Joseph J. Darowski teaches English at Brigham Young University and has published on comic book superheroes such as the X-Men, Wonder Woman, and Superman as well as on television series such as Chuck and Frasier.

• Table of ContentsIntroductionOrigin of the Species: Popular Science, Dr. Hermann Muller and the ­X-Men(Brad J. Ricca)“Evil mutants will stop at nothing to gain control of mankind!” X-Men, Communists and Cold War Containment Culture (John Darowski)Call for Community: Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters as Hippie Community Experience(Jean-Philippe Zanco)When Business Improved Art: The 1975 Relaunch of Marvel’s Mutant Heroes(Joseph J. Darowski)From Kitty to Cat: Kitty Pryde and the Phases of Feminism(Margaret Galvan)Days of Future Past: Segregation, Oppression and Technology in X-Men and America (Clancy Smith)“Mutant hellspawn” or “more human than you”? The ­X-Men Respond to Televangelism(Jacob Rennaker)From Terrorist to Tzadik: Reading Comic Books as ­Post-Shoah Literature in Light of Magneto’s Jewish Backstory (Nicholaus Pumphrey)Sexy Art, Speculative Commerce: The ­X-Men #1 Launch Extravaganza (Timothy Elliott and Robert Dennis Watkins)Fatal Attractions: Wolverine, the Hegemonic Male and the Crisis of Masculinity in the 1990s(Gerri Mahn)Generation X: Mutants Made to Order(David Allan Duncan)What Happens “After Xavier”? Millennial Fears and the Age of Apocalypse(Jeff Geers)Race and Violence from the “Clear Line School”: Bodies and the Celebrity Satire of X-Statix (Adam Capitanio)Mutating Metaphors: Addressing the Limits of Biological Narratives of Sexuality(Christian Norman)Grant Morrison’s Mutants and the Post–9/11 Culture of Fear(Eric Garneau and Maura Foley)From Columbine to Xavier’s: Restaging the Media Narrative as Superhero Fiction(Nicolas Labarre)No Mutant Left Behind: Lessons from New ­X-Men: Academy X (Rich Shivener)Autism and the Astonishing ­X-Men (Todd Kimball Mack)Prophet of Hope and Change: The Mutant Minority in the Age of Obama (Morgan B. ­O’Rourke and Daniel J. ­O’Rourke)About the ContributorsIndex

“goes into extensive detail about the individual characters starting from their origins and their transition and evolution through the decades...makes for fascinating reading”—Collectors’ Corner.