tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/captain-america-12813/articles
Captain America – The Conversation
2021-12-06T13:42:10Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171283
2021-12-06T13:42:10Z
2021-12-06T13:42:10Z
How did Uncle Sam become a symbol for the United States?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434191/original/file-20211126-23-1i51zrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C76%2C2955%2C1688&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You never know where Uncle Sam will make an appearance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/giant-motorcycle-riding-uncle-sam-carries-new-york-firemen-news-photo/689423?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How did Uncle Sam become a symbol for the United States? – Henry E., age 10, Somerville, Massachusetts</strong></p>
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<hr>
<p>Most Americans easily recognize <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-nicknamed-uncle-sam">Uncle Sam</a> as a symbol of the United States or a national nickname. Typically portrayed as an older white man with a long white goatee and a top hat, he’s almost always decked out in red, white and blue attire. </p>
<p>His image represents the U.S. government in <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2021/presidents-day-2021-opinion-is-it-time-to-re-think-uncle-sam/#slide-8">political cartoons</a>, or as a stand-in for the American people everywhere from <a href="https://www.atlutd.com/news/five-stripe-flashbacks-tifos">soccer games</a> to <a href="https://eduardobarraza.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Political-rally-draws-candidates-for-Arizona-Nov-6-general-election/G0000CN7w.HyKs10/I000075uKKFICALQ">political rallies</a>.</p>
<p>He has come to represent a patriotic ideal in popular culture. In the Marvel Universe, <a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_America:_The_First_Avenger">Captain America</a>’s costume resembles what Uncle Sam wears. That character is not only strong, but compassionate.</p>
<p>The most familiar Uncle Sam image of all time is an <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsc.03521/">Army recruiting poster</a> designed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/03/the-uncle-sam-i-want-you-poster-is-100-years-old-almost-everything-about-it-was-borrowed/">James Montgomery Flagg</a> in 1917. In it, Uncle Sam proclaims “I WANT YOU,” while sternly pointing directly at the onlooker.</p>
<p>That World War I publicity campaign worked so well that the government used the image again to recruit soldiers and other members of the armed forces during <a href="https://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=548">World War II</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Uncle Sam points at the onlooker in an iconic 'I Want You for the U.S. Army' recruitment poster." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434193/original/file-20211126-21-1mq0det.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Artist James Montgomery Flagg designed this iconic 1917 recruitment poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsc.03521/">Library of Congress</a></span>
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<h2>‘Columbia’ and ‘Brother Jonathan’</h2>
<p>Uncle Sam isn’t the only symbol that U.S. artists and illustrators have used to convey political issues of the day.</p>
<p>One of the earliest symbolic stand-ins for the United States was “<a href="https://www.meetamerica.com/before-lady-liberty-reigned-columbia-was-americas-patriotic-female-personification">Columbia</a>,” a female icon usually dressed in a toga.</p>
<p>In one famous depiction, she’s seen mourning President Abraham Lincoln, joined by <a href="https://www.royalmint.com/britannia/britannia-icon-on-the-coin/">Britannia</a>, another female character who personifies England, and a formerly enslaved person whose plight remains unclear.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sorrowful Britannia, standing, lays a wreath on Lincoln's shrouded body while Columbia weeps as she clutches the U.S. flag and a freed enslaved person mourns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434194/original/file-20211126-15-js68ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Britannia consoles Columbia while a formerly enslaved person weeps in this 1865 image by the artist John Tenniel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/britannia-sympathises-with-columbia-1865-only-days-after-news-photo/463927737">The Cartoon Collector/Print Collector via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>So where did Uncle Sam’s name come from? According to a <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-nicknamed-uncle-sam">resolution Congress approved in 1961</a>, it originated with meat supplier Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York. During the War of 1812, he marked his materials for military use with “U.S.” Workers at the time would tell a joke along the lines that “Uncle Sam” Wilson was feeding the Army.</p>
<p>Perhaps not coincidentally, two African-American Marvel superheroes are named Sam Wilson: “<a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/The_Falcon_and_The_Winter_Soldier">The Falcon</a>,” who goes on to become Captain America following Steve Rogers’ retirement, and Samantha Wilson, who assumed the role of Captain America in the recent <a href="https://www.marvel.com/comics/series/20505/spider-gwen_2015_-_2018">Spider-Gwen series</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Brother Jonathan holds a scythe in a 19th-century postcard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434211/original/file-20211126-25-2ylidz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Brother Jonathan,’ an early U.S. symbol, may have gradually turned into Uncle Sam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brother-jonathan-an-early-personification-of-the-united-news-photo/505925783">Kean Collection/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>But there was another figure resembling Uncle Sam called <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/brother-jonathan-uncle-sam">Brother Jonathan</a> who emerged earlier.</p>
<p>That personification of the United States was possibly modeled on <a href="https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/brother-jonathan-american-icon/">John Trumbull</a>, a Colonial Connecticut governor who opposed British rule during the War of Independence. <a href="http://www.sonofthesouth.net/uncle-sam/brother-jonathan.htm">Brother Jonathan may have morphed into Uncle Sam</a> around the time of the Civil War, before fading away.</p>
<p>In an 1876 advertisement, this young, slender man who symbolized the nation wore clothing that echoes the American flag. He looked a lot like a younger and cleanshaven version of Uncle Sam.</p>
<p>It’s possible that the lankiness and facial features that Uncle Sam inherited from later depictions of Brother Jonathan were a tribute to <a href="https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/uncle-sam-army-recruitment-poster/10169">President Abraham Lincoln</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bruski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The iconic image may have originated with a meat supplier named Samuel Wilson. Or not.
