ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early 1950s. It looks at the political climate that led to the creation of these groups, the ways in which juvenile delinquency, communism, and homosexuality operated and sustained themselves, and the forms of protest they adopted. In 1950, Senator Joe McCarthy was a little-known Wisconsin politician in danger of losing his seat and in need of a "re-election issue with 'some real sex appeal'". The climate of suspicion that reined in this period, to which McCarthy contributed rather than created, resulted in the close scrutiny of all matter of things in American life. Comic-books did not escape this process. Superheroes did not only come under attack from anti-fascist critics. Much like super villains of the 1950s, who rapidly switched allegiances from the Nazis to the Soviet Union, superheroes could be seen as agents of both fascism and communism. Dr. Fredric Wertham's most famous allegations, though, concerned homosexuality and were directed against Batman and Robin.
