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The superheroes from DC and Marvel comics are some of the most iconic characters in popular culture today. But how do these figures idealize certain gender roles, body types, sexualities, and racial identities at the expense of others? Hot Pants and Spandex Suits offers a far-reaching look at how masculinity and femininity have been represented in American superhero comics, from the Golden and Silver Ages to the Modern Age. Scholar Esther De Dauw contrasts the bulletproof and musclebound phallic bodies of classic male heroes like Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man with the figures of female counterparts like Wonder Woman and Supergirl, who are drawn as superhumanly flexible and plastic. It also examines the genre's ambivalent treatment of LGBTQ representation, from the presentation of gay male heroes Wiccan and Hulkling as a model minority couple to the troubling association of Batwoman's lesbianism with monstrosity. Finally, it explores the intersection between gender and race through case studies of heroes like Luke Cage, Storm, and Ms. Marvel. Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is a fascinating and thought-provoking consideration of what superhero comics teach us about identity, embodiment, and sexuality.

The first look at the philosophy behind the Captain America comics and movies, publishing in advance of the movie release of Captain America: The Winter Solider in April 2014. In The Virtues of Captain America, philosopher and long-time comics fan Mark D. White argues that the core principles, compassion, and judgment exhibited by the 1940's comic book character Captain America remain relevant to the modern world. Simply put, \"Cap\" embodies many of the classical virtues that have been important to us since the days of the ancient Greeks: honesty, courage, loyalty, perseverance, and, perhaps most importantly, honor. Full of entertaining examples from more than 50 years of comic books, White offers some serious philosophical discussions of everyone's favorite patriot in a light-hearted and accessible way. Presents serious arguments on the virtues of Captain America while being written in a light-hearted and often humorous tone Introduces basic concepts in moral and political philosophy to the general reader Utilizes examples from 50 years of comics featuring Captain America, the Avengers, and other Marvel superheroes Affirms the value of \"old-fashioned\" virtues for the modern world without indulging in nostalgia for times long passed Reveals the importance of the sound principles that America was founded upon Publishing in advance of Captain America: The Winter Soldier out in April 2014.

This article introduces comic books as a medium through which national identity and geopolitical scripts are narrated. This extension of the popular geopolitics literature uses the example of post-11 September 2001 (\"9/11\") Captain America comic books to integrate various strands of theory from political geography and the study of nationalism to break new ground in the study of popular culture, identity, and geopolitics. The article begins with an introduction to the character of Captain America and a discussion of the role he plays in the rescaling of American identity and the institutionalization of the nation's symbolic space. The article continues by showing how visual representations of American landscapes in Captain America were critical to constructing geopolitical \"realities.\" A reading of post-9/11 issues of the Captain America comic book reveals a nuanced and ultimately ambiguous geopolitical script that interrogates America's post-9/11 territorialization.

During the past two decades, the main focus in the fastgrowing field of multimodality has been the inter-semiotic relationships between different modes. However, due attention has recently been paid to one element which is lacking in multimodal texts: the argumentative element. This is referred to in the literature as multimodal argumentation in the belief that an argument is neither verbal nor visual and, in analyzing argumentative discourse, attention is to be paid to both verbal and visual modes with no need for a priori division. This research attempts to provide further study in this direction, thus adding to the current interest in giving a new perspective to the analysis of argumentative discourse. This research aims to explore how Instagram posts, viewed as representing perlocutionary acts, operate as instances of multimodal argumentation. The study is structured within the Contemporary Theoretical Framework of the Speech Act theory (Harris et al., 2018) and Multimodal Argumentation (Tseronis, 2018, 2020). Data for the study are images from The Incredible Hulk Comic Book (1980) and Instagram spoof posts (photos and captions) by Arab Netizens on 11th to 13th November (2022) towards the first trailer for Captain America 4: New World Order (2024), which were in response to Marvel Studios’announcement in September 2022. A descriptive qualitative approach has been adopted as it describes a particular perspective qualitatively. Findings have revealed that spoof Instagram posts operating as a perlocutionary act are potential instances of multimodal argumentation. The research might add to the domain of speech acts and the literature on multimodal argumentation.

Superhero narratives have always been deeply entangled with questions of justice, and their characters, crisis situations, and narrative solutions have changed in close relationship with the socio-historic contexts they responded to. Hence, the article argues, it is fruitful to read current superhero movies as both reflections of and comments on the post-9/11 legal and political landscape characterized by an ongoing state of exception and the resulting suspension of certain laws and civil rights. Analyzing Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Captain America: Civil War (all released in 2016) in terms of genre, narrative as well as characters and their symbolic implications, the article shows how the films comment in ambiguous, even contradictory ways on the current terrain of justice. Although they are critical of the loss of a democratic conception of justice, in which laws and the ways they are upheld and enforced are subject to independent control instances, the films also emphasize the necessity of suspending laws during crisis situations, thus supporting an ongoing state of exception in the face of contemporary terrorist threats.

\"As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol... as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting\". In the 2005 reboot of the Batman film franchise, Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne articulates how the figure of the superhero can serve as a transcendent icon. It is hard to imagine a time when superheroes have been more pervasive in our culture. Today, superheroes are intellectual property jealously guarded by media conglomerates, icons co-opted by grassroots groups as a four-color rebuttal to social inequities, masks people wear to more confidently walk convention floors and city streets, and bulletproof banners that embody regional and national identities. From activism to cosplay, this collection unmasks the symbolic function of superheroes. Bringing together superhero scholars from a range of disciplines, alongside key industry figures such as Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini, The Superhero Symbol provides fresh perspectives on how characters like Captain America, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman have engaged with media, culture, and politics, to become the \"everlasting\" symbols to which a young Bruce Wayne once aspired.  

This chapter provides a quick primer on the volumes of the comic titles Captain America and Avengers. It talks about the beginnings and endings of which usually coincide with major events in the Marvel Universe. The story starts with the first volume of Avengers, since it was in the classic issue #4 of that title that Captain America was found in a block of ice and revived. These long‐running volumes of Captain America and Avengers lasted until 1996. Both series ended when the Avengers were apparently killed in a battle with the villainous Onslaught. After the Avengers vs. X‐Men event, Marvel Comics relaunched many of its books and introduced new ones. The Watcher only knows what volume Captain America and the various Avengers titles are on, but Cap will live in on comics, movies, and TV long after this book has changed the course of American history.

A BLOND, SQUARE-JAWED MAN is splayed on the stone steps of the New York Federal Courthouse. Blood runs from his mouth. The white star on his chest is spattered. He is muscular but limp. Two figures crouch over him: a man in a black leather jacket, sunglasses and a baseball cap, and a woman in a black and white paramilitary uniform. The first swears. The second cradles the downed man's head, screaming 'no' and whispering, 'Oh God, Steve.'

In 1979, only a few years after she had joined the X-men and made the Xavier Institute her home, Ororo Monroe would go in search of her roots. Despite her mother’s Kenyan heritage, Storm did not pursue her lineage to Africa but traveled only a few miles from Xavier’s Westchester mansion to Harlem, the place of her early childhood. Seeing the decaying stoops, trash-filled streets, and abandoned homeless in what used to be a vibrant black neighborhood, Storm thinks to herself, “In my father’s tales, this was a magical place—wicked yet joyous, poor, rough-edged but alive. He was so

In this chapter, the author talks about some of the finer points concerning Captain America and his eligibility to serve as a moral exemplar. The chapter explores three issues. 1) Fictional characters are simply not real. 2) Fictional characters can be perfect and we can't. 3) Fictional characters can be depicted inconsistently over the years by different writers. Fictional characters can model virtuous character traits by demonstrating their consequences in an imaginary world that readers identify with. While real‐world people can't be perfect, fictional characters can be: writers just have to write them that way! Depending on how they are written, fictional characters don't have to experience difficult choices or moral weakness, and they can stick to their principles come what may. Each writer and fan will have a personal conception of a character like Captain America that leads them to regard certain behaviors as mistakes, aberrations caused by writers.