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Superheroes
Comics
Earliest Comics
14th century Pre-Columbian
Earliest Comics
Bayeux Tapestry, 13th Century
Earliest Comics
Rudolphe Topffer
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Immigration Act 1924
Depression & New Deal
SUPERMAN
Superman
• Name: Kal-El
• Born: Krypton
• Raised: Kansas
• Story mirrors the immigrant experience.
• Created by Bob Kane in 1939
• Opposite of Superman
• Underworld
• Villains armed with lethal laughing gas, mind-control lipstick, fear dust, toxic aerosols, artificial phobia pills
BATMAN
Golden Age 1938-1950sPioneered by Jewish writers and artists who pulled from their own experiences as immigrants and outsiders.
Superheroes of the Golden Age operated on a clear cut sense of good and evil. How is that theme expressed on the covers of Golden Age comics?
World War II & Superheroes
Golden Age Establishes 3 Categories of Superhero(in)es
1. Born with a superpower like Superman, Wonder Woman, and X-Men.
2. Acquired a superpower due to an accident like Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk.
3. No real superhuman power, but due to a tragic experience, are committed to a central purpose like Batman.
Silver Age (late 50s-1970s)
Along with anxiety over science and technology, especially atomic and nuclear energy.
Issues around IDENTITY take center stage in the Silver Age.
According to Jeff Yang, editor of Secret Identities..
X-Men OriginsWriter Ta-Nehisi Coates points out in The Atlatntic how, “the X-Men were conceived during the same year as the March on Washington, the same year Malcolm X gave his "Message To The Grassroots" speech, the same year Medgar Evers was shot, the same year white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church.”
X-Men, like most of use, are born into circumstances beyond their control, thrown into a world they did not choose. And their struggle, not simply to make sense of such a world, but to thrive in it, mirrors each of own searches for authenticity and self-hood.
Many people fear the X-Men, even the X-Men themselves, and they can NOT hide their difference. No secret identities for many of the X-Men.
Superman (Wish) vs. X-Men (Fear)
This American Life
Invisible Man vs. Hackman, 2/23/2001
X-Men Last Stand
What position do different X-Men take on the development of a cure? Why might some X-Men like Beast and Rogue be interested in a cure, while others like Storm are not?
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