Paul Bruski, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Iowa State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130988
2020-02-13T14:14:08Z
2020-02-13T14:14:08Z
America’s postwar fling with romance comics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315078/original/file-20200212-61912-op3vlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C52%2C1067%2C711&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With over 100 issues, 'Young Love' was one of the longest running romance comics series. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last year, comic book enthusiast <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/582733/gary-watson-comic-collection-donated-university-south-carolina">Gary Watson</a> donated his massive personal collection to <a href="https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/browse/irvin_dept_special_collections/index.php">the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections</a> at the University of South Carolina. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/about/contact/faculty-staff/weisenburg_michael.php">reference and instruction librarian</a>, I’m tasked with getting to know the collection so I can exhibit parts of it and use the materials for teaching. One of the great pleasures of assessing and cataloging Watson’s collection has been learning about how comic books have changed over time. Sifting through Watson’s vast collection of 140,000-plus comics, I’m able to see the genre’s entire trajectory.</p>
<p>Before World War II, superheroes were all the rage. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/17/art-spiegelman-golden-age-superheroes-were-shaped-by-the-rise-of-fascism">Reflecting anxieties</a> over the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and the march to war, readers yearned for mythical figures who would defend the disenfranchised and uphold liberal democratic ideals.</p>
<p>Once the war ended, the content of comic books started to change. Superheroes gradually fell out of fashion and a proliferation of genres emerged. Some, such as <a href="http://www.powerhousebooks.com/books/golden-age-western-comics/">Westerns</a>, offered readers a nostalgic fantasy of a pre-industrial America. Others, like <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114164218">true crime</a> and <a href="https://www.outrightgeekery.com/2017/10/18/the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-horror-comics-a-history/">horror</a>, hooked readers with their lurid tales, while <a href="https://comicsalliance.com/best-silver-age-sci-fi-covers-gallery/">science fiction comics</a> appealed to the wonders of technological advancement and trepidation about where it might lead us.</p>
<p>But there was also a brief period when the medium was dominated by the romance genre. </p>
<p>Grounded in artistic and narrative realism, romance comics were remarkably different from their superhero and sci-fi peers. While the post-war popularity of romance comics only lasted a few years, these love stories ended up actually having a strong influence on other genres.</p>
<h2>Romance comics’ origin story</h2>
<p>Though today they are most famous for creating “Captain America,” the creative duo of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gUCgAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q&f=false">launched the romance comic book genre in 1947</a> with the publication of a series called “Young Romance.” </p>
<p>Teen comedy series like “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/26/13149304/archie-comics-riverdale-evolution">Archie</a>” had been around for a few years and occasionally had romantic story lines and subplots. Romance pulps and true confession magazines had been around for decades. </p>
<p>But a comic dedicated to telling romantic stories hadn’t been done before. With the phrase “Designed for the More Adult Readers of Comics” <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Young_Romance_Issue_1.jpg">printed on the cover</a>, Simon and Kirby signaled a deliberate shift in expectations of what a comic could be. </p>
<p>While most scholars have argued that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9pPgDE63U9oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false">romance comics tend to reinforce conservative values</a> – making marriage the ultimate goal for women and placing family and middle-class stability on a pedestal – the real pleasure of reading these books came from the mildly scandalous behavior of their characters and the untoward plots that the narratives were ostensibly warning against. With titles like “I Was a Pick-Up!,” “The Farmer’s Wife” and “The Plight of the Suspicious Bridegroom,” “Young Romance” and its sister titles <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9pPgDE63U9oC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=Comic%20Book%20Nation%3A%20The%20Transformation%20of%20Youth%20Culture%20in%20America.&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q&f=false">quickly sold out of their original print runs</a> and began outselling other comics genres.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315088/original/file-20200212-61958-1y8dre8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Issue #1 of ‘Teen-Age Romances’ (St. John, 1949).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other publishers noticed the popularity of the genre and followed suit with their own romance titles, most of which closely followed Simon and Kirby’s style and structure. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ndJ7BwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">By 1950</a>, about 1 in 5 of all comic books were romance comics, with almost 150 romance titles being sold by over 20 publishers.</p>
<p>The rage for all things romance was so sudden that publishers eager to take advantage of the new market altered titles and even content in order to save on <a href="https://www.comichron.com/faq/postalsalesdata.html">second-class postage permits</a>. Second-class or periodical postage is a reduced rate that publishers can use to save on the cost of mailing to recipients. Rather than apply for new permits every time they tested a new title, comics publishers would simply alter a failing title while retaining the issue numbering in order to keep using the preexisting permit. To comics historians, this is a telltale sign that the industry is undergoing a sudden change. </p>
