What is a Superhero? How Myth Can be a Metacode
Issued Date: 17 Mar 2015
Abstract
The essay argues that Marvel's Civil War is an interesting narrative concerning the superhero metacode at work. After a brief overview of the crossover event, its allegorical qualities will be discussed followed by a supplemental reading focusing on how superheroes, as agents of pretend play, come to be socialized, coded, and distributed across shared social networks.
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References
Arnal, William E., and Russell T. McCutcheon. 2013. The Sacred is the Profane: The Political Nature of “Religion.” Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang.
Benhabib, Seyla. 2002. The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bloch, Maurice. 1974. “Symbols, Song, Dance and Features of Articulation: Or Is Religion an Extreme Form of Traditional Authority?” Archives européennes de sociologie 15: 55–81.
Carruthers, Peter. 2002. “Human Creativity: Its Cognitive Basis, its Evolution, and its Connections with Childhood Pretence.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53: 225–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjps/53.2.225.
Caughey, John L. 1984. Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Costello, Matthew J. 2009. “Civil War and the Death of Captain America.” In Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America, 229–42. New York: Continuum.
DiPaolo, Marc. 2011. War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Dittmer, Jason. 2012. “Captain America in the News: Changing Mediascapes and the Appropriation of a Superhero.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 3 (2): 143–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2012.707048.
Douglas, Mary. 2004. Purity and Danger. New York: Routledge.
Evans, Alex. 2010. “Superman Is the Faultline: Fissures in the Monomythic Man of Steel.” In Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the “War on Terror.” Edited by Jeff Birkenstein, Anna Froula and Karen Randell, 117-126. New York: Continuum.
Fine, Gary Alan. 1983. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984–1987. The Theory of Communicative Action, 2 vols. Translated by Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon Press.
Harris, Paul L. 2000. The Work of the Imagination. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Kidd, Dustin. 2007. “Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture.” Journal of Popular Culture 40 (1): 69–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00354.x.
Lang, Jeffrey S., and Patrick Trimble. 1988. “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? An Examination of the American Monomyth and the Comic Book Superhero.” Journal of Popular Culture 22 (3): 157–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1988.2203_157.x.
Lawrence, John Shelton and Robert Jewett. 2002. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Lease, Gary. 2000. “Ideology.” In Guide to the Study of Religion, edited by Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon, 438–47. New York: Continuum.
Lillard, Angeline S. 1993. “Pretend Play Skill’s and the Child’s Theory of Mind.” Child Development 64: 348–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1131255.
MacKendrick, Kenneth G. 2012. “We Have an Imaginary Friend in Jesus: What Can Imaginary Companions Teach Us about Religion?” Implicit Religion 15 (1): 61–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/imre.v15i1.61.
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of “World Religions”; Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226922621.001.0001.
Mack, Burton. 2008. Myth and the Christian Nation: A Social Theory of Religion. London: Equinox Publishing.
McCutcheon, Russell T. 2001. “Redescribing ‘Religion’ as Social Formation: Toward a Social Theory of Religion.” In Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, 21–39. Albany: SUNY Press.
Morrison, Grant. 2012. Supergods. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Nongbri, Brent. 2013. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept. New Haven: Yale University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300154160.001.0001.
Saler, Benson, Charles A. Ziegler, and Charles B. Moore. 2010. UFO Crash at Roswell: Genesis of a Modern Myth. Washington, DC: Smithonian Books.
Skolnick, Deena and Paul Bloom. 2006. “What does Batman think about Spongebob? Children’s Understanding of the Fantasy/Fantasy Distinction. Cognition 101 (1): B9–B18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.10.001.
Veloso, Francisco, and John Bateman. 2013. “The Multimodal Construction of Acceptability: Marvel’s Civil War Comic Books and the PATRIOT Act.” Critical Discourse Studies 10: 427–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.813776.
