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Death, Disability, and the Superhero : The Silver Age and Beyond

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Title: Death, Disability, and the Superhero : The Silver Age and Beyond
Description: The Thing. Daredevil. Captain Marvel. The Human Fly. Drawing on DC and Marvel comics from the 1950s to the 1990s and marshaling insights from three burgeoning fields of inquiry in the humanities—disability studies, death and dying studies, and comics studies—José Alaniz seeks to redefine the contemporary understanding of the superhero. Beginning in the Silver Age, the genre increasingly challenged and complicated its hypermasculine, quasi-eugenicist biases through such disabled figures as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and the Doom Patrol. Alaniz traces how the superhero became increasingly vulnerable, ill, and mortal in this era. He then proceeds to a reinterpretation of characters and series—some familiar (Superman), some obscure (She-Thing). These genre changes reflected a wider awareness of related body issues in the postwar U.S. as represented by hospice, death with dignity, and disability rights movements. The persistent highlighting of the body's “imperfection” comes to forge a predominant aspect of the superheroic self. Such moves, originally part of the Silver Age strategy to stimulate sympathy, enhance psychological depth, and raise the dramatic stakes, developed further in such later series as The Human Fly, Strikeforce: Morituri, and the landmark graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel, all examined in this volume. Death and disability, presumed routinely absent or denied in the superhero genre, emerge to form a core theme and defining function of the Silver Age and beyond.
Authors: José Alaniz
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Graphic novels--History and criticism, Body image in comics, Death in comics, Comic books, strips, etc.--History and criticism, People with disabilities in comics, Disabilities in comics
Categories: LITERARY CRITICISM / Comics & Graphic Novels, LAW / Disability, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
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  – Type: ebook-pdf
  – Type: ebook-epub
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  Availability: 0
Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 863554
RelevancyScore: 1057
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
PreciseRelevancyScore: 1057.36352539063
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  Data: Death, Disability, and the Superhero : The Silver Age and Beyond
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  Data: The Thing. Daredevil. Captain Marvel. The Human Fly. Drawing on DC and Marvel comics from the 1950s to the 1990s and marshaling insights from three burgeoning fields of inquiry in the humanities—disability studies, death and dying studies, and comics studies—José Alaniz seeks to redefine the contemporary understanding of the superhero. Beginning in the Silver Age, the genre increasingly challenged and complicated its hypermasculine, quasi-eugenicist biases through such disabled figures as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and the Doom Patrol. Alaniz traces how the superhero became increasingly vulnerable, ill, and mortal in this era. He then proceeds to a reinterpretation of characters and series—some familiar (Superman), some obscure (She-Thing). These genre changes reflected a wider awareness of related body issues in the postwar U.S. as represented by hospice, death with dignity, and disability rights movements. The persistent highlighting of the body's “imperfection” comes to forge a predominant aspect of the superheroic self. Such moves, originally part of the Silver Age strategy to stimulate sympathy, enhance psychological depth, and raise the dramatic stakes, developed further in such later series as The Human Fly, Strikeforce: Morituri, and the landmark graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel, all examined in this volume. Death and disability, presumed routinely absent or denied in the superhero genre, emerge to form a core theme and defining function of the Silver Age and beyond.
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Classifications:
      – Code: 741.59
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Graphic novels--History and criticism
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Body image in comics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Death in comics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Comic books, strips, etc.--History and criticism
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: People with disabilities in comics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Disabilities in comics
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Death, Disability, and the Superhero : The Silver Age and Beyond
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: José Alaniz
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: José Alaniz
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2014
            – D: 08
              M: 01
              Type: profile
              Y: 2015
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9781628461176
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9781496804532
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9781626740655
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9781626743281
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Death, Disability, and the Superhero : The Silver Age and Beyond
              Type: main
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