<p>One striking example of this is when comics publisher Fawcett ended its failing superhero comic “<a href="https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=72086">Captain Midnight</a>” in 1948 with issue #67 and launched its new title, “<a href="https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=63254">Sweethearts</a>,” in issue #68. In this case, the death of a superhero comic became the birth of a romance comic. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315086/original/file-20200212-61912-e6lwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Issue #3 of ‘Bride’s Romances’ (Quality Comics, 1953).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With so many new titles flooding newsstands and department stores, the bubble was bound to burst. In what comic book historian Michelle Nolan <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ndJ7BwAAQBAJ&lpg=PR4&ots=e23lp1L4DI&dq=Nolan%2C%20Michelle%20(2008).%20Love%20on%20the%20Racks%3A%20A%20History%20of%20American%20Romance%20Comics.%20McFarland%20%26%20Company%2C%20Inc.&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false">has dubbed</a> “the love glut,” 1950 and 1951 witnessed a rapid boom and bust of the romance genre. Many romance titles were canceled by the mid-1950s, even as stalwarts of the genre, such as “Young Romance,” remained in print into the mid-1970s. </p>
<p>There was the brief popularity of the sub-genre of gothic romance comics in the 1970s – series with names like “The Sinister House of Secret Love” and “The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love.” But romance comics would never approach their brief, postwar peak.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315111/original/file-20200212-61966-vvwu6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gothic romances – like this issue of ‘The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love’ – had a brief run in the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief boom, an enduring influence</h2>
<p>Among collectors, issues of romance comics are less sought after than those of other genres. For this reason, they tend to go under the radar.</p>
<p>Romance comics, however, featured work by pioneering artists like <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/real-life-comic-book-superhero-74267">Lily Renée</a> and <a href="https://www.twomorrows.com/media/MattBakerPreview.pdf">Matt Baker</a>, both of whom worked on first issue of “Teen-Age Romances” in 1949. </p>
<p>Baker is the first-known black artist to work in the comic book industry and Renée was one of comics’ first female artists. Prior to working on “Teen-Age Romances,” they both drew “<a href="https://www.goodgirlcomics.com/good-girl-history/">good girl art</a>” – a set of artistic tropes borrowed from pinups and pulp magazines – for several titles. Their work in both genres exemplifies how earlier pulp magazine themes of desire and seduction could readily be applied to newer genres. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315090/original/file-20200212-61912-w4chvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1125&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘But He’s the Boy I Love’ was one of the few romance comic to feature black characters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of South Carolina Libraries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the “love glut,” sub-genre mashups nonetheless emerged. For example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ndJ7BwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA86#v=onepage&q&f=false">cowboy romances</a> were briefly popular. Later, in response to the civil rights movement, Marvel published the 1970 story “<a href="https://truelovecomicstales.blogspot.com/2016/02/our-love-story-but-hes-boy-i-love.html">But He’s the Boy I Love</a>,” which was the first story in a romance comic to feature African-American characters since Fawcett’s three-issue run of “<a href="https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=360151">Negro Romance</a>” in 1950. </p>
<p>Even after romance comics largely fell out of fashion, the genre’s visual tropes and narrative themes became more prevalent during what’s known as the “<a href="https://www.cosmiccomics.vegas/latest-news/the-history-of-silver-age-comic-books/">Silver Age</a>,” a superhero revival that lasted from 1956 to 1970. Titles such as “Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane” often borrowed heavily from romance for their plots to generate intrigue and tension in the hopes of driving up sales. </p>
<p>Issue 89, in which Lois marries Bruce Wayne, is a prime example of such marketing techniques. Issues such as these were often situated as “what if” narratives that offered readers speculative story lines, such as “What if Lois Lane married Bruce Wayne?” Though they’re generally thought of as separate from the superhero canon, these love stories show that comic book writers had internalized the main narrative techniques of romance comics even if the genre itself was in decline. </p>
<p>But other comics didn’t merely use romantic themes for the occasional gimmick issue. Instead, they made the love lives of their characters a central plot point and a fundamental aspect of their characters’ identities. Comics such as the “Fantastic Four” and the “X-Men” rely heavily on the heated emotions and jealousies found in group dynamics and love triangles.</p>
<p>Take Wolverine. Presumably tough and stoic, he’s so enamored of Jean Grey – and so envious of her love interest, Scott Summers – that you could argue that unrequited love is one of his primary motivations throughout the series.</p>
<p>Thanks to romance comics, even stoic superheroes got bitten by the love bug.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael C. Weisenburg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
During the ‘love glut,’ roughly 1 in 5 of all comic books were romance comics, as publishers scrambled to appease readers’ appetites for scandalous storylines.
