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Relationality and Masculinity in Superhero Narratives Kevin Lee Chiat Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) with Second Class Honours

Relationality and Masculinity in Superhero Narratives Kevin Lee Chiat Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) with Second Class Honours

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Being a is Amazing, Everyone Should Try : Relationality and Masculinity in Superhero Kevin Lee Chiat Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) with Class Honours

This thesis is presented for the of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia School of Humanities 2021

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THESIS DECLARATION I, Kevin Chiat, certify that:

This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in this degree.

This thesis does not contain material which has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution.

In the , no part of this thesis will be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree.

This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text.

This thesis does not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication.

Signature : 17/12/2020

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ABSTRACT

Since the development of the superhero genre in the late 1930s it has been a contentious area of cultural discourse, particularly concerning its depictions of gender politics. A major critique of the genre is that it simply represents an adolescent male power ; and presents a world view that valorises masculinist individualism. In an attempt to challenge this critique, this thesis argues that relationality – an understanding of subjectivity that emphasises how interpersonal relationships are to subject formation – is a key aspect of the genre, which also modifies its masculinist tendencies in significant ways.

The key argument of this thesis is that the superhero genre is a through which dialogues on masculinity and relational thinking take place amongst creators, readers and the broader public. The thesis also argues that the development of the genre has increasingly moved in the direction of modelling positive visions of masculinity and relational thinking. Primarily, the study relies on textual analysis, with a focus on the superhero .

The thesis explores key relationships modelled within to make its argument. The first two chapters focus upon the figures of and Spider-Man, examining the heroes’ personal relationships as well as the metatextual relationship between fan and superhero.

The later chapters explore the evolution of the Superhero Team and the relationship dynamics between superheroes and the civilians they protect.

Overall, this thesis seeks to add to the sub-field of superhero studies by adopting frameworks of gender and cultural studies to examine the underexplored relationality of superhero narratives, and the possibility that they model a more open and inclusive masculine than is often acknowledged. To write the superhero comic off as a purely masculinist power fantasy demonstrates a lack of engagement with the ways in which stories within the genre have directly deconstructed these power .

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THESIS DECLARATION ...... II ABSTRACT ...... III TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... V LIST OF FIGURES ...... VI “CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON”: INTRODUCTION TO SUPERHERO NARRATIVES, RELATIONALITY AND MASCULINITY ...... 2 I AM BATMAN/I AM GOTHAM: THE DARK KNIGHT AS AN EXAMPLE OF GOTHIC SUBJECTIVITY AND RELATIONAL THINKING ...... 24

THE GOTHIC BATMAN ...... 28 Gothic Origins ...... 31 The Gothic Elements of Batman ...... 35 Gothic Excess ...... 44 THE RELATIONAL BATMAN ...... 48 Batman and – The Dynamic Duo...... 48 Batman and – The World’s Finest Friendship/Rivalry ...... 58 Batman – The Team ...... 68 BATMAN AND CARE ...... 74 CONCLUSION ...... 82 SPIDER-MAN’S TANGLED : AN AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC REFLECTION ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPIDER-MAN AND HIS FANS ...... 85

SPIDER-MAN AND ME...... 87 THE OBJECTIVIST SPIDER-MAN VS THE LIBERAL SPIDER-MAN ...... 91 SPIDER-MAN – THE YOUTH ...... 102 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN - MY TEENAGE SUPERHERO ...... 117 AN ALL-NEW SPIDER-MAN ...... 124 CONCLUSION – THE SPIDER-VERSE ...... 133 SUPERTEAMS OF THE TWENTIETH ...... 137

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA ...... 137 THE OF AMERICA ...... 150 THE ...... 162 CONCLUSION ...... 178 SUPERTEAMS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ...... 180

THE AUTHORITY ...... 180 THE ...... 200 YOUNG ...... 216 CONCLUSION ...... 229 STREET LEVEL HEROES: COMMUNITY AND DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES IN SUPERHERO NARRATIVES...... 232 ...... 235 GOTHAM CENTRAL...... 247 ...... 269 “OPERATION: JUSTICE INCARNATE” CONCLUSIONS ON SUPERHERO CULTURE ...... 293 PRIMARY SOURCES ...... 306 SECONDARY RESEARCH SOURCES ...... 315

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to thank and acknowledge my family. My Mum, Dad and brother Joshua. Thank you for the lifetime of support and love; even when I’ve made it difficult for you.

I want to acknowledge and thank my supervisors; Dr. Chantal Bourgault du Coudray and Dr. Tauel

Haper. Thank you so much for the of support, the help with thinking through my ideas, editorial support and for helping me through the darker of this process.

Thank you to my friend Mitchell Chiappalone; who has been my constant throughout my at

UWA and who has always been there when I needed to talk.

Thank you to Juno and Ziggy for the love and the many happy hours spent walking with both of you where most of my best thinking got done. Having dogs in my life has made everything better.

I wish to acknowledge and thank and for being generous with their time and agreeing to sit with me for interviews. The insight into their work I gained through those conversations was invaluable.

Thank you to the team at the , which has been a key resource in sourcing bibliographical information on Golden comics.

I wish to acknowledge and thank the University of Western Australia for giving me the opportunity to complete this thesis.

I also wish to acknowledge the University for granting me a University Postgraduate Award at the beginning of my candidature. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research

Training Program (RTP) Fee-Offset Scholarship.

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LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. TITLE PAGE ...... 1 FIGURE 2. THE GENTRY DEFEAT ULTRA AND CLAIM DOMINION OVER THE READER...... 5 FIGURE 3. THE GRAND ARMY OF SPEEDSTERS FREE NIX UTOAN FROM HIS CORRUPTION BY THE GENTRY...... 23 FIGURE 4. THE MAKES HIS ARGUMENT THAT HIS FAMILY HAS MADE BATMAN WEAK ...... 27 FIGURE 5. BATMAN’S FIRST STORY...... 34 FIGURE 6. MAKES THE CHOICE TO LIVE AS BATMAN ...... 43 FIGURE 7. BATMAN QUESTIONS HIS OWN SANITY ...... 45 FIGURE 8. ROBIN BURSTS INTO THE BATMAN UNIVERSE...... 51 FIGURE 9. THE NEW INCARNATION OF THE DYNAMIC DUO MAKE THEIR DEBUT ...... 57 FIGURE 10. BATMAN AND SUPERMAN’S FINAL BATTLE ...... 63 FIGURE 11. BATMAN AND SUPERMAN EXPRESS THEIR ADMIRATION FOR EACH OTHER...... 66 FIGURE 12. BATMAN AND SUPERMAN EXPRESS THEIR ADMIRATION FOR EACH OTHER ...... 67 FIGURE 13. DARK RANGER IS INDUCTED INTO BATMAN INCORPORATED WITH AN OATH BY CANDLELIGHT ...... 73 FIGURE 14. THE ORIGINAL BATMAN MAKES HIS APPEARANCE ...... 79 FIGURE 15. THE IDEAL BATMAN RESOLVES THE VIA AN APPEAL TO EMPATHY ...... 81 FIGURE 16. THE QUANTUM MECHANIX DIORAMA OF THE BATMAN FAMILY ...... 84 FIGURE 17. SPIDER-MAN IS INSPIRED BY HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO TO GO BEYOND HIS LIMITS ...... 94 FIGURE 18. THE OBJECTIVIST SPIDER-MAN...... 98 FIGURE 19. SPIDER-MAN REGRETTING HIS POLITICAL LEANINGS ...... 100 FIGURE 20. RECAPS HIS CONVOLUTED BACK-STORY FOR THE READER ...... 108 FIGURE 21. PETER AND MARY JANE BARGAIN WITH ...... 115 FIGURE 22...... 119 FIGURE 23. SPIDER-MAN TRIES OUT HIS STAND-UP ROUTINE TO AN UNRECEPTIVE ...... 120 FIGURE 24. OF PETER AND KITTY’S FIRST DATE...... 122 FIGURE 25. THE VARIANT COVER TO ’ FIRST ISSUE ...... 126 FIGURE 26. PETER LEAVES MILES WITH SOME FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE AFTER THEIR FIRST TEAM-UP ...... 132 FIGURE 27. THE AUTHOR MEETS SPIDER-MAN AT DISNEYLAND PARIS ...... 136 FIGURE 28. THE COVER THAT INTRODUCED THE JUSTICE SOCIETY TO ...... 140 FIGURE 29. ’S ROLE AS THE JUSTICE BATTALION’S SECRETARY IS ESTABLISHED...... 148 FIGURE 30. THE AND DESPERO FOR THE LIVES OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE ...... 154 FIGURE 31. MAKES HER PITCH TO JOIN THE JUSTICE LEAGUE ...... 161 FIGURE 32. THE FANTASTIC FOUR ADOPT THEIR NEW MONIKERS...... 165 FIGURE 33. A CLASSIC IMAGE OF A FORLORN ...... 171 FIGURE 34. THE FANTASTIC FOUR MEET THEIR ...... 177 FIGURE 35. THIRTEEN YEARS ON FROM HIS TRANSFORMATION, BEN GRIMM HAS HIS SECOND BAR MITZVAH ...... 179 FIGURE 36. MAKE THEIR ENTRANCE ONTO THE WORLD STAGE...... 185 FIGURE 37. AND EMBRACE BEFORE A DANGEROUS MISSION ...... 190 FIGURE 38. THE WEDDING OF APOLLO AND MIDNIGHTER ...... 196 FIGURE 39. MIDNIGHTER’S REVENGE UPON THE CAPTAIN...... 199 FIGURE 40. POINTS TO HIS FOREHEAD...... 209 FIGURE 41. THE UNLEASHED ...... 213 FIGURE 42. HULK REAFFIRMS HIS SEXUAL ORIENTATION...... 214 FIGURE 43. HULKLING AND ’S FIRST ON-PANEL ...... 219 FIGURE 44. PLANTS THE SEED OF DOUBT IN TEDDY’S MIND ...... 221 FIGURE 45. THE UNIVERSE IS INVADED BY THE MULTITUDE OF EVIL ...... 223 FIGURE 46. THE VISUAL RECORD OF THE YOUNG AVENGERS TOUR ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE...... 225 FIGURE 47. GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ’S TEXT CHAIN...... 227 FIGURE 48. THE YOUNG AVENGERS GET READY TO PARTY ...... 231 FIGURE 49. THE STREETS OF ...... 237 FIGURE 50. THE DESTRUCTION OF NEW YORK...... 243 FIGURE 51. THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN...... 246 FIGURE 52. A ON THE BEAT IN GOTHAM ALWAYS PROMISES STRANGE AND TERRIBLE DANGERS ...... 251 FIGURE 53. THE JOKER’S MESSAGE FOR BATMAN IS DISCOVERED BY THE GCPD ...... 255 FIGURE 54...... 258 FIGURE 55. JACK DUNNING GETS HIS WISH TO ASCEND FROM EXTRA TO FEATURED ...... 259

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FIGURE 56...... 267 FIGURE 57. BAT ...... 268 FIGURE 58. HAWKEYE IS INTRODUCED TO THE WORLD AS A MEMBER OF CAPTAIN AMERICA’S NEW AVENGERS TEAM...... 270 FIGURE 59. HAWKEYE CHALLENGING CAPTAIN AMERICA’S LEADERSHIP ...... 270 FIGURE 60. WINTER FRIENDS ASSEMBLE!...... 275 FIGURE 61. CLINT’S FLAWS LEAD HIM INTO COMPROMISING SITUATIONS ...... 277 FIGURE 62. THE TWO HAWKEYES IN-SYNC ...... 281 FIGURE 63. CLINT ACCEPTS HIS NEW ROLE AS HIS BUILDING’S GUARDIAN ...... 283 FIGURE 64. LUCKY’S VIEW OF HIS WORLD ...... 288 FIGURE 65. LUCKY IS TASKED WITH KEEPING OVER THE BUILDING ...... 289 FIGURE 66. THE BUILDING COMMUNITY UNITED TO DEFEND THEIR HOME TOGETHER ...... 292 FIGURE 67. THE EMPTY HAND AWAITS. FIGHTING THE FORCES OF THE GENTRY IS AN ENDLESS STRUGGLE...... 295 FIGURE 68. MUST BALANCE HER SUPERHERO AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES ...... 301 FIGURE 69. THE FIRST TEAM-UP OF MS MARVEL AND THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN...... 303 FIGURE 70. JUSTICE INCARNATE...... 305

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Figure 1. Title Page. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, with , Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Young Avengers #1 (2013), p.6, . 2

“CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON”: Introduction to Superhero Narratives, Relationality and Masculinity

Nix Utoan, the Superjudge of the Multiverse in his identity as a humble comic book critic, prepares to the most improbable of threats to the safety of our reality, a comic book. The Last of the Monitors begins his investigation into the cursed Ultra Comics by performing a comic review, “in the form of a live dissection” (Morrison, 2015, p.10).1 With his investigative partner

Mr Stubbs, they transform into their superhero alter egos and travel through the Bleed of the

Multiverse in their ship the Ultima Thule to a devastated -7. Nix Utoan notes with concern that

Ultra Comics would hit the shelves of local comic book stores in a matter of hours; to which Mr Stubbs responds with, “[l]ike I always say…. Comic books can your health” (Morrison, p.12). The

Multiversal Investigators arrive on Earth-7 to find that they have walked into a trap set by The Gentry,

“the pitiless ones from behind the invisible rainbow. Opposite of everything natural.” (Morrison, p.18)

Intellectron, an evil egg with giant bat wings who serves as The Gentry’s mouthpiece,2 reveals that their end-goal was to lure Nix Utoan into a trap and transform him into one of them. “WE WANT YU.

WE WANT YU 2 GIVE UP YR DREAMS. WE WANT YU 2 ABANDON ALL HOPE. WE WANT 2 MAKE YU LIKE

US” (Morrison, p.17.) Nix Utoan agrees to join The Gentry, in exchange for the escape of The

Thunderer, an Aboriginal god he arrived on Earth-7 to protect. He is told:

IT WILL BECOME SO BAD YU MAY WISH 2 DIE OR COMMIT SUICIDE. BUT THE ANTI-

EQUATION WILL RETURN YU 2 THIS CONDITION. INDEFINITELY. THERE IS NO RELEASE FROM

THIS OF RUIN…. IN THE END YU WILL BE LIKE US AND WE WILL REJOICE TOGETHER

IN ANGUISH. THERE IS NO OPTION.

(Morrison, p.20)

1 Throughout this thesis, double quotation marks indicate direct quotes from primary research sources. Single quotation marks are used for quotes from secondary sources. 2 The Gentry are made up of Intellectron, Dame Merciless, Hellmachine, Lord Broken and Demogorgunn. They are led by The Empty Hand, a dark figure who seeks to end the with The Oblivion Machine.

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Later, as The Gentry invade Earth-8, the corrupted Nix Utoan tells the collected heroes of the multiverse, “[g]entrification. We learn from the worst. They make us like them” (Morrison, p.366).3 In his final moments before his own Gentrification, as Intellectron gloats that he is stuck in a game where the only rule is that he will lose, the Superjudge of the Multiverse is challenged by his corruptor:

“CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS, NIX UTOAN!” (Morrison, 2015, p.20).

The Multiversity (2015) is comics writer ’s exploration of DC Comics’

Multiverse. Traversing all 52 alternate universes that make up DC Comics mythology, the story is constructed out of an interconnected series of stand-alone chapters, each telling the story of a different Earth. Throughout all universes, The Gentry are trying to infect existence with their cultural poison and the only thing that can stop them is the combined effort of the greatest superheroes from throughout the Multiverse. According to Morrison, The Gentry symbolically represent, ‘the forces of nihilism and anti-human hatred, ignorance and greed and stupidity that I see every ’

(Morrison cited in Wilson, 2015). A recurring in the series is that the comic directly addresses the reader, warning of the dangers in continuing to read on. This motif reaches its apex in Ultra

Comics, in which reader are told that they have been led into a trap along with the titular superhero.

Intellectron commands the reader, “THE GENTRY HAS DEFEATED YU. THE GENTRY IS WITHIN YU.

KNEEL BEFORE YUR NEW MASTER. TURN THE PAGE. DO IT. SLAVE” (Morrison, 2015, p.339). On a symbolic level, beyond the narrative’s interest in superhero mythology, Multiversity is about the dangers of internalising destructive ideas, of letting them fester and curdle inside our consciousness to the point where they become a schema of fear and hopelessness. Morrison describes the inspiration for The Gentry as coming from asking the : ‘ we let in so many shitty, shoddy ideas that we have completely ruined the neighbourhood in there? We’ve dismantled, we’ve

3 As Kelly Kanayama has noted, it is not coincidence that when Nix Utoan is turned into a member of The Gentry the colouring of his skin is lighter than his natural darker skin . Nix Utoan’s arc in Multiversity is ‘[t]he story of a of colour being oppressed by a coded-as-white power structure.’ (Kanayama 2015) She describes the Superjudge’s fall from grace as, ‘the tragedy of Nix’s warping by The Gentry: there is enough of his original consciousness left to recognize that his Gentrification is wrong, unwanted, a betrayal of his principles, but not enough left to fight it’ (Kanayama, 2015).

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wrecked our inner houses and we’ve destroyed our inner palaces, and we’ve placed crackhouses in there, imaginatively’ (Morrison cited in Wilson, 2015). The Gentry are a cosmic horror manifestation of the fear of the corruption of culture.

So why am I starting this thesis with the story of Nix Utoan’s corruption by The Gentry? To me, his arc in Multiversity serves as a useful for understanding the state of being in the early 2020s. In global politics, we have seen a rise in authoritarianism throughout the world and a decline in democratic institutions. The White was occupied by a former reality television host whose campaign was built around fermenting xenophobic fear and dividing American society by racial lines. In his acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, President Donald

Trump made the appeal to voters that in repairing America’s political problems, ‘I alone can fix it'

(Trump cited in Applebaum, 2016). Trump’s valorisation of himself, presenting himself as the one individual who could save America, was a fissure from two of American political tradition; where leaders would appeal to the forces of God and American society on a whole to better America

(Applebaum, 2016). Trump’s campaign presented Trump as the sole individual who could resurrect the poisoned nostalgia of an America whose greatness arose through the largesse of white men; and which was sustained by silencing marginalised voices. In Freedom House’s 2018 annual report, it was found that for the twelfth successive , the number of countries that had seen democratic setbacks outnumbered those that had seen increases in the strength of democratic institutions

(Abramowitz, 2018). Similarly, the globe’s strongest autocracies of China and Russia are not just furthering internal repression but exporting their anti-democratic ideologies throughout the developed and developing world (Abramowitz, 2018). Looking at the state of global politics, it can feel like the forces of The Gentry and their manifestations of fear, greed and stupidity are ascendant.

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Figure 2. The Gentry defeat Ultra and claim dominion over the reader. Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke, with Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Keith Champagne, Jamie Mendoza (inking), Gabe Eltaeb, David Baron (colouring) and Steve Wands (lettering), The Multiversity (2005), p.339, DC Comics.

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At this time of political unrest and the persistent failure to deal with global problems, there is a juxtaposition between the extreme popularity of heroic adventure and the concurrent rise of an authoritarian political moment. This is especially true of the superhero genre, which is at the height of its cultural dominance through the global success of transmedia iterations of the genre, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the interconnected television series based off DC Comics properties. However, culture in the latter half of the 2010s has been dominated by the politicisation of popular culture - as it became another battlefield in social and political cultural wars.

Since 2014, the discussion of popular culture has been centrally concerned with a conflict between a reactionary and predominantly male fandom and a more socially progressive and diverse fandom.

The opening up of popular culture texts to representing a greater diversity of genders, ethnicities and sexual identities has created a retaliatory resentment from a sub-section of the dominant white male demographic these texts have historically appealed to. This reactionary male fandom is typically understood as ‘angry, white, heterosexual men who feel the decline of their social, political and economic capital most poignantly through these changes in popular media’ (Proctor and Kies,

2018, p.129). A change to the representational priorities of the media they consume is seen as an attack upon their identity.

The internet has become the major venue through which this cultural battle is fought.

Adrienne Massarini has identified that these reactionary fans are cultivated by a set of ‘toxic technocultures’ on online platforms such as , and YouTube (2017, p.333). These technocultures have created the breeding grounds for a form of networked misogyny, ‘an especially virulent strain of violence and hostility towards women in online environments,’ (Banet-Weiser and

Miltner, 2016, p.171). The online fandom conflicts have also been intensified by the coverage given to social media battles by internet journalism (Proctor and Kies, 2018). There have been a series of flashpoints in this throughout the 2010s. The first example of this which truly broke through to mainstream consciousness was the of 2014; a campaign of harassment and cyberbullying which claimed to be arguing for ethics in journalism but

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was in truth about silencing female and progressive voices in the video game industry. The specific targeted online harassment and terrorism towards female developers and critics such as Zoe Quinn and Leigh Alexander as part of Gamergate highlights the ill-intent of ; these attacks were a reactionary backlash to the fear that feminist creators would push the video game industry in a more progressive direction (Bezio, 2018, p.562-563). Another in this conflict was the social media reaction to The Last Jedi (2017), the eighth episode. A significant aspect of the negative social media reaction to the film came not just from viewers unhappy with the film’s quality but from viewers who saw the film as an attack on their political identity; ‘they saw its argument for equality of gender, race and class as a new leftist takeover of Star Wars, even though

Star Wars has always been left-leaning’ (Bay, 2018).4

The most relevant of these reactionary movements to my study is ; an ongoing campaign of harassment aimed at women, trans people and social progressives in the comics community. The roots of this backlash can be seen in negative responses on social media to the introduction of new diverse legacy heroes from Marvel Comics in 2014; this move was interpreted by some subsets of male comics fandom as an attack on their primacy as the main of superhero comics (Proctor and Kies, 2018, p.128). The major inciting incident of Comicsgate was the social media harassment of a group of female Marvel Comics editorial staff, after they uploaded a group selfie commemorating the passing of the first woman in the Marvel bullpen, Flo Steinberg.

Spurred on by a YouTuber/minor comics creator, Richard C. Meyer, the social media trolls portrayed these women as ‘tumblr virtue signallers’ who were ‘ruining the comics industry by their very ’ (Elbein, 2018). To Meyer and his followers, the influx of female, queer, trans and progressives into both the readership and creative community of superhero comics was an attack on the established (masculine) identity of the genre. Indeed, Meyer (a former US Army serviceman

4 Morten Bay’s study of the Twitter reaction to The Last Jedi found that the data did not support the claim from anti-fans that a majority of viewers disliked the film. He also found that there was evidence of organised attempts to politicise the discourse surrounding the film by utilising bots, sock puppets and accounts (Bay, 2018, p.28-29).

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whose previous comics work had consisted of two short ) was drawn back to superhero comics as a reaction to the growing influence of feminist creators in the industry. He described his adverse reaction to advertising for the 2012 revamp of Captain Marvel as being his radicalising moment. To him, graduation from the role of Ms. Marvel to Captain Marvel; alongside her new (less sexualised) costume was a ‘masculinisation’ of the character (Meyer cited in Elbein,

2018).5 There were a limited number of professional creators who publicly aligned themselves with

Meyer and his acolytes, however the majority of active professionals in the industry rejected his arguments as bigotry rather than sincere criticism. ’s statement on his Twitter account was one of the first public condemnations of the group from a prominent creator:

‘Comicsgate is based on fear, intolerance, bigotry and anger. The comics creators emerging today are too talented, too smart and too loud to be beaten by these weak people. It’s time we all started standing up for one another’ (Lemire, 2018). Conversely, the Comicsgate creators and fans saw themselves as the rebellion against an invasion of their world from the dastardly Social Justice

Warriors. The group was defined by Mike S. Miller, a comics artist aligned with Comicsgate:

Comicsgate is an alliance of comic book fans, critics, and creators who have found common

cause in standing up against what they see as a hard push by social warriors into their

hobby. A push that has corrupted or politicized the industry they have spent a lifetime

cultivating. Fans have simply been walking away from the hobby in droves (as the industries

falling profits attest). Critics entertain those disgruntled fans through social media and

YouTube channels, giving shape to a movement that has been years, if not , in the

making. Creators, some of whom have been the subject of blacklisting at companies run by

5 The 2012 revamp of the Captain Marvel title focused on Carol Danvers graduating from her previous role as Ms Marvel and taking on the title held by her , the Mar-Vell. Scripted by Kelly-Sue DeConnick, the series focused upon Danvers’ as an and was an overtly feminist text. The new uniform designed by artist Jamie McKelvie, moved away from her bathing suit design as Ms Marvel and towards a flight suit influenced design.

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said SJW’s, have found common cause with critics and fans alike, and thus was born an

alliance: Comicsgate.

(Miller, 2018)

Comicsgate seems as if it is constantly on the brink of collapse as a formalised group.6 However it seems evident that whatever the future of the individuals at the forefront of this sub-section of comics culture; the toxic technoculture they have fermented remains behind.

Clearly superhero iconography and can be utilised for the purposes of supporting destructive models of nationalism, authority and masculinity. As demonstrated by Comicsgate and other far right-wing attempts to infiltrate superhero fandom, there is the potential to draw on superhero iconography to enflame and radicalise a reactionary male fandom into broader political . Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones talking with alt-right Fiction writer praised

Day’s line of self-published right-wing superhero comics, saying, ‘I realise that this is information warfare and comics are paramount right now because they’re archetypal, and it’s something the enemy completely controls’ (Jones cited in Centre for Investigative Journalism and PRX, 2018).

Perhaps the best example of superhero iconography being twisted towards the support of oppressive ideologies was vocalised by rapper Kanye West in his Oval Office meeting with President

Trump:

You know, they tried to scare me to not wear this hat7 — my own friends. But this hat, it

gives me — it gives me power, in a way. You know, my dad and my mom separated, so I

didn’t have a lot of male energy in my home. And also, I’m married to a family that —

(laughs) — you know, not a lot of male energy going on. It’s beautiful, though. But there’s

times where, you know, there’s something about — you know, I love Hillary. I love

6 Ethan Van Sciver, the comics artist most closely associated with the group, has left and rejoined the group multiple times. Richard Meyer deactivated his Twitter account which was the one of the main public faces of #comicsgate after his crowdfunded comic was mocked on the social network. 7 West refers here to the Make America Great Again baseball cap, which is the most iconic symbol of Trump’s presidential campaign.

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everyone, right? But the campaign “I’m with her” just didn’t make me feel, as a guy, that

didn’t get to see my dad all the time — like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was

something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a

Superman. That was my — that’s my favorite superhero. And you made a Superman cape.

(West cited in Remarks of President Trump in Meeting with Kanye West and Jim Brown,

2018)

In this meeting, Kanye West articulates how the strong-man and symbolism of Trump’s campaign spoke to him on a deep level. To him, the red MAGA baseball cap has a similar transformative masculine power as Superman’s cape. This is despite Trump’s deep unpopularity in

West’s hip-hop community and the destructiveness of Trump’s policies on the African American community West claims to lobby for. When considering this example of the meanings that can be derived from superhero iconography, perhaps we should amend Mister Stubbs’ statement to read

“[c]omic books can damage society’s health.”

From the earliest days of the superhero genre, it has been maligned by cultural critics from both the left and right. From the left, the claim against the genre is that it teaches a fascistic might-makes-right ideology; in which superpowers serve as a stand-in for an oppressive capitalistic power-elite. From the right, superheroes’ disregard for the authority of state power and their appeal to society’s freaks and means that they are role models for furthering degeneracy.

Occasionally these twin concerns will converge, as in ’s Seduction of the Innocent

(1954), where Wertham’s Frankfurt School inspired critique of comic books as a form of mass culture also expressed moralistic regarding queer readings of Batman and Wonder Woman. Wertham found an ally in the Joseph McCarthy led House of Un-American Activities Committee, and the

American comic book industry became another victim of the paranoia gripping America in the 1950s.

Furthermore, in both academic and popular literature one of the core complaints against superhero narratives is that they are primarily hyper-masculine power fantasies which only serve to

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ideologically valorise heroic individualism. In a recent example from the popular press, journalist

Tanya Gold wrote an op-ed for that decried the influence superheroes had on her son and largely wrote the heroes off as ‘bad role models...the unexceptional man made exceptional by tragedy’ (Gold, 2018). In the academic world, we can look to the likes of Robert Jewett and John

Shelton Lawrence who see the Superhero as a figure ‘of the American monomyth [who] does not free us from violence, but perpetuates it even as he claims to be a force for “peace” in his own use of rationalized violence’ (Jewett and Lawrence, 2009, p.400). To Jewett and Lawrence, the American monomyth is defined by stories of a lone violent male who stands apart from society to protect it from hostile forces. By this reading, the sexist reactionary male fandom or the appropriation of superhero iconography by President Trump is a consequence of the genre’s popularity. Superheroes are another in The Gentry’s army of fear.

The central argument of this thesis sits in opposition to this approach to the superhero. In this thesis, I am arguing that it is a mistake to write off the superhero genre as simply a vehicle that valorises individualism and expressions of reactionary masculinity. Rather, through close readings of a series of key characters and texts, I will demonstrate that the superhero genre is a multifaceted narrative genre that is part of a dialogue on these topics of community and masculinity between fans, creators and the broader public. This thesis therefore outlines an argument against the

‘received wisdom’ which is summarised in the introduction of The Superhero Reader that the genre is, ‘of necessity formulaic, masculinist, melodramatic and morally reductive’ (Hatfield, Heer &

Worcester, 2013, p.xiv). To write the superhero off as simply an ‘adolescent male power fantasy’ fails to recognise the complexity of these characters, the history of the genre and the potential for superhero narratives to alternative models of masculinity. This thesis does not seek to suggest that there is nothing problematic about the superhero genre’s approach to masculinity; but rather that the genre is constantly in a dialogue about these ideas and that largely superhero stories lean towards modelling positive visions of relationality and masculinity.

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The core contribution of this thesis is to Superhero Studies rather than Comic Studies. The two fields of study are interwoven; however, conflation of the comics medium with the superhero genre in the mainstream press creates a scenario in which a sub-sect of comics scholars, creators and critics seek to disavow the genre from the canon of graphic literature (Saunders, 2011, p.114).8

In the appendix to his book Do the Gods Wear Capes? (2011), Ben Saunders makes an argument against creating a hierarchal division within Comics Studies over questions of genre and the low/high art dichotomy:

We don’t need to have our version of the fight that some music critics got into in the 1970s

over the merits of rock versus disco (or that a rather earlier generation of literary critics got

into over the merits of versus the ).

(Saunders, 2011, p.117-118)

In this study, I examine the formalistic aspects of certain comics texts where appropriate; however, I primarily focus on examining narratives and characters rather than the texts’ use of the comics medium itself. This fits into the dominant trend within Superhero Studies wherein research focuses primarily on allegorical, symbolic and psychological interpretations of the genre (Saunders, 2011, p.117). Whilst Superhero Studies encompasses the entirety of the genre’s transmedia manifestations, apart from certain points where adaptions are relevant to my analysis of specific texts and characters, I focus primarily on the superhero genre within comic books in this thesis.

There are a few core reasons why I have constrained my research primarily to this field. Firstly, the comic book medium is the birthplace of the superhero genre, and any considered research into the genre that does not address the superhero’s roots in comics only examines one aspect of the genre’s

8 Whilst I utilise the terms Golden Age (1938-1950), Silver Age (1956-1970), Bronze Age (1975-1985) and Modern Age (1985-present) throughout the thesis at points to designate historical periods in American superhero comics, it is worth highlighting that this terminology is only used in reference to the superhero comic genre. Utilising them as a shorthand to talk about the entirety of the American comics industry excludes everything else produced in the medium and makes the sort of ‘all comic books equal superheroes’ mistake that is made all too often in the press.

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history and meaning. Secondly, the lowered costs involved in producing comics compared to films, television or video games means that comics can experiment with the genre in terms of formalism and creative risks to a greater extent than more expensive mediums.9 Thirdly, the long history of superheroes in comic books allows for the examination of the ongoing dialogue that has existed within the genre surrounding notions of relationality and masculinity.

Some of the earliest critical writing on superheroes presented a negative interpretation of the genre. Walter Ong, in his 1945 essay ‘The Comics and the Super State’, saw superheroes as part of a herdist ideology in concert with that of the fascist ideology of Nazi Germany. Ong described

Superman as, ‘a super state type of hero, with definite interest in the ideologies of herdist politics’

(Ong, 2013, p.36).10 Ong saw superhero comics as evidence of a regressive popular culture which would encourage children to submit to totalitarian ideologies and encourage infantilisation. In discussing a Wonder Woman story, Ong suggests it presents a ‘world where adult problems are evaporated as the twitching of the mind subsides’ (Ong, 2013, p.39). As previously discussed, Fredric

Wertham’s polemic on comic books was similarly focused on the damage that the medium could do to young minds. Few books have had as devastating an on the target of their critique as the one Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent had on the comic book industry. Whilst Wertham’s main topic of concern was the influence of crime and ,11 he also had strong objections towards the superhero genre. As mentioned previously, Wertham demonised queer readings of

Wonder Woman and Batman. He also pushed a similar argument to Ong, labelling Superman as a fascist power fantasy whose use of violence made him a psychologically damaging role-model for children. In a point of critique that later creators would put into the mouth of Superman’s arch-

9 The in which Hollywood strip-mines the original comics for source material is rapidly increasing, however. Whilst it took over 40 years for the first adaption of the original Spider-Man to hit cinema screens in 2002; it took only seven years for the of the second Spider-Man, Miles Morales and four years for Spider-Gwen to star in a cinematic adventure with Spider-Man: the Spider-Verse (2018). 10 Page number references refer to the republished edition of the article in The Superhero Reader (2013). 11 Ironically, Wertham’s crusade against comics was bad for the overall medium but good for the superhero comic. The stringent self-regulation of the new made genres like crime and horror unprofitable for publishers. The Silver Age of superhero comics was a response to these changing commercial circumstances.

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, Wertham suggests that, ‘[superheroes] [p]sychologically, undermine the authority and the dignity of the ordinary man and women in the minds of children’ (Wertham, 2013, p.49). The early critiques of the superhero genre were very much overly concerned with the idea that costumed adventurers were a bad influence on the young.

Umberto Eco’s ‘The of Superman’ (1972) is one of the major articles in the pre-history of Superhero Studies. Whilst Eco does not make a moral argument against the superhero in the manner of Ong and Wertham his analysis is largely critical of the hero and the genre. Eco’s identification of Superman stories existing in an ‘oneiric climate’ in which the past and future was hazy and there seemed to be no repercussions in future stories was an important insight into the genre (Eco, 1972, p.17). Comics creators and superhero scholars are still struggling with the problems of temporality raised by Eco, as I will address in Chapter Two. The other major point of critique in Eco’s essay is his point that Superman is a ‘perfect example of civic consciousness, completely split from political consciousness’ (Eco, p.22). Eco’s questioning of the nature of the use of power by the superhero predates that question, becoming the central concern of the revisionist superhero narratives of the 1980s and 2000s.

Within modern Superhero Studies, there are similar scholars who have taken an oppositional focus towards the figure of the superhero. Foremost among them are the aforementioned John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett who in their books The Myth of the

American Superhero (2002) and Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil (2003) treat superheroes more as a ‘value-laden symbol rather than a codified narrative genre’ (Hatfield, Heer &

Worcester, 2013, p.xiv). Lawrence and Jewett see superheroes as part of a broader American monomyth and conflate superheroes with cinematic action and western heroes. To Lawrence and

Jewett, the ‘transformation into superheroes renders them [superheroes] incapable of democratic citizenship’ (Lawrence and Jewett, 2013, p.83). Their interpretation of the superhero sees the genre as being profoundly undemocratic and incapable of presenting anything other than a might-makes-

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right ideology. However, as Saunders states in his critique of Lawrence and Jewett’s reading of the genre, their understanding of the superhero as part of an American monomyth rarely takes into account how conscious superhero stories are of ‘the contradiction between will-to-power and the will-to-good expressed in the basic superhero fantasy’ (Saunders, 2013, p.115). It is noteworthy that despite naming their second book after the character, they do not address any actual Captain

America comics in their analysis. Lawrence and Jewett see him only as a symbol of zealous nationalism and they conclude their argument calling for ‘a creative rechannelling of Captain

America’s to ‘fight for right’ toward a religious commitment that is shaped by both self- critical questioning and a sense of hope about the possibilities of peace’ (Lawrence and Jewett,

2003, p.324). However, as Chris Yogerst points out in his own critique of Lawrence and Jewett’s understanding of the genre, the duo do not address the long-history of self-critical questioning that has been found in Captain America’s (and other heroes) published adventures (Yogerst, 2017, p.14).

Dan Hassler-Forest’s Capitalist Superheroes (2012), is another modern text that primarily seeks to critique the relationship between the superhero film genre and post-9/11 neoliberal capitalism.

Hassler-Forest argues that overall there is a ‘disturbing worldview in which the nostalgic desire for an earlier form of modern capitalism is accompanied by patriarchal forms of authority’ (Hassler-

Forest, 2012, p.260). To these critics of the superhero genre, that the genre has been latched onto by reactionary male and figures such as Trump is read as a consequence of superhero narratives rather than an aberration. Part of the purpose of this thesis is therefore to examine superhero texts which challenge these desires Hassler-Forest suggests were overwhelmingly apparent in the superhero film. To increase the scope of research outside just cinematic emanations of the genre allows for a more nuanced understanding of how the superhero narrative has negotiated these tensions historically and in the present day.

From the late 1980s onwards superhero scholarship began to be understood as a serious area of cultural inquiry in concert with the growth in general critical appreciation for the genre.

Richard Reynolds’ Superheroes: A Modern Mythology (1992) was one of the first major academic

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monographs to tackle the genre. As suggested by the title, one of the core focuses of the book was in establishing the superhero as part of a broader mythological tradition. Critical scholarship of the genre has greatly increased within the last two decades, with dedicated comics journals such as

Journal of Comics and Graphic and ImageText regularly running articles examining the superhero.12 There are also books which focus on specific creatives such as Charles Hatfield’s Hand of : The Comics Art of (2011) and Marc Singer’s Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics (2011). Critical texts from outside academia, such as Morrison’s own autobiography/history of superheroes Supergods (2011) and Glenn Weldon’s The Caped Crusade:

Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture (2017) have also made valuable contributions to superhero scholarship.

An area of particular concern to this thesis is how superheroes have been analysed through the lens of gender. Lillian Robinson’s Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes (2004) is one of the first major book length texts to examine gender in the genre; with a focus on how female superheroes have reflected feminist thinking. Other texts such as Brooker’s Hunting the Dark Knight:

Twenty-First Century Batman (2012) deals deeply with ideas of masculinity encoded within the

Batman mythos. Carol A. Stabile’s 2009 article ‘Sweetheart, This Ain’t Gender Studies: Sexism and

Superheroes’ is perhaps indicative of a certain trend in some gender focused scholarship of superheroes; in that it takes a small sample of the genre (the television series Heroes) and extrapolates the failings of that text to label the entire genre as sexist and masculinist.

The perspicacious fan may point to the rare female superhero (like Wonder Woman)

or attempts on the part of comic book authors to diversify their heroic legions (like

DC Comics’ version of Kate Kane, a redesigned , created by comic book

artist as a Jewish ‘‘lipstick’’ lesbian) to counter my assertions about gender

12 Individual chapters deal with the academic scholarship on the characters focused upon in the chapter in greater depth.

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and superheroes. True, there have been efforts to depict women as ‘‘superheroines’’ or

otherwise preternaturally heroic, but such efforts have long foundered on the gendered

shoals of the protection scenario...

(Stabile, 2009, p.88)

A different approach is shown in essays such as Neal Curtis and Valentina Cardo’s ‘Superheroes and

Third-Wave Feminism’ (2017), which demonstrates a more nuanced reading on the representation of gender in the genre. Crucially, Curtis and Cardo engage with recent examples of female superheroes and suggest that an increasing representation of female creators in superhero comics has led to an increase in feminist themes in these stories.

The development of Superhero Studies can be mapped contemporaneously to the development of Masculinity Studies. Over the past few decades, the study of masculinity has responded to feminist theorisations of gender as well as the idea that dominant patriarchal masculinity is in a state of . Much of the research on masculinity has been shaped by R.W.

Connell’s 1995 research in her book Masculinities. In the book, Connell’s key theory is to suggest that different kinds of masculinity exist in ‘relations of alliance, dominance and subordination,’

(2020, p.1327). Hegemonic masculinity as a concept was defined in relation to other forms of masculinity; namely, ‘complicit’, ‘subordinate’ and ‘marginalised’ masculinities. For Connell, hegemonic masculinity is a cultural project that typically presents an idealised white/European heterosexual masculinity as the only acceptable version. Yet, even if men do not meet these

‘normative definitions of masculinity’ they can still ‘benefit from the patriarchal dividend, the advantage that men in general gain from the overall subordination of women,’ (2020, p.2133). Later critiques of the concept focused upon how few men live up to the ideals of hegemonic masculinity; however it can be argued that holding up specific individual examples of hegemonic masculinity is less important than understanding that these models express ‘widespread ideals, fantasies and desires’ (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005, p.838). The impact of hegemonic masculinity on culture is that ‘gender inequality is often broadly accepted and unquestioned’ (Messerschmidt, 2019, p.89).

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Further, and as Christopher Forth (2008) argues, much of the perceived crisis of masculinity comes from the dissonance between the increasingly deemphasised physicality of life for modern men in the Western World versus the hegemonic masculine ideal.

There have been attempts from both ends of the ideological spectrum to re-conceive masculinity in response to the gender studies critique of the concept. Working progressively are theorists such as Karla Elliott who presents a model of ‘caring masculinity’ which can be used to supplant the dominant hegemonic model. Influenced by feminist care ethics, caring masculinities are a ‘rejection of domination and the incorporation of values of care into masculine identities’ (Elliott,

2016, p.241). This response considers the negative social impact of individualistic and competitive masculine gender roles and tries to redefine masculinity in a manner which recognises men’s relational connections rather than emphasising lone heroism. In this sense, caring masculinities are also relational masculinities:

I propose that caring masculinities can be seen as masculine identities that exclude

domination and embrace the affective, relational, emotional, and interdependent qualities

of care identified by feminist theorists of care. There is no place for these positive emotions

in dominating hegemonic masculinity.

(Elliott, 2016, p.252-253)

At the other end of the ideological spectrum; the response from reactionary thinkers seeking to maintain the status quo of society’s gender roles has been a doubling down on arguments for the essential differences between men and women, and blaming feminist influences for perverting men away from traditional ideals. The most prominent modern-day intellectual presenting this revanchist approach to masculinity is the Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson. He came to prominence in

2016 when he released YouTube videos outlining his opposition to Canadian laws which aimed to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity and the broader concept of political correctness

(Beauchamp, 2016). Peterson’s stance against identity politics appealed to a young (and primarily)

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male audience that discovered his work through YouTube and other internet platforms such as

4Chan and Reddit (van de Ven and van Gemert, 2020, p.3), and he became the foremost public intellectual arguing against the feminist critique of hegemonic masculinity. In his best-selling self- help book 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos13 (2018); Peterson uses evolutionary biology to argue that the hierarchical social structure of lobsters can be read as a precursor of human society and thus a replication of alpha-male hierarchies in humanity is a natural occurrence. To Peterson,

‘dominance hierarchies have been an essentially permanent feature of the environment to which all complex life has adapted’ (2018, p.28). Later in the book, he explicitly endorses the idea that ‘[m]en enforce a code of behaviour on each other…. Don’t, in the immortal words of Arnold

Schwarzenegger, be a girlie man’ (2018, p.219). These are two diametrically opposed responses to the critique of masculinity; one seeks to reimagine masculinity and the other is focused on reinforcing its existing dominant codes.

In terms of the approach that I take towards gender in this study, I am most concerned with examining how superhero narratives negotiate these different impulses with regards to masculinity.

There are superhero narratives which primarily prop up a toxic hyper-masculinity and others which model what I believe is a healthy, positive masculinity. The rise of reactionary male fandoms in recent years makes it especially important to understand what messages concerning masculinity are being presented in cultural texts and how they are understood by audiences. A point that is raised by both Saunders and Jeffrey A. Brown is that cultural and fan studies have shown a tendency to

‘reduce gendered media use to the level of women as active resistors and men as complicit dupes’

(Brown cited in Saunders, 2013, p.115). This tendency highlights one of the reasons why I have tried to focus on the messages about masculinity and relationality encoded within the superhero genre.

There needs to be a greater understanding of how male audiences interpret these stories that are generally aimed at a male demographic; especially if the interpretive framework of Comicsgate is to

13 To connect Peterson back to the main subject of this study; the illustrations in 12 Rules For Life were provided by Comicsgate affiliated artist Ethan Van Sciver.

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be exposed as a misrepresentation. A core aim of this thesis is therefore to understand the ways in which the superhero genre does not solely ‘reaffirm masculinist-fascist hegemony’ (Saunders, 2013, p.115) but can also be embraced as an iterative, connected and humanist of masculinity.

This thesis is structured around five chapters. The first chapter is focused on the character of

Batman and his relationships with significant others. The chapter compares and contrasts two dominant versions of Batman, a ‘Gothic’ Batman and a ‘Relational’ Batman. Batman as a character has constantly been pulled towards one of these two versions by various fans and creators. In the former version Batman’s relationships are often depicted as weakening him, whereas the latter version depicts them as supporting and making him stronger. Essentially, Batman can be depicted as a grim and angry solitary masculinity or as a more positive-relational and care-focused version of masculinity, and this ties into the questions about masculinity at the heart of my thesis.

The second chapter focuses on the character of Spider-Man and my own relationship to

Spider-Man as a fan. Drawing inspiration from other auto-ethnographic studies of superhero comics, in this chapter I map how my own relationship with a superhero has changed over time, impacting my own negotiation of (masculine) subjectivity. This of change is paralleled in the chapter through an examination of how the comic book superhero genre addresses change and maturation of a superhero, with particular reference to Spider-Man.

The third and fourth chapters of the thesis are focused upon the construct of the superhero team. Chapter three focuses on three of the earliest superhero teams, The Justice Society of

America, The Justice League of America and The Fantastic Four. Chapter four analyses The Authority,

The Ultimates and Young Avengers. In each analysis I look at how these superhero teams conceptualise both the relationships between the individual superheroes and the broader relationship between superheroes and the state. I also focus on one specific character in each team to demonstrate how understandings of gender have evolved throughout the history of the superhero genre.

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The fifth chapter looks at the relationship between superheroes and the public they protect.

The chapter examines three texts: and ’ Watchmen (1986), Gotham

Central (2002-2005) and and Dave Aja’s Hawkeye (2012-2015). Collectively, these texts explore the relationship between superheroes and ordinary people, incrementally developing a focus on the importance of community. They also the telling stories from underrepresented perspectives, serving to diversify the voices and viewpoints expressed within the superhero genre.

The core argument of this study is that the superhero narrative is a complex and multifaceted genre through which a cultural dialogue surrounding notions of individuality, masculinity, and relational thinking is explored and negotiated. The goal of this examination is to demonstrate that writing off the superhero genre as just an ‘adolescent male power fantasy’ fails to recognise the complexity of the characters, the history of the genre or the potential for these narratives to challenge notions of individualist exceptionalism or hegemonic masculinity.

Let us return to the moment of Nix Utoan’s corruption at the hands of The Gentry. In his final moments before his fall he is set a challenge, a chance to win The Gentry’s rigged game.

“CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS” (Morrison, 2015, p.20) Nix Utoan is told. At the end of Multiversity, it is revealed which weapons The Superjudge chose to win the impossible fight. On Earth-33, the corrupted Nix Utoan leads The Gentry’s forces in a final stand against the combined Hall of Heroes.

However, as Mister Stubbs says, The Gentry created their own defeat, “[t]hey wanted him to open the doors—to let him into the multiverse – and he did. But doors open both ways. He turned The

Gentry’s victory inside out” (Morrison, 2015, p.369). Nix Utoan is freed from his involuntary servitude to The Gentry through the combined forces of an army of Speedster heroes lead by Red

Racer. “Choose your weapons... they said.... I chose YOU” (Morrison 2015 378). When challenged by the forces of ignorance, greed and self-loathing; Nix Utoan chose to put his faith in Superheroes to save the day. Like Utoan’s last stand, this thesis is my argument in favour of the superhero’s

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importance and value. An understanding of the positive community and progressive gender ethics demonstrated and explored in superhero comics can help us to conceptualise a better way to understand subjectivity in the twenty-first century.

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Figure 3. The grand army of speedsters free Nix Utoan from his corruption by The Gentry. Grant Morrison and Ivan Reis, with Joe Prado, Eber Ferreira, Jamie Mendoza (inking), Dan Brown, Jason Wright, Blond (colouring) and (lettering), The Multiversity (2015), p.378, DC Comics.

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I Am Batman/I Am Gotham: The Dark Knight as an Example of Gothic Subjectivity and Relational Thinking

THE JOKER: We’re going to correct it all tonight. Because now I’m here! I’ve come back to

save you! Save you from the ones you call your allies. Your table. The ones who make you

slow. The ones who make you weak. I’m here to take them down one by one….

….. So that you may be reborn as -Man this city deserves!

(Snyder, 2012, p.21-22)

In the 2012 storyline Batman: Death of the Family,14 Batman’s greatest enemy The Joker returns to after a mysterious absence. In his own mind, The Joker is returning to strengthen the Batman, who he sees as Gotham City’s king. To this Clown Prince of Crime, the allies and Batman has surrounded himself have made Batman weak. That Batman had grown from being a lone to working with others such as Robin, and was a sign to

The Joker that Batman had softened with age. This family weakened his eternal rival. From The

Joker’s perspective, the interlopers sitting around Batman’s table needed to be eliminated so that

Gotham’s King would be free once again to be a lone creature of the night; forever warring with his grotesque adversaries.

Scott Snyder and ’s story reflects debates that have surrounded the character of

Batman throughout his 75-year history. Created in 1939 by and ,15 Batman has been one of the most commercially successful and culturally relevant characters of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Originally introduced in the pages of #27 (1939),

Batman’s adventures have been published continuously by DC Comics throughout the past 80 years.

14 Written by and illustrated by Greg Capullo 15 However it was not until 2015 that the Created by credit on Batman was amended from solely recognising Bob Kane, to reading ‘[c]reated by Bob Kane with Bill Finger.’

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Batman is now a massive transmedia franchise, encompassing comic books, television series, feature films and video games. Though often presented as a lone vigilante figure, it is just as common within

Batman texts to see the character working in partnership with other superheroes such as Robin and

Batgirl. These protégés and associated characters have become an integral part of the character’s life in text and on a meta level as part of the branding of the Batman Universe. These heroes, ‘a group of allies, partners, and other affiliated characters that the comics industry and fans refer to as the Batman Family,16’ (Brown, 2019, p.76) is one of the largest and most popular supporting casts in superhero narratives. Yet, in Death of the Family, The Joker serves as a stand-in for readers, audiences and producers who prefer Batman as a lone vigilante figure. In the story, The Joker represents the opinions of fans and creators who consider that the presence of sidekicks like Robin the Boy Wonder weaken Batman and make him a less compelling and dark figure. The Joker’s aim in

Snyder and Capullo’s story is to return Batman to the position he was in at the start of his career; a lone figure fighting monsters and madmen.

The Batman franchise can of course be used as a way to understand how popular culture has integrated and dealt with broader cultural concerns. One particular cultural concern that is addressed within the Batman narrative is the tension between individualistic models of subjectivity, where subjects are conceived as separate autonomous beings and relational models of subjectivity, where relationships are seen as crucial to subject formation. There has always been a tension between Batman being presented as a solitary figure and Batman as a relational figure. This reflects broader cultural questions about the implications and effects of how we conceive the relationship between individuals and communities, and this debate is most fraught when it interacts with questions of masculinity. Ideal hegemonic masculinity in Western culture privileges individual subjectivity, or a manhood defined through self-directed action. The male hero stands apart from family and society. In this worldview, the relational role of caring about others (particularly children)

16 The Batman Family as a is taken from a comic series published by DC from 1975 to 1978 which focused primarily on Robin and Batgirl, entitled Batman Family.

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is disproportionally placed upon women. Batman is a character/icon who in many ways represents an idealised form of individualistic masculinity, but in many narratives his more relational orientation is also explored. The ways in which Batman can alternatively serve as both the solitary male subject and the core figure in a community of altruistic heroes makes him an ideal subject for studying these differing ideas of identity formation, particularly as they intersect with masculinity.

In this chapter, I therefore identify two different variations of Batman. Firstly, I explore what

I term the Gothic Batman; denoting depictions of Batman most closely tied to the Gothic .

Examining the influence of the Gothic on Batman opens up ways of exploring the concepts of subjectivity and masculinity that have produced this figure, particularly the depiction of Batman as a highly individuated loner. Secondly, I examine the Relational Batman; versions of Batman which highlight his relationships with others and demonstrates the potential for Batman to serve as a cultural representation of relational thinking. Both visions of Batman are represented in the franchise’s canon. The character/franchise has lasted for 80 years and has therefore been shaped by countless different creators at different points in history. Each generation’s Batman is a response to the wider social, historical, political and aesthetic concerns of the time he is reinvented for. The multiplicity of Batman is part of his appeal. However, in this study I aim to prove The Joker wrong.

The grim solitary vigilante is not the one true Batman; in fact, the publishing history of the character presents Batman/Bruce Wayne as more often than not a relational being. He creates a substitute family which replaces the one that was violently ripped from him as a child and he processes his trauma by channelling it into the service of a greater goal of care and protection. Batman exists in the (Sisyphean) hope that no one else must experience the same loss as him.

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Figure 4. The Joker makes his argument that his family has made Batman weak. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo with Jonathan Glapion (inking), FCO Plascencia (colouring) and and Jimmy Beatancourt (lettering), ‘Funny Bones’, Batman #14 (2012), p. 24, DC Comics.

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The Gothic Batman Across all iterations of the Batman franchise, encompassing comic books, feature films, animation and video games, the character of The Batman and the storyworld he inhabits has always been deeply entwined with the Gothic. The term Gothic is most commonly used to signify the of , but the Gothic tradition spreads far beyond literature alone. Indeed, in his book The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction (2012), Nick Groom suggests that Gothic thought is an integral building block in the development of critical theory (Groom, 2012, p.xiv). According to

Groom, the Gothic can be looked at as an umbrella term for transgressive thought, marginality and the concept of ‘otherness’ (Groom, 2012). The Gothic tradition has mined ‘the manifestations of nearly two thousand years of cultural fears’ (Groom, 2012, p.xv) and therefore serves as a space for understanding cultural anxieties and contradictions.

In this section, I situate the Batman franchise within the Gothic tradition and outline major

Gothic themes and concerns that are present within the Batman mythos. The Batman mythos fits comfortably as an expression of the contemporary American Gothic, which usually explores concepts such as America’s difficult and bloody racial history or the pressures of urban life (Groom,

2012, p.112). The influence of Gothic conventions and themes can be seen throughout the entire transmedia Batman franchise, with Gothic themes and visuals playing a prominent role in Batman comic books, films and video games. An important feature of the Batman franchise’s debt to Gothic traditions is also its representation of its , the dual role of Batman and Bruce Wayne. This duality reflects Batman’s Gothic forbears, a example being Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from Robert

Louis Stevenson’s classic novel; ‘Batman is a modern Gothic, a modern answer to the Calvinistic,

Scottish threat of losing control over one’s dark and evil side’ (Reichstein, 1998, p.350). Indeed,

Batman’s popularity is tied into his connections to core Gothic themes. ‘Like any enduring Gothic figure, Batman’s regenerative cultural power depends on his ambivalence, his ethical complexity and moral ambiguity’ (Monnet, 2012, p.96). Part of the reason why Batman has endured is because these Gothic anxieties have persisted into the twenty-first century, even if they take on new guises.

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The examination of cultural contradictions and anxieties within the Gothic has been comprehensively undertaken by scholarship focused on Gothic literature. Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel is generally recognised as being the first example of the Gothic novel

(Botting, 1996, p.30). Subsequently, Gothic narratives began to develop certain literary conventions; character archetypes such as ‘[s]pectres, monsters, demons, corpses, skeletons, evil aristocrats, monks and nuns, fainting heroines’ populated the Gothic novel, presented as “suggestive figures of imagined and realistic threats”’ (Botting, 1996, p.2). Gothic literature also grew out of the Romantic response to Enlightenment ideology that problematised Enlightenment belief in the overriding power of reason (Smith, 2007, p.2). Later, Gothic literature such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

(1818) would incorporate science into the Gothic tradition, using the Gothic mode to speculate upon the potential risks of unchecked scientific progress. This created the archetype of the mad scientist, which would become one of the most enduring character types in Gothic fiction. Gothic narratives have come to be defined by their shadowing of the progress of modernity, demonstrating the darker side of the values of the Enlightenment and humanism (Botting, 1996, p.1). The Gothic tradition has thus focussed on bringing to the fore ambivalences surrounding modernity and the push-pull effect between the ideals of Western civilisation and the darker underbelly of those ideals.

Modernity is one of the most complex and malleable concepts in critical thought, but it is always connected to ideas of change and the appearance of the new in society. In relation to the ideals of the Enlightenment, modernity is often characterised as a process ‘of “the light” overcoming

“the dark”’ (Punter, 2007a, p.5). The Enlightenment marks the point in Western history where the modern became a valorised term and it birthed the myth that through the process of civilisation, humanity (specifically a privileged European version of humanity) was overcoming its ‘darker origins’ and destroying the old world of superstition, prejudice and ignorance (Punter, 2007a, p.3). The

Gothic mode is a remnant of these darker origins, bringing to the fore the weight of history and making apparent the pre-modern fears, superstitions and prejudices still impacting the modernising world. In this respect, the Gothic mode predates post-modernist thought as a critique of modernity.

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A prime ideological tenet of modernity is the belief in the capacity of scientific or rational knowledge to overcome the dark areas of the unconscious mind; however, the modernising process is also pushing society towards an unknown future (Punter, 2007a, p.28). The consequences of this process of modernisation cannot be ascertained, and neither can it be ascertained how the changes wrought by modernity would clash with or encounter the prior history modernity sets itself in opposition to.

The Gothic tradition often functions as a method to examine the conflict between such old and .

Modernity is also a process that never comes to completion. ‘Modernity is different from the past but also more crucially, it is not merely the same as the present’ (Punter, 2007a, p.8).

