Spring 2024-2025 | Stanford University
With their fantastic powers, mutable bodies, multiple identities, complicated histories, and visual dynamism, the American superhero has been a rich vehicle for fantasies (and anxieties) for over 80 years. Superheroes have been incarnated across multiple media, including comic books, comic strips, film serials, animation, feature films, television, video games, toys, backpacks, and apparel. And they come in many flavors: heroic, cosmic, comic, neurotic, grim, martial, familial, political, philosophical, kid-friendly, and ultra-violent.
This course will take superheroes seriously (but also not too seriously) by centering upon the body of the superhero, and how it has incarnated allegories of race, ethnicity, queerness, hybridity, sexuality, gendered stereotypes and gender fluidity, politics, vigilantism, masculinity, nationalism, responsibility and monstrosity. The superhero has also embodied a technological history that encompasses industrial, atomic, electronic, bio-genetic, and digital technologies. There are also other, under-sung, pleasures in the fantasy, pleasures that center upon superheroes as colorful, performative, figures whose flamboyant self-presentation far exceeds the requirements of fighting crime.
Superhero Theory will embrace a range of critical approaches to the superhero across time, across fields of study, and across media, including cultural history, theories of representation and identity, play and marginality, serial storytelling, and the aesthetics of comics and film.
General
INTRODUCTIONS
Required Comic Books Purchases:
[\c] Busiek & Ross, Marvels
[\c] King & Gerads, Mister Miracle
[\c] Moore & Gibbons, Watchmen
[\c] Morrison & Quitely, All-Star Superman
WEEK 1: OF COMICS AND SUPERHEROES
[\c] SCREEN: Superman (Richard Donner, 1978) 143m
Introductions and Definitions
[\a] Critical: Peter Coogan, “The Definition of the Superhero”
How to Read Comics/How to Read Superhero Comics
[\c] Comics: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, The Amazing Spider-Man #33 (1966)
[\o] Look at: Mike Mignola, Hellboy: “The Island” (at least part 1) – (2005)
[\o] Critical: Charles Hatfield, “Comics: An Art of Tensions”
[\a] Thierry Groensteen, “Rhythms of Comics”
[\c] Historical Context: Bradford Wright, Comic Book Nation, Ch 1 (pp1-15, 26-29)
[\o] Optional: Bukatman, “Sculpture, Stasis, the Comics, and Hellboy”
UNIT I: SUPERMEN AND WONDER WOMEN
WEEK 2: BEHOLD, THE SUPERMAN!
SCREEN
[\o] Transmedial Superman: Threat to the Planet Building (radio show 1940) 12m;
[\o] The Mechanical Monsters (Fleischer Studio cartoon, 1941) 10m;
[\o] Superman (Columbia serial, Ch..1, 1948) 20m;
[\o] Superman & the Mole Men (Lippert Studios, 1951) 58m
Nietzsche’s übermensch and ours (Superman)
[\c] Comics: Jerry Siegel & Jerome Shuster, et al., Superman and Action Comics (both 1939) [JUST the Superman stories]
Superman 9 (1941) [first story ONLY]
Chris Ware, “I Guess” (1991)
[\c] Stephen T. Seagle & Teddy Kristiansen, It’s a Bird (2004)
[\o] Recommended: Maggin & Swan, “Must There Be a Superman?” in Superman #247
[\c] Critical: Ben Saunders, Do the Gods Wear Capes? [DGWC], “Superman: Truth, Justice, and all That Stuff”
[\a] Recommended: Scott Jeffery, Posthuman Body in Superhero Comics [PBSC], “The Perfect Body”
[\c] Fiction (recommended): Philip Wylie, Gladiator (1930)
Modernity, WWII and Industrial Might
[\c] Comics: Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, stories from Captain America #1 & #7 (1940 & 1941) (Captain America stories only)
[\c] Carl Burgos & Bill Everett, Marvel Mystery Comics #8-9 (1940 (Torch/Submariner only)
[\c] Jack Cole Police Comics (1940-41) (Plastic Man only)
[\c] HIGHLY Recommended [Golden Age]: Burgos/Everett, Human Torch #5 (1941)
[\c] Simon & Kirby, Boy Commandos (1942)
[\a] Critical: Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”
[\o] Art Spiegelman, “Forms Stretched to Their Limits”
[\a] OPTIONAL: Richard Dyer, “Entertainment and Utopia”
[\c] Historical Context: CBN, Ch 2 [Recommended: Ch 3]
WEEK 3: THE INNOCENCE OF SUPERMAN
SCREEN
[\c] Batman (1967): “Catwoman’s Dressed to Kill” 25m
[\c] Superman II (Richard Lester, 1980) 127m [skip opening 8-minute recap]
Superheroes, Kids, Whimsy, and Wonder
[\c] Comics: Otto Binder & CC Beck, Marvel Family #1 (1945)
[\c] J. Siegel & Wayne Boring, “Superman’s Return to Krypton” (Superman #141 – 1960)
[\c] Kurt Busiek & Alex Ross, Marvels (1994)
[\c] Critical: Jerry Griswold, Audacious Kids, “Introduction to First Edition” & “Ur of the Ur-Stories”
[\a] Deep Cut: Charles Hatfield, “Comic Art, Children's Literature, and the New Comic Studies”
Must There Be a Superman?
[\c] Comics: Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely, All-Star Superman #1-12 (2005-08)
[\c] Recommended: The Brave & The Bold #28 (first Justice League of America)
[\a] Critical: Umberto Eco, “The Myth of Superman”
[\a] Ramzi Fawaz, “The Family of Superman: The Superhero Team and the Promise of Universal Citizenship”
WEEK 4: POWER AND “EMPOWERMENT”
SCREEN
[\c] Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan, 2020) 109m
CHECK OUT ON YOUR OWN: TV episodes (1 episode each):
[\c] Wonder Woman (1975)
Wonder Woman, Embodiment, and Utopian Fantasy
[\c] Comics: William Moulton Marston & HG Peter, Wonder Woman (selections 1942-1946)
[\c] G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan [read No Normal story arc: Chapters 1-5: pp 4-108; 235-243] (2014)
[\c] Critical: Saunders, DGWC, “Wonder Woman: Bondage and Liberation”
[\a] Deep Cut: Lillian Robinson, “Genesis: Departing From Paradise”
[\c] Recommended: Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Throwing Like a (Super) Girl
[\o] Comics: Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Batman: Mad Love
[\a] Critical: Lillian Robinson, “Revelation: Post-al Superheroes” from Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes
[\a] Iris Marion Young, “Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality”
[\c] Highly Recommended: Margaret Galvan, “From Kitty to Cat: Kitty Pryde and the Phases of Feminism” in The Ages of the X-Men: Essays on the Children of the Atom in Changing Times
[\a] Lillian Robinson, “Chronicles: Generations of Super-Girls”
UNIT II: SECRET IDENTITY POLITICS
WEEK 5: GODS AND MONSTERS
SCREEN
[\c] Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Watiti, 2017) 130m
[\c] Excerpts: Close Encounters (Spielberg, 1977)
[\c] Infinity War (Russo Bros, 2018)
Silver Age Bodies and the Rise of Marvel
[\o] Comics: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four #1 (1961)
[\c] Lee & Kirby, The Avengers, #1-4 (1963-64)
[\o] Lee & Steve Ditko, Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962)
[\o] The Amazing Spider-Man #3 and #24 (1963 and 1965)
[\c] Lee & John Romita, The Amazing Spider-Man #40 (1966)
[\c] Critical: Saunders, DGWC, “Spider-Man: Heroic Failure and Spiritual Triumph”
[\c] Historical Context: Wright, Comic Book Nation, Ch 7 (pp180-187, 201-225)
Cosmic Superheroes, Sublimity, and the Shape of Energy
[\c] Comics: Lee & Kirby, Fantastic Four #48-51 (1966)
[\c] Lee & Kirby, The Mighty Thor #160-161 (1969)
Kirby, Fourth World Saga (selections):
[\o] Jimmy Olsen #133 (1970)
[\c] The Forever People #1 (1971)
[\c] The New Gods #1, #7-8 (1971, 1972)
[\c] Lee & Ditko, Strange Tales #138 (1965)
[\c] Steve Engelhart & Frank Brunner, Dr. Strange #4 (1974)
[\c] Optional: Kirby, Mister Miracle #1 (1971)
[\c] Starlin, Captain Marvel 28-29 (Thanos!) (1973)
[\c] Warlock #1 (1972)
[\c] Lee & Kirby, The Mighty Thor #162
[\c] Critical: Charles Hatfield, The Comic Art of Jack Kirby, Ch 3, “How Kirby Changed the Superhero”
[\a] Deep Cut: Hatfield, Kirby, Ch 4, “Kirby’s Technological Sublime”
[\a] Suggested: Hatfield, Kirby, Ch 5, “The Great Bust-Out: Kirby’s Fourth World”
[\a] Jeffery, PBSC “The Cosmic Body” (pp 93-100)
[\a] Bukatman, “The Crossroads of Infinity”
WEEK 6: MUTANTS AND SUPER-SOLDIERS
The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Mutant Superhero
[\o] Comics: Chris Claremont & John Byrne, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980): Uncanny X-Men Part 1: 101-108 and Part 2: 129-138
[\a] Critical: Ramzi Fawaz, “’Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!’: Mutant Superheroes and the
Cultural Politics of the Comic Book Space Opera”
