Humor and politics to deconstruct superheroes in Latin America in Cold War years: the comics gaze

Commonly associated with everyday life and juvenile entertainment, comics, reached a solid status in Latin America during post-Second World War years. During first Cold War years and the massive U.S. cultural penetration in the region that followed, comics were published in newspapers sometimes with exclusive supplements for them - and edited as comic books by specialized publishing houses. Adding a new aspect to the debate about possible advantages or disadvantages of comics for life that took part of the comics world during the 1950's, the cultural imperialism as an issue helped to reshape how the senses of comics in Latin America. An important step here was an effective defense of the "import substitution" of the foreign production, with a focus on a local creation of comics that represented national reality. For doing so, it was important to deconstruct several of the international comics references, to put them in doubt over the reader community of comics. This process will be discussed here through two case studies: the Brazilian comics cooperative CETPA (1961-1964) and major Chilean publishing house Quimantu (1971-1973). In both situations, the focus is centered here on superheroes, mixing parody and political critics when superhero actions in Latin America are problematized. The paper reaches to emphasize the relevance of such discussion to establish comics as a cultural practice in the region.