Modernity is a state of temporal flux; it can only be defined by the constant change it brings to society. Marshall Berman suggests that modernity both unites and divides all of humanity, creating an environment in which modern technology and experiences create the potential for the whole world to be connected, but also creating disunity by perpetuating a constant cycle of disintegration and renewal (Berman, 2010, p.15). One critique Berman presents of modernity comes from a

Marxist perspective. Berman invokes Marx’s argument that modernity is built upon a bourgeois capitalist system in which all products of that society, from consumer goods to corporations and governments, are built to be endlessly torn down and replaced endlessly in a more profitable form

(Berman, 2010, p.99). Berman explicitly connects this Marxist critique of capitalism to the Gothic critique of modernity. Marx described the bourgeois society as having lost control of the industrial means of production, in the same way that archetypal Gothic sorcerers lose control of the forces of the underworld they have summoned. Indeed, Marx’s depiction of modernity’s ostensibly rational power structures often characterises them as supernatural forces and can also be understood through the lens of an archetype developed in Gothic literature, that of the overreaching scientist

(as established by Shelley in Frankenstein) (Berman, 2010, p.101).

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Sigmund Freud’s concept of the uncanny is another important aspect of the development of the Gothic in the twentieth century. Freud suggests that ‘an uncanny effect often arises when the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred’ (trans. McLintock, 2003, p.309). In relation to

Freud’s use of the term uncanny, it can be defined as ‘a feeling that relates to a dialectic between that which is known and that which is unknown’ (Punter, 2007b, p.130). The sense of the uncanny is spurred on by the feeling that the barriers between what is known and what is unknown are in danger of collapsing (Punter, 2007b). The uncanny is connected to the Gothic because both concepts suggest that there are limits to our understanding and suggest forms of knowledge that run counter to our normal expectations of reality (Punter, 2007b, p.131-132).

Gothic Origins The earliest Batman stories were steeped in the genre traditions of Gothic fiction and Batman himself exhibits many of the features of a traditional Gothic protagonist. Gothic fiction typically delves into themes such as conflicts between the present and a returning past, transgression and , the aesthetics of fear and a blurring of the boundaries of reality and fantasy. (Spooner and McEvoy, 2007, p.1). The early Batman stories were defined by an aesthetic filled with ‘crime, madness and the supernatural’ (Morrison, 2011, p.22). Kane and Finger’s original Batman melded together two of the most popular figures of Victorian literature, putting together the scientific rationalism of Sherlock

Holmes with the menacing aesthetic of . This amalgamation is evident in one of the earliest

Batman stories,17 which takes place across Detective Comics #31 (1939) and Detective Comics #32

(1939), in which Batman fights the vampiric The Monk. Kane’s cover to Detective Comics

#31 depicts a vast ghostly Batman overlooking a fog-enshrouded castle, with the red hooded Monk carrying an unconscious woman in the foreground. Grant Morrison describes the cover as visually depicting ‘Batman as Dracula, the vampire as hero, preying on even more unwholesome creatures of the night’ (Morrison, 2011, p.22). The story itself draws heavy inspiration from Bram Stoker’s Dracula

17 Which was written by prolific Golden Age comics writer Gardner .

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(1897).18 The begins with Batman finding his fiancé hypnotised by The Mad Monk.

Julie plays the same role in the comic that Mina Harker plays in the novel and as with Stoker’s Dracula,

Gardner Fox and Kane’s vampires can shapeshift into wolves as well as bats. Furthering the Gothic aesthetic of the story, the plot also moves from the new world of to the old-world locations of Paris and Hungary, described as “the land of history and ” (Fox, 1939, p.3).

Fox and Kane highlight the ways in which Batman strikes a fearsome visage to others and utilises modern technology to create the illusion of being a monster. When Batman first utilises the

Bat-Gyro, an aircraft that from afar has the of a giant bat, the crowds underneath see its silhouette and panic. Julie describes the shape as being ‘[a] monster bat! Flying over the ’ (Fox,

1939, p.4). Another example of Batman’s links to the Gothic monster is seen when he lands on the of a taxicab, the driver shouting out in response, “[h]elp! The Devil himself” (Fox, 1939, p.6). ‘Bruce

Wayne does not just become a bat; though his name gives him away. He is the Bat-Man, a mixture of man and , of good and evil’ (Reichstein, 1998, p.346). This earliest Batman (establishing an idea the hero would repeatedly return to) adopts the role of monster in his mission to beat back monsters.

The first version of Batman’s origin story highlights the Gothic aspects of Batman’s character.

Batman is shown to walk a fine line between the boundaries of man and animal, night and day, and the rational and irrational. Bruce Wayne is described as having become ‘a master scientist’ (Finger,

1939, p.2) as part of his preparation to become Batman. Kane presents Bruce as the prototypical scientist, in a white lab coat wearing safety goggles and experimenting with test tubes. In the next panel, Finger writes that Bruce ‘[t]rains his body to physical perfection until he is able to perform amazing feats’ (Finger, 1939), accompanied by the image of Bruce lifting up a giant barbell. Bruce

Wayne is presented as something of an Enlightenment superman, having trained his mind and body to perfection. He is directly linked to traditionally masculine traits of rationality and physical strength.

18 Batman would battle Dracula himself in a trilogy of graphic novels Batman and Dracula: Red Rain (1991), Batman: Bloodstorm (1994) and Batman: Crimson (1999) All parts of the trilogy were written by Doug Monech and penciled by Kelly Jones.

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This, however, is juxtaposed with another image on the same page where Bruce Wayne is shown musing that he must become “a creature of the night” and as Batman he is described as ‘this figure of the dark’ (Finger, 1939). Batman is thus presented as being a figure of rational enlightenment, but also a figure of the uncanny. A prime characteristic of the uncanny in literature is a connection to the realm of the magical and supernatural (Punter, 2007b, p.129). Batman is a character who uses technology and sleight of hand to present himself as a supernatural entity to his enemies. In his original incarnation Batman encounters Gothic monsters such as vampires as well as outlandish such as The Joker, and their appearances are neither rationalised nor made to adhere to the rules of realistic fiction.

Over time, the Batman franchise has oscillated back and forth in its Gothic status. Whilst the original comics were heavily indebted to Gothic traditions, subsequent iterations of the Batman canon such as the 1960s television series or light-hearted comics of the 1950s have eschewed Gothic elements. Agnieszka Soltyisk Monnet suggests that historically the Batman franchise has taken a turn back towards the Gothic following periods in which the camp variation of the character has been dominant. Further, each Gothic turn has pushed Batman into a darker and more narratively complex direction (Monnet, 2012). The classic example of this would be the Gothic turn witnessed within the pages of the Dennis O’Neil written and drawn Batman run in the early 1970s, which reintroduced the Gothic elements of the character and supplanted the camp elements of the character which had been predominant in the 1950s and 1960s versions of Batman. There are certain key Gothic elements which are recurrent features throughout the Batman mythos, and accordingly, the next section of this chapter addresses themes of environment, subjectivity, duality, the Byronic hero archetype and masculinity in Gothic iterations of Batman.

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Figure 5. Batman’s first origin story. Bill Finger and Bob Kane with (lettering), “The of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came To Be!”, Batman #1 (1940), p. 2-3, DC Comics.

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The Gothic Elements of Batman Batman’s milieu is an urban Gothic environment. He lives in Gotham City, a name that evocatively links Batman’s city to a Gothic mode. When Batman stories are told in a Gothic mode,

Gotham City reflects this; it becomes the nightmare vision of the American metropolis. It is characterised as a Gothic location, overridden with crime, corruption and madness, (Monnet, 2012, p.102) and often draws on cultural anxieties about life in American cities, particularly New York. One example is the Gotham City of and ’s Batman: Year One (1987), which presents a Gotham City prior to Batman’s existence overrun by crime, corruption and early decay. This vision of the city reflects the high urban crime rates within New York City in the 1980s.

Gothic visions of the city have also been reflected in screen adaptions of Batman. Anton Furst’s production design of Gotham City for Batman (1989), which visually recalled German Expressionism with its tilting buildings, created a Gothic sense of claustrophobia for the film (Monnet, 2012). For the best example of a modern Gothic metropolis, we can look towards New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, an American city left to collapse upon itself and abandoned by the government (Mighall, 2007, p.61-62). The spectre of New Orleans is seen in Scott

Snyder and Greg Capullo’s 2013 updating of Batman’s origin story Zero Year; in which a hurricane does near irreparable damage to Gotham City. Abandoned by the government, Gotham becomes an overgrown wildland controlled through fear by The . This story reframes Batman’s origin story for the 2010s, incorporating the apocalyptic fears of climate change into the Gothic Urban environment that Batman inhabits.

Subjectivity is a recurring concern within the Gothic and these concerns are also evident with the Gothic Batman. Subjectivity can be defined separately from identity as implying a sense of self-consciousness towards identity as well as an understanding of the limitations and constraints upon identity (Hall, 2004, p.3). It is drawn from Enlightenment philosophy, as explained by

Donald E. Hall:

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In Descartes’s conception, thinking – really doubting – and struggling to know, in inevitably

subjective ways is the very basis of being. The self’s apartness and individuality are central to

an understanding of human being.

(Hall, 2004, p.20)

Descartes’ understanding of subjectivity is the foundation of modern philosophical dualism or, ‘the theory that the mind and body… - are in some sense, radically different kinds of thing’ (Robinson,

2012). This presumed division of mind and body (and how that division is blurred) is key to understanding how subjectivity has been addressed within the Gothic Batman.

In the first Batman story, ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’, the reader is kept at a distance from Batman. Unlike in later stories, there are no thought balloons or narrative captions to put the reader inside Batman’s head. Rather the reader experiences Batman in the same way as the criminals he fights, a silent wrathful force of vengeance. The focuses on Batman’s physical prowess; his “terrific right” and his ability to throw criminals around: “with a mighty heave… sends the burly flying through space” (Finger, 1939, p.3). The Batman does not speak until the second-last page of his first story. Thus, this first Batman story from 1939 demonstrates how the character related to earlier models of subjectivity. Within nineteenth-century ideology, there were two prominent models of subjectivity. One version, borne out of Enlightenment ideology, idealised a self that was built upon reason, which privileged the perceptions of the dominant classes of white, heterosexual men, with the mind being more prominent than the body, and the perceptions of the dominant classes of white, heterosexual men (Hoeveler, 2002, p.9). The other nineteenth-century model of subjectivity was conceptualised ‘based on the notion that the body was primary and determined one’s ’

(Hoeveler, 2002). This embodied subjectivity was applied to groups such as women, people of colour and lower socio-economic classes. In keeping with these frameworks, this original Batman is presented as a liminal figure, shifting between nineteenth century understandings of ‘universal subjectivity’ and ‘embodied subjectivity.’ In the first part of the story, Batman is solely identified by

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his physical might, existing as a shadowy figure to frighten a criminal underclass. However, at the denouement of the story, Batman shifts from being a purely physical avenger to becoming the rationalist detective, explaining the plans of the criminals now that he had brought them to justice.

The final panel also reveals Batman’s secret identity as the young aristocrat Bruce Wayne.

Duality is an important theme in the Gothic and the split or fractured subject is an important aspect of Gothic approaches to subjectivity and especially masculinity. The split subject highlights the divisions wrought by the impact of post-Enlightenment thought. The figure of Batman is an excellent example of the split subject featuring two clear personas: one being Batman, the masked defender of Gotham City, and the other being Bruce Wayne, billionaire socialite. Alternate versions of Batman have demonstrated varying degrees of difference between these personas. For example,

Adam West’s performance in the 1960s television series or George Clooney’s performance in 1997’s

Batman and Robin presented minimal differences between the two personas. Their vocal tone and cadences remained the same between playing Bruce Wayne and playing Batman. In comparison, other actors to play the role such as Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012) and Kevin

Conroy’s vocal performance in Batman: The Animated Series (1992) demonstrated a very clear vocal difference between the characters of Bruce Wayne and Batman. The dilettante playboy persona

Bruce Wayne puts on in the public eye is clearly a performance. The Batman persona is often portrayed as being the true identity, who Bruce Wayne truly was after the murder of his parents.

However, this persona can also be played as a performance, intended to frighten and intimidate his foes.

A recent interpretation of the Batman/Bruce Wayne dichotomy was expressed in Tom King and Mikel Janin’s Batman: I Am Suicide (2016). In this story, Batman’s assault on Bane’s island fortress of Santa Prisca19 is juxtaposed with captions featuring a letter that he has written to

19 Debuting in 1993’s Vengeance of Bane, the would be one of the most popular Batman villains introduced in the 1990s. Best known for breaking Batman’s back in the Knightfall (1993) arc, Bane is the chief of Tom King’s Batman run.

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Catwoman following her imprisonment. In the letter, Bruce/Batman portrays his vow to fight crime as an of suicide. He describes himself following his parent’s murder as personified pain. “What use is being just pain? It’s not dignified. It’s not kind. And if it’s not dignified and it’s not kind, then maybe it’s not worth anything” (King, 2016, p.9). He recounts a failed suicide attempt at the age of

10, where his realisation of being utterly alone leads him to an act of psychological self-sacrifice:

I let the razor fall, and I understood it was done. I’d done it. I’d surrendered. My life was no

longer my life, and I whispered –

“I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life

warring on all criminals.”

(King, 2016, p.10)

In this interpretation, that moment of deciding to become Batman is presented as a form of egodeath for Bruce Wayne. “It’s the choice of a boy. The choice to die. I am Batman. I am suicide”

(King, 2016, p.11). This admission is made to in recognition that they are spirits and attracted to each other because of their shared experience of a traumatic past. This developing relationship between Batman and Catwoman is the emotional backbone of King’s 2016-2019 85 issue run on Batman. In some ways this admission is one of the grimmer interpretations of the

Batman/Bruce Wayne dynamic; however, it also refocuses the creation of Batman not as a specific act of revenge but as an act of total self-sacrifice in the pursuit of helping others.

The presentation of Batman and Bruce Wayne as starkly opposing personas; this representation is best exemplified in Frank Miller’s 1986 series . Here the retired Bruce Wayne is taunted by his repressed Batman persona. "You cannot stop me -- not with wine or vows or the weight of age --" (Miller, 1986, p.12). Miller treats the Batman as Bruce Wayne’s , a shadow side of his personality always straining to break through to the surface.

Visually, before Bruce Wayne returns to the role of Batman, Miller depicts the subsumed personality

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as a giant bestial bat and shows Bruce Wayne having unconsciously shaved off his moustache in preparation for returning to the cowl. He thus highlights the bestial nature of Batman, pushing the lycanthropic aspect of the character; as with the , there is a repressed wildness within

Bruce Wayne where reason and rationality war with bestial impulses. The rational thing for Bruce to do is to remain retired; his advanced age, the death of the second Robin and the illegality of superheroes being logical arguments in favour of his retirement. However, his repressed darker self cannot be held back any longer.

Outside of Batman himself, the Gothic concern with duality is also evident by examining the hero’s enemies. Batman’s villains, with their twisted psyches, tend to function on some level as a shadow of the hero himself as well as corresponding to the archetypal monsters of Gothic fiction.

Harvey Dent, otherwise known as Two-Face, literalises the divided self, a man split into two warring halves. ManBat, inverts the original merging of man and animal found in Batman’s disguise to become a literal bat-man, rather than the illusion of one; and many of Batman’s other foes such as

Professor Pyg, The Riddler and Mister Freeze are presented as either mad, physically monstrous or both. In one story Gotham’s are described by , Batman’s spurned (and murderous) ex-lover, as “[a]ll those grotesque mental patients you chose to ‘ wits’ with”

(Morrison, 2013, p.12). The monstrous villains who inhabit Batman’s world further mark the franchise as belonging to a Gothic mode (Monnet, 2012, p.102). These villains, who blur the same boundaries of man/beast and sane/insane as Bruce Wayne/Batman are reflections of his own inner turmoil. To return to The Joker’s argument in Death of The Family, these oppositional relationships between Batman and his villains can be seen to be his core relationship, Batman’s true kin.

Masculinity is an important theme in Gothic literature and the Gothic serves as a way in which cultural anxieties surrounding masculinity can be explored. The Gothic Batman is a prime example of how Gothic approaches to masculinity are expressed within cultural texts. One of the key features of the Gothic approach to masculinity is that the Gothic uncovers pre-existing fault lines in

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the masculine subject (Baker, 2007, p.165). Portrayals of masculinity in Gothic literature are often chiefly concerned with the twin concepts of the threatening Other and the fractured masculine subject (Baker, 2007, p.164). Gothic literature tests its male subjects; often putting them in conflict with pre-modern forces that threaten the idealised rational masculinity of modernity. The relationship between modernity and masculinity is a complex one; the process of modernity in the

Western World has been dominated by a patriarchal social structure and the universalisation of the white heterosexual male subject as the human subject. However, Christopher Forth argues that modernity and civilisation has done as much to destabilise male dominance of society by eroding the rationale for male dominance based on physical strength (Forth, 2008, p.5). Batman is visually portrayed by most artists as the ideal masculine subject in terms of his physique. However, his divided self is consistent with the critique of masculine strength found in Gothic literature. Batman works so effectively as a Gothic protagonist because he embodies the contradictory impulses of the

Gothic masculine hero.

The Byronic hero is core to the Gothic mode’s representation of masculinity and Batman often functions as a modern Byronic hero. The prototypical Byronic hero represents ‘a rebellion which asserted the independence of the individual and the primacy of his values not only in the face of society, but even in the face of “God”’ (Thorslev, 1962, p.172). Introduced by the poet Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is a descendant of figures such as John Milton’s and the villain of early Gothic novels. The Byronic hero becomes a figure through which audiences can experience

‘power and empowerment, autonomy, mastery and a defiance of oppressive authority’, and the modern Byronic hero often demonstrates a lack of social skills and functions as a loner or outcast

(Stein, 2004, p.1-2). In Gothic portrayals of Batman, the character conforms closely to the Byronic hero archetype. Batman is portrayed as a dark, handsome, brooding loner figure. The image of The

Dark Knight, brooding on top of one of the many gargoyles that litter the rooftops of Gotham City has become one of the iconic images of the character; The Dark Knight Returns exemplifies this

Byronic Batman. Miller presents his aging version of Batman as a recluse, growing isolated from

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Gotham City following his retirement from vigilantism. Upon Bruce Wayne’s return to the cowl, he finds himself in conflict with the political authority of Gotham City and the . The story climaxes with a physical and ideological battle between Batman and Superman, which pits Batman against a godlike figure, literalising Thorslev’s description of the prototypical Byronic hero as a figure willing to fight the will of God.

The brooding individualism of the Byronic hero is amplified in Gothic contexts through the logic of . Freud however was particularly concerned with male subject formation. This concern was expressed through his development of the Oedipus Complex, which he saw as necessary for male children to resolve in order to function normally (Thornton, 2020). Examining the recurring

Oedipal themes that occur within the Batman narrative highlight Batman’s position as a highly psychologised and individuated figure. Freud theorised that the ‘subject is produced in conjunction with the specific set of familial and social relations dominant in culture’ (Mansfield, 2000, p.31). This idea is at the centre of Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex and the split subject. This understanding was fundamental to how subject formation was theorised in the twentieth century.

Freud understood the creation of male subjectivity as being a consequence of the male child becoming aware of their phallus and therefore wanting to challenge the father for control of the phallus. Freud theorised that unconscious confusion surrounding their Oedipal desire was the cause of the split subject and psychological problems the male subject projects onto the world. To Freud, undergoing this subconscious challenge of the father was also critical for a healthy male psyche.

These preoccupations are central to Batman’s origin story, which is ultimately defined by the sudden and violent disappearance of the family unit. Finger and Kane’s version of Batman’s origin was first found in Detective Comics #33 (1939)20 and offers up certain implications for Oedipal readings of

Batman. Finger and Kane use four panels to tell the story of Bruce Wayne’s parents being murdered by a gun-toting mugger. Upon seeing his parents lying dead on a street, the following panel is a close-

20 See Fig. 5 on p. 31 for the first reprinting of this origin in Batman #1 (1940).

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up of Bruce crying as he understands that his parents are now dead. The next panel shows a young

Bruce kneeling in his bedroom saying, “[a]nd I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals” (Finger, 1939, p.2). It then skips straight to an adult Bruce, already the master scientist on the brink of becoming Batman. Finger and Kane’s depiction of Batman can be interpreted as the representation of an individual stuck in the mindset of a nine-year-old child who witnessed his parents murder.21 Bruce’s desire to war on all criminals can be read as a consequence of the arrested development caused by the destruction of his family unit and his failure to undergo an Oedipal process of individuation.

Narratives throughout the entire Batman franchise have demonstrated a continual recurrence of Oedipal themes. Batman can be understood as a character who never fully completed the psychosexual development Freud suggested is necessary for a man to healthily mature. For example, a recurring element of the Batman narrative has been the deification of Bruce’s father

Thomas Wayne.22 This was exemplified in Year One. Bruce Wayne is slumped over in his armchair, bleeding out, his first excursion into crimefighting having gone horribly wrong. Across from him is a bust of his father whom a delirious Bruce asks, “[h]ow, father? How do I do it? What do I use… to make them afraid” (Miller, 2016, p.30)? Suddenly, a giant bat comes crashing through the window, landing upon his father’s bust, the same creature who frightened a young Bruce. The prayer has been answered: “Yes, Father. I shall become a Bat” (Miller, 2016, p.32). In death becomes a quasi-god figure to his son.

21 It is worth noting that nine-year-old children were the target audience for the original Batman stories. 22 This deification of Thomas Wayne corresponds with the general marginalisation of in Batman stories.

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Figure 6. Bruce Wayne makes the choice to live as Batman. Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli with Richmond Lewis (colouring) and Todd Klein (lettering), Absolute Batman: Year One – Book One (2016), p. 32, DC Comics.

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Gothic Excess Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s 1989 , : A Serious House on a Serious Earth is perhaps the best distillation of the excesses of the Gothic Batman. Morrison and

McKean purposefully make a break from the traditional action-adventure structure of Batman stories, instead producing a densely symbolic text that aims to work via dream logic both on a visual and narrative level. In their introduction to the backmatter of the fifteenth anniversary edition of the graphic novel Morrison writes of the artistic goals of the project:

The intention was to create something that was more like a piece of music or an

experimental film than a typical adventure comic book. I wanted to approach Batman from

the point of view of the dreamlike, emotional and irrational hemisphere, as a response to

the very literal, “realistic” “left ” treatment of superheroes which was in vogue at the

time, in the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and others.

(Morrison, 2004)

McKean’s impressionistic visual utilising mixed media-collage with painted artwork, greatly emphasises the nightmare-like qualities of the story. The plot of the graphic novel is simple; the inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over and Batman must enter the asylum to face his external/internal villains. At the same time, a parallel story tells of how the asylum was founded decades prior by Amadeus Arkham (who then descended into madness). The version of Batman portrayed by Morrison and McKean is simultaneously more recognisably human psychologically than the Enlightenment hero envisioned by Kane and Finger in 1939, whilst also appearing less human visually. This is a Batman so neurotically scarred that he cuts himself with a shard of glass whilst flashing back to his parents’ murder. In the script, Morrison describes him as a, ‘frightened, threatened boy who has made himself terrible at the cost of his own humanity…He has made himself hard and domineering in order that he might never be hurt or abandoned again’ (Morrison,

2004). However, that humanity is lessened by McKean’s impressionistic visualisation of Batman who is always entirely shown as a shadow, with his speech depicted through white lettering on black

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word balloons. Batman leaves Arkham at the end of the graphic novel, however The Joker reminds him as he leaves that, “[t]here’s always a place for you here” (Morrison, 2004). Morrison and

McKean’s work thus darkly the Gothic Batman. ‘The repressed, armoured, uncertain and sexually man in Arkham Asylum was intended as a critique of the ‘80s interpretation of

Batman as violent, driven and borderline psychopathic’ (Morrison, 2004).

Figure 7. Batman questions his own sanity. Grant Morrison and Dave McKean with Gaspar Saladino (lettering), Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth – 15th Anniversary Edition (2004), DC Comics.

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The Gothic depictions of Batman have focussed upon the psychological demons that drive him towards vigilantism. In many ways the brand of heroism espoused through the character of

Batman reinforces and reflects the emotionally constrained individualism dominant throughout

American culture. Bruce Wayne and his dual identity of Batman also function as an effective way to examine how an individualistic psychological approach to subject formation has been culturally expressed. These discourses have found their way into both the content of the Batman franchise as well as how the character is discussed, both by fans and creators. Will Brooker has discussed how in promoting Batman Begins (2005), both screenwriter David Goyer and director Christopher Nolan framed their darker version of Batman through an appeal to ‘realism’, not just because of an absence of fantastical elements within the film, but also because of their focus on Batman being a conflicted and tormented character:

Already, though, Goyer and Nolan are both expanding their previous use of ‘realism’ to

include a slightly different concept. The notion that Batman has no superpowers and works

within the conceivable bounds of human potential is not the same as being a flawed and

tormented character, driven by and fire, with a grimness and grittiness about him. So

the interviews perform a barely perceptible segue from the ‘realism’ of Batman’s lack of

supernatural abilities to a set of more specific values; Batman is not just a person, but an

angry, conflicted, serious, committed person. This discourse has shifted very subtly from

identifying Batman’s essential humanity to associating him with a certain type of

masculinity.

(Brooker, 2012, p.91)

Certainly, depictions of Gothic Batman tend towards presenting the character in the mould of the angry, serious loner figure. At his most excessive, the Gothic Batman is representative of ‘the dominant masculinity demand for individuation and separation’ (Kincheloe, 2001, p.538). Along with Morrison and McKean’s earlier deconstruction in Arkham Asylum, this grim loner was ruthlessly

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sent up in The Lego Batman Movie (2017). When confronted by his butler Alfred regarding his emotional state; this Batman’s response is to present a hyperbolic facade of hegemonic masculinity.

I don't talk about feelings, Alfred. I don't have any, I've never seen one. I'm a night-stalking,

crime-fighting vigilante, and a heavy metal rapping machine. I don't feel anything

emotionally, except for rage. 24/7, 365, at a million percent. And if you think that there's

something behind that, then you're crazy. Good night, Alfred.

(McKay, 2017)

The Gothic Batman is one of the most important variants of the character. Gothic , ideas and anxieties are deeply embedded within the foundations of the Batman mythos. However, the grim and tortured masculinity often associated with this variant of the character does not represent the totality of his existence; just as the strongly individuated male subject does not represent the totality of masculinity.

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The Relational Batman Since the beginning of the new , there has been a shift within social research towards trying to understand human experience outside of models such as the Cartesian dualism of body and mind. Patricia Clough identifies this shift as constituting an ‘affective turn’ within the humanities and social sciences, wherein the role of emotions and affects in communication and subject formation have been given a greater focus. This turn towards examining affects, ‘illuminate[s], in other words, both our power to affect the world around us and our power to be affected by it, along with the relationship between these two powers’ (Hardt, 2007, p.ix). This shift has also created a greater focus upon the study of social relations in terms of creating and structuring subjectivities. By examining a series of Batman’s core relationships, I will seek to identify how across the vast of the Batman franchise, the character of Batman can function not only as an expression of individualistic models of identity construction, but at the same time can give insight into how affect and social relationships are constructed within popular culture; particularly in relation to how these concepts challenge traditional notions of masculinity.

Batman and Robin – The Dynamic Duo Throughout the history of Batman, there has been one core relationship that has been dominant in the general public’s understanding of the character. Batman is forever linked within popular culture to his , Robin the Boy Wonder. Robin’s introduction in Detective Comics 38

(1940) happened a little under a year after the introduction of Batman. Nicknamed the Dynamic

Duo, Batman and Robin’s partnership has been featured in all the mediums for which the Batman franchise has been adapted including feature films, television, animation and video games. Robin’s popularity led to a wave of kid sidekick imitators; and the idea of the sidekick became a key element of the superhero genre (Brown, 2018, p.47). The original Robin, , was an acrobat who teamed up with Batman following the murder of Dick’s parents and became Bruce Wayne’s ward as well as crime-fighting partner. Within the main DC Comics continuity, Dick would eventually graduate to the new identity of Nightwing. Others would then put on the of Robin including , , Stephanie Brown and Damien Wayne (Bruce’s biological son).

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Stories that occur outside of the main DC Comics continuity, as well as media adaptions of the

Batman franchise, have introduced other characters to fill the role.

The presence of Robin, a kid sidekick clad in bright yellow and red, can disrupt the vision of a dark and ‘realistic’ Batman typically found in Gothic depictions of the character. Certainly, the introduction of Robin to Batman’s world immediately changed the character. ‘Batman’s initial solitary hypermasculinity and lethal violence was tempered by Robin’s presence’ (Brown, 2018, p.48). Robin’s relationship to Batman, functioning (depending on the text in question) as a best friend/brother/son/crime-fighting partner complicates the image of Batman as an angry loner.

Robin first appears in the lead feature of Detective Comics 38. The full title of the story is

‘The Batman Presents The Sensational Character Find of 1940… Robin the Boy Wonder’. Written by

Bill Finger and illustrated by Jerry Robinson,23 the cover of the issue depicts Batman holding a hoop which Robin bursts out from. The title and cover of the story clearly denotes that Robin’s debut was intended by DC Comics to be a major , and presents Robin as being almost as big a star as

Batman. Robin was introduced partly to serve as a Watson figure to Batman’s Sherlock Holmes, as well as a character with whom the primary audience of young male readers could identify (Finger cited in D. Finger, 2013).

The story begins by directly paralleling the Batman origin story from five issues prior by opening with the caption, “Legend: Robin, the Boy Wonder and how he became the ally of the

Batman” (Finger, 1940, p.1). This caption echoes Finger’s opening of Bruce Wayne’s origin five issues earlier (with the caption “The Legend of the Batman: Who He is and How he Came to Be”.) Dick

Grayson is introduced along with his parents, who form an acrobatic troupe known as The Flying

Graysons. Dick overhears gangsters threatening the circus owner if he does not pay into their protection racket. Five panels later, a distressed Dick as his parents fall to their deaths, their

23 The comic solely credits the story to Bob Kane, however historical record shows that Finger and Robinson were the creative team behind the story.

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equipment having been sabotaged by the gangsters. Later, Dick listens through the door of the circus owner’s office and gets confirmation of his parents’ murder. He is then deterred from telling the police of this evidence by an off-panel voice saying, “[n]o son, not yet!” (Finger, 1940, p.2).

Batman introduces himself to Dick, in full costume, and tells Dick that he wants to help avenge his family’s murder and that the gangsters’ control over the police force means that Dick cannot take his evidence to the police.24 Batman then reveals his origin to Dick, telling him that “[m]y parents too were killed by a criminal. That’s why I’ve devoted my life to exterminate them” (Finger, 1940, p.3).

Instantly the shared trauma of losing their family is established as the foundational element of the relationship between Batman and Robin. Once Batman and Dick return to Batman’s home, they swear an oath by candlelight to “fight together against crime and corruption and never to swerve from the path of righteousness” (Finger, 1940). Robin’s first case with Batman sees them take down

Boss Zucco, the criminal running the protection racket that had murdered the Boy Wonder’s family.

At the end of the story, Bruce asks Dick if he wants to return to the circus. Dick’s response is, “[n]o, I think Mother and Dad would like me to go on fighting crime, - and as for me… Well… I love adventure!” (Finger, 1940, p.12). The most significant difference between Batman and Robin’s origin stories, is that unlike Batman, the case of Robin’s parents’ murders is solved by the end of his first story. Robin is not therefore driven by the possibility facing Batman that every street thug may be the man who murdered his parents. It is a significant point of difference between the characters that

Robin’s main reason for wanting to continue as Batman’s sidekick is because he simply enjoys crime- fighting.

24 Later variations of this story, such as and Tim Sale’s Batman: Dark Victory (2000) expand it from its barebones original format. Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (2005) parodies the absurdity of the events of Finger and Robinson’s original story by presenting Batman as a raging psychotic who essentially kidnaps a recently orphaned child and forcibly drafts him into an illegal war on crime.

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Figure 8. Robin bursts into the Batman universe. Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson (cover art), Detective Comics #38 (1940), DC Comics.

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It is clear from their very first story featured together that Robin had a significant impact on both the aesthetics of the Batman comics and Batman himself. Batman immediately became a less

Gothic figure now that he was accompanied by Robin. This is displayed both visually and through

Batman’s personality. The Bat ears on his mask were shrunk down considerably and the colouring of his cape and cowl became a brighter of blue, and the vampiric iconography of his original appearance was reduced. Batman is even smiling on the cover. Personality wise, Batman is also more verbose after the introduction of Robin; his quips as he breaks up Zucco’s gambling den are a far cry from the near silent Dark Knight of Detective Comics #27. The introduction of Robin thus had a direct impact on brightening the tone of Batman and the world he inhabited.

The best diegetic explanation for why Batman changed his appearance and demeanour with the introduction of Robin comes from ’s series DC: The New Frontier (2004). This series was Cooke’s reimagining of the DC Universe as a period piece set between 1945-1960. His versions of the DC heroes fight evil amidst the social and political turmoil of the post-war years.

Batman is first introduced into the story as a threatening figure. He is drawn to resemble the original

Bob Kane design of Batman and is presented as a morally ambiguous vigilante who is fearful of other heroes such as Superman and The Martian . When he saves a child from a ritual sacrifice,

Batman scares the child which inspires a change in his attitude and appearance. Taking on Robin as his partner and changing his imagery to fit with Robin’s is presented as a decision made by Batman to better set out the parameters of his mission. When asked by Superman about his costume- change, he replies “I set out to scare criminals, not children” (Cooke, 2004, p.26). In Cooke’s narrative, Batman changes because of his relationship with Robin, as does his understanding of his methodology in the war on crime.

When they took over the main Batman title in 2006, writer Grant Morrison attempted to synthesise all of the 70-year-long history of Batman, treating all the various eras of Batman comics

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as if they were the stages of one man’s extraordinary life. Morrison describes Batman and Robin’s relationship as a process of the two characters both seeing themselves in the other:

So I thought the feral young Batman from 1938; who’s out there with guns in his hands and

is fighting vampires and crooks, I thought; well imagine that’s Batman at 20… And then he

meets this kid when he’s 21. And this kid is super… This little working-class circus kid who’s

totally cocky and this introverted young Norman Bates Batman is suddenly [going] well wait

a . This is the kid who died in me… This is everything I want to be… The two become

friends, and it’s not creepy… It’s just like he [Robin] is my best friend, he’s my brother and

he’s everything I wish I could be. And the kid’s looking at him going he’s [Batman] everything

I wish I could be.

(Morrison cited in SModcast, 2013)

As Morrison suggests, Batman and Robin thus have a significant impact on each other’s development as people. The relationship between Batman and Robin is one in which the emotional effects of the characters’ actions towards each other become critical to how the characters view both themselves and each other.

As part of his attack on the industry in the 1950s, Fredric Wertham made a particular effort to condemn the Batman and Robin partnership. This attack was outlined in his book Seduction of the Innocent (1955), where Wertham condemned the Batman and Robin relationship as resembling ‘the wish dream of two homosexuals living together’ (Wertham cited in

Medhurst, 1991, p.151). Wertham’s attack on the Batman and Robin partnership was one heavily influenced by the homophobic social attitudes that dominated the 1950s and understood homosexuality as a mental illness. At the same time, as Andy Medhurst argues, the vehement opposition to Wertham’s claims coming from Batman fans and the comics industry was equally homophobic (Medhurst, 1991, p.152). Each side of the argument had the same complaints of homosexual men threatening the established mode of acceptable masculinity. To Wertham, Batman

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and Robin represented a threat to children who may be ‘seduced’ towards homosexuality; to many of Batman, Wertham’s charge tarnished their fictional hero by linking him to what they considered to be sexually deviant behaviour. For example, one fan history of the Batman franchise rebuked Wertham’s reading through the evidence that Bruce Wayne ‘regularly squired the most beautiful women in Gotham City and presumably had a healthy sex life’ (Cotta Vaz cited in

Medhurst, 1991, p.152). The immediate reaction from DC Comics was to set up Batman as the head of a more traditional patriarchal family and thus the first incarnations of Batwoman and Bat-Girl were introduced to serve as love interests for Batman and Robin. Yet ironically, the constant examples of Batman and Robin rebuffing the advances of the two women, as well as Robin’s recurring melodramatic breakdowns that he was being replaced as Batman’s partner, did more to foster gay readings of the pair than anything published prior to Wertham’s claims (Morrison, 2011, p.75-78).

Wertham used evidence from his psychiatric sessions to try and bolster his argument about the dangerous nature of homoerotic undertones in superhero comics. Medhurst, however, identifies how one of Wertham’s patient’s experiences, where he discusses identifying with Robin and imagining Batman and Robin having sexual relations, reflects common reading practices used by homosexual audiences. Medhurst describes the types of reading practises adopted by homosexual readers as ‘snatch[ing] illicit meanings from the fabric of normality’ (Medhurst, 1991, p.153).

Similarly, Richard Dyer identifies how gay audiences could ‘practice on movie images what Claude

Levi-Strauss has termed bricolage, that is, playing around with the elements available to us in such a way to bend their meanings to our own purposes’ (Dyer cited in Brooker, 1999, p.131). The Batman franchise has always left plenty of room for gay audiences to practice this bricolage and bring to the fore a homoerotic subtext. Not least, Batman and Robin’s dual identities somewhat resemble the closeted existence many homosexual people have experienced.

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Outside of queer readings of the Batman and Robin partnership, there has always existed an element of tension concerning their friendship and partnership. Often, Batman texts considered by some fans as ‘aberrant’ or inauthentic diversions from Bob Kane’s ‘dark original vision’ of the

Batman (Brooker, 2012, p.122) are characterised by the presence of Robin. A core example of this is the 1960s television series. Medhurst identifies the movement of Dick out of Gotham City to attend college in the late 1960s as an attempt by DC Comics to shift back to a darker Batman. ‘It’s impossible to conceive of the recent, obsessive, sturm-und-drang Batman with a chirpy little Robin getting in the way’ (Medhurst, 1991, p.159). The murder of Jason Todd (the second Robin) by The

Joker can also be understood as an outcome of pressure from fans to reinstate a solitary version of

Batman as their preferred version of the character. At the of the 1988-1989 A Death in the

Family storyline, Jason’s fate – whether he would live or die – was decided upon by a reader phone poll. The phone poll results came back in favour of Jason’s death.25

These tensions surrounding the friendship of Batman and Robin reflect wider cultural concerns about male-male homosocial bonding. Within modern culture, ‘[p]atriarchy consequently constructs alternative means of releasing and managing masculine emotion while preserving the myth of the stoic male’ (Jenkins, 2007, p.77). Jenkins, in examining the melodramatic conventions of professional wrestling (a branch of popular culture as focused on macho posturing and violence as superhero comics) identifies how the world of wrestling can appear as a morality play in which working class tensions concerning masculinity are played out. In particular Jenkins examines how the tag teams that wrestlers form express a sort of ‘male homosocial desire’ or search for ideal friendship (Jenkins, 2007, p.94-95). ‘These images of hulking men whose hulking bodies mask hidden pains speak to longings that the entire structure of patriarchy desperately denies’

(Jenkins, 2007, p.94). This observation applies as readily to Batman and Robin as it does to Jenkins’

25 It is worth noting that much of the fan backlash against Jason Todd was possibly because of the more abrasive personality he was given following DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite story, rather than a dislike of the Robin concept itself. Todd would return from the grave in 2005, under the guise of the Red , functioning as the black sheep of the Batman family.

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example of Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts and Andre the Giant. There has often been a demand for

Batman to represent the type of stoic male masculine hero enshrined within American culture.

However, the connection between Batman and Robin creates a space where the character (and his potential for male friendships) can explore more relational terrain. Male friendships are typically highly regimented by the stereotypes and constraints of gender stereotypes. Any level of intimacy between heterosexual men is typically considered abnormal, and this attitude is attached to fears of being labelled a homosexual and the culturally bred fear of homosexuality (Strikwerda and May,

1992, p.87); as demonstrated by Wertham’s fears of Batman and Robin’s emotional intimacy leading young men towards homosexual desires.

The connection between Batman and Robin runs deep. Batman R.I.P (2009) a story by Grant

Morrison and Tony S. Daniel that promises the death of Batman, opens on a paradoxical image.

Batman and Robin stand united against an unknown threat, six after the events of R.I.P.

Batman cries out, “You’re wrong! Batman and Robin will never die!” (Morrison, 2009, p.1). Morrison returns to this moment in the closing pages of the third issue of his series Batman and Robin (which followed on from R.I.P.) By now we know that the new Dynamic Duo for the twenty-first century is

Dick Grayson, the original Robin, now essaying the role of Batman and Damien Wayne, the biological son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul. This new incarnation of the pair flips the traditional dynamic of the team. Dick is a brighter, more empathetic version of Batman than Bruce was. Damien is a scowling, angry and violent twelve-year-old, having lived most of his life being trained to be a supervillain with his mother in the League of Assassins. It is only through the brotherly relationship he forms with Dick that Damien grows into his own person and makes his own decision as to whether he is a hero or villain. As with the original Batman and Robin, this new Dynamic Duo present an example of social relationships playing a significant factor in the development of subjectivity. Damien is significantly affected by his interactions with Dick, growing from being a killer in his introduction to a fully- fledged superhero.

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Figure 9. The new incarnation of The Dynamic Duo make their debut. Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel with (inking), Guy Major (colouring) and Randy Gentile (lettering), Batman R.I.P (2009), p. 11, DC Comics.

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Batman and Superman – The World’s Finest Friendship/Rivalry Batman is one of the core figures in the wider of DC Comics. He is the most commercially important character to DC Entertainment, not only in terms of comic book sales but also in terms of selling films, video games and licensed merchandise. Outside of the constraints of Gotham

City, there is a long history of teaming up Batman with the other superheroes that exist within the DC

Comics universe, both as a member of the superhero team The Justice League of America and in individual team-up stories.26 This relationship between Batman and the wider DC Universe is a core feature of the way Batman has been portrayed in comic books and animation. In examining the way in which Batman functions as a cultural manifestation of relational thinking, it is important to examine how these relationships have been portrayed.

The relationship between Batman and the wider DC Universe (particularly his membership in the Justice League) is often considered in fan circles to be as problematic as his relationship with Robin.

Batman’s adventures with the Justice League, which often deal with fantastical elements such as alien or evil magicians, are somewhat at odds with the realistic urban crime milieu many fans prefer Batman to inhabit. Watching Batman pal around on the with and presents Batman in a situation far outside the Gotham City set psychodrama that many fans prefer. A

Batman who works in a team of heroes facing fantastical outer-space threats is seemingly adverse to the serious and grim individualistic version of the character that a portion of the fanbase desires to be the predominant Batman. This attitude was expressed by Bill Ramsey, owner of prominent Batman fansite Batman-On-Film, who wrote in response to Batman being part of a potential Justice League film:

As a “Batman first and foremost” fan, the thought of a flesh and blood Batman mixing it up

with super-powered beings on the big screen makes my skin crawl. Having Batman team up

26 The team-up series, The Brave and the Bold would feature over 150 issues of Batman teaming up with various characters from the DC universe.

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with these characters make him obsolete. -comic book fans dig Batman because he’s

human and doesn’t have superpowers. I fear they’d laugh at a Batman on film presented in

this manner. And God forbid he show up in…SPACE!

(Ramsey, 2012)

On some level, Batman’s relationship with other superheroes raises concerns similar to those regarding his relationship to Robin because his relationship with other superheroes can disrupt the dark Gothic milieu favoured by many. Batman interacting with superpowered characters recalls for many fans the campier pre-Crisis27 comics that they would rather repress in favour of a version of

Batman rooted in, ‘noir vision, muted visuals, rugged masculinity and rationalised continuity’ (Brooker,

2012, p.119).

Nevertheless, the most important relationship between Batman and another superhero is the one between Batman and Superman. The two characters are the most important heroes of the DC

Universe both commercially and within the text of the stories. Morrison makes the point that ‘Batman was born of the deliberate reversal of everything in the Superman dynamic’ (Morrison, 2011, p.25).

Superman is a modern-day iteration of a sun-god, glad in bright primary colours whose secret identity is the put-upon journalist . Batman is a man pretending to be a Dionysian god, who dresses up as a monster to fight crime and is secretly the billionaire capitalist Bruce Wayne. The two characters are a direct contrast to each other in many ways.

The history of the relationship between Batman and Superman begins in 1954, when the two characters first appeared together in a story in the World’s Finest Comics series they shared.

Throughout the Silver Age of DC Comics, Batman and Superman were presented as close friends, with little evidence of tension between them. The only times in which conflict was suggested between the team of Superman and Batman were in sensationalistic covers which aimed to grab readers’ attention

27 Brooker exemplifies the more light-hearted the Silver Age Pre-Crisis Batman through The Rainbow Batman appearing on the cover of 1957’s Detective Comics #251.

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by presenting a conflict between the characters which would be solved by the end of the issue.

However as with most other aspects of the Batman mythos, Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns had a major impact on how Batman’s relationship with Superman and the other DC heroes was conceptualised. Miller’s story of an alternate future featuring an aging Batman returning from retirement presented a harsher and more complicated relationship between Batman and the other characters who inhabit the DC Universe. Miller’s introduction to the series28 describes how the aging retired superheroes reminisce on their “ days”:

They talk about a Man of . An Amazon Princess.

But they never talk about the mean one. The cruel one. The one who couldn’t or bend steel

in his bare hands. The one who scared the crap out of everybody and laughed at the rest of us

for being the envious cowards we were.

No, they never talk about him. Say his name and watch Dibny’s29 face sag so bad his jaw hits

the floor.

(Miller, 2002, p.7)

Within Miller’s comic, Batman’s relationship with other heroes is defined by the fact that they have disappeared. The heroes did not happily retire together but abandoned a world that no longer wanted them. This is highlighted by Superman’s narration where he explains that Wonder Woman and Green

Lantern left the Earth, because they “recognized the danger—of the endless envy of those not blessed” (Miller, 1986, p.120). That the rest of the superheroes have gone into hiding or left the planet is a sign of the dystopian nature of this possible future for the DC Universe.

The most fundamental shift in Batman’s relationships with other superheroes introduced in

The Dark Knight Returns is the shift in Batman’s relationship with Superman. Miller introduced tension

28 Written as a mock newspaper column. 29 Ralph Dibny, The : a minor DC superhero with the ability to make his body elastic.

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and conflict between the two characters which had never been explored previously. Miller presents

Batman and Superman as ideological opposites, and the climax of the comic comes down to a battle between Superman and Batman that is as much about their ideological differences as it is about their personal conflict. Most figural is their disappointment in each other. Superman sees Batman as being consumed by his obsessions. “Nothing matters to you - - except your holy war” (p.136). To a Superman who feels that his only option to help people is to work in secret and with the government’s permission, Batman’s renewed war on crime and corruption in Gotham City has the potential to bring down the truce he has built. Batman’s disappointment in Superman is evident from their first meeting out of costume; as Superman tries to fulfil the task given to him by the President, Bruce thinks

“[t]here’s just the sun and the sky and him, like he’s the only reason it’s all here. Then he everything by talking” (p.118). Bruce’s disappointment is further underscored when he tells his former colleague “[n]obody can make you do anything you don’t want to do, Clark” (p.119). Within The Dark

Knight Returns, there is thus a sharp divide that shatters any partnership that once existed between

Superman and Batman. Batman recognises no higher authority than himself and his personal ideals of justice; going as far as to ride into Gotham on horseback after it has been crippled by a Soviet

Electromagnetic Pulse attack in order to institute his own martial law. He abides by his own ‘personal codes of morality and justice beyond the orders and laws governing society’ (Babaee, Sedehi &

Babaee, 2018, p.205). Superman, who would have the power to single-handedly destroy the corrupted authority he follows, instead chooses to work within the system.

In the climax of the text, Miller places Batman and Superman in a physical and ideological confrontation. Superman is ordered by the President to eliminate Batman, whose takeover of Gotham

City threatens the state’s claim to authority whilst the rest of the country is in chaos. The pair brawl at Crime Alley, the site of Bruce Wayne’s parent’s murder, with Batman taking advantage of a weakened Superman and wearing a battlesuit plugged into the electrical grid of Gotham City to stand a chance in the fight. During the fight Batman voices his position:

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You sold us out, Clark. You gave them the power that should have been ours. Just like your

parents taught you to. My parents … taught me a different lesson… -- Lying on the street –

shaking in deep shock – Dying for no reason at all – They showed me that the world only makes

sense when you force it to.

(Miller, 1986, p.191)

The fight between Batman and Superman is framed around an unyielding ideological gulf justified by their differing subjective experiences. Batman frames his whole life around the brutal murder of his parents and believes Superman’s upbringing in makes him unable to understand Batman’s position and unable to resist state authority. Superman sees his own acquiescence to the government as a necessary evil in order to continue protecting the world from . He is filled with deep regret at the conflict he has been forced into with his former ally. However, Miller’s ending does leave open some small hope for reconciliation between the pair.30 At Bruce’s funeral, Clark hears Bruce’s heart restart, alerting him to the trickery Bruce performed to fake his death. Clark lets this go with a wink to

Robin, leaving Bruce to escape to his new life; “to bring sense to a world plagued by worse than thieves or murderers” (p.159).

The impact of The Dark Knight Returns and its portrayal of the Batman/Superman relationship has been far reaching. There was a clear shift in portrayals of the relationship within the wider DC

Universe in the aftermath of Miller’s work. This shift was seen almost immediately, with more conflict being emphasised in the Batman/Superman relationship. In ’s mini-series The Man of Steel

(1986), which rebooted Superman for the 1980s, the story of the first meeting between Superman and Batman was revised. This was established as their first meeting in the new Post-Crisis DC

Continuity.31 In this version of the story, Batman and Superman are shown to be uneasy allies, as

30 In many ways, Miller’s The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2002) is primarily about reconciling Superman and Batman’s political differences. 31 The key dividing line in DC Comics continuity is 1987’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. This story saw the end of the DC Multiverse, as all parallel worlds were destroyed and a brand new continuity for the DC Universe existed. It

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Batman’s tactics32 are too violent for Superman. Along different lines, the videogame, Injustice: Gods

Among Us (2013) and its associated comics present an alternate future of the DC Universe where

Superman has taken control of the world as a semi-benevolent dictator and Batman leads the resistance cell against him.

Figure 10. Batman and Superman’s final battle. Frank Miller with Janson (inking), Lynn Varley (colouring) and (lettering), Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), p. 195, DC Comics.

was believed by DC management at the time that their decades of history and multiple Earths had become too convoluted for new readers. It would not be until 2006’s 52 that the traditional DC Multiverse was revived 32 Including threatening to blow up an innocent person with a bomb if Superman attacks him. The innocent in danger being Batman himself.

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Zack Snyder’s 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice followed a similar outlook on the Batman and Superman partnership as Byrne and Miller, establishing the characters as , at least on their first meeting.33 What was once portrayed as the World’s Finest Friendship was re-contextualised as an antagonistic relationship.

In the wake of The Dark Knight Returns there has also been an effort to repair this relationship.

Tom King and Clay Mann’s story (2017) is one of the most interesting attempts at this restoration. Taking place immediately after Batman has proposed to Catwoman, the story delves into

Batman and Superman’s perception of each other and the status of their friendship. It begins with both heroes being reluctant to discuss the change in Batman’s personal life with each other and being pushed to communicate by their respective partners (Catwoman and ). The story begins with the women pressuring the heroes to call each other to talk:

CATWOMAN: I thought he was your closest friend.

BATMAN: I don’t... Gordon is my closest friend.

CATWOMAN: What? No. He doesn’t even know your name.

BATMAN: ... Fine. Alfred is my closest friend.

(King, 2017, p.8)

As both couples unknowingly work on the same case, Batman and Superman each explain their perception of each other and the relationship. Both men are constrained by the competitive and stoic ideals of hegemonic masculinity; unable to admit their feelings of admiration regarding the other or their anxieties that neither is worthy of the other’s friendship. Their feelings towards each other are displayed in juxtaposed images (see Fig. 11 and 12). Both men come to the same conclusion, that the

33 Dawn of Justice borrows liberally from Dark Knight Returns, to the point of recreating the famous final battle between Batman and Superman (including direct quotes from the comic). The power of Miller’s conflict between the characters however was that it was a long relationship that had gone sour; whereas the film tries to capture the same dynamic with versions of the characters who had never met before.

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other is a “better man than I am” (King, 2017, p.20). In order to articulate their feelings for their friend, they need to be coached by the women in their lives.

This more antagonistic relationship has begun to categorise Batman’s relationship with the other superheroes as well. This has been reflected in multiple storylines, where Batman is presented as an anti-social member of the superhero community whose trust issues hurt his effectiveness as a team member. Two prominent storylines deal with this. In the Justice League story-arc Tower of Babel

(2000)34, Batman’s secret plans to defeat the other members of the Justice League are stolen by his ’s al Ghul and put into action. Batman’s plans included making pathologically afraid of the water he needs to survive and hypnotically convincing Green Lantern that he is blind to make it impossible for him to use his . Batman was then expelled from the Justice League until later on, when he revealed his identity as Bruce Wayne to his teammates. Similarly, in the comic book mini-series Identity Crisis (2004), after realising some of his teammates had magically erased his memories, Batman becomes paranoid and sets up the Brother Eye satellite to monitor all superhumans in the DC Universe. This decision goes catastrophically wrong, as hijacked the satellite and use it towards nefarious means.

However, whilst The Dark Knight Returns did establish a precedent for conflict between

Batman and the other heroes of the DC Universe and is a prime example of the Gothic Batman, it still demonstrates the importance of the relationships in Batman/Bruce Wayne’s life. Miller’s text serves as a dystopian view of Batman’s future, presenting a Gotham City that falls further into decay following his retirement. At the same time, Wayne becomes an isolated alcoholic with a death wish. This set up is reflected in other Batman texts that have portrayed a retired Batman, such as The Dark Knight Rises and the animated series (1999-2001). These stories

34 Written by and illustrated by Howard Porter and Steve Scott. The story ran through JLA #43-46 (2000).

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Figure 11. Batman and Superman express their admiration for each other. Tom King and Clay Mann with Mann (inking), Jordie Bellaire (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Batman #36 (2017), p.19, DC Comics.

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Figure 12. Batman and Superman express their admiration for each other. Tom King and Clay Mann with Seth Mann (inking), Jordie Bellaire (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Batman #36 (2017), p.20, DC Comics.

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highlight the need for Batman to establish alliances and relationships to effectively make a difference in Gotham City. In order to function effectively as Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, he needs the help of Carrie Kelly, the new Robin. Similarly, the aged Bruce Wayne of Batman Beyond is isolated from society, to the point of having lost control of , until he meets Terry McGuiness and trains him to become the new Batman.

Batman – The Team Leader Whilst the Gothic depictions of Batman and his relationship to other superheroes have predominantly been influenced by the dominant model of tension and unease established by Miller in The Dark Knight Returns, texts from the Relational Batman tradition are more attuned to understanding how the hero works co-operatively with others. Within texts such as the animated television series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-2011) and Grant Morrison’s comic series

Batman Incorporated, versions of Batman are presented which are less focused on preserving the character as a lone Gothic protagonist and are instead focused on how the character relates to other heroes. These alternative approaches to the character of Batman present a version of the character which can be used as an example of a more relational figure, in which subjectivity is formed as much by one’s relations and effect on others as by the personal psychodrama involved in a person’s history.

In 1999, Brooker suggested that Batman in the early part of the twenty-first century would be defined by a version of the character who was ‘a new-model Batman as team player’ rather than the archetypal lone avenger Batman was portrayed as in the 1980s (Brooker, 1999, p.319). With the family of characters who surrounded Batman; such as Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl, as well as Batman’s ongoing membership in the Justice League of America, it was established within the ongoing continuity of the DC Universe that Batman was not just a lone figure and worked as part of a team of superheroes. Brooker described the version of Batman developing on the comic page as looking ‘less like a lonely avenger and more like the boss of a well-honed outfit’ (Brooker, 1999). This

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team-focused version of Batman has been highlighted within specific texts in the Batman franchise in the early part of the twenty-first century.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold began airing on television screens in 2008, at the same time as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight proved to be phenomenally successful both with critics and audiences. The Brave and the Bold specifically aimed to revive elements of the Batman mythos that were downplayed in adaptations such as Nolan’s film. The series adapts the comic series of the same name, each episode consisting of team-ups between Batman and other superheroes. The Brave and the Bold reintroduced the light-hearted tone of the Batman comics of the 1950s and 60s (as well as the visual iconography of the 1960s television series) to screen adaptations of the character, after a long period of serious takes on the franchise. This divergence from the dominant trends in depicting

Batman was highlighted within the show itself. In the episode of the Dark Mite! (2008), Bat-

Mite, a fifth-dimensional imp who considers himself to be Batman’s biggest fan, breaks the fourth wall to address the concerns of fans unhappy with the lighter tone of the series. Bat-Mite diverts himself from watching a fight between Batman and giant monster rabbits to attend a and find out what Batman fans think of the episode so far. Bat-Mite replies to a question from an audience member, who presents the viewpoint of the fanbase who want Batman to function as a gritty urban crime detective and who reject a version of Batman who fights Santas and

Easter Bunnies as “not my Batman.” Bat-Mite responds35 to the fan by saying:

Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is

a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the characters roots as the

tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy.

And besides, those Easter Bunnies looked really scary, right?

(Tucker and Jelenic, 2008)

35 Which is handed to him by the members of the panel of the convention event, representing the producers and writers of the series.

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The version of Batman and his universe depicted in The Brave and the Bold challenges the attempts to contain Batman as an ‘angry, conflicted, serious, committed person’ (Brooker, 2012, p.91). The more jovial Batman depicted in The Brave and the Bold, as comfortable in outer-space or travelling through time as he is on the streets of Gotham City challenges the notion that Batman is solely representative of a particular brand of aggressive masculinity. Rather, the producers of The Brave and the Bold embraced the inherent multiplicity of Batman by amalgamating elements of the character (Brooker, 2012, p.151) found across the entire history of Batman’s life inside the pages of

DC Comics. In particular, the series draws on elements of the franchise that had been repressed in attempts to depict a more realistic vision of Gotham, such as the bright colour schemes and over- the-top of the Silver-Age Batman comics. The series went so far as to depict the Rainbow

Batman from Detective Comics #241 (1957) in an adventure where Batman must wear a rainbow- coloured costume in order to fight the colour-based villainy of Firefly and his monster. Brooker identifies the Rainbow Batman as emblematic of the campy and light-hearted (and less conventionally masculine) take on the character which was erased from DC Comics continuity in the

1980s in favour of a more militaristic and grittier version of Batman. (Brooker, p.115) The reappearance of the Rainbow Batman on screen in The Brave and the Bold supports Brooker’s suggestion that the camp aspects of Batman can never be fully repressed, despite attempts by fans, producers and creators to present them as aberrant.