Michael C. Weisenburg, Reference & Instruction Librarian at Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of South Carolina
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87996
2017-11-23T22:48:59Z
2017-11-23T22:48:59Z
A team divided: Who is the hero of Justice League?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196228/original/file-20171123-17988-1x7442.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Justice League should be a sum of its parts but the question remains: Who is the protagonist? From left: Cyborg, Flash, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The reviews are coming in harsh for <em>Justice League</em> (Warner Bros.), the keystone movie of the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/DCExtendedUniverse">DC extended-universe</a>. In some ways this shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the somewhat dubious artistic record of the Justice League comics. </p>
<p>If you walk up to someone on the street (or, more accurately a local comic book store) and you ask them to identify their favourite Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman stories, they can tell you, but ask them their favourite Justice League story and you’ll have a harder time finding a frontrunner. </p>
<p>The reason for this is obvious: Justice League doesn’t have a lot of good stories. But if Superman is awesome and Batman is awesome and Wonder Woman is awesome, shouldn’t the three of them together be thrice as awesome? </p>
<p>Not necessarily. </p>
<p>The problem is simple: You’re taking three characters who work well on their own and jamming them (along with all the baggage of their respective fictional universes) together, while tossing in a handful of other heroes that you hope will function on their own in future movies as well. </p>
<p>As a novelty, it’s delightful to see so many iconic characters in one place. As a storytelling vehicle, however, it creates an obvious problem and clear question: Who is our main protagonist? </p>
<h2>Looking for our hero</h2>
<p>The protagonist — essentially, the hero — in a comic book or movie is the character the audience is meant to identify with. He or she is the main player in the narrative and the individual upon whose choices the events of the plot depend. </p>
<p>A good protagonist can leave the audience feeling invested. Whether in a comic book or a film, that’s important. Gaudy tights in comics and gaudy computer-generated imagery in film can be alienating. We need to care about the people in those tights, the people in front of that green screen. </p>
<p>For writers, attempting to create shared-universe storytelling — what we see in the Justice League — has challenges. They need to create a viable protagonist out of several characters. This general issue can be seen in comic books as well. Writing a team superhero book is a very different beast than writing a superhero tale surrounding a singular character. </p>
<p>The fundamental mechanisms by which we are made to empathize with a character and feel immersed in their struggles are different when we go from one person to many people. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3cxixDgHUYw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Justice League.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ancient archetypes reflect our internal struggles</h2>
<p>The distinction between single superhero versus a group of superheroes is as old as literature itself. It begins with <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epic-of-Gilgamesh">The Epic of Gilgamesh</a></em>, a Sumerian/Babylonian text circa 2100 BC that is very much a single-protagonist superhero story in all the ways that matter. </p>
<p>In contrast, the ancient Greek epic <em>The Iliad</em>, is a team book (but also a superhero story), featuring a diverse cast of Trojan and Greek heroes with strongly differentiated viewpoints and ideologies, as well as the sort of internal conflicts, struggles and even bantering that we associate with group superhero stories. </p>
<p>The culture and history of these ancient texts is very different from the era of North American comics, but the issues, pitfalls and opportunities for dynamic storytelling are very much the same. When strong, group-oriented comic books such as <em><a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Fantastic_Four#axzz4zHYxCvc1">Fantastic Four</a></em>, <em><a href="http://marvel.com/universe/X-Men#axzz4zHYxCvc1">X-men</a></em> and <em><a href="http://teentitans.wikia.com/wiki/Teen_Titans">Teen Titans</a></em> come along, beginning in the 1960s, the artists use them to explore this same dynamic of internal conflict in a way that is captivating.</p>
<p>The trick to success is to create a functioning gestalt protagonist — a group of heroes who serve, metaphorically, as pieces of a whole. Reed Richards, <a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Mister_Fantastic#axzz4zHYxCvc1">Mr. Fantastic</a>, isn’t your protagonist in the <em>Fantastic Four</em> and neither are Ben Grimm (<a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Thing#axzz4zHYxCvc1">Thing</a>), Sue Richards (<a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Invisible_Woman#axzz4zHYxCvc1">Invisible Woman</a>) nor Johnny Storm (<a href="http://marvel.com/universe/Human_Torch#axzz4zHYxCvc1">Human Torch</a>). Your hero is all of them as one. You identify with the group. </p>
<p>Thus, the broader metaphor that gets created through all the internal group tension is one of the internal tensions that we, as individuals, all deal with every day. Humans are complex creatures with a pluralistic perspective on the world; we are paradoxical in nature and often feel like we have a symphony of voices in our head rather than one distinctive voice. </p>
<p>A gestalt protagonist reflects our internal dialogues by externalizing that symphony. This creates a deeper, more nuanced character for the audience to engage with. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196219/original/file-20171123-18012-vd69jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones is an example of good gestalt protagonist storytelling — you’re rooting for the group, not the individuals, and it works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is one of the major reasons both <em>X-men</em> and <em>Teen Titans</em> worked so well during their respective heydays in the 1980s. </p>
<p>Take X-men for example: <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Comicbook/Cyclops">Cyclops</a> isn’t a person — not really. He represents an aspect of a person — their <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2012/10/01/type-a-personality-a-leadership-trait/">Type A</a> side, their drive, their need for order and structure. <a href="http://marvel.com/characters/66/wolverine">Wolverine</a> is the opposite to that — he represents the instinctual, the raw primal impulses that all humans grapple with. </p>
<p>A similar phenomenon can be seen in <em>Teen Titans</em> through the contrast between <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/characters/beast-boy">Beast Boy</a> and <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/characters/cyborg">Cyborg</a>’s distinctively different responses to depression: Beast Boy plays a clown while Cyborg withdraws. This works well since a human being with depression doesn’t do one or the other. They do both, typically. Thus, the gestalt protagonist works. </p>