[\a] Deep Cut: Fawaz, “Demonic Possession and the Limits of the Superhuman in the 1980s”
[\c] Historical Context: Comic Book Nation, Ch 8 (pp 226-245)
Traumatic Bodies: Mutants and Super-Soldiers
SCREEN
[\c] Logan (James Mangold, 2017) 137m
[\c] Comics: Barry Windsor Smith, Weapon X (1991)
[\c] Warren Ellis & Adi Gravov, Iron Man: Extremis
[\c] Optional: Morales & Baker, Truth: Red, White & Black
[\c] McDuffie etc, Deathlok: Souls of Cyberfolk
[\c] Critical: Saunders, DGWC, “Iron Man: Techno-Faith”
[\a] Jeffery, PBSC, “The Military-Industrial Body” and “Animal and Artificial Bodies”
[\a] Deep Cut: José Alaniz, “SuperCrip: Disability, Visuality, and the Silver Age Superhero”
[\c] Historical Context: Wright, Comic Book Nation, Ch 9 (pp 254-262, 278-281)
WEEK 7: COMICS, SUPERHEROES, AND QUEERNESS
SCREEN
[\c] The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) 115m
On the Flamboyance and the Queerness of the Superhero
[\c] Comics: Greg Rucka & JH Williams III, Batwoman: Elegy (2009-20)
[\a] Critical: Darieck Scott & Ramzi Fawaz, Queer About Comics: “Introduction” (pp 197-211)
[\a] Deep Cut: Anthony Michael D’Agostino, “’Flesh-to-Flesh Contact’: Marvel Comics’ Rogue and the Queer Feminist Imagination”
Anti-Meta-Edgy-Alt Superheroes
[\c] Comics/Critical: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, Watchmen
WEEK 8: WAKANDAN KINGS AND HEROES FOR HIRE
SCREEN
[\c] Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018) 134m
Black Panthers, Black Lightnings, Luke Cage… and Lion Man!
[\c] Comics: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four #52-53 (1966)
[\c] Don McGregor et al, Jungle Action #6-18 (1973-75) in Black Panther: Panther’s Rage
[\c] Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (1970)
[\c] Deep Cuts: All-Negro Comics #1 (1947)
[\o] Critical: Charles Johnson, “Phenomenology and the Black Body”
[\a] Blair Davis, “Bare Chests, Silver Tiaras, Removable Afros and the Visual Design of Black Comic Book Superheroes”
[\a] Deep Cuts: Ramzi Fawaz, “Heroes ‘That Give a Damn’: Urban Folktales and the Triumph of the Working-Class Hero” (pp 164-180)
[\a] Recommended: Davis, “All-Negro Comics and the Birth of Lion Man”
Black Heroes Revised and Revisited
[\c] Comics: Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Vol.1 (2012)
[\c] Ta-Nahisi Coates et al., Black Panther and the Crew: We Are the Streets (2017)
Recommended: comics by Christopher Priest, Reginald Hudlin, and Ta-Nahisi Coates
[\a] Critical: Darieck Scott, “Can the Black Superhero Be?” (pp 89-119)
[\c] Bukatman, Black Panther, “The Killmonger Problem” and “Conclusion: Why Do We Hide”
[\a] Deep Cut: Marc Singer, “Black Skins and White Masks: Comic Books and the Secret of Race”
[\a] Recommended: Darieck Scott, “Can the Black Superhero Be?” (pp 119-171)
UNIT III: SUPERHEROES ACROSS MEDIA
WEEK 9: INFINITE SUPERHEROICS
SCREEN
[\c] Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Dos Santos, Powers, Thompson, 2023) 140m
[\c] Batman: The Animated Series (one episode)
Seriality and the Multiverse
[\c] Comics: Morrison & Quitely, Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery (1996)
Batman comics from 1930s-70s
[\a] Critical: Frank Kelleter, “Five Ways of Looking at Popular Seriality”
[\a] Karin Kukkonen, “Navigating Infinite Earths”
[\o] Maya Phillips, “The Narrative Experiment That Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe”
Batman: From Series Character to Serial Figure
[\o] Comics: Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns (1986)
[\c] Alan Moore & Brian Bolland, The Killing Joke (1988)
[\c] Paul Pope, Batman Year 100 (2006)
[\a] Critical: Will Brooker, “Batman: One Life, Many Faces”
[\c] Hillary Chute, Graphic Women, “Introduction.”
