ABSTRACT
In the wake of the Senate Subcommittee Hearings, comic-books went into a downward spiral; they faced competition from new media, such as television, and, shortly after the hearings, new forms of musical entertainment such as rock 'n' roll. This chapter assesses how superheroes attempted to negotiate this new landscape, looking at changes and continuity in attitudes, behaviour, and narratives. It looks at the ways in which superheroes functioned immediately after the introduction of the Code and their struggle to retain popularity in a competitive marketplace. The chapter examines the new characters being created at Marvel in the early 1960s and the reasons for their popularity. Juvenile delinquency and the other hot topics of the Senate subcommittee were not the only concern for superheroes around 1950s. In 1960, Marvel's highest-ranked title by sales was Tales to Astonish, a science fiction anthology title, with average sales of 163,156 for the year.
