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Superhero Comics BLOOMSBURY COMICS STUDIES Superhero Comics BLOOMSBURY COMICS STUDIES Covering major genres, creators and themes, the Bloomsbury Comics Studies series are accessible, authoritative and comprehensive introductions to key topics in Comics Studies. Providing historical overviews, guides to key texts and important critical approaches, books in the series include annotated guides to further reading and online resources, discussion questions and glossaries of key terms to help students and fans navigate the diverse world of comic books today. Series Editor Derek Parker Royal Forthcoming Titles Children’s and Young Adult Comics, Gwen Tarbox Webcomics, Sean Kleefeld Autobiographical Comics, Andrew J. Kunka Superhero Comics Chris Gavaler Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2018 © Chris Gavaler, 2018 Christopher Gavaler has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-2635-6 PB: 978-1-4742-2634-9 ePDF: 978-1-4742-2637-0 ePub: 978-1-4742-2636-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Series: Bloomsbury Comics Studies Cover design by Eleanor Rose Cover image © John Royle Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters. To Cameron and Madeleine vi CONTENTS Series Editor’s Preface xi Acknowledgments xii 1 Introduction 1 2 Historical Overview, Part 1: Pre-Comic Origins I The Mythic Superhero 15 The superhero with a thousand masks 16 Minimally counter-intuitive fairy tales for grown-ups 19 Brutal fairy tales and epic violence 24 Children’s great men fables 28 Mythical myths 32 II The Imperial Superhero 33 The British superhero 35 American supermen 39 Imperial expansion 43 New frontiers 46 III The Wellborn Superhero 49 On the origin of supermen: 1883–1905 51 Experiments in hero hybridization: 1893–1928 59 Acts of sterilization: 1929–39 68 viii CONTENTS IV The Vigilante Superhero 77 Vigilante hero 81 Superman 87 Superhero 92 3 Historical Overview, Part 2: Pre-Code and First Code Origins I The Fascist Superhero 101 Champion of the oppressed 106 Eager to strike back 113 Heroic doings 117 II The MAD Superhero 125 Crisis: 1961–2 128 Turning point: 1962–3 135 Aftermath 140 4 Social and Cultural Impact I The Black Superhero 155 Pre-Code era, 1934–54 156 First Code era, 1954–71 160 Second Code era, 1971–89 165 Third Code era, 1989–2000 173 Fourth Code and Post-Code eras, 2001 to present 176 II The Gendered Superhero 179 Super binaries 179 Super queer 191 5 Critical Uses I The Visual Superhero 205 1. Layout rhetoric 205 2. Framing rhetoric 215 CONTENTS ix 3. Juxtapositional closure 222 4. Page sentencing 225 5. Image-texts 227 6. Representational abstraction 230 7. Visualizing Elektra 241 6 Key Texts I The Authorial Superhero 273 Pre-Code era, 1934–54 274 First Code era, 1954–71 276 Second Code era, 1971–89 278 Third Code era, 1989–2000 281 Fourth Code era, 2001–11 283 Post-Code era, 2011 to present 285 Glossary 289 Resources 293 Works Cited 297 Index 321 x SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE The Bloomsbury Comics Studies Series reflects both the increasing use of comics within the university classroom and the emergence of the medium as a respected narrative and artistic form. It is a unique line of texts, one that has yet to be addressed within the publishing community. While there is no shortage of scholarly studies devoted to comics and graphic novels, most assume a specialized audience with an often-rarefied rhetoric. While such texts may advance the scholarly discourse, they nonetheless run the risk of alienating students and representing problematic distinctions between “popular” and “literary.” The current series is intended as a more democratic approach to comics studies. It reflects the need for more program- matic classroom textbooks devoted to the medium, studies that are not only accessible to general readers, but whose depth of knowledge will resonate with specialists in the field. As such, each volume within the Bloomsbury Comics Studies Series will serve as a comprehensive introduction to a specific theme, genre, author, or key text. While the organizational arrangement among the various volumes may differ slightly, each of the books within the series is structured to include an historical overview of its subject matter, a survey of its key texts, a discussion of the topic’s social and cultural impact, recommendations for critical and classroom uses, a list of resources for further study, and a glossary reflecting the text’s specific focus. In all, theBloomsbury