Cover art by Brian Bolland
The father of Curtis Sample worked for over twenty years at the Kemson Corporation in Star City before being struck down by cancer. “It was the chemicals,” he told his son while lying on his death bed. “The bad ones we ain’t supposed to know about. I could feel ’em doin’ it to me.” When his father passed away, Sample took legal action against Kemson. Newspaper columnist Oliver Queen wrote nine articles after his own investigation uncovered not only hazardous waste but the selling of illegal chemicals in foreign nations. Both of their efforts proved fruitless.
The above narrative appeared in Detective Comics #559, published in 1986. It wasn’t just within the DC Universe that chemical waste was causing harm, however, as the effects of dumping hazardous material was making headlines in the real world as well. The most infamous example was Love Canal, a neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, that was used by the Hooker Chemical Corporation to bury toxic waste from their manufacturing of everything from dyes and perfume to rubber and synthetic resins.
The main dumping ground for Hooker Chemical was an unfinished canal named after William T. Love. Hooker acquired the land in 1920 and used it as a disposal site until the canal was sold to the city of Niagara Falls in 1953. The sale price was one dollar, and a clause in the agreement indemnified Hook Chemical from any harm caused by the buried waste. Despite the city being aware of the hazard, homes were built adjacent to the 16-acre rectangle that comprised Love Canal. An elementary school was even constructed on one of its corners. Residents were initially oblivious to the dangers until a series of articles appeared in a local newspaper in 1978.
The dots were quickly connected by the local residents afterwards, many of whom had been suffering from unexplained illnesses and pregnancy miscarriages for decades. One of those outraged by the disclosure was housewife Lois Gibbs, who subsequently wrote about the community’s efforts to fight back in her 1982 book, Love Canal and the Birth of the Environmental Movement. Gibbs had never been an activist but soon found herself going door-to-door in the neighborhood, asking residents to sign a petition requesting government intervention.
When a Homeowners Association was subsequently founded, Lois Gibbs was elected president. The organization appealed directly to the local, state, and federal governments only to be met with red-tape, denials of potential harm, and unfulfilled promises. Eventually the state agreed to remove the chemical waste and temporarily evacuate pregnant women and families with children under the age of two living closest to the canal, but the rest of the residents remained in place despite experiencing continual health problems.
The residents of Love Canal wanted assistance in permanently relocating from the area. The state and city, meanwhile, insisted that once the toxic waste was removed from the canal there would no longer be any danger. Like most Americans, the residents of Love Canal lived paycheck-to-paycheck. They couldn’t sell their homes because the chemicals had made them worthless, and moving on their own would mean paying two mortgages. Their only recourse was to confront government agencies and use the media to keep pressure on elected officials in the hopes of finding relief.
Back in the DC Universe, Curtis Sample was having his own difficulties in finding justice, going so far as to break into the Kemson Corporation’s headquarters and stealing the medical records of other employees. The records were deemed inadmissible in court but Kemson sent some thugs to rough up Sample nonetheless. Having already taken an interest in Curtis Sample as newspaper columnist Oliver Queen, Green Arrow – along with partner Black Canary – were on hand to thwart the attack. The pair also tried to convince Sample to press charges against his assailants, but the man no longer believed in a legal system that had drained his life’s savings.
Curtis Sample instead made his way to Gotham City and stole Kemson’s payroll cash, a theft that caught the eye of Batman. Having uncovered Sample’s ultimate plans, Green Arrow and Black Canary likewise travel to Gotham, where they explain to the Caped Crusader that Sample intends on using the money to pose as a representative from a third world country interested in buying illegal nerve gas as a way to expose the company.
“Gotta admit, I like his style,” Green Arrow says. “Robbin’ Kemson for the cash to work the sting that’ll bring Kemson down.” Batman interjects that liking Sample’s style is no excuse for aiding and abetting Sample’s theft, and a heated argument erupts between the two superheroes.
Black Canary eventually steps in and attempts to reason with Batman instead of yelling. “Whether the medical records of former employees at Kemson’s Star City plant are admissible in court or not, they show an incidence of cancer five thousand times higher than the national norm,” she says. “At this very moment, even as we stand here bickering, there are three hundred workers on that plant’s nightshift alone. How many other sons are going to know the same grief? How many other sons will go broke chasing justice? And when they can’t get it, go berserk chasing vengeance?”
By May 9, 1980, the residents of Love Canal had reached their own breaking point. Hundreds of them surrounded the Homeowners Association office, demanding action. Lois Gibbs was aware that two representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency were in Niagara Falls and convinced them to speak to the growing crowd. Before their arrival, however, angry residents shouted that the pair should be taken hostage. Gibbs immediately ushered the EPA officials into her office for their own safety but told the crowd she was holding them hostage in the hopes of calming the residents down. When the FBI eventually arrived on the scene, they told Gibbs she had seven minutes to release the “hostages” or else they would take action.
Fearing a potential riot, Lois Gibbs addressed the crowd, “Here is the message we should deliver to Washington,” she began. “Here are your EPA people. What you have seen us do here today will be a Sesame Street picnic in comparison with what we do if we do not get evacuated. We want an answer from Washington by noon on Wednesday!”
Black Canary’s words in Gotham City have their desired effect on Batman, who suggests that the superheroes conduct Curtis Sample’s sting operation themselves. Armed with a half a million dollars in cash – courtesy of Bruce Wayne – Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, arrives at the Star City factory of the Kemson Corporation to purchase illegal chemicals for a third world general named Diaz. Once the transaction has been completed, however, the Kemson representatives pull out their guns, convinced that Selina Kyle is actually working for Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary.
They are proven correct when Batman crashes through an overhead window and a green arrow sails through the air. After being joined by Black Canary and a now-costumed Catwoman, the quartet easily defeat the bad guys. Barrels of illegal chemicals are uncovered as a result, sealing the fate of the Kemson Corporation.
Green Arrow realizes that although they may have saved the lives of hundreds of workers by exposing Kemson, their actions also cost those same workers their jobs. Batman replies that he “heard” through the grapevine that the plant was about to be purchased and the new owner – Bruce Wayne – would even be hiring additional employees. “All right,” Green Arrow stubbornly admits. “So maybe once in a while the system does work.”
When the deadline that Lois Gibbs issued in Love Canal finally arrived, the federal government announced that 810 families would be immediately evacuated from their homes. By the end of September, an agreement was reached between the state and federal governments for the purchase of all houses in the Love Canal area as well. A newspaper reporter told Lois Gibbs that the “little people” had defeated the politicians, but the housewife merely replied, “We are not little people. We are the big people who vote them in. We have the power, they don’t!”
Even Batman and Green Arrow would no doubt agree with the sentiment.
Anthony Letizia