The reactionary Comicsgate campaign against alleged “forced” diversity in superhero comics revealed the extent to which comics have become a key battleground in America’s Culture Wars. In the first in-depth scholarly study of Marvel Comics’ most recent engagement with progressive politics, Superhero Culture Wars explores how the drive towards greater diversity among its characters and creators has interacted with the company’s commercial marketing and its traditional fan base.Along the way the book covers such topics as:· Major characters such as Miles Morales’s Spider-man, Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, Jane Foster’s Thor, Sam Wilson’s Captain America and the Secret Empire series’ turncoat Captain America· Creators such as G. Willow Wilson, Jason Aaron, Nick Spencer and Michael Bendis· Marketing, the Marvel Universe, and online fan culture Superhero Culture Wars demonstrates how the marketing of Marvel comics as politically progressive has both indelibly shaped its in-world universe and characters, and led to conflicts between its corporate interests, its creators, and it audience.
Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.
Introduction: Mockingbird and Milkshakes: Comicsgate, Identity, and the Politics of Marketing in an Age of Outrage Chapter One: From Stan’s Soapbox to Twitter: Politics and Story-Telling in the Marvel Universe Chapter Two: Diversity Done Right?: Miles Morales and Kamala KhanChapter Three: “Captain America is Black and Thor is a Woman”: Gender- and Race-Bent Mantle Passing in Marvel’s All-New, All-Different CampaignChapter Four: Rethinking Secret Empire: Writing and Marketing Political Comics in an Age of Rising FascismConclusion: Marvel Legacy and Fresh Start: Selling (and Selling Out) Progressive Politics Works CitedIndex
With its starting point that superhero comics are and have always been political, Superhero Culture Wars is a welcome examination of Marvel’s moves toward diversifying its characters in the 2010s. It illuminates not only the tensions between fans and storytellers, but also the tensions inherent in a company’s neoliberal strategy of marketing its products and itself as progressive in order to increase its profits.
