The UNT course MYTHIC RHETORIC OF SUPERHEROES will be offered by the UNT Department of Communication Studies for Summer 2013! Listed as COM 4849 “Special Topics in Rhetoric” during Summer, the supercourse will fill quickly so enroll ASAP! We will explore the mythology and ideology, pleasures and perils, lurking within these American icons to better answer “Why do superheroes matter, and what do they communicate about American identity?” Open to undergraduates and graduate students (at either UNT or TWU), be sure to share with your superfriends!

That’s right, thrill-seekers, its time once again for the UNT Comics Studies Conference in Denton, TX on March 22 & 23! Debuting in 2011, the UNT Comics Studies Symposium focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to graphic narrative or sequential art and welcomes competitive paper submissions to participate in panel discussions and roundtable sessions exploring the critical and educational applications of comics. This year’s keynote speaker is the evil genius and entrepreneurial trailblazer behind the award-winning webcomic SOMETHING*POSITIVE, UNT alumni R*K* Milholland!

Questions and inquiries can be directed to Keith Brown, program manager for UNT’s Center for Interdisciplinarity, at Keith.Brown@unt.edu!

Meanwhile, the next MYTHIC RHETORIC OF SUPERHEROES course will be offered by the UNT Department of Communication Studies for Summer 2013! Listed as COM 4849 “Special Topics in Rhetoric” during Summer, the supercourse will fill quickly so enroll ASAP!

A great article over at Scene about “Taking Comics Seriously” as both art and literature with a sociological look at the graphic novel! Check it out! Also over at Comics Alliance, they explore “What Age of comics are we currently in?” (Which has to account for the 1990s kookiness of platinum-cover speculators and superstar creators if we’re gonna wrap our noggins around  the current Hollywood Zeitgeist.) Meanwhile, Justice League #12 is teasing the superhook-up of Wonder Woman and Superman, tho not everyone is keen on the idea.

Be sure to check back here for updates to the summer 2013 offerings of MYTHIC RHETORIC OF SUPERHEROES at UNT in the Department of Communication Studies, as well as the Spring 2013 UNT Comics Studies Symposium!

A lot of looking downward in shadowy darkness, both literal and figurative.

The summer cineplex has been bursting with comic book characters like Men in Black, John Carter of Mars, and others, but its the superhero that commands as blockbuster summer zeitgeist. The SPIDER-MAN reboot to Sam Raimi’s celebrated films was a darker re-telling of Peter Parker’s origins, but the runaway summer hit was Joss Whedon’s AVENGERS that parlayed Silver Age superteam fun into record-breaking success. Yet its an exception that proves the dark-and-gritty rule that has been etched into public consciousness by Christopher Nolan’s brooding Batman franchise. THE DARK KNIGHT received both critical acclaim and box office bonanza, but it also generated controversy over its political allegory that evoked heated debate about Bush Doctrine practices and vigilante violence. Nolan’s trilogy finale THE DARK KNIGHT RISES continues this trend of modern myth-making even before its premiere.

Radio hyperbolist Rush Limbaugh blovates that the supervillain Bane is a liberal conspiracy to smear Bain CEO and presidential candidate Romney even as supporters cheer Bat-Romney, likely because Nolan’s ambivalent allegory evokes themes and anxieties over economic inequality that fueled Occupy Wall Street. But discussion of our capitalist superheroes and political supersaviors was quickly eclipsed by a Colorado rampage at the movie’s premiere. The shooter remains a  mystery, but already media wonders “Does Batman have blood on his hands?” While the predictable hysterics blaming Liberal Godlessness or parents or lax gun control rage, there’s little doubt that Nolan’s film (inspired by Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities“) is intentionally both provocative yet ambivalent as our best mythologies are. Andrew O’Hehir at Salon nails the stakes:

“Whether or not Holmes had any particular interest in The Dark Knight Rises, he saw correctly that in our increasingly fragmented culture it was the biggest mass-culture story of the year, and one of the biggest news stories of any kind. Shoot up a Kentaco Hut or a Dunkin’ Donuts, in standard suburban-nutjob fashion, and you get two or three days of news coverage, tops. Shoot up the premiere of a Batman movie and you become a symbol, and provoke a crisis of cultural soul-searching… James Holmes has become the latest villain in a long-running violent movie for which we are all responsible, and from which we can’t turn away.”

To dismissively label an enemy or individual as “evil” (or “crazy”) often dismisses an account of motives, causes, and indeed our societal culpability in making it easier to attain guns than adequate health care, compassion, and counseling. Most frightening is the predictable regularity of such sprees.

