John Byrne’s run on She-Hulk continues to polarize readers for its foregrounding of the male gaze, but the series pushed 4th wall breaks in comics to new heights with a clear trajectory toward wildly popular modern characters such as Harley Quinn and Deadpool. #SheHulk 1/5
In an interview with Syfy, Byrne provides a full account of where this aspect of the character came from: 2/5
"When [Marvel editor] Mark Gruenwald was talking to me about doing a new She-Hulk book, he said, 'Find a way to make it different,'" recalled Byrne. "I took the subway home, and on the way I thought, 'She knows she's in a comic book.'" 3/5
Byrne was by no means the inventor of the 4th wall break in comics, a tradition whose history includes early comic strips by Winsor McCay, as well as breakout superhero characters like Mr. Mxyzptlk, Howard the Duck, and even Superman himself. 4/5
Never before, however, had a mainstream Marvel character had so much of their existence embroiled in self-awareness and in a direct address to both readers and creators. 5/5
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The action scenes in Mike Mignola’s #Hellboy are simultaneously spectacular & contemplative, visceral & sublime. These competing moods enhance each other & reflect the character of Hellboy, a productive monster who straddles multiple worlds & fights to make his own destiny. 1/12
Each of Hellboy’s paranormal investigations typically devolves, at some point, into a violent slugfest between the nigh-indestructible Hellboy and some other type of inhuman monster, who is usually (though not always) very large & very strong, and thus, very hard to kill. 2/12
This clash of similarly inhuman, indestructible bodies facilitates lengthy spectacular action sequences made visceral by Mignola’s art style and Hellboy’s fighting style. Mignola’s heavy, blocky yet smooth line mirrors Hellboy’s combination of solidity and improbable grace. 3/12
Early X-Men comics highlight the role that performative masculinity often plays in the character arcs of Silver Age heroes whose potential to subvert masculine norms can be undermined when their success is still modeled and measured by patriarchal standards. #xmen 1/12
From the outset, Kirby and Lee base the X-Men’s internal character conflicts around two forms of patriarchal validation: The first (and most obvious) is the internal competition amongst the male teammates (and even Prof X) for the affection of Jean Grey. 2/12
Jean is literally a trophy in this competition, which is established right from her first appearance. Similar “alpha male” competitiveness for female affection can be seen to define the character arc of numerous other Marvel heroes, (including Spider-Man). 3/12
DC’s #SilverAge comics promote family values & the “American Way” while spotlighting wild transformations & decidedly non-normative family units. In “Superman Family Values: Supersex in the Silver Age,” Matt Yockey discusses the symbolic value of this tension. 1/11
Yockey opens his essay by highlighting “the dialectic of the familiar and the strange” in this pinup of “The Superman Family” drawn by Curt Swan. It originally appeared on the back cover of Superman Annual #6 (1962) and was reprinted multiple times throughout the ’60s. 2/11
In this family that includes multiple sets of parents as well as merpeople, aliens, and super-pets, “Everything that is marked as heteronormative… is inflected with a strong sense of the uncanny, and that which is unfamiliar is coded as part of the heteronormative.” 3/11
In the 1940s comics by William Moulton Marston & Harry Peter, #WonderWoman is an intentional (if complicated) feminist character. Post-WWII & in the wake of the 1954 Comics Code, her world changed, becoming more domestic & romantic. But there are still subversions to be had 1/9
The ways Wonder Woman changed post-WWII partly extend from the emphasis on domesticity & traditional gender roles in Cold War America. Wartime justified WW’s heroism, just like it justified real women working in munitions factories. Postwar, that justification evaporated. 2/9
Wonder Woman also changed because her implied gender & sexual deviance were attacked by Fredric Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent, which influenced the 1954 Comics Code. “For boys,” wrote Wertham, “Wonder Woman is a frightening image. For girls, she is a morbid ideal.” 3/9
In the 3x Harvey Award Winning graphic novel “Louis Riel,” Chester Brown’s perspective creates a depiction of the historical Métis leader that drives the resolution of the autobiography, defining the main subject’s relationship to both the reader & history itself. 1/8 #LouisRiel
Throughout the first three sections of the book, chronicling Riel’s unlikely rise to power and doomed efforts to lead the Métis people against the Canadian government in a war of independence that led, ultimately, to massacre, Brown uses a wide variety of perspectives. 2/8
In his final chapter, the trial of Louis Riel, Brown seemingly fixes his perspective, presenting a view of Riel that consistently frames Riel in profile in a medium long shot. The repetition of the perspective helps establish the banality of due process. 3/8
Superhero comics didn’t invent retroactive continuity but have become strongly associated with it. Some retcons shock readers or streamline stories. “Alias” offers a critical retcon that self-reflexively comments on its own history and context. 1/12 #JessicaJones #comicsstudies
Alias employs a variety of techniques to insert Jessica Jones into the existing fictional history of the Marvel comics universe. The character’s history is initially hinted at through photos of Jessica dressed as a superhero standing next to the Avengers. 2/12
Jessica locates the photos firmly in her past. They’re also located within the past of the superhero genre through the extreme contrast between their brightly coloured, smiling world and Jessica’s more grounded, noirish present, where she’d never wear white spandex. 3/12