<p>Similarly, the hero of the <em>Harry Potter</em> series is more often Harry, Ron and Hermione, not Harry alone. <em>Downton Abbey</em>, <em>Game of Thrones</em>, <em>The Walking Dead</em> — all use a gestalt protagonist — you’re rooting for the group, not the individuals, and it works. </p>
<h2>A thin spin-off</h2>
<p>So what’s different with <em>Justice League</em>? The answer is translation. It’s one thing to build a gestalt protagonist from scratch and a very, very different thing to form one out of pre-existing solo protagonists. The superheroes of a group book are usually too thin and fragmented to stand on their own. </p>
<p>For example, when a spin-off series is created, the character needs to be radically recontextualized in order to allow them to support their own book. They change a lot, add new elements that weren’t there before: new back story, new relationships, new internal conflicts. DC will have to do this with <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/characters/aquaman">Aquaman</a>’s upcoming film.</p>
<p>That can work but taking a fully fleshed-out protagonist and trying to fold them back into a shared universe is significantly harder. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://marvel.com/movies/all">Marvel cinematic universe</a> has been successful in terms of both critical and popular crowds — but even there we see brutal character inconsistencies as the <a href="http://marvel.com/characters/68/avengers">Avengers</a> bounce back and forth from group and solo films. This is obvious in the first <a href="http://marvel.com/movies/movie/152/marvels_the_avengers">Avengers movie</a>. </p>
<p>The film’s writers felt they had to contrast the two “science bros” by making Hulk the calm, rational scientist and Iron Man the undisciplined reckless scientist, but doing so contradicted the narrative arc of those characters’ solo films. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196220/original/file-20171123-17988-1cf0c21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scene from the Avengers movie, another example of lost narratives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marvel)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Captain America had to become morose in a way that conflicted with his solo film. Thor forgot everything he learned in his solo film and became irrational and naive again. </p>
<p>So what did all these inconsistencies earn the writer and director of <em>The Avengers</em>? Universal praise for doing the impossible. Writer Joss Whedon made it work: Not in spite of these inconsistencies but through them. Whedon is considered the best of his generation at character juggling, though, so expecting the same of others, including <em>Justice League</em> — even though Whedon is involved — is asking a lot. </p>
<p>Shared-universe storytelling is a big trend in Hollywood and when it works, it works spectacularly well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t often work. </p>
<p>There are deep challenges involved. </p>
<p>To be successful, writers will need to craft a gestalt protagonist out of other singular protagonists so that audiences will achieve satisfaction with these films. They need to transcend the simple novelty of a cinematic all-star team. They need to do what the film’s tagline tells us and actually unite the league.</p>
<p>If we’re going to do justice to the Justice League, we have to look backward — at our storytelling past — in order to look forward to the future of the shared universe model.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Andrew Deman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The reviews are coming in pretty harsh for Justice League. If Superman is awesome and Batman is awesome and Wonder Woman is awesome, shouldn’t the three of them together be thrice as awesome?
J. Andrew Deman, Professor, University of Waterloo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58572
2016-04-28T07:10:58Z
2016-04-28T07:10:58Z
How Captain America: Civil War echoes our political anxieties
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120476/original/image-20160428-30950-6acgv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Captain America (Chris Evans) takes on a political crisis – and some beautifully choreographed fight scenes – in Captain America: Civil War.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The long-anticipated <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3498820/">Captain America: Civil War</a> has just hit Australian cinemas. The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings to a head a problem that has been brewing for years: whether superheroes should be directed by government organisations.</p>
<p>The movie carries on from a disastrous battle in the fictional country of Sokovia in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/">Avengers: Age of Ultron</a>. In response to the enormous loss of life and property detailed over the previous Avengers movies, the United Nations demands the superheroes submit to registration and oversight by a UN committee. </p>
<p>The Avengers split into two duelling teams, led by the anti-authoritarian Captain America (Cap) and the pro-regulation Iron Man. A vast supporting cast brings in heroes from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a political and personal crisis plays out in a series of knockout fight sequences.</p>
<p>Superhero movies – at their best – reflect the political anxieties of our time through a lurid mythology. This movie grapples with governmental control, overextended police powers and bloated bureaucracies that protect their members from any personal accountability when things go wrong.</p>
<p>The very premise of a superhero narrative, after all, is political. It relies on a recognition of the state’s insufficiency: if the authorities were doing their jobs, why would we need superheroes? </p>
<p>Captain America: Civil War doesn’t rely on super-villains to endanger humankind: the real enemies are power-hungry politicians, and the heroes themselves as their personalities clash in some of the best choreographed action scenes since <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/">The Raid</a> (2011).</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) go head-to-head.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Patriotically anti-authority</h2>
<p>Heroes have always been part of our cultural imagination, adapting to fit contemporary ideologies. This is particularly true of the Captain America character, whose very name is politically loaded. </p>
<p>Cap’s anti-authoritarian streak has been stirring since <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458339/">Captain America: The First Avenger</a> (2011). In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/">The Avengers</a> (2012), we saw the shady World Security Council authorise a nuclear attack on Manhattan. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a> (2014), Cap discovers that SHIELD, the organisation he works for, has been corrupted by Nazi splinter group HYDRA. The World Security Council is helpless to stop them. Cap’s distrust of oversight indicates that administrators are not objective. Nor are they incorrigible or accountable. </p>
