Four-Color Political Visions: Origin, Affect, and Assemblage
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FOUR-COLOR POLITICAL VISIONS: ORIGIN, AFFECT, AND ASSEMBLAGE IN AMERICAN SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS by JOSHUA MICHAEL PLENCNER A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Political Science and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Joshua Michael Plencner Title: Four-Color Political Visions: Origin, Affect, and Assemblage in American Superhero Comic Books This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Political Science by: Dr. Joseph Lowndes Chairperson Dr. Priscilla Yamin Core Member Dr. Daniel Martinez HoSang Core Member Dr. Ben Saunders Institutional Representative and J. Andrew Berglund Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2014 ii © 2014 Joshua Michael Plencner iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Joshua Michael Plencner Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science December 2014 Title: Four-Color Political Visions: Origin, Affect, and Assemblage in American Superhero Comic Books This project develops extant theories of political affect and relational identification and affinity formation by tracing how the visual images of an understudied archive—American superhero comic books—work to build multiple, alternative, fitful, inchoate, and sometimes radically creative spaces for visions of the political to take shape and develop over time. By analyzing and interpreting the generic superhero phenomenon of origin stories in comic books and by mapping the formal and narrative techniques used to construct origin stories, I show how received understandings of power, order, justice, violence, whiteness, masculinity, and heteronormativity often linger outside of language in an analytically untapped relational space between bodies—the space of political affect. Visual images of superheroes thus do more than take up space within political sign- systems; I argue them as material engines of affect, as engines of potential and usefully critical political identities and affinities. Superhero comic books, a cultural form often disregarded as childish or even ideologically dangerous, are thus recovered in this project as theoretically complex, offering speculative feminisms, anti-racism, and queer temporalities that link these popular objects of visual culture to ongoing traditions of utopianism and foundational revisionism within American political culture. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Joshua Michael Plencner GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of North Dakota, Grand Forks DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Political Science, 2014, University of Oregon Master of Science, Political Science, 2011, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, 2007, University of North Dakota AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: American Politics, Culture, History, and Identity Visual Theory and Method Comics Studies Arts and Cultural Policy PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Instructor, University of Oregon, 2013-Present Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2007-Present GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2007-Present Tent: Comics Seminar Participant, Yiddish Book Center and Columbia University, 2014 UO Public Impact Fellowship (Nominated), University of Oregon 2013 Conference Travel Scholarship, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon, 2012, 2013, 2014 Magna cum laude, University of North Dakota, 2007 v PUBLICATIONS: Plencner, Joshua. 2010. Original entries on “Iron Man,” “Robert Kirkman,” “Greg Rucka,” and “Thor.” In Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels, ed. M. Keith Booker. Greenwood: Santa Barbara, CA. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The dissertation is an exercise in shambling curiosity, a fumbling, jangling, hurly- burly sort of project that, were it not for the better sense of one’s betters, surely ought to dismiss one’s sense altogether. But seeing as how I’m yet here, and not currently googling anything about cats, or curating “active interest” in Viking funereal practices, or indulging in the lesser lores of J.R.R. Tolkien, or poking around cutting-edge research on space volcanoes, some thanks are in order: In particular, I appreciate the patience and diligence of my advisor Joe Lowndes, a brilliant scholar and friend whose advice I trust most when my first reaction is to reject it outright. He sees far, and if writing is always a little lonely, imagining his imminent protestations and critiques offered me anxious company as the chapter drafts eventually became something more. His eye for the political is both wandering and—in that movement—well-honed. This dissertation owes much to Joe. Through the years, Priscilla Yamin and Dan HoSang have given me the tools to ask after questions without fear. Situated at the twixt of worlds themselves, their honesty and attention to my idiosyncratic tendencies helped me imagine new futures for this work. I guard my friendship with Ben Saunders jealously. I wish that everyone someday understand why for themselves. Ben is the reason I crossed the finish line, and his faith in my project steels me. Many of my friends and graduate student colleagues have offered me their valuable thoughts on, and questions about, the politics of superhero comics, and any depth of insight relayed in the project itself comes loaded with debt to those many vii conversations. In Political Science, our grad student writing group was an incredible collective resource: Lisa Beard, Sam Bernofsky, Joe Deckert, Katya Dunajeva, Brian Guy, Jessica Hejny, and Jeremy Strickler all helped me build a stronger framework for the project, and encouraged me to think through argument differently. The Politics, Culture, and Identity working group pushed me to straddle commitments with style: Lisa Beard, Dan HoSang, Joe Lowndes, Abdurrahman Pasha, and Priscilla Yamin were present at the lightbulb moment when I realized that comics did something worth speculating on, even if I wasn’t quite sure what. And the UO Comics Reading Group was both energy and outlet for my passion: Andréa Gilroy, Shaun Gilroy, Kom Kunyosying, Sean Parson, Abdurrahman Pasha, Ben Saunders, Carter Soles, and Veronica Vold were among the many sharp minds and sympathetic interlocutors I needed as I made my way through the thicket of coursework, examinations, and writing. Conversations with Gerry Berk were always nourishment, and I hope to carry his infectious laughter with me as I move on to new, better, or in the very least different things. I also benefitted a great deal from working through ideas with Victoria Hattam and Anita Chari very late in the development of the dissertation. Anita’s warm and simple assurance that “it looks like it’s almost done” was the first time I realized I was close. Kathryn Miller can’t be thanked with such silly things as words. I’ll draw her pictures instead. And to my parents, my brother, and my partner, heroes all: thanks. viii For Emmet mostly, and Astrid sometimes. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION: ON ORIGIN STORIES AND OTHER FOUR-COLOR ASSEMBLAGES ...................................................................................................... 1 Theorizing Political Origins ................................................................................... 5 Political Visions, Visual Politics............................................................................ 31 An Affective Embrace of Visual Culture ............................................................... 43 Defining Comics, and the Project of Comics Studies ............................................ 46 Superheroes and Four-Color Politics ..................................................................... 49 Chapter Outline ...................................................................................................... 50 II. THE BIRTH OF AN AMERICAN SUPERHERO IMAGINARY ........................ 54 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 54 On American Political Progeny/Mythology .......................................................... 54 Superheroes, Origins, and Mythologies ................................................................. 56 Superman and the Politics of Appearing ............................................................... 63 Fantomah, Gendered Fear, and the Looking of Order ........................................... 72 III. PUBLIC HEROES, PUBLIC ATTACHMENTS: 1960s MARVEL AND THE SCOPIC DRIVE ..................................................... 84 From Super-Cops to Social Outcasts ..................................................................... 84 Spider-Man ............................................................................................................ 86 Playing with Lenses (An Aside) ........................................................................... 90 The Hero Shoots Himself, and Other Methodological Questions ......................... 95 The Spider-Camera and Cruel Optimism .............................................................. 97 x Chapter Page IV. A SUBVERSIVE RACIAL ORDER? 1980s DC AND REACTIONARY GRIT .............................................................. 109 A History (Not) About Race .................................................................................