Comics Studies Series is intended as an exploratory bridge between specialist and student. Its content is informed by the growing body of comics scholarship available, and its presentation is both pragmatic and interdisci- plinary. The goal of this series, as ideal as it may be, is to satisfy the needs of novices and experts alike, in addition to the many fans and aficionados upon whom the medium popularly rests. Derek Parker Royal ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Like its sibling, On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1 (University of Iowa Press, 2015), this book began when I was asked to teach an honors seminar course called “Superheroes” at Washington and Lee University in 2008. Many of the ideas expressed here began with that first class of students and the half-dozen classes which followed. I also owe thanks for the feedback and suggestions of Carolyn Cocca, Madeleine Gavaler, Sean Guynes, Suzanne Kean, and Lesley Wheeler, as well as to the members of the COMIXSCHOLARS-Listserve, Noah Berlatsky and the Hooded Utilitarian reading community, and numerous conference panel participants, journal editors, and peer reviewers. Versions of Chapters 2.II, 2.III, 2.IV and 3.I were origi- nally published in PS: Political Science & Politics 47 (1) (2014), Journal of American Culture 37 (2) (2014), Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 4 (2) (2013), and Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 7 (1) (2016). A portion of Chapter 4.I appeared in ImageTexT 7 (4) (2015), and portions of other chapters appeared at HoodedUtilitarian.com and my own site, thepatronsaintofsu- perheroes.com. Thanks also to Peter Coogan, Derek Royal, and David Avital for making this book possible, and to Washington and Lee University for their generous support, including providing summer Lenfest grants. Finally, thank you to Cameron, Madeleine, and Lesley for the never-ending superhero conversation that is our household, and to John Gavaler for giving me The Defenders #15 (September 1974), my first superhero comic. 1 Introduction What is a superhero comic? Any answer has to combine two categories: genre and medium. A superhero comic is a superhero story told in a graphic narrative. Superhero is the content; comics the form. Each requires its own definition, and there is a great deal of scholarly debate about both. Peter Coogan, in Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre, offers one of the most recent and thorough definitions for the superhero character type: A heroic character with a selfless, pro-social mission; with superpowers—extraordinary abilities, advanced technology, or highly developed physical, mental, or mystical skills; who has a superhero identity embodied in a codename and iconic costume, which typically express his biography, character, powers, or origin (transformation from ordinary person to superhero); and who is generically distinct, i.e. can be distinguished from characters of related genres (fantasy, science fiction, detective, etc.) by a preponderance of generic conventions. Often super- heroes have dual identities, the ordinary one of which is usually a closely guarded secret. (2006: 30) Many earlier definitions include dual identity as a defining feature, which suggests that the character type can and has evolved. In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman wears an iconic costume and closely guards his identity. In 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four have codenames but no dual identities (and, briefly, 2 SUPERHERO COMICS no costumes). In 2001, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’ Jessica Jones has no codename, no costume, no dual identity, and, since she works as a professional private detective, no selfless mission. She is only superpowered—the opposite of Batman, who in all of his incarnations possesses all of the traditional qualities but superpowers. Since Jessica Jones and Batman are both understood to be superheroes, the character type appears to have no requisite qualities. Instead, individual characters may be defined by a range of possible traits, including association with other superheroes in a superhero comic. In terms of character traits, the hero type predates comics by decades and even centuries (Gavaler 2015), but if genre is defined as a tradition of direct influence, all post-1938 superheroes evolved from Siegel and Shuster’s first thirteen-page Superman episode in Action Comics #1.
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