• Introduction
  • Brief history of superheroes
    • Modern superheroes and superhero culture, Marvel vs. DC, etc.

Superheroes have become an increasingly popular part of mainstream culture in recent years, a phenomenon helped along by the nearly constant stream of superhero movies that began in the 2000s. From the X-Men movies with Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, to Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the Spider-Man trilogy, these movies did a lot to help popularize superhero movies as a part of mainstream culture. There had been other superhero movies before this, of course, such as with the various Batman movies over the years, but they were more spread out. Flops such as Batman and Robin became laughingstocks, as it was considered too campy and not nearly realistic enough to satisfy an audience that had come to expect grit and darkness from Batman, a far cry from the days of Adam West’s rendition of the “Caped Crusader”. DC’s superhero movies have improved in quality and diversity over the years, expanding from Batman and the Green Lantern to other heroes such as Wonder Woman and Aquaman, whose titular characters were both played by people of color. But Marvel has outpaced DC in sheer popularity, with their steady stream of box office hits infusing the public consciousness with a superhero frenzy. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU as it’s known by fans, began in 2008 with the first Iron Man movie, and continues in the present day with Avengers: Endgame which was released earlier this year. With the charismatic Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Iron Man sparked a wave of superhero movies the likes of which had never been seen before. The MCU was probably the most ambitious movie series that had been attempted before as each movie was part of a single cohesive universe, so the writers had to make sure that each movie built on the previous ones. This kind of worldbuilding had been previously confined to mediums such as comic books, which as the source material for the MCU helped make it feel as though the movies were depicting the fans’ favorite comic book heroes come to life. This is part of what made the MCU’s popularity soar.

• • • Lawrence, John Shelton, and Robert Jewett. The Myth of the American Superhero. W.B. Eerdmans, 2002.
      • the original superhero archetype as conceived through Westerns, how it relates to American culture

But superheroes have been around much longer than people think. In The Myth of The American Superhero by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett, they define a superhero as someone who is:

“…distinguished by disguised origins, pure motivations, a redemptive task, and extraordinary powers. He originates outside the community he is called to save, and in those exceptional instances when he resides therein, the superhero plays the role of the idealistic loner. His identity is secret, either by virtue of his unknown origins or his alter ego; his motivation is a selfless zeal for justice. By elaborate conventions of restraint, his desire for revenge is purified.” (pg 47) This description should sound familiar to anyone who is even vaguely familiar with superhero media, as this kind of character is very common. From extremely popular heroes such as Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman to other heroes such as the X-Men, most aspects of this description are accurate to their stories. But Lawrence and Jewett are not talking about superheroes as we know them today. They are referring to an older version of the same archetype, found within another form of media that is distinctly American. Lawrence and Jewett argue that heroes from Westerns provide the base for superheroes as we know them today. “The frontier vigilante as protector of a defenseless civilization was given substance by actual conditions in the West. Rapidly expanding exploitation of western resources and the lack of an effective national police system provided an ideal seedbed for vigilante justice.” (pg 30) Just as modern day superheroes take matters into their own hands to bring justice and protect the citizens of their territories, so too did characters like the Lone Ranger and the people in real life who were the inspiration for them.

• Examination of how superheroes are presented in media
  • Brownie, Barbara, and Danny Graydon. The Superhero Costume: Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction. Bloomsbury Academic, An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016.
    • How different identities are treated, levels of “realism”, white bias and “Everyman” status, etc.

However, Westerns were always very white-oriented, as the pioneers did not have much regard for other ethnicities. This attitude has unfortunately bled over into modern day interpretations of superheroes and still persists to this day. In The Superhero Costume by Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon, they discuss how whiteness has impacted consumer perceptions of how heroes should be. They stated that “Commentators’ surprise at the decision to create an African American Spider-Man, in the form of Miles Morales, provides evidence that the superhero genre has previously equated American national identity to whiteness.” (pg 61)

“Through the years, mainstream American superhero comics have struggled to distinguish ethnicity from otherness, insofar as characters of nonwhite ethnicity are often costumed to appear either exotic or primitive.” – The Superhero Costume Pg 64

“Though these features of costume appear to be markers of cultural authenticity, they are for Western audiences.” – The Superhero Costume Pg 65

“A sense of authenticity is therefore often dependent on imagery that is appropriated from Western media, and from Western constructs of exoticism. For these Westernized societies, native dress is as exotic to natives as to outsiders.” – The Superhero Costume Pg 66

“The heroes are exoticized too, with costumes that are more ornamental than functional, decorated with fringes and feathers. However, this exotic vision is also markedly primitive.”- The Superhero Costume Pg 66

• • • Superheroes as military propaganda (?)

With some heroes, it’s obvious that there’s an element of propaganda involved, such as when Captain America does things such as punching Hitler.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/bRmPs.jpg

But there are some heroes that people might not expect to see spouting military propaganda. Superman was created in 1938 by two Jewish men, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Knowing this, it might be shocking to find that in March of 1943, during the height of World War 2, they released a comic with a cover emblazoned with the words “YOU can slap a Jap with WAR BONDS and STAMPS!”

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hollywood-cia-washington-dc-films-fbi-24-intervening-close-relationship-a7918191.html

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/12/hollywood-captain-marvel-movie-us-military-propaganda/

• Asians in superhero media (past/comics and present/movies)
  • Daredevil franchise
    • Johnson, Mark Steven, director. Daredevil. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003.
      • Bowman, Rob, director. Elektra. Twentieth Century Fox, 2005.
        • Looking at Elektra in both movies, as well as The Hand.
    • Goddard, Drew, writer. Marvel’s Daredevil. Marvel Television, 2015.
      • Again, looking at The Hand and Elektra, through the lens of appropriation and stereotyping.