The focus of The Brave and the Bold is on teaming up Batman with other superheroes. As in the original comic, the commercial imperative behind this idea is to introduce lesser-known characters to audiences drawn to the series by the more popular Batman. The lead character is joined throughout the series by relatively well-known characters such as Green , Aquaman,

Blue and Black Canary as well as more obscure characters such as , and The Haunted Tank. Whereas other depictions of Batman depict him as a lone wolf protagonist, plagued by fraught and tension filled relationships, in The Brave and the Bold viewers solely understand Batman’s character and personality through the interactions he has with other

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characters. There is also a greater focus in The Brave and the Bold on the positive emotional aspects of the superheroes’ relationships with each other than is demonstrated in many other Batman texts.

An example of this is the loyalty Plastic Man demonstrates towards Batman for helping him reform from a life of crime after he gains superpowers. Another such example is Batman’s recognition of the normally boisterous Aquaman’s depression in the episode (2008), and his resultant decision to take Aquaman with him on an adventure to the planet Rann in order to cheer him up.

Within The Brave and the Bold there is a greater focus on the emotional connections that form between Batman and his heroic allies than what is often depicted in more ‘realistic’ iterations of the franchise.

Grant Morrison’s comic series Batman Incorporated (2010-2013) was the final phase of their six years writing the character. Within the series, Morrison brought to further fruition Brooker’s prophecy that a twenty-first century Batman would function primarily as a team leader. Following a near-fatal encounter that saw him become lost in time, Bruce Wayne returns to the role of Batman.

Spurred by a prophetic vision of the global criminal organisation Leviathan causing the ,

Bruce turns the Batman mission into a global pursuit, stretching far beyond the confines of Gotham

City. Revealing Bruce Wayne to be the moneyman behind Batman (but putting enough disinformation into the world to still protect his secret identity), Wayne establishes Batman Inc. as a globalised and franchised version of Batman. Within Batman Incorporated, the concept of Batman is pushed further away from a direct focus on Bruce Wayne’s psychological issues.

Michael Brody identifies the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents as being consistent with the concept of psychic trauma developed by Freud, a flooding of external stimuli that overwhelms the ego of an individual (Brody, 1995, p.172). Furthermore, Brody suggests that from a psychological perspective, Bruce’s decision as a child and later adoption of the Batman persona function as compensatory fantasies of revenge which are reminiscent of the real-life experiences of people who have been through similar trauma (Brady, p.173-174). In Batman Incorporated, Morrison pushes the

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concept of Batman past being Bruce Wayne’s psychic trauma and presents a globalised version of

Batman which functions as “[a] ring around the world” (Morrison, 2011, p.18). When questioned by the media as to what his project means, Bruce Wayne states, “[B]atman is everywhere. And if he didn’t exist, well… I guess we’d just have to invent him” (Morrison, p.6). Batman sets up a series of local Batman Inc. agents across the globe to counter Leviathan, such as in Paris, El

Gaucho in Argentina and The Dark Ranger in Melbourne. In issue six, ‘Nyktomorph’ Morrison and artist Chris Burnham depict Batman inducting The Dark Ranger into Batman Inc. by making a pledge in front of a burning candle, using the same poses Batman and Robin adopted when they first created their partnership.

Batman Incorporated highlights the power of Batman as a brand, both within the fictional world of Gotham City and within our world as well. Bruce Wayne created Batman to be a symbol both to inspire fear in criminals as “[a] terror made of shadows and flapping wings” (Morrison, p.18) and to inspire hope amongst the citizens of Gotham City. This symbol has its own power in our world, as witnessed by the millions of t-shirts around the globe bearing the Bat Symbol. ‘Batman is everywhere, because he is a franchise,’ (Brooker, 2012, p.213); this is true both within the DC

Universe and the real world in which Batman exists as a cultural icon. The multitude of variations on

Batman presented in Batman Incorporated – male, female, African, Japanese, virtual or robot – suggests that the symbolic power of Batman is malleable and does not conform with one specific representation of the character. This is highlighted when Commissioner Gordon asks Batman:

COMISSIONER GORDON: Two Batmen, huh? Who’d believe it? Does the secret badge make

me Batman too?

BATMAN: Pretty much. We’ll be in touch.

(Morrison, p.7)

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Batman is thus reconceptualised in this series to express more than just one man’s psychodrama writ large.

One approach to trying to understand collective action and social psychology has been to try and consider people as nodes entwined in an interconnected network rather than as atomised individuals (Latour cited in Blackman, 2008, p.38) and certainly we can Batman Incorporated can be viewed as an attempt to imagine Batman as something more akin to a network of people working towards a common goal. In this way actors like Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, work as nodal points for Batman Incorporated, their membership denoted by their secret lapel pins. As Lisa

Blackman notes, a node ‘provides a point of dynamic interchange for the psychic energy which characterises the flow between actors within a complex social field’ (Blackman, 2008). Batman

Incorporated can be viewed as a cultural attempt to depict this kind of network because it is made up of a collection of different actors, all with their own individual missions but all ultimately working towards a common good. This is in comparison to their opponent Leviathan, which preys on children and the disadvantaged, utilising mind control, blackmail and bureaucratic corruption to create a global network of its own.

Figure 13. Dark Ranger is inducted into Batman Incorporated with an oath by candlelight. Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham with Nathan Fairbairn (colouring), Batman Incorporated #6 (2011), p. 16, DC Comics.

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Batman and Care Batman’s origin is based in the traumatic loss of the family unit. The death of Thomas and

Martha Wayne at the hands of a criminal puts Bruce Wayne on the path to becoming The Batman.

As I have demonstrated, different versions of Batman across the character’s 75-year history have emphasised different aspects of the character and his mission. The Gothic Batman tends to present

Batman’s mission as at best a necessary evil, depicting him as a violent vigilante necessary for a city plagued with corruption and psychopathic criminals. Batman’s villains and his battles with them are predominately used to demonstrate the damaged psychological state of the franchise’s protagonist and the Gothic Batman often becomes a cultural expression of concepts surrounding an individualised masculinity. At worst, the Gothic incarnation of Batman and his war on crime in

Gotham City can be read as a millionaire venting his childhood frustrations on the mentally ill and lower classes (Morrison, 2011, p.26)

However, as I have established, Batman does not solely exist within a Gothic register.

Throughout multiple incarnations of the character, Batman’s relationships with his peers, friends and community are as important to his character development as his traumatic origin and Byronic predisposition towards brooding. This Relational incarnation of Batman also presents an alternate and more altruistic viewpoint on Batman’s mission. His mission is driven less by a personal desire to stamp out crime as a form of personal revenge and more by a desire to alleviate or prevent the suffering of others. In this respect, Batman’s capacity to care for others is highlighted.

One area of thought where the traditional notions of justice, equality and the role of relational thinking in society have been challenged is care-focused feminism. This strand of thought argues that care has been undervalued within Western cultures because of its association with femininity. In the broader culture, women are often most connected to values and traits such as emotion, interdependence, community and emotion, whereas men are often connected to values and traits such as independence, will, intellect and war (Vetterling-Braggin cited in Tong, 2009, p.163). One of the primary aims of care-focused feminism has been to identify traits traditionally

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associated with women, such as the capacity to care, as a sign of strength rather than a sign of weakness (Tong, 2009). Care-focused feminism has also been engaged in trying to develop ‘a feminist ethics of care as a complement of, or even a substitute of a traditional ethics of justice’

(Tong, 2009).

As an archetypal example of the pulp adventure hero, many of Batman’s characteristics as well as his environment would seem to be in opposition to the concepts supported within care- focused feminism. The masculine ethos of conflict resolution through violence is a near constant in

Batman stories, and Batman has always been on the side of ‘justice’ throughout all the various incarnations of the character. He has been identified with the justice apparatus of the state, such as in the Silver Age version of Batman where he was a fully deputised member of the Gotham City law enforcement. Alternately, he has been identified with a ‘natural’ justice decided outside the confines of the corrupt institutions of Gotham City, such as in Year One. Nevertheless, it is important to note that there are many ways in which the modern incarnation of Batman subverts American conceptions of justice. Two points highlight this. The first is Batman’s commitment to not killing his enemies and his commitment to not using firearms as a part of his mission to protect Gotham City; he rejects the weapon used to destroy his family. This differentiates Batman from other vigilante characters in popular fiction such as Marvel Comics’ The , who readily kills criminals as part of his never-ending war of vengeance. In this respect, Batman rejects the frontier justice mentality of

American society; even in a society such as Gotham City where institutions have become hopelessly corrupt, Batman refuses to become judge, jury and . Batman’s unwillingness to use firearms also differentiates him from the gun-culture in America, and the succession of heroes in

American popular culture who make use of gun violence to dispatch countless nameless foes.

Batman’s rejection of guns is explicitly articulated in The Dark Knight Returns, when as he breaks a rifle in two he says, “[t]his is the weapon of the enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it”

(Miller, 1986, p.173). The second point is Batman’s continual faith in the capacity for people to be rehabilitated, even when the situation appears hopeless. This is demonstrated in Alan Moore and

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Brian Bolland’s graphic novel The Killing Joke, where Batman says to The Joker; “[w]e could work together. I could rehabilitate you. You needn’t be out there on the edge any more. You needn’t be alone. We don’t have to kill each other” (Moore, 1988, p.43). As little success as Arkham Asylum has had in rehabilitating the supercriminals of Gotham City, Batman still demonstrates a belief in its possibility. Batman’s approach to thus often blurs state an ethic of justice and an ethic of care.

Some texts in the Batman franchise have specifically highlighted how important the role of care is in Batman’s mission to protect Gotham. One text that foregrounds this is /Batman:

Night on Earth (2003), written by and illustrated by . The graphic novel is a between Batman and Ellis and Cassaday’s own Planetary series. Planetary focuses upon the members of the Planetary organisation, a group dedicated to chronicling the secret history of the world. Throughout the series, Ellis and Cassaday utilise the entirety of twentieth century and fantasy as the backdrop to their story. Night on Earth follows on from the main series in utilising the whole history of the Batman franchise. The story follows the Planetary team trying to catch a man called John Black, who shifts between alternate universes when he is panicked, leaving people accidentally killed behind him. As the Planetary team follows him throughout multiple versions of Gotham City, they encounter multiple versions of Batman from specific eras or famous stories.

Throughout the story, the Planetary team and the various versions of Batman come into conflict due to their differing attitudes regarding how to deal with Black. Cassaday shifts his artistic style as the story shifts between multiple worlds, with his depictions of Batman matching those of the original artists being referenced. This is best demonstrated in the transition from the

Batman of the 1960s television series who carries Bat-Female Villain Repellent Spray to the Miller

Batman of The Dark Knight Returns (Ellis and Cassaday, 2003, p.30-31). David Baron, the comic’s

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colourist, shifts from using background colours of day-go yellow with a dumpy looking Batman to dark grey as the background for Miller’s hulking and unforgiving Batman who dwarfs his opponents.

Night on Earth is a useful text to examine how Batman is positioned as a figure of justice and how different incarnations of Batman represent different ideals of what justice means. The first version of Batman depicted by Ellis and Cassaday represented the Batman presented in the pages of

DC Comics’ ongoing Batman titles circa the early 2000s. The second Batman depicted, representing the Adam West Batman, articulates his position on justice thusly, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but as a fully deputized peace officer of the Gotham City Police Department, I can’t allow that man to go free”

(Ellis, 2003, p.29). This is then directly juxtaposed with the Miller Batman, who imbues his own personal understanding of natural justice with total authority. In confrontation with Elijah Snow, the leader of Planetary, this Batman states:

BATMAN: In my city- - In this place- - I am not letting a murderer go free.

ELIJAH SNOW: And he’s not going to go free. But there is more than your moral whateveritis

at stake here.

BATMAN: No, there isn’t.

(Ellis, 2003, p.34)

The Miller Batman is here presented as having a conception of the nature of evil, that aligns with Nel

Noddings’ view of a traditionally masculine approach to the nature of evil. Noddings suggests that a traditionally masculine approach to evil sees it as an abstract, contravening set rules and boundaries whether these are perceived as God-given or natural (Noddings in Tong, 2008, p.170). Ellis and

Cassaday present the Miller Batman as having this mindset. Since people had died because of John

Black’s malfunctioning powers, the Miller Batman sees him as a murderer who needs to be punished and is unwilling to see the complexity of the situation before him or to acknowledge any moral judgment different from his own.

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Yet, two of the other variations of Batman depicted in Night on Earth clearly articulate the importance of relational thinking at the heart of Batman’s character. The original Batman created by

Kane and Finger for Detective Comics #27 is depicted by Ellis and Cassaday as being the most dangerous incarnation of Batman. Indeed, this original Batman was, (as I explored earlier) heavily indebted to Gothic iconography and conventions. This original Batman was the only comic-book version of the character to carry a firearm and be willing to kill his enemies. The original Batman holds his gun up to John Black’s head saying, “[c]rime doesn’t pay. Crime mustn’t pay” (Ellis, 2003, p.42). In this way, Ellis and Cassaday portray the original version of Batman as only being able to deal with questions of crime and punishment in a black and white manner. This Batman is a figure of indifferent justice with no capacity to address evil outside of a traditional dualistic paradigm of and punishment. In representing the Batman of Detective Comics #27, Ellis and Cassaday are presenting a Batman who predates the introduction of Batman’s origin story and the murder of his parents. ‘This Batman has no back story. No murdered parents. No reason not to carry a gun’

(Kaufman, 2009). This is a version of Batman with no familial relationships and no personal history to reflect upon. The original Batman, with no ability to relate to others, cannot come to any solution to the problem of crime other than the harshest possible punishment.

The next Batman depicted in Night on Earth has no precedence but is an amalgamation, visually as well as in character traits, of all the previous variants of Batman depicted in the story. Ellis and Cassaday’s new version of the character serves as a sort of platonic ideal Batman. This Ideal

Batman is representative of the best parts of all the other incarnations, and this version of the character (as all of Night on Earth does) reinforces the argument that Batman texts are constantly

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Figure 14. The Original Batman makes his appearance. Warren Ellis and John Cassaday with David Baron (colouring) and Wes Abbott (lettering), Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth (2004), p. 40, DC Comics.

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working in a dialogue between past and current incarnations of the character (Brooker, 2012, p.219).

It is this Ideal Batman who solves the crisis at hand, primarily by reaching out to John Black and recognising their shared history as orphans who had their families ripped away from them. With this version of Batman, Ellis and Cassaday refocus Batman’s mission towards care of others, rather than a personal vendetta. Certainly, this Batman takes a more care-focused approach to dealing with questions of morality and justice. His approach to morality is conceptually similar to that of

Noddings, who suggests that morality is defined by affirming one’s own interests through the process of affirming others’ needs (Noddings cited in Tong, 2009, p.169). This version of Batman is driven by the desire to make sure others do not have to experience the same emotional pain that he endured. As he calms Black down, Batman says, “You can stop the world making more people like us. And no one will have to be scared anymore” (Ellis, 2003, p.48).

The Batman created by Ellis and Cassaday is one of the most explicit depictions of Batman as a relational figure. Batman’s purpose is defined by the relationship he had with his parents before their death and his desire to protect others from experiencing the same sort of pain he experienced.

By understanding and relating to Black, Batman defuses the situation non-violently. Thus, the

Batman from Night on Earth follows an approach to combating evil closer to that of ethical care than a traditional notion of justice. ‘Evil is isolation in one’s hour of need, and the way to overcome isolation is through relationship’ (Tong, 2009, p.170). Ellis and Cassaday present Batman as a relational figure; rather than functioning as an angry Byronic hero lashing out at the world, he exists to help others. Batman’s mission of protection is reconceived as reflecting a ‘caring masculinity’ rather than a violent iteration of masculinity. It comes from a position of being ‘relational, interdependent [and] care-orientated’ (Morrell and Jewkes cited in Elliott, 2016, p.253). This relational incarnation of Batman gains restitution for his parents’ deaths by following their example and to extend the compassion he received from them towards others. “You can give them safety.

You can show them that they’re not alone” (Ellis, 2003 p.47).

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Figure 15. The Ideal Batman resolves the conflict via an appeal to empathy. Warren Ellis and John Cassaday with David Baron (colouring) and Wes Abbott (lettering), Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth (2004), p. 45, DC Comics.

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Conclusion Batman is a character who has been shaped by a multitude of writers, artists and creators working in various mediums throughout his history. As highlighted by Ellis and Cassaday in Night on

Earth, the character has changed and developed to match prevailing cultural trends and attitudes.

Batman texts always exist in a dialogue with each other, and to try and ignore interpretations of the character which are disliked does a disservice to this dialogue. (Brooker, 2012, p.218). ‘Batman is never one thing, and to pretend otherwise is to do a disservice to the rich, crazy, beautiful life of a cultural icon’ (Brooker, p.219).

In this chapter I have identified two primary variants of Batman, the Gothic Batman and the

Relational Batman. The Gothic Batman is an example of Batman as a Gothic protagonist who exists in the realm of shadows. This version of Batman tends towards portraying the character as a tortured romantic hero and therefore a highly individuated figure, whose inner demons are externalised through the criminals that he fights. The Relational Batman demonstrates how the character’s identity is constructed through his caring relationships with others. His relationships with allies such as Robin and Superman are often complicated but are also key to creating a version of

Batman who is able to take his personal pain and use it as his motivation to fight in service of others, rather than personal vengeance. These relationships also open up space for Batman to serve as a model of a more positive and relational vision of masculine power.

Let us return to the question that The Joker posed to Batman in Death of the Family. Does his family make him weaker? Is Batman better off as a solitary vigilante, without allies or friends to hold him back? Often the preference for the Gothic Batman is linked to a desire to see Batman as an ideal of an aggressive form of masculinity (Brooker, 2012, p.91). However, the growing trend towards the Relational approach to Batman suggests that the character cannot be simply constrained to the Gothic approach. Texts such as Night on Earth and Batman Incorporated demonstrate the importance of relationality in the Batman narrative. Indeed, the importance of

Batman’s relationships is even highlighted within prime examples of the Gothic Batman such as The

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Dark Knight Returns. Often within such texts, it is only when Batman starts to open himself up to working with others that the evils terrorising Gotham City start to be defeated. Overall, the

Relational Batman is a prime example of how a growing focus on relational thinking within the social sciences is being reflected within popular culture. The Joker is once again defeated; a Batman whose identity is constructed through a network of relationships is a more interesting and increasingly popular.

Batman is in many ways an aspirational hero figure. As I have demonstrated throughout this chapter, there are some fans and creators who want him to model a grim, angry masculinity. Then there are others who see Batman as a relational figure to aspire towards; an iconic hero who inspires people to keep prioritising human connection, even in the darkest times. However, what about a superhero who the audience does not necessarily see as an aspirational figure, but more of a relatable figure? What about a superhero many fans see aspects of themselves within? These questions will be addressed in Chapter Two, as I examine The

Amazing/Spectacular/Sensational/Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man.

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Figure 16. The Quantum Mechanix diorama of the Batman Family. Mohammad Haque (design), ‘Family’ (2019), https://qmxonline.com/products/batman-family-limited-edition-q- master-figure (Accessed 3/12/2020)

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Spider-Man’s Tangled Web: An Auto-Ethnographic Reflection on the Relationship between Spider-Man and his Fans

One of the most unique features of superhero comics is that they are serial narratives which in some cases have been published continually for decades. The adventures of the world’s most popular superheroes such as Superman, and Wonder Woman have been ongoing for decades. It is possible for readers to start reading a hero’s journey as a child and continue to follow the hero throughout their own adolescence and adulthood. At the same time, the inhabitants of superhero universes never age with the reader. The comic book superhero is a two-dimensional being made of ink. Even as the reader ages and matures, a superhero can stay eternally young and vital. However, a feature of superhero comics which does not always remain stable is the relationship between the fan and the superhero. This relationship between the reader and the fictional character they interact with monthly can ‘change over time, and the ways that what they [superhero comic-books] mean to us shifts at different moments of our lives’ (Jenkins, 2007, p.65). In Chapter One, I focused on

Batman as an iconic figure of masculinity. For that analysis, I was looking at what sort of approach to masculinity fans wanted to see modelled by the hero. In this chapter, I shift focus, trying to understand the relationship that develops over years between the reader and superhero. This analysis also touches upon changing notions of masculinity between adolescence and adulthood and also in terms of the broader culture.

Being a serious fan of superhero comics leaves a certain element of psychic scarring on yo brain. The relationships fans develop with the characters they follow can have a profound impact on a person’s sense of self and identity. The pleasures associated with consuming superhero narratives, often first encountered in childhood, become an important aspect of how superhero fans understand themselves. As Henry Jenkins wrote:

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It is almost as if we would lose something important in ourselves if watching Batman stalk

across a darkened alley or Spider-Man swing from building to building no longer made our

hearts beat a little faster.

(Jenkins, 2007, p.67)

Superhero fans invest a great portion of themselves within the characters they follow. Being able to master the distinction between different iterations of a single character or knowledge of the history of a character are the type of qualities which typify committed fans rather than casual readers

(Jenkins, p.66). The superhero fan tends to feel a certain amount of ownership over the characters they follow. If a comics story breaks some sort of principle value which a reader feels is integral to the character, then that reader might reject that story in letters pages or write fanfiction or create social media memes in response to the perceived faults of the direction the character is being taken by the publishers. However, this sort of fan activism is unlikely to have any impact on the comics being published unless it is backed up with sales data conclusive enough to convince publishers that their creative direction is having a negative commercial outcome.

A critical fact in understanding the culture surrounding superhero fandom and the often- contentious relationship between publishers and fans is that most of the major superhero characters are owned and controlled by two publishing companies: DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Both companies are now subsidiaries of larger media corporations (Marvel being owned by Disney since

2009 and DC being owned by WarnerMedia since 1972). The direction in which these publishers want to take the characters may come into conflict with the direction some fans would like to see the characters take. This is indicative of tensions that are apparent in modern media cultures. There is a constant process of negotiation and re-negotiation going on between fans and producers over how much influence fan reaction should have over media texts (Larsen and Zubernis, 2012, p.176).

Ultimately, as much as superhero fans believe that they have a sense of ownership over their favourite characters, story decisions are going to be chiefly decided by the editorial staff entrusted

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by mega-corporations to make these characters as commercially attractive as possible. Marvel editor

Tom Breevort, when questioned by an unhappy fan who was displeased with recent comics and unfavourably compared them to fan-fiction, responded with this comment: ‘Marvel is the keeper of the canon. Marvel gets to make the choices. Whatever Marvel publishes, whether you like it or not is the real deal’ (2015). Breevort followed up by saying that the anonymous fan is welcome to stop reading if they so desire. This emphasises that the best avenue fans have to communicate their displeasure at a story is to stop buying the comic. Commercially successful comics are often warmly received by the fanbase; however, it is also a common occurrence that the most complained about/discussed comics will be at the top of sales charts. This indicates that there is an element of masochism inherent in the reading habits of some fans, who will keep buying a comic out of a sense of completism rather than pleasure. The relationship which develops between fans and the heroic subject of their fandom cannot be separated from the realities of the commercial imperatives of the

American comic book industry.

It has been suggested that there is a tendency for scholars within comics studies to insert their own personal experience with comics into their scholarship. It is a way in which we seek to assert our credibility in the field (Ford and Jenkins, 2009, p.303). For academics, it is the equivalent of the old comic book store rituals of being able to argue a case for who would win a fight between

Thor and The Hulk to prove your expertise as a superhero fan. Drawing on your own experiences as a fan is a way to establish your credentials within the field. Throughout this chapter, I will be drawing upon my own experiences as a superhero comics fan to illuminate the intense relationship that exists between superhero characters and their fans. I include an autoethnographic element, to position my own relationship with superhero comics against a broader understanding of how comic book fans have related to their heroes. Specifically, I am looking at the example of Spider-Man.

Spider-Man and Me Spider-Man was created by and in 1963 and was introduced in the pages of #15 (1963). The next year, The Amazing Spider-Man would debut, with

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the same creative team at the helm. Spider-Man has always been one of the most commercially successful and prominent of the Marvel superheroes and is a character whose influence spreads far past comic books, having appeared in feature films, animated television series, video games and an

(infamous) Broadway musical. Lee and Ditko’s creation of Spider-Man (and his secret identity of

Peter Parker) was an important evolutionary moment in the superhero genre, because he was arguably the first superhero since Superman to completely reinvent the genre (Bell, 2008, p.57). One of the core reasons as to why Spider-Man was such an important development for the superhero genre, was that he was the first hero to have his life changed for the worse by gaining superpowers

(Bell, p.61). The greater focus on the trials of Peter Parker in his civilian life, and the melding of action-adventure narratives with teenage melodrama, were integral innovations to the superhero genre.

So why examine Spider-Man? Primarily, because when I look back on my personal history with comic books and superheroes, I realised that Spider-Man (and my relationship with the character) is the superhero who best exemplifies the intense parasocial relationship which develops between fans and superheroes. My Spider-Man fandom goes back to childhood and has developed throughout my adolescence and early adulthood. Peter Parker is a character that has been a consistent element of my lifeworld. In some ways, Spider-Man is like an imaginary friend I never said goodbye to. Pushing my middle fingers into my palm and making the trademark THWIP sound-effect of Spider-Man’s web-shooters (I still do this occasionally) are some of the earliest memories I have of superhero play. However, I think the appeal of Spider-Man runs deeper than just the cool costume and superpowers. On a personal level, Peter Parker’s adventures as a teenage superhero particularly spoke to me throughout my adolescence. Further, the overall theme of the Spider-Man mythos is summed up with the famous line, ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ Peter Parker’s life, for all its fantastical elements, is also one thematically based in very human concerns. Peter is constantly being challenged to do the right thing, even when the whole world is seemingly against him. Furthermore, Peter’s guilt concerning his past failures is what spurs him to use his abilities to

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help others. The human qualities of Spider-Man are one of the core reasons why I personally relate to the character and why I think the character has such a broad appeal.

There have been a continual series of rupture points throughout Spider-Man’s comic book history. The rupture points have been moments of heightened tension between elements of the

Spider-Man fandom, creators and Marvel Comics regarding the future of the character. These rupture points, whether they have been stories or changes in the creative team of the comic, have been integral in the moulding of the modern incarnation of the character. There has been a continual ongoing dialogue concerning which audience Spider-Man is made for, which exact audience should claim ownership over the character. As I have explained above regarding my own case, Spider-Man is a character fans tend to project themselves into; therefore, many fans feel a particularly strong sense of ownership over the character and how he should be portrayed. This ideal

Spider-Man often matches up with the version of Spider-Man that fans first encountered as children.

A core problem, which has led to the most tension between fans and producers, is whether Peter

Parker should grow and mature with his audience, or whether he should be kept eternally young to serve as Spider-Man for new readers in subsequent . This tension was best epitomised by the divergent fan reactions to the One More Day storyline, which saw the dissolution of Peter

Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage, leaving the character as a single twenty-something again to return the character to an earlier point in his history.

Spider-Man has been a transmedia franchise dating back to the 1960s when the character was adapted for his first animated series Spider-Man (1967-1970). Arguably the most significant contribution to the Spider-Man mythos from the series was its iconic theme song. Transmedia adaptions of the Spider-Man comics ended up being my window into Peter Parker’s world. The animated series which truly introduced me to the character was Spider-Man: The Animated Series

(1994-1998), which had a somewhat less iconic vocoder filled theme song composed by Joe Perry of

Aerosmith fame. The series does not hold up to modern critical scrutiny like its contemporary,

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Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), which set the benchmark for what American action cartoons could achieve. However, Spider-Man: The Animated Series was important for me because as an eight-year-old, it introduced me to Spider-Man; his costume, his powers and his sense of humour. The series left a deep impression on me. I still hear remnants of Christopher Daniel Barnes’ performance of Peter Parker/Spider-Man whenever I read Spider-Man’s dialogue.

The next transmedia adaption that spurred on my Spider-Man fandom was Spider-Man

(2002). The film is an important one in the history of Hollywood and the then emergent superhero film genre. The film’s commercial and critical success was integral in establishing the superhero genre as one of the dominant forms of cinema. Spider-Man and its sequel

Spider-Man 2 (2004) are films I can point to as reigniting my interest in the character and the genre.

The films came out just as I was entering my teenage years and, in this respect, it was the perfect time developmentally to reacquaint myself with Spider-Man’s world. With me, the filmic and animated versions of Spider-Man achieved their goal in creating an audience member who was willing to crossover between different mediums, as the transmedia iterations of Spider-Man had whetted my appetite to seek out the original version of the character found in comics (Jenkins, 2006, p.96).

The first 100 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, first produced by the team of Stan Lee and

Steve Ditko, and later by Lee and John Romita Sr., stand as one of the most important runs in comic book history. Spider-Man was a revolutionary moment in the development of the American comic book and superhero genre and the core text of what would become the Marvel Universe.36 The

Amazing Spider-Man did not just introduce Spider-Man/Peter Parker, his villains and supporting cast, but it also introduced narrative seriality to the superhero genre. Plots would continue across issue to issue in contrast to the superhero stories of competitor DC Comics, whose adventures were (nearly) always self-contained.

36 Along with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s run on The Fantastic Four.

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I discovered the original Spider-Man stories as a teenager, at roughly the same time I was introduced to contemporary Spider-Man comics. My memories of my reaction to the Lee-Ditko and

Lee-Romita stories was that I was as drawn to them as I was to the contemporary comics I was reading. The Lee-Ditko issues established Spider-Man as a neurotic hero, who was driven by the guilt he felt about the traumatic death of his uncle to use his powers to protect others. One of the main reasons why the comic spoke to me was that Peter Parker served as an explicit wish-fulfilment fantasy figure. As an adolescent, and the first real teenage superhero, Peter Parker broke new ground for what a superhero could be. One of the things which made Spider-Man such an appealing fantasy figure to me was the balance between angst and fun. Peter’s adventures as Spider-Man are often detrimental to his personal life. This was famously depicted in The Amazing Spider-Man #50

(1967) ‘Spider-Man No More’, where Peter gives up on being Spider-Man, and whilst his personal relationships improve, he finds that he cannot turn his back on fighting evil and returns to the costume. However, all the angst is counterbalanced with the fun and adventure of being Spider-

Man. Peter puts on his mask and becomes another persona, who swings freely across the city and rather than being a quiet wallflower, never shuts up with his constant jokes. The division between put-upon wallflower Peter Parker, and the free-flying confident Spider-Man, was present in the earliest versions of the character and was a major reason as to why he appealed to me personally.

The Objectivist Spider-Man vs The Liberal Spider-Man One of the features of The Amazing Spider-Man that made it stand out as a ground-breaking superhero narrative was the use of Peter’s supporting cast. The serial nature of the Marvel Universe was perhaps best epitomised in Spider-Man’s corner of New York. The supporting cast in previous superhero comics never really changed. For example, Lois Lane and were forever in the same love triangle with Superman. By contrast, the supporting characters surrounding Peter Parker changed as the narrative developed. , the school who did not know that the kid he belittled was secretly his hero Spider-Man, would go on to soften and become friends with Peter.

He was later drafted by the military and shipped off to the Vietnam War. Peter’s relationships with

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his girlfriends like and changed and developed over time. As a reader, I was as drawn into these ongoing relationship as I was Spider-Man’s fight scenes. Sometimes when reading the reprints of the original run, I would speed read through the action scenes to get to the latest developments in Peter’s soap operatic life.

Spider-Man/Peter Parker has always been a character whose actions and developments have been borne out of his relationships with others; specifically, his relationships with his family figures. In many ways, I think Spider-Man functions as a relationally attuned heroic figure. The relationships which Spider-Man is most heavily invested in, the ones which govern his actions the most, are the relationships he has with his parental figures, and Aunt May. Spider-Man’s origin (as introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15) is borne out of the father-son relationship between

Peter and his Uncle Ben. After receiving his powers and going into show business, Peter lets a escape, thinking that it was not his responsibility to stop him. Peter later finds that the burglar he let escape was the murderer of his Uncle Ben. That moment of failure, where Peter let his selfishness get in the way of doing the right thing, is what haunts him, him on the path of using his superpowers in service of others.

One of the best examples of how Spider-Man is driven by his familial relationships comes from Amazing Spider-Man #33 ‘The Final Chapter’. This issue from Ditko and Lee is a high watermark in the history of Spider-Man and one of the most transcendent moments in superhero comics. Since

2014, the comics podcast War Rocket Ajax has featured a segment called Every Story Ever; where the hosts quixotically attempt to rank every comic book story on a list from the best to worst stories of all time. Currently, the list encompasses over a thousand stories. Since May 2014; Amazing Spider-

Man #33 has held the number one position on the list. Both hosts agreed that it was the ‘best

Marvel Comic ever produced” (Klytus Media, 2014). At the story’s climax Spider-Man lays trapped under of rubble in Doctor ’ secret underwater lair. The serum which can save his critically-ill mother figure, Aunt May, is just beyond his grasp. Desperately trying to lift the enormous

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weight off himself, Peter thinks about his Aunt May, and his motivation to help her. This motivation to save his aunt, when he felt he had failed his uncle, is what gives him the power to lift the heavy building off his back. This moment is held up to be one of the finest in the history of superhero comics and it is firmly based in Peter Parker’s familiar relationships.

A significant moment in the history of Spider-Man took place when Steve Ditko left his role as plotter and artist of the comic following Amazing Spider-Man #38 (1967). Lee and Ditko had co- created the character and worked together on the book using what is now known as The Marvel

Method.37 Lee would give Ditko a very broad outline of a plot, which Ditko would then break down into pages and draw. It was Lee’s job to come back to the finished artwork and write in dialogue to go with the artwork. This method was primarily devised due to the heavy workload Lee undertook as

Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, as well as the many other books he was writing at the time. This style of comics creation gave artists such as Ditko a huge amount of leeway as artists to plot out and the stories themselves. It was also common for Ditko to leave notes in the margins of their pages, with suggested dialogue for Lee to use. By the end of their partnership, Ditko insisted on receiving plot credit for the stories, and he was given this credit from Amazing Spider-Man #25 (1965) until he left the title two years later. Ditko was the first artist of his generation to create and control the narrative arc of a comics series in a work-for-hire environment (Bell, 2008, p.57). The contributions

Ditko made to the Spider-Man mythos cannot be understated, with Ditko having designed Spider-

Man and all of the original supporting cast. Spider-Man’s longest standing villains, the original

Sinister Six,38 were all designed by Ditko.

37 For a more detailed discussion of The Marvel Method, see Chapter Five. It is also worth noting that The Marvel Method was key to Lee’s collaborations with Jack Kirby on The Fantastic Four and numerous other titles as well. This is part of why there is such contention surrounding the question of who should be considered the primary author of 1960s Marvel Comics: Lee or artists such as Ditko and Kirby. 38 The being the name used for when Spider-Man’s greatest enemies teamed up to battle him. The original incarnation consisted of , , , , and . Ditko also designed The Green , arguably Spider-Man’s most notable antagonist.

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Figure 17. Spider-Man is inspired by his responsibility to Aunt May to go beyond his limits. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko with Artie Simek (lettering), The Amazing Spider-Man #33 (1966), p. 5, Marvel Comics.

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The breakdown in the Lee and Ditko partnership is one of the most impactful creative changes in the history of Spider-Man. It forever changed not just the visual aesthetics of the series but also the direction in which Spider-Man was moving as a character. Importantly, this creative split also had a major impact on the political subtext of the series. One of the first academic works to examine the character was a 1976 essay by Salvatore Mondello entitled ‘Spider-Man: Superhero in the Liberal Tradition’. Mondello identifies Spider-Man as a ‘resolute defender of traditional

American liberalism,’ (Mondello, p.236). From 1967 onwards The Amazing Spider-Man would sometimes dip into issues of cultural relevance; such as drug abuse, campus conflict and race relations (Mondello , p.236-237). Spider-Man often found himself as a moderating figure when dealing with these issues, serving to find ‘consensus in an era of conflict’ (Mondello, p.236) and bridge the gap between the two sides of generational conflict (and nearly always expose the dastardly supervillain flaming the two sides’ passions for their own ill-gotten gains). The even-keeled traditional American liberalism of Spider-Man reflected how Stan Lee presented himself politically; as neither a ‘conservative or a hippie’ (Lee cited in Mondello, p.236). It is worth noting that the political debate of the 1960s was being litigated within the letter column, with some readers pushing for Spider-Man to be an outwardly left-wing hero and other readers arguing that politics should not be part of Spider-Man’s adventures (Walsh, Martin & Germain, 2018, p.76-77). However, had Ditko remained in charge of Peter Parker’s life, then the idea of Spider-Man as a politically liberal superhero would not have survived through the 1960s.

Steve Ditko is one of the most talented and fascinating artists in the history of American comics. His work on Spider-Man and his innovative work on the psychedelic strip stand as artistic highlights for the medium. However, a defining feature of Ditko’s professional and personal career was that he was a true believer in the Objectivist philosophy espoused by Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand was a Russian immigrant to the United States, whose novels and philosophy have been incredibly influential on the American right and libertarian politics. Rand argued against altruism as a concept, believing it led to corruption. Rand instead argued in favour of people following their

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rational self-interest and a minimal state, where citizens were free of government interference. To

Rand and her followers this is the best economic and ethical structure under which to live (Badwhar and Long, 2013). Ditko’s firm adherence to Objectivism quickly became expressed within his comics work, including within the pages of Spider-Man. Ditko’s Randian beliefs were a key factor in him pressing for a greater share of the credit for Spider-Man (believing that he was not being adequately compensated in his position as a producer) as well as leading him to eventually leave Marvel and

Spider-Man behind (Bell, 2008, p.89). Ditko’s Objectivist leanings were more pronounced in his later comics work, such as The Question or his self-published series Mr. A. When Ditko had full control of a comic, the world he created was a Manichean one where there was an absolute division between good and evil.39

The creative differences between Ditko and Lee ended up being contested in the pages of the comic. It was Ditko’s intention to turn Peter into a figure who would match Rand’s ideal of the young, romantic hero. This moved the character away from the initial paradigm Lee had set up of

Peter being an alienated, neurotic teenager driven by his guilt about past failures (Bell, 2008, p.89).

As Ditko took full control of the plotting of Amazing Spider-Man he took Peter Parker closer to an ideal Randian hero and the stories started to fit more in line with Rand’s philosophical bent. By late in Ditko’s run, there started to be complaints in the letter column that Spider-Man was no longer dealing with the personal problems which had defined his early appearances (Pinea and Jiminiz-

Varera, 2014, p.1167). Ditko’s Objectivist philosophy was changing the tone and politics of both the series and its hero.

Ditko also started presenting Peter as being to the right politically of the (typically left- leaning) college audience of the book. In Amazing Spider-Man #38 (Ditko’s final issue), Peter runs into a group of protestors on campus. The body language Ditko gives Peter demonstrates his disgust for the protestors. Peter is dismissive of his peers, and clearly considers them to be below him.

39 In the later years of his career, Steve Ditko would return to working for Marvel Comics. However, he never reformed his creative partnership with Stan Lee or returned to Spider-Man.

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Comics scholar Blake Bell described this scene as Ditko’s final metaphorical middle finger to the

Spider-Man audience (Bell, 2008, p.96). Ditko was heavily influenced by Rand’s recent writings complaining about the moral degregation caused by student radicalism on campus, and this influence is evident in this scene. The student audience of Amazing Spider-Man – the same students who voted in an Esquire poll that Spider-Man shared the same status as Bob Dylan, Che Guervara and his stablemate The Incredible Hulk as an icon of radicalised youth culture (Ashby, 2006, p.357) – were far to the left of Ditko. This moment of Peter explicitly rejecting college protesters can be seen as a response by Ditko to that fanbase.

By the end of his time on Spider-Man, Ditko presented Peter Parker as if he were an

‘independent-minded adult standing apart from, and indeed looking down upon, the corrupt society he inhabited’ (Smith, 2010). Presenting Peter in opposition to the protest-based youth culture of the

1960s (Smith, 2010) was Ditko’s one last expression of the Objectivist Spider-Man. It is worth noting that the dialouge Lee writes for the scene is a broad of the protest movement. It makes no mention of any direct political issue, and presents the students as protesting just for the sake of protesting. In a later issue’s letter column, Lee responded to a student who had written in to complain about the presentation of protestors in the scene. “[w]e never in a million years thought that anyone was gonna take our silly protest marchers seriously! We just tossed it in for a little comedy relief – or so we thought!” (Lee cited in Lee, 2012, p.33). Whilst Stan Lee may have thought that the scene was harmless , for Steve Ditko, who had plotted the scene and drawn such a contemptuous look on Peter Parker’s face, it was clearly a webline aimed at the other side of the culture war. Two years later, Lee would script a Spider-Man story called Crisis on Campus, in which

Peter’s university is under pressure from student protests for more affordable student housing.

Whilst the story ultimately comes to a politically moderate solution (the dean the students were protesting against ends up having been trying to the same goal as the students), unlike Ditko’s version, Lee’s Peter Parker makes it clear that his sympathies are with the protesting students.

Further, when Lee was later working with John Romita on Amazing Spider-Man he was able to firmly

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establish Peter Parker as a traditional American liberal and stamp out the Objectivist overtones Ditko was adding to the character.

Figure 18. The Objectivist Spider-Man. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko with Artie Simek (lettering), The Amazing Spider-Man #38 (1966), p. 11, Marvel Comics.

It can be said that after Ditko left Amazing Spider-Man the series went from being a revolutionary work to merely being a high quality but formulaic comic book (Bell, 2008, p.96).

However, this comes back to the relationship between the fans and Spider-Man. At the time when

Ditko left the book, a large proportion of the fanbase were left-leaning college students. As the later stages of Ditko’s Spider-Man run demonstrated (as well as his work for the rest of his career), Ditko became more and more politicised, and he let that seep into his work and Peter Parker. Would

Spider-Man have survived 50 years if Ditko had kept complete control of the character and further turned him into a ‘po-faced Objectivist sitting in judgment of we subjectivist masses’ (Smith, 2010)? I suspect that Spider-Man would not have survived as a mass cultural icon (he may have still had some

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fans amongst the hardcore libertarian set) had he been taken as far down the right-wing rabbit hole as Ditko was travelling. This was an early example of Marvel Comics constraining artistic freedom for commercial purposes. It was recognised by Lee and publisher Martin Goodman that the direction

Ditko was taking the title was likely to start alienating audiences. The more politically liberal and psychologically damaged Spider-Man of Stan Lee ultimately won out over the Randian hero Steve

Ditko was developing. Ultimately, it was necessary for Marvel Comics to choose a version of Spider-

Man that would be more commercially viable, rather than a version of Spider-Man produced by a visionary artist that was likely to alienate huge sections of the audience.

The Randian hero Steve Ditko was turning Spider-Man into quickly became closer to Lee’s feet-of-clay conception of the character following Ditko’s departure. The ideological division between Lee and Ditko was evident in the work even prior to Ditko’s departure. For example,

Amazing Spider-Man #21 (1965), in which Ditko’s imagery of the triumphant heroic Spider-Man swinging over the city is overlaid with narration penned by Lee where Spider-Man is internally chastising himself over his negative perception by the general public in contrast with other heroes like The Avengers. There was a clear dissonance between Ditko’s Randian imagery, and Lee’s self- doubting internal monologue (Pineda and Jiminiz-Varea, 2014, p.1164). Ultimately, the version of

Spider-Man who would develop into the modern-day incarnation of the character is closer to Lee’s vision than Ditko’s hero.

This moment of Peter Parker as the straight-laced Objectivist from Ditko’s final issue thus feels like an odd moment in the history of the character. It has become one of those strange moments in a comic character’s continuity, something which feels out of place within the larger history of the hero. It is the sort of moment which is never meant to be talked about again, like the time Captain America got turned into a werewolf40 or the time ’s horse turned out to actually be a centaur who had been fully transformed into a horse, who Supergirl then made out

40 In the Man and Wolf storyline stretching from Captain America #402-408.

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with when he was temporarily turned into a human.41 This moment of Peter being contemptuous with protestors feels out of character for Spider-Man. However, this last moment of the Objectivist

Spider-Man from Ditko’s pen has been contextualised by other creators in a way that makes sense of it as part of Peter’s overall . In Captain America and the Mighty Avengers #1 (2014), writer and artist Luke Ross revisit the moment from Amazing Spider-Man #38 in such a way as to transform what seems like a strange blip in Spider-Man’s history into a character moment that makes sense in context. Spider-Man is introduced in the issue at the headquarters of the Mighty

Avengers, where he is trying to apologise to team leader for the actions Doctor Octopus took against Cage and the Mighty Avengers whilst Doctor Octopus was in control of Spider-Man’s body.42 Spider-Man spends a whole page trying to apologise, his motor-mouth leading him to babble. The memories of Doctor Octopus’ selfish misdeeds cause Spider-Man to remember another moment in his history during his rant:

Figure 19. Spider-Man regretting his past political leanings. Al Ewing and Luke Ross, with Rachelle Rosenberg (colouring) and Cory Petit (lettering), Captain America & The Mighty Avengers #1 (2014), p. 9, Marvel Comics.

41 In #311. 42 Originally beginning in Amazing Spider-Man #700; and followed up in the series The Spider-Man (2013-2014); this story saw Peter’s body hijacked by Doctor Octopus. Otto Octavius tries to remain a hero and be a better Spider-Man than Peter ever was; but his self-interested actions in some ways reflects the type of hero Peter might have been had he continued down the Randian path Ditko was starting him on.

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Ewing and Ross’ main goal with this panel is to get a laugh from their reader. The joke they have constructed works on two levels. On one level it is built around an obscure and strange moment from Spider-Man’s history. Only fans with long memories are likely to remember Ditko’s last hurrah from Amazing Spider-Man #38 and connect the subtext of that moment to Ditko’s own Objectivist beliefs. It is a callback to both the textual history of Spider-Man and the behind-the-scenes history of

Spider-Man. On the other level, the joke works because it is easy to relate to. Many people have an element of shame concerning their political beliefs when they were young. What Ewing and Ross do with this panel is to take the odd moment of Ditko’s Objectivist Spider-Man shining through and put it in the context of the Stan Lee influenced liberal Spider-Man of the present. Peter shouting at protestors goes from being a strange moment in the history of the character to something that makes sense in the full view of Peter’s life. I know from personal experience that libertarianism is a political philosophy which can hold some seductive power to alienated youth like Peter and myself.

The ideas espoused by libertarianism and objectivism, where you are ultimately responsible only for yourself and government is seen as a great constricting force on personal freedom, can seem appealing when you are young and immature. Like Peter, I look back on the brief period of time in my teenage years when the internet convinced me that libertarianism was sensible rather than an ultimately cruel political philosophy which valorises the individual at the expense of the necessity of community, with a sense of sheepishness. It makes sense to me that a character who has been constructed as fundamentally empathetic like Spider-Man (who has had to struggle with his selfish side before and paid the consequences for indulging in it), would recognise later in life that his flirtation with Rand was something to feel silly about. What Ewing and Ross accomplish here is to bring to the surface the repressed Objectivist Spider-Man that Ditko was developing prior to his departure; but then immediately display that the Objectivist element of Spider-Man’s outlook on life has not survived his experience of living in service to others as a hero.

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Spider-Man – The Youth Icon Spider-Man has always been a character connected to concepts of youth and the difficulties of male adolescence. Unlike earlier teenage superheroes, he was not a sidekick like Robin, or a younger version of an existing character like , or one member of a team like the Legion of

Superheroes. Spider-Man/Peter Parker has the distinction of being the first major teenage superhero and was the first teenager to carry his own series. His success was part of the youth zeitgeist of 1960s America, where teenagers were becoming a significant social and cultural demographic. Spider-Man was a platform through which readers explored the growing intergenerational conflict of the 1960s between the older establishment and younger counterculture

(Lee, 2012, p.29).

Spider-Man’s symbolic nature as a figure of youth culture is demonstrated by the supervillains he fights. The villains which Lee and Ditko created for their teenage hero reflected the generational tensions of the 1960s. The first villain Spider-Man battles in the debut of his comic was

The Vulture, an aging bald man with wings whose very name brings forth the imagery of the old feeding off the young.43 Villains such as Doctor Octopus and The further demonstrated this element of generational warfare inherent in the Spider-Man franchise. Doctor Octopus is like a shattered glass image of Peter Parker, a dangerous vision of the man Peter could grow into; a bitter maladjusted scientist who takes out his self-hatred on the world. The early Spider-Man, the neurotic maladjusted teenager of Ditko’s pencils, could easily have been pushed down this path had his life gone a little differently. Similarly, The Green Goblin (), father of Peter’s best friend

Harry Osborn, serves as a dark father image in Spider-Man’s world. Undoubtedly though, the most enduring of all the adult villains of the Spider-Man universe is J. Jonah Jameson, editor of The Daily

Bugle, employer of Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s most dedicated hater. Jameson’s viciously biased editorials fuel New York’s antipathy for Spider-Man. By branding Spider-Man a menace to the public,

43 Whilst not in the original version of the character, later stories would give Vulture the ability to drain the youth out of people, somewhat literalizing the subtext of the original character.

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Jameson furthers the alienation of Spider-Man from the rest of New York, to the point where Peter felt he could not tell his Aunt May his secret identity due to the negative influence the Bugle’s editorials had on her perception of Spider-Man. Whilst J. Jonah Jameson is used primarily as a comic figure in the series, he is the clearest example of the generational conflict embedded in Spider-Man.

Jameson represents an oppressive adult society which demonises and fears youth culture. When

Spider-Man is so despised by adult society, no wonder alienated youths claimed him as a representational figure positioned against an unfriendly adult world (Lee, 2012, p.32).

The question of Spider-Man’s youth and his symbolic status as a figure of youth culture has also led to some of Marvel Comics’ most controversial comics stories and the deepest divisions within Spider-Man fandom. Umberto Eco in his 1973 essay ‘The Myth of Superman’ suggested that

Superman stories, (and consequently other superhero stories which fit the same narrative framework) existed in an oneiric climate: characters never aged, changed or died. Spider-Man (along with other books from Marvel) was one of the first superhero narratives to break out of this dominant genre convention. The Amazing Spider-Man was a serial narrative in which the events from one story carried on from the other, instead of changes to characters being dismissed by the end of an issue. Characters could change, grow and even die. The idea that Spider-Man would age with his audience was not the unthinkable concept that it is now. Within three years of real-world time, Lee and Ditko had Peter graduate high school and enrol in college. Peter’s adventures had roughly taken place in real time. If Marvel had continued down this path, then Spider-Man would now be in his mid-sixties. The concept of time within the storyworld of the Marvel Universe thus changed significantly. Marvel Comics kept publishing stories but characters did not age anymore.

Chronology in Marvel Comics now operates on a shifting time scale, where it is continuously around

10 to 13 years since the events of The Fantastic Four #1. In this way Marvel keeps all the original stories from the 1960s in continuity, but time for the characters never truly moves forward. Origin stories are slightly retouched to make them make sense as real world history moves forward. Iron

Man’s origin has shifted from Tony being abandoned and left for dead first on the battlefields

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of the Vietnam War, then Gulf War and later the War in Afghanistan. The revival of Captain America now takes place post-9/11. The -Men’s philosophical nemesis/occasional ally has had to be cloned or supernaturally de-aged to keep his history as a Holocaust survivor intact. Eventually

Spider-Man/Peter Parker’s age settled at an ambiguous point between mid to late 20s. The idea is that all 700 plus issues of Amazing Spider-Man (published over a 50 year period) took place over a little over a of Marvel Universe time.

As a publishing company, Marvel Comics made the conscious choice to make sure that their characters do not age in a normal manner. Whilst still being a serial narrative, Marvel reintroduced the oneiric climate back into their superhero narratives, not least because when characters and stories become important media franchises, publishers become unwilling to change too much about a character. The status-quo and illusion of change become king, as it is necessary for characters to match up with the lunchbox and t-shirt versions of the character. Peter Parker went from being a character who aged with his audience, to an iconic figure who never ages.

The question of whether Peter Parker should age was being debated even in the 1960s.

Throughout the letter column there was a back and forth between Lee and different camps of readers as to whether Spider-Man should grow up or not. There was a split between fans who wanted Spider-Man to grow-up with the existing fanbase and others who wanted him to remain in high school forever. Both sides utilised Spider-Man’s importance as a youth icon to bolster their argument (Lee, 2012). Stan Lee eventually announced that they would allow Peter to age, but at a slightly slower rate than real time. However, now 50 years on, that slow rate of aging has completely slowed to a crawl. If much of Spider-Man’s appeal comes from him being an iconic figure of youth, then a tension emerges. In the case of Peter Parker, whose story starts as a teenager, the expected course of his story would be for him to mature into adulthood. This ambivalence and confusion regarding whether Spider-Man can mature reflects a broader discomfort with masculine identity formation and aging. This reflects broader concerns regarding male maturity; as Gary Cross

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suggested, ‘the culture of the boy-men today is less a life stage than a lifestyle, less a transition from childhood to adulthood than a choice to live like a teen forever’ (2008, p.5). The qualities that are considered to represent maturity for men in modern society – a steady career, marriage, fatherhood

– are possibly antithetical to Spider-Man’s standing as an iconic youth figure.

The direction in which Marvel Comics have taken the Spider-Man franchise has vacillated between bringing Peter Parker closer to maturity and then further away again. The biggest change in

Peter Parker’s life, a change almost immediately regretted by Marvel editorial and which became the basis of a deep conflict between fans and producers, was Peter’s marriage to . The wedding, which took place in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987), was a consequence of the specific commercial pressures of the time. The wedding was essentially a superhero shotgun wedding. At the time, circulation of the Spider-Man newspaper strip was falling and Stan Lee (then writer of the strip) decided to have Peter marry his girlfriend Mary Jane, a tactic which had worked out well for other newspaper strips looking to draw extra attention. The then editor-in-chief of

Marvel Comics, , did not want the company to be beaten to the altar by a licenced newspaper strip when marrying their flagship character. He decreed that Peter and Mary Jane would have to get married in the Marvel Comics continuity as well, even though it had been years since the characters were last in a relationship. Mary Jane was thus hastily reintroduced into the narrative.

Peter and Mary Jane’s engagement and marriage ended up being published over a time period of only a few months; rather than the years long build-up of similar events in superhero comics such as the marriage of Superman and Lois Lane in 1996.44

The Clone was a Spider-Man story which ran from 1994 to 1996, across all the Spider-

Man titles. The story grew out of Marvel’s reaction to The Death of Superman (1993), with the aim of having a story for their flagship character which would gain as much publicity as Superman’s death had garnered. The Clone Saga was also Marvel’s first attempt to return to a single Spider-Man. It

44 Which took place in the specially produced issue, Superman: The Wedding Album.

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revived story elements from Amazing Spider-Man #149 (1975), in which Peter was cloned by a villain called The Jackal. Peter and the clone fought, with only one of them eventually surviving the battle.

Peter surmised that he was the original Spider-Man/Peter Parker because of his new felt romantic feelings for Mary Jane, feelings which had developed after the clone had been created. The revival of

The Clone Saga in the 1990s, revealed that the clone had not died and brought him back under the name of Ben Reilly. For a period, the Spider-Man titles starred both Peter in the title role and Ben, who hastily put together a new costume and took on the name . It was eventually revealed that Ben was in fact the original Peter and the Spider-Man who had been starring in the title for the last 20 years (and married Mary Jane) was the clone.

The original plan was for The Clone Saga to end with Peter and Mary Jane leaving New York to start a family, with Ben Reilly staying behind as the only (original) Spider-Man. Both fans and creators became unhappy with this story direction and to them it was felt that to retroactively decree that the Spider-Man of the past 20 years had been an imposter was a betrayal of their memories of past stories. Glenn Greenberg, an editor who worked on the Spider-Man titles of the time, described writer/artist ’ take on the creative hand he had been dealt by Marvel:

Dan Jurgens had a lot of enthusiasm and ideas for Spider-Man when he came aboard, and I

think he intended to stay for a while. But I also think he became disheartened fairly quickly,

when he realised that we had no plans to restore Peter Parker as Spider-Man. I think the

whole Ben Reilly thing was very bewildering to him, but he soldiered through it as best he

could, perhaps with the hope that he could work within the system in order to change it. My

feeling is that Dan wanted to write Peter Parker as Spider-Man – the Peter Parker whose

history we’d all followed for the past 33 years, the Peter Parker who’d gotten married to

Mary Jane with The Clone Saga and Ben Reilly being nothing more than things of the past.

(Goletz and Greenberg, 2010)

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Fans and creators never fully accepted this direction Marvel were trying to take the Spider-Man franchise in, with Ben Reilly as the one true Webcrawler.

The goal of The Clone Saga was to end the story with a single, young Spider-Man. At the same time Marvel took action to demonstrate that Peter was maturing into middle age. Mary Jane became pregnant and Aunt May died.45 However, for commercial reasons the story ballooned, running far longer than was originally intended. There was internal confusion within Marvel as to how to end the storyline. Marvel even sent up their own creative difficulties by releasing a satirical comic entitled 101 Ways to End The Clone Saga (1997). The Clone Saga, originally intended to lead to a single Spider-Man, instead ended with Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship stronger and more established in Marvel canon than ever before. Spider-Man #75 (1996) ended the story with Ben

Reilly dying due to The Green Goblin’s machinations. Ben’s body suddenly degrades as he dies, proving once and for all that he was the clone and that Peter was the original Spider-Man.46 Glenn

Greenberg suggested that within Marvel it was felt that after the events of The Clone Saga

(particularly the resurrection of Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin), breaking up Peter and Mary

Jane would have caused too much fan discontent. The Clone Saga thus served as a major potential rupture point within the Spider-Man fandom. The fan backlash to the new Spider-Man and the convoluted plotting of The Clone Saga became a media story, helping to convince Marvel to reverse their decision to replace Peter Parker (Lavin, 1998, p.53). The Wall Street Journal even ran a front- page story profiling the fan discontent and featuring a statement from the new Marvel Editor-In-

Chief promising that Peter Parker would be returning as Spider-Man (Suris, 1996, p.).