<p>The problems the authorities are trying to fix in superhero vigilantism aren’t solved by creating more bureaucracy, but transferred to committees that lack the personal accountability of individual heroes.</p>
<p>Despite good intentions, Cap’s movie history shows that any organisation can be corrupted – and, ultimately, individuals have to decide if their leaders are trustworthy. While other characters would ask: “Who watches the watchmen?” Cap asks: “Who watches our watchers?”</p>
<p>Both previous Captain America movies (and the comics they’re drawn from, published in 2006-7) have echoed the real-world War on Terror and the increased state powers assumed since the PATRIOT Act. </p>
<p>Cap has previously rejected increased surveillance; criminal profiling; data collection; and pre-emptive strikes. Most of all, he denounces using fear as a tool to control a society. </p>
<p>Captain America: Civil War is similarly coded with terror culture. Cap objects to declaring uncontrolled superheroes as criminals; to imprisonment without trial; the <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-22">over-arming of soldiers and police</a>; and inevitable subsequent deaths. </p>
<p>These are real anxieties of our terror age, articulated through superhero mythology.</p>
<p>The Civil War story is only the most recent example of Cap’s resistance of the state. He’s rebelled against political regimes in comics released during the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Jr. administrations. </p>
<p>In these comics, corrupt politicians attempt to harness him as an agent, but Cap goes rogue, fighting for his own ideals. He rejects the assumption that the name “Captain America” is a conservative moniker, and uses his own cultural leverage to publicly criticise the state. </p>
<p>Captain America: Civil War is definitely designed for fans who’ve been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe for some time. For the faithful, there’s an emotionally charged narrative, a complex political crisis, a witty script, and a genuinely intriguing plot between its phenomenal action scenes. </p>
<p>To dismiss superheroes in blockbusters as superficial ignores the fact that these movies can be meaningful, both personally and politically. Civil War manages to fit all this together. Despite being about a team divided, the movie unites its many ideas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naja Later does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Superhero movies – at their best – reflect the political concems of our time. Captain America: Civil War is a two-and-a-half hour, action-packed critique of post-9/11 government overreach.
Naja Later, Lecturer in Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/51999
2015-12-15T19:33:38Z
2015-12-15T19:33:38Z
What superheroes looked like in 2015
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105945/original/image-20151215-23176-1i5igdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ubiquitous superhero finally seems to be growing up and moving on. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eneas De Troya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Golden Age of Comic Book Filmmaking began in 2000 when Bryan Singer’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120903/">X-Men</a> (2000) dragged superheroes to the centre of popular culture. Today superpowered protagonists are as familiar to cinemagoers as sticky floors and popcorn. </p>
<p>Such awareness saw studios in 2015 going bigger (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/">Avengers: Age of Ultron</a>), smaller (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">Ant-Man</a>), or back to the beginning (the erroneously-titled <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1502712/">Fantastic Four</a>) to reinvigorate the genre. </p>
<p>Somewhere between the mash-ups and redundant reboots, more interesting work has started to emerge. The comic book adaptation, like all good teenagers, is demonstrating new-found maturity. So let us take a look back at the trends and triumphs of this year in superheroes.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miles Morales is Marvel’s new Spiderman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Marvel Comics.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the past 12 months a female hero, Laura Kinney, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/comic-con-all-new-wolverine-806368">took over as Wolverine</a>, Korean-American Amadeus Cho became <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/05/the-passion-of-asian-hulk-a-generation-of-keyboard-warriors-assumes-power-and-responsibility.html">the Hulk’s alter-ego</a>, and the Marvel universe welcomed <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/marvel-inclusion-biracial-spider-man-article-1.2265591">biracial Spider-Man Miles Morales</a>. </p>
<p>Mainstream audiences might have missed these changes as they took place in the pages of the comics rather than on-screen, yet after years in which every superhero seemed to be played by a white guy named Chris (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0262635/">Evans</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1165110/">Hemsworth</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0695435/">Pratt</a>), 2015 finally ushered in some diversity.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haley Atwell as Pegger Carter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marvel Television.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year began with Captain America’s love-interest Peggy Cater getting her own television series, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3475734/">Agent Carter</a> (2015-). Led by a game Haley Atwell, the Cold War series managed to be fun and stylish without shying away from the misogyny of the era, with the British secret agent tackling workplace sexism as often as international spies. </p>
<p>Up next was a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4016454/">Supergirl</a> (2015-) television series, which drew early online criticism from viewers wondering why the last daughter of Krypton was Super “girl” rather than Super “woman”, an issue the family-friendly show sought to diffuse in its pilot by having media guru Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) argue:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What do you think is so bad about “Girl?”. I’m a girl, and your boss, and powerful, and rich, and hot and smart. So if you perceive ‘Supergirl’ as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem you? </p>
</blockquote>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105696/original/image-20151214-1645-1q0f38j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© CBS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most interesting of these female-led superhero shows, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357547/">Jessica Jones</a> (2015-), was an end-of-year treat from Marvel’s increasingly fertile partnership with Netflix. The series centred on a failed superhero turned hard-drinking private eye played with punk-like tenacity by Breaking Bad alumnus Krysten Ritter. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105701/original/image-20151214-1660-6hp4uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marvel’s Jessica Jones came to Netflix.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Netflix © Marvel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In focusing on the everyday consequences of superpowers Jessica Jones was in keeping with the more realistic tone set by 2015’s earlier Netflix-Marvel collaboration <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322312/">Daredevil</a> (2015-). </p>