The problem with killing monsters is it may turn us into monstrous superkillers on a crusade against perceived evildoers.

As we’ve explored in class, the redemptive violence in this Superhero Monomyth necessitates that we examine our cultural ideology and deliberatively reflect upon its causes and consequences, its payoff and price. While American filmgoers flock to consume this vigilante crusader, previews of the upcoming Superman film elicited snickers, taunting profanity, and cynical snark. Darker SuperAntiheroes reign, yet THE AVENGERS also suggests audiences are hungry for superheroes who can overcome and inspire during uncertain times, to show us how we might rise from our existential ennui. Like Nolan’s film, we must look into the dark night of our collective soul to contemplate the heroes we need… and the monstrous villains we may unwittingly help create.

For those searching for meaning and consolation in the horrible wake of such tragic violence, we can do no better than revisit the incredible eulogy for MLK Jr. given by Robert F. Kennedy on the evening of King’s assassination. This message is eternal, and needed now more than ever.

As we end the course, and reflect upon materials covered since the midterm exam, answer two of the following questions in 4-6 single-spaced pages (only about an hour on each, but answers are evaluated on completeness of critical synthesis rather than minimum length).  Please make sure answers are typed, spell-checked, grammar-checked, and draw upon specific concepts and readings as you implement the D.I.E.T. formula for your essays.

1.  Use readings from either race, class, or gender to identify at least 3 key concepts from that unit and illustrate them using examples from graphic novels you’ve read for the course.  How are those 3 concepts defined and what specific examples that illustrate them from Kingdom Come, Icon, Batwoman, Red Son, or All-Star Superman?

2.  How would you answer the question, “What can we learn from studying superheroes?”  Which top 3 chapters or articles help make the case that superhero comics have something important to teach us about American culture, identity, and values? Do you consider superheroes to be best explored as mythology, genre, or a multiplicity of fantasy culturetypes?

3. Lawrence & Jewett’s book argues that the American Superhero Monomyth is a dangerous distortion of both democratic values and Christian principles, echoing in some ways the critiques of comic books from Fredrick Wertham in the 40s and 50s. Drawing upon at least 3 other readings from the course, explain whether you agree or disagree with these criticisms. Do any of the readings or graphic novels we examined suggest narrative possibility for a more democratic superhero ethos within “Elseworlds” stories? If “with great power comes great responsibilities,” then what might these include according to some of our comics selections?

Our Final Exam period is Friday July 6, 12:00noon – 2:00 p.m. so completed answers are due before 2pm Any and all outstanding materials cannot be accepted after this time.

SUPERMAN: RED SON is pure political allegory that stays true to the character but changes everything else!

Kicking-off our last week will be Mark Millar’s RED SON, an Elseworld’s tale that challenges the mission of meanings of Superman. As we look at post-9/11 superheroes and their thorny cultural and socio-political issues, discussion will focus on the post-9/11 lessons learned from our exploration of superheroes and the superhero cinema zeitgeist. Do you agree “superheroes have given us a way to talk about the War of Terror without directly talking about it,” but perhaps equally so with a myriad of other issues??

Later in the week, we will also be examining Grant Morrison’s award-winning and critically acclaimed run on ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to discuss “Does Superman still matter?” (some of my thoughts are here about Kal-El refuting superkillers like AzBats).  Meanwhile, we will also be looking ahead to your final paper’s analysis of a graphic novel exploring WHY these superheroes matter! Also some Supercourse coverage in the DRC and Comics Beat!

The backstory to this cover helps explain the story’s return to Superman’s mythic core and enduring appeal of this “Man of Steel” in a world of glass.

Icon and Rocket of Milestone Comics

This week we’ll be sampling the critical perspectives of race, class, and gender to explore challenges to superhero representation. We begin with the paradoxes in depicting Black Superheroes (and thorny issues of comic book commodities) by reading about Milestone Comics’ ICON and DC’s ‘whitewashing RetCon‘ difficulties. [What happened to BET's Black Panther cartoon is surprising.] As we then explore readings about the race, class, and gender trouble (The 99?) in comics and other media, we’ll tackle the “Wonder Womyn Problem” of “Women in Refrigerators” for feminist critics and SuperMoms [not to mention Wonder Woman herself]. We’ll end the week discussing the GenderQueer superheroine in BATWOMAN: ELEGY and it’s praise and criticisms! How do these multicultural characters conform to and challenge superhero conventions as SuperAntiheroes? And the Final Essay discussed!