For many fans, the potential situation that the Spider-Man they had been reading for the last 20 years had been a clone would have felt like a betrayal of trust from the publisher.

45 Both story points were abandoned, Mary Jane miscarried in Amazing Spider-Man #418 (1996) and it was later revealed that the Aunt May had not actually died. 46 It was previously established that clones created by The Jackal underwent a sudden cellular degradation into at the moment of their death.

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Figure 20. Ben Reilly recaps his convoluted back-story for the reader. Dan Jurgens, with Klaus Jansen (inking), Gregory Wright (colouring) and Richard Starkings (lettering), Sensational Spider-Man #0 (1996), p. 8, Marvel Comics.

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The late 1990s was a very difficult time period for Marvel Comics, both commercially and creatively. The Spider-Man titles in particular suffered in the aftermath of The Clone Saga. The company filed for bankruptcy after the speculator crash in the comics industry, as the money coming into the market from speculators who were buying issues as investments dissipated. When the bottom out of this market, it had a massive impact financially on American comics publishers.

This financial impact was further compacted by a poor creative patch for Marvel Comics, where their stories had become increasingly byzantine and incomprehensible.

The Spider-Man titles of the time became bogged down in mediocre attempts to take

Spider-Man back to his roots, such as John Byrne’s Spider-Man: Chapter One (1999) which tried to retell the original Lee and Ditko stories. Marvel did not start to turn around creatively or financially, until new management came into the company in 2001. and took over creative in a phase of the company described as Nu-Marvel. The pair, Jemas as publisher and

Quesada as editor-in-chief, made sweeping changes to Marvel’s publishing strategies. The major change that Quesada made to the Marvel Universe Spider-Man was that he brought Babylon 5

(1993-1998) creator J. Michael Stracynski to Marvel to write Amazing Spider-Man.

This run on Amazing Spider-Man was characterised by a push to mature Peter Parker’s character. Stracynski reunited Peter and Mary Jane, after a period of separation for the couple in the late 1990s. A major change Stracynski brought to the Spider-Man titles was Aunt May discovering

Peter’s secret identity.47 Amazing Spider-Man #38 (Vol. 2) (2002) was devoted entirely to Peter and

May discussing his hidden identity and the secrets they had kept from each other. Stracynski further highlighted the push to mature Peter by giving him an adult stable career, rather than his previous job as a freelance photographer for The . Peter returns to his old high school, becoming a science teacher at his alma-mater. This moved Peter into the position of being a mentor figure to

47 In another story backflip at the end of The Clone Saga, the Aunt May who died was revealed to have been a genetically altered actress conscripted by Norman Osborn to further Peter. In The Spectacular Spider- Man #263 (1998), Peter rescues his Aunt May who had been held hostage by The Green Goblin.

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young people in the position Peter had been in at the start of his career as Spider-Man. In his role as

Spider-Man, Peter also became an official member of The Avengers, and for a time Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt May were living in in an apartment provided by The Avengers. Marvel went so far as to have Peter his secret identity to the world, as part of their event, a story in which the Marvel superheroes were divided over whether the government would regulate superheroes.

This leads into the story and event which best characterise this division I have identified between areas of the Spider-Man fandom and Marvel editorial, on the question of Peter Parker’s maturity and marital status. The story and events surrounding it are still the most contentious in

Spider-Man’s comic book history.

Spider-Man: One More Day (2007) was the final Spider-Man story written by Stracynski. It was illustrated by Joe Quesada, the then editor-in-chief of Marvel. Its contentiousness was because this was the story where the marriage of Pater Parker and Mary Jane Watson was finally dissolved.

Quesada knew going in that it would be so controversial that he chose to draw the story himself.

This saved a freelance artist from having their reputation possibly tarnished as the person drawing the end of the Spider-Marriage.

The plot is incited by Aunt May being shot by a sniper, who is trying to take out Peter on the orders of the long-time nemesis of Spider-Man and Daredevil, The Kingpin. Peter Parker had turned himself into a public target after revealing his identity as Spider-Man to the world; and his desperate reaction to his aunt’s shooting is compounded by his guilt that he was responsible for making her a target. Devastated, Peter sets out to find some way to save May’s life. Peter searches throughout the Marvel Universe to find some way to help her.48 Peter and Mary Jane are then confronted by

Mephisto (Marvel’s equivalent of Satan) who offers to save May’s life in exchange for deleting Peter

48 This was a good example of some of the logical inconsistencies of an interconnected story universe as presumably the X-Men’s healers ( and Elixir) were on vacation when Peter stopped by the X-Mansion.

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and Mary Jane’s marriage from history. Eventually, Peter and Mary Jane agree, and their marriage is erased from existence, having been magically retroactively removed from ever having happened.

Peter then wakes up in Aunt May’s house and leaves to go to a party being held for his previously thought dead best friend, . His marriage and public knowledge of his secret identity were erased from history. This epilogue set up the new status quo for Spider-Man/Peter Parker. He was back to being single, broke and immature.

One More Day was one of the most controversial stories in Marvel Comics history for many reasons. The Faustian tone of the story was considered by many fans to be inappropriate; the idea of

Spider-Man doing a deal with the devil was seen as an immoral action for a heroic figure to make.

‘Longtime fans know… that Spidey always tries to do the right thing and never takes the easy way out, and that cutting deals with the leader of the netherworld doesn’t fit the bill’ (White,

2012, p.240). Furthermore, splitting up Peter and Mary Jane, a relationship which had lasted through the entire time that many readers had been fans, was a move which caused significant angst for many. One fansite; Spider-Man Crawlspace, started posting an ongoing fanfiction series intended to prove that the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane was still a viable status-quo for an ongoing Spider-

Man series. One negative response to the story, from an open letter addressed to Quesada, stated:

Peter and Mary Jane is the relationship that fans are invested in. The geek got the girl – the

beautiful, intelligent, fun girl – and they managed to stay together through thick and thin,

because they love one another. Splitting them up doesn’t do anyone any good.

(Dobbs, 2007)

A seemingly less convoluted solution would have been to divorce Peter and Mary Jane. One fan suggested that telling a divorce story would be ‘an opportunity to be socially relevant in a quiet and thoughtful way’ and that Marvel instead ‘opted for a ham-handed event instead’ (Weiland, 2008).

Quesada’s response to the suggestion was that whilst Marvel would be willing to tell divorce stories with other characters, it was not a storyline they wanted to tell in a Spider-Man comic. Quesada’s

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reasoning was that making Peter a divorcee (or a widower) would age the character as significantly – if not more-so – than the marriage. Quesada also stated that Marvel would not want the publicity involved in a divorce story. ‘How would a parent feel when they had to explain to their kid that

Spider-Man just got divorced from his wife? How would that headline read across AP or on USA

Today?’ (Quesada cited in Weiland, 2008).

What is evident from looking at the example of One More Day, is that Spider-Man fans tend to have a very intense connection to the character. In many ways fans claim a sense of ownership over Spider-Man, and are quick to complain if they feel that Marvel is taking the superhero in a direction they are not comfortable with. For many fans, the Spider-Man they most closely identify with is the Spider-Man existing in the comics when they first started reading. For example, one fan, who identified himself as starting reading Spider-Man during the late 1980s, states, ‘[f]or me, classic

Spider-Man is Peter Parker married to Mary Jane.’ Furthermore, he stated, ‘I don’t have an emotional attachment to a younger single Spider-Man, messing things up with girlfriends and living with his Aunt May,’ and ‘I feel I’ve lost the Spider-Man I grew up with’ (Weiland, 2008).

A more thoughtful defence of the marriage between Peter and Mary Jane came from cultural critic Ta-Nehisi Coates who had grown up reading Spider-Man during the 1990s.49 To Coates, the relationship between the pair resembled less the geek wish-fulfilment of being married to a supermodel and more a realistic model of love that he had seen in his own family. He saw the relationship as a mature one, in which both sides were equal partners and Mary Jane did not just function as a passive love-interest of the hero.

That was how Peter loved Mary Jane. They were not destined to be. She was not his Lois

Lane. His Lois Lane—Gwen Stacy—was murdered for the crime of getting too close to him,

and the guilt of this always weighed on him. Whatever. While the world was fooled, Mary

49 Along with being one of the leading modern thinkers on race and American politics; Coates has since become a writer for Marvel Comics, penning runs on Black Panther (2016-2020) and Captain America (2018- 2020).

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Jane Watson knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man. And she didn't wait around for him to

figure it all out. She was, very clearly, sexual. She dated whomever she wanted. She dated

dudes who were richer than Parker. She dated dudes who were better looking than Parker.

She dated Parker's best friends. She actually spurned Parker's first proposal—and then his

second too, before reconsidering. Mary Jane Watson was the kind of girl you did not bring

home to mother—unless you had a mother like mine.

(Coates, 2015)

From this perspective, the Peter Parker/Mary Jane relationship can be read as a rejection of many of the dominant cultural conceptions around romance. These dominant conceptions are reinforced even within cultural products that seemingly affirm alternate masculinities such as the sitcom The

Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), which seemingly celebrated the geeky male unmoored from the physical markers of hegemonic masculinity. However, much of the show’s gender politics was still about propping up a version of masculinity where the ‘geeks’ used their own masculine traits to create social and sexual success for themselves (Salter and Blodgett, 2017, p.3-4). Coates saw the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane as a ‘rejection of the macho ideal of romance – which reigns even among nerds’ and a ‘more mature, and I would say healthy, vision of what marriage should look like’ (Coates, 2015). There is a strong argument to be made, that in a genre aimed at young males where there are so few positive representations of functional romantic relationships, dissolving one was a regressive move on the part of Marvel.

By comparison, Quesada’s perspective comes from the viewpoint of protecting the long- term commercial viability of the Spider-Man franchise. He saw making this choice as part of his responsibility as editor-in-chief:

Sometimes when I look at the way that the lines of opinion have been drawn in comics

about the marriage, I see the argument falling into two basic camps.

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The fans may not perceive it this way on the surface, but it is what’s happening when you

look at it clearly. When we fall in love with these characters, we claim ownership over them

in our own way; so for some fans, Peter belongs to them and no one else. So, the way I see

it, there are two sides of the argument, two segments of fans. On one side, there is a

contingency of fandom that wants Peter to age along with them and live life as they do. He

needs to get married, have kids, then grandkids, and then the inevitable. On the other side,

there are fans that realise Spidey needs to be ready for the next wave or generation of

readers, that no one can lay claim to these icons, no one generation has ownership and that

we need to preserve them and keep them healthy for the next batch of readers to fall in love

with.

To me, only one side of this argument is correct. If Spidey grows old and dies off with our

readership, then that’s it- he’ll be done and gone, never to be enjoyed by future comics fans.

If we keep Spidey rejuvenated and relatable to fans on the horizon, we can manage to do

that and still keep him enjoyable to those that have been following his adventures for years.

(Quesada cited in Weiland, 2008)

In his artwork for One More Day, Quesada purposefully drew Peter and Mary Jane to look older, in their mid to late thirties, as he thought some fans wanted to see them portrayed. Marvel had also previously released series set in alternate realities, to appeal to fans who wanted to see an older

Peter and Mary Jane, like Spider-Girl (1998-2006) which focused on an alternate reality where Peter and Mary Jane had a daughter who became a superhero. These series with an older Peter, however, never gained more than a niche audience. One of Quesada’s main arguments in favour of dissolving the marriage was that Marvel had let the supporting cast disappear from the book, and Spider-Man had lost the soap dynamics which were key to the title’s original success. It was perceived internally at Marvel that the marriage made it more difficult to recreate these soap opera dynamics.

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Figure 21. Peter and Mary Jane bargain with Mephisto. J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, with Danny Miki (inking), Richard Isanove with Dean White (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), The Amazing Spider-Man #545 (2007), p. 14, Marvel Comics.

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I was 18 when One More Day came out, about three years into my serious superhero comics fandom. Spider-Man was one of my favourite characters and I was already fully emerged in the ongoing Marvel Universe. At the time, I was not reading Amazing Spider-Man regularly, but I was well versed in the events of the title. My investment in Spider-Man was something that had developed from childhood, but I was not someone who had been reading comics featuring a married

Peter and Mary Jane my whole life, the way some readers were. Reading One More Day at the time, my reaction to the story was a negative one, but I also understood the broader reasons as to why it was done. The story itself is dire, equivalent to reading a group of people just be miserable for four issues. There were many elements of the story which I found suspect, in particular the use of

Mephisto to dissolve Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. I thought this felt forced because Spider-Man as a franchise leans more easily to science-fiction themes.

Yet, I agreed with Quesada that the soap opera of a single Peter Parker’s life was an important part of the series, which was underplayed with a married Peter and Mary Jane. One of the most infamous Spider-Man stories of the 90s, Maximum (1993) is also one of the best examples of how poorly constructed Mary Jane’s character was in this time-period. Mary Jane’s role in the story is simply to sulk about Peter risking his life whilst New York is under attack by the homicidal Carnage.50 At the time, the creative teams did not know how to give her proper agency in the relationship or overall narrative of the Marvel Universe. Also, having not grown up with Spider-Man in the same way fans reading since the 1960s had, I did not feel that he should have kept growing and maturing at the same rate as me. However, I think it is important to highlight that in 2007, this iteration of Spider-Man was not the one I was most invested in.

50 Coates acknowledges in his piece that the Parker-Watson marriage was not always ‘well-written and well- drawn’ and that ‘the 90s… were not a good period for the writing in the Spider-Man books’ (Coates, 2015). Maximum Carnage is the apotheosis of the Peter and Mary Jane relationship being poorly written.

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Ultimate Spider-Man - My Teenage Superhero In 2001, Marvel had launched a new imprint called Ultimate Comics. The impetus for the creation of this imprint was that it was believed that the 40 years of stories had made the Marvel

Universe too intimidating for new readers. This was especially important considering that the development of blockbuster film adaptions of Marvel comics characters was rapidly becoming a in Hollywood. It was believed that the ongoing soap opera of Spider-Man, The X-Men and The Avengers had become too convoluted and off-putting to the potential new readers being created by the movies. The Ultimate Universe was focused on reintroducing the Marvel heroes to new audiences. Characters were updated, with new origin stories that were made for 2000s sensibilities rather than 1960s sensibilities. The Ultimate Universe was also shaped by the introduction of new creators into the top tier of the Marvel talent roster. The major writers at the beginning of the Ultimate Universe were and . Thus, this new version of the Marvel Universe was being shepherded by creators who brought a new and modern approach to the Marvel heroes. Both Millar and Bendis’ work was epitomised by a move towards decompressed storytelling. Single issues were no longer presented as stand-alone stories, but as instalments in an arc. The collected version of the comic was the final version of the story. Thus,

Ultimate Spider-Man was characterised by Bendis and artist bringing the tone of television dramas like (1997-2003) to their new iteration of Spider-Man.

Ultimate Spider-Man was launched by Bendis and long-time Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley.

The first story-arc, Power and Responsibility (2002) saw the Spider-Man origin story updated and retold for the 2000s. The major change stylistically from the original story by Lee and Ditko was its length. What Ditko and Lee did in 17 pages, Bendis and Bagley turned into a six-issue story, which was structured more like a traditional three act film. There were also changes made to update the

Spider-Man origin story. The spider bite which gives Peter his powers changed from being an irradiated spider to a bio-engineered spider. In the 1960s radiation and the bomb had haunted the heroes of Marvel Comics, but by the 2000s bio-engineering and genetic modification had become

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the new scientific discovery which brought danger. A recurring theme through the Ultimate Universe was the idea that political actors were in an arms race to create genetically altered soldiers, in an attempt to recreate Captain America’s super-soldier serum. This genetic arms race led to the creation of Spider-Man, The Hulk and the X-Men, the same role the birth of nuclear technology had played in inspiring the original creation of the Marvel superheroes.

However, Bendis and Bagley did keep many aspects of the traditional origin story. Peter still felt tremendous guilt, believing that he could have stopped the murder of his Uncle Ben if not for his selfishness, and he has the same motivations as the original Peter Parker for being Spider-Man.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May were aged significantly younger than their original versions, now in their early fifties. Uncle Ben was presented as an aging hippy with a ponytail and Peter’s motivation for not revealing his secret identity had more to do with his guilt over Ben’s death than a fear that May would die of shock if she found out the truth.

In many ways, I was very much the intended audience for Ultimate Spider-Man. I was 15 when I was first introduced to the series and making my first steps into comic book fandom. Unlike

Lee and Ditko; Bendis did not make moves to have Peter graduate from high school. All of the 160 issues of Peter’s life took place whilst Peter was in high school, and the use of teenage soap opera dynamics was a core feature of the book, with Peter’s relationships with his peers being an integral part of the book. It was recognised by the creative team working on Ultimate Spider-Man that the high school milieu was very conducive to the coming-of-age narrative they were trying to tell. That coming-of-age narrative became a core reason as to why the series spoke to me specifically at that point in my life.

At age 15, my renewed love of Spider-Man was initially sparked by his underdog status.

Spider-Man was the small, funny superhero, fighting against overwhelming odds. I first encountered

Ultimate Spider-Man through hardback collections of the series at my local library. I was quickly

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Figure 22.

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Figure 23. Spider-Man tries out his stand-up routine to an unreceptive Kingpin, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley with Art Thibert (inking), JS (colouring) and RS & Albert Deschesne (lettering), Ultimate Spider-Man #12 (2001), p. 12-13, Marvel Comics.

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hooked, and much of the reason why was because I recognised something of myself (or an idealised self) in the 15-year-old Peter Parker in Ultimate Spider-Man. As teenagers in the 1960s may have felt when reading the original Lee and Ditko Spider-Man, I felt I was meeting Ultimate Peter Parker at the start of his journey, one which felt metaphorically like mine. The problems Peter was facing as

Spider-Man were problems he could not speak about to others and in this sense, whilst not a literal equivalent to fighting The Green Goblin, Peter’s battles resonated with the difficulties I was having at school. But my attraction to the series was not just about seeing aspects of myself in Peter;

Ultimate Spider-Man, particularly through the initial 112 issues Bendis and Bagley worked on together, was a fun, funny and colourful adventure comic which balanced action with teenage melodrama.

The issue that pushed me from casually following the series (relying on finding collections of the series in libraries) to regularly purchasing new issues was Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 (2005).

What drew me to the issue was that it started up a romantic relationship between Peter and Kitty

Pryde of the X-Men. Like my experience reading the original Amazing Spider-Man run, I found the teenage soap opera aspects of Ultimate Spider-Man as compelling as the action-adventure side of the series. There was an element of wish fulfilment through this, because Peter was dating the type of cool girls I was having no luck with in high school. The relationship between Peter and was also intriguing to me because it was something which was highly unlikely in the mainstream

Marvel Universe. Kitty was introduced originally about a decade after Spider-Man; if Spider-Man was the defining teenage superhero character of the 60s, Kitty was the defining teen hero of the 70s. The

Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde romance was one of the things which I found most interesting about the series, and the scenes of Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde on superhero dates/patrol were some of my favourite in the series. I was quite disappointed when Peter broke up with Kitty so he could go back to dating the milquetoast Ultimate Universe version of Mary Jane Watson.

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Figure 24. The end of Peter and Kitty’s first date. Brian Michael Bendis and , with Jamie Mendoza (inking), Scott Hanna (finishes), Dave Stewart (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 (2005), p. 31-32, Marvel Comics.

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A fact of being an engaged comics fan is that you end up learning a lot about the stories coming up before you actually read them. Publishers send out information called solicitations to retailers, giving blurbs about the content of the issues, so that retailers know how many copies of a particular issue they need to order. There are countless news articles, press releases and convention panels based around selling the story to readers. Much of this promotion can be misdirection.

Creators and publishers try to push readers thoughts one way in promotion in order to surprise them with the story itself. So, when Marvel and Bendis announced an upcoming story for the

Ultimate Universe entitled The Death of Spider-Man (2011), my first reaction was to look for the magic trick. It is rare that a story will be so up front in its promotion or its title. My spider senses suspected that there would be some sort of twist, that by calling the story The Death of Spider-Man,

Bendis and Marvel were trying to misdirect readers away from the eventual outcome of the story. I doubted that the death of Spider-Man I would see would be a literal one.

Yet, The Death of Spider-Man climaxed with Peter dying as a result of his battle with Norman

Osborn/The Green Goblin. Peter dies in front of his house, his last act being to save Aunt May’s life.

In doing so, Peter makes amends for the death of his uncle, feeling that by saving his aunt he had made up for the role he felt his inaction played in Ben’s death. Bendis thus presented Peter’s death as him coming full circle back to the beginning of his heroic journey; in saving his Aunt May, and by putting his own needs behind that of his family, he was able to make up for the original mistake that drove him to serve as Spider-Man

My reaction to reading the end of The Death of Spider-Man in 2011 when it was released was a kind of numb shock. As I explained earlier, Peter actually dying was something which surprised me, because I had convinced myself that there was some sort of trick that was going to be played. I was convinced that the promotion and the title of the story was misdirection, and that the story would not climax with a literal death of Spider-Man. The promotion of the story was something which I thought was being purposefully set up to convince readers to expect one thing and then

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deliver another. For me, as a reader (and a reader well versed in the conventions of superhero comics) the actual death of Spider-Man was the biggest surprise possible from the story.

Emotionally, the death of Peter Parker had a strange effect on me, which demonstrates the complex relationship which develops between fans and superheroes. I had followed Ultimate Spider-

Man from the age of 15 to 22. Reading a new issue of Ultimate Spider-Man every was a constant in my life. In some ways, Peter was like an imaginary friend. Having him die in conflict shocked me and surprised me. I was also somewhat disappointed because Peter was still a teenager when he died because all 160 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man took place chronologically over roughly a year and a half. Both my long association with the character and the fact that I felt the character still had a lot of potential to develop were factors in my reaction to the story. Immediately prior to

Peter’s last story, the main storyline being set up in the series saw older heroes like Iron Man and

Captain America mentoring Spider-Man. Thus, one of the frustrating things for me as a reader and fan was that it felt like Spider-Man was cut down before he was able to reach his full potential.

Furthermore, the last page of Ultimate Spider-Man #160, which featured a seemingly dying Norman

Osborn smiling, having at last fulfilled his goal of killing Spider-Man, felt cruel to me, the long-time reader.51

An All-New Spider-Man Throughout the history of Marvel Comics, in each new decade the company has tried to recreate the success of Spider-Man. Characters can be identified as being a conscious effort on the part of Marvel to recreate the success of Peter Parker and create a new youth hero for fans to latch onto. The 1970s had , the 1980s had Speedball, the 1990s had Scarlet Spider and the 2000s had

Ultimate Spider-Man, perhaps the most commercially successful of any attempt to recreate the original success of Lee and Ditko’s Spider-Man. In every decade, Marvel had tried to recreate the

51 Both the Ultimate Universe’s Norman Osborn and Peter Parker would be revived in Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man – Revival (2015) thanks to the regeneration effect created by the OZ formula that gives them both their powers. However, Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s happy ending is short-lived as the Ultimate Universe would soon be destroyed in (2015).

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magic of the original Spider-Man, but rarely succeeded because the characters skewed too close to recreating Peter Parker rather than creating a new character in Peter’s tradition (Gillen, 2014 pers.comm, 14 November). This is perhaps why the most prominent teenage hero of the 2010s literally follows in Peter’s footsteps; Miles Morales, the second Ultimate Spider-Man, who took over the role following Peter’s death.

One of the major changes in the fan culture that surrounds superhero comics over the past

10 years has been the greater diversity evident in a fanbase that was once predominantly white and male. Internet platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter have been integral in terms of increasing the visibility of female fans and fans from minority groups. As popular culture has been increasingly dominated by the superhero genre, there is an increasingly prominent visibility of minority groups’ desire to see themselves represented as superheroic figures. The vast majority of superheroes still fit within the narrow spectrum of straight, white and male. Whilst the characters created in the 1960s

Marvel Comics were revolutionary for the genre, the presumed audience of the books were white young males, and this was reflected in the characters created. The only black lead from the time was

The Black Panther, the king of the fictional African nation of . It is becoming an increasing factor in the world of superhero comics that companies are having to better reflect the diversity of their audiences within their comics. Miles Morales’ success reflects how superhero comics are changing to better reflect the diversity found in modern society. He comes from a minority background but is not solely defined by his minority status. Miles is from a mixed-race family with an

African-American father and Latino-American mother.

Miles was introduced in Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011), a follow up miniseries to The Death of

Spider-Man which focussed on the reaction to Peter’s death across the Ultimate Universe. Miles was later the star of his own series; Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. Miles is also bitten by a spider from

Oscorp, which had accidentally been stolen by his Uncle Aaron, a professional thief. Miles gains

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Figure 25. The variant cover to Miles Morales’ first issue. Sara Pichelli with Justin Ponsor (colouring), Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 (2011), Cover, Marvel Comics.

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similar spider powers to Peter but wants to hide them and live a normal life. Peter’s death becomes the Uncle Ben moment for Miles, which spurs him to become the new Spider-Man. Miles felt guilty about the fact that he had hidden his powers, whereas had he used them, he could have helped

Peter and avoided his death.

Miles’ debut touched on an appeal Spider-Man has as a superhero character to minority audiences that Bendis had been made aware of. In a 2016 interview, Bendis recounted a story he was told by an actor on a film set, that highlighted Spider-Man’s importance to minority readers:

when he [the actor] was a kid, he and his friends played superheroes every day, and his

friends wouldn't let him be Batman or Superman because of his skin color, but he could be

Spider-Man because anyone could be under that mask. I was reminded, I have now heard

this story 100 times in the last 10 years.

(Bendis cited in Santos, 2016)

Crucially, unlike other superheroes, Spider-Man is fully masked, which means that it is easier for people from all ethnicities to imagine themselves in the character. This was something Bendis directly put into the text of the new Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. In issue 3, when Miles (out of costume) helps save people from a burning building, one black firefighter turns to his partner and says “[t]old you Spider-Man was black” (Bendis, 2012, p.64). Further emphasising how Spider-Man’s masked status makes his ethnic identity somewhat more fluid, Donald Glover (then best known for his role on the television series Community) ran a public campaign to try get an audition for the 2012 film reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. Glover’s campaign garnered a significant amount of support online. Phillip Lamarr Cunningham suggests that the internet support for Glover’s campaign demonstrated that there was a universality to the appeal of the character, and that Spider-Man could be envisioned outside of just being white (2012, p.27). Cunningham also suggested that the negative reaction to this campaign from some people demonstrated that there can be a between people who are against colour blind casting because of fidelity to the original

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comics and people who were against a change due to racist attitudes (p.26). Bendis identified the

Glover campaign as being one of the factors which made him feel confident in his decision to introduce Miles.

There was evidence of nakedly racist attitude to the idea of a -Man. Much of the evidence of this came from comments on mainstream news articles about Miles’ debut rather than from comics fans. One comment on a USA Today article stated ‘Peter Parker could not be whiter. A black boy under a mask just doesn’t look right. This opens up a whole new story with a whole new set of problems. Who is going to believe a black man in a mask is out for the good of mankind?’

(cited in Flock, 2011). This racist comment reflects a point made by Albert S. Fu, ‘that much of the tension may not be about a black Spider-Man, but a black Peter Parker’ (2015, p.276). Similarly, conservative pundit Glenn Beck tried to make a connection between the introduction of a biracial

Spider-Man and a perceived cultural shift caused by the election of Barack Obama. Whilst Beck claimed not to care about a ‘stupid comic book’ he did claim to care that he thought that ‘a lot of this stuff is being done intentionally’ (Beck cited in Hartmann, 2011). By selectively sampling a quote from Michelle Obama saying that America would have to change its traditions; Beck tried to present

Miles Morales as part of some sort of politically motivated attack on white American culture. As little as Beck claimed to care for the changes made to Spider-Man, he seemed to construct the character as some sort of iconic figure of a white culture that he felt was under attack. Showing a person of minority status as a superhero seemed to be considered by Beck as undermining a white culture under from a left-wing media industry.

Racist responses to Miles’ debut can be contrasted with the response found amongst actual readers of the book, especially readers of colour. David Betancourt, a comics blogger, described his reaction to seeing Miles as:

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It’s about a black kid in D.C., a Dominican kid in the Bronx or a young Mexicano being able to

read a comic and come away from it saying “I Can be Spider-Man.” Generations of minority

comic book fans before this day couldn’t say such a thing.

(Betancourt, 2011)

Bendis saw creating Miles as being important to uncovering a multicultural voice in the Spider-Man comics which had not been made explicit in the comics themselves (Bendis cited in Riseman, 2014).

Bendis described seeing a young African-American boy at a convention, dressed up in his home made Miles Morales Spider-Man costume, as vindication for the symbolic importance of the character.

I personally stopped buying Ultimate Spider-Man regularly with the death of Peter and the introduction of Miles. There were a few reasons for this. For one, I was still quite emotionally raw as a fan. I did not feel ready to start reading the adventures of a new Spider-Man, so soon after the character I had followed for six years had passed away. I had also grown tired of some of Bendis’ tics as a writer and I was not interested at the time in reading a decompressed origin story told over six months. I had also lost interest overall in Ultimate Universe with Peter’s death. To some extent, I felt like I had lost a character in whom I had a great sense of ownership and investment; a character who had been replaced by a new character I had no relationship with. Recognising now how much of myself I had invested within the character of Peter Parker, and that Bendis’ Peter Parker was a character I could recognise aspects of myself in both physically and emotionally, Miles’ life seemed to be at such a remove from my own experience meant that I was unsure as to whether I wanted to follow his series in the same way that I had followed Peter’s. Whilst I found the racist backlash to

Miles from some elements of the public to be disgusting, my initial feeling was that Miles would not be a character that I could get particularly invested in. Without having read the Miles Morales comics, and only being exposed to the way the story was being hyped up in the mainstream press, I

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felt like the story direction was a publicity stunt rather than a natural development of the Ultimate

Spider-Man story.

In 2012, Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created a mini-series titled Spider-Men. This story saw the original Spider-Man crossing over into the Ultimate Universe and meeting Miles Morales. This was the first Ultimate Universe story I bought and read since The Death of Spider-Man. The story leads to a meeting of original universe Spider-Man and his deceased equivalent’s family from the

Ultimate Universe. The eventual emotional meeting between Peter and Aunt May gave Peter’s family the opportunity for closure. Aunt May gets to meet a grown-up version of her nephew; someone who had grown into the man and hero her nephew was destined to be. The original Peter also gives Miles his blessing to continue as Spider-Man before Peter returns to the mainstream

Marvel Universe. As a reader, I felt like getting to see the Marvel Universe Peter Parker interact with his counterpart’s family functioned for me as a reader as closure, just like it did for the characters in the text. Having followed Ultimate Peter Parker on his journey, getting to read this moment felt like I could move on from The Death of Spider-Man. Furthermore, Peter giving his blessing to Miles helped me to view this new Spider-Man as being connected to the pre-existing Spider-Man legacy that I was already emotionally enmeshed within.

Observing the initial reaction to Miles, both from people celebrating him and the ugly racist backlash towards him, meant that I had become aware of how important the symbolic idea of a black Spider-Man was. The idea that Miles Morales can serve as a heroic figure for children and adolescents, just as Peter Parker had done for me, is an idea that I think is a socially important one.

Young people deserve to have superheroic role models like Peter and Miles, and presenting a young black man as a hero, considering all the demonising done of young black men in the media, is doubly important. As a part of working on this chapter, I also engaged more deeply with Miles Morales stories than I had before, and I found them to be a great example of a way to remake Spider-Man without simply recreating Peter Parker. Miles is a product of his upbringing and has his own

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relationships and values that mould him into a heroic figure. His relationship with his best friend

Ganke is shown to be especially important, with Ganke serving as Miles’ confidant. Miles Morales is a worthy successor to Peter Parker’s legacy.

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Figure 26. Peter leaves Miles with some final words of advice after their first team-up. Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, with Justin Ponsor (colouring) and Cory Petit (lettering), Spider-Men #5 (2012), p. 17, Marvel Comics.

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Conclusion – The Spider-Verse The dominant feature of the Spider-Man franchise in the 2010s has been the idea of The

Spider-Verse. Introduced in the 2014 storyline of the same name, this idea embraces the many different variations on the Spider-Man premise. Miles Morales’ success inspired characters like

Ghost-Spider, an alternate universe version of Peter’s first love Gwen Stacy.52 This trend reached its apotheosis in the Academy Award winning animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

(2018), which loosely adapted Miles Morales’ origin story and the Spider-Men series for the big screen. The film not only introduced Miles; it also introduced -Spider and a range of other alternate Spider-People53 to mainstream audiences. The key message of the film is that “[a]nyone can wear ” (Persichetti, Ramsay & Rothman, 2018). In using Miles as the film’s protagonist

(and introducing all the variants of Spider-Man) the film makes the argument that the power of

Spider-Man is not wedded to a particular ethnicity, gender or individual. Anyone who lives by the ethical creed that ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ can be a hero.

Secret Wars (2015) saw the Ultimate Universe come to an end as the Marvel Multiverse was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt. However, Miles Morales survived his universe’s destruction and became a native of the original Marvel Universe. Now Peter and Miles co-exist in New York as

Spider-Man. Peter serves as a mentor figure to Miles; but it is not a direct superhero-sidekick relationship. Both heroes are connected by their shared powers and origins, but they largely operate independently of each other. Miles’ presence as a teenaged Spider-Man also lessens the need for

Peter Parker to remain stuck in a state of perpetual adolescence. Since Miles was introduced to the original universe, Peter has undertaken careers as an industrialist, a science reporter and has re-

52 Introduced in Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (2014); Ghost-Spider (also known as Spider-Gwen) is an alternate universe variant where Gwen Stacy was bitten by the radioactive spider. Her distinctive costume quickly led to her becoming one of Marvel’s most popular female characters. 53 Such as Spider-Man Noir, Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham and Peni Parker (an anime inspired young girl who is psychically bonded to a Spider robot).

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enrolled at to finally finish his PHD.54 In 2018, a little over a decade after One

More Day, Peter and Mary Jane finally resumed their romantic partnership.

Marvel’s embrace of The Spider-Verse has also led to projects that explore the idea of a

Peter Parker who is allowed to mature. From 2016-2018, a series called Amazing Spider-Man: Renew

Your Vows was published. In this universe, Peter and Mary Jane stayed married and are raising a daughter called Annie. When their daughter begins to develop superpowers, the family work together as a superhero team. and Mark Bagley’s Spider-Man: Life Story (2019) takes a different approach. Life Story is an attempt to synthesize and remix the entirety of Spider-Man’s publishing history into one complete story. It begins in 1962 with Peter gaining his powers and beginning his new life as Spider-Man. Each chapter covers a new decade and attempts to meld significant stories from Spider-Man’s publishing history together into a coherent narrative of one hero’s life. The comic maps Peter’s personal relationships with friends, lovers and enemies throughout his whole life. The story ends in 2019 with an aged Peter training Miles and the rest of the new generation of Marvel heroes to resist a tyrannical government run by . Life

Story ends with Peter sacrificing himself to save the world, thinking of his wife Mary Jane as he goes.

When he makes the decision to sacrifice himself, Peter is comforted by a vision of his Aunt May who tells him:

Nothing every really changes. You’ve managed to have a beautiful life with Mary Jane, sweet

Benjy and Claire. It fills my heart knowing that. That’s what you have. Though what you want

is to save Ben. But you can’t. So you save everyone else. You realised years ago that’ll never

change so you embraced it. So go Peter, my sweet boy… Save everyone.

(Zdarsky, 2019. p. 182)

54 Peter’s doctorate was stripped from him after it was revealed that his thesis was plagiarised from Dr. Otto Octavius (of course; when Peter’s thesis was actually submitted, it was during the time when Doctor Octopus was in control of Peter’s body).

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Life Story ends with Peter having saved the world and Mary Jane passing the Spider-Man costume on to Miles. The final page is a recollection Peter has of the recurring nightmare of the mistake he made that lead to his Uncle Ben’s death; except now that nightmare can be turned into a dream where he makes the right choice and intervenes as Spider-Man. Marvel’s embrace of the possibilities of the

Spider-Verse has opened up a space for creators to now look at this near 60-year-old iconic youth hero and imagine what he can mean in terms of understanding a more mature masculine heroism.

Throughout this chapter I have been trying to explain why people love Spider-Man so much, though ultimately, I think I’m trying to explain why I love Spider-Man so much. What is it about this character that draws fans to invest so much of themselves into him? Why did I, at 25, get as excited to meet Spider-Man at Disneyland Paris as the six-year-old behind me in line?

It seems to me that fans and creators invest more of themselves in Spider-Man than other superheroes. Arguably, there is a special quality in Spider-Man’s brand of heroism that has spoken strongly to young men; representing a heroic figure they can recognise aspects of themselves within and learn moral lessons of personal responsibility from. The wisecracking and kinetic Spider-Man represented a less stoic vision of heroism than predecessors such as Superman and Batman. The anxious and nervous Peter Parker who can mask his insecurities with humour represents a particularly boyish vision of masculine heroism. This quality has endured despite rupture points in

Spider-Man’s publishing history, such as the breakdown of the creative partnership of Stan Lee and

Steve Ditko, and the tension around whether Peter Parker can mature. And currently, the emergence of Miles Morales and the new heroes of the Spider-Verse are opening up a space for fans of different genders and ethnicities to see an aspect of themselves behind the mask. The presence of

Miles as the new teenage Spider-Man also presents the opportunity to finally let Peter Parker grow up.

For most of his publishing-history, Spider-Man was infamous in the Marvel Universe for not being a team player. His paranoia regarding his secret identity and the bad press he receives from J.

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Jonah Jameson kept him away from joining The Avengers or The Fantastic Four. However, for the next two chapters, I am going to shift the focus of this study from examining individual superheroes’ relationality (whether with supporting characters or the reader) to examining the structure of the

Superhero Team. What does it mean for a community of superheroes to form? What sort of relationships form between the heroes when they work and live together? How has this generic conceit of the Superhero Team demonstrated the evolution of gender politics within the superhero narrative? All this will be revealed, and more, in Chapters Three and Four.

Figure 27. The author meets Spider-Man at Disneyland Paris in November 2014. Webslingers United (2014), https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10154893535605080&set=t.887295079, (Accessed 15/12/2020).

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Superteams of the Twentieth Century

The core way through which we see notions of relationality and community explored within superhero narratives is through the narrative conceit of the superhero team. Superhero teams give us an idea as to how the concept of a community of superheroes could operate. They illustrate how individual characters interact when faced with equally gifted peers and thus show the intractable humanity of these superheroes. In the two following chapters I will examine how the comics medium has portrayed superhero teams over time. Here in Chapter Three I examine Superhero

Teams throughout their early history in the twentieth century. In Chapter Four, I examine the way in which the Superhero Team has developed throughout the twenty-first century.

In each chapter, I first examine the way that the internal relationships of the superhero team are conceptualised. Secondly, I examine the way in which each team’s relationship to broader society is conceptualised in political or cultural terms. The third part of each chapter focuses on one or two characters who demonstrate how these superhero teams have integrated narratives around gender; focusing on their portrayals of masculinity and women’s roles in the superhero team narrative. In this chapter, the three teams I will analyse are the Justice Society of America, the

Justice League of America and The Fantastic Four.

Justice Society of America The popularity of Superman set off a boom period for superheroic adventurers. and Joe Schuster’s costumed hero inspired the first great glut of similarly colourfully attired characters, with publishers seeking to recreate the same success the two young men from Cleveland had achieved with 1938’s Action Comics #1. Multiple publishers moved into the newly created comics and superhero business. As Wright states, ‘[i]n the comic book industry, imitation was not only a high form of flattery, it was company policy’ (Wright, 2006, p.17-18). Bob Kane and Bill

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Finger’s Batman debuted a year after Superman, becoming the second starring character of National

Publications (the company which would go on to become DC Comics). and

H.G. Peter would create Wonder Woman in 1941, finishing off the invention of DC Comics’ three highest profile superheroes; the trio who would become known as The of the DC Universe. As well as these major heroes, there was a growing roster of superheroes being developed for National

Comics. Heroes like The Flash, and Doctor Fate55 were created by , a former lawyer who took to comics writing because, ‘the law back in those Depression days, was not something at which to get rich’ (Fox cited in Wright, p.19). What would become the DC Universe was filled out with characters such as The Green Lantern, developed by Finger and artist Marty Nobdell.

The Green Lantern distinguished himself from other superheroes by relying on his magical green power ring to fight crime rather than brute strength. Siegel developed his second-most enduring character, The Spectre, with artist . This wrathful angel was the ghost of a murdered policeman who takes grim and ironic vengeance upon the criminal class.

This group of lesser-known superheroes became the backbone of the first superhero team,

The Justice Society of America. Introduced in All #3 (1940), the Justice Society of

America (JSA) strip was originally scripted by Fox, the co-creator of the team’s most popular characters. The initial team consisted of The Flash, The Green Lantern, The Spectre, Hawkman, The

Sandman, The , , and . It was only through these JSA stories that it was established that all of DC’s superheroes existed within the same fictional reality.

All Star Comics #3 is to some extent the first moment in which the vast narrative of the DC Universe was established.

The Justice Society was the first opportunity readers had to see how superheroes related with one another; it was the first example in which the superhero genre started to address how

55 The Flash and Hawkman both debuted in 1940’s #1. The Flash was originally illustrated by Harry Lampart and Hawkman was originally illustrated by Dennis Neville. Doctor Fate debuted in #55 (1940) and was originally illustrated by Howard Sherman.

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societies of superheroes might operate. The relationship depicted between the heroes is a congenial one. The Justice Society as it was originally conceived was essentially a social club for superheroes; a space in which superheroes could interact with their fellow masked peers. The cover to their first adventure promises the reader that within the pages of the comic they will encounter, “brand new episodes as personally related at the first meeting of The Justice Society of America”. The first issue starring the team is actually closer to an anthology, with each character recounting their own short adventure.56 The heroes of the JSA relate their adventures to each other as entertainment to accompany the dinner party marking their first meeting. Isaac Asimov would later use a similar device to structure his Black Widowers mystery stories, in which a regular dinner party of detectives would solve a mystery presented to them by a guest.57 This initial presentation of the Justice Society presents the team as a sort of secret fraternal organisation of superheroes. Indeed, discretion is so highly valued by the JSA that uses his sleeping gas guns to put the hotel staff to sleep in order to protect the JSA’s secrets. This initial depiction of the relationships within the JSA thus suggested that they were like a professional men’s group for heroes; a space in which masked adventurers could socialise amongst their own kind in a congenial professional atmosphere featuring its own set of by-laws and a roll call.

The core ideology which draws the Justice Society together as a team is embedded within its name. The JSA is an organisation dedicated to the ideal of justice. However, what exactly is meant by justice is an ambiguous concept. On the title page of #3, the members of the JSA are described as, “the mightiest of right and justice in the world” (Fox, 1940, p.1), but what

“right” and “justice” actually mean to the team is left undefined. Within this initial stage of the

56 The lack of creator credits for All Star Comics #3 makes it difficult to ascertain who contributed what to the comic. Whilst it is assumed that Gardner Fox wrote all of the framing narrative, it is most likely that the individual stories were created by the teams working on that character’s normal features. 57 One of Asimov’s Black Widowers stories would be written for the anthology The Further Adventures of Batman (1989), which brought in Batman as a guest star at one of the Black Widower’s dinner parties.

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superhero genre’s development, there was little effort put into examining the ideological meaning of the superhero team’s mission. The JSA stories stuck very closely to the developing conventional

Figure 28. The cover that introduced the Justice Society to audiences. Everett E. Hibbard, (cover art). All Star Comics #3 (1940), DC Comics.

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structure of superhero narratives in which readers were presented with, ‘an icon and that seemed to offer displays of universal themes, continually gesturing toward the same conclusions (that good defeats evil and social order is always restored)’ (Murray, 2011, p.85).

In other words, the ideology modelled by the JSA was a simplistic understanding of good and evil.

By comparison, in their solo adventures, the promotion of social and economic justice grounded in real-world events and issues was often a key part of the superhero’s mission. Siegel and

Schuster’s Superman in particular was famous for using his fantastic abilities to protect the working class from the dehumanising effect of industrialised society. One of the best examples of this is in

Action Comics #3 where he exposes a mine owner for operating an unsafe working environment. ‘A large part of Superman’s myth was that he always fought against injustice, whether found on the streets or in the corridors of power. Superman was the superhero as a political metaphor’ (Murray,

2011, p.13). Similarly, in their individual comics, JSA heroes such as The Green Lantern, Dr Fate and

Hourman often battled against corrupt public officials and business owners. In the context of

President Roosevelt’s New Deal, superheroes were ‘Super-New Dealers’ (Wright, 2006, p.24-26). As

Murray suggests, superheroes embodied the political tensions of Roosevelt’s New Deal America aptly. They served as vigilantes outside the state who stood up to the excesses of capitalism; however, they were also helping to protect the conventional social order of America through their defence of private property. Similarly, the New Deal was an attempt by government to impose fairness onto a capitalistic system (Murray, 2011). However, I would suggest that the effect of teaming DC’s superheroes together actually turned the superheroes into a more conservative force.

The Justice Society of America, as a team, lost the focus on social/economic justice that individual heroes had been concerned with in their own adventures. Together they had less agency to fight for the rights of the downtrodden against capitalistic forces that oppressed them. As a team, the Justice

Society worked reactively rather than progressively, defending the common American good against external threats. Ultimately, the notion of Justice embodied by the “J” in JSA was primarily about protecting America as a nation, rather than its citizens.

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On the face of it, there is little common ground amongst these heroes, except for their shared identity as Americans. This is a team that includes a ghost (Spectre), a reincarnated Egyptian prince (Hawkman) and a chemist who creates a drug that gives its user superpowers for 60

(Hourman). There are two significant commonalities between the teammates; firstly, they all fit into the categories of straight, white and male. Secondly, they are all American patriots. The nationalistic patriotism of the Justice Society was thus the defining feature which brought the team together in numerous adventures. For example, the JSA’s first challenge as a team begins with the group being gathered in Washington at the behest of the FBI. They are told by the FBI chief, “I’ve called you here to help the U.S.A fight its internal enemies - spies and saboteurs!” (Fox, 1941, p.1). From its very beginning the Justice Society of America is thus portrayed as a part of the American state apparatus.

This is demonstrated by both their nomenclature and their subservience to the government. The first action shot of the JSA is accompanied by The Flash proudly exclaiming, “[f]or America Justice

Society members! For America and democracy!” (Fox, 1941, p.2). The initial depiction of the Justice

Society thus presented the superhero team as being a particularly colourful element of the military- industrial complex.

Both before and during World War Two, the superhero comic was an element of American popular culture which was politically engaged with debates surrounding whether the United States should enter the war. Many workers within the comic book industry were from a Jewish background, and they used their art to advocate for American involvement in the war against Nazi Germany.

Famously, the cover introducing Jack Kirby and ’s Captain America shows the hero socking

Hitler in the jaw; this was released two years before America entered the war. ‘Simon and Kirby used

Captain America to a metaphorical war against Nazi oppression’ (Wright, 2006, p.36). Jewish creators faced hate mail and abuse for their political stance; and Simon had to have police protection following the release of Captain America Comics #1 (Sabin, 2011, p. xiii). However, with the entry of the United States into the war following the Pearl Harbour bombings, the superhero comic was transformed from a marginal force arguing for American intervention in Europe, into a

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fully integrated element of the American , along with other American industries. Comic book publishers would try to link their comics to patriotism and the war effort (Wright, 2006, p.34), as exemplified by the cover of World’s Finest #9 (1943) which depicted Batman, Robin and

Superman joining together to chuck baseballs at the leaders of the Axis powers. As Murray argues, the superhero comics of World War II along with other forms of popular entertainment were integrally linked with the ethos of official propaganda; both in terms of aiming to boost morale and actively advertising war bonds sales and conservation campaigns (Murray, 2011, p.259-260).

The superheroes themselves went to war. Joining the war effort was, ‘what gave them definition as symbols of the American Way… This is what signalled their power as conveyors of propaganda’ (Sabin, 2011, p.xiii). Unlike some heroes such as Superman,58 The Justice Society of

America became an active element of the US military. All Star Comics #10 (1942) came out in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbour attacks and America’s official entry into the conflict. The preamble to the issue explains the JSA’s reaction to the Pearl Harbour attacks: “The Justice Society of America explodes with righteous indignation… They too demand their chance to fight for the country they love best…” (Fox, 1942). All of the Justice Society members enlist in the military under their civilian identities. The Spectre is the only member exempt from this obligation, stating: “As a ghost I’ll keep just as busy working on the home front – There’s plenty to do!” (Fox, 1942, p.2). The issue then follows the members of the JSA as they utilise their amazing abilities on the warfront. The Justice

Society are then gathered together at the end of the issue by a general who tells them that they are fighting the enemy too effectively and thus are causing dissension within the military because commanders are arguing about which of the JSA members is the best. Therefore, the general removes the JSA members from their normal listings and puts them together into a special unit entitled The Justice Battalion of America; the effect of the war is thus to transform the Justice

58 It was reasoned that due to his powers, Superman would logically be able to resolve the conflict single handedly. In an effort not to insult the American soldiers fighting overseas by following this story thread, Clark Kent was declared 4F due to his vision problems and Superman focussed his efforts on the home front.

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Society into the Justice Battalion. This was the first example where a superhero team became completely submerged into the military industrial complex, the militarised superheroes who would return to the fore post-9/11.

The relationships modelled within the Justice Society were almost exclusively male homosocial relationships. This is emphasised in a strange moment in All Star Comics #3, in which the

JSA’s meeting is disrupted by the comical appearance of The aka Ma Hunkel, a matronly woman whose most distinctive costuming choice was a cooking pot worn over her head as a helmet. The Red Tornado was one of the first superhero parodies, but she leaves the JSA meeting in embarrassment due to a tear in her long johns. The members of the JSA jocularly laugh as she leaves; a strange moment which made it clear that the Justice Society was intended as a space for

‘mystery men’ only.

However, a significant challenge to this male-only superhero space came with the debut of

Wonder Woman in 1941. William Moulton Marston created the Amazing Amazon as a response to what he deemed the ‘comics’ worst offence... their blood-curling masculinity’ (Marston, 1943, p.42).

Marston parlayed his status as a psychologist into a role on the DC Publications Editorial Advisory

Board; an attempt by the company to counteract anti-comics sentiment amongst the press, parents and educators. From this position, Marston was able to pitch his new to the company.

Wonder Woman was an ambassador to Man’s World59 from an all-female society of Amazons, and her mission was to spread the gospel of her patron goddess Aphrodite and promote an ideology of love to a world at war. Marston developed Wonder Woman/ with artist H.G. Peter, whose background prior to moving into comics included drawing for suffragette magazines. As documented by Jill Lepore in her 2015 biography of Marston and his creation, Marston’s personal history with (and familial relationships with high-profile members of) the suffragette movement of the early twentieth century was integral to his development of Wonder Woman. Certainly, the

59 The name that the Amazonian inhabitants of Paradise Island give to the world outside of their magical homeland.

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approach to justice found in the Wonder Woman strip often greatly differed from that seen in other superhero comics, representing her as a compassionate and empathetic hero whose feminine virtues could act as a check on male aggressiveness (Wright, 2006, p.21). As Gloria Steinman wrote in a 1972 essay which prompted the feminist movement’s reclaiming of Wonder Woman as a feminist icon, ‘looking back now at these Wonder Woman stories from the forties, I am amazed by the strength of their feminist message’ (Steinman,2013, p.204).60 As Murray argues, Wonder Woman served a similar propagandistic function to the iconic Rosie the Riveter; a symbolic representation of women taking upon themselves the war work which had been barred to them prior to the war.

However, unlike Rosie, Wonder Woman directly confronted the enemy on the battlefield (Murray,

2011, p.141). Overall, Wonder Woman was intended to serve as a figure of female strength, who in

Marston and Peter’s conception had to journey into Man’s World because it was hopelessly in the grip of , the God of War. ‘Wonder Woman was to women’s rights what Superman had been to the New Deal: progressive propaganda that sought to transform American conceptions of identity by providing a new form of mythic idealism’ (Murray, 2011, p.142).

However, unquestionably the original depiction of Wonder Woman was as infused with sexual fetishism as it was with progressive political purpose. Noah Bertlansky (2014) in his book- length study of the heroine argues that Marston’s original Wonder Woman was a form of psychic agitprop, encouraging men to renounce violence by submitting to a strong and loving female figure, and many elements of the Wonder Woman mythos have connections to bondage imagery, most famously her golden lasso which compels the person ensnared within it to tell the truth (Wright,

2006, p.21-22). There is thus a complicated relationship between her status as a figure of female equality and her presentation as an object of sexual fantasy.61 Wonder Woman would also often find

60 This citation references the reprinting of Steinman’s essay in The Superhero Reader. 61 As covered by Lepore, Marston’s polyamorous homelife with his wife Sadie Holloway and their mutual lover was a key inspiration in the development of Wonder Woman. Following Marston’s death in 1947, Holloway made an unsuccessful pitch to take over editorial control of the comic and wrote a character bible that was ignored by incoming writer (Lepore, 2015, p.262-263).

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herself captured and chained by her enemies; and in Marston’s original stories if Wonder Woman’s bracelets were chained together by a man then she would lose her super-strength. However, readers conscious of the genre conventions of superhero comics would know that Wonder Woman was going to break free of this bondage, normally through her own ingenuity:

Therefore, these comics were, on the one hand, about the exploitation of Wonder Woman

as a sexual object, yet, on the other hand they always carried the message that women had

the power to break free of this bondage and that such disempowerment could be overcome.

(Murray, 2011, p.144)

The Marston and Peter Wonder Woman thus occupied a liminal space, both playing towards the sexual objectification of Wonder Woman whilst also presenting her as a symbol of female strength and empowerment. Wonder Woman herself also often plays the role of loving dominatrix; a heroine whose purpose is to teach both men and women the value of loving submission and bring forth a world, “ruled happily by the love and beauty of Aphrodite!” (Marston, 2015, p.126). As Ben Saunders suggests, Marston’s goal was to make female assertiveness attractive to his readership (2011, p.61).

Wonder Woman’s eroticised adventures are an extension of the radical gender theories of female supremacy that Marston had espoused in a less successful manner in his academic life. They are ‘the waking dreams of a gender theorist... Surreal and trippy where his theoretical writing is pedestrian and clunky’ (Saunders, 2011, p.63).62 Marston and Peters’ Wonder Woman demonstrated a concern with discussing gender relations, and a clear feminist political agenda which was not being addressed anywhere else in superhero comics.

Wonder Woman would become the first female member of the Justice Society, but there was vast dissonance between the Wonder Woman presented in her own comic and the one who appeared within the Justice Society. The treatment of Wonder Woman as a member of a superhero

62 Saunders also argues that the playfulness of the Wonder Woman stories transcends the materialist and essentialist clichés about gender that Marston depended on within his academic life, which often bordered upon pseudoscience (2011, p.63).

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team demonstrates how the earliest superhero team primarily modelled male homosocial relationships and excluded women; the presence of a woman on the team was an aberration.

Wonder Woman first meets the Justice Society in All Star Comics #11 (1942). Ironically, she is allowed more agency before she officially joins the team. As with the rest of the JSA, Wonder

Woman helps the war effort overseas under the guise of her secret identity Diana Prince. Under her superheroic identity, Wonder Woman – like the rest of the Justice Society – also takes a direct role on the frontlines of the war; directly challenging the Japanese forces. However, an issue later, despite now being an official member of the Justice Battalion, Wonder Woman has been relegated to the sidelines. She is introduced to the rest of the team by Hawkman, who tells them that

“Wonder Woman, has volunteered to be our secretary while we are at war” (Fox, 1942). Thus, once she joins the team, Wonder Woman is immediately drawn away from the frontlines of the conflict and is placed in a traditionally female role [Figure X]. Following this introduction, Wonder Woman stares off wistfully at the rest of the Justice Battalion leaping off to war, saying, “[g]ood luck, boys –

And I wish I could be with you.” There is thus a major disconnect between Marston and Peters’

Wonder Woman and the Wonder Woman presented by Fox in the Justice Society. The Marston and

Peters’ Wonder Woman aimed to bolster women’s participation in the war against the Axis. She was an exemplar of the political purpose of superheroines: ‘In a world where women were being encouraged to leave the home and go into factories or uniform, superheroines showed they could fight alongside men and were every bit as courageous and capable’ (Murray, 2011, p.144). Yet, this political purpose was diminished in her limited membership in the Justice Society. Wonder Woman’s membership within the team was even dithered over by editorial management, and they felt they needed to clear the idea of a woman being on the JSA with their readership before they would commit to the move:

In April 1942, Gaines conducted a poll, asking readers, “[s]hould Wonder Woman be

allowed, even though a woman, to become a member of the Justice Society?” Of the first

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1801 questionnaires returned, 1265 boys and 333 girls said “Yes”: 197 boys and just 6 girls

said “No”.

(Lepore 2014)

Despite the readership being in favour of Wonder Woman being inducted into the Justice Society, the execution of her induction into the Justice Society fell far below the audience’s expectations.

Figure 29. Wonder Woman’s role as the Justice Battalion’s secretary is established. Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley, “The Black Dragon Menace”. All Star Comics #12 (1942), p.2. DC Comics.

Marston himself was unhappy with Fox’s scripting of Wonder Woman in the Justice Society stories

(Lepore, 2015, p.211). Overall, the weak depiction of Wonder Woman in the Justice Society demonstrated that there was an uneasiness within the early comics industry regarding how active a role female characters could play in heroic narratives. Without creators involved who held feminist sympathies, female characters were relegated to minor roles:

Fox’s Wonder Woman was a secretary in a swimsuit. Marston’s Wonder Woman was a

Progressive Era feminist, charged with fighting evil, intolerance, destruction, injustice,

suffering and even sorrow, on behalf of democracy, freedom, justice, and equal rights for

women. In 1942 when Fox’s Wonder Woman was typing up the minutes to meetings of the

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Justice Society, Marston’s Wonder Woman was organizing boycotts, strikes, and political

rallies.