<p>The show’s villain Killgrave, played by one-time Doctor Who David Tennant, has the generic ability of mind control, yet the series used this tired trope to engage with larger debates around rape, trauma, and consent – topics unlikely to be addressed in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/news/ni58143986/">Iron Man 4</a>. </p>
<p>While one might argue that these shows are merely picking up on hashtag-friendly issues to provide their high-concept shows with a veneer of socio-political relevance, their engagement with contemporary concerns seems more honest. </p>
<p>Jessica Jones showrunner Melissa Rosenberg began working on the series for broadcast network ABC in 2010, long before these issues were on the international agenda. The move to Netflix allowed her to engage more directly with the demons faced by a character suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. </p>
<p>Risk-averse Hollywood filmmakers are slowly joining comics and television by offering more demanding roles for women. Next year’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">Batman V Superman</a> features Wonder Woman in a supporting role ahead of a solo film in 2017, while Marvel has slated a 2019 release for its intergalactic heroine Captain Marvel. </p>
<p>As Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne noted upon receiving her own supersuit in the post-credit coda of this year’s Ant-Man, “It’s about damn time”. </p>
<p>It’s also about damn time superhero movies stepped up in terms of racial diversity. In a year in which the multicultural cast of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2820852/">Furious 7</a> (2015) propelled the roadworthy franchise to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ximena-n-beltran/how-a-multiracial-cast-le_b_8137514.html?ir=Australia">new box office highs</a> it is surprising to see so little imagination in the casting of the next Hollywood heroes. </p>
<p>In comic books, the current Avengers roster includes an African-American Captain America and a Muslim Ms Marvel. Jessica Jones’ love-interest, the Blaxploitation-inspired hero Luke Cage, will receive his own Netflix series next year, but in 2015 the cinematic Avengers remained stubbornly homogeneous. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105719/original/image-20151214-1626-1mmhjkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael B. Jordan played the Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2015).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Marvel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This may be partially explained by the <a href="http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Michael-B-Jordan-Addresses-Controversy-Over-Fantastic-Four-Casting-41989.html">misplaced fan criticism</a> that followed the casting of Fruitvale Station star Michael B Jordan in Fantastic Four as an African-American version of the traditionally white Human Torch.</p>
<p>Filmmakers have been slow to match the diversity of comics and TV in their US$100 million tentpole films. </p>
<p>Comics are increasingly treated as the research and development branch of larger entertainment companies. Television, in turn, might be considered the prototype phase, as studios test new ideas before their wider (and more expensive) implementation in feature films. </p>
<p>Thus, next year African-American sidekicks War Machine and Falcon will finally be elevated to the Avengers for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3498820/">Captain America: Civil War</a> (2016), which also introduces African hero The Black Panther to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. </p>
<p>The easy migration of intellectual property from comics to film and TV demonstrates how larger conglomerates such as The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner are taking advantage of transmedia paradigms. </p>
<p>In 2015 Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter not only headlined her eponymous show, but also made cameo appearances in sister series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2364582/">Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D</a> (2013-) and feature films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. </p>
<p>Hit superhero show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2193021/">Arrow</a> (2012-) was also expanded into a transmedia universe (informally termed the “<a href="http://thearrowverse.com/">Arrowverse</a>”) that includes fellow CW show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3107288/">The Flash</a> (2014-), the animated webseries <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4406248/">Vixen</a> (2015-), and comic books that fill in the narrative gaps between episodes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105722/original/image-20151214-1621-1jq0u4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Flash and the Arrow team up on an episode of The Flash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros. Television.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inspired by the universe-building of superhero franchises, a number of Hollywood studios are trying to get in on the lucrative transmedia game with cross-platform worlds planned for Transformers, Fast & Furious, and Universal’s Monsters. </p>
<p>We will have to wait until next year to see whether these shared narratives find consumers enthusiastically relaying from one platform to the next, or whether the stories become too dense for all but the most ardent fans. </p>
<p>Since 2000, cinema has formed the hub of these superhero franchises, but 2015 saw the scales tipping in favour of television. The Flash managed to pack a 23-episode season with high-velocity action, world-ending spectacle, and even a talking gorilla, visual set pieces once considered impossible on a television budget.</p>
<p>Streaming shows such as Daredevil, Powers, and Jessica Jones demonstrated how the relaxed censorship of non-broadcast television can take heroes to darker territory than they will find in the multiplex.</p>
<p>The expanding Arrowverse suggests that episodic television is more suited to chronicling the never-ending quests of superheroes than a 100-minute movie every two years. </p>
<p>In 2015 the now familiar superhero story started to come of age, exploring new topics with different heroes on a wider variety of formats. Next year will reveal where that renewed purpose takes these timeless icons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Burke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It was the year of the grown-up superhero. Dark, witty and complex, superheroes on the big and small screen have – mostly – matured past mindless violence.
