Yow, I’m continuing to brainstorm topics and questions that 492 may (should?) deal with. The problem is one of fitting a year’s worth of discussion into fifteen weeks!
Here are ten of (in my view) the major research questions regarding superheroes that might make it into the course. These are all rattling around in my head, about three weeks out from the start of the course:
1. What theory or theories of genre (literary, rhetorical, social) might help to unpack the superhero and its audience?
2. To what extent are antecedent genres, such as hero pulps and adventure strips, important to understanding the emergence of the superhero in the late thirties?
3. How do superheroes transplant/transform the frontier romance? To what extent do they reflect something deeply rooted in American history?
4. How do superheroes reflect ambivalence about modernity and urbanization? Why is the city such an important part of superhero lore?
5. Are superheroes basically a male-addressed genre, as is often claimed? How do superhero tales enact and/or subvert ideas about gender? What roles are played by superhero women, for example Wonder Woman, in relation to the predominantly male subculture of comic book fandom?
6. How do superhero tales enact or undermine ideas about sexuality? What concerns underlie or have inspired the numerous queer readings of the genre?
7. Toward what political ideologies, if any, does the genre lean? What of the common charge that superheroes embody a fascist mentality?
8. How is it important that the genre originated in a visual medium? To what extent is its appeal essentially graphic?
9. Superhero spoofs are a big part of the genre. What might the seminal superhero parodies — for example, Kurtzman and Wood’s “Superduperman” (1953) or Klein’s Mr. Freedom (1969) — reveal about the genre’s ideological and aesthetic foundations?
10. Are the Marvel-style superhero mythoi, post-Jack Kirby, really in the same genre as the early Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman? How has the continuity principle changed the genre?
Which of these, if any, would you consider crucial? I welcome feedback from other teachers and scholars regarding what they consider the most important topics for a superheroes course to cover (please see also my page on “492 Objectives,” here). Also, I’d love to do a syllabus exchange! Feel free to drop comments here, so that we can make contact.
Charles, something I devote some space to in the last chapter of my next book is the relation between superhero comics and “kids” comics… In this age of the “adult” superhero book it’s worth looking back at their earlier incarnation.
Scott, good to have your input here, and I’m glad for the reminder re: superheroes as “kids” comics. Point taken!
I argue in my forthcoming Kirby book that Kirby was doing children’s comics, and is an under-acknowledged contributor to children’s culture. As a teacher-scholar of children’s literature, I have no problem with that.
Your work is a signpost to me, BTW, an indicator of what a visually-attuned but also socially contextualized comics studies can look like. Thanks.
I think all these questions are incredibly pertinent to the superhero, but if I had to choose my top 3 they would be in this order: 1)The question that deals with the superhero, modernity, and the city; 2)The question that deals with the graphic appeal of the superhero comic; 3)The question that deals with the enactment/subversion of gender roles.
Why these 3 over the others?? It’s not for hierarchical reasons, such as one is more important, but because, in my opinion, these cover the most polemical areas in comic studies. Number 3, for example, is a classic debate that easily jumps into identity politics, sexuality, etc., but may lead into comparisons with manga styled superheroes and how women are visually represented there. Does the vivaciousness go down a notch at all?? Number 2 allows for a distinction between the graphic and the “non-graphic” (or textual) which gets into the history, philosophy of these two. Number 1 allows students to consider the origin of the city as a possible experiment of a larger enlightenment program toward the progression/liberation of mankind through ingenuity and industry. Why does the superhero so desperately defend these buildings, this modern metropolis? Does the superhero exist without the city?
Some thoughts.
Edgar, thanks for this thoughtful input. Glad to hear your thoughts on superheroes once again.
I agree that the three questions you’ve earmarked are especially important. Also, there is burgeoning scholarship on these questions, particularly the representation of superheroes as extensions of the City — in other words, parts of a postmodern urban imaginary. I refer interested readers to the excellent new collection COMICS AND THE CITY (Continuum, 2010), ed. Ahrens and Meteling, which you can see listed in our sidebar “Superhero Studies Bookshelf,” to the right. A very interesting book, not only about superheroes but about comic art’s relationship to depiction of urban space generally.