"WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME -- GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!"

Stan Lee, "Spider-Man!" Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (Sept. 1962)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero

In anticipation of the upcoming film, check out:

Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero: Critical Essays 

Edited by Robert G. Weiner
Foreword by John Shelton Lawrence; Afterword by J.M. DeMatteis

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3703-0
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-5340-5
26 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
243pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2009
Price: $39.95

About the Book
For more than 60 years, Captain America was one of Marvel Comics’ flagship characters, representing truth, strength, liberty, and justice. The assassination of his alter ego, Steve Rogers, rocked the comic world, leaving numerous questions about his life and death.

This book discusses topics including the representation of Nazi Germany in Captain America Comics from the 1940s to the 1960s; the creation of Captain America in light of the Jewish American experience; the relationship between Captain America and UK Marvel’s Captain Britain; the groundbreaking partnership between Captain America and African American superhero the Falcon; and the attempts made to kill the character before his "real" death.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Key to Abbreviations xi
Foreword by John Shelton Lawrence 1
Introduction by Robert G. Weiner 9

GENERAL HISTORY
O Captain! My Captain!
Christopher J. Hayton and David L. Albright 15

WORLD WAR II
Madmen, Morons, and Monocles: The Portrayal of the Nazis in Captain America
John E. Moser 24
The Invaders and the All-Star Squadron: Roy Thomas Revisits the Golden Age
Mark R. McDermott 36
Graphic Imagery: Jewish American Comic Book Creators’ Depictions of Class, Race, Patriotism and the Birth of the Good Captain
Nicholas Yanes 53

RACIAL ISSUES
Not Just Another Racist Honkey: A History of Racial Representation in Captain America and Related Publications
Ora C. McWilliams 66
Weakness Is a Crime: Captain America and the Eugenic Ideal in Early Twentieth-Century America
Brian E. Hack. 79

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES
Sixty-Five Years of Guilt Over the Death of Bucky
Robert G. Weiner 90
Captain America, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and the Vietnam Era
Shawn Gillen 104

COMPARISONS OF CAPTAIN AMERICA WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
The Historical Value of Bronze Age Comics: Captain America and the Haunted Tank
Nicholas D. Molnar 116
The Ultimate American?
Jackson Sutliff 121
The Alpha and the Omega: Captain America and the Punisher
Cord Scott 125
Captain America and Captain Britain: Geopolitical Identity and “the Special Relationship”
Jason Dittmer 135
History of the Marvel Zombies and Colonel America among the Marvel Zombies
Mark R. McDermott 147

POLITICAL INTERPRETATIONS AND THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA
“Captain America Must Die”: The Many Afterlives of Steve Rogers
David Walton 160
Stevie’s Got a Gun: Captain America and His Problematic Use of Lethal Force
Phillip L. Cunningham 176
A Genealogy of Evil: Captain America vs. the Shadows of the National Imagined Community
Christian Steinmetz 190

LITERARY INTERPRETATIONS
The Man Behind the Mask? Models of Masculinity and the Persona of Heroes in Captain America Prose Novels
Mike S. DuBose 204

GUIDES
A Selected Webography: FanFiction
Freedonia Paschall 215
A Selected Filmographic Essay
Cord Scott and Robert G. Weiner 218
A Selected Bibliographic Essay: Academic Literature
Jason Dittmer and Robert G. Weiner 227
Afterword by J.M. DeMatteis 241
About the Contributors 245
Index 247

About the Author
Robert G. Weiner is associate humanities librarian at Texas Tech University. His works have been published in the Journal of Popular Culture, Public Library Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, International Journal of Comic Art and Popular Music and Society. He lives in Lubbock, Texas.

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