The Politics of
the Superhero
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Introduction
Matthew J. Costello, Saint Xavier College
KentWorcester,Marymount Manhattan College
....................................................................................................................
This symposium explores the relationship ofsuperheroes to questions of power, ideology,social relations, and political culture. It repre-sents the first time that a political science jour-nal has devoted sustained attention to the
superhero genre as it is reflected in the pages of comic books
and graphic novels, and on the big screen.
Broadly speaking, political scientists have not had much
to say about popular culture as a reflection of and contribu-
tor to political discourse and action. The discipline has mostly
ceded this intellectual territory to sociology, anthropology,
and the humanities. A quick Google search, for example,
will confirm that North American colleges and universities
offer many more courses on “the sociology of popular cul-
ture” than on “the politics of popular culture.” Although a
substantial scholarly literature exists on the nexus of politics
and film, as well as a much smaller literature on politics and
video games, pop music, television, and comics, political
scientists have not played a decisive role in this arena. It
should be obvious that popular culture addresses and con-
fronts political questions in all sorts of ways and on all sorts
of levels.
Consider, for example, the superhero genre, which has
arguably become a constituent feature of contemporary pop-
ular culture. At the most basic level, the idea of super-
empowered individuals clashing with one another and
interacting with ordinarymortals can be traced back to ancient
mythology. The superhero borrowed from archaic legends,
but also depended on the advent of cheap printing, mass
literacy, and leisure time in the nineteenth and early twenti-
eth centuries, and the concomitant appearance of paraliter-
ary books and magazines that featured exciting, often exotic
stories, characters, and settings. The genre assumed its con-
temporary form with the introduction of Superman in the
pages of Action Comics in the late 1930s, whose commercial
success inspired the creation of hundreds of broadly similar
characters whose exploits have subsequently provided con-
tent for a full spectrum of visual and print media. Today, the
figure of the superhero turns up in all kinds of places, from
licensed products and advertising campaigns to murals and
literary fiction.
No matter how narrowly or broadly we define the term
“politics,” superheroes—by their very nature as cultural repre-
sentations of super-empowered individuals—mirror, com-
ment on, and sometimes parody the kinds of ideas,movements,
policies, and institutions that interest political scientists. From
their inception, superheroes have interacted with elected offi-
cials, political candidates, and law enforcement personnel. Cos-
tumed heroes have been involved in wars both cold and hot,
engaged in espionage, campaigned for public office, endorsed
political causes, and even gone on strike.1 They have taken
stands on public controversies from the VietnamWar to gay
marriage, and their stories routinely reference and comment
on real-world events, from rising crime rates to catastrophic
terrorism. Several superheroes have names and origin stories
that more or less require them to adopt political stances, from
AnimalMan and thePunisher toHawk andDove, and recently
a smattering of superheroes have come out of the closet. As all
of this suggests, writers, artists, editors, and publishers have
used superhero characters and stories as vehicles for commen-
tary and debate.
The superhero genre thus offers multiple points of entry
for political analysis. Superheroes are by definition larger than
life and cast a bright light on the more familiar social world
they are both part of and detached from. The genre is excep-
tionally malleable: it can be used as a conduit for other enter-
tainment genres, from space opera and cops-and-robbers to
romantic comedy and social parody. This adaptability helps
explain the genre’s durability and transnational appeal. The
genre can also be characterized in terms of its tendency to
transform characters into icons, which means that superhero
stories almost always generate some kind ofmetaphorical res-
onance. Superheroes tend to stand for something, both explic-
itly and by implication. Routinely dismissed as puerile and
insubstantial, the genre actually addresses serious concerns
and issues through its very structures and practices. This is
not to suggest that every superhero title or storyline is of equal
value from the standpoint of political scrutiny and criticism:
far from it. Some writers and artists are more adept than oth-
ers at using the tools of the genre for political and intellectual
ends. But the genre itself is saturated with meaning.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
SYMPOS IUM
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
doi:10.1017/S1049096513001625 © American Political Science Association, 2014 PS • January 2014 85
Not only do superheroes regularly express political opin-
ions; superhero storylines often present the clash of opposing
viewpoints. One of the many pleasures of fan culture is the
way in which it offers hardcore readers the opportunity to
hash out these ideological conflicts with other committed
fans. Furthermore, superheroes can shape as well reflect pub-
lic opinion, by providing images, narratives, and rhetoric that
can inspire action on the part of elite and nonelite actors.
Even when the stories fail to provoke a public response, they
can speak to public concerns. As a result of its emphasis on
exaggerated human forms, for example, the genre speaks to
long-standing anxieties about scientific progress, genetics, and
eugenics. At the same time, they are almost by definition
preoccupied with notions of masculinity and femininity and
with competing representations and conceptions of the body.
Superheroes can serve as models of human perfection but
also as cautionary tales about the dangers of interfering with
the evolutionary process.
From the 1930s onwards, the genre has enjoyed a powerful
connection to the modern city in which superheroes conduct
their business. The distinction between Superman and Bat-
man, for example, hinges not only on their different powers
and origin stories, but on their incompatible assessment of
the costs and benefits of urban life. The superhero genre
rehearses and revisits long-standing debates aboutmodernity
and urbanity to an extent that is rarely true of other popular
genres (see Ahrens and Meteling 2010).
