One of the most common causes for death was gun violence.[1]
Violence was a crime that involved using force against oneself, or another person, or threatening to do so. Often times weapons were used for violence.
Suicide was a form of violence that could be committed against oneself, whereas there were many other forms of violence that could also be committed against other people, such as assault, murder, rape and even terrorism; the latter of which was usually violence on a large scale.
Violence existed in heaven before the human race came into being. This conflict was fought between God's angelic forces and the Elder Gods. This war occurred in the Silver City and it was known as the War in Heaven.[2]
Throughout history, violence was a problem among many cultures throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond, threatening and causing the extinction of some life forms. On Earth, mankind's history was filled with violence. Since the Dawn of Time humanity had been in constant conflict with themselves, constantly spilling their own blood. This angered God, who decided to bring an end to mankind, by bringing the Deluge, only sparing Noah and his family by telling them how to build an ark. One conflict Humans had was between the Greeks and the Trojans, which was called the Trojan War. Centuries later, there were at least three world wars, as well as other violent conflicts, such as the Cold War conflicts known as the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The Human race wasn't always victims of their own doing however, as many times throughout history, Earth had been a target for alien invaders, who had a variety of reasons for invading. One race known as the Fearians had intended to set up a colony on Earth, but only after wiping out humanity. Fortunately for the human race, this invasion was repelled by the Super Friends.[3]
On Colu, many lives were lost due to nuclear wars. It was for a time believed that no Coluan had survived the conflict. This proved to be false however.[4]
Background Information
Violence was heavily toned down for the Superfriends; as censorship was an issue on Saturday morning cartoons. Although the Filmation cartoons were allowed to show punching, kicking, realistic weaponry, such as a revolver, rather than a ray gun; ABC was far more strict with Super Friends due to the period that it came to TV, when protest groups were actively pressuring censorship of children's television.
Most of the time, punching and shooting and other forms of violence, especially death, were not allowed to be shown except for a very few exceptions. For example, it's made quite clear, although not shown, that Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in the episode The Fear, although the scene is considerably less violent then what was shown in the comics. There was no blood, nor was the gun shown, or even dead bodies.
There were a handful of other examples as well. Violence against robots for example, was okay, and also non-sentient plants, but not against animals. There was even an example in the episode Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C. in which Plastic Man was worried that he might harm a mouse, which may have been a bit much.
The restrictions for showing violence in the Superfriends comics didn't apply however, because they weren't Saturday morning cartoons. Still, for the writers of the cartoon, this proved to be problematic. After all, restricting the depiction of violence in a superhero cartoon, which generally would be full of action, forced the writers to be more creative. But mostly it just made things more corny, as they were always non-violently taking out the bad guys. There was even an instance where Batman performed a magic trick when he was "fighting" Riddler.[5]
References
- ↑ This image was taken from the opening theme of Atom's segment on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967).
- ↑ As seen in the Part 4 of Tom Scioli's Super Powers comic book (2017).
- ↑ As seen in the Superfriends season 3 episode Invasion of the Fearians (1978).
- ↑ As seen in the New Adventures of Superman episode Superman Meets Brainiac (1967).
- ↑ Can't remember the episode.
