The Comics Alliance highlights disabled superheroes.
From the piece...
Quick: Name all the characters you can think of that have a physical impairment. Doctor Midnite. Captain Marvel Jr. Daredevil. Charles Xavier. Niles Caulder of Doom Patrol. Thor in Donald Blake aspect. Barbara Gordon. Misty Knight. Shadowhawk. Keep going. Throw in disabled villains too. And heroes that have been temporarily handicapped – Batman, Moon Knight, The Flash etc – and you've got a very long list.
There's a rich history of disabled (insert your own politically acceptable term as needed) characters throughout comics. And although discussions about how accurately comics represent disability and diversity are worth having, the much more interesting question is WTF, comics? Why so many disabled heroes?
As always, the answers can be found in anthropology. Yeah, anthropology applied to comics discourse. Most professors would be rolling over in their tweed coffins right about now, but so what; they're dead. The application of anthropology to comics is clean, simple, and natural. Superhero comics are the modern myths: They draw from the same well of fears and desires, the same effort to make sense of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment