Tag Archives: film

from the Internet

Thank you, Dr. Yinsen

It’s film, not comics. But given that it’s a rare Muslim character in that medium’s superhero genre based in comics, we’re opting to include this touching Twitter thread on the impact of one man’s sacrifice repercussing all across this blockbuster narrative; it’s a testimony to the principles behind Islam, Judaism, and many of the world’s great religions.

 

academic

CFP – Marveling Religion: Critical Discourse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

(Thank you to Marc Singer, author of the new Breaking the Frames: Populism and Prestige in Comics Studies, for bringing this to Sacred and Sequential‘s attention.)

Call for Papers:
Marveling Religion: Critical Discourse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Lexington Books (Initial Interest)

Editors: Jennifer Baldwin and Daniel White Hodge

Art by Marissa GarnerMarveling Religion: Critical Discourse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an edited volume with interest in contracting and publishing from Lexington Books. It aims to explore central themes of race, gender, religion, politics, society, love, time, space, power, soul, reality, or mind, etc. as expressed (or neglected) in phases 1-3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ultimately, the invitation is: As religious and/or theological scholars, what do our perspectives contribute to popular discourse on the MCU?

What shall we say about the snap—or any other fascinating dimension of the MCU? How might aspects of intersectionality be at work in the MCU? How does one define evil and good via the MCU?

Continue reading CFP – Marveling Religion: Critical Discourse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe →

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, cultural

Heeb Magazine Asks for Jewish Superhero on Screen

Over the summer, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises combined for over $1 billion domestically, which led Heeb Magazine‘s Arye Dworken to yearn for a “Jewish Superhero Blockbuster.” Overlooking the Jewish roots of Batman, Spider-Man, Thor, and Iron Man et al’s creators, Dworken nominates several second-tier superheroes for big-time cinema status, including Kitty Pryde (last seen played by Inception actress Ellen Page) and Batwoman (voiced at one point by The Closer‘s Kyra Sedgwick). While some on Dworken’s list have been on animated superhero shows for television, their religion was never a central (nor even noted) aspect of the characters.