Tag Archives: Captain America

events

Jewish Grandpa Created Legendary Supersoldier

Cover to MY CAPTAIN AMERICAEarlier this month, Jewish Boston sat down with Newton’s Megan Margulies to discuss the legacy of her grandfather Joe Simon (born Hymie Simon) , co-creator of Captain America. Her new memoir, My Captain America: A Granddaughter’s Memoir of a Legendary Comic Book Artist, examines how her grandfather-artist was both “supremely proud of being Jewish” while simultaneously “not very religious.”

His parents were very strict and religious, and I think that sort of scared him off from it a little bit. But obviously with his creation of Captain America and fighting Nazis and giving his voice to that showed how important his lineage is and his family who came from Europe and England. And whenever I brought home a guy, he always asked, “Is he Jewish?” He was very concerned about that. I think Captain America is definitely his most Jewish-related character, but a lot of the creators back then in the Golden Age were children of immigrants and Jewish.

Margulies’ book goes on sale next week, and she will be speaking virtually at Brookline Booksmith next Friday, August 7th.

academic

CFP: Religion and the Marvel Universe (9/15/18)

Editor: Gregory Stevenson (gstevenson@rc.edu)

Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and the Marvel Universe. Essays may focus on comic books/graphic novels, film, and television/streaming series. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid “jargon” to be accessible for the layperson.

MARVEL logo

Potential ideas include but are not limited to:

Greek mythology and the Marvel superhero; Catholicism and the character of Daredevil; Ms. Marvel and the rise of the Muslim superhero; Ghost Rider and the deal with the devil; Spider-Man and moral theology; Luke Cage and liberation theology; Black Panther and African theology; Iron Fist and the conflict between capitalism and spiritualism; violence and redemption in The Punisher; religious tolerance and intolerance in The X-Men; the depiction of cults in Marvel’s Runaways; Dr. Strange and the conflict between faith and science; christology in Marvel; Iron Man and Tony Stark’s quest for redemption; Marvel’s cosmic beings; Thor and Norse theology; Captain America and the role of faith; apocalyptic themes in Marvel stories; Cloak and Dagger and the metaphor of light and darkness (this list could go on indefinitely so feel free to propose any relevant topic)

Submission Guidelines:

  1. Please submit an abstract between 300-700 words with CV or resumé, including a list of any previous publications, to Gregory Stevenson at gstevenson@rc.edu by September 15, 2018
  2. Submission deadline for drafts of accepted papers is April 30, 2019 (if a particular essay needs to incorporate the fourth Avengers film, a later submission date can be negotiated)
academic, contributors, reviews

Review – Arnaudo’s The Myth of the Superhero

MYTH OF THE SUPERHEROMarco Arnaudo, The Myth of the Superhero, Trans. from Italian by Jamie Richards [Il fumetto supereroico: Mito, etica e strategie narrative, 2010], Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins U.P., 2013, 206p. [July7]

Better late than never! This book was published in English four years ago (and in Italian seven years ago), but apparently it fell through the cracks. It is difficult to explain why it received so little attention, with only one book review by Jason Archbold from Macquarie University according to my library research engine. Maybe it is because the back cover blurb does not seem to propose anything new:

“Through a series of close readings of DC and Marvel comics, Marco Arnaudo explores the influence of religion and myth on superhero stories as well as their relationship to the classical epic.”

Situating the superhero phenomenon within mythology and religion has been done in many articles, chapters or entire books (e.g. Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces,  Knowles’ Our Gods Wear Spandex, Weinstein’s Up, Up, and Oy Vey!, all cited in his book).

However, I just read Arnaudo’s book and found it an excellent short (150 pages for the main text), dense, and clear synthesis with, actually, some original ideas.

Continue reading Review – Arnaudo’s The Myth of the Superhero →

articles and essays, online

Reexamining “Our Gods Wear Spandex,” Superheroes as Occult Gods

Flash on the tarot path? From TrueFreeThinker.com

Over at True Free Thinker, Ken Ammi digs deep into the 2007 text Our Gods Wear Spandex by Christopher Knowles. In addition to placing it in context to several other notable works of the time, Ammi supports Knowles’s contention of occult symbology embedded in the superhero genre, particularly that of pre-Christian paganism:

Although most of us don’t realize it, there’s simply nothing new about devotion to superheroes. Their powers, costumes, and sometimes even their names are plucked straight from the pre-Christian religions of antiquity. When you go back and look at these heroes in their original incarnations, you can’t help but be struck by how blatant their symbolism is and how strongly they reflect the belief systems of the pagan age…

Ammi goes into a example-by-example analysis of such heroes as Captain Marvel, Zatara and Zatanna, Doctor Fate, Superman, the Flash, the X-Men, and many more. His examination of Captain America in particular may take on new relevance during the controversial “Secret Empire” storyline currently underway.

Our Gods Wear Spandex is available at Amazon.com.

controversy, from the Internet, interviews

“A War of Mythologies”: Jordanian Comic Creator Tackles Extremism

Captain America’s not-so-humble premier was a deliberate propaganda piece for American youth in 1941. With the iconic super-punch to Hitler’s face on the cover of Captain America Comics #1,  superheroes became patriots. Nationalism’s partnership with super-heroism still thrives today. With the slate of Marvel films to include Captain America: Civil War in 2016, film audiences can expect to take sides in the battle between Iron Man and Captain America over the limits of patriotism, freedom, and the great responsibility that great powers entail. This would appear to be the inevitable outcome when we imbue superheroes with our conflicting and imperfect moral ideals.

In a November 28th New York Times profile piece, Danny Hakim framed the recent comic creations of Suleiman Bakhit as explicit entries into a similar and ongoing propaganda war against Islamic State recruitment. Bakhit’s TEDtalk on “Superheroes Against Extremism” argued that this is a war over narratives about Islam, identity, hope, and justice. Superheroes must play their part. So where is the ‘Captain America’ for Muslim children that promotes tolerance? “Where,” as he was asked by children in Syria, “is the Arabic Barbie and Superman?” His comics are meant to be answers to these questions. Watch his TEDtalk for yourself:

As he explains, his first attempt, Saladin 2100,  met fierce opposition from censors in the Jordanian government who called his comic “too dangerous.” A second attempt, Hero Factor, seems ready to navigate the political waters with more nuance. Following in Captain America’s footsteps, Bakhit hopes his superheroes can be a way to oppose extremism. Persuasive stories will be the key to the development of morals and identities that reject narratives used by extremists to recruit members. Following the work of James Gilligan, a psychiatrist that argued that unhealthy shame is the root of all violence, Bakhit proposes that comics are the “best technology we have to cultivate heroic imagination.” It is this imagination, rooted in our common humanity and search for meaning, that can provide healthy responses to shame that generate love, compassion, tolerance, and true heroism.

Keep your eyes peeled for his comics as they make the (slow) transition into English. In the meanwhile, read more about Bakhit and his efforts here from Wired (UK), Forbes, and this TED blog interview. Or follow him on Twitter @suleimanbakhit.