Death, Disability, and the Superhero

Death, Disability, and the Superhero PDF Author: José Alaniz
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1626743274
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
The Thing. Daredevil. Captain Marvel. The Human Fly. Drawing on DC and Marvel comics from the 1950s to the 1990s and marshaling insights from three burgeoning fields of inquiry in the humanities—disability studies, death and dying studies, and comics studies—José Alaniz seeks to redefine the contemporary understanding of the superhero. Beginning in the Silver Age, the genre increasingly challenged and complicated its hypermasculine, quasi-eugenicist biases through such disabled figures as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and the Doom Patrol. Alaniz traces how the superhero became increasingly vulnerable, ill, and mortal in this era. He then proceeds to a reinterpretation of characters and series—some familiar (Superman), some obscure (She-Thing). These genre changes reflected a wider awareness of related body issues in the postwar U.S. as represented by hospice, death with dignity, and disability rights movements. The persistent highlighting of the body's “imperfection” comes to forge a predominant aspect of the superheroic self. Such moves, originally part of the Silver Age strategy to stimulate sympathy, enhance psychological depth, and raise the dramatic stakes, developed further in such later series as The Human Fly, Strikeforce: Morituri, and the landmark graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel, all examined in this volume. Death and disability, presumed routinely absent or denied in the superhero genre, emerge to form a core theme and defining function of the Silver Age and beyond.

Death, Disability, and the Superhero

Death, Disability, and the Superhero PDF Author: José Alaniz
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1626743274
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 553

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Thing. Daredevil. Captain Marvel. The Human Fly. Drawing on DC and Marvel comics from the 1950s to the 1990s and marshaling insights from three burgeoning fields of inquiry in the humanities—disability studies, death and dying studies, and comics studies—José Alaniz seeks to redefine the contemporary understanding of the superhero. Beginning in the Silver Age, the genre increasingly challenged and complicated its hypermasculine, quasi-eugenicist biases through such disabled figures as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and the Doom Patrol. Alaniz traces how the superhero became increasingly vulnerable, ill, and mortal in this era. He then proceeds to a reinterpretation of characters and series—some familiar (Superman), some obscure (She-Thing). These genre changes reflected a wider awareness of related body issues in the postwar U.S. as represented by hospice, death with dignity, and disability rights movements. The persistent highlighting of the body's “imperfection” comes to forge a predominant aspect of the superheroic self. Such moves, originally part of the Silver Age strategy to stimulate sympathy, enhance psychological depth, and raise the dramatic stakes, developed further in such later series as The Human Fly, Strikeforce: Morituri, and the landmark graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel, all examined in this volume. Death and disability, presumed routinely absent or denied in the superhero genre, emerge to form a core theme and defining function of the Silver Age and beyond.

Uncanny Bodies

Uncanny Bodies PDF Author: Scott T. Smith
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271086300
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world. Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters—such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion—as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O’Connor, Daniel J. O'Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

Death of a Superhero

Death of a Superhero PDF Author: Anthony McCarten
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846882876
Category : Cancer in adolescence
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The story of a dying 15-year-old boy who draws comic book stories of an invincible superhero as he struggles with his mortality.

Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives

Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives PDF Author: C. Foss
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137501111
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
As there has yet to be any substantial scrutiny of the complex confluences a more sustained dialogue between disability studies and comics studies might suggest, Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives aims through its broad range of approaches and focus points to explore this exciting subject in productive and provocative ways.

Authorizing Superhero Comics

Authorizing Superhero Comics PDF Author: Daniel Stein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814214763
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Authorizing Superhero Comics examines the comic book superhero as a lasting phenomenon of US popular serial storytelling. Moving beyond linear- or creator-centered models of genre development, Daniel Stein identifies authorization conflicts that have driven the genre's evolution from the late 1930s to the present. These conflicts include paratextually mediated exchanges between officially authorized comic book producers and, alternatively, authorized fans that trouble the distinction between production and its reception; storyworld-building processes that subsume producers and fans into a collective rooted in a common style; parodies that ensure the genre's longevity by deflating criticism through self-reflexive humor; and collecting and archiving as forms of memory management that align the genre's past with the demands of the present. Taking seriously the serial agencies of the superhero comic book as a material artifact with a particular mediality, the study analyzes letter columns, editorial commentary, fanzines, encyclopedias, and other forms of comic book communication as critical frameworks for understanding the evolution of the genre--assessing rarely covered archival sources alongside some of the most treasured figures from the superhero's multi-decade history, from Batman and Spider-Man to Wonder Woman and Captain America.