(Lepore, 2015, p.211)

With respect to Princess Diana, the explicit feminist goals of the character were ignored or diminished when Wonder Woman appeared outside the stewardship of Marston and Peters. There would arguably not be another explicitly feminist take on Wonder Woman from DC Comics until

George Perez re-booted the character for the Post-Crisis DC Universe in the 1980s. Fan response to this revamping of the character was positive, with enthusiasm for the series’ ‘feminist agenda and emphasis on love and compassion similar to that of the Marston era’ (Ormrod, 2018, p.542).

Whilst the Justice Society of America was the first superteam, the relationships presented within it conformed to the sort of constrained and individualistic models of relationality described by

Mills who, in his analysis of superheroes observes that, ‘[o]ntologically, the hero was an independent, individualistic substance who relied only and completely on himself. Relationships did not constitute the hero’s essence in any meaningful way’ (Mills, 2013, p.53). The Justice Society of America did little to challenge this or establish that the relationships within the team were important to the development of the superheroes’ identities. In this sense, the heroes of the JSA reflected the limited and individualistic view of masculinity accepted within American society in the

1940s; the team consisted of a group of straight white men, who had a limited and chummy relationship. Furthermore, the minimisation of Wonder Woman’s role in the team as well as the complete lack of minority characters facilitated the JSA’s disengagement from the societal changes promised by the war. This disengagement is representative of the fact that ‘[t]he other Americas that emerged in the propaganda campaign were temporary ripples in the larger myth; when they lost their political necessity, the myth reasserted itself as stable and homogenous’ (Murray, 2011, p.180). Certainly, as Wonder Woman lost her agency in the post-war years, it reflected the loss of agency experienced by American women returning from the factories to the home. The Justice

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Society of America’s version of the superhero team presented a vision of a society dominated by white men (or ), with little room for marginalised voices amongst the halls of Justice.

The Justice League of America The immediate post-war years were a difficult time for superhero comics as a genre. As GIs returned from the combat theatres of Europe and the Pacific, and the younger generation following them grew into adolescence, the appetite for superhero comics diminished. The popularity of the

Golden Age Superheroes was linked to the anxieties of American society before and during the war, in particular the fears and aspirations of young people. Following the end of the conflict, the popularity of superhero comics slumped. After 1944, no new successful superheroes were created until the re-emergence of the genre in the late 1950s (Wright, 2006, p.37). Throughout this period between the Golden and Silver Ages, the only superheroes to enjoy continuous publication were

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. For the superhero comics which remained in publication, such as the Superman titles edited by , there was a movement away from stories which tried to reflect the social realities of post-war America.63 As Wright observes, ‘DC Comics adopted a post-war editorial direction that increasingly de-emphasised social commentary in favour of light-hearted juvenile fantasy’ (Wright, 2006, p.59), and the superhero genre retreated from engaging with socio-economic realities.

Whilst the superhero genre was struggling, comic books overall thrived economically during this period. The maturing of the audience for comics saw appetites grow for different genres to become commercially successful, such as crime, horror and romance. Meanwhile, the superheroes of the past two decades struggled to deal with the new existential threats and anxieties which colonised the collective American psyche with the birth of the Cold War and the .64

63 The Weisinger era Superman comics eschewed the explicit connection to socio-political issues demonstrated within Golden Age Superman texts; however, on a subtextual level there are many similarities between the -like fantasy stories of Superman and the psychological anxieties of American men returning to normal life after the war. 64 In Alan Moore’s self-reflexive run on Supreme, a Superman pastiche character, he and artist commented on the downfall of superhero comics in the 1950s. In Supreme: The Story of the Year (2002), a

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Superman and Captain Marvel were dislodged from their position at the top of comic book sales charts, and that slot was now occupied by the horror comics produced by EC Comics and Lev

Gleeson’s Crime Does Not Pay. The violent content within crime and horror comics led to a moral panic surrounding comic books within American society. This moral panic was set alight by the advocacy of Fredric Wertham, whose book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) became the ideological cornerstone of a moral crusade against the comics.65 The panic culminated with a Senate inquiry into juvenile delinquency, where comics publishers were brought in to give testimony. As a result of these hearings, America’s comic publishers created the Comics Code Authority, a self-censorship body modelled on Hollywood’s Hayes Code. The Comics Code was designed in such a way as to effectively ban horror and crime comics (which forced EC Comics out of business).

Comics publishers looked back to their past successes in order to restart their business in this new Comics-Code compliant era. DC Comics revived the superhero genre in an attempt to rebuild their publishing line, and the starting point for what is recognised as the Silver Age of superhero comics was the release of Showcase #4 (1956) which introduced a new version of The

Flash.66 This was followed three years later with the revival of Green Lantern, now , a fighter pilot who received his power ring from aliens rather than magic like the original character.67

Both The Flash ‘the fastest man alive’ and the Green Lantern’s fighter pilot turned space-cop persona tapped into the early Space Age zeitgeist of the late 1950s. The Flash, who could run faster than the speed of light and use a Cosmic Treadmill to travel through time, was also used to teach

is shown to the end of the Allied Supermen of America (stand-ins for the JSA), in which they are taunted by a demonic figure representing the horror hosts of EC Comics’ popular series. The superheroes are shown to be irrelevant, unable to combat the new social anxieties that spurred the popularity of horror comics. 65 See ’s The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America (2008) for a comprehensive account of the moral panic against comics and the impact the campaign had on the comic book industry. 66 This new Flash, a police scientist named , was developed by writer Robert Kanigher and artist under the guidance of editor . 67 Hal Jordan was introduced in Showcase #22 (1959) and developed by writer and artist .

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young readers about basic scientific concepts. Notes were added in stories called Flash Facts,68 which appeared at points where The Flash’s adventures resembled actual science. ‘Flash Facts were perfect for impressing teachers and parents and for proving that comics had something to offer an upstanding young generation of fresh-faced futurians’ (Morrison, 2011, p.87). Flash Facts were a way in which these new superhero comics tried to curtail potential blowback from parents, teachers or psychologists. In keeping with this approach, the clean-cut science heroes of the DC Silver Age were gifted with powers which they used to fight crime because it was the community-minded thing to do (Morrison, p.97). The new superheroes of the DC Universe were not motivated by a great sense of at the social injustice of society; instead, they were conservative defenders of the status quo defending the world from strange and weird threats to the American way of life.

These new heroes formed the core of DC’s successor to the Justice Society. In 1960, DC

Comics revived the superhero team by introducing the Justice League of America. The Justice League debuted in The Brave and The Bold #28 (1960), in a story again written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by . By the end of the year, the team had moved to a self-titled series –

Justice League of America. The initial line-up of the Justice League consisted of The Flash, Green

Lantern, Aquaman, The , Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman. This version of the team is often referred to as the Big 7 and multiple groups of creators have returned to this line-up (or some variant of the same) when trying to recapture the ‘classic’ era of the Justice

League.69

68 This idea survives to the current day, with DC announcing a 2021 graphic novel aimed at middle-school readers called Flash Facts, which uses DC Superheroes to teach STEM concepts. The comic is curated by actress/scientist Mayim Bialik. 69 The successful late-90s revival of the Justice League in Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s JLA would utilise this strategy, bringing back the original members of the team after a sustained period in which the Justice League titles had been dominated by lesser-known characters. In 2011 as part of DC Comics‘ New 52 relaunch of their entire publishing line, and Jim Lee relaunched Justice League with a similar strategy. In this, the Justice League consisted of the big seven, however Martian Manhunter was substituted by Cyborg from the Teen .

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Whilst the Justice League was created almost 20 years after the Justice Society, in many respects the teams were very similar. This makes sense when considering that Fox, author of the initial JSA stories, returned to pen the initial Justice League stories. However, a difference which was established between the Justice League and its predecessor could be found in the make-up of their rosters. In the JSA, the most popular members of the team – Superman and Batman – were only considered to be honorary team members. When a character graduated to having their own title, like The Flash, they were moved from the team’s active roster to being classified as an honorary member. By comparison, in the Justice League, Superman and Batman were full time members of the team. Despite this change, early Justice League stories mirrored the structure of the Justice

Society stories. In the JLA’s first adventure both Batman and Superman are shown to be too busy with their duties protecting Gotham City and Metropolis respectively to attend to the threat the

Justice League is fighting. Their only presence in the issue is in essence a cameo. Commercially, the

Justice League was initially designed to publicise the company’s lesser-known characters. This is evident by examining the cover to the first issue of Justice League of America. ’s cover depicts The Flash playing a game of chess with the alien tyrant, Despero. Superman and

Batman are only represented as playing pieces on the cover, having already been kidnapped. It is

The Flash and the other members of the team who are highlighted by Anderson. Justice League of

America thus demonstrates a structural reason underlying the limited depiction of relationality within the early superhero teams. When a team consists of superheroes who all have their own ongoing serials, creators on team books are often restricted in terms of what they can do with the characters. In the case of the Justice League, for example, any changes to Superman and Batman within the Justice League title would have to be reflected in their starring titles. This is a consequence of the vast narrative in which mainstream superhero comics are published. The spectre of continuity – the need to keep characters all existing within a coherent – opens both possibilities and limitations to individual creators. Accordingly, the initial Justice League of

America stories were not serialised, and the events of the series did not have any significant effect

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on the heroes’ solo series. Creating complex and interdependent relationships amongst the members of the Justice League would create a more complicated fictional universe than the DC editors of the time could countenance.

Figure 30. The Flash and Despero play for the lives of the Justice League. Murphy Anderson (cover art), Justice League of America #1 (1960), DC Comics.

Consequently, the presentation of relationships within the JLA had not significantly changed from the presentation of relationships within JSA stories. Mills suggests that for the Golden Age superheroes, ‘relationships did not constitute the hero’s essence in any meaningful way’ (Mills,

2013, p.53). I would suggest that little changed for the DC heroes of the Silver Age; their relationships with the other heroes had little bearing on the formation of their identities. The Justice

League was presented as a meritocracy, where only members of the superhero caste were

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able to be members (Fingeroth, 2004, p.103), and the initial Justice League rarely resembled an actual community of heroes, serving at best – like the JSA – as a superhero social club. The idea of the Justice League as a meritocracy is highlighted by Justice League of America #4, in which Green

Arrow becomes the first new hero inducted into the team. The first image of the issue shows Green

Arrow being hoisted onto the shoulders of Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern, as the rest of the team happily cheers, “[w]elcome to the Justice League, !” (Fox, 1961, p.1). The opening of the issue describes how Green Arrow’s help led to him being elected to “membership for life… including the wearing of the signal device and possession of the Golden Key which permits entry into the Secret Sanctuary, its library and souvenir rooms” (Fox, 1961 p.1). Membership in the Justice

League is presented as something that needs to be earned.

As demonstrated by the admission of Green Arrow to the team, the Justice League was not a superhero team in which the emotional makeup of group dynamics was explored. The DC Comics superheroes of the Silver Age primarily dealt with plot-based conflicts rather than emotional conflicts (Jordan, 2013, p.55), and the relationships amongst the members of The Justice League were kept at an arm’s length. The series was not a place to explore the inner lives of superheroes; there were far more important matters to address such as punching giant space aliens.

The JLA was also presented as a professional organisation for superheroes. Wonder Woman in her position as rotating chairman of the team opens the meeting by saying, “[a]ccording to our constitution and by-laws – we can admit one new member at a time” (Fox, p.7). It could be said that with its own by-laws and regulations, the Justice League functions as a ‘self-governing political body that engaged the world outside the urban stomping grounds of each member’ (Fawaz, 2016, p.40).

This representation of professionalism paralleled the approach of Marvel Comics’ traditional equivalent to the JLA, The Avengers, which has normally been presented as a professional superhero team privately funded by Tony Stark. For most of The Avengers being a superhero is their core profession (Burns and Morris, 2013, p.143). However, the initial JLA line-up was comprised of

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characters with secret identities who also held regular jobs. In this sense, the Justice League is presented as more amateur than The Avengers, and its members did not earn an income from their work.

A significant difference between the Justice League and its wartime predecessors was its retreat from real life socio-political conflicts. The Justice Society was deeply enmeshed in World War

Two, and the broader American cultural campaign to boost morale throughout the war. The Justice

League, however, did little to reflect social reality in its fantastical superhero universe. The only real connection between the Justice League and a changing American society was the presence of

Snapper Carr, the Justice League’s collective sidekick. Snapper was a teenager intended to serve as a reader identification figure for the audience.

In a book full of square adults, DC exec believed that a reader

identification [character] was called for and requested a hip-talking character modelled on

teen-idol Edd Byrnes’ character Kookie on the 77 Strip TV series.

(Wells, 2012, p.117)

Snapper was a stereotypical portrayal of the hip 1950s teen. He spoke in a middle-aged person’s imagination of teenage lingo and took his nickname from his habit of snapping his fingers together.70

The presence of Snapper may also have been a reaction to the popularity of Comics’ feature star, . Archie, ‘the typical American teenager’ lived in the small town of Riverdale; and the adventures of him and his of pals presented a vision of American youth with no fighting or drinking and just a hint of sex (Wright, 2006, p.73).71 The world of Archie was one where

70 would remain as the JLA’s sidekick until Justice League of America #77 (1969), in which he would resign from his role with the team after having been tricked into giving up the location of the Justice League’s Secret Sanctuary to The Joker. 71 Riverdale however, the 2017 television adaptation of revels in sex and violence.

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young readers could glimpse a Comics-Code Authority approved vision of adolescence. Snapper Carr served a similar purpose in his role as the Justice League’s teen mascot.72

The enemies the Justice League faced also differed from those faced by their predecessor.

Rather than battling the human enemies of society (the Axis, mobsters and saboteurs), members of the Justice League primarily found themselves challenged by fantastical and strange enemies.

Colourful supervillains, alien conquerors and mad sorcerers made up the bulk of the JLA’s enemies.

The transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age saw DC’s superheroes retreat from socio- political relevance into pure fantasy. This was reflected by the first villain the Justice League fought,

Starro the Conqueror. is a giant alien starfish who roams the great vastness of the cosmos, conquering planets with his ability to control the minds of others by releasing miniature versions of himself that cover his victims’ faces. The influence of H.P. Lovecraft’s style of cosmic horror was evident in the character of Starro (Murray and Corstorphine, 2013, p.169). Whilst Starro is reminiscent of the Elder Things imagined by Lovecraft, a cosmic horror monster manifesting in the

DC Universe served a very different narrative function to the madness inducing dark gods Lovecraft created. The superheroes of the JLA, when confronted with a strange monster from beyond, refuse to be driven mad or rendered cosmically insignificant in the way Lovecraft protagonists tended to be

(Murray and Corstorphine, 2013, p.170). Rather than serving as a mind shattering dark force that exposes humanity’s insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe, a cosmic monster like Starro is just a bizarre threat for the Justice League to overcome; ‘[t]he superheroes simply defeat Starro and return everything to the status quo’ (Murray and Corstorphine, 2013, p.170). Within the superhero genre, monsters serve to highlight the cosmic importance of the individual heroes. This is

72 Ramzi Fawaz presents an alternate reading to Snapper Carr’s role as the Justice League’s sidekick, seeing him as an example to the young people reading the comic that they too could identify less so with family commitments, but rather ‘a new kind of alternative solidarity based on ethical commitments to the world’ (2016, p.46).

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in juxtaposition to Lovecraftian horror, in which the monsters serve as a way to highlight the insignificance of individuals.

Along with Lovecraftian horrors, the Justice League also took arms against the socially relevant horrors which were in vogue in 1950s and 1960s cinema. The Justice League superheroes were presented as god-like figures who served as humanity’s protectors from alien threats and the

League’s role was to protect the world, not to change it. The villains the JLA fought were figures of weird science or the strange unknown. There is a similarity between the villains the JLA fought and the monsters found within American 1950s horror cinemas. These monsters were ‘clearly associated with the world of modern scientific America’ (Jancovich, 2002, p.4). Films such as The Day the Earth

Stood Still (1951), Them! (1954) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) were all examples of the subgenre of techno-horror, where the threat to society comes from extra-terrestrial origins or scientific accidents (Magisteral, 2005, p.83). During the Cold War, American society had to deal with the paranoia created by the onset of atomic warfare. ‘The United States had created its own monsters, and needed to understand them’ (Wells cited in Magisteral, 2005, p.53). Whilst the monsters fought off by the Justice League are similar in design and scale to the monsters of 1950s horror cinema, they serve a different narrative function. Whereas the world of horror cinema was one in which American society’s post-World War Two anxieties ran rampant, monsters in Justice

League of America existed to be contained and defeated by superheroes who would restore normative society following the intrusion of the strange.

A more internationalist reading of the Justice League of America’s socio-political positioning is presented by Ramzi Fawaz in his book The : Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (2016). Fawaz sees the Justice League as transforming the superhero from ‘an icon of American nationalism to a champion of internationalism and universal citizenship’ (2016, p.39). For Fawaz, the Justice League’s mission to defend humanity as a whole (as well as innocent life throughout the universe) made the heroes citizens of the world rather than just America. He draws a

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link between the Justice League’s global mission with internationalist policies such as the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights (2016, p.44). Whilst the team is certainly more globally focused in its mission than the America-first Justice Society that proceeded it, the Justice League’s fantastical stories were nevertheless a clear departure from the real-world concerns that its predecessor dealt with. As Fawaz also suggests, universal citizenship was not (on the whole) extended to those who deviated from the cultural majority (2016, p.64); the Justice League made little improvement on the

Justice Society in allowing women or minorities full privileges as citizens.

However, a significant difference between the Justice League and the Justice Society was that there was a female presence on the team from the very beginning. Unlike the Justice Society,

Wonder Woman was an inaugural member of the Justice League; but her role in the Justice League began at a time in which within her own comic, Wonder Woman had stopped directly interacting with feminist politics. After her creator Marston passed away and control of the character moved away from him to DC editorial, her stories disengaged from feminism. This disengagement may have been in part a response to the attacks made by Wertham against Wonder Woman in Seduction of the Innocent, where he claimed that Wonder Woman was an anti-masculine figure who promoted lesbianism and a rejection of traditional gender roles (Donaldson, 2013, p.141). Wonder Woman’s retreat away from feminism and towards domesticity was reflected in the change of focus of her comics. Diana Prince became more concerned with her desire to marry than her desire to liberate oppressed women from male aggression. In this sense, she was a victim of the ‘cult of domesticity’ that followed the war, in which women in America were expected to leave the jobs they had taken up during the conflict and return back to the domestic world of being wives and homemakers (Wolfe and Tucker cited in Donaldson, 2013, p.150). Wonder Woman’s character became anodyne and deradicalized and whilst for the most part Wonder Woman played an active role in Justice League stories, her movement towards domesticity was also reflected there. For example, in Justice League of America #66 (1968), she is shown in the JLA headquarters wearing an

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apron and holding a feather duster. She bosses around Superman and Green Lantern, henpecking them to clean up the team’s headquarters:

As long as we have no cases, we may as well occupy ourselves constructively! This room is a

disgrace!

Superman, the Psionic Computer would look better over there! And Green Lantern, I want

that wall pink!

(O’Neill, 1968, p.15)

Green Lantern responds to Wonder Woman’s orders with a chauvinistic thought, “[w]onder she may be – But mostly she’s woman!” (O’Neill, 1968).73 Rather than being presented as the politically minded role model for female empowerment that Marston had conceived, Wonder Woman was transitioned back into a mode of domesticity.

Throughout the 1960s, Wonder Woman would remain as the sole female member of the

Justice League. She was in essence the token female member of the team:

In superhero team stories, female characters were generally subject to what might be

described as a crowd effect. They were outnumbered, on average four to one in these team

stories, minimizing their “on-screen time.” Being outnumbered, female characters could

only account for a minority of the events of the plot of any given team comic and were

completely overshadowed by male heroes.

(Donaldson, 2013, p.143)

73 The plot of this issue sees Generalissimo Demmy Gog, an ousted Mediterranean dictator, try to use a morale-sapping machine to conquer the United States and the Justice League. As this moment occurs right before Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Superman are affected by Gog’s machine, maybe Wonder Woman’s sudden interest in interior design can be read as some sort of early effect of the morale-sapping machine.

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Another superheroine would not join the team until Black Canary in Justice League of America #75

(1969). By this point, Wonder Woman had gone on temporary leave from the League due to having lost her superpowers and had become a white catsuit-clad Emma Peel style secret agent. Clearly, the

Justice League was a meritocracy in which only one woman at a time was considered sufficiently meritorious to join.

Figure 31. Black Canary makes her pitch to join the Justice League. Carmine Infantino with Murphy Anderson (cover art), Justice League of America #75 (1969), DC Comics.

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The Fantastic Four As with the Golden Age, the commercial success of the DC Comics Silver Age superhero revival led other comic book publishers back to the genre. The most prominent of these publishers to re-enter the superhero genre was Marvel Comics. Marvel, a struggling publisher then still known as Atlas Comic, had mostly been producing giant monster comics throughout the 1950s. Stan Lee, then head writer and editor of Timely has stated that it was the commercial success of The Justice

League with spurred the re-entry of Marvel back into the superhero genre:

It happened that at the time my publisher had been playing golf with who

was one of the bosses at DC Comics; which in those days was called . Jack

Liebowitz had told him he had a magazine called The Justice League, which was selling very

well, and it was a group of superheroes. So Martin came to me and he said, “Hey Stan…Why

don’t you do a group of superheroes?” Again this business of following a trend.

(Lee cited in Plume, 2000)

The Fantastic Four, the comic Lee would co-create with Jack Kirby, was created as a direct commercial response to the success of Justice League of America. Debuting in 1961, The Fantastic

Four followed in the Justice League’s footsteps commercially; however, the presentation of the superhero team in The Fantastic Four was a radical departure from earlier teams. Lee and Kirby created a dysfunctional family unit rather than the Club of Heroes dynamic seen in DC Comics’ superhero teams. As Jordan argues, ‘stories in the Silver Age of Marvel Comics demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the role of emotions within individuals and within groups and how emotions drive human behaviour’ (2013, p.67). If Marvel Comics in the 1960s introduced emotional connections and complexity to the superhero comic, it was Lee and Kirby’s The Fantastic Four in which these developments were first established. The creative partnership of Lee and Kirby also

‘created the core of the Marvel Universe’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.88). The Fantastic Four is the most integral text in that partnership, and the starting point for the relationally attuned superhero team.

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An element that the Fantastic Four shared with their predecessors in the Justice League was that they were the cultural product of an America steeped in both the Space Age and the Cold War.

Whilst Green Lantern and The Flash were ‘crisp, well favoured suburbanites: utopian science heroes for the Space Age’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.116), the Marvel heroes had a more complex and tense relationship with the society they interacted with. As Jason Bainbridge argues, in comparison with the DC heroes, the Marvel heroes had a very different relationship with modernity. Indeed, modernity was implicated in the creation of the Marvel heroes; ‘[t]hey are, in effect, the dark side of modernity, the production of weird comic book science’ (Bainbridge, 2008 p.73). In Marvel Comics, superheroes were produced by that great cultural fear of the Cold War, atomic radiation. Radiation turned characters like Spider-Man and The Hulk into an Other. If the DC heroes were comfortable with modernity and fought external monsters which represented cultural anxieties of the time, the

Marvel heroes embodied those cultural anxieties. The fear of the bomb, and of technological and societal change, became threaded into the body of the superhero. The Marvel heroes fought monsters, but to the general public inhabiting the Marvel Universe, these strange new heroes were as monstrous as the threats they were fighting. They were ‘the monstrous progeny of the age of atomic and genetic science, no longer legitimate citizens of the state or identifiable members of the human race’ (Fawaz, 2016, p.8). The Marvel heroes were as victimised by modernity as they were empowered by it.

Certainly, the origin of the Fantastic Four is directly related to Cold War paranoia and Space

Race envy in the wake of the Sputnik launch. The Four, consisting of genius scientist , his best friend and pilot Ben Grimm, Reed’s fiancé Susan and her hot-headed teenage brother

Johnny Storm, are led to their fated transformation not by of God but their own hubris. In the first issue, the flashback to the team’s origin opens with an angry Ben Grimm confronting his friend about the recklessness of his plans. “If you want to fly to the stars, then you pilot the ship!

Count me out! You know we haven’t done enough research into the effect of cosmic rays! They might kill us all out in space!” (Lee ,1961, p.10). Ben’s well-founded doubts about Reed’s plans for

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experimental and completely illegal space flight is responded to by Sue, who questions both Ben’s manhood and his patriotism. “Ben, we’ve got to take that chance… Unless we want the commies to beat us to it! I – I never thought that you would be a coward!” (Lee, 1961). Sue’s cajoling of Ben convinces him to pilot the ship, leading to the crew being bombarded with cosmic radiation and their transformations. The transformations see Reed Richards become Mr. Fantastic, with the ability to stretch his limbs like rubber. Sue Storm becomes the , with the ability to turn herself and other objects invisible. Johnny Storm becomes The , able to set himself alight and manipulate fire. Ben goes through the most traumatic of the transformations, becoming a creature made up of and stone, The Thing.

The Fantastic Four have an ambiguous relationship to the state. Unlike earlier superhero teams, they do not brand themselves specifically as an American team. However, their initial flight into space was motivated by the team’s desire to prove the superiority of American capitalist endeavour against the menace of the Soviet space program. Nevertheless, their space flight is completely unauthorised by the state and they must sneak past armed guards to launch their illegal expedition. Kirby and Lee thus infused their protagonists with an ironic distance from the traditional do-gooder superhero. Their creation was not the result of civic-minded desire to protect American society, and they show little respect for the power structure of the state that the JSA was subservient to. The recklessness of The Fantastic Four stands in stark contrast to the path of righteousness that earlier superheroes had followed in their origin stories.

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Figure 32. The Fantastic Four adopt their new monikers. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with (inking) and Artie Simek (lettering), The Fantastic Four #1 (1961), p. 14, Marvel Comics.

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Another innovation that Lee and Kirby introduced to the superhero team was their depiction of it as a family unit. Through The Fantastic Four, Lee and Kirby expanded the rationale of the superhero team, showing that its underlying purpose could run deeper than collaboratively saving the world from monsters. Unlike earlier superhero teams, the Fantastic Four live together in The

Baxter Building, and visually, their blue and white matching uniforms link the team members as a collective unit. Further, the Fantastic Four mirrors the structure of a nuclear family, with Reed and

Sue serving as the parental figures of the team. Johnny and Ben have a sibling like relationship, highlighted by the on-going teasing and pranks between them. Nevertheless, the ironic disposition of the series meant that the team were not presented as a conventional family; rather, the First

Family of the Marvel Universe was presented as dysfunctional. Internal conflict between the team members expressed a ‘soap-opera domesticity’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.161) that the Fantastic Four introduced into the superhero genre, exploring the sort of internal divisions which lurked beneath the American ideal of the nuclear family unit. As the traumatised victims of cosmic radiation, the team were an irradiated manifestation of the ordinary nuclear family dysfunctionality.

As one of the first major depictions of the superhero team as a family unit, The Fantastic

Four can thus be analysed through psychological frames for understanding family dynamics. Whilst the team initially did not feature any children,74 it can still analysed as a symbolic family unit. ‘After the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic, a new, more playful dynamic emerged, with Reed and Sue as

Mom and Pop, Johnny as the brattish teenage son, and Ben the monstrous nightmare baby’

(Morrison, 2011, p.93). This reading of Ben as the baby of the team is supported by the characters’ costuming; The Thing’s spandex tights, cut in a briefs style unlike the unitards of the rest of the team, can be seen to represent a diaper. However, Gavaler suggests that when looking at the opening eight issues of The Fantastic Four, it becomes evident that the family unit of the team is defined primarily by an interpersonal tension between Reed, Ben and Sue. Certainly, the Fantastic

74 Franklin Richards, Reed and Sue’s first child would be introduced to the series in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6.

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Four ‘began as a love triangle: foils representing opposite definitions of masculinity fight over a weak but prized wife, with a third, young male in a familial and therefore uncontested relationship’

(Gavaler, 2014). This was the dynamic outlined in Lee’s original pitch documents for the series, in which Ben Grimm was driven by jealousy of Reed and Sue’s relationship. In Lee’s original conception of the character, Ben was ‘interested in winning Susan away from [Reed]’ (Lee cited in Galaver,

2014), and this initial idea was still reflected in the early printed issues – for example, in issue 3, when Ben mournfully says to Mr. Fantastic, “I want Sue to look at me the way she looks at you!”

(Lee, 1962, p.16). Ben, Sue and Reed’s relationships can therefore be read from a Freudian perspective, as an Oedipal situation, with Ben wanting to replace Reed as the head of the family.

However, at an early point in The Fantastic Four’s history, these more aggressive instincts in The

Thing were dampened by the introduction of Alicia Masters, Ben’s blind and goodhearted girlfriend, who served to diffuse the romantic tension of the Reed-Sue-Ben love triangle. As comics writer Alan

Moore observes, The Thing went from seeming like he ‘was always on the verge of turning into a fully-fledged villain’ to resembling a ‘cuddly, likeable Orange Teddy Bear’ (Moore cited in Galaver,

2014). Thus, early in Lee and Kirby’s run on The Fantastic Four, the Oedipal dynamic was cleansed from the family structure of the group, with the bitter and volatile Thing of the earliest issues giving way to a more melancholic monster.

The Thing is in many ways the most important character within The Fantastic Four and he is indicative of how Lee and Kirby radically transformed the superhero genre. Along with Spider-Man,

The Thing was one of the breakout characters of the early Marvel era, serving as the most radical departure from the established conventions of the superhero. The Thing was a ‘creature hero’

(Hatfield, 2012, p.116), reminiscent of Lee and Kirby’s earlier work within the genre of monster comics. With Ben Grimm, Lee and Kirby created a superhero who physically resembled the monsters the Justice League fought off; The Thing’s power, his tremendous strength, comes with of

‘monstrosity, social ostracism, and alienation’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.117). Visually, the mythic figure

Kirby’s design of The Thing most resembles is that of a Golem; the clay monster from European

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Jewish . Both Lee and Kirby shared a Jewish heritage, so it is unsurprising that they would call upon their own folklore when creating their strange hero. Indeed, as Hatfield notes, many readers and critics see aspects of Kirby himself in Ben Grimm, (Hatfiled, 2012, p.118) due to Ben’s mixture of

East-Site New York toughness, self-deprecating humour and an easily bruised heart. More than any other Marvel character Kirby created, The Thing is seen as capturing his creator’s character and personality,75 and this resemblance was noted by Kirby himself who observed, “[i]f you notice the way the Thing talks and acts, you’ll find that the Thing is really Jack Kirby.... He has my manners, he has my manner of speech, and he thinks the way I do” (Kirby cited in Evanier, 2017, p.124). Ben

Grimm was thus the connective tissue between the giant monsters Kirby drew in the 1950s and this new of Heroes; ‘[t]he Thing was a masterstroke, a fusion figure uniting the living

(human) and unliving (rock), man and golem, hero and horror’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.118). Visually, The

Thing may appear to be a monster, but what tempers the character – what makes him a superhero rather than a figure of horror – is his emotional depth. Rather than serving as a wish-fulfilment figure like Superman or Captain Marvel, The Thing represents the artist’s own fears and vulnerabilities.

Thus, through Ben Grimm, Lee and Kirby introduced the complex and emotionally troubled anti-hero into the superhero genre.

Jeffrey A. Brown suggests that in superhero comics we see ‘one of our culture’s clearest illustrations of hypermasculinity and male duality premised on the fear of the unmasculine Other.’

(Brown, 1999, p.31). The Thing, being the strongest and most violent of the team, can be singled out as the expression of hypermasculinity within Fantastic Four. Whilst all the team’s abilities feature extreme bodily effects, Ben, who cannot transition between a normal body and his superpowered body, demonstrates the horrific aftermath of their transformation in a way that none of the other

75 Later comics have picked up on this convergence between the character of Ben Grimm and Jack Kirby. 1978’s What If… The Original Marvel Bullpen had become The Fantastic Four, a comedic story which imagined the original Marvel creators as superheroes, depicted Kirby as The Thing. Further, in Fantastic Four Vol. 3 56 (2002), it was confirmed that Ben Grimm shared Kirby’s Jewish heritage. It is notable as well that in 1966, when asked Kirby to send in a self-portrait for a new magazine, Kirby sent in a headshot of The Thing.

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team members do. Further, Ben’s rocky hide can be seen to be the ultimate expression of the idealised hard body of traditional masculinity. Certainly, there is a clear contrast to be made between The Thing’s rock-hard body and the literally soft and pliable body of the intellectual Mr

Fantastic. As the strongest and most muscular of the team, The Thing’s physique could be pointed towards as the factor that marks him as an individual – apart from the rest of The Fantastic Four. The hard body creates the clear delineation of the boundaries for the solitary masculine figure (Jeffords,

1993, p.358). That the more traditionally hyper-masculine Thing was the most popular member of the team (rather than the less conventionally masculine Mr Fantastic and Human Torch) could be explained by his adherence to this aspect of masculinity. Dokou draws a connection between Ben’s muscularity and the 1980s popularity of body-building culture:

In the avant-garde way of the FF, he may also be an early sign of the fitness craze that has

been a basic trait of Western society since the 1980s, and which has led thousands of

people, and especially insecure teens searching for strength and confidence, to “pump up”

their bodies, often monstrously, in gyms and through drugs, often illegal and dangerous

ones.

(Dokou, 2009, p.143)

Certainly, Ben Grimm functions as the muscleman archetype within the superhero team. It is common for Ben to be shown working out in his downtime at The , however working out for Ben is more likely to consist of using specialised super-science exercise equipment with weights which weigh up to a rather than traditional dumbbells and bench-presses. Dokou also reads Ben as a metaphor for the adolescent male readership of superhero comics, who like Ben go through a bodily transformation which cannot be reversed.

To put it otherwise in Kristevan terms, the Thing is the shell of patriarchal masculinity that

congeals over the semiotic potential underneath – and the irreversibility of the process,

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despite Reed’s frequent attempts to “cure” Ben, suggests the gradual conditioning of

humans to fit their assigned bodies.

(Dokou, 2009, p.143)

Clearly, The Thing’s strength, rock-like body and propensity to violence can be read as an expression of hypermasculinity; however, reading The Thing purely in terms of hypermasculinity disregards many important aspects as to why Ben Grimm is such an enduring character.

Traditional heroic masculinity is defined by both the presence of certain traits and the purposeful absence of other traits. Masculinity is defined by creating a binary opposition between masculine and feminine traits: ‘hard not soft, strong not weak, reserved not emotional’ (Brown 1999

26-27). Whilst Ben Grimm’s physical body and strength both correspond to the first two necessities of masculinity, The Thing is by no means a reserved character; his emotions drive him to action.

Ben’s mixture of anger and sadness caused by his feelings of alienation from the rest of humanity are a core aspect of his character; for example, he constantly doubts that his girlfriend Alicia could ever truly love him due to his monstrous appearance. There is an undercurrent of melancholic depression to Ben’s temperament. He does not fit into the traditional mould of the masculine hero who is not emotionally affected by his adventures. In Fantastic Four #51, ‘This Man, This Monster’,

Ben is temporarily transformed back into his human form and at his return to the body of The Thing he thinks: “I’m a walkin’ livin’ monster again! Maybe this is the real me! Maybe Ben Grimm is nothing more than – a dream!” (Lee, 1966, p.20).

However, in my estimation The Thing’s hyper-masculine features were less important to the character’s success than his emotional life. It was Ben Grimm’s emotional nature that made the character resonate so strongly with comics fans. The Thing differed from earlier superheroes; in that he was not presented as an emotionally stable costumed adventurer. Unlike earlier superheroes,

Ben Grimm is emotionally traumatised by his transformation into The Thing. There is a surliness to his temperament; a bitterness created by the alienation he feels from the rest of humanity due to

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his appearance. Throughout the early years of The Fantastic Four, the idea that Ben’s anger may cause him to lash out at his teammates was often simmering beneath the surface of the comic

(Hatfield 2012 118). However, this anger is controlled by The Thing’s ironic sense of humour, which was evident from his very first appearance in the series.

Figure 33. A classic image of a forlorn Ben Grimm. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with (inking) and Arti Simek (lettering), The Fantastic Four #51 (1966), p.1, Marvel Comics.

The Thing is introduced wearing the trenchcoat and hat disguise he would normally wear when trying to go amongst the general public, and he struggles in the ordinary world, complaining that, “I live in a world too small for me! Why must they build doorways so narrow?”

(Lee, 1961, p.3-4). From his very beginning, The Thing’s alienation from the rest of the world was a

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source of humour, and he would go on to sarcastically dub himself ‘the idol of millions’. For Ben

Grimm, humour and sarcasm is the release through which he deals with the emotional aftermath of his transformation.

Ben Grimm is a character who is near invulnerable, but with an easily damaged heart. His greatest tragedy is that he cannot recognise how much others love him, that they can see past his appearance in a way that he cannot. His hard body is the very thing that cuts him off from being able to achieve other markers of masculinity such as a career, marriage or sex (Fawaz 2016 77). Thus, if

The Thing represents a version of masculinity, it is a distressed masculinity. The cracks in his own rocky skin reflect the emotional cracks which differentiate The Thing from norms of hegemonic masculinity which favour the suppression of emotional connections.

Sue Storm, The Invisible Girl, was the sole female presence within the Fantastic Four. Her relationship with her male teammates differed greatly from the relationship that Wonder Woman had with her fellow members of the Justice Society or Justice League in earlier superhero team books. The fact that The Fantastic Four lived together meant that the team necessarily had a closer relationship than the professionals of the DC superhero teams. Within the team, Sue took on a maternal role:

She is the mother figure, the calming influence, the eyes and ears of the family. Without her

intervention, her hot-headed male counterparts would argue themselves out of cooperation

with each other. The family would be shattered.

(D’Amore, 2008)

This maternal role became central to how Sue was portrayed within The Fantastic Four. As D’Amore suggests, there are great similarities between Sue Storm and the unfulfilled and unhappy housewives described by Betty Friedan in her 1963 book The Feminine . Certainly, it took a

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long period of time for Sue Storm to break out of the mould of the maternal figure (or damsel in distress).

The problematic nature of Sue’s early representation was addressed early in the series by

Lee and Kirby. In Fantastic Four #11 (1963), the issue begins with a meta-fictional story in which the team directly address fan letters and complaints. Sue brings up the topic of fan complaints about her passive role on the team. “A number of readers have said that I don’t contribute enough to you…

You’d be – better off without me! And perhaps they’re – right!” (Lee, 1963, p.10). Both Reed and

Ben are aggrieved at the idea of readers criticising their beloved Sue. Reed points out the role Sue played in The Fantastic Four’s defeat of both the shape-changing alien and Doctor Doom as of her usefulness to the team. However, Reed prefaces this defence of Sue’s place on the team by first bringing up the example of Abraham Lincoln’s mother. Lincoln is attributed as saying, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Reed states that “Lincoln’s mother was the most important person in the world to him!” and Ben replies with, “In fact, if we printed Lincoln’s life in our mag, some wise guy would probably write in and ask why we don’t leave his mother out of the story, because she doesn’t do enough!” (Lee, 1963, p.11). That Reed would choose to lead with the example of Lincoln’s mother, rather than Sue’s service to the team, implies that at this point in time the maternal and domestic elements Sue Storm brought to the team were valued more than her superheroic skills. It is perhaps worth noting that two issues later the same letter writer whose correspondence sparked the metatextual response from Lee and Kirby replied, saying that his opinion had been changed by the story and he wanted the creators to share his apologies with Sue.

Feminist comics artist and historian Trina Robbins suggests that, ‘Sue Storm’s power and flaws were almost a caricature of Victorian notions of the feminine, an invisible woman who faints when she tries to exert herself’ (Robbins, 1996, p.114). However, with Fantastic Four #22 (1964),

Sue’s abilities developed, and she gained the power to be able to create powerful force-fields which

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even The Thing could not break free from. This change was partly driven by the discourse within the letter columns, where fans pushed for Sue Storm to be a more active participant in the stories.

That Sue Storm, a figure invented and animated within the discourses of postwar patriarchy,

would become the site for some of Marvel Comics’ greatest fan controversies about making

women more central (and hence more visible) to the narrative of the superhero comic book

seems highly unexpected considering that these debates were fomented by young men

whose investments were assumed to be in displays of masculine prowess and male-

dominated adventure. These unlikely dialogues, however, were emblematic of a narrative

that encouraged affiliations deemed socially taboo or underplayed in other modes of

popular culture.

(Fawaz, 2016, p.103)

Simultaneously, there was a convergence between this evolution of Sue’s powers and the growing consciousness raising of second-wave feminism amongst American women in the early 1960s. Even if this convergence was coincidental on Lee and Kirby’s part (or something they were pushed towards by their younger fanbase), they were reflecting the changing role of women in public life within the pages of The Fantastic Four.

Whilst my analysis of The Fantastic Four has focussed upon the initial run on the series by the creative team of Lee and Kirby, the characters have a long publishing history which extends past their original creators. I would suggest that these comics from other creators can serve to further demonstrate the core rationale of family which binds the Fantastic Four together as a superhero team. Just like the academic criticism I am practicing here, superhero comics themselves can serve as a commentary and critique of the original comics they are derived from. Geoff Klock in his book

How to Read Superhero Comics and Why? (2002) argues that Harold Bloom’s theory of the ‘anxiety of influence’ could be applied to superhero comics as easily as it can be applied to poetry. Certainly, there are very few runs in superhero comics’ history which have the weight and influence of Lee and

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Kirby’s run on The Fantastic Four, and all later creators are in some way engaging in a dialogue with

Lee and Kirby’s original version.

Two examples of this come from Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s run with the characters, in which they highlighted the family underpinnings of the entire franchise. In their first issue of their run they add an extra element of pathos to Reed Richards and his relationship with the rest of the team. The story ends with Reed putting his daughter Valeria to bed, whilst telling her the story of the

Fantastic Four’s origin. He retells the story with a self-critical awareness of his own mistakes, “Once there was a very arrogant man who did something very stupid” (Waid, 2002, p.21). In this private moment with his infant daughter, Reed admits to the guilt he holds for making the decisions that led to his friends’ transformations. He describes the rest of the team as, “three of the best and bravest people anyone could hope to meet” (Waid, 2002, p.22), and confesses that he turned the Fantastic

Four into superheroes and celebrities in order to protect his friends from being seen as freaks and to try and atone for the ordinary lives his arrogance stole from them. Here, Waid and Wieringo subtly add an extra element of empathy to the Fantastic Four’s origin; Reed’s decision to name himself Mr.

Fantastic is framed not as an act of arrogance, but an act of repentance. His love for his friends spurs him to try and make up for the hurt he has caused them. In Waid and Wieringo’s later story,

Fantastic Four: Hereafter, they put the team to the challenge of storming the of heaven to retrieve the deceased Ben Grimm. The story ends with the team meeting God, who is depicted as

Jack Kirby at his work desk, fittingly as the Fantastic Four were literally created by his pencil. A. David

Lewis in his book American Comics, , and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife (2014) makes the argument that this story demonstrates an important aspect of how the Fantastic Four perceive their own subjectivity. Their refusal to accept Ben’s death demonstrates that they cannot conceive of themselves without their family connections; they conceive their selfhood as directly interwoven with their teammates. Put another way, they have a selfhood of multiplicity rather than a selfhood of oneness. For the members of The Fantastic Four, their concept of self is predicated on the idea that they are The Fantastic Four; that Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny are together as a team.

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This conception of a collective family identity was similarly highlighted in the Lee/Kirby run.

In Fantastic Four #32 (1964), Johnny Storm verbalises his fears of the team possibly being broken up when Reed is working on a cure for Ben’s condition. His ambivalence, and split desire between wanting to see his friend have a normal life whilst also not wanting to lose him as a member of the team speaks to a desire to keep this found family together (Fawaz, 2016, p.91).76 A similar idea is expressed in Grant Morrison and ’s Fantastic Four: 1234 (2001), a miniseries in which Doctor

Doom tries to attack the Fantastic Four through their psychological weaknesses to try and break the family apart from the inside. In the final mental confrontation between Reed and his nemesis, Reed outlines the futility of trying to divide the Four:

My family are an equation: Alter one part of the equation and it no longer tells the truth.

You failed at the start: You can’t change our essential nature anymore than you can change

E = mc2.

Are you my opposite Victor? Are we reverse conceptual mirrors doomed to reflect?

Alicia’s part of the equation too! Daughter of the Puppet Master. My secret weapon. Oh

Sue. Johnny. Ben. My dearest friends. All of us so beautiful like a perfect emotional molecule

turning in mathematical space.

(Morrison, 2001, p.19)

Continuously, later creators have returned to the theme of family which Lee and Kirby embedded within the Fantastic Four. This familial relationship, this element of emotional realism amongst the fantastic is the most significant evolutionary step that The Fantastic Four took in changing how superhero teams approach relationality.

76 Fawaz also argues that this ambivalence adds credence to a queer reading of The Fantastic Four. Johnny’s split desire between wanting to see his friend settle down in a heterosexual partnership, whilst also wanting The Thing to remain a part of the team speaks to a desire for a non-traditional expression of family where both the heteronormative and queer body can co-exist (2016, p.91).

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Figure 34. The Fantastic Four meet their maker. Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo with (inking), Paul Monts (lettering) and Randy Gentile (lettering). Fantastic Four #511 (2004), p. 19. Marvel Comics.

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Conclusion The political focus of the Justice Society and Justice League differed significantly, shifting from being directly concerned with major political events such as World War Two, to approaching the fears of the 50s era through fighting metaphorical monsters. In this sense there was movement from an ethos of resistance to a more conservative ethos of maintaining the status quo, and these possible political trajectories within superhero narratives would become more starkly drawn in the decades to follow. However, whilst there may have been significant political differences between the two teams, not much changed in how their internal relationships were conceptualised. While the concept of these line-ups undoubtedly displayed a nascent interest in the possibilities for collaboration, the interactions amongst the members were structured through individualistic and surface-level displays of friendship and/or professionalism, which betrayed a masculinist worldview.

Concomitantly, there were no major moves forward in terms of feminine representation on the two teams, with Wonder Woman remaining the only female team member. The superhero team was a space where there was little interest in the more progressive gender politics that was seen in the original Marston/Peter Wonder Woman stories. In the team environment, Wonder Woman’s original political meaning was diminished, and it would also take many years and later generations of creators for Susan Storm to develop into an active heroine, rather than being treated as The

Fantastic Four’s weak link.77

However, The Fantastic Four was the birth of the Marvel ‘feet of clay’ formula for superheroes. In particular, The Thing serves as the first superhero who is tortured by his physical changes rather than celebratory of them. This affected how the Marvel superhero team was conceptualised, by presenting the team as a dysfunctional family unit with more emotional complex relational connections than those represented in the Justice Society and Justice League. With the start of the twenty-first century, the relational possibilities within The Fantastic Four would be

77 It would not be until started writing The X-Men in the 1970s that the superhero team would really begin to actively engage with the sort of feminist ideas that were introduced into the genre by Wonder Woman.

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explored further and the superhero team would also be taken in new directions with regards to the radical possibilities of a superhero team’s relationship with the state.

Figure 35. Thirteen years on from his transformation, Ben Grimm has his second Bar Mitzvah. and Kieron Dwyer, with Laura Villari (colouring) and Dave Lanphear (lettering), The Thing #8 (2006), p. 17, Marvel Comics.

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Superteams of the Twenty-First Century

By the early 1980s, the most commercially successful superhero comics focused on teams, most prominently The X-Men for Marvel Comics and The New for DC Comics. These superhero teams embraced soap-opera conventions, telling sprawling stories focused upon a web of tangled relationships amongst the cast. As comics approached the turn of the century, many of the most important works in the genre were team books. These superhero teams can be used to track how the representation of gender politics, relationality and the political role of superheroes have developed throughout the first two decades of the new century.

This chapter examines three prominent superhero teams from the beginning of the twenty- first century to the current day. These three teams are The Authority, The Ultimates and Young

Avengers. In each analysis I follow a similar method to that deployed in the previous chapter. I identify the central internal relationships of the team, their political relationship to the wider state, and then undertake focused analysis of characters who demonstrate how gender is constructed within the text. A key theme throughout these superhero teams is that both The Authority and The

Ultimates revive questions of the superhero’s relationship to the state that began with the Justice

Society; however, in both cases these relationships are pushed to parodic extremes. In comparison,

Young Avengers is a superhero comic that focuses more on exploring emotions and relationships through the metaphor of the superhero team.

The Authority The early 1990s saw the superhero comic reach its highest commercial peaks since the end of the Second World War. There was an increasing focus within the comics industry towards selling comics based off the name value of superstar artists; even more so than the established characters they were drawing (Khoury, 2007, p.11). Through their work at Marvel, young artists like Jim Lee,

Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefield grew fervent fanbases who would follow the artists to whichever book they were going to work on. Everything these superstar artists touched was a huge commercial success, a success driven by the aesthetics of these artists’ work, which caught the attention of a

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predominantly adolescent male readership and was fuelled by the growing speculator culture which saw collectors buy multiple copies of issues in the hope that the comics would turn out to skyrocket in value and fund retirements and college funds.78 Lee’s X-Men 1 (1991), is still the highest selling single issue of a comic of all time, with over 8,000,000 copies sold.79

In 1992, Lee and a collection of Marvel’s other superstar artists would leave the company and form their own company, , through which they would create their own characters and series rather than serving as work-for-hire creators for Marvel or DC Comics. Lee was joined by

McFarlane, Liefield, , , and in this endeavour.

Image was structured as a series of imprints with each founder owning their own studio. The company itself only served as a publisher and all rights to the comics and characters were held by the original creators of a property. Lee’s studio was called WildStorm Productions, and within it Lee and collaborators would create their own line of superhero comics known as the Wildstorm

Universe. Grant Morrison saw the superhero comics created by the Image founders as a natural

American reaction to the more cerebral elements that creators from the 1980s “British Invasion” into superhero comics had brought to the genre. Whereas writers like Morrison, Alan Moore, Neil

Gaiman and had brought a literary approach to the superhero genre, the Image founders broke through in the 1990s by reviving the primacy of the image to the superhero:

While the Brits remained foolishly intent on creating comic stories worthy of review

alongside the latest novels in the Guardian literary section, a group of young American

artists were preparing undeniable proof that comics could do much better business if they

just looked cool and stopped trying to be so goddamned clever. At the time, it was a

dreadful setback for the idea of “grown-up” superhero comics. In it was America’s

78 The speculator boom in American comics peaked with DC Comics’ The Death of Superman event. 1992’s Superman #75, the issue in which Superman died, was shipped out in a black polybag stamped with the image of a bleeding S . The print run of the comic was so large however, that the comic was useless as an investment as there was always too much supply for the issue to ever become scarce and increase significantly in value. 79 Lee would work with longtime X-Men scribe Chris Claremont on X-Men #1, but Lee’s popularity and creative conflict would lead to Claremont’s departure from the X-Men after a 20 year run with the franchise.

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inevitable reaction to Watchmen, and the only response that could possibly be effective:

Fuck realism, we just want our superheroes to look cool and kick ten thousand kinds of ass.

(Morrison, 2011, p.243)

Lee’s new comic WildC.A.T.S was joined on the comic book store shelves by McFarlane’s and

Liefeld’s . These new Image superheroes all shared a central feature; they were ‘badass’.

The new superheroes were soldiers, mercenaries and supermodels; anti-heroes who killed without mercy. ‘They understood that Gen X didn’t want super Boy Scouts. They were post-Miller superheroes, off the leash, finally able to hit the bad guys where it hurt’ (Morrison, 2011, p.246). The sex and violence was the appeal, rather than using these elements as part of a critique of the superhero fantasy.

In 1998 Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics, where it would function as its own publishing imprint until 2010. Wildstorm Universe titles would continue to be published throughout the imprint’s existence at DC.80 As Lee pulled back from direct involvement with the Wildstorm Universe, the storyworld developed in a different direction from where other superhero universes were willing to go. Unburdened by decades of continuity or a need to keep marketable characters constrained to a status quo, the Wildstorm Universe became a space in which the superhero genre was allowed free reign to travel a darker and more complicated path. The Wildstorm Universe became concerned with treating superheroes from a science-fiction perspective, investigating how society would be warped by the presence of post-human beings. This was seen through the depiction of governmental and corporate forces in the world being inherently corrupt and untrustworthy. Series like WildC.A.T.S 3.0 (2002-2004) by and Dustin Ngyuen explored the superhero team as a corporation and (2003-2005) by and Sean Philips told the story of an undercover agent embedded in a supervillain’s operation who discovers the true extent to which the governments of the world are complicit in corruption. At the of these developments at

80 Characters from the Wildstorm Universe would be folded into the mainline DC Universe in 2011 with DC’s New 52 relaunch of their entire superhero line.

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Wildstorm was British writer Warren Ellis, who with artist created The Authority, the most significant superhero team to come out of the Wildstorm Universe.

The seeds of The Authority would be found in Ellis’ earlier Wildstorm title: . Ellis took over writing the Stormwatch title in 1996 and took the series in a more political direction.

Stormwatch focused on ‘UN-sanctioned operatives with a mandate to monitor superhuman activity and to police violations of the various protocols and sanctions governing the use of extranormal abilities’ (Morrison, 2011, p.309). Stormwatch was a comic that interrogated the effect of superheroes upon wider society.81 Ellis and his collaborators aimed to meld the high fantasy of the superhero genre with a realistic approach to how governmental bodies would interact with the strange new threats a superheroic world creates. In other words, Stormwatch was about ‘mixing

Nietzschean with savage, uncompromising global surveillance state politics’ (Morrison, 2011, p.309). In Stormwatch #37 (1996), the Stormwatch Black Team were introduced, the covert-ops division of the organisation. These operatives would go on to form the core members of The

Authority.

Unfortunately, Stormwatch was failing commercially and Ellis made the decision to pitch a relaunch of the series:

Wildstorm informed me that they would be happy to keep publishing it as long as I wanted

to write it, because they liked it, but a line had to be drawn, I felt. It got to a point where it

was just , then I rejigged it as THE AUTHORITY for a few reasons, including to try and

get back Wildstorm some of the money they lost on me on STORMWATCH.

(Ellis cited in McGill, 2002)

Ellis would take advantage of a crossover story he was writing between the Wildstorm Universe and

20th Century Fox’s Aliens films to set the stage for The Authority. In 1998’s WildC.A.T.S/Aliens, Ellis

81 Following in the footsteps of comics like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, which will be explored in more depth in Chapter Five.

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and artist would use the crossover as an opportunity to have the Xenomorphs cull the

Stormwatch characters who were not being brought over to the new title.

“They think there’s no one left to save the world” (Ellis, 2013, p.6)82. This opening caption to

The Authority #1 (1999) is immediately followed by Bryan Hitch’s vivid depiction of Moscow being obliterated by a clone army of super-terrorists. Throughout the issue the reader is introduced to The

Authority, as they prepare to take down the terrorist corporate-state of Gamorra. Based out of The

Carrier, a fifty-mile wide spaceship which travels throughout The Bleed, the space between parallel universes, The Authority consisted of ‘The Spirit of the 20th Century’ , ‘King of the Cities’

Jack Hawksmoor, ‘The Winged Huntress’ , ‘The Maker’ The Engineer, ‘The ’ ,

‘The Sun King’ Apollo and ‘Night’s Bringer of War’ Midnighter. The issue ends with the whole team assembled for the first time on the page, united against Gamorra’s second attack on the world in

London. Team leader Jenny Sparks says to the clone army in The Authority’s way, “Game over” (Ellis

,2013, p.28). The Authority were ‘the coolest, hardest new superheroes avaliable’ (Morrison, 2011, p.311) and this closing shot established that fact. This was the superhero team as supreme all- powerful cosmic badasses.

82 All page numbers in this section refer to the collected editions of the series: The Authority: Volume 1 (2013) and The Authority: Volume 2 (2013).

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Figure 36. The Authority make their entrance onto the world stage. Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, with (inking), Laura Depuy (colouring) and Bill O’Neil (lettering), The Authority: Volume One (2013), p. 28, DC Comics.

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The Authority were to the Wildstorm Universe what The Justice League of America were to the DC Universe; the most powerful superheroes who collaboratively took on the most frightening and dangerous threats to humanity. The metatextual relationship between The Authority and The

Justice League is highlighted by the presence of Apollo and Midnighter, who serve as analogues to

Superman and Batman. By having two characters who represent The World’s Finest team, a thematic connection is created with earlier superhero teams. The ‘conversation with the [superhero] genre’ (Riley, 2007, p.146) which Ellis and Hitch are engaging in is further highlighted by the fact that they chose to make Apollo and Midnighter lovers. However Ellis and Hitch’s decision to queer these archetypal characters is a radical break from the portrayal of masculinity depicted within earlier superhero teams.

The threats The Authority face throughout Ellis and Hitch’s twelve issue run on the series to some extent mirror the type of grand fantastical threats that the Justice League fought. Their first enemy Kaizen Gamorra is a mad supervillain reimagined as the ruler of a corporate terror-state.83 In the second arc they face an invasion from an alternate world where aliens took over the Earth during the Renaissance. In Ellis and Hitch’s final arc with the team, The Authority kill God.84 Indeed, a significant difference between The Authority and earlier superhero teams was that The Authority removed the moral constraints of the traditional superhero genre (Klock, 2002, p.139). The superheroes of The Authority were more than willing to kill to protect people and were unapologetic about the fact. As Swift, a Tibetan former pacifict explains in the series’ third issue, “Sometimes it’s just not a good enough world that you can work for it without hurting people badly” (Ellis, 2013, p.55).

83 It is worth noting that whilst The Authority was a progressive comic in terms of pushing the superhero genre and its ideological outlook forward, the portrayal of Kaizen Gamorra largely still plays into dated Yellow Peril stereotyping. He is “an unexamined (at least in the comic) perpetuation of a racist which ties in[to] sociohistorical context into China’s rising economy and the remnants of post-Reagan/Thatcher-era anti- Japanese techno-orientalism” (Kanayama 2016). 84 God in this context is an unfathomable being of cosmic horror who created the Earth as a retirement home for itself. It is not a version that matches the traditional Judeo-Christian conception of God.

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The superhero genre has been haunted from its very beginnings by accusations that it has fascist underpinnings; that ultimately, the superhero genre is about might making right. As early as

1945 cultural critics such as Walter Ong were linking the superhero genre to fascist philosophy.

