'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

An Avenger for All Seasons: Captain America, Identity, and the US Experience

   Captain America: Winter Soldier seems to engage the audience on many levels. Given our current political climate, there is more than enough suspicion of the power that be to go around.  The benefit of engaging in these speculation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the heroes can find a way to win.  The question becomes what the audience can draw from the hero's struggle.

What did you think of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier trailer?   Of course, as superhero scholars we can detect a complex interplay between the different eras of Captain America in this film.  Unlike his first outing, Captain America: The Winter Soldier relies heavily on the contemporary stories from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Captain America . Lauded by fans and critics, Brubaker and Epting's Captain America run featured the return of Bucky, believed dead for decades, as (spoiler alert) the Winter Soldier.  Considered sacrilegious by some the storyline revived interest in the classic character.  At the same time, Brubaker's story tapped into a long established tradition in the pages of Captain America, deep engagement with political intrigue.  A steadfast patriot, Captain America offers writers a chance to reflect on that era's political climate. The result have been classic stories in the 1970s and 1980s that force the ultimate symbol of...

The Avengers was a great movie. While excessive descriptors are sure to come, this essential truth might be loss. The Avengers is an action movie, thus it suffers from its summer movie mass audience mission.  Yes, the Avengers has massive special effects, and unlike some recent 3D efforts, I think the Avengers used the 3D for the benefit of the film, not simply to drive up ticket prices. Yes, the film has great cast.  The actors did an excellent job, Robert Downey, Jr. has found his stride as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and I think Scarlett Johansson really evolved the Black Widow as a character. Mark Ruffalo' Bruce Banner/ Hulk provide a nice counterpoint to Tony Stark/Iron Man and Whedon smartly put the two together.  Jeremy Renner did a great job as Agent Barton (never really got called Hawkeye...exactly. Like much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his take on Hawkeye has more to do with Marvel Ultimate Comics than the classic Silver Age Marvel, but that point is ...

Green Lantern's opening weekend won the race, but not by the margin Warner Bros. executives had hoped. Some of my observations on the nature of race and identity within the context of Green Lantern made the news. For many, the consideration of a "deeper" symbolism in comic books is complex exercise. While critics have been lukewarm to Green Lantern, for fans I'm sure it is fulfilling. The place of comic books in contemporary discussion of race has been seen as space cultivating and perhaps, promoting stereotypes. The comic book genre, especially it most popular aspect, the superhero uses visual cues to reduce individual characters into representations of cultural ideas. From a historical standpoint, this makes perfect senses. The popular media that preceded the comic book, like the comic book themselves, held to the racial conventions that celebrated accepted values and attitudes related to white mainstream society. Like those media, comics have changed as shifts i...

Invasion of the Bodybuilders - Newsweek It is no surprise that the new crop of superhero movies feature strong male characters. Comics book have always offered an idealized version of white male power. While the physicality of these characters may shift, as authority figures, superheroes are always reflect our collective vision about ourselves. As this article points out, this summer's superhero crop plays up these idea. From Thor to Captain America, these characters represent the values and ideas the U.S. citizens wants to believe about themselves. The next big release, Green Lantern will continue this trend. Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern has already appeared shirtless in trailer, flown a fighter jet, and kissed the girl. In the comic, Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) is a test pilot given the job of galactic guardian. As a 1960s character, he embodies atomic age Cold War U.S. values. He is white, males, brave, and stalwart defender of traditional values. It makes sense to mak...

Paramount Making A Movie Out Of DC Comics Graphic Novel The Mighty - CinemaBlend.com Having just seen X-Men: First Class (it was great) and with Green Lantern and Captain America coming our way, it is a good moment to revisit the state of the comic book movie. The news that Paramount has optioned The Mighty , a creator owned titled from writers Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne and artists Peter Snejbjerg and Chris Samnee means that movie producers are looking beyond established superhero characters for material. The reason for this is obvious, they don't have a choice. The comic book characters with "name recognition" are gone. For all the hype associated with Green Lantern, the vast majority of movie going public do not know the character. This fact haunts Warner Bros. executives like the ghost of Speed Racer . As I have mentioned before, the comic book movie offers benefits, but those benefits are not as simple as they seem. Comic book movie have the potential ...

If Ye Be Worthy: Thor and Identity and Idris Elba A recent essay for PopMatters.com allowed me the chance to explore race and identity through the comic lens. With Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men, the anthology on superheroes and the U.S. experience finally coming together, I can see how superheroes are linked to the American experience in complex ways demonstrated in every essay. This comes as the summer crop of superhero films continues to develop the cinematic framework for superheroes in interesting ways. With Thor behind us, we can look forward to Green Lantern in June and Captain America in July. Like Thor, both offer important windows into the symbolic power represented by superheroes, but they also raise questions about how our the symbolic power of these heroic narrative blind us to the reality our world.

A recent article from The American Prospect entitled, "Masked Identity Politics," revisited one of the most fertile areas of comic studies. The question of identity linked to superhero comics is one of the issue that drew me to superhero comics as a ways to discuss urban development and culture. It is a fine article, but of course it touches on issues I considered in the past. The assertions that U.S. superhero comics reflect deeply ingrained racial assumptions is natural critique. Close examination demonstrates how superhero operate to amplify broader cultural structures. With summer blockbuster like Thor , Green Lantern , and Captain America promising to dominate the box office, it understandable observers recognize how whiteness is linked to classic superheroes. Since the September 11th terror attacks both major superhero comic publishers have provided stories that heighten the drama and put the spotlight on established characters. In a post-Cold War global communit...

In the aftermath of yet another confrontation between Republicans and Democrats over budget policy and the promise of future conflicts, it is worthwhile to step back and consider the traditionalist appeal in the context of superhero comics. The “traditionalist appeal” in this context is the resurrection of classic characters in recent comicbook superhero stories. While the political debate rarely directly spills onto the comic page, the sense of the political environment does, and often with startling results. Whether pro-war sentiment associated with Captain America’s first appearance punching Adolf Hitler or a flurry of President Obama appearances , comics are not divorced from the political climate. Superhero comics and society inform each other, contextualizing values, delineating beliefs, and highlighting concerns associated with political debates. Thus, feminist critiques elicit change in the status and action of female characters, and concerns about racial equity trigger...