Superhero Grief

Superhero Grief PDF Author: Jill A. Harrington
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429615213
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Superhero Grief uses modern superhero narratives to teach the principles of grief theories and concepts and provide practical ideas for promoting healing. Chapters offer clinical strategies, approaches, and interventions, including strategies based in expressive arts and complementary therapies. Leading researchers, clinicians, and professionals address major topics in death, dying, and bereavement, using superhero narratives to explore loss in the context of bereavement and to promote a contextual view of issues and relationship types that can improve coping skills. This volume provides support and psychoeducation to students, clinicians, educators, researchers, and the bereaved while contributing significantly to the literature on the intersection of death, grief, and trauma.

The Law of Superheroes

The Law of Superheroes PDF Author: James Daily
Publisher: Avery
ISBN: 1592408397
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
"The dynamic duo behind the popular website LawAndTheMultiverse.com breaks down even the most advanced legal concepts for every self-proclaimed nerd. James Daily and Ryan Davidson--attorneys by day and comic enthusiasts all of the time--have clearly found their vocation, exploring the hypothetical legal ramifications of comic book tropes, characters, and powers down to the most deliciously trivial detail. The Law of Superheroes asks and answers crucial speculative questions about everything from constitutional law and criminal procedure to taxation, intellectual property, and torts, including: Could Superman sue if someone exposed his true identity as Clark Kent? Are members of the Legion of Doom vulnerable to prosecution under RICO? Do the heirs of a superhero who comes back from the dead get to keep their inherited property after their loved one is resurrected? Does it constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment' to sentence an immortal like Apocalypse to life in prison without the possibility of parole? Engaging, accessible, and teaching readers about the law through fun hypotheticals, The Law of Superheroes is a must-have for legal experts, comic nerds, and anyone who will ever be called upon to practice law in the comic multiverse"--Provided by publisher.

Mixed-Race Superheroes

Mixed-Race Superheroes PDF Author: Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978814615
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
American culture has long represented mixed-race identity in paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it has been associated with weakness, abnormality, impurity, transgression, shame, and various pathologies; however, it can also connote genetic superiority, exceptional beauty, and special potentiality. This ambivalence has found its way into superhero media, which runs the gamut from Ant-Man and the Wasp’s tragic mulatta villain Ghost to the cinematic depiction of Aquaman as a heroic “half-breed.” The essays in this collection contend with the multitude of ways that racial mixedness has been presented in superhero comics, films, television, and literature. They explore how superhero media positions mixed-race characters within a genre that has historically privileged racial purity and propagated images of white supremacy. The book considers such iconic heroes as Superman, Spider-Man, and The Hulk, alongside such lesser-studied characters as Valkyrie, Dr. Fate, and Steven Universe. Examining both literal and symbolic representations of racial mixing, this study interrogates how we might challenge and rewrite stereotypical narratives about mixed-race identity, both in superhero media and beyond.

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller PDF Author: Joseph Lambert
Publisher: Little, Brown Ink
ISBN: 1368027415
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Helen Keller lost her ability to see and hear before she turned two years old. But in her lifetime, she learned to ride horseback and dance the foxtrot. She graduated from Radcliffe. She became a world famous speaker and author. She befriended Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, and Alexander Graham Bell. And above all, she revolutionized public perception and treatment of the blind and the deaf. The catalyst for this remarkable life's journey was Annie Sullivan, a young woman who was herself visually impaired. Hired as a tutor when Helen was six years old, Annie broke down the barriers between Helen and the wider world, becoming a fiercely devoted friend and lifelong companion in the process. In Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, author and illustrator Joseph Lambert examines the powerful bond between teacher and pupil, forged through the intense frustrations and revelations of Helen's early education. The result is an inspiring, emotional, and wholly original take on the story of these two great Americans.

Superheroes and Philosophy

Superheroes and Philosophy PDF Author: Tom Morris
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459601130
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Great Caesars Ghost!! A team of Brainiacs! Superheroes and Philosophy is Kryptonite for those super villains who diss the heroes as lightweights! Riddle me this, Batman: How are Gotham City and Metropolis like ancient Athens and modern Paris? Read this sensational book and find out!