Help with DC Essay?

[SkylerQ91]

Being in high school a yet another year (by choice), I must take classes. One of the ones chosen this year was World History. For my class I need to write an essay about something for the final and either relate it to the course or show it's impact on history.

Now while some are doing normal history topics, on person is doing the musical Chicago (God knowth how that will work), while another is relating Harry Potter to WWII. I had planned on doing mine on Superman being inspired by 'What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way' and had planned on doing a 'why the World needed a Superman' kind of thing.

My teacher thought it would be too hard to write about the impact of Superman alone and suggested comics as a whole, I told her that's to vast a topic and we settled on the impact of the stories, charters, past, and future of DC Comics on society, history, and the way we tell stories as well as proving that they are our modern day myths in the vain of stories Greek gods and Norse Mythology .

I find myself in the conundrum of not knowing how to present it all as even though its a much smaller scale thing than comics in general, it's still a humongous topic. I had planned on touching upon the advancements of Women, African-Americans, LGBT people (Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, Steel, Static, Batwoman/Question)and the serious issues like drugs and HIV (Both a problem with one Green Arrow's Speedy-s) that have been covered in these 'silly books'. I wanted to write about the obstacles of Seduction of the Innocent, the dark 80's stories like Watchmen and The Killing Joke, and the impact of the films and TV series with talk of The Dark Knight being #2 in the world.

I have a week until the rough draft is due then a few days perhaps a week or two until the final and I'm being to worry as although my books and DVD documentaries are helpful there is just so much to talk about a what is really relevant? I'm a tad embarrassed to ask this but does anyone have any ideas on how to fix (or being fixing) this into a proper essay format, and not just 'I like this, here's a few barley related facts'?

Thanks in advance.

-Sky

[Missy]

Superman has had a greater impact on comic books, media, and culture than all other superheroes combined, I would argue. The way he's touched the world has literally changed history (RE: stifling the KKK, WB having copyright laws altered to retain ownership of the character, he's the grandfather of an entire genre, his "death" made the news around the world, etc.), and I would suggest bringing this up to your teacher, because what you've agreed upon is too broad.

[SkylerQ91]

Which is the trouble right now, but I'd still have to do a rough draft of the one since it's only two days after the Winter Vacation that the draft is due. I may attempt two, one DC and one Superman centred in the next few days in case she rejects the idea of going back to Superman only.

-Sky

[KnightWing]

I'd go with just Superman, personally.

Like Mike said, focusing on the KKK (and how the Superman Radio Drama essentially killed their status as a major threat) and the heavily-publicized death of Superman in the comics should be pretty easy.

This would be the outline I'd go with:

Introduction:

A brief summary of Superman's status as an icon, with a couple of very brief examples of his recognition in everyday life (like how people across the world can recognize his costume).

Paragraph 1:

Superman vs the KKK - A summary of the events, ending with parallels between the real world and the world of Superman (like how the Radio Drama essentially acted as our world's Daily Planet, and quite literally crossed the realms of reality and fantasy)

Here's a short-yet-informative article on it:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/39296

Paragraph 2:

Superman's recognition in the media - How the media latched onto the Christopher Reeve generation of Superman films, and how they strongly reacted to Reeve's paralysis and eventual death. Also touch on the comics' death of Superman, and how the mainstream media reported on it.

Paragraph 3:

Superman's status as an ideal - how the ideals of Superman are represented in the world. This one's a little trickier, but a great example is Obama's election campaign. In it, he made a ton of Superman references, and even had Alex Ross paint him in the Superman shirt-pull pose. Not to mention his whole campaign of "hope," which practically painted him as a political superman. (and proved that the American people want that kind of hero)

Ending:

Summary of the previously stated, with a nice dramatic/powerful sentence to close it out.

Be sure and add whatever more details you think would make it better.

[Dread]

Rethink it. The above constitutes plagiarism.

Knightwing, suggestions would be grande but don't write the essay for God's sake.

[KnightWing]

Knightwing, suggestions would be grande but don't write the essay for God's sake.

My apologies; I tend to get carried away with essay-writing.

[Dread]

Me too. I have to mark too damned many of them.

[prez]

Good call Dread. I was wondering about the whole "here's your outline" bit.

[SkylerQ91]

Thanks everyone and don't worry anybody, although a few things touched upon I may use, I never intended use the exact outline that NightWing made. My essay can use help but it indeed needs to be MY essay. Thanks again to all who've helped and any who still may want to.

-Skyler

[KnightWing]

...although a few things touched upon I may use, I never intended use the exact outline that NightWing made. My essay can use help but it indeed needs to be MY essay.

Yeah, even though I think I accidentally inferred it, I didn't mean that you should actually take the outline point-for-point. I was only trying to illustrate that it's possible to do an essay on that topic. Good for you for not jumping the gun.