The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics

Postmillenial Pop #1

by Ramzi Fawaz

2017 The Association for the Studies of the Present Book Prize

Finalist Mention, 2017 Lora Romero First Book Award Presented by the American Studies Association

Winner of the 2012 CLAGS Fellowship Award for Best First Book Project in LGBT Studies

How fantasy meets reality as popular culture evolves and ignites postwar gender, sexual, and race revolutions.

In 1964, noted literary critic Leslie Fiedler described American youth as “new mutants,” social rebels severing their attachments to American culture to remake themselves in their own image. 1960s comic book creators, anticipating Fiedler, began to morph American superheroes from icons of nationalism and white masculinity into actual mutant outcasts, defined by their genetic difference from ordinary humanity. These powerful misfits and “freaks” soon came to embody the social and political aspirations of America’s most marginalized groups, including women, racial and sexual minorities, and the working classes.

In The New Mutants , Ramzi Fawaz draws upon queer theory to tell the story of these monstrous fantasy figures and how they grapple with radical politics from Civil Rights and The New Left to Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements. Through a series of comic book case studies―including The Justice League of America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The New Mutants ―alongside late 20th century fan writing, cultural criticism, and political documents, Fawaz reveals how the American superhero modeled new forms of social belonging that counterculture youth would embrace in the 1960s and after. The New Mutants provides the first full-length study to consider the relationship between comic book fantasy and radical politics in the modern United States.

Genres: Nonfiction, Comics, Queer, LGBT, Pop Culture, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 22, 2016

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite possibly one of the worst books I've ever read. Riddled with factual errors (Page 9 "…DC Comics (creator of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) and Marvel (creator of Captain America)…") and logical fallacies (including but not limited to Fawaz's belief that characters have agency of their own), the entire book was a struggle to get through. Racism and sexism abound.

I absolutely understand the desire to see one's self in the media we consume. But trying to reframe hetero-normative but slightly different characters as somehow "queer" is disingenuous at best and frankly pretty dangerous. I have no belief that Fawaz knows much about the comics he covered or the creators that made them. If he did, he certainly wouldn't like Stan Lee as much as he appears to.

He repeatedly uses ableist language and treats actual trans people as objects to demonstrate his point, refusing to recognize the breadth and depth of what it means to be queer. He never deviates from a gender binary (to the point where he believes the Hulk to be "feminine" because he is "not explicitly masculine" and "ruled by his emotions" which is a "female trait").

Don't even risk losing brain cells while you read this. Go read Ten Cent Plague instead, safe the time and heartache.

(Full review on The Learned Fangirl: http://thelearnedfangirl.com/2016/05/...)

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takes its title from literary critic Leslie Fiedler who (the internet tells me) championed genre and who (the book tells me) gave a talk at Rutgers University titled “The New Mutants” contending:

that the counterculture youth of the 1950s and 1960s . . . represented a ‘new mutant’ generation defined by a rebellious disengagement from the traditions of liberal humanism. This included turning away from the values of human reason and progress and embracing ‘anti-rational’ aesthetics, or forms of art and literature that parody the supposedly foundational institutions and narratives of American social life, including the family, romantic love, and upward mobility. (35).

Felder also suggested that this “new sensibility” included “the willful relinquishing of attachments to traditional masculinity and an increasing identification among American youth with the outcast elements of American society: racial minorities, the homeless, and woman.” (35).

Appropriating this or riffing on this, Fawaz suggests the big two superhero was “radically transformed” from “local do-gooder and loyal patriot” to “cultural outsiders and biological freaks capable of upsetting the social order in much the same way that racial, gendered, and sexualized minorities were seen to destabilize the image of the ideal U.S. citizen.” Superheroes became “a cultural corollary to the cosmopolitan worldviews of movements for international human rights, civil rights , and women’s and gay liberation.” (4). From the Justice League’s adoption of “ethical citizenship” that emphasizes good deeds that make the world a better place and Superman’s renunciation of his U.S. citizenship (41, 282) to the X-Men’s ongoing embrace of the excluded, there’s definitely some there there.

