On Using Superheroes in My Freshman Comp. Classes

Superhero narratives offer a wealth of topics and themes, influences, inspirations, and more to enrich and challenge one’s intellectual pursuits. They are artifacts that both shape and reflect many aspects of our culture, so whatever topic students choose, they’ll really be researching and writing about social concerns, culture, philosophy, religion, race, gender, history, science, politics, or some other important aspect of human life.

The goal is for students to honestly pursue new knowledge through research and writing, but my hope is that by making the research process fun and less intimidating, they will discover something new about themselves as writers, readers, and thinkers. I’ve done this for one semester already, and anecdotally, at least, I have to say it’s working. Plus, no student can write about the same “been there, done that” topics without at least injecting those topics with new life. Generally, though, students move away from them entirely, finding new and surprising topics to write about during the semester. (Most students only write about euthanasia, say, because they think that’s what college students are supposed to write about.)

If a student wants to write about the X-Men, for instance, she might explore themes related to civil rights or larger notions of “the Other” in American culture by looking at the films or narratives such as X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills. After all, the comic book series made its debut at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963—around the time Martin Luther King, Jr., was sent to a Birmingham jail—and the series later reemerged in the 1970s amid an ever-changing social dynamic.

Batwoman: Elegy challenges its audience to reckon with assumptions regarding gender and sexuality, while the Catwoman film starring Halle Berry, some might say, only reinforces old Hollywood stereotypes. The gender imbalance in The Avengers film is obvious to most viewers—it fails the Bechdel Test, despite director Joss Whedon’s supposed reputation for developing strong female characters. And what does it mean that Warner Brothers, the parent-company of DC Comics, does not think that Wonder Woman—one of the first superheroes and among the first to be developed for non-comics audiences in a popular 1970s TV show—is not worthy of a movie, while Marvel’s formerly C-list characters (such as Iron Man and Ant-Man) are shepherded to the silver screen?

Captain America might be The First Avenger, but he’s also the beneficiary of performance-enhancing drugs, to put it mildly. Further, a closer look at Iron Man might suggest an exploration of the military-industrial complex or other corporate shenanigans; consider that while Iron Man saves many lives and, in The Avengers film, even brags about the benefits of self-sustaining “green” energy used to power his newly-built Stark Tower, he’s also a billionaire whose business, if it behaves like most corporations, likely skirts tax laws to save money.

Zach Snyder’s presentation of Superman as a Christ-like figure in Man of Steel captivated some moviegoers, but the character’s Jewish creators actually modeled the character on Moses. Plus—spoiler alert—should Superman (or any Christ-like figure, for that matter) kill his enemy at the movie’s climax? What does such an action, which angered many long-time fans of the character, say about the world we now live in?