The superhero genre also enjoys a special connection
to questions of law, justice, and public order. Superheroes
typically fight crime, which means that their stories are
required on some level to depict and sometimes deconstruct
the boundary between the law and lawlessness. While
superhero stories sometimes embrace the idea that the state
is an instrument of legitimate authority, they often express
the ambivalence and even hostility that many citizens feel
toward their own government. Superheroes regularly inter-
fere with the normal prerogatives of states, implying that
legal processes are insufficient, and perhaps even that inner-
directed morality is superior to other-directed legality. Not
surprisingly, superhero stories often return to the question of
the merits and limitations of vigilantism and unbridled or
unregulated power, whether in the hands of individuals or
public authorities. From the standpoint of the rest of us, the
superhero constitutes an obvious example of “the other,” but
at the same time, superheroes can be wielded as propagan-
distic icons of nationalism, patriotism, and ethnicity designed
to divide in-groups from out-groups.
The industry itself provides a terrain of political contesta-
tion. There have been successive efforts to unionize writers
and artists at major comic book publishers, although none of
these efforts have gained significant traction. During the early
ColdWar, the industry was the target of a sustained anticom-
ics campaign. Comics publishers responded by imposing the
most stringent self-censorship code of any media industry in
the twentieth century. More recently, the industry has been at
the forefront of battles over intellectual property rights, autho-
rial credit, and the return of original art. One knowledgeable
observer has found that the comic book subculture as a whole
leans in a “blue state” direction, as measured by the “overrep-
resentation” of comic book stores in big cities, college towns,
and coastal states, and their consequent “underrepresenta-
tion” in rural counties and small population states in the south,
southwest, andmountain states (Miller 2005).The liberal slant
of many creative personnel, combined with the geographic
concentration of regular comic book buyers, is sometimes
reflected in the content of the stories themselves.
The development of a scholarly literature on superheroes
has arguably lagged behind the development of comics schol-
arship more generally. “Until recently, the most compelling
contributions to comics scholarship focused onhistorical, polit-
ical, autobiographical, avant-garde, and other ‘seriousminded’
comics” precisely because these are the “kinds of studies that
complicated or upend longstanding suppositions regarding
themedium’s inherently juvenile and unserious nature” (Hat-
field, Heer, andWorcester 2013, xi). The first book on the topic
to appear inEnglish, JulesFeiffer’sTheGreatComicBookHeroes
(1965), provided a witty but cynical survey of the world’s most
famous superhero characters. Books and articles that fol-
lowed in the wake of Feiffer’s wry text were mostly aimed at
fans and general readers, rather than students and academics.
The dramatic growth of fan culture, as reflected by the “cons”
(conventions) that annually convene in NewYork, San Diego,
Chicago, and elsewhere, as well as the aging of the core audi-
ence, has provided a material foundation for a secondary lit-
erature that emphasizes interviews with creators and lush
image reproduction above historical analysis and theoretical
interpretation.
During the past decade or so, however, and very much
inspired by the expansion and greater sophistication of com-
ics studies more generally, there has been a flurry of literary,
historical, and even philosophical writing about superheroes.
Notable examples include Bukatman (2005); Costello (2009);
Dittmer (2005, 2009); Hatfield, Heer, and Worcester (2013);
McLaughlin (2005); Nama (2011); Ndalianis (2009); Smith and
Duncan (2012); andWeiner (2009). Two volumes that antici-
pated this newwave of superhero scholarship are Pearson and
Uricchio (1991) and Reynolds (1994). This flurry of academic
interest is also reflected in the pages of journals devoted to
During the early ColdWar, the industry was the target of a sustained anticomics
campaign. Comics publishers responded by imposing the most stringent self-censorship
code of any media industry in the twentieth century.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Sympos ium: The Po l i t i c s o f t h e Sup e r h e r o
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
86 PS • January 2014
comics studies, including the International Journal ofComicArt,
Studies in Comics, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, and
European Comic Art, as well as in books being published by
the University Press of Mississippi, Routledge, Continuum,
McFarland, and other trade and university presses. The fact
remains that while this literature often touches on political
themes, it has largely neglected to draw on or contribute to
debates in political science.
Comics have been read as reflecting the cultural context in
which they were created, reflecting dominant ideologies, pub-
lic opinion, or the political culture of their era. Ideological
readings of superheroes have been increasingly common,
including a classic work by Dorfman and Mattelart (1975), as
well as Hughes (2006), and Moore (2003). Cultural readings
of superhero comics can deepen our understanding of public
opinion and political culture by examining how certain ideas
are portrayed within the context of the narrative. This com-
mon approach can be found in many works, including Cos-
tello (2009), Donovan (2012), Lang and Trimble (1988), and
Pustz (2012).