‘Indeed, his [Superman’s] creators label him openly the “Man of .” This tomorrow is the team world of the maladjusted child, and it is ruled by the steady application of brute force’ (Ong,

1945, p.38). With The Authority however, this accusation of fascism is answered with ambivalence.

The team is more than willing to crush any opposition to their goals with devastating force; making a better world is worth killing for. In Ellis and Hitch’s second arc, Earth is invaded by the forces of an alternate Earth known as Sliding which is dominated by an caste of aliens. When The

Authority go to take the fight to Sliding Albion, they physically destroy all of (the heart of the alien empire). They have a righteous reason for taking such drastic action; the empire was founded on the back of mass rape camps and with their own Earth having become infertile, the invasion of

The Authority’s Earth would have seen it laid waste in the same manner. Jenny Sparks leaves Sliding

Albion with a message, “[w]e are The Authority. Behave” (Ellis, 2013, p.187). Yet, this level of application of force is even questioned by the rest of the team, with Jenny’s response being: “Maybe we just did what we said we would, all along. Changing things for the better. One Earth down, one to go” (Ellis, 2013, p.189). By this logic, the Authority functions as a radical superhero team, seeking not just to protect society but to change it. As Morrison observed, ‘[i]t was the utopian vision of Siegel and Schuster strained through British cynicism and delievered on the end of a spiked leather glove…

[The Authority] suggested a new kind of superfascist, one who was on our side’ (Morrison, 2011, p.311). The Authority had similar goals to the political left; the desire for a fairer and juster society for all. However, they were more than willing to apply brute force in the service of that goal.

Geoff Klock argues that the well-intentioned fascism of The Authority is part of a game that

Ellis and Hitch are playing with the reader. The portrayal of violence and power within The Authority is testing the reader: ‘The Authority is the of the qua power fantasy, and the degree to which readers enjoy the title is the degree to which they participate in the genre for precisely this reason’

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(Klock, 2002, p.137). Certainly, Ellis sardonically suggested that the comic was intended to be entertaining on a merely visceral level: ‘[e]ventually I said Let's just throw out the clever stuff, and we'll just have shit blowing up’ (Ellis cited in Butcher, 2003). However, Ellis and Hitch also problematise the fascist tendencies of the team throughout their run. This is highlighted by Swift’s decision in issue 12, in which the team encounters a parasitic sentient race living in the bloodstream of the God entity they need to kill to save the world. Swift chooses to communicate with the parasites, choosing to avoid violence and needless killing; a significant shift from her more cynical stance at the start of the series. Swift underscores that the team are starting to see limits to what can be accomplished through violence. Furthermore, Jenny Sparks, the team leader who was born on January 1st 1900 and dies on the stroke of at the start of the new century is meant to embody ‘The Spirit of the 20th Century.’ This is emphasised by her powers, which are based on electricity. Despite a new century only beginning with 2001, Jenny’s time runs out in 2000 as humanity’s collective belief that the new century begins at 2000 decides her fate. One of her last lines before dying is complaining that the “[e]ntire bloody century’s been run by the fish-head85 majority” (Ellis, 2013, p.284), but her fate is nevertheless dependent on the rule of the people.

The Authority’s use of force is always being problematised to some degree, and the pleasures involved in reading The Authority are thus perhaps not solely based in readers’ investment in the fascist power fantasy aspect of the title. The visual pleasure of Hitch’s widescreen86 artwork and the depiction of ultraviolence is beautiful in its own right and has its own pleasures uncoupled from whatever political undertones are layered in the book.

As discussed earlier, The Authority echoes the Justice League but it is a distorted of the earlier team. This is apparent in the final arc of Ellis and Hitch’s run, in which The Authority have to deal with the return of an entity that essentially is God. This is a Lovecraftian understanding of God,

85 Jenny Sparks began her career in the British armed forces in the 1920s. Here she is using a derogatory slang name for ship-bound sailors used by air pilots in the Royal Navy to insult the masses. 86 Hitch’s work on The Authority is seen as the inciting art of the ‘widescreen’ comics movement, in which superhero comics aimed to recreate the visual grandeur of blockbuster cinema.

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a giant organic black space pyramid that does not give a damn about humanity. In this way, Ellis and

Hitch are reflecting the Lovecraftian overtones of the first Justice League story. They are telling a

Lovecraftian story in a superhero universe, but their version skews closer to Lovecraftian horror. This being is truly unknowable and rather than seeking the subjugation of humanity; it simply sees the species as cosmically insignifcant. The being’s mindset is described by one of The Doctor’s predecessors as being, ‘[a]nd now God has returned from its slow tour of the universe, to discover its retirement home looks like ’ (Ellis, 2013, p.233). To God, humanity is an unwanted infestation that it just wants to get rid of so Earth can go back to its primordial state. This disregard for humanity reflects Lovecraft’s understanding of Cosmic Horror as the complete and utter insignificance of humanity in the vast universe. The Authority are also seen as being insignficant by

God, yet they use this to their advantage and kill God by flying The Carrier into the entity’s body and electrocuting its brain. Like the Justice League facing Starro; The Authority are not driven mad or rendered cosmically insignificant by contact with the terrors of dark space like a Lovecraft protagonist would be (Murray and Costrophine, 2013, p.17). However in a subversion of superheroic traditions, it is the very insignificance of humans from the vast darkness of the cosmos that they take advantage of to kill God.

One of the interesting features of Ellis and Hitch’s The Authority which differentiates the group from the teams created at Marvel Comics is that the team is surprisingly free of inter-personal drama and conflict. As comics critic Colin Smith has noted, ‘The Authority is a far more affectionate and traditional book than so many folks would have it’ (Smith, 2011). The Authority is a team that is

‘free of character conflict’ (Smith 2011). There is little of the banter and bickering that defined the relationships within The Fantastic Four. Certainly the series is missing any of the soap-operatic melodrama which was so integral to the popularity of The X-Men. However neither does The

Authority model the limited and strictly professional relationships seen in the Justice League. All the members of the team live together on The Carrier. The core relationship modelled within the series is that of Midnighter and Apollo, whose dynamic is that of a middle-aged married couple. Whilst

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their position as a secure and loving homosexual couple was a radical move for a superhero comic in the late 1990s, their relationship is a surprisingly conventional one. They sometimes bicker over minor details, but are presented as two men who are very comfortable in the strength of their relationship and have a deep abiding love for each other. Their relationship can be viewed to ‘reflect hetero-normative assumptions’ (Henderson, 2017, p.84) in that they are a queer couple who largely model a monogomous relationship. This return, to a superhero team free of interpersonal conflict and focused on the job at hand was a significant shift back to traditional structures for a superhero book that is otherwise a radical text. ‘By subtracting the emotional hullabaloo that passes for character sophistication these days, the lovers and comrades of the Authority strangely become more believable rather than less’ (Smith, 2011).

Figure 37. Apollo and Midnighter embrace before a dangerous mission. Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch with Paul Neary (inking), Michael Garcia and Eric Guerrero (colouring) and Robbie Robbins (lettering). The Authority: Volume 1 (2013), p. 170, DC Comics.

With the release of The Authority #13 (2000), the series saw its first change in creative teams. The Scottish team of writer Mark Millar and artist took over the title and from the very first panel of their run, they brought directly to the fore the radical politics simmering under the surface of Ellis and Hitch’s work. The very first caption Millar writes in the series asks a question,

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“[w]hy do super-people never go after the real bastards?” (Millar, 2013, p.7). If The Authority had hinted at causing change on Earth throughout Ellis and Hitch’s run, now they were going to actively force it. Whilst I suggested that Ellis and Hitch’s time on The Authority was a radical reworking of the

Justice League, in examining the Millar run87 it is apparent that The Authority shifts from being a radical reworking of the Justice League, to being a radical reworking of the Justice Society. Millar’s

The Authority returns to the focus found within the Golden-Age Justice Society on real-world socio- political events as the driver of the plots. However, whereas the Justice Society were assimilated into the state and became a cog within the military-industrial complex, The Authority of Millar’s run sees itself as being above the state. In fact the greatest foe they face becomes the combined global forces of statism, militarism and capitalism.

Ellis and Hitch had hinted at how Jenny saw herself and the team as “[a] higher authority”

(Ellis, 2013, p.11). In the wake of her passing, Millar depicts new team leader Jack Hawksmoor actively positioning The Authority as a greater power than that of world leaders. Hawksmoor is depicted standing at Jenny’s grave which features the inscription “[b]ugger this. I want a better world” (Millar, 2013, p.17). The opening of the issue sees The Authority conducting a raid on an unnamed country in South-Eastern Asia.88 Midnighter bursts into the control room of the dictatorship shouting, “[w]hich one of you girls is in charge?” (Millar, 2013, p.10). The Authority then lets the downtrodden underclass lynch the dictator despite his claims that he is just the “figurehead for a coalition of interests. Another man will only be elected to enforce exactly the same policies if anything happens to him” (Millar, 2013, p.11). Later, in discussions with President Clinton,

Hawksmoor directly conflates The Authority’s responsibility with handling planetary level threats

87 Whilst Frank Quitely was the primary artist working with Millar, he would not see out the whole run, leaving with issue 20 (issue 18 was illustrated by ) in order to move onto working on New X-Men with Grant Morrison at Marvel. Art Adams and would draw Millar’s remaining issues. 88 In fact, the country was originally specified as being Indonesia and Midnighter’s dialogue specifically said, “Which one of you is President Habibie?” As documented by Darius (2002) the comic was censored by upper management at DC Comics to make The Authority’s raid happen to a non-specified country. Originally it was planned that The Authority’s actions were in direct response to the 1999 East Timor crisis. As I will discuss later, censorship was a going concern throughout Millar’s entire run on the title.

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with a responsibility to address human rights abuses. He draws upon the authority that his team has earned through their efforts to prevent global apocalypse as a justification for why they can now intervene in international affairs:

Our main purpose might be defending the Earth, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to sit

back and tolerate human rights abuses taking place under our noses.

We’re not some comic book super-team who participate in pointless fights with pointless

super-criminals every month to preserve the status-quo.

This has to be a world worth saving if my colleagues and I are going to be out there risking

our lives on the front line.

(Millar, 2013, p.22)

Throughout Millar’s run, there are continual such dismissive metatextual comments towards other comic books and superheroes. More overtly than Ellis, Millar used The Authority as a way to question the politically conservative tendencies of the superhero team concept. Whilst earlier superhero teams had only reacted to outside threats to the community, Millar’s version of The

Authority is presented as a proactive team, actively looking for problems to solve, even problems which are seen as being outside of their jurisdiction by the government. Millar is explicitly trying to define The Authority as something more radical than the traditional teams modelled by The Justice

League or Justice Society.

To place The Authority within a broader historical context, the Millar run was created within a very short time period in which anti-globalisation movements were at their peak. The 1999 Seattle

World Trade Organisation Protests, also known as the Battle of Seattle, is the most important historical event for understanding the politics of the run. This was a ‘dramatic anti-globalisation protest in Seattle, Washington, in November-December 1999’ (Emerson, 2007, p.37). These protests demonstrated a ‘radicalisation of young protesters reminiscent of the 1960s’ and saw violent clashes ensue between police and anti-globalisation protesters who were against the neo-liberal consensus pushed by the WTO’ (Emerson, p.37-38). Naomi Klein’s No Logo (1999) was the most important and

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influential text of the late 90s and early 2000s anti-globalisation movement, and the rhetoric spoken by The Authority directly draws upon ideas and concepts voiced by Klein. In a direct address to the whole world, Hawksmoor says, “[w]e are not the people who offer you tax breaks. We are not the people who offer you more police on the streets. We have always been straight with you in the past and we’re not lying now” (Millar, 2013, p.59).89 Millar’s version of The Authority was a fantasy of superheroes with so much power, that they do not care about the power structures of late capitalism. This political autonomy for The Authority is verbalised by The Engineer as she discusses the team’s new mission:

Jenny would have loved this wouldn’t she? She always said she looked forward to the day

when we didn’t have to watch this stuff on the news and settle for making donations in

those stupid little envelopes. If towns are being butchered, we can stop it. If people need

asylum, we’ve got a ship that’s fifty miles wide. God, I know this is going to sound pathetic

but I’ve never felt more like a superhero in my entire life.

(Millar, 2013, p.14)

As The Engineer expresses, The Authority did not need to pay any heed to the neo-liberal world order. They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. On some level it is an appealing fantasy. Even more so than the Ellis/Hitch run, The Authority under Millar’s pen plays into the idea that ‘The Authority accepts, along with their almost sublime levels of power, the responsibility to change the world and carry humanity where they believe humanity should go’ (Klock, 2002, p.163).

The backlash to The Authority’s political actions becomes the focal point of Millar’s final arc on the book. Within it, the G7 (or rather the corporate overlords controlling the governments of the

G7) take action against The Authority, sending Seth a genetically modified inbred hick turned into a monster. He takes down all the members of the team except for Midnighter, who escapes with the

89 Hawksmoor then goes on to threaten to release the black book of every sex worker in Washington if the military does not own up to their attack on The Authority.

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reincarnated infant Jenny Quantum.90 The team is replaced by superpowered right-wing puppets, and the rest of The Authority are held captive or brainwashed. This arc was beset by a series of editorially mandated changes. In a political context, as the arc was being released following the 9/11 attacks, the original illustration of President Bush watching a mentally broken Jack Hawksmoor as a vagrant in New York was replaced with a stand-in character drawn to resemble Peter Sellers’

President Muffley from Dr. Strangelove (1964). As Bush was extremely popular in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it was seen as too politically incendiary to frame him as a corrupt villain. Instead, the decision was made to consciously recall one of the major filmic of

American power by presenting the President as the ineffectual figure Sellers portrayed.

The story was also censored for sexual content. Swift, who is brainwashed into being the sex slave of a television mogul was originally drawn as being forced to clean dishes with her tongue; in the revised version she is shown preparing an elaborate chicken dinner despite her vegetarianism.

The published version of the issue then showed her serving the meal to her captor, only for him to put out his cigar in it. In the original drawing, Swift kneels at her captor’s feet, opening her mouth for him to use it as an ashtray. This change replaces the pornographic depiction of dehumanisation in the original drawings with visuals that emphasise the dehumanising elements of 1950s housewife gender norms (Darius, 2002). In one final major change, The Colonel, the racist football hooligan

British replacement leader for The Authority, is shown in the original drawing being given the corpse of Jenny Sparks; but in the revised version he is given a trio of actresses dressed up as her. It is an interesting convergence that as Millar’s story hit its climax with the world establishment punishing

The Authority for its politics, his story also reached a point where DC editorial would not let it be published as intended either because of the changing political landscape post-9/11 or because the strip’s macabre humour had gone too far.

90 In Millar’s opening arc, it is established that Jenny Quantum is ‘The Spirit of the 21st Century” who was born on the 1st January 2000 in Singapore. Her name represents her ability to manipulate the laws of quantum dynamics. After her mother is murdered, she is adopted by Apollo and Midnighter.

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One of the most significant differences between the Ellis and Hitch run and the Millar run on

The Authority was the change in the depiction of Apollo and Midnighter’s relationship. In the first 12 issues of the series, Apollo and Midnighter were clearly a couple, but the fact was never actually vocalised. There was no evidence that the rest of the world knew that Apollo and Midnighter were together. By comparison, the first issue of the Millar and Quitely run shows a magazine cover with

Apollo and Midnighter standing back to back. The cover’s headline says, “Apollo and Midnighter: A

Look Around The Carrier With The World’s Finest Couple” (Millar, 2013, p.16). This new version of

The Authority presented Apollo and Midnighter as an openly gay couple and positioned them within a celebrity culture. Utilising the phrase ‘World’s Finest’, which has long been associated with team- ups for Superman and Batman, even further highlighted how Apollo and Midnighter serve to queer the two most promiment male icons in superhero comics. Whilst there had been other gay characters in mainstream superhero comics, at the time of their creation Apollo and Midnighter were the highest profile gay characters in the genre. Whereas in earlier decades gay audiences would have to perform what Richard Dyer dubbed a bricolage method of reading, looking towards texts from a dominant culture and finding where they could imagine finding a representation of themselves (Medhurst, 2013, p.241), Midnighter and Apollo served as one of the first instances in superhero comics whereupon readers would not have to perform this bricolage method to see a positive representation of homosexuality within a superhero team. Midnighter and Apollo would go on to adopt the reincarnated Jenny Sparks, becoming parents. In Millar’s final issue in the series,

Apollo and Midnighter would wed, demonstrating a positive example of a same-sex marriage in

2002, years before the idea would become normalised within wider culture.

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Figure 38. The wedding of Apollo and Midnighter. Mark Millar and Gary Erskine with David Baron (colouring) and Tom Long and Sergio Garcia (lettering), The Authority: Volume 2 (2013), p. 397. DC Comics.

It is worth noting that despite the progressiveness of the Apollo and Midnighter characters, and how they challenged the norms of masculinity presented within superhero teams, both characters were at times victims of the excesses of Millar’s run. In Millar and Quitely’s first ,

The Authority fight an evil team of superheroes made up of parodies of The Avengers. Millar purposefully created this team of Evil Avengers to prove a point:

I really wanted to say something about the fact that the Marvel U.’s premiere super-team

are card-carrying members of the Establishment. The same establishment who let people

sleep on the streets and don’t provide decent medical cover for malnourished kids. The

same establishment who let the Third World starve.

(Millar in Darius, 2000)

The leader of this team is an analogue of Captain America named The Commander. This character’s main characteristic is that he is a serial rapist. In his introduction, it is suggested off panel that he has raped two of the nurses working at the maternity ward where the reborn Jenny Quantam is born.

Later in the fight with The Authority, The Commander and Storm-God92 beat the living hell out of

Apollo. The Commander is shown unbuckling his belt, stating:

92 The analogue for this story.

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Us super-creeps weren’t built to think. We weren’t put together to teach the masses

what they can aspire to—

We’re just here to show them what they’ll get if they ever step out of line.

(Millar, 2013, p.49)

Millar suggested that his use of this character was not intended for shock value, but rather to further the series’ focus on using superheroes to deal with real-world problems; in this case the use of rape as a warcrime (Millar cited in Darius, 2000). This may have been his intention, but how the crime is depicted and avenged suggests that there was no thought put into making a realistic or thoughtful comment on sexual violence. Apollo is later shown to be withdrawn after the assault. He eventually gets revenge on The Commander, beating his attacker in a fight, but Apollo flies away saying that he promised The Commander to a friend. The Midnighter then appears, holding a giant drill. That the payoff to Apollo’s assault is a gag perpetuating the idea that rape should be revenged through rape contributes little towards the idea that Millar’s Authority is dealing progressively with real world issues through superheroes. Later on in the series, Apollo is held captive by Teuton, his German equivalent from the G7 Authority. Teuton suggests he is going to molest Apollo before killing him, only to be killed in return by Midnighter. Throughout the series, Apollo is often put in a victimised position in order for his partner, the more aggressive Midnighter, to save or avenge him, and these moments place a question mark against the otherwise progressive representations of Apollo and

Midnighter’s relationship.

Millar’s last issue on the series was The Authority #29 (2002), illustrated by Gary Erskine. The series’ final page focuses on Jack Hawksmoor and The Engineer dancing at the wedding reception of

Apollo and Midnighter. Millar uses Hawksmoor’s voice to make his final argument for the series:

Superheroes walk different now. Superheroes talk different. Even the people who disagreed

with us ended up just following our lead. Guys who can hear atoms whizzing around can’t

get away with ignoring screams for help from Third World concentration camps. Capes and

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spandex don’t get the same adulation they used to get for going out every night and kicking

the hell out of poor people. We’ve changed things forever, Angie.

There’s no going back now.

(Millar 2013, p. 398)

It was true, there was no going back now. Whilst The Authority as a series would never gain the same level of commercial or critical attention it held during its first two runs, the series undoubtedly changed the superhero team forever. Nowhere would The Authority’s influence be more strongly felt than in the next project that Millar and Hitch would undertake together.

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Figure 39. Midnighter’s revenge upon The Captain. Mark Millar and Frank Quitely with Trevor Scott (inking), David Baron (colouring) and Bill O’Neil (lettering). The Authority: Volume 2 (2013), p. 92, DC Comics.

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The Ultimates The terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 stand as one of the defining political and cultural moments of the 21st century. Along with the War on Terror they precipitated they left a great psychological scar on popular culture. Perhaps one of the most discordant elements of the attack on the World Trade Centre was that it resembled so closely the fantasies of mass destruction which had played out for decades within Hollywood cinema and the pages of comic books: ‘How many times had this soul-wrenching vision been rehearsed in our imaginations, and repeated in our ?’ (Morrison, 2011, p.346). As Murray suggests, the presentation of the conflict to the world from the American government, in which the enemy was now a shadowy organisation named Al-

Qaeda, was eerily reminiscent of the Manichean battles pitched within the pages of the superhero comic. ‘It could have been torn from the pages of a comic. It could have been , but there was no agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., to protect real Americans from this threat’ (Murray, 2011, p.253).

The influence of the 9/11 attacks was thus particularly felt within the superhero genre. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks there were a rush of tribute and charity comics put out by the American comic book industry. The most famous of these was Amazing Spider-Man #36 Vol. 2

(2001),93 which was published with a plain black cover to denote its function as an act of mourning.

The comic almost functions as a tone poem, demonstrating Spider-Man and the other members of the Marvel Universe’s grief at the attacks. Infamously, the comic depicts Doctor Doom in tears at the devastation. ‘Yes — evil , mad scientist and mass murderer Doom cries at these deaths. This makes no sense within the fictional framework of the Marvel Universe’ (Pedler, 2008). The emotional reaction to the 9/11 attacks was also reflected in the emerging genre of superhero cinema. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) was in production at the time of the attacks, and the finished film was altered to reflect the upswing in patriotism following the 9/11 attacks. A scene was added in which ordinary New Yorkers interfere in the battle between Spider-Man and The Green

Goblin by pelting the Goblin with garbage and shouting, “[y]ou mess with Spidey, you messing with

93 Written by J. Michael Stacynzski and illustrated by John Romita Jr.

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New York!” The scene served to visualise the link between Spider-Man and the ordinary citizens of

New York (Leaver, 2011) and thus valorised the ordinary citizens of New York in the wake of 9/11.

As the world moved from the initial shock of the 9/11 attacks and entered the murkier and more morally grey world of the War on Terror, the superhero comic also followed, moving from a state of mourning to a site in which the tensions and anxieties of post-9/11 political life were explored. As I have already demonstrated, it has been a consistent feature of the superhero genre that the altered reality of superheroes still tries to reflect the political and cultural realities of the real world. Just as the superhero genre had readily engaged with the Second World War, in the

2000s it engaged with the new reality of the War on Terror.

The superhero team which was the most heavily engaged with the post-9/11 was The

Ultimates. The team served as the rebooted version of Lee and Kirby’s The Avengers for Marvel’s alternate publishing line the Ultimate Universe.94 The creative team behind The Ultimates (2002-

2003) and The Ultimates 2 (2004-2006) teamed up veterans from The Authority, with Mark Millar writing the title and Bryan Hitch providing the art. The team was run by General Nick Fury95, under the auspices of SHIELD; which in the Ultimate Universe had been reimagined as the most powerful element of the US military-industrial complex rather than a spy agency. The Ultimates thus serve as the first state-sponsored superhero team for the United States. They are explicitly conceived of as a governmental response to the societal change presented by the emergence of superhumans within the Ultimate Universe. Fury’s role as the head of SHIELD means that he actively acts as a political actor within the state apparatus, arguing for the necessity of superhumans to deal with the new threats facing America:

Crime’s becoming super-crime. Terrorism is becoming super-terrorism.

94 Beginning in 2000, at the urging of then editor-in-chief Bill Jemas, Marvel began a separate line of superhero comics which took place in what was dubbed the Ultimate Universe. This universe was created with the idea that the original Marvel universe, with its 40 year history, had become too complex for new readers to become invested in. The Ultimate Universe would continue publication until 2015, in which it was destroyed as part of Marvel’s Secret Wars event. 95 Reinvented for the Ultimate Universe as a black man, visually based off Samuel L. Jackson who would go on to play the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Even the fattest, most stupid politician on Capitol Hill realizes that Son of Star Wars

is useless against the kind of problems America is really facing out there.

(Millar, 2002, p.7)

Millar and Hitch thus reconceive the superhero team as a “Superhuman Unit for Twenty-First

Century problems” (Millar, 2002, p.8). This return to the superhero team as an integrated part of the military-industrial complex is a revival of the relationship between superhero teams and the state depicted by the Justice Society. However, as the Justice Society were enlisted into the war effort and became the Justice Battalion part-way through their run, The Ultimates are constituted as military personnel from their very beginning. In this way Millar and Hitch ‘tap into the traditions of the genre’ (Smith, 2015) and by reviving this political element from the 1940s, The Ultimates also reveals the influence of Millar and Hitch’s prior work on The Authority. Indeed, The Ultimates functions as the inverse of The Authority. Whereas The Authority was a superhero team which stood for radical political change, The Ultimates were a superhero team as an embedded element of the state. As

Morrison observes, the Authority’s political radicalism had been borne out of a reaction against the neo-liberal consensus following the end of the Cold War.

For a while it was exciting. In The Authority, the no-nonsense army toughs were on our side

for a change, but it was a particular kind of power fantasy: that of impotent liberals, who

feared deep down that it was really only force and violence that got things done and not

patient diplomacy…

Soon the no-compromise bomb and “cripple what you don’t agree with” approach of the

Authority would be put into practise in the real world with horrific results. And it wouldn’t

be liberals doing the damage.

(Morrison, 2011, p.319)

Consequently, Millar and Hitch’s The Ultimates is a text which was fundamentally about the use and control of power in the post-9/11 world. The Ultimates were a superhero team which functioned to support the neo-conservative policies of President George W. Bush, and a key tension throughout

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the series is whether the US government will use these “persons of mass-destruction” in overseas conflict, presenting a cynical and satirical view on the relationship between the superhero team and the state.

The initial team assembled by General Fury consists of a revived Captain America, Giant-

Man, The and Iron Man. Thor also has a loose association with the team, reimagined by Millar and Hitch as a New-Age guru who has a worldwide following but whose claims to godhood are treated with scepticism. Thor is the one member of The Ultimates who would comfortably fit politically alongside the members of The Authority. He is a strident critic of US imperialism and the policies of the government and only agrees to interfere in The Ultimates’ battle with a rampaging

Hulk if “President Bush doubles the international aid budget” (Millar, 2002, p.4). Thor thus serves as the one member of The Ultimates who is politically opposed to the team’s role in propping up the new world order of American supremacy. He only involves himself with the team when the world faces apocalyptic threats, or due to his friendship with individuals on the team like Tony Stark.

The second half of the first series sees The Ultimates black ops division of Black Widow,

Hawkeye, Quicksilver and The being introduced into the team. On the periphery of the team is Bruce Banner, who works on the project to reconstruct the long-lost Super-Soldier serum which augments Captain America’s abilities. Banner’s unauthorised experimentation on himself turns him into The Hulk, a rampaging id-monster who becomes the first threat the team has to confront.

In his book Capitalist Superheroes (2012), Dan Hassler-Forest concludes his study of superhero cinema by suggesting that ‘the overwhelming majority of narratives and characters… point toward a more disturbing worldview in which the nostalgic desire for an earlier form of modern capitalism is accompanied by patriarchal forms of authority’ (Hassler-Forest, 2012, p.260). I would suggest that within The Ultimates, Millar and Hitch consciously present their superheroes as representing this worldview. Thor is used as the character who voices this critique directly to Fury:

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Go back to your paymasters and tell them that the Son of is not interested in working

for a military industrial complex who engineer wars and murder innocents.

Your talk might be of super-villains now, but it is only a matter of time before you are sent to

kill for oil or free trade.

(Millar, 2002, p.13)

The Ultimates are intended to serve as a paramilitary force, a human equivalent to the nuclear deterrent. The possibility of the team interfering in international affairs and operating unilaterally is a constant tension throughout the series, paralleling the debates surrounding the United States’ unilateral invasion of Iraq. The first issue of The Ultimates 2 opens with the image of Captain

America skydiving out of an airplane over Northern Iraq. His intervention in a hostage situation marks the first use of The Ultimates in an international conflict. Displaying a realpolitik approach to international affairs, Nick Fury’s response when asked about how The Ultimates were sold to the public with the idea that they would only be used domestically is, “[s]ometimes you gotta break those little promises” (Millar, 2004, p.7). Afterwards, Tony Stark is shown being interviewed by Larry

King who states, “[s]ome people are saying that The Ultimates just overstepped their mandate and used a Person of Mass Destruction in a very delicate foreign policy situation” (Millar, 2004, p.8). The final arc of the series, ‘Grand Theft America’, centres on a superhuman invasion of America which is provoked by The Ultimates’ intervention in a conflict in the Middle East. The Liberators, the team of superhumans from the nation states funding the conflict, are led by The Colonel, a young Arab named Abdul al-Rahman, who was displaced by The Ultimates’ military actions in the Middle East.

Abdul is described as the first test-subject since Steve Rogers to have his body accept the Super-

Soldier Serum. This attack is blowback on the United States for their own overreach of power and

‘[t]he invasion, then, is clearly framed as the US getting a taste of its own proverbial medicine’ (Lund,

2016). Whilst The Ultimates eventually overcome the invasion force, the issue remains that in this instance and any of the other conflicts within the series, the threat which the superhero team faces is a direct result of its own overreach. ‘No matter how successfully The Ultimates fulfilled their

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patriotic duty, and no matter how pressing and appalling the firefights they engaged in, the end result was the escalation of already-appalling circumstances’ (Smith, 2015). The Ultimates is thus a text that aimed to critique the militaristic ideals of American exceptionalism; and which pointed towards the anger that the US was creating throughout the world through its neo-conservative policies of interventionism.

Whilst the satirical elements of The Ultimates position the series as a critique of the neo- conservative agendas of the Bush administration and the rhetoric of the War on Terror, the superheroic elements of the series often serve to disguise this . Being interviewed in 2013,

Millar stated that he had often been told that readers had taken a different political message from the series than the one he intended:

“People would say, 'I joined the army after reading The Ultimates because I wanted to make

a difference in the Middle East,' and I was like, 'Well, I kinda meant the opposite of that,’”

Millar recalled with a laugh. “And I kinda like that, though, because I do quite like it being

open to interpretation.”

(Millar cited in Reismann, 2013)

It is somewhat unsurprising that some readers would look at The Ultimates and read into it an opposite meaning. Millar and Hitch’s story is about a team of government funded superheroes who save the world whilst looking glamorous in the process. It is even suggested within the series that the footage of The Ultimates’ battle with The Hulk became an entertainment phenomenon, with people buying DVDs of the footage, even though over 800 civilians died as a result of the conflict.

The seductive glamour of Hitch’s artwork muddies the satiric intent of the series. This is similar to the framing dissonance issues that video essayist Lindsay Ellis identifies in her analysis of the gender politics of Michael Bay’s (2007). The film’s positions Mikaela Banes (played by Megan Fox) as a fully realised character with a stronger coming-of-age narrative that does more to highlight the film’s theme of ‘no sacrifice, no victory’ than that of the protagonist Sam Witwicky

(played by Shia LaBeouf). However, Bay’s visual choices overwhelmingly focus on leeringly

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objectifying Fox (even to the point of having LaBeouf’s character ignoring what she says because he is too distracted), leaving audiences convinced that Mikaela was just intended as eye-candy. ‘The narrative, camera and theme are at war with the aesthetics. The text says one thing and the camera says another and because this is a visual medium, what the audience remembers is what the camera tells them’ (Lindsay Ellis, 2017). Hitch’s artwork plays a similar role in The Ultimates; it is visually appealing in a way that glamorises superheroes as weapons of war rather than satirising the idea.96

Furthermore, The Ultimates are presented as the series protagonists, and the antagonists of the series (alien shapeshifters The in Volume 1 and The Liberators in Volume 2) are always presented as demonstrably evil and never present a strong philosophical alternative to The

Ultimates.

The best example of the thin line between satirising and glorifying right-wing militarism in

The Ultimates is found through Millar and Hitch’s reinvention of Captain America. The Ultimate

Captain America shared the same name and similar to the hero created by Simon and

Kirby, and like the original Captain America he is revived decades after World War Two, having spent decades frozen in suspended animation. The opening issue of the series depicts Captain America’s last battle in the war, with Hitch’s depiction of the battle drawing heavily on the visualisation of the

D-Day landings in ’s Saving Private Ryan (Murray, 2011, p.252). However, Ultimate

Captain America differs substantially in temperament and political leanings to his original counterpart. The original Captain America had, under the pen of writers like and Ed

Brubaker, developed into a liberal-minded of virtue who ‘embodies an inclusive and cosmopolitan patriotism that balances idealism with clear-eyed pragmatism… [H]e stresses principles over politics, opposing his government when it does not live up to the same standards to which he holds himself’ (White, 2014, p.171). Millar and Hitch’s Captain America is presented as a much more conservative, right-wing, and jingoistic character. He is intended to be a ‘more realistic

96 and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshall Law is a superhero satire that takes a different approach to that of Hitch and Millar. O’Neill’s art emphasizes the visual grotesque to satirise superheroes, rather than glamorising them.

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treatment of Captain America, a hero who represented the lost world of traditional patriotic values.’

(Murray, 2011, p.253) The idea behind this incarnation of Captain America is that he is meant to represent a more realistic vision of what a lost soldier from World War Two might act like if he woke up in the modern day.97

This is evident from the moment Captain America is awoken, in which he thinks that being told he has woken up 57 years later by Nick Fury is a trick by his German enemies. His reasoning behind this is that, “[t]he highest ranking black man in the U.S. army is a Brooklyn-born captain I grew up with” (Millar, 2002, p.9). Whilst not actively expressing a racist sentiment, this version of

Captain America finds it difficult to believe that over the past 57 years American society could have progressed to the point where a black man could be a general. Throughout the course of the series,

Steve Rogers feels a great sense of dislocation with American society, eschewing friendships and relationships outside of those with his teammates and his now elderly war buddies. Whilst Steve has difficulty relating to the modern world, he easily finds himself adjusting to the massive military machine that is S.H.I.E.L.D and The Ultimates. At the gala launch party for The Ultimates, Captain

America responds to George W. Bush’s query as to what he thinks of the 21st century with a salute and the words, “[c]ool Mr. President. Definitely cool” (Millar, 2002, p. 23). The most famous image from the entire series depicts a bloodied and enraged Captain America responding to the request for surrender from his Nazi/Chitauri nemesis Herr Kleiser. Captain America pummels Kleiser with his shield in a rage, screaming that he would never surrender to his enemy. Triumphantly, the Captain snarls, “[y]ou think this letter on my head stands for France?” (Millar, 2003, p.20). This is the epitome of the jingoistic depiction of Captain America by Millar and Hitch; he becomes the embodiment of snarling reactionary right-wing America. Captain America’s denigration of France matches up historically with the reaction of right-wing America in the early 2000s, which took

97 Attewell (2013) makes the argument in a blog post that considering the history of the original version of Steve Rogers – a fine arts student from a working-class background who grows up in New York during the depression and New Deal – it is a flawed argument to suggest that the more right-wing and socially conservative Ultimate Captain America is a more realistic depiction of the character.

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France’s opposition to the as an affront.98 In the next issue, Nick Fury praises Captain

America for the one-liner, saying that it, “was the funniest thing I heard in ages, man. Where did you get that?” (Millar, 2003). To which Steve replies, “I dunno. Just one of those stupid things that come into your head when you’re pounding somebody, y’know.” Captain America serves essentially as the leader of The Ultimates and the protagonist of the series. He is at the centre of the series’ most thrilling action sequences and is given the most hero shots by Hitch. Captain America is the focal point in which The Ultimates is pulled between its two purposes: to serve as a critique of neo- conservatism and to look cool. In other words, the text is at times in conflict between its satiric intentions and its generic conventions; ‘Millar pushed his political convictions at moments while, at others, he surrendered joyfully to the rush of the dramatic scenarios he'd planned out’ (Smith,

2015).

The political focus of The Ultimates highlights that the series is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between superheroes and the state. The series also had a unique approach to dealing with how members of a superhero team relate amongst themselves and also with the broader public. As I have demonstrated, earlier Marvel teams such as The Fantastic Four and The X-Men changed superhero teams by introducing melodramatic relationship drama to the genre. Whereas in the Fantastic Four, the bickering between team members was a function of their identity as a family unit, the relationships depicted within The Ultimates are proven to be far more dysfunctional. Superheroes within The Ultimates are depicted as greatly flawed, driven more by a desire for fame and acknowledgment than a desire to serve the public. The super-people of The

Ultimates ‘are not always pure and are sometimes not even all that good’ (O’Rourke, 2014, p.121), and their personality flaws manifest themselves through supremely dysfunctional relationships.

98 As a contrast, in Captain America #3 (2004), Ed Brubaker and included a scene of the original Captain America reminiscing about his time fighting with the French resistance in World War Two. “That’s why it really galls me when I hear my own people dismissing the French as cowards. We’re talking about a people who never gave up fighting the Nazi occupation. Their country may have surrendered, but they didn’t…” (p.19).

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Figure 40. Captain America points to his forehead. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch with Paul Neary (inking), Paul Monts (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering). The Ultimates #12 (2003), p. 24, Marvel Comics.

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Millar and Hitch use the series to test the limits of how far a series can push the reader’s sympathy for flawed heroes. Whereas the original Marvel heroes of the 1960s were differentiated from earlier superheroes by their psychological flaws such as Spider-Man’s neuroses, Millar and Hitch’s Ultimates were differentiated from their original incarnations by taking such flaws to parodic extremes.

Throughout the series, cruelty is depicted as being the central tenet of many relationships within The Ultimates. The domestic relationship between Giant-Man and The Wasp is an abusive one, in which it is suggested that had been physically assaulting his wife throughout their entire relationship.99 In issue 6, a domestic dispute between Hank and Janet is depicted for the first time, in which Pym’s jealousy of the attraction between Janet and Captain America leads first to a passive-aggressive argument between the couple and then a physical assault. Pym taunts his wife saying, “[w]hy do you always start this crap when you know you always come off worst?” (Millar,

2002, p.18). The assault is taken to grotesque extremes, as the fact that this is a domestic assault featuring superheroes comes into play. When Janet shrinks down and attacks Hank with her sting power, he retaliates by spraying her with bug spray and setting an army of ants to attack her. Hank is depicted wearing his -controlling helmet, looking on at the abuse he is inflicting on his partner and saying, “[y]ou shouldn’t have made me look small, Jan” (Millar, 2002, p. 20). Hank’s abuse of his wife leads to him being ejected from the team and precipitates the mental breakdown he undergoes throughout the rest of the series. His low point sees him joining a second-rate media-obsessed superhero team called The Defenders. “I’ve got nothing else in my life right now. I’ve never been this low. Is it too much to expect super heroes to save me like they’re saving everyone else out there?”

(Millar, 2004, p.7). Pym ends up betraying The Ultimates and the United States by allying with The

Liberators; only to turn on the invading enemies when it becomes clear that they are losing. Pym pretends to have been working as a double agent against The Liberators, rather than admitting to his opportunism.

99 The domestic abuse within The Ultimates was inspired by an incident in The Avengers #213 (1981), in which a mentally unbalanced Hank Pym struck his wife. Whilst this was a one-off incident which has deeply affected Pym’s character since, Millar and Hitch’s version of the character portrayed him as a serial abuser.

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Of the relationships depicted within The Ultimates, the one between Giant-Man and The

Wasp is most indicative of the series’ willingness to present extreme toxicity. However, this element of cruelty is reflected in nearly all the relationships found within The Ultimates. The team is made of characters who are struggling to maintain ‘a balance between humble service and selfish grabs for attention’ (O’Rourke, 2014, p.121). This manifests itself with the team’s focus on how it is being received by the media, an attitude egged on by their PR handler , who stage manages the celebrity team. In issue 4, the team is shown depicted in their downtime, discussing which

Hollywood celebrities would play The Ultimates in a feature film based on themselves.100 Their unflattering choices of actors for Bruce Banner are accidentally overheard by Banner and exacerbates his emotional distress, leading to him turning into The Hulk and rampaging throughout the city. The emotional cruelty directed by the rest of the team towards Banner is further demonstrated when Captain America reads the message Banner left for the team at the memorial service following his execution:

“Remember me fondly as I’ll remember you. In all my years, I’ve never had friends so dear.

In all my years, I never had a group of people whom I truly felt such an integral part of.

For this and everything else you have given me over these last eighteen months you have

Bruce Banner’s eternal and everlasting gratitude.”

(Millar, 2004, p.22)

Steve’s immediate reaction upon leaving the is to describe the experience of giving the memorial with: “That was awful. I can’t believe we were his best friends. I don’t think I even spoke to the guy for more than ten minutes” (Millar, 2004, p.22). The reaction of the rest of the team to

Bruce Banner, the ways in which their casual cruelty towards him leads him down the path to becoming a monster, is indicative of the overall dysfunctionality of The Ultimates.

The Ultimates is a series which is also obsessed with problematic masculinity. This is reflected throughout multiple characters within the text, such as Captain America with his jingoism

100 Nick Fury correctly predicts that the only choice for his role is Samuel L. Jackson.

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or Hank Pym with his self-loathing and domestic abuse. However, no character demonstrates the text’s obsession with problematic masculinity more than Millar and Hitch’s version of The Hulk. The

Ultimate Hulk is the one character within The Ultimates who would fit comfortably amongst the super-creeps Millar created in The Authority to parody the Marvel superheroes. Lee and Kirby’s original version of The Hulk has gone through many different permutations within the mainline

Marvel Universe. The Hulk has vacillated between being a misunderstood monster, a superhero, a tragic figure or a threat. Millar and Hitch’s version of The Hulk, however, is an undeniable villain, a rampaging monster who does not care about civilian casualties resulting from his attacks. At best he is a weapon who can be tricked into attacking more pressing threats than himself. The most grotesque element which Millar and Hitch added to their version of The Hulk, is that their Hulk is cannibalistic. This is explained as being a result of The Hulk reacting to Bruce Banner’s vegetarianism.

All of Hulk’s dark impulses are explained as being an element of Banner’s psyche which has been repressed.

Millar and Hitch’s version of Bruce Banner is in many ways a parody of the idea of the ‘crisis of masculinity’. Banner embodies all of the features that are seen as negative in relation to ideals of masculinity. He is highly educated, yet physically weak. He is emotionally unstable and portrayed as the subordinate partner in his tumultuous relationship with Betty Ross. Banner in The Ultimates is a perfect example of a man who is experiencing the feelings of inadequacy and defensiveness which are seen as symptomatic of a masculinity in crisis (Forth, 2008, p.3). Bruce Banner, a neurotic vegetarian, is presented as being the embodiment of a feminised and neutered masculinity, a man who has lost all the power and strength which is popularly connected to masculinity. He is thus the expression of cultural fears that modernity and sedentary lifestyles created by white collar work have somehow corrupted and softened the masculine body (Forth, 2008, p.16). In contrast, Hulk exists as the ultimate expression of the hard body of savage pre-civilisation masculinity. He is a return of all the masculine excesses which Banner has repressed. Whilst Banner may have the soft and weak body of modernity, Hulk is the ultimate hard body, with inhumanly large muscles and size.

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When he is brought into the fight against the Chitauri at the end of the first volume, the way Hitch illustrates Hulk emerging from the rubble is depicted almost as an orgasmic release of the repressed male id.

Figure 41. The Hulk unleashed. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch with Paul Neary (inking), Paul Monts (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), The Ultimates #13 (2004), p. 5, Marvel Comics

The giant Hulk takes the hyper-muscular body to parodic extremes; he dwarves even Captain

America and Thor in terms of size. The Hulk holds the belief that physical strength is the only factor which determines masculine dominance. “BANNER HAD BRAINS AND PEOPLE WALK ALL OVER

BANNER! STRONG IS THE ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS – AND HULK THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!”

(Millar, 2003, p.16). The dimorphic nature of The Hulk – the transformation from mild-mannered

Bruce Banner to the aggressive all-powerful Hulk – can be read as a metaphor for the ways in which masculinity in the west is wrapped up in anxieties surrounding the impact of modernity on men. This incarnation of the Hulk is hypermasculinity run amok, and if Banner’s effete intellectualism renders him aloof from others then this destructive muscle-head is his repressed reaction to that estrangement.

Another feature which makes Millar and Hitch’s version of The Hulk unique from earlier incarnations of the character is that his transformations are not triggered by anger as much as sexual jealousy. Banner’s fixation on his relationship with Betty Ross turns into a violent obsession when he becomes The Hulk. His first transformation into the Hulk is triggered by both a desire to make

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himself useful to the team (thinking that he can be the enemy The Ultimates can fight to prove their worth) and jealousy created by the fact that Betty is on a date with actor Freddie Prinze Jr.101 His first words after his transformation are, “HULK WANT FREDDIE PRINZE JR!” (Millar, 2002, p.22).

Consistently, Hulk is demonstrated to be a nightmare figure of hypermasculinity. He violently pursues the figure of his affection and attacks anyone who stands in his way. This obsession is put to use by Captain America when trying to direct Hulk’s attack toward Herr Schmidt, the Chitauri leader, as he tells Hulk that Schmidt and Betty were having an affair whilst Banner was in solitary confinement. At the same time, Hulk’s hypermasculinity is used to show the fragility of a performative straight masculinity which is defined by strict rejection of any suggestions of femininity or homosexuality. Captain America is able to manipulate Hulk into destroying the Chitauri spaceship by suggesting that the pilots had called Hulk a sissy. Hulk responds by angrily shouting, “HULK

STRAIGHT!” (Millar, 2004, p.17) as he jumps up to smash. Hulk’s hypermasculinity is presented as being so fragile that the mere question of homosexuality needs to be answered with a violent response.

Figure 42. Hulk reaffirms his sexual orientation. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch with Paul Neary (inking), Paul Monts (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), The Ultimates #13 (2004), p. 17, Marvel Comics.

Whilst the depiction of Hulk’s hypermasculinity and sexual jealousy is clearly intended to be parodic, there is a moment at the end of Volume One which complicates the intent of the satire.

101 Nothing else in The Ultimates feels as firmly dated to 2002 as the idea of Freddie Prinze Jr as a hot upcoming film star.

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After Hulk has been calmed down and turned back into Bruce Banner, he returns to solitary confinement. Talking with his on-again/off-again partner Betty after the battle, Bruce is horrified at the actions he undertook as the Hulk. Meanwhile, Betty suggests that she will ask Nick Fury for permission for conjugal visits with Bruce. The implication of the scene is that Betty is attracted to the hypermasculinity of The Hulk and his obsessive desire for her; to some extent, the story is left with

Banner being rewarded for Hulk’s toxic masculinity. There is a similar uncomfortableness here to the depiction of militarism in the text. Millar and Hitch’s The Ultimates simultaneously glorify and satirise both militarism and hypermasculinity.

In many ways, The Ultimates can be seen as one of the darkest iterations of the superhero team. Politically, it revived the concept of the superhero team as a part of the military-industrial complex, with Millar and Hitch’s vision of this serving as a critique of US military policy following

9/11 even though it can be read as a glorification of militarism. Similarly, the relationships modelled within The Ultimates portrayed superheroes as supremely dysfunctional people enmeshed in supremely dysfunctional relationships. In both ways, The Ultimates served as a dark mirror to The

Authority. Here was a vision of the superhero team, all powerful but constrained by the apparatus of the military-industrial complex, and ultimately all of the team members are connected not by a shared identity or familial ties, but a willingness to follow orders despite the fact that they outwardly resent each other.

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Young Avengers Superhero fandom has been changing significantly throughout the second decade of the twenty-first century. The influence from the multi-media adaptions of superhero comics has drawn new and younger fans into the vast narratives of the Marvel and DC Universes, and fandom is becoming increasingly mediated through digital platforms such as Tumblr, Twitter and LiveJournal.

Younger fans are entering superhero comic fandom, as well as fans from female, queer and ethnic backgrounds who were previously underrepresented both within fandom and the pages of superhero comics. Female superheroes in particular have a history of being marginalised throughout the history of the genre (Donaldson, 2013, p.139); as I have demonstrated, superheroines often find themselves left out of the male homosocial world of the team, as evident in The Justice Society.

Similarly, queer representation within superhero teams was near non-existent within superhero teams before Apollo and Midnighter were featured within The Authority.102 Yet, the changing demographics of fandom has meant that publishers have started to diversify representation in their comics since ‘for the comics industry to survive, publishers cannot afford to cater to the needs of only a single demographic’ (Goodrum, Prescott and Smith, 2018, p.7) The superhero team is an institution of the genre which is evolving in line with an increasingly diverse audience; and The

Young Avengers is a key example of that evolution.

The Young Avengers debuted in 2005, created by writer Allen Heinberg and artist Jim

Cheung. Their series, Young Avengers, launched in the aftermath of Brian Michael Bendis and David

Finch’s destruction of the original Avengers team in their Avengers: Disassembled (2005). Whilst

Bendis and Finch went on to relaunch the team as The New Avengers103 in Marvel’s new flagship series, Heinberg and Cheung’s series launched a superhero team who would serve as the successor to the tradition of the original Avengers. The team is brought together by , a teenager from

102 The first queer superhero in the Marvel Universe to be established was , a who appeared in the Canadian superhero team . 103 This assemblage added Spider-Man and for extra commercial appeal.

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the future who is trying to escape from the time-travelling villain .104 With The

Avengers disassembled, Iron Lad activates a fail-safe program to bring forth the next generation of superheroes. The team consisted of Patriot105, Stature106, Hawkeye, Hulkling, Wiccan and Speed. The series was in many ways a traditional teen superhero comic, in the traditions of earlier teen superteams such as The Teen Titans and The Legion of Superheroes. By appropriating superhero names and powers from earlier Marvel heroes The Young Avengers were also legacy heroes, directly following on from the identities of previous characters; an approach to creating new heroes that was historically much rarer at Marvel compared to DC Comics. The series was steeped in Marvel history and ‘thoroughly enmeshed in the custodial upkeep of continuity’ (Hatfield, 2012, p.142). As a writer who was a long-time fan of Marvel, Heinberg crafted a story which was based around plot threads left over from 1980s Avengers stories. For example, Wiccan and Speed were revealed to be the lost children of The Scarlet Witch and The Vision,107 and Hulkling was established as the lost son of the original Captain Marvel and Princess Anelle of the Empire. The Young Avengers’ identities are thus relationally conceived, building upon the identity of their forebears.

Heinberg and Cheung’s Young Avengers was also a very traditional Marvel superhero comic produced at a time in which Marvel Comics was radically changing its traditional titles and wildly experimenting with new story directions in its universe. Whilst to some extent it is a series that was looking back in time due to so much of its story being based around the minutia of Marvel continuity, it was also looking into the future in terms of how the superhero team was developing.

Wiccan and Hulkling both come out as queer during the series and enter a relationship together.

This relationship led to the series being awarded the 2006 GLAAD108 Media Award for Outstanding

104 Iron Lad himself is a teenage version of Kang, trying to escape his destiny to become the time-travelling supervillain. 105 The grandson of one of the original African American soldiers who had been a test subject for the super- soldier serum before it was given to Captain America. 106 The daughter of the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang. 107 The twins were originally lost in a John Byrne story from Avengers West Coast #52 (1989), in which the demon Mephisto stole their souls and they were erased from existence. 108 Gays and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation

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Comic Book. The Heinberg and Cheung Young Avengers was thus strangely paradoxical, offering both a nostalgic return to an earlier era at Marvel whilst also exploring relationships that would not have been printed in those earlier eras. Nevertheless, Dauw criticises the depiction of Hulkling and

Wiccan’s relationship as conforming (like the relationship between Apollo and Midnighter) too closely to a homonormative model that replicates heteronormative ideas such as monogamy and presents homosexuality according to heterosexual conceptions of acceptable behaviour (Dauw,

2017, p.67). The series was also cautious about developing the relationship. Heinberg and Cheung’s time with the Young Avengers ended with the mini-series Avengers: The Children’s Crusade (2012), which focuses upon Wiccan and Speed’s search for their lost mother The Scarlet Witch. Perhaps the most significant event in the series, was that the final issue contained the first kiss depicted on page between Wiccan and Hulkling, a moment which Heinberg explained he had held back from because he was waiting for ‘a moment where the story demands that they kiss’ (Heinberg cited in Glass,

2011). Whilst I think it is worth keeping in mind that the general acceptance of homosexuality in media representation was less socialised in the early 2000s than the current day, the reluctance to depict Teddy and Billy physically demonstrating love for each other was nevertheless a failing of the original Young Avengers run. In this sense, there is merit to Dauw’s argument that the pair were a representation of teenage homosexuality that had to fit into cultural norms not fully willing to depict queer sexuality honestly.

In 2013, a second volume of Young Avengers was launched. This series created by the team of writer Kieron Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie109 was both a continuation of the original series as well as a rejection of Heinberg and Cheung’s focus upon legacy heroes. Gillen stated that part of the approach of his and McKelvie’s Young Avengers was to consciously push back at the conservatism of legacy heroics, and to allow the characters to follow their own paths. ‘[Young Avengers] is a book that tries to slap all the characters around the head and say being a legacy hero is a really shit thing

109 McKelvie was joined on art by Mike Norton who inked the art and contributed backgrounds to the art. The series colourist is Matthew Wilson.

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Figure 43. Hulkling and Wiccan’s first on-panel kiss. Allan Heinberg and , with Mark Morales (inking), Paul Monts (colouring) and Cory Petit (lettering), Avengers: The Children’s Crusade (2012), Marvel Comics.

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to be, you should be better than that, you are better than that’ (2014, pers.comm). Gillen and

McKelvie use the superheroics within Young Avengers as a metaphor for the late teens and early twenties life experience, and the element that makes Young Avengers an important series in the development of the superhero team is that the series is heavily focused on exploring the emotional relationships within the team. Interpersonal relationships in Young Avengers are treated as matters of world-shattering importance, with a core theme of the series being the need to understand and take responsibility for how one’s actions impact others.

At the beginning of Gillen and McKelvie’s run; the Young Avengers are manipulated into re- forming by the machinations of Loki. His plans reunite the team and his character arc is central to the overarching theme of the series: the need to recognise the consequences of your own actions upon others and the need to face up to your own failings. The ways in which Loki manipulates the relationships of the other members of the team is a key to creating the overarching threat the Young

Avengers battle throughout the series. Loki manipulates Teddy and Billy’s insecurities about their relationship to serve his own plots; including planting the fear into Billy’s mind that he might have unconsciously used his reality-warping powers to create his boyfriend’s love for him (or even that

Teddy might be a construct who Billy wished into existence). The God of Mischief’s story in Young

Avengers is built upon his arc in Gillen’s earlier series in which Loki, Thor’s evil and manipulative brother, sacrificed himself to save . He was then reincarnated as an innocent child and Kid Loki proved that Loki was not destined to be evil, and that free will overrules the fates. “And then just when he proved that Loki didn’t have to be a bad guy… A copy of his dead self annihilated his soul and took over his body” (Gillen, 2013, p.5). The Kid Loki starring in

Young Avengers is a simulacrum of the original Loki, who used Kid Loki to clear his tarnished name and then murdered the innocent child and wears his body as a “stolen suit of skin” (Gillen, 2013, p.6). He is haunted by the spectre of the child version of himself he murdered, who serves as Loki’s guilty conscience, an ever-present reminder of his sins.

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Figure 44. Loki plants the seed of doubt in Teddy’s mind. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, with Mike Norton, Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Young Avengers #4 (2013), p. 14, Marvel Comics.

Knowing that Billy (Wiccan) is destined to be The Demiurge, a grand cosmic figure who will rewrite the rules of magic, Loki interferes in his destiny because, “If there’s to be a rule book, I want to write it. If there’s to be a new game, I want all the cheat codes” (Gillen, 2013, p.9). Loki’s manipulation puts the idea in Billy’s head to use Loki’s reality warping powers to find a version of

Hulkling’s adopted mother before she was murdered. At the start of the series, Billy does this, thinking it will mend his boyfriend’s bruised heart. Unfortunately, rather than saving Teddy’s mum,

Billy unleashes the interdimensional Mother who wishes to make a meal out of Billy’s magical power. Mother has the ability to mind control parents and adults cannot recognise her as a threat. The threat of Mother brings Billy and Teddy back together with Kate and her new boyfriend Noh-Var, a Kree warrior who has a hipster like obsession with Earth culture. They are joined by Ms America Chavez, a mysterious woman who travels the multiverse and is trying to protect Wiccan. In the background is Loki, claiming to be on the side of good and working to help train Wiccan to reach his full potential, but always orchestrating his own schemes in the background.

Through this plot, Gillen and McKelvie encourage the reader to see the series, at first glance, as being about evil parents. The overarching villain of the series is literally called Mother.

However, the series’ climax demonstrates that the core narrative conflict is not about children vs

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parents; it is about children fighting against themselves and their own bad instincts. This is represented through the Young Avengers travelling across the multiverse encountering a myriad of parallel universes in which evil versions of the team are based. These parallel versions of the Young

Avengers, remnants of mayfly universes, are captured by Mother and she releases them upon Earth as a final revenge against the youth of the Marvel Universe. “Your adult heroes will not see, let alone understand. They will merely despair, thinking this is all you children ever were” (Gillen, 2013, p.4).

These evil alternate versions are presented as a literal embodiment of our worst selves, at our cruellest:

The metaphor is that literally, the youth of the Marvel Universe are fighting to stop the bad

thems getting in. If you think about a multiverse and the universe splitting at every point

through time we make a bad decision, or [do] something that hurts someone or harms

someone, we are making this universe quantifiably worse.

(Gillen, 2014, pers.comm)

Thus, the young superheroes of the Marvel Universe are pitted against evil counterparts of themselves and a core theme within Young Avengers is about accepting personal responsibility for your actions and their effect upon others. Whilst Gillen and McKelvie’s work is a superhero comic from the 2010s, it reflects the central tenet of the Marvel Universe expressed by Stan Lee in the

1960s: ‘With great power, there must also come great responsibility.’

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Figure 45. The universe is invaded by the multitude of evil Young Avengers. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie with Mike Norton and Stephen Thompson (inking), Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering). Young Avengers #12 (2013), p. 15, Marvel Comics.

