This collection of chapters looks to forms of masculinity—both restorative and toxic—within the superhero genre to explore how gender operates in our society and to critically untangle how forms of masculinity are reproduced. This timely intervention is necessary given the increased primacy of superheroes on the media marketplace. Superhero films have shattered box office numbers...

Sidekicks are a common feature of the superhero media genre. As junior partners, sidekicks are narrative foils for the hero protagonist (e.g., as comic relief, straight-person, mentees, sex appeal, and/or confidants). Friendship is a gendered performance that operationalizes social norms for both same-gender and opposite-gender relationships (Flannery and Smith 2017,...

The Marvel character Thor was canonically male until 2014 when a masked female picked up his hammer and was worthy of his title and powers. Jane Foster, a side character and love interest to the main...

In September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the world to mutant superheroes with the release of X-Men #1, a comic book centering on individuals with astonishing abilities. The X-Men align themselves with others who share their gift and curse. Together the mutants fight for a world that will allow their kind to live in peace. Mutants possess a genetic X-factor that...

Throughout the years, Batman has undergone a series of reinterpretations. As Batman’s creator Bob Kane once remarked, “every ten years Batman has to go through an evolution to keep up with the times” (Daniels 1999, 17). And, like Batman, so too has his equally famous archnemesis. Indeed, “the Joker has repeatedly morphed his mannerisms, appearance, and raison...

Is care a superpower? For men like Batman, Captain America, and Superman the answer might be no. In general, superheroes have an origin story—through family tragedy, biomedical accident, or circumstance of birth—followed by a specific development trajectory that shapes their purpose, powers, and universes. Within these dominant narratives, superheroes physically incapacitate their...

Jack Halberstam’s (2004) examination of masculinity poses that maleness and masculinity are not synonymous. Instead, Halberstam (2004) argues that

In many ways the comic book series Everyone Loves Ivy begins itself in the fashion of a very typical Poison Ivy story. Ivy, who is traditionally a villainous character, appears in the dreams of Bruce Wayne. She is depicted using common tropes of seduction and charm as she attempts to convince the sleeping Wayne that he is in love with her. However, Bruce quickly jumps out of bed, runs to...

I was eleven, and superhero comics were changing. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s The New Teen Titans #38 was the bellwether. Its painted cover—still a novelty in 1983—immediately distinguished it from other comics on the rack. The noir palette of muddy blues, blacks, and browns seemed more suited to the cover of a crime pocketbook than a superhero comic. So too did...

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Sean Parson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the departments of Politics and International Affairs and the Master’s Program in Sustainable Communities at Northern Arizona University. He is completing a book manuscript on Food Not Bombs and urban anarchism, and is also working on a book manuscript on critical animal studies, environmental political theory, and comic studies....