10 Figures Who Completely Reshaped Comic Book History

Of all the important people you can mention in comics, most would be contributors. Members of their media who want to see their art form progressed and accepted. Fredric Wertham, not so much.

Wertham was a psychiatrist who published a damning text in 1952 called “Seduction Of The Innocent”, which suggested that depictions of violence and crime in comic books encouraged similar behaviour in children. Yes, they had these sort of people in the '50s too. Now this wasn't a quickly forgotten book that called Batman and Robin gay, Wonder Woman a lesbian and claimed that hidden images of female nudity were concealed in comics like hedonistic Easter eggs.

Wertham's “expertise” led him to be called to testify before the American Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, whose findings led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, which severally limited the scope of comics for nearly half a century. His research and findings have been discredited due to his manipulation and fabrication of data.

This is unsurprising considering Wertham once claimed that Superman was unAmerican. Of course he's unAmerican, he's not even from Earth. Or real.