Superheroes are not merely characters in stories, but can
achieve iconic status. FormerAlaska SenatorTed Stevens used
to don his IncredibleHulk tie for potentially contentious floor
votes—a subtle reminder to his colleagues of the consequences
of making him angry. Will Brooker (2000) has explored the
iconography of Batman, and scholars in the field of fan stud-
ies have addressed the appropriation of superheroes as sym-
bols for social movements (see, for example, Phillips 2013,
Worcester 2012, and Yockey 2012). This approach could be
taken further, to explore not only how the narratives reflect
contemporary political culture but how they constitute it.This
approach is suggested by the important work ofMurray Edel-
man (1996), and best developed in the superhero genre by
political geographer Jason Dittmer (2009, 2013), but also in
Costello (2010) and Lewis (2012).
Asmembers of the discipline who have written on popular
culture, we were frankly curious to find out what kind of
responsewewould receive if we issued a general call for papers
on politics and superheroes. After our request for papers went
out, in the summer of 2012, roughly two-dozen potential con-
tributors responded.While some of these responses came from
specialists in other fields, such as literature and history, the
majority came from within the discipline. Younger scholars
seemed particularly intrigued by the prospect of contributing
to a print symposium on the superhero genre.
From the outset, our ambition has been to put together a
curated symposium that goes beyond the celebratory and the
descriptive and that uses the concepts, theories, and tools of
the discipline to assess the relationship between political ques-
tions and the distinctive discourses and practices of the
superhero genre. We hold out the hope that the symposium
can help inspire further research into the nexus of comics,
culture, and politics. Indeed, our aim has been to provide a
model for the kinds of informed political-cultural critique—
not only on superheroes per se but on popular culture more
generally—that we would like to see more of from our
profession.
Therefore, we are gratified that the contributions to this
symposium approach the superhero genre from a number of
interesting angles, including modern and contemporary polit-
ical theory, social allegory, feminism, and empire. The open-
ing piece, by Claudia Franziska Brühwiler, takes up the
question of what it means to be a hero, which is a recurrent
issue both in superhero comics and in the writings of the
twentieth-century novelist and essayist Ayn Rand. More spe-
cifically, Brühwiler’s article looks at the impact of Rand’s phi-
losophy of objectivism on the work of Steve Ditko and Frank
Miller, two of the industry’s most influential creators.
In his essay on Daredevil, one of Marvel’s leading
superheroes,Tony Spanakos notes thatDaredevil stories often
seem to depictDaredevil’s base of operation, theHell’s Kitchen
neighborhood ofManhattan, as a kind of Hobbesian state-of-
nature governed by violence rather than politics. Spanakos
argues, however, that Carl Schmitt’s work on the crisis of par-
liamentary democracy provides a better framework for under-
standing Daredevil’s world than themore familiar Hobbesian
paradigm.
While there have beennumerous female superheroes,Won-
derWoman is arguably the most successful, both in terms of
longevity and public awareness. But can she be described as a
feminist? Carolyn Cocca considers how the character has
evolved from the 1940s to the early twenty-first century, argu-
ing thatWonderWoman has “both enabled the reinscription
of traditional articulations of gender as well as creating space
for the production of new gender possibilities” (Cocca 2014).
Superhero comics often rely on what Mervi Miettinen
describes as “masculine tropes such as vigilantism and patri-
otism” that celebrate “the hard and impenetrable male body”
(Miettinen 2014). Watchmen, a landmark graphic novel from
themid-1980s, provided a sophisticated and self-aware decon-
struction of superhero masculinity that has enjoyed a lasting
impact on superhero comics.
While comic books featuring superheroes first turned up
on newsstands in the late 1930s, the figure of the superhero
can be traced back to the nineteenth century and the advent
of mass-market “dime novels” and “penny dreadfuls.” The
early superhero, according to Chris Gavaler, was in fact “a
reflection of English nineteenth-century colonialism” that
While there have been numerous female superheroes,WonderWoman is arguably the
most successful, both in terms of longevity and public awareness. But can she be
described as a feminist?
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
PS • January 2014 87
“personified empire-authority.” This “imperial past,” he says,
“continues to haunt the genre” (Gavaler 2014).
Protesters in post-handoverHongKong regularly incorpo-
rate superhero imagery and rhetoric in their slogans, posters,
and banners. DanGarrett’s article considers theways inwhich
“foreign superheroes such as Batman and IronMan” are used
as “devices of visual mobilization, dissent, and counter-
hegemonic resistance” (Garrett 2014) by new social move-
ment actors in Hong Kong.
The contributors to this symposium mainly focus on
superhero politics in the context of comic books and graphic
novels. But the superhero genre represents an important
resource for other media. The closing article, by Annika Hag-
ley and Michael Harrison, unpacks the social allegories that
are embedded in one of themost commercially successfulmov-
ies ever released—The Avengers (2012). �
NOTE
1. A Superman story from the mid-1970s portrayed Clark Kent as a loyal
trade union member who readily joined his colleagues on the picket line.
See Maggin (1974).
WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED
Ahrens, Jörn, and Arno Meteling, eds. 2010. Comics and the City: Urban Space
in Print, Picture and Sequence. NewYork: Continuum.
Brooker,Will. 2000. Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon. NewYork:
Continuum.
Brown, Jeffrey. 2001. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, andTheir Fans. Jack-
son: