{"product_id":"death-disability-and-the-superhero-the-silver-age-and-beyond-9781496804532","title":"Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond","description":"The Thing. Daredevil. Captain Marvel. The Human Fly. Drawing on DC and Marvel comics from the 1950s to the 1990s and marshaling insights from three burgeoning fields of inquiry in the humanities--disability studies, death and dying studies, and comics studies--José Alaniz seeks to redefine the contemporary understanding of the superhero. Beginning in the Silver Age, the genre increasingly challenged and complicated its hypermasculine, quasi-eugenicist biases through such disabled figures as Ben Grimm\/The Thing, Matt Murdock\/Daredevil, and the Doom Patrol. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Alaniz traces how the superhero became increasingly vulnerable, ill, and mortal in this era. He then proceeds to a reinterpretation of characters and series--some familiar (Superman), some obscure (She-Thing). These genre changes reflected a wider awareness of related body issues in the postwar U.S. as represented by hospice, death with dignity, and disability rights movements. The persistent highlighting of the body's \"imperfection\" comes to forge a predominant aspect of the superheroic self. Such moves, originally part of the Silver Age strategy to stimulate sympathy, enhance psychological depth, and raise the dramatic stakes, developed further in such later series as \u003ci\u003eThe Human Fly, Strikeforce: Morituri\u003c\/i\u003e, and the landmark graphic novel \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Captain Marvel\u003c\/i\u003e, all examined in this volume. Death and disability, presumed routinely absent or denied in the superhero genre, emerge to form a core theme and defining function of the Silver Age and beyond.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e José Alaniz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 376\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.27lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.84d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781496804532","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42710677586057,"sku":"9781496804532","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_51f22afc-69dc-4375-869d-8940cb0ce332.jpg?v=1719542530","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/death-disability-and-the-superhero-the-silver-age-and-beyond-9781496804532","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}