Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon
- ISBN-10
- 0815653204
- ISBN-13
- 9780815653202
- Category
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Pages
- 385
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-05-26
- Publisher
- Syracuse University Press
- Author
- J. Richard Stevens
Description
Since 1940, Captain America has battled his enemies in the name of American values, and as those values have changed over time, so has Captain America’s character. Because the comic book world fosters a close fan–creator dialogue, creators must consider their ever-changing readership. Comic book artists must carefully balance storyline continuity with cultural relevance. Captain America’s seventy-year existence spans from World War II through the Cold War to the American War on Terror; beginning as a soldier unopposed to offensive attacks against foreign threats, he later becomes known as a defender whose only weapon is his iconic shield. In this way, Captain America reflects America’s need to renegotiate its social contract and reinvent its national myths and cultural identity, all the while telling stories proclaiming an eternal and unchanging spirit of America. In Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence, Stevens reveals how the comic book hero has evolved to maintain relevance to America’s fluctuating ideas of masculinity, patriotism, and violence. Stevens outlines the history of Captain America’s adventures and places the unfolding storyline in dialogue with the comic book industry as well as America’s varying political culture. Stevens shows that Captain America represents the ultimate American story: permanent enough to survive for nearly seventy years with a history fluid enough to be constantly reinterpreted to meet the needs of an ever-changing culture.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Not All Supermen: Sexism, Toxic Masculinity, and the Complex History of Superheroes
By Tim HanleyLiefeld's Youngblood careened from one bloody shoot- out to another, his heroes sporting impractically enormous guns that tore apart their foes. Portacio's Wetworks featured a well- armed vampire- hunting black ops team in gold ...
-
Captain America
By Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Stan LeeDrawing upon multiple comic book series, this collection includes Captain America's very first appearances from 1941 alongside key examples of his first solo stories of the 1960s, in which Steve Rogers, the newly resurrected hero of World ...
-
Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
By Bradford W. WrightRobert M. Overstreet's Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide ( New York : House of Collectibles ) provides a comprehensive annual listing of virtually every comic book ever published with recommended prices for dealers and ...
-
How to Justify Torture: Inside the Ticking Bomb Scenario
By Alex AdamsFrom Batman Begins to Tom Clancy, How to Justify Torture shows how contemporary culture creates simplified narratives about good guy torturers and bad guy victims, how dangerous this is politically, and what we can do to challenge it.
-
Mark Gruenwald and the Star Spangled Symbolism of Captain America, 1985-1995
By Jason OlsenHe then walks away from the Commission, with both the head of the Commission and John Walker so surprised, their reactions are limited to dramatic punctuation marks (a question mark for Walker and an exclamation point for the Commission ...
-
Captain America and the American Journey, 1940-2022
By Richard A. Hall... Captain Amer- ica to date, media studies professor J. Richard Stevens concludes his 2015 analysis of Golden Age Cap, Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence, as follows: The 1940s Captain America was not the liberal bastion of gender ...
-
The Routledge Companion to Gender, Sex and Latin American Culture
By Frederick Luis AldamaTopics covered in this volume include TV, film, pop and performance art, hip-hop, dance, slam poetry, gender-fluid religious ritual, theater, stand-up comedy, graffiti, videogames, photography, graphic arts, sports spectacles, comic books, ...
-
Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero: Metaphors, Narratives, and Geopolitics
By Jason DittmerIn his engaging book Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero, geographer Jason Dittmer traces the evolution of the comic book genre as it adapted to new national audiences.
-
Gender, Violence and Popular Culture: Telling Stories
By Laura J. ShepherdIn his detailed overview of the construction of rape-as-violence, Craig Palmer (1988) notes that this was the dominant perspective on sexual crimes in the 1970s and 1980s: the mere repetition of the claim in so many works, ...
-
The Superhero Symbol: Media, Culture, and Politics
By Angela Ndalianis, Ian Gordon, Liam Burke... Captain America to narratives that powerfully challenge the status quo. Notes 4 J. Richard Stevens, Captain America, Masculinity and Violence (Syracuse,. 1 Captain America in italics refers to any Marvel comics that feature the character ...