PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.
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. -- Carolyn Cocca, author of Eisner Award-winning Superwomen: Gender, Power, and Representation (Bloomsbury 2016), SUNY College at Old Westbury, USA Blatino Spidey. Muslim-American Ms. Marvel. Queer teen Hulk. For some, these and other superhero reincarnations ring the death knell to Western civilization. For others, they reflect a vitally attentive response to today’s social make-up and the spirit of our times. With dazzling scholarly dexterity, Monica Flegel and Judith Leggatt take us on the rollercoaster ride of Marvel Comics: how its socio-politically alert contemporary stories entertain, incite incendiary debate, reveal deep sociopolitical chasms, and act as agents of change. Superhero Culture Wars forcefully reminds: Comics matter! -- Frederick Luis Aldama, Eisner Award winning scholar and Distinguished University Professor, Ohio State University, USA
