. Spider-Man takes charge at Cherbourg-Normandy.

When you’re a superhero (or super-villain), you don’t allow such mundaneness as Time, Space and Age to get in the way. You have places to adventure to, people to thrill, and fascinating things to do.

Some newly discovered photos reveal that our beloved comic book celebrities were up to more than we knew about. But there’s a thought-provoking method behind this tongue-in-cheek madness; in fact, a political reality underlying Agan Harahap’s work, Superhistory.

Though Harahap’s “Superhistory” isn’t anything close to the truth, the project itself does evoke some actual falsification practices that existed long before Photoshop. Under Stalin’s Communist regime, those deemed “enemies of the people,” like Leon Trotsky, were not only killed but also erased from official photographs, as if they’d never existed. Harahap’s work is a reminder of how easily the public can be manipulated. In its own way, his series pays homage to real facts and, indeed, to history. Slate

My father was indeed at the Normandy Invasion; and my memories are rife with the stories he had to tell. He never said anything about spotting a Spider-Man at Cherbourg; then again, there was too much excitement going on at the time…most of it very ugly if superheroic.


Che Guevara’s out, Batman’s in alongside Castro.