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The climactic battle against Mother takes place upon two fronts. One front is on Earth where

“The Thin Spandex Line.110 Our last, best hope for not being all doomed and stuff” (Gillen, 2013, p.16) are battling the invasion of bad heroes. The Young Avengers themselves take the fight to

Mother’s home dimension where she is being helped by a League of Evil Exes, all past lovers who the

Young Avengers had wronged at some point in time. This League is an allusion to Bryan Lee

O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim (2004-2010) series, one of the most influential comics of the 2000s.111 The

Evil Exes are ultimately revealed to be a manifestation of Loki’s own guilt magically made into flesh.

After Ms America takes a blast meant for Loki, telling him, “If we don’t save each other, we’ve got jack” (Gillen, 2013, p.6), Loki is finally willing to own up to all his manipulation. When he confesses to both the murder of his younger self and manipulation of the Young Avengers, his release of guilt causes the Evil Exes to disappear. It also causes Loki to undergo a breakdown; his sense of self is shattered. Is he the murderer who killed his younger self? Or is he just the murder weapon, a copy with no choice but to overwrite the personality of Kid Loki? At this moment of weakness, Loki asks

Ms America to kill him, before he can do any more damage. America’s response is, “I’m not going to make anything easier for you, chico” (Gillen, 2013, p.9), an exchange which articulates the central theme of Young Avenger; that you have to face up to your own mistakes. ‘It is the awareness of our own flaws that enables us to attend to various others as human, even our enemies’ (Mills, 2013, p.188).

110 A pun on the phrase Thin Blue Line. This refers to the army of young heroes who are drafted to help save the world at the series’ climax. 111 In O’Malley’s series Scott Pilgrim needs to defeat all seven of his girlfriend Ramona Flowers’ Evil Exes in order to date her. Similarly, to Young Avengers, the story ends up challenging Scott more on an internal level rather than the external threat of the Leage of Evil Exes. He needs to take responsibility for himself and his own past mistakes in relationships in order to actually be able to have a genuine relationship with Ramona.

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Figure 46. The visual record of the Young Avengers tour across the multiverse. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, with Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Young Avengers #7 (2013), p. 10, Marvel Comics.

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A significant difference between Young Avengers and the other superhero teams I have examined, is that on the surface Young Avengers is not politically engaged in the same way that The

Authority or The Ultimates were. The series does not engage directly with questions regarding how the superhero team functions within or against the state and is more concerned with exploring emotions. Whilst there is little overtly to suggest a political message within Young Avengers, examining the series subtext suggests that there is a message which Gillen and McKelvie are trying to convey. Throughout the series, the Young Avengers are confronted with a problem that only they can see; when they try to involve adult superheroes in the conflict with Mother, the adult superheroes simply cannot see the problem standing right in front of them. In issue 12, Captain

America, when confronted with an impending apocalypse, answers with, “[w]e’ve all been young once… But you have to realize that no matter what it seems like now, it’s hardly the end of the world” (Gillen, 2013, p.5). Only the young heroes actually realise that this threat could lead to the end of the world. As described by Gillen, an underlying message of Young Avengers is therefore that,

‘[t]hese are problems only you see, and the point being that if you see a problem you should do something about it. It’s your problem. If other people don’t see the problem, then that’s their problem’ (2014, pers.comm). As such, Young Avengers is a text which is designed to inspire its readers to be more engaged in the world, socially and politically. It is intended to empower its readership; to relate the message that the trick to being a superhero is to do even the smallest acts of good, and to stop yourself from harming others. Through this, ‘you are in Young Avengers parlance being a superhero, you are on the line punching an evil you in the face. That’s what Young

Avengers is about’ (Gillen, 2014, pers.comm).

Another unique element of Young Avengers is that the series incorporates the entire community of young superheroes in the Marvel Universe; the community of young superheroes extends well beyond the members of the team. In the climax of the series, as all the other superheroes are useless against Mother due to their adulthood, the Young Avengers call in the entire community of teen heroes as reinforcements. The idea to call in reinforcements comes from

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Prodigy,112 who begins a text-chain which brings forth the army of teenage superheroes who end up saving the world. McKelvie utilises a unique visual design charting the flow of the Young Avengers’ request for help, with different colours denoting the relationships between the teens passing the message across. The yellow lines and circles denote heroes associated with the X-Men. The black line colours Alex Power and Ahura Boltagon share denote that they are both members of The Future

Foundation. The dark blue line between Alex Power and his sister Lightspeed denotes their sibling relationship. The pastel colour linking Lightspeed and Lucy in the Sky denotes their romantic relationship. This chart demonstrates the interconnectivity of the superteen community, visualising

Figure 47. Graphical representation of the Marvel Universe’s text chain. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie with Mike Norton, Kris Anka (inking), Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Young Avengers #11 (2013), p.20, Marvel Comics.

112 , a former X-Men recruit who had the ability to absorb the skill set of anyone he was close to, enters the story in issue 6. He joins up with the rest of the team in issue 7, as he is searching for Speed who was kidnapped by an ominous figure wearing the costume.

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the crossovers between different social groups and team affiliations; the community of superhero teens is depicted here as an interconnected network. Again, as with Chapter One’s discussion of

Batman Incorporated and Chapter Two’s discussion of the Spider-Verse, we return to the idea of superheroes as a nodal network. Each hero serves as a nodal point, ‘[providing] a point of dynamic interchange for the psychic energy which characterises the flow between actors within a complex social field’ (Blackman, 2008, p.38). This emphasis on community is furthered by the final two issues of the series, which make up a story entitled Resolution. These two issues take place on New Year’s

Eve at the giant party put on every year by Marvel’s young superheroes to celebrate surviving another year.113 Within Young Avengers it is established that the team is only one part of what is a thriving community of young people with superpowers.

The second volume of Young Avengers followed on from the first volume in also being awarded the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Comic Book. An element of the team which differentiates it from earlier teams is that nearly every member of the team is established as queer, and Dauw acknowledges that the Gillen-McKelvie run is more representative of a diverse array of queer representation than the first incarnation of the team (2017, p.72).114 Wiccan and Hulkling are a depiction of a loving gay couple. Prodigy comes to the realisation that he is bisexual. Loki describes his outlook on sexuality as being, “[m]y culture doesn’t really share your concept of sexual identity.

There are sexual acts, that’s it. I’m actually the patron god of certain popular ones, believe it or not”

(Gillen, 2014, p.12). Noh-Var is established as coming from an alien culture with no qualms about experimentation. Ms America Chavez comes from an all-female culture and her past relationship with Ultimate Nullifier was an experimentation with heterosexuality for her. Kate’s reaction is to ask if she is, “the only person on the team who’s straight?” (Gillen, 2014, p.19). That the team is almost

113 Fittingly, Gillen, McKelvie and Norton are joined by a cadre of other artistic talent who handle the multiple side-stories throughout these two issues. 114 However, Dauw also raises the concern that Teddy and Billy’s fears (which are stoked by Loki as part of his manipulations) that Teddy was created accidentally by Billy’s reality-warping powers to serve as a fantasy boyfriend may express fears of predatory gay men turning straight men (2017, p.71). This concern however somewhat overlooks how the text ultimately validates Teddy and Billy’s relationship.

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entirely made up of queer characters demonstrates an evolution of the superhero team, from being a genre convention in which women and queer people were almost totally excluded, to hitting the point where a mainstream superhero comic can have a predominantly queer cast. Furthermore, queerness is only treated as one aspect of the characters; it does not define the role or function they play within the narrative.

Conclusion The superhero team is an aspect of the genre that has mutated over time. The developments covered in this chapter saw that the early twenty-first century featured teams which returned to longstanding questions about the superhero’s relationship with the state. The Authority is explicitly presented as a force against the state, whereas The Ultimates are completely subsumed within a military-industrial complex. In terms of the internal relationships depicted, The Authority dials back internal conflict amongst the team but also presents a vision of professional superheroes who live apart from the rest of humanity with each other. The Ultimates, by comparison, increased the dysfunctionality of the Marvel Superhero pantheon; it is a team where the members openly dislike and distrust each other. The Young Avengers is less focused on geopolitics but instead focuses on identity politics, using the superhero team as a way to interrogate the relationship between self and community, including one’s responsibilities to recognise the impact of individual actions on others and the wider world. Importantly, the series presents a way for the superhero team to conceptualise diverse communities of heroes who work to help each other overcome their flaws, rather than wallowing in them. Particularly through its highlighting of queer heroes (especially male queer heroes) Young Avengers also demonstrates the evolution of the superhero team. This is a vision of the superhero team where people who do not meet the norms of hegemonic masculinity are welcomed, and it is their collective strength as a community of heroes that saves the world.

While the last two chapters have examined the geopolitical positioning and internal relationship dynamics of the superhero team, the next chapter shifts focus to examining the relationship between superheroes and the community they are meant to protect. This relationship

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can be a fraught one; and texts that highlight the plight of ordinary people within a superhero universe can be used to deconstruct some of the tenets of the genre. However, we will also see that this has increasingly become a space in which a focus on the streets of the superhero metropolis opens up room for the genre to explore new ideas of intersubjectivity and diversity amongst its heroic subjects.

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Figure 48. The Young Avengers get ready to party. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie with Matthew Wilson (colouring) and Clayton Cowles (lettering), Young Avengers #15 (2014), p. 16. Marvel Comics.

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Street Level Heroes: Community and Diverse Perspectives in Superhero Narratives

Superhero narratives are about following the adventures of costumed crimefighters in a fantastical universe. The ordinary people who co-inhabit the universe that the superheroes exist in are typically pushed to the side; their stories are not important compared to the heroic adventures the story is following. Derek Parker Royal describes the approach that superhero comics traditionally take as being ‘a heterodiegetic omniscient narrator whose focal perspective is unlimited, that is, not restricted by geographic of temporal space’ (Royal, 2012, p. 81). Superhero comics will not normally try to capture a specific first-person perspective; rather, the characters are presented in a ‘more objective and detached manner, viewed as central figures performing within the larger “stage” of the paneled pages’ (Royal, 2012). This approach to superhero stories is mostly mirrored in films and television representations of the genre, where the narrative is structured around the series of events that happen to the superhero. To an extent, this protagonist focused model of storytelling reflects a masculinist tendency to highlight transcendent individuality above the immanence of connection and relationships. It is reflective of the manner in which Simone de Beauvoir argued in The Second

Sex (2011) that masculinist worldviews prioritised individuality over the feminine worldview of immanence. The reader/viewer follows the hero’s adventure but does not experience the world directly through the hero’s eyes. Similarly, the narrative will typically closely follow the heroic protagonist; we do not take a narrative detour to find out the backstory of the random henchman who has just been dispatched.115

However, superhero stories also normally take place within vast narratives featuring a shared universe, in which multiple protagonists inhabit the same fictional environment. Whilst there

115 A notable filmic subversion of this trait in is found in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), in which after Austin Powers has run over one of Doctor Evil’s henchmen with a steamroller, the audience is immediately shown the henchman Steve’s loving family reacting to the news of his horrific death. “People never think about how things affect the family of a henchman,” his widow laments (Roach, 1997).

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is a multitude of that has been produced by different companies or independent creators, superhero fiction is dominated (both in comics and multi-media) by two vast narratives: that of the DC Universe and that of the Marvel Universe. One of the strengths of such narratives is that they allow for stories that examine fictional worlds from multiple perspectives. Henry Jenkins has suggested that one of the most powerful aspects of transmedia storytelling is that it can ‘shift our perspectives, showing us what the events look like from the point of view of secondary and supporting characters’ (Jenkins, 2010, p.947). Transmedia franchise storytelling is based around the concept that a story can spread beyond its core medium (be that film, television or prose) and be repurposed for other mediums like comics, video games or webisodes. These extensions to the property both make the franchise more valuable commercially and create space for fans and creators to ‘[compare] and [contrast] multiple subjective experiences of the same fictional events’

(Jenkins, 2009). Indeed, the shifts in subjectivities in transmedia storytelling can be compared to epistolary novels such as Dracula (1897) or Frankenstein (1818), in which the reader is asked to construct a coherent fictional reality of the text out of a source that presents multiple perspectives and modes of writing, such as diary entries or letters (Jenkins, 2009). The vast narrative of superhero comics opens space to utilise the sort of techniques found in transmedia storytelling in the service of telling stories from underrepresented perspectives.

Since the deconstructive period in superhero comics of the 1980s, the genre has become increasingly open to exploring these alternative subjective viewpoints and is moving away from the strict reliance on the strategies of narration that Royal describes. One of the consequences of this is that superhero narratives are becoming more concerned with examining the consequences, for ordinary people, of living within a world of superheroes. and Alex Ross’

(1994),116 which charts the history of the Marvel Universe through the perspective of a photojournalist named Phil Sheldon, is one of the earliest examples of this shift. Increasingly,

116 Marvels would be adapted into an audio-drama by Marvel and Stitcher in 2020

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transmedia iterations of superhero narratives are also reflecting this interest in the lives of ordinary people’s ground-level perspective. For example, Marvel Television has debuted a series offering a ground level view of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (2013-2020), which showed the perspective of the spies who serve as the support staff to superheroes. Another example is the 2017 sitcom which ran for one on NBC. The series was set in the offices of an insurance company within the DC Universe which deals with claims related to superhuman conflict.117

In this chapter I will examine three texts which shift the perspective of the superhero narrative. Each text challenges the traditional notion of who is or should be the leading protagonist in a superhero narrative both in terms of questions of power within the fictional universe of the text as well as broader societal questions regarding the representation of women and people of colour.

Watchmen (1986) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is one of the most influential superhero narratives and the core text of the deconstructive period of superhero comics. Watchmen utilises ordinary people to serve as a version of a Greek Chorus, commenting on the overarching narrative of the series. Their ultimate fate, as the sacrificial lambs of a byzantine plot to unite the world orchestrated by one of the world’s heroes, is used to iterate the political message of the text; that great power needs to be kept in check lest the powerless pay a dire price. My second text, Gotham

Central (2002-2006) is a procedural which follows the lives of police officers working under of Batman in Gotham City. Gotham Central highlights the existential horror of being an ordinary person in Gotham, caught up in the crossfire of Batman’s mythic wars with his foes. The series also examines alternative perspectives on life in Gotham City through the character of Renee

Montoya, a queer Latina detective who is forcibly outed to her peers and family. My third text,

117 Whilst Powerless was not well received and was cancelled after one season, the opening credits for the series do an excellent job of highlighting the focus of this chapter. The opening sequence animates famous DC Comics covers (beginning with the Action Comics #1 cover) and moves the focus of the camera from the superhero at the center of the image to one of the bystanders, as the music changes from a triumphant march to a discordant whistle.

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Hawkeye (2012-2015), takes a key member of The Avengers and focuses on his regular life amongst a community of ordinary people. Hawkeye is about the relationships that heroic leads have with the communities they have chosen to be a part of. Furthermore, the series extends the experiment of shifting perspective by depicting the Marvel Universe through diverse subjective perspectives, including that of the non-human perspective of Hawkeye’s dog.

Watchmen Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen (1987)118 is one of the most influential superhero stories in the history of the genre. It began life as a pitch using the superhero characters DC Comics had recently purchased from the collapsed publisher , such as The Question and

Blue Beetle. However, DC editorial felt that the ‘close-ended scenario’ (Gibbons, 2008, p. 29) pitched would exclude the characters from future use, and Moore and Gibbons were asked to reconceive the project. They therefore created a new set of characters, each reflecting the Charlton heroes of the original pitch. Watchmen was one of the most important deconstructive superhero texts of the

1980s. Moore and Gibbons’ story represented a modified approach to superheroes, explored through the lens of science fiction rather than the traditional conventions of the superhero genre.

Gibbons has stated that he always viewed the series as ‘not a super-hero book as such, but rather a work of science-fiction, an ’ (Gibbons, 2008, p.29). Most superhero comics exist in a universe in which the fantastic technologies of superheroes have not had a significant impact on the society and culture of the world; for example, the Marvel Universe was always trying to reflect ‘the world outside your window’. Moore and Gibbons take the opposite approach; the very existence of one superhero, Doctor Manhattan, deforms the world completely and therefore drastically changes the technology, culture and politics of the world.

As Brooks Landon suggests, ‘[s]cience fiction is the literature of change…. Science fiction is the literature that most explicitly and self-consciously takes change as its subject and its teleology’

118 As the collected edition does not include page numbers, citations refer to the page number in individual chapters.

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(Landon, 2002, p.xi). Moore and Gibbons approached superheroes from this science-fictional perspective, wanting to explore a world changed by superheroes. The presence of Doctor

Manhattan creates a vastly different political world from that which existed in 1987. Richard Nixon is still president, following Doctor Manhattan’s intervention in the Vietnam War. Technology is also altered by Doctor Manhattan’s presence in the world. At the retirement of Hollis Mason (the first

Nite-), the aging former superhero tells Doctor Manhattan that he is retiring to become an auto- mechanic, saying “[i]t’ll be a while before even you affect General Motors” (Moore, 1987, p.15).

Doctor Manhattan’s response is to tell Hollis about the new electric cars coming onto the market, made possible by Manhattan’s powers and further relegating Hollis to a by-gone era. Watchmen is thus a work of alternate history, and one of the unique features of the series was that Moore and

Gibbons wanted to explore how superheroes affect the world around them and the people who live within it.

Watchmen’s plot is sparked by the murder of Edward Blake, The Comedian. Blake’s murder begins to unravel a conspiracy aimed at creating peace between the United States and the Soviet

Union, by faking an alien attack on New York. This conspiracy draws the series’ costumed vigilantes back into action, following their retirement when superheroes were banned in 1977. Moore and

Gibbons aim to tell a complete story within Watchmen, with no editorial mandates that the characters had to be left intact for future publications. Yet, Watchmen mimics the structure of the vast narrative of a shared universe such as the DC Universe.119 The comic’s narrative contains multiple protagonists with different chapters spotlighting each member of the cast. Further, the history of the world in which Watchmen takes place is revealed to the reader throughout the text;

119 DC Comics’ later attempt to commercially exploit Watchmen saw the company release a series of prequel miniseries in 2012. Under the title Before Watchmen, these miniseries focused upon different members of Watchmen’s cast. Moore and Gibbons were not involved in the Before Watchmen project and disavowed it. Despite the presence of comics creators such as Darwyn Cooke, and , Before Watchmen was looked upon in critical circles as a failure. Since its publication, Before Watchmen has not made a significant cultural impact. As of 2016’s DC Universe Rebirth, characters from Watchmen are being integrated into the main DC Universe, with Doctor Manhattan being presented as a villainous force that has corrupted the history and relationships of the DC superheroes. This story culminated with Doomsday (2017-2019) which put Doctor Manhattan in direct conflict with the DC Superheroes.

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this is best seen through the text pieces which accompany the end of each chapter, such as the excerpts from Hollis Mason’s autobiography, which tells the story of the emergence of superheroes.

These text pieces deepen the world of Watchmen, giving the reader an understanding of how global

Figure 49. The streets of New York. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, with (colouring), Watchmen (1987), p. 1, DC Comics.

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politics and popular culture end up being warped as a result of existing within a world where real superheroes exist.120

Watchmen is a work that has attracted a significant amount of scholarship. Its significance as a canonical work within the superhero genre means that Moore and Gibbons’ text is one of the most analysed superhero texts within academia. Van Ness’ book Watchmen as Literature (2010) primarily analyses Watchmen in terms of the visual language of comics and Watchmen’s approach to heroism and morality. Hoberek’s book Considering Watchmen: Poetry, Property, Politics (2014), looks at

Watchmen’s place in modernist fiction, its approach to corporate ownership of creative culture and the political context of the text. Carney (2006) examines Watchmen through a focus on Moore’s approach to time and the progression of history. Fishbaugh (1998) examines the superheroes in

Watchmen as standing in for different approaches to science. Hughes (2006) views Watchmen through the lens of political ideologies. And, in broader works focused upon the superhero genre, such as those by Klock (2006) and Reynolds (1992), Watchmen is viewed as a deconstructive approach to the superhero genre.

An aspect of the series which has not been explored within Watchmen scholarship is the status of ordinary people within the series. The series is constantly shifting its perspective, from the superhero characters to the ordinary people populating New York City. This presence of ordinary people gives the comic’s world a greater degree of verisimilitude because these characters feel like real people rather than mere extras fleeing in panic from supervillain attacks. Within the narrative of

Watchmen, these characters present an alternative viewpoint and serve as a chorus, commentating on the events of the overarching narrative. This was a feature largely missing from prior superhero narratives, which were so tightly focalised around the story’s protagonist that other viewpoints are not given any validity. The presence of these side characters within Watchmen furthers the broader

120 The text piece accompanying Chapter 5, a mock excerpt from a comics history book, tells the narrative of the rise of pirate comics which have supplanted superheroes as the dominant genre in the American comics book industry. Moore and Gibbons suggest that in a world containing superheroes, there would be no need for them within the popular imagination.

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thematic and political arguments of the text. They also serve as a predecessor for the later superhero narratives which will be featured in this chapter, which centre a shift in perspective from the skies and rooftops world of superheroes towards the city streets of regular people.

Throughout Watchmen, Moore and Gibbons continually return to the streets of New York.

Moore and Gibbons want the reader to have a broader understanding of how normal people are reacting to the potential nuclear apocalypse; not just the masked adventurers who are the protagonists of the series. Here the violent and disturbed vigilante (without his mask) walks the streets as a preacher, holding up a “The End is Nigh” sign. Rorschach visits a newsstand, to pick up his copy of The New Frontiersman, a small right-wing magazine. At the newsstand, there is a newsvendor and a young black man who sits by the stand throughout the whole series reading the pirate comic which mirrors the main plot of the series. The newsvendor describes his role as, “Newsvendors understand. They get to see the whole picture… It’s our we see every damned connection. Every damned link” (Moore, 1987, p.12). These two characters become the reader’s window into how the events of the series impact the world. It is through the newsvendor that the reader finds out about the increasing Cold War tensions and the public’s reaction to Doctor Manhattan’s disappearance. The newsvendor is a character who enjoys the sound of his own voice, “I’m a newsvendor, goddamnit! I’m informed on the situation! We outta nuke ‘em till they glow! ‘Course that’s just my opinion.” (Moore 1987 1) Moore describes the character as a

‘truculent news vendor giving his fairly uninformed commentary on the political state of the world’

(Moore cited in Robinson 2003). This newsvendor becomes Watchmen’s voice of a general public that is reacting to the events of the text, often in a manner that is fearfully expressed. In this way, the character gives Watchmen a subjective voice missing from other superhero narratives.121

121 It is worth noting that Watchmen (2019), the HBO limited television series sequel to the original comic, addresses perspectives left out of Moore and Gibbons work. Set 34 years after the events of the comic, the television series is primarily interested in America’s history of racism and white supremacy. In contrast, Moore and Gibbons’ comic deals with many different pressing social concerns of the 1980s (primarily the threat of nuclear war) but largely avoids addressing racial politics. In many ways, it could be described as a colour-blind

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Yet, the newsvendor’s pontificating is ignored by the young man throughout almost the whole series. This relationship between the newsvendor and the young man is something that

Moore and Gibbons keep returning to throughout the whole text. To an extent, this relationship is one marked by indifference. The young man is focused on reading his comic, not paying any attention to the newsvendor’s perpetual blather. At one point when it is raining, the young man asks to borrow the vendor’s cap and gets the response, “No chance, I don’t lend things it’s my philosophy…. In this world, you shouldn’t rely on help from anybody. In the end, a man stands alone” (Moore, 1987, p.18). The newsvendor’s philosophy here reflects the philosophy of Margaret

Thatcher, the Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time of Watchmen’s creation.

Through the newsvendor, Moore captures the same individualistic sentiment Thatcher would express later when she stated that “[t]here is no such thing as society” (Thatcher cited in Hoberek,

2014, p.84). Moore’s work throughout the 1980s came from a place of ideological opposition to the political philosophy and policies of Thatcherism.122 Watchmen is a product of British creators working at a time when ‘the state was simultaneously shrinking programs designed to improve citizens’ lives… and expanding its repressive powers’ (Hoberek, 2014, p.85). It is not surprising that

Moore built into the structure of Watchmen a repudiation of both the newsvendor and Thatcher’s philosophy by the end of the text.

In Chapter 11, the final conversation between the newsvendor and the young man takes place. The newsvendor articulates for the first time why he has his job and contradicts his earlier statement of individualistic dogma:

text; the most prominent black character in the book is Dr. Malcolm Long, Rorschach’s prison psychiatrist. The television series, however, begins with a flashback to the 1921 Tulsa Race and recontextualises Hooded Justice (the Watchmen universe’s first masked hero) as a queer black man. Even though the original comic highlighted the voices of ordinary people ignored in superhero narratives, the television sequel highlights the racial politics ignored in Moore and Gibbons’ original critique of the superhero genre. 122 This opposition to Thatcherism is most apparent in V for Vendetta (1989), a dystopic comic set in a Fascistic Britain and focusing on a terroristic vigilante who fights the regime. Illustrated by ; it is Moore’s second best-known work after Watchmen.

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See people don’t reach out and make contact. That’s why there’s this commotion all the

time, this conflict. People don’t connect with each other. It’s like, you been comin here

, readin’ that junk over and over an’ yet we ain’t exactly close…Listen, when my Rosa

died, most of our friends were her friends: The stopped calling. I took this job to meet

people, y’know?

So… what’s your name? Whaddya doin’ here?

(Moore, 1987, p.23)

The young man responds by saying that his name is Bernie, which the newsvendor enthusiastically points out is short for Bernard, the newsvendor’s name. This moment of vulnerability from Bernard displays a deep longing for connection with another person. It becomes evident that his verbosity is a coping mechanism to deal with his loneliness following his wife’s death. Bernie’s immediate response is to say that, “Lotta people called Bernard, man. Don’t signify nothin’” (Moore, 1987, p.23). This resistance to the newsvendor’s openness, however, is broken down five pages later.

Watchmen’s plot is built upon the reveal that Blake’s murder, Doctor Manhattan’s estrangement from Earth and all the increasing nuclear tensions between the superpowers have been engineered by Adrian Veidt (formerly the superhero Ozymandias). Veidt, the self-proclaimed smartest man on

Earth, views nuclear conflict between the United States and Soviet Union as inevitable unless he intervenes. Therefore, he fakes an alien attack on New York City to unite humanity and create a common enemy who would bring together the West and East. In pursuing this harmony, he murders three million people in the process. Bernie and Bernard are at ground zero for the attack. Their last moment on Earth sees the two men embrace, in direct opposition to Bernard’s earlier position that a man is alone in his final moments. This moment is one of the most emotionally resonant throughout the text. These are the people that Veidt has decided are collateral damage, worth murdering in the utilitarian pursuit of peace. That Moore and Gibbons have threaded the two Bernies throughout the whole text gives added meaning to the senselessness of their death and the horror of Veidt’s plan.

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That the reader has known these two characters throughout the comic increases the emotional impact of both this moment and the start of the following chapter in which the aftermath of New

York’s destruction is shown. ‘The emotional impact of the scene resonates through the familiar faces’ (Van Less, 2010, p.185). The reader has been invited to care about these individuals and not just see them as collateral damage.

In Zach Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of Watchmen, the film includes this final moment that the two Bernies share. However, this is the only scene in which the two characters appear.124 Without their earlier appearances, the moment fails to have the same emotional resonance found within the comic; ‘[t]hey’re cannon fodder for the special effects, not characters you care about’ (Berlatsky cited in Van Less, 2010, p.185). The film thus downplayed the civilian perspective that Moore and

Gibbons included in the original comic and without the earlier character development found within the comic, the moment comes off as out of place and almost comical. The characters do not feel authentic in the way that they do in the comic. In comparison to Snyder, Moore’s work within the superhero genre has recurringly gone back to the human costs of superhuman conflict. In the climax of his run on (1982-1987), the conflict between the hero and his former sidekick Kid

Miracleman decimates London. Miracleman and his new family take over the world afterwards and create a utopian society. However, the killing fields of London are never built over:

“These charnel pastures serve as a reminder. A Memento Mori. Never letting us

forget that though Olympus pierce the very skies, in all the history of Earth, there’s

never been a Heaven; Never been a house of gods…. That was not built on human

bones…”

(The Original Writer, 2015, p.166).

124 More scenes featuring the characters were included in a Director’s Cut released on DVD.

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Figure 50. The destruction of New York. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, with John Higgins (colouring), Watchmen (1987), p. 28, DC Comics.

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A core difference between Snyder’s film and Moore and Gibbons’ comic, was that the film was missing the perspective of ordinary people within the world of Watchmen; the film focused on ‘the choices and sacrifices of the superpowered… rather than what those choices mean for everybody else’ (Bertlasky cited in Van Less, 2010).

Whilst the two Bernies are the main civilians Moore and Gibbons use in order to explore how ordinary citizens are affected by superheroes there are a succession of other supporting characters who keep recurring throughout the text. Watchmen opens with two detectives examining the crime scene at Edward Blake’s apartment and the detectives continue investigating the murder throughout the series. There is also Malcolm Long, the psychiatrist who analyses Rorschach in prison, who has his own sense of self disrupted by his sessions with the vigilante. Another highlighted character is Joey, a taxi driver who buys pornographic magazines from Bernard’s newsstand and has a difficult relationship with her more politically active girlfriend Aline. These characters are woven throughout the main narrative of Watchmen, at times directly interacting with the core cast and at other times serving as a depiction of how ordinary people are coping under the shadow of prospective at the hands of those with superpowers.

In Chapter 11, all of these characters are drawn together towards the street corner where

Bernard has his newsstand. Joey and Aline have an argument about their failing relationship, which turns into a violent scene of domestic abuse, as Joey attacks Aline. The murder of Kitty Genovese in

1964 is a real-life crime which looms large throughout Watchmen. The New York Times story that reported Genovese’s death begins with the lines, ‘[f]or more than half an hour 38 respectable, law‐ abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew

Gardens’ (Gansberg, 1964).125 Rorschach’s disgust at this crime, and at the idea that people watched on as it happened, is what spurs him into a life of violent vigilantism. Moore and Gibbons return to the idea of the Kitty Genovese murder at the end of the series, setting up a rejection of the so-called

125 A 2015 book by journalist Kevin Cook has suggested that the idea that the neighbours did nothing to help Genovese is an erroneous urban myth.

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‘bystander effect’ that her death has come to represent.126 All of the human characters gather around the area where Joey is attacking Aline. Doctor Long and his wife are shown arguing about the state of their marriage, when Malcolm sees the attack taking place. Gloria argues that it is not his place to “get drawn towards another of somebody else’s grief,” (Moore, 1987, p.20) Malcolm who has been deeply disturbed by being exposed to Rorschach’s worldview, counters that he has to intervene; “Gloria… I’m sorry. It’s the world…. I can’t run from it” (Moore, 1987). Similarly, one of the detectives stops his car to intervene in the fight, even though he has been suspended. Joey’s boss at the taxicab rank and Bernard both go to intervene as well. This moment brings all these marginal characters in the text together, a rejection of the notion that every person stands alone.

Visually the panels showing this intervention are overlaid with a caption containing Veidt explaining his plan to attack New York. This sets up perhaps the most tragic moment in the series; at this point when all of these characters are coming together to protect someone from abuse, they are all soon to be murdered. One of the core concerns of Watchmen is thus to examine the relationship between powerful people and ordinary people. As Rorschach and Nite-Owl make their approach into Veidt’s

Antarctic base, Nite-Owl remarks that, “Y’know this must be how ordinary people feel. This must be how ordinary people feel around us” (Moore, 1987, p.14). Politically, Moore and Gibbons use superheroes as avatars for powerful political and corporate leaders. The series epigraph, Juvenal’s quote ‘[w]ho watches the Watchmen?’ serves as a reminder for the public to serve as a check on powerful figures. The last images of the comic take place in the offices of The New Frontiersman; the disreputable right-wing magazine that Rorschach reads. The last panel of the series shows Seymour, a young, unimpressive looking worker at the magazine. Seymour’s editor tells him to make a story up to fill space saying, “I leave it entirely in your hands” (Moore, 1987, p.32). Seymour’s hand hovers over Rorschach’s journal, which tells the story of Veidt’s complicity in the attack on New York.

126 The story of Kitty Genovese has become somewhat of a modern and is key to the popular understanding of the bystander effect (Manning, Levine & Collins, 2007, p.55).

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Moore has declared that the point he was trying to convey with Watchmen’s ending is to make the argument that everyone has power and responsibility for the state of the world.

The last line of Watchmen, “I leave it entirely in your hands,” was directed more at the

reader than Seymour. The fate of the world is undecided: everyone has responsibility. What

the reader does in the next ten minutes is as important as everything Ronald Reagan does.

(Moore cited in Hoberek, 2014, p.86)

Watchmen’s focus on presenting the alternative subjectivity of minor characters in its world is part of the larger political message Moore and Gibbons were trying to convey. The presence of these minor characters and their understanding of the world displays how in Watchmen the world is made by everyone, not just superheroes. In this way, Watchmen reconceives heroism in less individualistic and more relational terms, distributing its properties across the social network.

Figure 51. The future is unwritten. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, with John Higgins (colouring), Watchmen (1987), p. 32, DC Comics.

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Gotham Central In 2003, DC Comics launched a series which approached life within Batman’s Gotham City from a unique viewpoint. As with Watchmen, Gotham Central was a comic which broke through the traditional narrative perspective within superhero stories. The series shifts the narrative focus within the world of Gotham City away from that of Batman and his allies and towards the world of the

Gotham City Police Department. The series was conceived by writers Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker127 as an attempt to create a police procedural series within the fantasy world of Gotham City. Michael

Lark was the primary artist for the series. Taking inspiration from television series such as Homicide:

Life on the Street, NYPD Blue and Law and Order, Rucka and Brubaker use Gotham Central as a way to imagine what it would be like to be a cop in a superhero’s world. The series focuses upon the detectives heading up the GCPD’s Major Crimes Unit (MCU). Through their experiences, the reader is given a different perspective of life within Gotham City and the overriding cultural impact that the shadow of Batman casts across his home. Like Watchmen, Gotham Central is a series which explores the relationship between superheroes/villains and the ordinary people caught up in the undertow of their mythic conflicts.

Unlike Watchmen, which is disconnected from other stories, Gotham Central was built directly into the wider canon of Batman comics. The series was published simultaneously with the rest of the within the DC Universe. It was designed to reflect any changes that occurred within the main Batman series which set the overall direction for the Batman publishing line. For example, the Batman storyline War Games (2004-2005) took place in the middle of Gotham

Central’s run. The aftermath of the story created a total schism between Batman and the police and in Gotham Central #25 (2005), this status-quo change was reflected. The issue opens with the

Batsignal on the top of the GCPD building being dismantled, symbolically stating that, “the GCPD and

127 Brubaker and Rucka took a unique approach towards collaboration across the series. As the Major Crimes Unit is split between a day and , each writer would script stories that focused upon one of the shifts. The two would collaborate on the stories which impacted the entire Major Crimes Unit.

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The Batman are no longer on speaking terms” (Rucka, 2005, p.5). This escalated conflict, in what was already a tense partnership, is reflected throughout the rest of the series.

Prior to the series launch the character of Jim Gordon stood down as police commissioner and his replacement Commissioner Akins has no established personal relationship with Batman.

Whilst this story decision within the Batman universe was established before Gotham Central’s conception as a series, it created an important thematic element of the series. None of the series protagonists have a personal relationship with Batman or know his secret identity of Bruce Wayne.

They have no understanding of Bruce Wayne’s psychological reasoning for donning the cape and cowl. When Batman confronts Commissioner Akins about the GCPD’s refutation of him, Akins responds, “I don’t know why you do what you do. If it’s about power or ego or revenge… Maybe just for kicks… Frankly I don’t care anymore” (Rucka, 2005, p.20) As a result the police force in Gotham have a tumultuous relationship with their city’s superhero. To the cops in Gotham, Batman is both a rival and a necessary evil, and an unpredictable force. The series is thus fuelled by a sense of dramatic because whenever Batman and the MCU detectives interact, the reader understands why Batman makes his choices and acts in a certain way. However, from the perspective of the cops,

Batman is a mystery and his actions cannot be understood. As Rucka explains, Gotham Central’s dramatic irony comes from the fact that the reader understands the psychological impetus behind

Batman’s actions, but Gotham Central’s protagonists have no such understanding.

From the cop point of view, and it is from the cop point of view, it looks like Batman doesn’t

care. And that, to me, goes back to what I was saying: The view from outside is more

compelling than the view from inside, because we know he does care. We know it’s killing

him. We know that every life he couldn’t save, he blames himself for personally. But the

cops never see that, and they never can be allowed to see.

(Rucka cited in Sims, 2014)

The reader knows what Batman’s intentions are; but Gotham Central’s cast do not.

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Gotham Central begins with an opening that would feel familiar to any viewer of television crime dramas. Detective Marcus Driver and his partner Charlie Fields are checking in on a dubious tip they received relating to a young girl’s kidnapping. “You’re wasting my time Marcus. I mean it.

What’s the likelihood that some junkie snitch is gonna give us a serious lead on the Lewis thing”

(Brubaker and Rucka, 2003, p.1). Although their shift is over, both detectives decide that it is worth looking into the information, despite their shared cynicism that the tip will lead anywhere. On opening the door however, the detectives find themselves confronted by Mister Freeze,128 who immediately murders Charlie and taunts Marcus. This opening scene is Gotham Central’s thesis statement, about the necessity of Batman in Gotham City; without Batman the police are hopelessly outmatched by Gotham’s supervillains. ‘You need Batman because Marcus just watched his partner get shattered, and he couldn’t do anything about it’ (Rucka cited in Sims, 2014). The set-up of superhero narratives creates a situation wherein superheroes ‘combat the superdangers that are beyond the abilities of the regular police and resolvable by [them] alone’ (Arnaudo, 2013, p.78). The series then focuses upon the psychology of being a cop in Gotham City, attempting to understand how Gotham’s cops can handle high levels of trauma, continuing to come to work despite it. The solution of the kidnapping case (which is related to the reappearance of , an arson-themed supervillain), leads to Driver turning on the Batsignal himself and confronting Batman:

DRIVER: I just want you to know that we took down that Firebug tonight. And we did it

alone, without your help.

BATMAN: Good. Thank you.

DRIVER: That’s all you’ve got to say? A good cop died because of these freakin’ nutjobs that

just crawl out of the woodwork in this godforsaken town… And that’s all you’ve got to say?

128 Originally debuting in 1951’s Batman #121, Mister Freeze is one of the most science-fictional of Batman’s villains. Victor Fries is a cryogenics scientist who was injured in an industrial accident and must live in a special suit to keep his body temperature below zero. His main weapon is an -gun and his motivations are to make others suffer the same emotional trauma he has experienced.

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BATMAN: No, it’s not… Don’t use that signal again unless it’s an emergency. I’m sorry about

Detective Fields, but I’ve got work to do.

(Brubaker, 2003, p.22)

Throughout the entire series there is a tension being explored, between a grudging acceptance of the necessity of Batman’s role in Gotham and the feeling within the GCPD that they are failing the city by relying so heavily on a vigilante.

David Marc, in examining television crime drama, suggested that these shows function as a

‘comedy of public safety’ and resemble a situation comedy wherein Law and Chaos are married together like the central couple in a sitcom. In each episode, Chaos acts out of line, but the Law responds by pulling Chaos back into order by the episode’s end (Marc, 1984, p.69). Gotham Central, whilst greatly influenced by television crime dramas, breaks the conventional rules of this relationship between chaos and order. Whilst the Major Crimes Unit can achieve small victories, ultimately, they must nearly always rely on a figure of chaos in Batman to contain the greater chaos created by Gotham’s supervillains. Rather than resembling the morally didactic and ideologically conservative version of the crime dramas Marc analysed, Gotham Central is closer in kin to crime dramas which take a critical approach towards the problems of law and order; for example, The

Wire, which focuses on the city of Baltimore as a way to examine governmental corruption and decay within America (Turnbull, 2010, p.825). Gotham Central shares with a focus on the corrosive effect of police corruption. It is established that outside of the Major Crimes Unit the GCPD is riddled with corruption, and a conflict between members of the Major Crimes Unit and Jim

Corrigan, a corrupt forensic scientist, becomes the central conflict of Gotham Central’s closing arcs.

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Figure 52. A night on the beat in Gotham always promises strange and terrible dangers. Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and , with Noelle Giddings (colouring) and Willie Schubert (lettering), Gotham Central #1 (2002), p. 4, DC Comics.

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The presence of police corruption in Gotham is explored in Gotham Central #32,129 which shifts the series’ perspective for an issue to focus on a pair of corrupt beat cops. For this one issue, the reader sees the world through the subjective viewpoint of Tim, one of the GCPD’s corrupt officers, and the difference between his thought process and that of the MCU detectives is as stark as that of Gotham Central’s overall shift from Batman’s perspective towards that of the MCU. Tim believes that in Gotham, “[y]ou look out for yourself… It’s like that, what is it, Darwin thing?” (Rucka,

2004, p.2). Tim and Roger’s selfishness, their belief that strength and authority allows them to do whatever they want, becomes their self-justification for killing a teenage runaway or blackmailing sex workers. Through his captions, the reader is given Tim’s viewpoint on the members of the MCU.

“…A whole damn unit of holier-than-thou minorities and homos… Seriously all the women are lesbians and all the men are affirmative-action hires… Hiding up at Central behind the Bat” (Rucka,

2004, p.6). The spread of corruption throughout the police force is underlined when Tim and Roger pay off corrupt forensic scientists to hide their murder of the runaway. However, the issue ends with the pair facing supernatural punishment for their actions. They are lured to their deaths by Poison

Ivy, who had taken the runaway under her care. As she commands the earth to swallow the men up, she says, “in their deaths they give more to Gotham than ever they did in their lives” (Rucka, 2004, p.23). Whilst based within the fantastical environment of the DC Universe, the focus on police corruption in Gotham Central echoes the more complex storytelling of dramas like The Wire, which develop more nuanced explorations of the connections between crime, justice, and their personification.

As well as focusing on the police, Gotham Central explores the impact of the conflict between superheroes and supervillains upon the lives of Gotham’s ordinary citizens. When Batman and The Joker go to war, it is Gotham’s police and citizens who become collateral damage. The story arc Soft Targets130 is the best example within Gotham Central of the human costs of superhuman

129 Written by Rucka and illustrated by . 130 This story runs in Gotham Central #12-15, written by Rucka and Brubaker and illustrated by Lark.

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conflicts. The story follows the MCU as they scramble to try and stop The Joker’s coordinated shooting spree across Gotham. The killings begin with Gotham’s mayor being assassinated in his own office via a sniper’s bullet. At first, the GCPD throw around theories that the attack was a case of the

Mayor’s corruption catching up with him. A second attack on a school superintendent suggests “an angry citizen parent” (Rucka and Brubaker, 2004, p.14). A third attack, on the police and forensic teams working at the crime scene, reveals the terrifying truth behind the shooter; that it is The Joker who has left a mocking message to Batman. One of the focuses of Soft Targets is to explore the psychological effects of a supervillain attack on both the police and the city as a whole. Lark’s depiction of Lieutenant Probson finding out about The Joker’s involvement in the attack is the clearest depiction of this effect. Over the course of one panel transition, the shift commander goes from appearing gruff and confident to looking completely shaken. Upon learning that The Clown

Prince of Crime is behind the shootings, Probson immediately goes to the roof to light the Batsignal

(which he legally is not allowed to do without the Commissioner’s permission). Soft Targets makes the point that more than any other villain, The Joker is Gotham’s boogieman. He is the figure who scares the GCPD more than any other; the one villain they have no confidence in being able to combat without The Batman’s help. There is a bitter feeling of resignation within the police department and the structure of Gotham City’s government that The Joker is a specific threat that the powers of the state are powerless to fight without the presence of Batman. Gotham’s new mayor states, “[w]e both know that Batman will take care of it, it’s just a matter of waiting for him to do it” (Rucka and Brubaker, p.8). The Mayor goes on to order Commissioner Atkins to waste police resources rounding up a gang associated with The Joker, just for media management purposes. “We have to give the media something that’ll make us look good, at least until Batman takes care of this”

(Rucka and Brubaker, p.8).

By showing the reader the GCPD’s perspective on Batman and The Joker’s conflict, the comic has the effect of also illuminating The Joker’s perspective on Gotham. The Joker does not see the police as threats to his plans; all the messages he leaves throughout Gotham are addressed directly

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to Batman. As Probson describes, “[i]t’s pretty clear he thinks this is between Batman and him….

We’re just audience” (Rucka and Brubaker, p.7) Similarly, Commissioner Aikens vents at Batman, complaining that, “[T]his isn’t about anything but you and him anyway. We’re just toy soldiers while you two play general with this city as your battlefield” (Rucka and Brubaker, p.10). The GCPD are simply pawns to Joker in his grand game of wits with Batman. The story ends with Commissioner

Akins and Maggie Sawyer131 standing on the GCPD’s rooftop as the Batsignal is being repaired. Akins asks Sawyer, “[y]ou never doubted Superman was on your side, did you Maggie? In Metropolis, I mean” (Rucka and Brubaker, p.22). As much as Soft Targets is a story about how much Gotham City and the police force need Batman, it is also a story that is about how that need damages the GCPD’s legitimacy. Akins complains, “[w]e’ve got cops dying while we wait around for him to save the day…

That’s just not right” (Rucka and Brubaker, p.23). Sawyer responds to him saying, “[n]o sir, it’s not…

But it’s Gotham.” This final line is delivered to the reader through a caption, accompanying Lark’s illustration of a laughing Joker strapped down to a hospital bed. In Gotham City, ordinary people are caught in the crossfire in the on-going war between Batman and his enemies.

The psychologised imagery of The Joker in the mental health ward plays with the idea explored in many Batman narratives, that Batman’s presence creates a within Gotham, presenting a clarion call precipitating the rise of freakish supervillains. ‘For these villains, and many more disturbed criminals who inhabit Gotham City, Wayne’s decision to become Batman creates a fearsome yet attractive image that evokes an emotional reaction and garners an obsessive dedication’ (Garland, 2013, p.121). In the closing scene of Batman Begins (2005), Jim Gordon raises this problem of escalation to Batman, noting that as Gotham’s traditional criminals increase their firepower to match the upgrades made to Gotham’s police force, so does Batman’s arrival lead to

131 Introduced in 1987 by writer/artist John Byrne, was Superman’s closest ally on the Metropolis police force. She transferred to Gotham City, where she served as the second shift commander of the MCU.

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Figure 53. The Joker’s message for Batman is discovered by the GCPD. Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, with Lee Loughridge (colouring) and Clem Robins (lettering), Gotham Central #12 (2003), p. 19, DC Comics.

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new weird threats like The Joker arising in Gotham City. Indeed, Garland has suggested that the relationship between Batman and his villains is reflective of fan dynamics; that villains such as Bane,

The Riddler and The Joker exist in a ‘paradoxically interdependent’ relationship with Batman. They

‘wish to kill him yet owe their actions to him’ (Garland, 2013, p.122). Certainly, in Gotham Central,

Rucka and Brubaker present villains who literally are fans of Batman’s world; the impetus for their crimes is a desire to cross over from being a fan to being a participant in Batman’s adventures.

This dangerous fannish obsession is depicted in the story arc Dead Robin,132 in which the

MCU investigates a pair of murders where the victims have been found dressed in Robin outfits. The fact that Robin’s identity is unknown means that the GCPD needs to begin its investigation with the assumption that the victim is the real Boy Wonder. After Batman, Robin and Robin’s teammates from The Teen Titans all explain to the police that the real Robin is still alive, a second body is found in Gotham’s harbour and a third boy has gone missing. The murderer is Jack Dunning, a plain-looking bespectacled journalist who is present as a background character throughout the story. He finally walks into the MCU office, brandishing the student ID card of the missing teenager and tells the police that they are interrogating the wrong man. Dunning explains that he committed the murders as an entry point into Batman’s world and insists that he will only tell the location of the missing teenager directly to Batman, saying “[t]his is my entry point. This is how I enter their world”

(Brubaker and Rucka, 2005). In Dead Robin, Brubaker and Rucka thus return to the theme they were dealing with in Soft Targets; that of the divide between the world of Batman and that of Gotham’s citizens. A desire to traverse the boundaries of this division on Dunning’s part leads to his mental break and murderous actions. The culprit in Dead Robin is literally a fan who wishes to ascend out of fandom into active participation in Gotham’s superheroic drama. His desire is answered by a visit to the interrogation room by Batman, who destroys the delusions Dunning had built up about his role in Batman’s world and leaves him broken down. Dunning is akin to a protagonist from a cosmic

132 Published over Gotham Central #32-36, the story was the last in the series to be co-written by Brubaker and Rucka and was illustrated by .

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horror story, who has been driven mad by his realisation of humanity’s insignificance in the face of gods.

As Rucka has stated whilst discussing Gotham Central, there is an almost Lovecraftian element to the relationship between the world of ordinary people and the chaotic world of Batman and The Joker (Rucka cited in Sims, 2014). As discussed in relation to Justice League of America, HP

Lovecraft’s stories worked within the genre of cosmic horror, in which his protagonists were forced to confront the ultimate meaningless of human existence in the face of the unknowable horrors lurking in the vastness of space. Lovecraft’s fiction was based within an anti-humanist philosophical perspective, in which all of humanity’s social bonds and cultural achievements are useless when put into the perspective of our race’s cosmic insignificance:

Cosmic horror therefore amounts to an experience of the cataclysmic horror that the human

subject experiences once it cognizes the finitude of its existence and realizes that, contrary

to a humanist view which posits human life as intrinsically meaningful in relation not only to

itself but to the cosmos, there is neither anything distinctive nor significant about being

human,

(Ralickas, 2008, p.298)

As previously discussed, whilst the superhero genre has drawn greatly upon Lovecraft’s weird fiction to inspire space monsters and strange creatures, the classical superhero narrative is at the other end of the philosophical spectrum from Lovecraft, offering a humanist response to the bleak anti- humanism of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror; superhero stories are about preserving and restoring a humanist sensibility in the face of the great and terrible forces of the cosmos. Superheroes literally punch Cthulhu in the face. However, Gotham Central is a series that flips this perspective. Once the world of Gotham City is shown from the perspective of police officers, it becomes clear how often the bystanders within superhero stories are treated as disposable victims there to further the plot.

Once the story’s perspective shifts away from the superhero, and towards ordinary people living in

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Figure 54.

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Figure 55. Jack Dunning gets his wish to ascend from extra to featured villain. Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Kano, with Stefano Gaudiano (inking), Lee Loughridge (colouring) and Clem Robins (lettering), Gotham Central #36 (2005), p. 18-19, DC Comics.

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the universe who are at the mercy of seemingly indifferent forces, a Lovecraftian horror is reasserted. However, the series’ thematic focus on the dynamics between superheroes and their communities also implies a humanist commitment to preserving a focus on relational connections.

This commitment is evident in Half a Life,133 which stands out as the most critically regarded arc throughout the series, winning the 2004 Eisner Award134 for Best Serialised Story. The arc focuses on Detective , who had been a supporting cast member in the Batman books since she was introduced in 1992.135 Half a Life is the inciting story for her narrative arc throughout the run of Gotham Central, setting up the emotional trauma and rage she carries throughout the series that leads to her quitting the GCPD at its conclusion. The events of Half a Life set Montoya on a spiral characterised by ‘mounting alcoholism, this mounting self-abuse, and this mounting need to validate her life and her existence in extreme’ (Rucka cited in Sims, 2015). The story sees Montoya being harassed by a former suspect, who escaped a rape conviction on a technicality. When the suspect is murdered and Renee is framed for the crime, it becomes evident that there is a growing conspiracy surrounding the detective.

The villain of the story undertakes a concerted campaign to destroy every connection and relationship that Renee has. The most damaging action the conspiracy against Renee takes, is the forced outing of the detective to both her peers and family. The first chapter of the story ends on the image of a photograph of Renee and her lover Daria, pinned to the office noticeboard in the

MCU office. The same photographs are mailed to Renee’s parents, who are devout Catholics and

Dominican immigrants to Gotham. Rucka has stated that even before writing the character, he viewed her as queer (Rucka cited in Sims, 2015). Even though none of Renee’s family and relationship history existed before Rucka began working on her, he intuitively felt a connection to

133 Running from Gotham Central #6-10 and written by Greg Rucka with illustrations by Michael Lark. 134 Established in 1988, The Comic Industry Awards are the most prestigious prizes within the American comics industry. Named after comics pioneer Will Eisner, the awards are the closest equivalent comics have to the Academy Awards. 135 Renee Montoya is the second-most popular character to be introduced to Gotham City through Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995). The most popular character is .

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the character and read her as queer in her earlier appearances within comics and as a cast member on Batman: The Animated Series. Petrovic identifies both Rucka’s work in Gotham Central establishing Renee as a lesbian, and his work with J.H. Williams III in Batwoman: Elegy (2010)136 as demonstrating that Rucka is a creator who continually presents a ‘challenge to the heteronormativity of [superhero] comics’ (Petrovic, 2011, p.68-69). Rucka and Lark’s story is a unique coming-out narrative, both because it is set within a genre milieu that traditionally does not deal with questions of sexuality in great depth and because it looks at the question of coming-out for

Montoya through the intersection of her life as both a cop and a second-generation immigrant.

A key moment in the story occurs in chapter two, in which Captain Sawyer brings Renee into her office to question the detective as to why she is being investigated by internal affairs. Sawyer

(who was established as gay before she came to Gotham, whilst she was still a member of the

Superman supporting cast) tries to counsel Renee and draw on her own experience of coming out as a police officer. Sawyer tells Renee that, “[y]ou only get to do this once, detective. Trust me you want to get it right” (Rucka, 2004, p.6). Renee responds to Maggie’s advice in a caustic manner, rejecting it both because she does not think that her captain understands the different pressures that Renee is under as a queer person of descent and also because she doubts that her captain understands the cultural difference between Metropolis and Gotham. The complexity of the cultural conflicts of Renee’s life is highlighted later in the issue when her brother Benny comes over to her apartment to tell her that the pictures had been mailed to their parents. In their argument, Benny says to his sister, “[y]ou tell them you’re gay, all it’ll do is hurt them. Why would you want to do that?” (Rucka, 2004, p.12). An interesting visual feature of this argument is added to the comic by Willie Schubert. As Renee and Benny’s argument grows more emotionally heated, they switch from speaking English to speaking Spanish. This visually depicts how the more emotional this

136 Originally introduced in 2006’s 52, Kate Kane, the second Batwoman, is the first member of the Batfamily to be canonically queer. Rucka and artist J.H. Williams III told her origin story in Batwoman: Elegy (originally serialised in Detective Comics 854-860). Rucka and Williams directly linked Kate’s origin story to the gay rights movement, by having her become a superhero only after her original plan to serve and protect the public was destroyed by the US military’s then current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy towards homosexuality.

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argument gets, the more the siblings are drawn back towards their mother tongue. Benny’s argument to his sister is that she needs to hide her queer identity from her parents and that her own needs do not overrule those of her parents. The story ends with Renee going to talk to her parents and finally coming out to them. This conversation is not shown to the reader, but the aftermath is.

Renee comes out of her parent’s home having been disowned by her family and having been told by her mother that she will burn in hell. Half a Life’s final panel depicts Renee crying in Daria’s arms, as her partner tells Renee, “I’ve got you” (Rucka, 2004, p.23). Throughout the entirety of Gotham

Central, Renee never reconciles with her family. Through Renee, Rucka and Lark tell this very complex human story about how cultural traditions, religion and long-held prejudice can shatter families.

The architect of the plot against Renee is revealed to be Two-Face/Harvey Dent.137 His actions throughout the story are in fact inspired by love; a psychotic and obsessive form of love, but love, nonetheless. Harvey and Renee had previously been established by Rucka as having a connection earlier in the No Man’s Land story arc, in which Harvey helped Renee maintain order on

Gotham’s streets after a cataclysmic earthquake had wrecked the city. Two-Face’s attack on Renee’s life is built upon breaking down her relationships with other people and isolating her. He frames her for murder to break her connections with the police department. He outs her to her family to break up the bond between them. He tells her, “Renee, you have nothing to go back to. I made certain of that. You’re staying with me, now. And I can make you whole” (Rucka, 2004, p.13). Renee’s rejection of Harvey sends him into a rage in which he threatens to murder Daria, thinking that she is the one relationship in Renee’s life that he failed to destroy. “Missed one, is that it? And if she’s gone, then what, Detective? If I take her from you, too? Then what?” (Rucka, 2004, p.14). As a Batman villain,

137 Two-Face, created by Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, was first introduced in 1942. One of the longest-running members of Batman’s rogues gallery, the modern depictions of the character have taken on a tragic element. Harvey Dent, a Gotham District Attorney, is established as one of Batman’s earliest allies. After an accident that leaves half of his face scarred, Dent becomes a criminal obsessed with duality and fate. With a personality split between Harvey and Two-Face, the supervillain decides whether to commit crimes or not based off the flip of a coin.

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Two-Face has always served as a reflection of the hero’s own dualistic nature. For Bruce Wayne, his split identity is delineated by a cape and cowl; it is his choice to shift between his different identities.

For Two-Face, his dual subjectivities are scarred on his flesh. The two sides of Harvey Dent are always visible to the world. He cannot shift between the identities of Two-Face and Harvey as he wishes; he is always simultaneously Jekyll and Hyde. In Renee’s closeted queerness, Harvey sees a kinship that he thinks should bring the two of them together. “Don’t you see it? You’ve been living two lives, and I’ve broken down the wall between them. I’ve saved you. We’re the same, Renee”

(Rucka, 2004, p.11). Harvey sees Renee’s hidden queerness as marking her as other in society, the same way that his disfigurement and mental illness marks him as an outcast, but because of this insistence on their sameness he fails to understand the uniqueness of Renee’s lived experience.

When Renee tries to understand why Harvey is pursuing her romantically, despite knowing that she is a lesbian, Harvey responds, “I don’t see what that has to do with us” (Rucka, 2004, p.13). Harvey sees the relationship between him and Renee as transcending her sexual orientation.

