Uncanny bodies : superhero comics and disability /

Uncanny bodies : superhero comics and disability / edited by Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz. - University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, (c)2019. - 1 online resource (viii, 234 pages) : illustrations - Graphic Medicine .

Includes bibliographies and index.

"Mechanical Boys": Omega the Unknown on the Spectrum / Sane Superheroes: Mental Distress in the Gutters of Moon Knight / Echo: The Silence Between the Notes / Mistress of Cyberspace: Oracle, Disability, and the Cyborg / More than a Retcon Replacement: Disability, Blackness, and Sexuality in the Origin of Operator / "Okay . . . This Looks Bad": Disability, Masculinity, and Ambivalence in Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye / The deaf Issue: Hawkeye #19 and Deaf Accessibility in the Comics Medium / That Hawkguy: Deaf and Disability Gain in Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye / Dialectical Identity: Silver Scorpion as Disabled/Superhero / "Of Course, I Am a Hero": Disability as Posthuman Ideal in Cece Bell's El Deafo / Unraveling the Supercrip: Superheroes as Subversion, a Personal Essay in Comic Form / Fearsome Possibilities: An Afterword / José Alaniz -- Charlie Christie -- Sarah Bowden -- Marit Hanson -- Lauren O'Connor -- Daniel Pinti -- Naja Later -- Sarah Gibbons -- Deleasa Randall-Griffiths and Daniel J. O'Rourke -- Lauranne Poharec -- Andrew Godfrey-Meers -- Charles Hatfield.

"Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world. Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters--such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion--as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture."--Provided by publisher



9780271086309 9780271086323


Graphic novels--History and criticism.
Comic books, strips, etc.--History and criticism.
Autonomy (Psychology) in comics.
People with disabilities in comics.
Superheroes in comics.
People with disabilities.
Disabled Persons
Sociological Factors
Personal Autonomy
Graphic Novels as Topic


Electronic Books.

PN6714 / .U533 2019