Superheroes are often associated with record-breaking Hollywood blockbusters. So, it may come as a surprise that the largest collection of superhero memorabilia in the country is located over 2,000 miles away… in Elkhart, Indiana. This past month the Hall of Heroes reopened in a new location twice the size of the original museum. I took a visit to the museum to learn more about its expansion, and the stories it’s trying to preserve.
Entering the Hall of Heroes Superhero Museum, you’ll see rows of glass display cases, lifesize statues of DC and Marvel characters, plus over a half dozen arcade games featuring Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men.
Some of the artifacts in the museum have appeared on TV and in films. The Hall has one of Adam West’s batsuits, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool mask and the partially crushed Mustang Shelby Cobra from the first Iron Man film. The Marvel exhibit has Captain America’s shield from First Avenger signed by Chris Evans and over a dozen others from the movie’s cast and crew. Many artifacts are signed by writers, artists, and performers who brought the characters to life. The autograph from Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in 1948, is the oldest autograph in the museum. Some artifacts, like Captain America #1 can only be found in the Hall of Heroes and one other location.
“You will only see it here and the Library of Congress. There’s only two museums that you’ll see an original Captain America #1.” That’s Allen Stewart, the founder and director of the Hall of Heroes at 1915 Cassopolis Street in Elkhart. He grew up on a love of comic books and TV shows like the Adam West Batman series and Superfriends. Superfriends inspired the name of the museum, based off the Hall of Justice.
Now the museum has moved to a location with more than double the capacity of the original to accommodate the 10,000 piece collection. It also now sits close to the toll road where Stewart says the majority of his visitors come from to get to the Hall.
For Stewart, the connection to comic book heroes goes back even further, to DC’s G.I. Combat and Our Army At War comics from 1959, and the character Sgt. Rock.
“Sgt. Rock is actually based on my grandfather. My grandfather was one of the top war heroes of World War II. He was in the 101st Airborne. He was only 5’3” and the enemy tended to shoot too high and miss him a lot.”
Comics from this era are well represented. The first appearance of Robin in Detective Comics #38 from 1940 is on display, as is the first appearance of Wonder Woman in All Star Comics #8 from 1941.
On the Marvel side, the first appearance of Captain America also goes back to the forties. Marvel characters from the sixties also have their first issues in the Hall of Heroes. The museum’s copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, is signed by the creator, Stan Lee, and Spider-Man looks the same now as he did in 1962. The Incredible Hulk #1, his first appearance, shows the title character on the cover, but he’s not green.
“And then you have the first Hulk, it’s interesting because he was grey, and then they turned him green in issue two. And it was due to an inking problem because the grey kind of washed out, so then they wanted to add some color to him. Purple was another possibility and we almost had Barney on steroids.”
Even some of the books that weren’t firsts still have incredible historical significance. Batman #15 from the World War II era, shows Batman firing a machine gun. This was part of the war propaganda and before the creators decided Batman would never wield firearms. There’s also a comic from a magazine on display about how Superman would have ended World War Two. The U.S. wasn’t even in the war yet. Also inline with war propaganda, there’s a comic book that shows Superman being racist.
“That is the rarest Superman comic book, because as you can see he’s printed out the newspaper that says ‘Superman says you can slap a jap.’”
The two sides of the museum are divided primarily into DC and Marvel characters by a long row of black cabinets filled with comic books that are being preserved. There’s 65,000 of them in the collection - the fourth largest comic book collection in the world - and there are no duplicates.
This emphasis on preservation makes creators more than willing to donate to the museum. The most significant contributor is Allen Bellman, who has donated his own sketches and handwritten letters from Stan Lee. Stewart describes Bellman as the last man standing. Most of the golden age comic book creators from the thirties and forties have passed. Bellman is ninety-five years old and most pictures of him show him holding out his right fist, emulating the comic book artwork he’s most well known for, Captain America landing a right hook on Adolf Hitler’s face on the cover of his first appearance.
The Hall of Heroes has an annual Halloween event coming up where the villains takeover the museum. Stewart himself plays the Joker as the museum becomes the Hall of Villains for a scavenger hunt for kids next weekend. Now that Stewart and the collection have survived the move to the new location, more exhibits are being added and he’s spearheading an effort to enhance the experience of touring the Hall with an app.
“You come through, you download the app as soon as you come with your smartphone, and if we come over here, we have the Stan Lee exhibit. So you come here and hear about Stan Lee’s career and how he worked with our museum and put us on the national map.”
There’s a great contrast between the blockbuster films about superheroes that have made billions of dollars and the creators, who weren’t always remembered and sometimes died penniless. Stan Lee was an outlier. The history of comic book characters, creators, and performers is all in the Hall of Heroes and now reopened in Stewart’s hometown of Elkhart, the museum is better equipped than ever to tell their stories.