I did learn a lot about comic history I missed. I learned that the Justice League came together to fight “Starro the Conqueror, a giant, space-faring starfish” who was ultimately defeated by lawn care. (42, 47). Fawaz makes quite a compelling case that The Fantastic Four is struggling with becoming a non-hetronormative family with a family patriarch who never comes to grips with how his own body undermines the role he doesn’t question he plays – which makes me want to take another look at Matt Fraction’s run.

I also learned that Jane Gray’s turn as The Dark Phoenix was riffing on 1970s concerns about narcissism, including a conservative backlash that feminism was about really narcissism, not liberation. (202, 2016). The Dark Phoenix storyline moved easily into concerns about demon possession, which I forget people in 1980s were really worried about. Some people. Then in the 1990s, it shifted into a story about “The Legacy Virus” which struck many mutants and gave the X-Men and opportunity to explore the consequences of HIV and the role pop-genetics play in exclusion and inclusion. (266-67).

Wraps up with a discussion of the assassination of Captain America; killed on the New York District Courthouse steps as he is summoned to answer for resisting immoral laws. (269). I only dipped my toe in the Civil War story line. I liked what I read. I’m getting too old to be engaged by the “who would win in a fight, Captain America or Captain Marvel” thing (and duh – Captain Marvel). But I get that stories are about conflict and soothing that gnawing foundational, ontological doubt that makes us wonder whether the game is worth the candle, and the question of the moral response to an immoral law is worth that candle. And also both foundational AND ontological. But I never read to the end of it, in large part because my sense is that the story never resolved; it just . . . ended. I’m struck by positioning Captain America as the capstone transgressive figure; this Übermensch created to fight Übermensch who solidly places himself in the deep American history of resisting unwarranted authority.

Generally enjoyed reading it. I was, however, frustrated by how cherry picked this text felt. There was no discussion of the counter narrative of highly influential conservative comic book writers like Frank Miller, for example. And weirdly for a book that seems delighted by transgressive comic texts, no discussion of that champion of polymorphous perversity, Grant Morrison. Nary a mention in the text or an entry in the index for either. I thought Matt Fraction got mentioned, but there’s nothing in the index backing me up on that. And the myriad examples of the earnest but cringeworthy attempts to tackle sexuality, race, gender, and power in major story lines are just ignored. Though maybe in this age where folks like to tear down more than build up, that’s kinda charmingly transgressive in its own way.

I did wish for a clearer thesis and a deeper dive.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent academic study of the way superhero comics (Justice League, Fantastic Four, X Men at the center) interact with political and cultural contexts. I love his discussion of the way Marvel destablized identity norms--for example, the pin-up of The Thing--in a playful way in the service of a generally liberal political approach dedicated to cosmopolitan tolerance. At the same time, he doesn't avoid the anticommunist emphasis of the early-mid Sixties mags. As a member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society--I assume membership doesn't lapse--I responded with a touch of nostalgia, but the center of the book is Fawaz's very smart analysis. There's just a bit of academic jargon, but for the most part the writing is cogent and clear.

[Osvaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really amazing book that presents comics and cultural scholars with a paradigm shift in regards to the cosmopolitan possibilities of American superhero comics to imagine alternate forms of social organization and bonds across difference. Fawaz rejects both the overvaluing of creator biography and the perspective of cultural and political critique of comics' recapitulation of reactionary conservative fundamentally white heteropatriarchal narratives and notions as an end in itself. Instead, he presents a generous and radical reading of not only comics like the Uncanny X-Men (which have long been associated with engaging with metaphors of difference and identity politics), but also gives us the queer possibilities of Lee and Kirby's original run on Fantastic Four and an examination of Spider-Man's saga with the symbiote (Venom) as representing a relationship between narratives of demonic possession popular inthe 80s and the erosion of the ethical assumptions of the superhero in light of the centrality of consumption as the primary mode of expressing identity in the late capitalist era.

Fawaz also writes at length about X-Men's Storm, a character I have written about (and continue to write about) because of the large gap in scholarship addressing her character, considering how the readership for comics took part in a discourse that aimed to keep the comics true to their professed political ideals of not only justice and equality, but also intersectional awareness.