UPDATE: A post on the fate of the Wonder Woman TV pilot (and the collective sigh of relief from fans), and the never-ending battle over media representation continues as Pixar’s BRAVE sparks feminist debate and homophobic speculation!

This week continues our look at superhero deconstruction in Miller’s Dark Knight Returns with another graphic novel that changed comics, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s epic masterpiece Watchmen (readings reflection items here). As we explore the postmodern paradoxes for superheroes as “commodified myth” and genre-blending existential reflection, we’ll also think about the “superheroine problem” in these masculine power fantasies. Indeed, Wonder Woman will play a key role in Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ ‘re-mythologizing’ saga Kingdom Come, which both stages and engages Lawrence & Jewett’s “Superhero Monomyth” critique of Führerprinzip democracy! We’ll also discuss the looming midterm exam.

Meanwhile, the MAN OF STEEL marketing has begun! The Avengers sparks more movies with their success.

Last week we watched the documentary “Superheroes Unmasked” that focused on the origins of the American Superhero genre and looked at some of the ways in which the idea of the superhero appears, reappears, changes, and develops over time.  The video contends that these fictional superheroes from popular culture [esp. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, & Captain America] have become cultural ICONS—symbols that take on a special, cultural significance as representations for American identity…that these popular, readily-recognizable symbols express something important about American ideas, perspectives, beliefs and values. This response essay asks you to reflect on a favorite or influential Superhero from comics, TV, or movies using course readings! If you can’t think of one, you might choose a character from BATMAN YEAR ONE or GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW that fascinated you!

SO…your task is to write a short 5-7 page essay that identifies and argues for your favorite American Superhero Icon.  What superhero has influenced you most, and how or why do you identify with them? What characteristics and values make this character your favorite and worthy for consideration as representative of American culture? Using Mythic Criticism & concepts from the course reading packet, identify the central values, myths, and fantasy themes which your American Superhero Icon embodies (esp. Genre elements, Reynolds mythic features, Monomyth variations, heroic values, etc).

Once you’ve chosen your icon, work through your ideas in a series of steps that should structure your paper:

1)  Briefly describe your icon for readers who may not be familiar with them.  What is their story, as a character AND as a commodity? Try to be as concise as possible with your description.  Include a picture on your title page if you like!
2) Do some research using on-line resources and/or traditional library work to DESCRIBE your superhero myth. Use concepts from Reynolds and Coogan to outline your character’s mythic and genre elements —be sure to cite your sources using proper MLA or Chicago citation format.
3)  INTERPRET the significance/use this icon has for you personally.  Why did you choose this character?  Why are they significant to you? What does your choice say about who you are and what you value?  About your identity and cherished values within American culture? Lessons learned? Draw upon two other readings or concepts from the course packet to help guide your interpretation.
4)  Then, try to extend your EVALUATION one step further—Why do you think your superhero has staying power or enduring potential as a Mythic ICON? What resonance and interest does your character have for you and perhaps others? Have they changed significantly so you prefer a specific ‘culturetype’ version? Why?
5)  Finally—THEORIZE what your icon says about American values and American identity?  How is it connected to powerful cultural ideas and values?  Is your superhero indebted to archetypal predecessors?  Here is where you explore the deeper social values and mythic truths within your superhero’s story, explaining the IDEOLOGY represented by them.

Remember, the primary goal of this assignment is to demonstrate your grasp of the readings in rhetorical criticism and offer an application of concepts. The better papers will be thoughtful and analytical rather than merely descriptive — that is, they will get below the surface to address some of the deeper issues and unobvious significances of your topic (Rushing and Frentz are good Mythic guides here). The paper is due in-class on the syllabus due date… Thursday June 14.

1970′s “Hard-Traveling Heroes” fight the bad guys… and each other!

For week two, we’re considering Rushing & Frentz’s “Mythic Perspective” and Peter Coogan’s “Superhero Genre” approach, which make for an interesting contrast. While Rushing & Frentz have us reflecting upon how we can find and make meaning from these tutelary archetypes, Coogan argues for Mission, Powers, and Identity (and Supervillains) as unique and distinguishing literary elements of superhero narratives (with notable challenge by Henry Jenkins to his historical typology). Some questions for discussion can be found here and here!

We’ll also be reading the legendary GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW series “Hard-Traveling Heroes” and by the end of the week discuss Frank Miller‘s revolutionary DARK KNIGHT RETURNS epic that reimagines Batman and his mythos (MoreFun Tim brings some context). These readings will inform and illustrate Lawrence & Jewett’s Myth of the American Superhero critique! Together we’ll explore what kind of “A Better World” these supersaviors may imagine.