Liam Burke, Media Studies Lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32200
2014-10-21T09:52:57Z
2014-10-21T09:52:57Z
My college classroom crusade to teach Marvel to undergrads
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61291/original/w8hf4qf9-1412867137.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=441%2C5%2C1957%2C1319&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Undergraduates, assemble!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikequozl/5130167769/">mikequozl</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the fall of 2010, as The Walking Dead was about to debut on TV, I launched my <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090802944.html">Media Genres: Zombies</a> course at the University of Baltimore and examined what that horror subgenre reflects about our culture. Much of the press coverage focused on the course’s very existence. Why waste the time and money? Shouldn’t you be teaching kids how to get a job? </p>
<p>Four years later, the University of Baltimore has <a href="http://www.ubalt.edu/news/news-releases.cfm?id=2086">announced</a> my spring 2015 Media Genres: Media Marvels class, which focuses on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is itself based on Marvel Comics’ 75-year-old interconnected saga, and the <a href="http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/09/a-maryland-university-will-offer-a-course-on-marvel-film-studies/">same questions</a> are popping up. </p>
<p>So here I am again to explain why teaching critical thinking about mass media is vitally important to guarantee our students are not just capable of working but of functioning as literate, informed citizens. </p>
<p>My courses are about using familiar pop culture constructs to teach students how to think critically, analyze the messages shared via entertainment, and discuss race, gender, class, ethics, and morality in a way that reaches them where they live. </p>
<p>While many classes use a dusty literary canon that offers less relevant connections for present-day students, my courses use zombies and superheroes – the common cultural currency we’re reading and viewing in the here and now – as a spur for thoughtful conversation. Academic texts don’t have to be old to be important and useful; the reverse is truer now than ever before.</p>
<p>We exist in a world where we are inundated by media messages. They can change how you think, who you vote for, how you make choices in a thousand indefinable ways. If you’re aware of these messages and understand how to decode them, you have the tools to make it through this media-saturated life with awareness and, eventually, wisdom. Education isn’t always about training you to get a job; it’s about preparing for a lifetime in a world filled with agendas and people motivated to make up your mind for you.</p>
<p><a href="http://marvel.com/movies/movie/181/captain_america_the_winter_soldier">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a>, released earlier this year, is a good example of how well the Marvel movies lend themselves to productive analysis; it’s also a film Marvel and parent company Disney had no need to make. Given the good will generated by the previous films, and the built-in audience eager to see every new chapter, all they had to do was deliver a well-made, rousing adventure with our shield-slinging hero.</p>
<p>Instead, this ode to 70s conspiracy films – featuring that era’s most notable actor, Robert Redford, in a profound inversion of his usual role – upends much of the series’ structure, sets narrative obstacles for any successive films, and incorporates pointed political commentary on everything from NSA surveillance to drone strikes. </p>
<p>That’s just one movie; we’ll be looking at <a href="http://marvel.com/movies/all">eleven of them</a> and examining their comic book, cinematic, and literary predecessors as well as supplementary material from the likes of mythologist <a href="http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=11">Joseph Campbell</a> and neurologist <a href="http://www.oliversacks.com/">Oliver Sacks</a>.</p>
<p>None of this is really new. While my course is being called the “first of its kind” by specifically focusing on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the academic exploration of comics and superheroes has been going on for decades. Every time it’s reported – usually with the same patronizing <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/us-usa-education-comics-idUSKCN0HJ2AW20140924">BAM POW ZAP headlines</a> – it’s as though this never happened before.</p>
<p>“Now you can take a college course in comics!” Yes, and you could also take one 15 years ago when I first started teaching comic book literature over at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. You could also encounter Marvel heroes in universities decades ago when Marvel editor and writer Stan Lee himself took to the <a href="http://io9.com/5952658/the-true-story-of-life-at-marvel-comics-in-the-glory-days-of-jack-kirby-and-stan-lee">college lecture circuit</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps another compelling argument for teaching critical thinking is that it might be a good idea to train the next generation to have a cultural memory that lasts more than five years.</p>
<p>While I knew certain news organizations would report the Marvel course with bemusement or derision, I was shocked to see some pop culture publications <a href="http://io9.com/univ-baltimore-is-offering-a-class-on-the-marvel-cinem-1638776987">including io9.com</a> dismissing and even insulting the notion. </p>
<p>Fans often feel ownership of something when it remains within their purview, but as these characters became global icons – the very reason we need to examine them – they passed out of the hands of comic book fans exclusively and now belong to everyone. I can only say that as equal parts educator and enthusiast myself, I approach the Marvel material with the same passion I had for it as a child when I read Stan Lee’s hyperbolic captions and dialogue as Spider-Man struggled to save the day once again. </p>
<p>Comics are excellent gateways to literacy; they can introduce children to the joy of reading as well as providing early lessons in heroism, morality, and ethics. Superheroes are there to save the day in fiction and reality. It’s time to carry that effort forward, and I’m very proud to be part of it. I teach media and critical thinking because I see it not just as a job but also as a responsibility. And as all Marvel fans know, with great power … you’re ahead of me, aren’t you? ’Nuff said. Excelsior!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arnold T Blumberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the fall of 2010, as The Walking Dead was about to debut on TV, I launched my Media Genres: Zombies course at the University of Baltimore and examined what that horror subgenre reflects about our culture…
Arnold T Blumberg, Adjunct Lecturer, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, University of Baltimore
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.