The Fantastic Four chapters are especially illuminating, transforming through his careful and contextualized reading, a comic that appears on the surface to be the most square whitebread heteronormative and sometimes xenophobic comic, into a radically queer reformation of the family (echoing and surpassing my similar views on the subject).

The two aspects I love most about Fawaz's book are 1) his work with lesser known but nevertheless important comics series like Thew New Mutants, and 2) his frequent recourse to the paratextual ephemera of comics like letters pages and convention programs.

This book is already figuring largely into my own scholarship, and I honestly cannot imagine that I will not be referencing and quoting it for a long time coming.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy the following sample, please read the essay at my website and support independent internet!


I like a classic High Fantasy story, but let us not pretend that the humble farmboy-to-Lord hero’s journey isn’t a modern myth that props up a system of implicit merit—in other words, the gospel of wealth—in those that succeed, regardless of how they got there (family connections, noble blood, inherent goodness, financial windfall, martial prowess) deserve to be there. If you try, you too can become King—provided you’ve got the midichlorians, strength in the One Power, virtue in your belief.

I am not inhuman myself, so I will admit that “It’s clobberin’ time” is a pure delight. But Mr. Fantastic? Human Torch? Miss me with that Leave It to Beaver 1950s kitsch. I can give it up for the interesting interpretation of Sue Storm, though:

In her revolutionary 1963 polemic, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan identified the domestic housewife as a paragon of women’s social invisibility, a figure whose professional ambistions and political influence were rerouted toward the maintenance of normative family life. It would be in performing that same role that Sue Storm would become a literal invisible woman, capable of vanishing from sight at will. Unlike her teammates, who fail to identify with normative masculinity, Sue is better understood as disidentifying with proper femininity. According to Muñoz, disidentification describes an attempt to transform the limits of one’s subject position by performing it in unexpected or unpredicable ways.

Even though the vast majority of The New Mutants parses in detail comics I had no overt familiarity with, when the chapters hit upon my personalized reading list, they hit hard. Chapter Six, Consumed by Hellfire, combines perhaps the two capital-c “Comic” arcs that I know (and like) best–the arrival of Dark Phoenix and Spider-Man’s trial with the black-suit Symbiote.


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To see the rest of the essay, click to continue reading at my website.

[joshua sorensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

clearly a project of passion for the author but mixed results. analysis of x-men, who fawaz clearly loves, ranges from solid to exemplary. analysis of issues of race and gender... a bit more spotty!

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marc Singer penned a brutal &, to my mind, definitive negative review of the book in the inaugural issue of *Inks*. I would not be as hard on this book's errors or optimistic political readings of superhero comics as Singer; in fact. I was impressed by Fawaz's generative, agile, & generous reads of Silver Age JLA & FF comics. However, the conclusion of C5 is unforgivable.

To quote Singer " Discussing an unsuccessful 1978 attempt to form a comics creators’ guild, Fawaz criticizes Claremont and other creators for the 'patriarchal logic' of their discourse of infantilization by paternalistic companies, casting their efforts as an individualistic, self-aggrandizing action in contrast to the imagined collectivity of artistic collaboration. To support this position, he cites comics professional Mary Jo Duffy (who, significantly, was an editor at the time, not a writer or artist), who claimed the collaborative and syndicated nature of corporate-owned comics made implementing creators’ rights not just difficult but impossible. Barely one page after suggesting the work made for hire clause was solely responsible for pitting comics creators against each other, Fawaz cites the collaborative aspect of those same work-for-hire practices as proof that the attempt at collective bargaining was bound to fail. In the next paragraph he dismisses the 'neoliberal politics of personal responsibility' that he detects in the comics and their creators, but it is hard to imagine anything more neoliberal than a tenure-track professor denigrating the organizing efforts of a group of highly contingent workers because they used the wrong metaphors."

To be clear, the problem I have w/ Fawaz is not an objection to cultural studies, political readings of texts, or critical race or queer theory. I support all of those things. Nor am I objecting to the shoddiness of his sources (3 of them) in his account of the comics guild. It's not even that I vociferously disagree w/ his anti-labor, anti-collective bargaining position in this account. The unforgivable problem is that he presents these views as a part of his ostensible "radical imagination", instead of accepting that he's another professional siding w/ the boss & droning on about the special conditions of labor w/ which a union or a guild could never engage.

This book will doubtless be a landmark in superhero studies, whatever I think. So much the worse for left politics & working conditions in the academy.

[Jean-Michel Berthiaume · Rating 5 out of 5]

A medium is only as strong as it's most foreward thinking and courageous interpretation. With this book, Ramzi Fawad has just advanced the scope of comics studies a light year.

[Ferzem Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting (if at times frustrating) read that presents the history of American superhero comics as reflective of the changing socio-political concerns of the American society. Fawaz makes some really interesting points, like presenting the space opera as a Messianic melodrama through Silver Surfer, or the role of vigilantes as urban folk heroes through Green Lantern / Green Arrow and Luke Cage. He is also in his element whenever he discusses X-Men, partly because the X-Men have always lent themselves perfectly to this lens of politically-driven media analysis.

However, Fawaz also often cherrypicks and stretches his arguments to fit particular stories not necessarily designed for his thesis, like Birth of Venom. He attempts to fit inherently heteronormative familial dynamics of the Fantastic Four as queer, or the inherently nationalistic and ethnocentric Justice Society of America as globally inclusive, which I'd argue seems disingenuous when talking about comics' role in upholding or breaking social norms. Fawaz might have just included these earlier chapters to present a more comprehensive history of superhero comics, and it's not that his analysis for those parts is completely lacking grounds, but I would much rather have liked him to expand on texts that do fit better in his arguments, like Ann Nocenti's Daredevil run, or Grant Morrison's New X-Men.

But despite all my frustrations it was refreshing to read about superhero comics and their history through different lenses of identity politics, especially when connected to American social history.

[Michael Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was, quite simply, the best text I've ever read in regard to a scholarly analysis of the social commentary and implications of comic books as well as an informed history of the genre. All Fawaz said was strengthened by his use of iconic stories. Too often "academic" looks at comics can focus too much on one title or another or too much on obscure titles, making it inaccessible to the average reader. Every comic and storyline discussed here will be familiar to the general comic fan, even if you haven't read them yourself. His use of iconic characters and storylines also go a long way to making his points more clear. The language and theory use is also accessible to the average reader, as Fawaz expresses it all skillfully and defines anything with clarity that might not be familiar to someone without a PhD in literary theory.

To top it all off, Fawaz clearly LOVES comic books and the messages they teach us, in their structure and in their content, about justice and that passion comes through to readers. I've read comic books for over thirty years and have read a lot about comics too and I appreciate how much I learned from this book. I was fascinated from cover to cover. This text is required reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the power and purpose of comic books.

[Chris Keeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best cultural critique of the superheroic genre that I've seen in a while. Fawaz engages superhero comics from the 1960's to 2000's through the lens of queer theory, focusing on bodies, mutation, and monstrosity, matching shifting impressions and effects of the superheroic body to shifts in American social and political life. It would have benefited the text for Fawaz to have been more bold and "weird" with it, and make a more original intervention (drudging through the X-Men as a queer allegory isn't saying anything new). For the first half of the book (1960's - 1970's), Fawaz relies on tenuous logical connections that aren't immediate to the reader or well explained, but the latter part (1980's to 2000's) of the text is where he really hits his stride.

The close readings of archived comics aren't spectacular, but Fawaz has a compelling talent for sociopolitical contextualization. Also, the inclusion of fan letters as sites of analysis, critique, and debate was clever.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fawaz does some interesting work applying queer theory to super hero comics. He primarily focuses on Marvel comics, especially the Mutant, as a site for radical queer forms of resistance and identity work from the 60s thru the first decade of the 21st century. He is unfortunately circular in some of his arguments and fails to identify if what he is interpreted is intended by the creators or if this is primarily reader response. Additionally, he occasionally will assert a claim and does not do well with grounding his position within the text. It is one of the only comic studies texts examining superheroes through a queer lens, which is unfortunate. However, a definite recommended read until there is a better series of books to examine this intersection.

[Ceci · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book for superhero/comic book scholars, and those who want to look at queer or feminist theories through a fresh and interesting light!

[Ella]

for superheroes in american history dnf

[Em Nordling · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2016, popular cultural criticism does not want for discourse on identity and privilege—from #WeNeedDiverseBooks to #OscarsSoWhite, critiques of race, gender, and sexual representation are at the forefront of our conversations about media. And rightfully so. However, Ramzi Fawaz’s 'New Mutants' takes a departure from what has become the more popular mode of this body of criticism, turning away from representation and instead towards what he describes as “radical imagination.” His focal point is the Silver Age of superhero comics, when the nationalist and hyper-masculine bodies of superheroes like Superman and Captain America gave way to the political and embodied instability of entire teams and “families” of mutants, inhumans, and other social outcasts. Rather than taking these largely white, gendered casts as simple illustrations of a bygone era of repressed and normative representation, Fawaz draws upon Foucault’s assertion that repression is productive to illustrate how comics of the 1960s and 70s reimagined ideas of individual bodies, as well as group identities such as kinship and citizenship.

Fawaz’s account is as celebratory as it is complicated, allowing, for instance, the character of Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, to act as both a subject of the male gaze as well as a denial of it. But his analysis is not only of character or plotline; he takes comics as material products, extending his observations beyond their pages and into both audience and industry. Some of the book’s most salient points are made in its discussion of comic readers as a counterpublic, as an audience that transforms and creates rather than passively consuming. 'The New Mutants' thus breathes vital new life not only into the ongoing discourse on identity and representation, but also into burgeoning conversations about fan culture, transformative works, and alternative economies more generally. In addition to its theoretical basis, the book is firmly situated in the historical context is discusses, venturing into an analysis of contemporary comics only in brief. Fawaz’s scope, though, is enormous, and all the more impressive for how concise and accessible he has managed to portray it. 'The New Mutants' should be required reading not only for academics engaged in comics studies, but also for any reader invested in the ongoing project of imagining newer and weirder worlds.

[Alex Tunney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fawaz takes a concept that seems a little obvious, "x representing y" in comic books, and fleshes it out with research and fascinating new interpretations. He moves beyond the "what," and into the "how" and why." The linking of "new mutants" (post-WWII teenage social rebels) to the X-men team of the same name is brilliant. He aptly interweaves contemporary ideas of the time as well the production of the comic themselves into his explanations.

Some of the ideas presented were ones I was already on board for, yet I was still impressed by the less obvious interpretations. For example, the idea to focus on stories on demonic possession as a stand-in for capitalism in stories during the 1980's seemed interesting, but a little thin. However, the idea is so well argued in the chapter that I began to realize the idea extended beyond comics.

The only reason it isn't a full 5 stars (though I would give it a 4.5 if I could) is that it skips from the 1980's to today, in order to speak about the contemporary trends in comics. I would have loved for him to explore the 90's and the aughts, especially Morrison's New X-Men run which introduced ideas about mutant culture, enclaves in NYC and the separation between mutants who could and couldn't "pass." It also focuses a lot on Marvel and DC. They are major players, but there are a lot of interesting things going on in smaller brands that have creator-owned series.

Beyond those relatively minor criticisms, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a deeper look in the comic books.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour de force of cultural and literary analysis that examines American comic books using the lenses of queer theory, cosmopolitanism, globalization, and most importantly as the product of the contentious relationship between American political thought/rhetoric and its influence on the citizenry and the arts. Using the historical reference of American foreign policy after 1945 Fawaz illustrates how these political changes in terms of American imperialism led to changes in the stories, art, and characters of American comic books. The book uses 1950s stories from the Justice League of America, a close analysis of the Fantastic Four in the 1960s, the social consciousness and need for documentary realism in Green Arrow, the birth of the new X-Men in the 1980s as case studies to show how before comics became so focused on profit and franchising to argue that comics offered readers a place to explore the alternative potentialities of being an American and global citizen.