Throughout Half a Life, Batman appears for short cameo appearances, conducting his own investigation into the frame-job, and effectively fulfilling the role of . He enters the narrative to resolve the plot, very much akin to the gods of ancient who would arrive on stage to resolve the problems of the mortals. The climatic point of the story sees Two-Face and

Renee wrestling over a gun after Two-Face threatens to kill Daria. For the four pages preceding

Batman’s arrival, Lark’s panel borders become increasingly jagged and off-centred as Lark tries to visually demonstrate the violence and distress of Two-Face’s mind. Batman then intervenes, kicking the gun out of reach of both of them and neutralising Two-Face. On the first page, only Batman’s hands and feet are visible; rather than glorifying the spectacle of the superhero entering the conflict, only glimpses of Batman are offered, and we see Renee and Two-Face’s shocked reactions to the

Dark Knight’s arrival rather than following Batman as he enters the scene. Once Batman has apprehended Two-Face and is fully visible on the page, Lark returns to the straight-lined panel

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borders he uses throughout the rest of the comic; the presence of Batman returns order to the comic in terms of both plot and aesthetics.

Batman’s presence in Half a Life serves to make a point about the rigid morality of superheroes when juxtaposed with a morally and emotionally complex conflict. Batman intervenes in what is an intensely personal conflict between Renee and Harvey, yet he treats it like any other crime scene, demonstrating a lack of awareness of the emotional trauma Renee has experienced. He approaches the situation from a position of rigid moral certainty: “You were fighting for the gun.

Either he would have killed you, or you would have killed him…. Neither option was acceptable”

(Rucka, 2004, p.17). He then walks away from the conflict without recognising how justifiable

Renee’s anger is. The final panel of the page is the image of both Renee and Two-Face seething in rage as they watch Batman walk away. Ben Saunders in his analysis of Alan Moore’s Miracleman highlights the way in which the protagonist Mike Moran struggles to reconcile his feelings for his wife in comparison to his alter-ego Miracleman.138 A distressed Moran says to his wife, “[h]e thinks so differently to me. His thoughts are like poetry… His emotions are so pure. When he loves you it’s gigantic. His love is so strong and direct and clean” (2015, p.60). To Saunders, this moment in

Miracleman is an attempt to imagine loving in the manner of God; infinite, compassionate and all- powerful, in contrast with the messier love of human beings (2011, p.2-3). In Half a Life, Batman plays a similar role although here, rather than love, he represents a godly form of Justice, operating at a remove from the human hate and hurt that Renee and Harvey are dealing with. He is a force of divine justice; and thus, cannot allow either of the humans he passes judgement over to kill the other. However, by situating its readers with the perspective of Renee and Two-Face, the comic

138 Miracleman/Marvelman (the character was originally Marvelman but was renamed Miracleman in the American market due to legal complaints from Marvel Comics) began as an attempt by the British licensor to continue publishing Captain Marvel stories after the American comics stopped being produced after collapse as a publisher. Young Mike Moran turned into Marvelman when saying his magic word Kimota. It was a barely disguised clone of the dynamic between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel, where the young boy would become the hero by shouting his magic word . In the 1980s, Moore lead a post- modern revival of the concept with a middle-aged Mike Moran having forgotten his magic word and double identity for decades.

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invites a more holistic and relational consideration of the superhero’s world, challenging Batman’s sense of divine separation from the concerns of mortals.

Gotham Central is a series that visualises the ground level perspective of Gotham City. By focalising the narrative away from Batman, and towards the police officers and citizens of Gotham, a different subjective viewpoint is presented. Gotham Central is a dark imagining of what Gotham City looks like to those without capes. The police officers are drastically overmatched against the weird threats to the city, yet they continue to try to protect the city anyway. Indeed, both Renee Montoya and her partner Crispus Allen would go on to become superhero characters in the broader DC

Universe following the end of the series. Allen’s murder at the end of Gotham Central leads to him being resurrected as the new host of The Spectre, God’s angel of vengeance.139 Renee ends Gotham

Central having handed in her badge, depressed over her inability to bring her partner’s murderer to justice, and in the later series 52 (2006), she becomes the apprentice to the vigilante The Question, and takes over the identity following her mentor’s death. Rucka has stated that the decision to turn these characters into superheroes was precipitated by an argument presented to him by his fellow writer Geoff Johns,140 in which Johns argued to Rucka that:

[t]his is a superhero universe. That’s what these stories are, fundamentally, we tell stories

about superheroes. To not take these characters to that level, to not expose them to the

larger sense of the DCU, is arguably denying them and denying the larger world of them.

(Rucka cited in Sims, 2015)

Johns’ argument suggests something else to me. In superhero narratives (especially in a vast ongoing narrative like the DC Universe) there is very little space for regular people to exist. Regular people in

139 Crispin Allen’s murderer, corrupt CSI officer , was a piece of narrative sleight of hand. Jim Corrigan was the name of the original host of The Spectre who teamed with the Justice Society. Readers at the time would have been tricked into thinking that this villain would become the new host of God’s , rather than one of the starring characters of Gotham Central. 140 One of the most popular superhero writers of the 2000s and 2010s, Geoff Johns was DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer from 2010 to 2018.

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superhero narratives are typically collateral damage, which is a theme that Gotham Central ruminates upon. For characters such as Detective Montoya, Detective Allen and Jack Dunning, simply existing in a superhero universe is like being exposed to narrative radiation, which presents a stark choice; transform into a superhero/villain or face oblivion.

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Figure 56.

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Figure 57. Bat Ex Machina. Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, with Lee Loughridge (colouring) and Willie Schubert (lettering), Gotham Central #10 (2003), p. 16-17, DC Comics.

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Hawkeye The superhero narratives that I have analysed thus far in this chapter have focused upon understanding the role of ordinary people within a superhero universe. The final text analysed in this chapter takes the opposite approach. It is focused on the role of a superhero within a community of ordinary people. This superhero narrative is Hawkeye, a Marvel comic written by Matt Fraction and primarily illustrated by .141 The series ran for 22 issues and one annual over the course of

2012-2015. It has since been collected in a single volume entitled Hawkeye Omnibus (2015). The series is about Clint Barton, the master archer and member of The Avengers known as Hawkeye.

Clint was originally introduced as an antagonist to Iron Man in 1964’s Tales of #57. Stan

Lee and introduced him as an archer working in a travelling circus, who was led into a life of crime thanks to his infatuation with the Soviet spy Natasha, The Black Widow.142 Hawkeye then reformed himself after her seeming demise at the hands of her Red Army paymasters and joined the second iteration of The Avengers. Led by Captain America, this team consisted almost entirely of reformed supervillains, as Hawkeye was joined by the siblings (and former members of Magneto’s

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch. Since the 1960s, Hawkeye has been a long-term member of The Avengers. He is accepted as being one of the members of the classic

Avengers line-up. This status was made more evident by the decision to include Hawkeye as a founding member of the team in Marvel’s The Avengers (2012). Hawkeye’s appearance in the film was an acknowledgment of his importance in the comic book history of the team. Conversely, the film also influenced future depictions of the character in comics; the modern costume design Aja uses in Hawkeye was inspired by the costume that Jeremy Renner wears in the

141 Whilst Dave Aja was the main artist on Hawkeye, other artists who contributed to the series as lead artist include Annie Wu, , Steve Lieber, Jesse Hamm, and Chris Eliopoulos. As I am referencing the collected Hawkeye Omnibus (2015) edition of the series, quotes will not have page numbers as the publication has no page number notations. 142 The Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) was also originally introduced as an Iron Man villain, debuting five issues earlier than Clint in #52 (1964). Like Hawkeye, Black Widow would defect to the United States and become a member of both SHIELD and The Avengers.

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Figure 58. Hawkeye is introduced to the world as a member of Captain America’s new Avengers team. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and , with Artie Simek (lettering), The Avengers #16 (1965), p. 21, Marvel Comics.

Figure 59. Having recently turned from villain to hero, much of the tension of early Avengers stories came from Hawkeye challenging Captain America’s leadership. Stan Lee and Don Heck, with Dick Ayers (inking) and S. Rosen (lettering), The Avengers #17 (1965), p. 3, Marvel Comics.

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the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a sign of the heightened pace of the feedback loop between superhero comics publishing and screen adaptions; an adaption of the Fraction/Aja series starring

Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld is currently in production to be streamed on Disney+ in 2021

(Alexander, 2020).

Clint occupies a liminal space between the world of superheroes and the world of ordinary people. There has always been an incongruity to Hawkeye’s presence in The Avengers, a sense that he does not belong amongst his superpowered peers. In a team with super-soldiers, thunder gods and men in robot battlesuits, what is the purpose of having a guy who is really good at shooting a bow and arrow on your roster? Comedian Patton Oswalt addresses this contradiction in a routine on his 2011 special Finest Hour, where The X-Men are unimpressed by Jesus Christ’s list of superpowers and reject his bid for membership. They proceed to make fun of The Avengers:

Try The Avengers, they’ll take anybody… They have a guy with a bow and arrow, I’m not

kidding. What are they recruiting in sporting goods stores? Hey, you jump rope really fast,

how’d you like to be an Avenger? I like the way you tetherball sir, how would you like to take

on ?

(Oswalt, 2011)

Clint’s opening narration in the first issue of Hawkeye ruminates on this possibility that he is outclassed physically by his teammates and the challenges they face. Over the imagery of Hawkeye falling off a building and injuring himself, he thinks:

You cowboy around with the Avengers some.

Guys got, what, armor. Magic. Super-powers.

Super-strength.

Shrink-dust. Grow-rays, Magic.

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Healing Factors.

I’m an orphan raised by carnies fighting with a stick and a string from the Palaeolithic era.

(Fraction, 2015)

The fact that Hawkeye is a superhero without superpowers makes him the perfect character to explore the margins of the Marvel Universe. He is simultaneously a super-spy who regularly fights world-ending threats and a guy who lives in a Brooklyn apartment building with his dog; and this juxtaposition is at the heart of Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye.

Clint Barton is a damaged man who is simultaneously a self-destructive mess and a compassionate hero, and Hawkeye is structured around his network of relationships with his neighbours, his brother, his enemies, his colleagues, his lovers, his dog and most importantly his best friend. The preamble to the series lays out the comic’s core concept: “Clint Barton, a.k.a Hawkeye, became the greatest sharp-shooter known to man. He then joined The Avengers. This is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger. That’s all you need to know” (Fraction 2015). Rather than focusing upon Hawkeye’s adventures in The Avengers, the series is focused upon the more personal moments and conflicts of Clint Barton’s life. It can be argued that the series’ heightened concern with Clint’s interpersonal relationships and the aftereffects of his superhero battles mirror the literary conventions of fan-fiction (Asher-Perrin, 2015). Whilst the series is a professional publication and recognised as a canonical part of the ongoing narrative that is the Marvel Universe, it certainly shares a similar ethos to fan-fiction. Fraction’s scripting shares with fan-fiction a desire to fill out the emotional gaps in character relationships (Asher-Perrin, 2015). Emotional conflicts that would be brushed over in a conventional superhero narrative are brought to the forefront.

There are three parts to my analysis of Hawkeye. Firstly, I perform a close reading of the major relationships in Clint’s life, focusing on Clint’s self-perception of his value to others and his relationship with Kate Bishop, the second Hawkeye. Secondly, I examine the relationship between

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Clint and the neighbourhood community he lives amongst. Thirdly, I look at how Fraction and Aja utilise the comics medium to visualise alternative perspectives of subjectivity. In Hawkeye, Fraction and Aja push to the limits the capacity of the visual language of comics to visualise the world through another's eyes.

Hawkeye #17 is the clearest encapsulation of the emotional narrative of the series. Taking place chronologically at the end of the sixth issue, it sees Clint inviting his tenant Simone and her two boys into his apartment to watch a Christmas holiday cartoon, as his earlier fight with the

Tracksuit Draculas143 had damaged Simone’s satellite dish. The first and last page of the issue is illustrated by Aja, while the bulk of the issue is illustrated by Chris Eliopoulos.144 As Clint falls asleep on the couch, it is clear that ‘The MBC Wintertime Winter Friends Winter Fun Special’ we are seeing is not the same cartoon that the children are watching but it is Clint’s dream in which the cartoon happening in the background is merging with his subconscious.

Clint imagines that The Avengers are The Winterfriends, a collection of animal mascots representing various winter holiday traditions, including Santalope, Kwanzaagator, and Menorable the Chanukah Kitten. He imagines himself as “Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for no reason” (Fraction, 2015). This issue gets at the heart of Clint’s own problems with self-doubt. He is wracked with an internalised imposter syndrome, on some base level struggling to understand why The Avengers keep him on the team. He has internalised Patton Oswalt’s criticism: why should someone whose primary skill is being really good at archery be a superhero? When

Steve reaches the Palace of Mr Sun, where The Winterfriends are being held hostage, his only real plan of attack is to jump on Mr Sun’s chest and bark. Kwanzaagator then voices Clint’s own insecurity about what role he can actually play in The Avengers’ conflicts:

143 Hawkeye’s core antagonists are an Eastern European crime syndicate who are looking to vacate Clint’s apartment building to sell off the entire block as part of a real-estate scheme. They are nicknamed the Tracksuit Draculas due to their matching Adidas tracksuits, accents and tendency to overuse the word Bro. 144 Eliopoulos is also the letterer for the rest of the series.

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Uh, Steve? That guy is like the icon of Summertime itself and you’re just standing on his

chest and barking at him… You’re kind of out of your league, buddy… I mean we love ya and

all, but…

(Fraction, 2015)

Thus, one of the most important features of this issue is its identification of Clint’s emotional challenges. Throughout the series, Clint suffers from a ‘descent into isolation’ (Fischer, 2015). The stresses of the costs of the conflict with the Tracksuit Draculas as well as his crumbling personal life bring Clint’s depressive tendencies to the surface. This depression leads to Clint alienating Kate and the added responsibility he has taken on as the caretaker for his building pushes him to his emotional breaking point. In Clint’s Winterfriends dream Kate, his brother Barney and ex-girlfriends are all represented as fellow dogs. On three different panels, Steve shouts at his friends “I can do it all by myself!” (Fraction, 2015). Each time, Eliopolous uses the same bolded red lettering to visualise

Steve/Clint snapping at his loved ones. Clint’s dream demonstrates that on a sub-conscious level he knows that he is pushing away the people he loves as a defence mechanism, even if he can not consciously recognise that tendency.

Kate is represented in the dream by Lil, an excitable puppy eager to join Steve on his adventure. During her introduction into the story, Steve viciously bites her. This is a jarring moment of violence but on a subtextual level it represents the growing emotional turmoil in Clint and Kate’s friendship and suggests that Clint is defensively trying to push Kate away. However, The

Winterfriends are only able to defeat Mr Sun by uniting in the spirit of the season:

[t]he reason any of us have power is because so many people come together in the face of

darkness. People from all over reach out to one another and hold on against the long dark

cold together.

(Fraction, 2015)

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Figure 60. Winter Friends Assemble! Matt Fraction and Chris Eliopoulos with Jordie Bellaire (colouring), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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The end of the story sees Steve acknowledging Lil’s importance as a teammate and a friend.

Chronologically in the narrative of Hawkeye, this represents Clint’s subconscious working out Kate’s importance to him well before he can consciously acknowledge those feelings. The issue ends back in Clint’s apartment, where he has fallen asleep on the couch. He is joined by his dog Lucky, as

Simone says goodbye. “Joyous Kwanzaa, Clint Barton. Thank you for taking care of us” (Fraction,

2015).

One of the core inspirations for Hawkeye is the television series The Rockford Files (1974-

1980). Starring James Garner, the series followed a private detective in Los Angeles named Jim

Rockford, ‘a figure who exists simultaneously inside the system and without, is both macho and sensitive, hardworking and hedonistic, stressed and successful’ (Gross, 2008, p.30). This description matches Clint perfectly because he was consciously modelled on Rockford. Garner’s performance could be described as ‘the Ordinary Guy as detective’ (Gross, p.31) in the same way that Fraction and

Aja’s Hawkeye could be described as the Ordinary Guy as superhero. Indeed, in his book Critique of

Cynical Reason (1988), Peter Sloterdijk set out three character-types who embody elements of the heroic ideal. Firstly, the hero who completely embodies the ideal. Secondly, the coward who is anti- heroic and resists the ideal. Thirdly, the hesitator/relative hero who sits between the two extremes of the ideal (Sloterdijk, 1988, p.221). The hesitator ‘constitutes the main mass of a reasonable middle position; they fight when they have to, and then they fight energetically, but they also curb the danger that can come from the bravado of heroes’ (Sloterdijk, p.220). Jim Rockford was an example of Sloterdijk’s hesitator, a roughhewn PI with an idealistic and romantic streak. (Gross, p.31-32). Fraction and Aja’s Clint Barton embodies the hesitator as readily as his television predecessor did. Fraction described his version of Hawkeye as being ‘a guy who can’t stop helping people because he can’t stand himself’ (Fraction cited in Phillips, 2013). Clint’s ambivalence about his worth as a hero is best expressed at the start of the series, where he threatens Ivan, his crooked ex-landlord, by comparing himself to Captain America, Marvel Comics’ exemplar of the traditional heroic ideal:

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You asked about The Avengers. Y’wanna know the best part about being an Avenger?

Having Captain America around all the time he just – The guy just brings out the absolute

best in people. You… want to be good when he’s around. You really do.

Ivan, look around you real quick. Because right now? Captain America ain’t here.

(Fraction, 2015)

Clint highlights his lack of inherent heroism here as a threat. Without the direct influence of Captain

America, he asserts that he is more likely to pursue retribution, and in this sense he is aware of and disturbed by his own capacity for violence. “Anything is a weapon if you’re in deep enough …

What kind of an animal walks into a room and figures out what they can use to hurt people if they have to hurt?” (Fraction, 2015). However, he is also a man who will refuse to make a killing blow even when it puts himself in mortal danger. Clint is a flawed hero, who has a desire to be a better human being. “I think I want to be the person all of you people seem to think I am” (Fraction, 2015).

Figure 61. Clint’s flaws lead him into compromising situations. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Hollingsworth (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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The core relationship in Hawkeye is the one between Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. Kate was originally introduced in Young Avengers and took on the name Hawkeye as a tribute to Clint while he was presumed dead.145 Their relationship is the comic’s anchor, and the narrative arc of the series is structured around the collapse and renewal of their friendship. Even though Kate is younger and less experienced than Clint, the relationship between the two is very much one of equals. They both share the codename Hawkeye; unlike other superheroines based on superheroes such as Supergirl,

Kate does not go by a feminised variant of the name such as Lady Hawkeye, that would position her as a secondary character. They learn from each other, rather than Kate serving simply as Clint’s protégé; ‘[i]t’s a mentor-mentee relationship. Who is the mentor and who is the mentee on any given day changes’ (Fraction cited in Martin, 2014).

In Hawkeye #9, the women in Clint’s life are all given a description that explains his relationship with them; but unlike Bobbi Morse who is identified as Clint’s ex-wife or Natasha who is described as ‘The Work Wife’, the only word that can describe Kate is Kate. There is no easy way to categorise their relationship. One of the core features of Kate and Clint’s friendship is that it is purely platonic. This is highlighted when Kate is introduced to the series in Hawkeye #2. When Clint tries to explain to Kate why he needs her help, one of the reasons he gives is that he is not attracted to her.

To which Kate responds, “Well, good you’re old enough to know… how creepy that would be. Does this mean you want to sleep with Spider-Man?” (Fraction, 2015). Clint is adamant that his interest in

Kate is not romantic, but he recognises that she has a similar drive to help people as him. Fraction stated that through the Kate/Clint relationship he was trying to explore ‘a love between these two that has nothing to do with sex or physical/sexual attraction’ (Fraction, 2013).

The partnership between Kate and Clint is one which highlights the importance of intersubjectivity. For both Hawkeyes, they are in essence two parts of the same person. Neither can

145 Fraction wrote the first interaction between Kate and Clint in Young Avengers Presents #6 (illustrated by ). In this issue, a resurrected Clint (going under the codename Ronin), confronted Kate but ultimately decided that she deserved to keep the name and bow of Hawkeye which had been gifted to her by Captain America after Clint’s death.

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properly function without the other. Kate’s anger at Clint’s emotional shutdown when things go bad leads to her driving away to Los Angeles146 and taking Lucky the dog with her. Before she leaves,

Kate expresses her feelings towards Clint:

I’m here. I’m here for you okay? No matter what. You can and you can yell and be as

mean and self-destructive as you want. Because I know you’re going to be here for me

when it’s my turn to fall apart. Let them all come Clint. Let every last one of those tracksuit

wearing sub-verbal bullying murderous scumbags come at us. Because you and me?

Together? Together, Clint I think you and me are the person we both wish we could be. And I

know that person… I know that person is worth something. I know that person can… can

pretty much do anything.

You with me, partner?

(Fraction, 2015)

Kate thus understands their relationship from an intersubjective perspective, but Clint unfortunately sleeps through her entire monologue, missing out on his friend trying to reach him in a moment of genuine emotional intimacy.

Intersubjectivity in philosophy is fundamentally a rejection of the Cartesian conception of the selfhood and sees ‘human beings existing not in isolation but in a world with others’ (Fries, 2013, p.500). Kate’s understanding of her and Clint’s relationship follows this philosophical outlook. She sees their relationship as a fundamental part of how both of their identities are constructed. Her understanding of Clint reflects an intersubjective worldview wherein ‘minds are fundamentally connected’ and it is the ‘interpenetrability of minds that makes individual mindedness possible’

(Mitchell, 2000, p.xi). This is a viewpoint that Clint consciously rejects for most of the narrative, trying to shut out Kate emotionally. Yet, the ending of the series sees Clint accept the intersubjective

146 Hawkeye Annual (illustrated by Javier Pulido) and issues 14, 16, 17 and 20 (illustrated by Annie Wu) focus on Kate’s adventures as a wannabe private eye in Los Angeles.

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nature of their relationship. Kate returns from LA to save Clint’s life in his final confrontation with the Tracksuit Draculas, who try to murder him and take over the apartment building. The final appearance of Kate and Clint in the series depicts them training together, both dressed in Hawkeye’s traditional purple. They are shown in silhouette, preparing to fire an arrow in perfect sync. Written over this image are the words, ‘a Clint Barton/Kate Bishop Comic Book’ (Fraction, 2015). This denotes that both characters are centrally important to the series, and by the story’s end, Clint shares a similar intersubjective understanding of their relationship to Kate.

Another core element of Hawkeye is its focus upon the fact that Clint and Kate live amongst a community of regular people. The supporting cast of the series is predominantly made up of the neighbours in Clint’s apartment building. The neighbours are introduced into the series in Hawkeye

#1, as Fraction and Aja depict the whole community of the building socialising together over a rooftop barbecue. It is a community that Clint values being a part of, as he later thinks ‘[i]f I’m not at the Avengers’ place or that rooftop… I don’t eat’ (Fraction, 2015). Clint forces his gangster landlord to sell him the building, thwarting the Tracksuit Draculas’ plan to demolish the property to make way for a luxury shopping destination. Clint thereby inadvertently takes on the role of both landlord and of the building. Now on-top of his day-job as an Avenger, Clint has taken on this protective role for his local community. This highlights the importance of the relationships he has formed within this community; there is a personal investment as to why he is willing to put his life on the line to safeguard the building’s safety.

Hawkeye #6, entitled ‘Six in the Life of…’ is one of the most formally sophisticated issues in the series. The issue tells the story of six nights of Hawkeye’s life in a non-linear fashion, with moments from each night being highlighted out of narrative order. The narrative fragmentation of the story ‘creates transitions between pages and scenes that strike thematic and narrative notes’

(Fisher, 2015). The chronological displacement Fraction and Aja utilise is not used to create plot

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Figure 62. The two Hawkeyes in-sync. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Holingsworth (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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twists, but rather to tell the emotional narrative of Clint accepting his new responsibilities to his neighbours. Clint is threatened by the leader of the Tracksuit Draculas, an old man in a white tracksuit, who tells him, “[y]ou gone or we keeling everybody in you building, bro’ (Fraction, 2015).

The threat scares Clint into leaving the apartment building, saying “I screwed up. I cowboyed around like I meant something to somebody” (Fraction, 2015). Kate acts as Clint’s conscience, reminding him of his responsibility to others, telling him, “[t]his thing you’re about to do? This running away thing?

It’s everything about you that sucks” (Fraction, 2015). This admonishment inspires Clint to stand up to the bullying gangsters who are threatening the safety of his community. The issue ends with Clint inviting Simone and her children into his apartment to watch the Christmas special.147 When Clint is asked by Simone if he needs to be anywhere else, his response is, “I’m not going anywhere”

(Fraction, 2015). This signals that he accepts the responsibility he has towards the community of residents, that he is directly embedded within its lifeworld. There is therefore a direct thematic line in Hawkeye 6 between Kate’s admonishment of Clint on the night of December 15th and his babysitting of Simone’s kids on December 19th, facilitated by Kate who serves as his conscience and encourages his sense of responsibility to others (Fisher, 2015). Structurally, Clint getting up off the couch on December 19th to answer the door for Simone is placed right next to the page of Clint opening the door for Kate on December 15th. Fraction and Aja use this chronological fragmentation to highlight the importance of relationality in Clint’s life. It is his relationship with Kate which spurs on his understanding of his relationship with his entire community.

The series finale highlights the importance of an understanding of community to Hawkeye.

The final two issues of the series are entitled ‘Rio Bravo’ and ‘El Dorado’, a reference to Howard

Hawks’ two westerns (1959 and 1966) starring John Wayne, which both featured a ranch under siege by gangsters. The plot of Hawkeye’s finale follows this formula. It sees the Tracksuit Draculas and their leader (the clown-faced assassin Kazi) lay siege to the building. One of the core elements of

147 The end of Hawkeye #6 is the beginning point of Hawkeye #17.

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Clint’s plan to protect the building is that he does not just rely only on himself or his brother Barney to defend their home.

Figure 63. Clint accepts his new role as his building’s guardian. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Hollingsworth (colouring), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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Instead, Clint mobilises the entire community to help protect themselves from the oncoming threat. This is highlighted in Hawkeye #19, where a deafened Clint asks the building’s residents to come to the rooftop where he explains the threat facing their way. Speaking in sign-language

(translated by his brother Barney), Clint tells the building about the threats the Tracksuit Draculas have made. Clint is asked, “(‘you will stop them’… HOW?)”148 (Fraction, 2015). Clint’s answer to the question is a raised fist symbolising ‘We’, and his neighbours join him in raising this fist together. The defence of the building is a collective effort; the residents place their furniture on the stairwell in order to barricade the gangsters‘ entry. Aimee, a bike messenger, is given the task of using Clint’s car to disrupt the gangsters entering from the front door. At the end of the battle, Kate is holding Ivan at gunpoint and he taunts her with the stories of how tough his bros are. Meanwhile, the balaclava clad gangsters are defeated by the collected residents of the building who stand united above the bros saying, “[n]eighbourhood watch. Stay down” (Fraction, 2015). Hawkeye thus depicts a vision of superheroics in which the power and ability to stand up to evil is invested as much within the ordinary people of the community as it is in the super heroic protagonists of the Marvel Universe.

Hawkeye #7 exemplifies the series’ commitment to a street-level civic engagement approach to superheroes.149 The issue (released in January 2013) is illustrated by Steve Lieber and Jesse Hamm and takes place during Hurricane Sandy’s landing in New York and in October 2012. The issue is split into two stories set during Hurricane Sandy, one following Clint and one following Kate.

The stories avoid presenting the storm as a problem that could be fixed with superpowers. Rather than try to tell a grand narrative about Clint and Kate’s role in protecting the city during the storm, the stories are purposefully low-key, ‘This is the story about a girl trapped at a function that she can’t get out of when the hurricane comes, and about a guy helping his buddy move his infirm dad

148 Eliopoulos, uses brackets and a different font to denote to the reader that Clint is not hearing the question that he is being asked. Rather, the question is Clint’s guess as to what the resident is saying to him. 149 This engagement was reflected by the creators of the comic as well. Hawkeye #7 became an unofficial charity comic for Hurricane Sandy relief, as Fraction donated all his royalty payments for the issue to the American Red Cross. (Fraction cited in Sims, 2012)

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to safe ground. Those are the stakes’ (Fraction in Sims, 2012). Clint drives to Queens with his neighbour Gil150, in order to help Gil prepare his father’s house for the oncoming hurricane. Gil has an estranged relationship with his father but feels a responsibility towards him. “It’s my house.

S’where I grew up. You gotta take care of your roots, right? And your family. No matter how bigga headache they are. S’what my Ma wouda wanted, anyway” (Fraction, 2015). As they reach the house, the floodwaters hit and Clint has to save Gil from drowning in the house’s basement, where he went to try and save what he can of his late mother’s possessions. As Gil laments that he has lost everything he had left of his mother, Clint reminds him that he still has his father. Meanwhile, Kate’s story sees her stranded at an engagement party in New Jersey as the hurricane hits. She must swim her way out of the flooded hotel to find a pharmacy for a guest who needs medication. At the drug store, Kate confronts a trio of looters and gets knocked out, but she is rescued by a group of regular people wielding garden tools for protection. She leaves the pharmacy thinking, ‘[a]ll of you people.

Look at you. The world comes crumbling down around you and everybody just pulled together tighter” (Fraction, 2015). Through these two stories, the issue serves to both depict these fictional characters reacting to a very real but extraordinary threat, as well as celebrate the kindness found in communities struggling to overcome natural disasters. Hawkeye #7 epitomises the ethos of the series, which is ultimately about a ‘regular guy doing anything but regular things’ (Fraction in Sims,

2012).

Vast narratives like superhero universes have the potential to ‘shift our perspectives’ and tell stories from the viewpoint of ‘secondary and sometimes opposing characters’ (Jenkins, 2010, p.947).

In my discussion of Watchmen and Gotham Central, I explored how these superhero texts explore secondary viewpoints. A factor that makes Hawkeye a particularly interesting example of this pattern is the use that Fraction and Aja (as well as colourist Matt Hollingsworth and letterer

150 Gil, known by Clint as Grills, is the chief hot dog griller on the building’s rooftop. Gil always mispronounces Clint’s codename as Hawkguy. Gil’s murder at the hands of Kazi predicates the escalation in conflict between Clint and the Tracksuit Draculas.

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Eliopoulos) make of the comics medium itself, to invite readers into the subjective understanding of another. An example of this is in Hawkeye #2, where Clint is shown practising archery whilst talking to Kate. Aja uses 14 panels, to show Kate saying the words, “Well that’s cool” (Fraction, 2015). Each panel is an extreme close-up of Kate’s face, with one letter attached to each panel. By increasing the number of panels, Aja slows down the reader’s perception of time. A single sentence feels like it takes an to be said. In this way, Aja conveys how Clint experiences time when he is ‘in the zone’.

It is also noteworthy that Fraction wrote Hawkeye in Marvel Style151 rather than as a full script. This meant that Fraction’s scripts were written informally, describing what is happening on a page, but not outlining the page’s exact structure; decisions about the number of panels or how action is conveyed were left in Aja’s hands:

[w]riting Marvel Style scares the living crap out of me. It is the antithesis of what we teach

ourselves as writers. It requires trust and sharing and believing in your partner – and he’s a

partner, not an artist here, just check the credits page – and trusting in the collaboration

above all else.

(Fraction, 2014, p.53-54)

Fraction’s words echo the intersubjective worldview articulated by Kate, suggesting how the production of the comic may have supported the development of Hawkeye’s relational themes.

Comics scholarship has tended to replicate Cartesian logics of separation and as a rule needs to better credit the role of artists, colourists and in creating meaning in comics. Particularly in commercial superhero comics, which normally operate under a Fordist system in which labour is

151 As addressed in Chapters Two and Three, the term Marvel Style is used to describe a particular style of comics scriptwriting developed at Marvel Comics in the 1960s. As Stan Lee was overseeing the entire line as an editor as well as a writer, he would normally give artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko a summary of what the issue was going to be about. The artist would take the summary, turn it into a comic and then Lee would add dialogue to the finished product. The modern approach to Marvel Style utilised by Fraction and Aja is generally more detailed, where the writer will describe the page and some of the dialogue in a prose script, but the majority of visual decisions are made by the artist.

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divided amongst multiple artists, there is a tendency in comics criticism to only talk about the writer as the core author of a text. In many cases I think this is because most comics academics have a literary rather than artistic background and are more comfortable to discuss comics through the lens of the written word. However, Hawkeye is an excellent example of the integral nature of an artist’s contribution to comics narrative. Much of the formalistic experimentation of Hawkeye can be credited to Aja and the nature of his collaboration with Fraction.

The issue of the series in which the formalistic experimentation of the series is most evident is Hawkeye #11, titled ‘Pizza Dog in Pizza is My Business’ where Clint’s dog Lucky takes centre-stage.

The comic also won the 2014 for Best Single Issue. Lucky (a.k.a Pizza Dog) is one of the most significant supporting characters of the series. He is introduced in Hawkeye #1, as being owned by the Tracksuit Draculas. However, he takes a liking to Clint, thanks to Clint feeding him pizza. Lucky protects Clint in his fight and is badly injured, and Clint’s desire to save Lucky becomes the emotional core of the series’ first chapter. The story places Lucky in the role of detective; he is the first to discover Gil’s murdered corpse on the apartment rooftop and the story is told from Lucky’s point of view. Aja incorporated elements of cartoonist ’s diagrammatic approach to comics art in order to demonstrate Lucky’s thinking process. When Lucky thinks about a person, Aja depicts a pictograph featuring a cartoon of the person’s face and all of the smells and feelings he associates with them. For example, Lucky is introduced in the issue watching Clint and Kate argue. To the sides of the panel, we see Lucky’s understanding of each person. Clint is associated with the smell of dog food and coffee. Kate is associated with pizza and flowers, there is also a heart symbol in the diagram, indicating Lucky’s affection for her. Lucky is then led up to the roof by another dog, and by sniffing around the murder scene he is able to understand the circumstances of the murder. The diagram for the killer is highlighted by a blank face with a question mark, demonstrating that Lucky cannot connect the scent of the killer to anyone he knows. When Barney, Clint’s brother, is introduced to the story, the diagram shows that Lucky recognises that he has a similar scent to Clint.

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Figure 64. Lucky’s view of his world. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Hollingsworth (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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And when Lucky sees that his abusive former owners are outside the building, the diagram depicts a warning sign as he scampers off in fear.

One of the interesting elements of the approach towards subjectivity in this comic, is that

Fraction and Aja try to limit anthropomorphising Lucky. As much as possible, they are trying to capture how a dog might think, feel and act in a given situation. For example, whilst following the scent of the crime scene, Lucky finds himself drawn towards a leftover pizza box in the garbage. The pizza icons grow in size as Lucky focuses on eating the pizza, rather than continuing his investigation.

The use of lettering is also important in constructing Lucky’s non-human perspective. Eliopoulos scribbles out most of the words in the word balloon, Lucky only recognises the specific words that are in his vocabulary such as his name, good or pizza. This plays into the larger narrative of the series; for example, we first see the fight between Clint and Kate that fractures their friendship through Lucky’s ‘non-human focalisation’ (Fisher, 2015). The reader is only given ‘Lucky’s fractured, incomplete take of a scene [which] appears first and is then repeated in a complete form in subsequent issues’ (Fisher, 2015). Colour is also used to denote Lucky’s perspective. Scenes in which we see Lucky’s point of view are depicted in monochromatic colours. Only people directly in his field of vision are depicted in colour, and the backgrounds fade to line-art without any colouring. Thus, within Hawkeye #11, the entire creative team works collaboratively to convey the subjective perspective of Lucky. In doing so, they collaboratively underline how the relational dynamics of comics production intertwines with the medium’s shift towards narratives that deemphasise the singular viewpoints of individual heroes.

Figure 65. Lucky is tasked with keeping watch over the building. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Hollingsworth (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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Hawkeye #19, titled ‘The Stuff What Don’t Get Spoke’ also tries to place the reader in the position of an other’s subjective perspective. The issue focuses upon Clint, who has been deafened when his eardrums were pierced by an arrowhead. Hawkeye had previously been made deaf in the

Hawkeye (1983) mini-series,152 where he purposefully damaged his hearing to defeat a supervillain who was using a mind-controlling sonic weapon. Fraction and Aja, however, insert a history of hearing loss into the character’s backstory. They use flashbacks to show that Clint has been dealing with healing loss problems since his childhood as a result of physical abuse from his father. The issue sees Clint at his lowest point emotionally, as he struggles to come to terms with his new hearing loss. By the end of the issue, however, ‘Clint learns the value of community’ (Fisher, 2015), accepting his deafness and uniting with his brother Barney and the neighbours to fight back against the

Tracksuit Draculas.

The issue contains diagrams in American Sign Language to denote the communication between Barney and Clint. There is purposefully no key given to readers to help them understand the sign language. ‘If nothing else, it’s an opportunity for hearing people to get a taste of what it might be like to be deaf’ (Fraction in Gustines, 2014). Clint refuses to answer to Barney’s sign- language for most of the issue, and it is only after a physical confrontation between the brothers that he begins to open up again. As with Hawkeye #11, the lettering is used to control the amount of information the reader is given and to give the reader an understanding of how Clint perceives the world now that he is deafened. Blank word balloons are used to denote that Clint cannot hear any of the words spoken to him. Disjointed word balloons using brackets and a different font for lettering denote when Clint is reading the speaker’s lips, and the dialogue in these balloons is purposefully clipped, as if it has been poorly translated from a foreign language, denoting the difficulty Clint has in catching every word spoken to him.

152 Written and illustrated by .

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This issue continues the series’ exploration of Clint’s self-destructive tendency to distance himself from the other people in his life. However, in becoming hard-of-hearing again, Clint also becomes a character who represents disabled people in a superhero narrative. He presents a perspective of the world that is mostly excluded from superhero stories and serves as a representational figure for disabled readers within the broader Marvel Universe. As one online critic wrote, ‘This is the first work of fiction I’ve ever read that, in addition to confronting a million murderous tracksuit bros, deals frankly with what it means and feels like to have a hearing loss’

(Walker, 2015). The formal experimentalism of Hawkeye, utilising the comics medium to give the reader an understanding of how a deaf person experiences the world, furthers the status of the text as an intersubjective work of art. The series is actively looking to challenge the reader to try to experience the world through the perspective of someone other than a stock-standard heroic protagonist. As with other texts explored in the course of this thesis, Hawkeye #19 thus extends and develops a more inclusive and diversified depiction of superheroism.

Hawkeye serves as the culmination of my examination into the presentation of alternative subjective viewpoints in superhero narratives. Unlike Watchmen and Gotham Central, the series is focused upon understanding the role of a superhero, but one directly embedded within a regular local community. Fraction and Aja’s series also pushes the narrative focalisation of superhero stories in a way that highlights the superhero narrative’s ability to explore relationality. Unlike the other superhero stories I have examined in this chapter, Hawkeye is about superheroes who have deep and meaningful relationships with the ordinary people they protect. Clint Barton is a flawed hero; however his experiences with Kate, Lucky and his local community shift his perspective from seeing himself as a lone cowboy to seeing himself as embedded within a community. Clint participates in the ‘rejection of domination and the adoption of the values of care’ (Elliott, 2016, p.252). By staying to defend his community, rather than running away, he becomes the better man that Captain

America inspires him to be. The use of alternative subjective viewpoints in Hawkeye is used to both bridge the gap between the world of superheroes and the world of humanity and to explore how the

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comics medium itself can formally operate as a method to encourage readers to view the world as others experience it.

Hawkeye is in many ways an evolution of what I have highlighted in the first two sections of this chapter. Watchmen raises the problem of ordinary people in a superhero universe; is their life worth sacrificing because a powerful man thinks it is necessary? Gotham Central further explores this problem and tries to understand the psychological toll of life beneath the Batsignal. Hawkeye is an attempt to redefine the relationship between the superhero and civilians by directly embedding the heroes within the community. They are a part of the community they protect and the desire to help (and be helped by) the community is a key motivating factor behind their heroism. Each text also demonstrates the ability of the superhero genre and the comics medium to tell stories about people with diverse perspectives and identities. Within a superhero universe, the view from the streets can be as compelling as the view from the skies.

Figure 66. The building community united to defend their home together. Matt Fraction and David Aja, with Matt Hollingsworth (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), Hawkeye Omnibus (2015), Marvel Comics.

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“Operation: Justice Incarnate” Conclusions on Superhero Culture

Let us return to the battlefields of Earth-8, where the combined heroes of The Multiversity take their stand against The Gentry. Now freed from his corruption by The Gentry, Nix Utoan laments the evils he performed in their service. “What have I done? They brought me to the throne of The Empty Hand and I knelt... I set loose... Unleashed a plague of mad scientists...

Opened all the doors...” (Morrison, 2015, p.380-381). The Superman of Earth-23 responds to Nix

Utoan with a reminder of his ultimate goal, “[a]nd in the process summoned an unstoppable army of super-heroes. You gave them what they wanted - - And bargained on us being able to stop them!” In the tradition of superhero narratives, this story continues. Lord of The Gentry, The Empty Hand still sits upon his throne of ruins as his legions continue to build his Oblivion Machine. Meanwhile, the collected heroes gather, acknowledging that they are facing the challenge of a “full scale invasion from a higher order reality” (Morrison, 2015, p.389). This invasion from The Gentry has its roots in

Earth-33153 and the cursed issue of Ultra Comics they have used to infiltrate the Multiverse.

Superman says directly to the reader, “[a]s far as I can see, that [Earth-33] is where all our troubles began. And if they’re out there, if they’re somehow reading this - - We’re coming to get them”

(Morrison, 2015, p.390). Now the heroes of 50 worlds stand ready to face the threat of The Gentry and their master. Operation: Justice Incarnate is on guard as the Multiverse’s defence against the corruptive influence of these cosmic parasites.

This study has been an attempt to dissect and reconstruct superhero narratives in a similar fashion to that of Morrison and their artistic collaborators in The Multiversity. The core argument of this study is that the superhero narrative is a complex and multifaceted genre through which a cultural dialogue surrounding notions of individuality, masculinity, and relational thinking is explored and negotiated. As I highlighted in my introduction, this study is not attempting to argue that

153 In the current cosmology of the DC Multiverse; Earth-33 is the designation for an approximation of our world in which the only superheroes are to be found on comic book pages and celluloid.

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superheroes cannot (and have not) been used to prop up destructive cultural ideas. To return to

Morrison’s metaphor, I do not seek to argue that versions of the archetype have not been Gentrified into a negative force. However, writing off the genre completely as ‘formulaic, masculinist, melodramatic and morally reductive’ (Hatfield, Heer & Worchester, 2013, p.xiv) as Lawrence and

Jewett do, betrays a lack of engagement. This critical approach to superhero comics ignores stories that break the constraints that critics place upon the genre. It also ignores deconstructive narratives such as Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen, which is as incisive at vivisecting the ideological underpinnings of the genre as any academic criticism.

Throughout this study, I have examined a series of different types of relationships modelled within superhero comics. The goal of the examination has been to demonstrate that writing off the superhero genre as just an ‘adolescent male power fantasy’ fails to recognise the complexity of the characters, the history of the genre or the potential for these narratives to challenge notions of individualist exceptionalism or hegemonic masculinity. To return to the culture war themes raised in the introduction to this study, writing off the genre as a space that can only valorise heroic individualism or neo-fascist politics concedes one of the most relevant and important branches of popular culture to the hands of those who would use it to do harm. Letting Comicsgate or the far- right Culture Warriors claim heroic adventure fiction for their own is ceding control of the collective cultural imagination to the forces of fear and oppression. It is letting The Gentry win; “WE GENTRY

WERE DRAWN TO THE REEK OF YUR DREAMS. WHERE ONCE WERE PALACES AND

SPACESHIPS ONLY CHARNEL HOUSES ... REMAIN” (Morrison, 2015, p.340). This study has tried to highlight the cultural dialogue surrounding superhero comics and highlight the areas in which the genre models positive visions of relational thinking and masculine power.

To recap the structure of this study; each chapter has focused upon a different type of relationship within the superhero comic, highlighting the ways in which these relationships model both positive and negative gendered traits in relating to others. The first chapter focused on the

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Figure 67. The Empty Hand awaits. Fighting the forces of The Gentry is an endless struggle. Grant Morrison and Ivan Reis, with Joe Prado, Eber Ferreira, Jamie Mendoza (inking), Dan Brown, Jason White, Blond (colouring) and Todd Klein (lettering), The Multiversity (2015), p. 387-388, DC Comics.

character of Batman. The chapter compared and contrasted two variants of Batman that I have identified throughout the character’s long publishing history; what I dub a Gothic Batman and a

Relational Batman. The Gothic Batman is a model of the character in which his angry masculine power is prevalent, and the character is presented as a brooding Byronic hero without strong attachments to others. The Relational Batman is a vision of the character in which his connections to others are highlighted and his mission to protect Gotham City is framed as an act of protecting and caring for others, rather than him enacting his own psychological damage through violent conflict. As

I argued, creators and fans have pulled the character towards one or the other of these two modes throughout his history. My conclusion is that throughout the character’s history the Relational

Batman is in fact a more pervasive version than Batman as a grim, individuated loner.

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The second chapter focused on Spider-Man and drew upon the metatextual relationship between a superhero and a super-fan. Drawing upon my own lifetime as a Spider-Man fan, this chapter explored the capacity of the superhero genre to support and inform positive change. In particular, the chapter explored how the introduction of new variations on Spider-Man in Miles

Morales and the other heroes of the Spider-Verse opens up the character to serve as a representative for different demographics, simultaneously opening up space for the original Spider-

Man and his audience to grow up.

The third and fourth chapters both dealt with the phenomenon of the superhero team as it has been depicted in different historical epochs in superhero comics history and in relation to gender and geo-politics. Chapter Three focused on the early superhero teams of the Golden and

Silver Age of Superhero Comics, these being the Justice Society of America, Justice League of

America and The Fantastic Four. Chapter Four analysed superhero teams from the Modern Age of

Superhero Comics, the early 2000s as well as the 2010s. This chapter specifically looked at the teams of The Authority, The Ultimates and the Young Avengers. In each analysis, I examined how these teams imagine the ways superheroes relate towards each other and also towards the greater political state they inhabit. A key strategy in these two chapters was also a focus on specific characters in order to demonstrate how gender roles have developed throughout the history of the genre, and I concluded this analysis with an examination of the Young Avengers because this superhero team highlights a diversity of gender identities and a greater space for queer characters and readers to be represented in the superhero universes.

The fifth chapter was focused on the relationship between superheroes and the public they serve. Through examining the texts of Watchmen, Gotham Central and Hawkeye, I demonstrated an incrementally nuanced exploration within the genre of the ways in which superheroes interact with their communities. In Watchmen, Moore and Gibbons raise a multitude of questions about what sort of relationship masked vigilantes would have with the people and governments they interact with.

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Primarily, the use of ordinary citizens in the story (and the grisly end most of them face) is a critique of the way in which these people’s lives are treated as disposable by the great powers of the world.

In Gotham Central, there is a similar focus on the horrific experience of being a citizen within a superhero universe, focalised more strongly through the subjective viewpoints of normal people who, whether as police or citizens, are the cannon-fodder for the grand conflicts between Batman and his rogues’ gallery. In Matt Fraction and Dave Aja’s Hawkeye (2012-2015) the diversification of viewpoint is explored further, as is the relationship between superheroes and the public they protect. The central character of Clint Barton/Hawkeye lives a dual life as a member of The Avengers as well as a member of his local community, and the narrative exploration of his situation is, I argue, the strongest representation of a relational or intersubjective orientation yet depicted in a superhero comic.

In the introduction of this study, I highlighted that popular culture fandom has increasingly become a space through which political and cultural conflict is fought. In this thesis I have tried to make it clear that masculinity and relationality are generally negotiated progressively in comic books and what I want to do here in the conclusion is highlight two examples which suggest that the reactionary male fandom is losing ground within superhero cultures as a result. These two examples are the reaction to the film Captain Marvel (2019) and the introduction of the new Ms Marvel to the world of comics.

Captain Marvel was the first of the near 20 feature films within the interconnected Marvel

Cinematic Universe franchise produced by to feature a solo female protagonist. The film adapts the character of Carol Danvers to the screen and is mostly inspired by the 2012-2015 run on the character written by Kelly Sue Deconnick,154 which gave Danvers the new costume and mantle of Captain Marvel. As I stated in the introduction, the new Captain Marvel costume was part

154 DeConnick has a brief cameo in the film.

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of the impetus for Richard Meyer to begin his public campaign against diverse and progressive voices in superhero comics. The film faced a similar backlash from reactionary male fans.

Much of this backlash became centred around lead actress Brie Larsen. Comments Larsen made about a lack of diversity in film criticism during a speech she gave at an awards show in 2018 became the -rod for trolls to treat Lawson as a feminist boogey-woman who was telling men not to see her films (Abed-Santos 2019). This backlash was most evident on YouTube, in which a succession of videos with titles like ‘Brie Larson is Ruining Marvel’ (BanditIncorporated, 2019) and

‘Captain Marvel Movie tainted by Marvel and Brie Larsen’s SJW Nonsense’ (Xaenca, 2019) proliferated on the platform. These bad-faith videos instigated a response from Google, which adapted YouTube’s search algorithms to push them below results from official Marvel and legacy media accounts in searches and recommendations (Buckley, 2019). The other major way in which the film was attacked online was by review-bombing sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, in which people who had not seen the film would try and artificially deflate the audience review score. This resulted in the Rotten Tomatoes ‘want-to-see’ score on Captain Marvel dropping to 27%, and the website removing the option from all films (Buckley, 2019). Captain Marvel’s eventual opening weekend box-office haul was $455 million dollars world-wide, far ahead of projections (Abad-Santos

2019). The narrative pushed by the online misogynists that Captain Marvel had alienated the male fanbase and ruined the broad appeal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was proven to be a fallacy.

As if in response to this victory the climactic battle of Avengers: Endgame (2019) features a moment in which the female characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are spotlighted. As The

Avengers are fighting ’ forces for control of the reality-warping Gauntlet, the gauntlet itself needs to be moved across the battlefield like a football. Spider-Man passes the Infinity

Gauntlet over to Captain Marvel. When Spider-Man asks how she is going to get the Gauntlet to its needed destination, (the leader of Wakanda’s ) responds with “[s]he’s got help”

(Russo and Russo, 2019). The combined forces of all the female heroes of the Marvel Cinematic

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Universe – Captain Marvel, Okoye, , The Scarlet Witch, Rescue, , The Wasp, ,

Nebula and – work together to save the universe, with each character enjoying a showcase moment that demonstrates her skills and abilities. This was a moment in the film that generated controversy, both amongst the reactionary fandom and feminist critics. One example of the reactionary response came from an edit of the film uploaded to torrent sites, dubbed a

‘defeminised’ version of the film. This edit cut out Captain Marvel’s role in the film, scenes of male characters hugging and the female heroes sequence from the climax of the film (Ulaby, 2019). In contrast, film critic Caroline Siede saw the sequence as an example of corporate pandering to feminism; a late attempt to make up for the fact that it took 10 years for Disney-Marvel to produce a film with a female lead. She describes the scene as sacrificing ‘all sense of internal logic in favour of simplistic iconography’ and concludes with the point that ‘I’m ready for Marvel to stop making promises about the future and just start delivering on them now—ideally with teams of women who actually talk to each other, not just pose together’ (Siede, 2019). The question as to whether the scene hit the right tone was clearly one that the creative team also struggled with; in a New York

Times interview the film’s screenwriters discussed how they wrestled with whether it worked:

How did you coordinate the moment where all the female Marvel heroes come together?

McFEELY: There was much conversation. Is that delightful or is it pandering? We went

around and around on that. Ultimately we went, we like it too much.

MARKUS: Part of the fun of the “Avengers” movies has always been team-ups. Marvel has

been amassing this huge roster of characters. You’ve got crazy aliens. You’ve got that many

badass women. You’ve got three or four people in Iron Man suits.

(McFeely & Markkus cited in Itzkhoff, 2019)

Whilst viewers will have different opinions about the effectiveness of the scene, I think that it clearly accomplishes the goal of telling the reactionary male fandom who responded with such distress to

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the release of Captain Marvel that they have lost the battle. In the biggest, most mainstream and commercial iterations of the superhero narrative; the idea that it is simply a space to enact white male fantasies is dead. This study has only briefly touched upon transmedia manifestations of the superhero genre and how they portray questions of masculinity, gender and race. The examples of the reaction to Captain Marvel and this showcase scene for the female heroes in Avengers: Endgame demonstrate that this is an area which future work within Superhero Studies needs to investigate in greater detail.

The other example I wanted to raise to demonstrate the way in which the superhero narrative is diversifying and presenting less masculinist and more diverse heroic narratives for the twenty-first century is the 2014 introduction of the new Ms. Marvel. Debuting in her own title Ms.

Marvel in 2014, Kamala Khan was shepherded into the Marvel Universe by the creative team of G.

Willow Wilson and . Marvel editor Sana Amanat was integral in the creation of the character, integrating her own experiences as a Muslim-American teenager into the comic. Ms.

Marvel differs from prior iterations of the teen superhero in the Marvel Universe in two specific ways. The first point of difference is that she is a woman, and the female coming of age experience has not been explored to the same extent within superhero narratives as male coming of age experience. Secondly, Kamala comes from a very specific cultural context. Whereas prior attempts to recreate the teen superhero archetype introduced with Spider-Man would take the idea of teen heroes and put them into space or give them a new power set, Kamala is a character who comes from a specific (and underrepresented) cultural context. She comes from a family of Pakistani-

American immigrants and represents a young female Muslim audience who are grossly underrepresented in popular culture.

Kamala Khan is also introduced as a superhero fan; she thus represents a greater representation of fan practices within source texts. She writes Avengers fanfiction and idolises

Captain Marvel. Kamala is 15, and lives with her loving parents who do not quite understand her and

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her brother who would rather study the Koran than find a job. Her family and Kamala herself find it difficult to reconcile the cultural and religious traditions they have brought with them from Pakistan with their life in New Jersey.

Figure 68. In the tradition of earlier Marvel heroes, Kamala Khan must balance her superhero and family responsibilities. G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, with Ian Herring (colouring) and Joe Caramagna (lettering), ‘Garden State of Mind’, All New Marvel Now! Point One (2014), p. 35, Marvel Comics.

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Kamala is then caught up by the release of the Terrigen Mists into the Earth’s atmosphere by Black

Bolt, king of the . The release of the Terrigen Mists into the world means that anyone with

Inhuman ancestry undergoes the process of terrigenesis, becoming an Inhuman and gaining superpowers. Kamala breaks out of her cocoon to find that she can morph her body, changing her size or appearance. Kamala takes on the name Ms. Marvel in homage to her idol Captain Marvel and becomes the resident superhero of Jersey City.

One of the most accomplished aspects of Ms. Marvel is how elegantly the comic addresses issues of self-image and representation. When Kamala is first transformed by terrigenesis she emerges as the white, blonde and statuesque visage of the original Ms. Marvel, and the first time she rescues someone she is still wearing this façade. It takes Kamala time to think of herself as a superhero and for her to be comfortable in her own skin when she is fighting supervillains.

In previous eras it may have been assumed that minority characters would only appeal to minority audiences. In the case of Kamala, those are being shattered. In the example of Ms.

Marvel, the first issue has gone back to print seven times and the series was Marvel’s most successful comic in digital sales for 2014 (McDonald, 2014). In August 2019, it was also announced that Ms. Marvel would be the star of a new television series for the DisneyPlus streaming platform

(Kit & Goldberg, 2019). The commercial success of Ms. Marvel suggests that, like other Marvel heroes, Kamala has tapped into a very broad audience.

Vincent Brook has argued that in modern media production, particularly in the realm of television, a phenomenon which can be described as ‘convergent ethnicity’ is happening. Characters are increasingly developed for colour-blind casting, with no specific ethnicity set prior to casting. This approach is partly a commercial and public relations matter for production companies. Media producers do not want to be accused of having ‘lily-white’ television shows, particularly as minorities are becoming an increasingly large portion of the television viewing audience. Colour-blind casting and convergent ethnicity may have the positive impact of removing an othering effect from media;

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but it could also have the negative consequence of dissolving difference and no longer taking into account real world cultural differences or racial inequities, to create a TV which does not reflect the real world (Brook, 2009, p.348).

Figure 69. The first team-up of Ms Marvel and The Amazing Spider-Man. Dan Slott, Cristos Gage and , with (inking), Antonio Fabela (colouring) and Chris Eliopoulos (lettering), The Amazing Spider-Man #7 (2014), p. 11, Marvel Comics.

However, by looking at Kamala Khan, I think that we can see something different going on; the character is not an example of convergent ethnicity. She is not solely defined by her minority status, but at the same time what makes Kamala different from the traditional WASP norm of superhero narratives is that her cultural difference does not get swept under the rug. Wilson depicts Kamala as being uncomfortable with some aspects of her religious heritage, such as gender segregation at

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prayers, but her Muslim background is also something which she draws great strength from. Indeed, her Sheikh’s advice actually relates well to the issues she faces as a superhero. One of the great strengths of the series is also that it demonstrates how similar families are across cultures. I am an

Australian of Jewish background in my early 30s but I am still able to read this story about a 15 year old Muslim girl living in New Jersey and recognise aspects of my own experience in Kamala’s. ‘The specifics of Kamala make her much more universal, and that’s the irony of it all. The more they can do that, the more they appeal. Because they feel genuine and human’ (Gillen, per.comm., 2014

November 14). The specificity of Kamala’s cultural background is a core reason for her appeal because the uniqueness of her cultural heritage highlights the genuine and human qualities which makes for successful superhero protagonists.

Throughout this thesis, I have tried to make the case that the superhero genre cannot be dismissed as a hyper-masculine power fantasy. To write the genre off in this way demonstrates a lack of engagement with both the stories themselves and how they are understood by their audience; this is a unique and vibrant genre that responds directly to central concerns of modern gender politics and notions of community. I began this thesis with reference to The Multiversity and how it can be read as a metaphor for modern culture. Nix Utoan fought off his own Gentrification with a superhero team; and so have I.

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Figure 70. Lead by The Superman of Earth 23; the coalition of heroes known as Justice Incarnate stand ready to protect the Multiverse against The Gentry and all other cosmic threats. Grant Morrison and Ivan Reis, with Joe Prado, Eber Ferreira, Jamie Mendoza (inking), Dan Brown, Jason White, Blond (colouring) and Todd Klein (lettering), The Multiversity (2015), p. 391, DC Comics.

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