Superhero Culture Wars

With its starting point that superhero comics are and have always been political, Superhero Culture Wars is a welcome examination of Marvel’s moves toward diversifying its characters in the 2010s. It illuminates not only the tensions between fans and storytellers, but also the tensions inherent in a company’s neoliberal strategy of marketing its products and itself as progressive in order to increase its profits. – Carolyn Cocca, author of Eisner Award-winning Superwomen: Gender, Power, and Representation (Bloomsbury 2016), SUNY College at Old Westbury, USABlatino Spidey. Muslim-American Ms. Marvel. Queer teen Hulk. For some, these and other superhero reincarnations ring the death knell to Western civilization. For others, they reflect a vitally attentive response to today’s social make-up and the spirit of our times. With dazzling scholarly dexterity, Monica Flegel and Judith Leggatt take us on the rollercoaster ride of Marvel Comics: how its socio-politically alert contemporary stories entertain, incite incendiary debate, reveal deep sociopolitical chasms, and act as agents of change. Superhero Culture Wars forcefully reminds: Comics matter! – Frederick Luis Aldama, Eisner Award winning scholar and Distinguished University Professor, Ohio State University, USA

Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.