Stick explains the Chaste (and the Hand)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z5fJwh1p7o

Stick explains the Hand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goIk8Hg7y5o

• • • Miller, Frank, writer. Daredevil Volume 1 #174. Marvel Comics, 1981.
      • Looking at The Hand and Elektra in the comics for a point of comparison to see how treatment of these issues has changed/stayed the same.
  • Iron Man Franchise
    • Lee, Stan, writer. Tales of Suspense Volume 1. Marvel Comics, 1964.
      • Looking at the Mandarin’s initial characterization, issues with racial stereotypes and exoticism.
    • Favreau, Jon, director. Iron Man. Marvel Studios, 2008.

The first Iron Man movie was released in 2008 and had a significant portion of it set in Afghanistan, where Tony Stark is captured and tortured by a terrorist organization by the name of the Ten Rings. While not outright stated, anyone who is familiar with the comics knows that this is a reference to the Mandarin, who is one of Iron Man’s villains and wears ten rings which give him various mystical powers. While it is often expected that Hollywood will change things in adaptations, this was a fairly large change for them to make, especially since the Mandarin isn’t even mentioned until Iron Man 3. Perhaps the biggest issue with this, however, is associating the Ten Rings and the Mandarin with Afghanistan. Not only does this perpetuate the stereotypes against people of South Asian descent that has persisted in America since the September 11 terrorist attacks, but this also changes the character of the Mandarin drastically. As you might have guessed from the name, the Mandarin is meant to be Chinese and in the comics was a mixed-race descendant of Genghis Khan. Marvel Studios did seem to take this aspect of the character into account when they cast Ben Kingsley as the fake Mandarin in Iron Man 3, as Ben Kingsley is of Indian and English descent. However, the character of the Mandarin and the way he is presented gets more complicated the more you look at it.

https://www.thewrap.com/will-marvel-introduce-the-real-version-of-the-mandarin-iron-man-3-villain/

• • • • Black, Shane, director. Iron Man 3. Marvel Studios, 2013.
        • Looking at how the MCU handled the Mandarin’s character compared to the comics; is it whitewashing, appropriation, etc, and why if so?

The Mandarin’s Lessons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPKyBREVU18

The Fake Mandarin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwr06u8RT7g

All Hail the King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mceyJxMuYFE

Ben Kingsley biography – he’s mixed race, of South Asian (Indian) descent, not Chinese

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001426/bio

• • Doctor Strange Franchise
    • Derrickson, Scott, director. Doctor Strange. Marvel Studios, 2016.
      • Looking at issues of cultural appropriation, whitewashing. Might compare to Iron Fist franchise?

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/doctor-strange-ancient-one-director?verso=true

• • • Lee, Stan, writer. Strange Tales #110. Marvel Comics, 1963.
      • Looking at the original version of Doctor Strange/his origin story to examine racism (? might not need this)
  • What does this have to do with Asian Americans?
    • Relation to American ideas about what it means to be American
      • America’s immigrant history and how it’s ignored

“…the whole superhero genre is a response to the immigrant experience, and the struggle to adapt to a new national identity.” – The Superhero Costume Pg 56

• Why representation/diversity matters
  • Discuss fan culture (?), responses to media including backlash, etc (?)

“From Hermione Granger-led stories, to Harry Potter in Kolkata, to Star Trek same-sex romances, Mary Sues re-imagine our cultural landscape, granting agency to those denied it in the popular mythology.” – Everyone’s a Superhero: A Cultural Theory of Mary Sue Fan Fiction as “Fair Use”

• • The question of authenticity
    • Who’s allowed to represent who?
• Conclusion

“Although American superheroes consistently strive to redeem corrupted republics, the definition of their roles and the means of their triumphs reflect fascist values that ultimately undermine democratic processes and hollow out the religious faith of the enchanted.” – The Myth of the American Superhero Pg 282

“Whereas popular myths might be expected to sustain the leading ideals and institutions of a culture, the American monomyth consistently undermines the democratic ethos. Given its elitism, irrationalism, zealous stereotyping, and appetite for total solutions instead of compromise, it is difficult to find any democratic emphasis in the myth, except perhaps in its convention of the ordinary person who develops extraordinary powers.” – The Myth of the American Superhero Pg 338

Works Cited

Chander, Anupam, and Madhavi Sunder. “Everyone’s a Superhero: A Cultural Theory of ‘Mary Sue’ Fan Fiction as Fair Use.” California Law Review, vol. 95, no. 2, 2007, pp. 597–626. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20439103.

Hirsch, Paul. “‘This Is Our Enemy’: The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books, 1942–1945.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 83, no. 3, 2014, pp. 448–486. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2014.83.3.448.

Royal, Derek Parker. “Introduction: Coloring America: Multi-Ethnic Engagements with Graphic Narrative.” MELUS, vol. 32, no. 3, 2007, pp. 7–22. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30029789.

Singer, Marc. “‘Black Skins’ and White Masks: Comic Books and the Secret of Race.” African American Review, vol. 36, no. 1, 2002, pp. 107–119. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2903369.

Lawrence, John Shelton, and Robert Jewett. The Myth of the American Superhero. W.B. Eerdmans, 2002.

Brownie, Barbara, and Danny Graydon. The Superhero Costume: Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction. Bloomsbury Academic, An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016.

Goddard, Drew, writer. Marvel’s Daredevil. Marvel Television, 2015.

Favreau, Jon, director. Iron Man. Marvel Studios, 2008.

Black, Shane, director. Iron Man 3. Marvel Studios, 2013.

Derrickson, Scott, director. Doctor Strange. Marvel Studios, 2016.