[\a] Deep Cut: MJ Clarke, “From Motion Line to Motion Blur: The Integration of Digital Coloring in the
Superhero Comic Book”
WEEK 10: DIGITAL BODIES, LOVE, AND THE SUPERHERO
SCREEN
[\c] Ant-Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed, 2018) 118m
Superheroes in the Real [-ish] World
[\o] Critical: Lisa Gotto, “Fantastic Views: Superheroes, Visual Perception, and Digital Perspective”
[\a] Bukatman, We Are Ant-Man: The Digital Body in a Superhero Comedy
[\c] Comics: Tom King & Mitch Gerards, Mister Miracle
A Very Partial Superhero Bibliography (admittedly mostly superhero comics)
History/Definitions
[\o] Peter Coogan, Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre
[\a] Blair Davis, Movie Comics: Page to Screen/Screen to Page
[\c] Jean-Paul Gabilliet, Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books
[\c] Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book
[\a] Shawna Kidman, Comic Books Incorporated: How the Business of Comics Became the Business of Hollywood
[\c] Bradford Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
Interpretive Approaches
Noah Berlatsky, Wonder Woman
[\a] Will Brooker, Batman Unmasked
[\c] Scott Bukatman, “X-Bodies: The Torrent of the Mutant Superhero,” in Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century
[\c] “The Boys in the Hoods: A Song of the Urban Superhero,” in Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century
[\c] “Secret Identity Politics” in The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero
[\c] James Gilmore & Matthias Stork, eds. Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital
[\c] Ian Gordon, Superman: The Persistence of an American Icon
[\c] Charles Hatfield, Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby
[\c] Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester, The Superhero Reader
[\c] Sean Howe (ed), Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers!
[\c] Scott Jeffery, The Posthuman Body In Superhero Comics
[\c] Geoff Klock, How to Read Superhero Comics
[\c] Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
[\c] Tom Morris and Matt Morris, Superheroes and Philosophy
[\c] Ben Saunders, Do the Gods Wear Capes?: Spirituality, Fantasy, and Superheroes
[\c] Douglas Wolk: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean
[\c] Paul Young, Frank Miller’s ‘Daredevil’ and the Ends of Heroism
Superheroes, Comics, and Cultural Identity
[\c] José Alaniz, Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond
[\c] Jeffrey A. Brown, Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans
[\c] André M. Carrington, “The Immortal Storm: Permutations of Race in Marvel Comics” in Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction
[\c] “Controversy and Crossover in Milestone Media’s Icon” in Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction
[\a] Anthony Michael D’Agostino, “’Flesh-to-Flesh Contact’: Marvel Comics’ Rogue and the Queer Feminist Imagination”
[\c] Sean Guynes and Martin Lund (eds), Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics
[\c] Hector Fernandez L’Hoeste and Juan Poblete ed., Redrawing the Nation: National Identity in Latin/o American Comics
[\c] John Jennings, The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art
[\o] C. Richard King, “Alter/native Heroes: Native Americans, Comic Books, and the Struggle for Self-Definition,” Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies (9):2 (April 2009), 214-223.
[\a] Rob Lendrum, “The Super Black Macho, One Baaad Mutha: Black Superhero Masculinity in 1970s Mainstream Comic Books,” Extrapolation, (46): 3, (Fall 2005)
[\a] Adilifu Nama, Super Black: American Pop Culture and the Black Superheroes
[\c] Anna F. Peppard, Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero
[\c] Matthew Putsz, Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers
[\c] Lillian S. Robinson, Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes
[\a] Jennifer D. Ryan, "Black Female Authorship and the African American Graphic Novel: Historical Responsibility in ICON; A Hero's Welcome."
[\a] Anna Beatrice Scott, “Superpower vs. Supernatural: Black Superheroes and the Quest for Mutant Reality,” Journal of Visual Culture, (5):3, (Spring 2006), 295-314.
[\c] Darieck Scott, Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics
[\c] Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, Black Women in Sequence: Reinking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime
[\c] Jeff Yang, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology
Trans-Media
[\c] Blair Davis, Movie Comics: Page to Screen/Screen to Page
[\c] Martin Flanagan et. al., The Marvel Studios Phenomenon: Inside a Transmedia Universe
[\c] James N. Gilmore & Mathias Stork, Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital
[\a] Shawna Kidman, Comic Books Incorporated: How the Business of Comics Became the Business of Hollywood
[\a] Terence McSweeney, The Contemporary Superhero Film: Projections of Power and Identity
Selected Fiction
[\c] Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
[\c] Tom DeHaven, It’s Superman
[\c] Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
[\c] Jonathan Lethem, Fortress of Solitude
[\c] Alan Moore, “What We Can Know About Thunderman” in Illuminations