Superevil. Villains in Silver Age Superhero Comics
Anke Marie Bock
Cite this publication as
Anke Marie Bock, Superevil. Villains in Silver Age Superhero Comics (2023), Logos Verlag, Berlin, ISBN: 9783832583187
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Descripción / Abstract
Superevil: Villains in Silver Age Superhero Comics sheds light on the often-disregarded supervillains in the American superhero comic of the 1960s. From Loki to Killmonger â they all possess famous cinematic counterparts, yet it is their comic origin that this study examines. Not only did The Silver Age produce countless superheroes and supervillains who have conquered the screens in the last two decades, but it also created complex villains. Silver Age supervillains were, as the analyses in Superevil show, the main and only means to include political and societal criticism in a cultural product, which suffered from censorship and belittlement. Instead of focusing on the superheroes once more, Anke Marie Bock pioneers in putting the supervillain as such in the center of the attention. In addition to addressing the tendency to neglect villains in superhero-comic studies, revealing many important functions the supervillains fulfill, among them criticizing Cold War politics, racism, gender roles and the often unquestioned binary of good and evil on the examples of i.a. The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Black Panther comics.
Índice
- BEGINN
- Table of Contents
- 1 Why the World Needs Superheroes
- 2 The Genre of the Superhero Comic
- 2.1 Origin Story ̶ From Comic Strip to Comic Books
- 2.2 The Golden Age
- 2.3 The Silver or Marvel Age
- 2.4 The Bronze Age
- 2.5 From the Universe to the Multiverse ̶ Marvel and its Fandom
- 3 Approaching Evil
- 3.1 Theories of Evil
- 3.2 The Villain
- 3.3 Supervillain as Supermonster
- 4 Stereotypical Evil During the Cold War
- 4.1 Medial Pressure and Propaganda: Jameson’s Medial March Towards Power
- 4.2 The Red Threat as a Uniting Tool: Magneto as Common Foe and Never-ending Evil
- 4.3 Breaking the Us-vs.-Them-Ideology: Doctor Doom the Possible Twin of Mister Fantastic
- 5 US Supremacy over Evil by Mythological, Religious and Scientific Superiority
- 5.1 Challenging US Exceptionalism: Po-Siden the Colonizing Alien Invader
- 5.2 The Necessity of a Devil: Loki Holding the Balance of Power
- 5.3 Science as Savior: The Green Goblin’s Downfall
- 6 Representations of Marginalized Groups as Evil
- 6.1 Female Sexuality as Temptation towards Evil: Namor’s Sexuality Challenging the Holy Haven of Matrimony
- 6.2 The Transformation of the Monstrous African: Black Panther Overcoming his Rage
- 7 The Functions of Evil in the American Superhero Comic, or: Why the World Needs Supervillains