Collected Marvel Civil War Editions
Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto, writer. 2007. Civil War: Peter Parker, Spider-Man. Angel Medina and Sean Chen, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Bendis, Brian Michael, writer. 2007. Civil War: The New Avengers. Howard Chaykin, Leinil Yu, Olivier Coipel, Pasqual Ferry, and Jim Cheung, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Bendis, Brian Michae,l and J. Michael Straczynski, writers. 2013. The Road to Civil War. Alex Maleev, Mike McKone, Ron Garney, and Tyler Kirkham, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Brubaker, Ed, writer. 2013. The Death of Captain America: Complete Collection. Mike Perkins, Lee Weeks, Stefano Gaudiano, Steve Epting, Butch Guice, and Roberto De La Torre, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
David, Peter and Fabian Nicieza, writers. 2010. Civil War: X-Men Universe. Dennis Calero and Staz Johnson, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Fraction, Matt, writer. 2007. Civil War: Punisher War Journal. Ariel Olivetti and Mike Deodato, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Gage, Christos, Daniel & Charles Knauf, and Brian Michael Bendis, writers. 2013. Civil War: Iron Man. Jeremy Haun, Patrich Zircher, and Alex Maleev, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Gray, Justin and Jimmy Palmiotti, writers. 2009. Civil War: Heroes for Hire. Billy Tucci and Francis Portela, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Guggenheim, Marc, writer. 2013. Civil War: Wolverine. Humberto Ramos, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Hine, David, writer. 2007. Civil War: X-Men. Yanick Paquette, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Huldin, Reginald, writer. 2007. Civil War: Black Panther. Scot Eaton, Manuel Garcia , Koi Turnbull, and Marcus To, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Jenkins, Paul, writer. 2007a. Civil War: Front Line Book 1. Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, and Leandro Fernandez, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Jenkins, Paul, writer. 2007b. Civil War: Front Line Book 2. Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, and Lee Weeks, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Millar, Mark, writer. 2012. Civil War. Steve McNiven, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Nicieza, Fabian, writer. 2010. Civil War: Thunderbolts. Tom Grummett, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Reed, Brian, writer. 2007. Civil War: Ms. Marvel. Roberto de la Torre, Mike Wieringo, and Giuseppe Camuncoli, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Slott, Dan, Paul Jenkins, Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis, Marc Guggenheim, Robert Kirkman, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Michael Avon Oeming, and Ty Templeton, writers. 2007. Civil War: Marvel Universe. Paul Smith, Tom Raney, Marc Silvestri, Leinil Yu, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, David Aja, Scott Kolins, Roger Langridge, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Straczynski, J. Michael, writer. 2007. Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man. Ron Garney, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Straczynski, J. Michael and Dwayne McDuffie, writers. 2011. Civil War: Fantastic Four. Mike McKone, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Thomas, John Rhett, writer/coordinator. 2007. Civil War: Companion. New York: Marvel.
Tieri, Frank, writer. 2007. Civil War: War Crimes. Staz Johnson, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Wells, Zeb, writer. 2011. Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways. Stefano Caselli, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang.
Benhabib, Seyla. 2002. The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bloch, Maurice. 1974. “Symbols, Song, Dance and Features of Articulation: Or Is Religion an Extreme Form of Traditional Authority?” Archives européennes de sociologie 15: 55–81.
Carruthers, Peter. 2002. “Human Creativity: Its Cognitive Basis, its Evolution, and its Connections with Childhood Pretence.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53: 225–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjps/53.2.225.
Caughey, John L. 1984. Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Costello, Matthew J. 2009. “Civil War and the Death of Captain America.” In Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America, 229–42. New York: Continuum.
DiPaolo, Marc. 2011. War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Dittmer, Jason. 2012. “Captain America in the News: Changing Mediascapes and the Appropriation of a Superhero.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 3 (2): 143–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2012.707048.
Douglas, Mary. 2004. Purity and Danger. New York: Routledge.
Evans, Alex. 2010. “Superman Is the Faultline: Fissures in the Monomythic Man of Steel.” In Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the “War on Terror.” Edited by Jeff Birkenstein, Anna Froula and Karen Randell, 117-126. New York: Continuum.
Fine, Gary Alan. 1983. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984–1987. The Theory of Communicative Action, 2 vols. Translated by Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon Press.
Harris, Paul L. 2000. The Work of the Imagination. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Kidd, Dustin. 2007. “Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture.” Journal of Popular Culture 40 (1): 69–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00354.x.
Lang, Jeffrey S., and Patrick Trimble. 1988. “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? An Examination of the American Monomyth and the Comic Book Superhero.” Journal of Popular Culture 22 (3): 157–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1988.2203_157.x.
Lawrence, John Shelton and Robert Jewett. 2002. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Lease, Gary. 2000. “Ideology.” In Guide to the Study of Religion, edited by Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon, 438–47. New York: Continuum.
Lillard, Angeline S. 1993. “Pretend Play Skill’s and the Child’s Theory of Mind.” Child Development 64: 348–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1131255.
MacKendrick, Kenneth G. 2012. “We Have an Imaginary Friend in Jesus: What Can Imaginary Companions Teach Us about Religion?” Implicit Religion 15 (1): 61–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/imre.v15i1.61.
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of “World Religions”; Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226922621.001.0001.
Mack, Burton. 2008. Myth and the Christian Nation: A Social Theory of Religion. London: Equinox Publishing.
McCutcheon, Russell T. 2001. “Redescribing ‘Religion’ as Social Formation: Toward a Social Theory of Religion.” In Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, 21–39. Albany: SUNY Press.
Morrison, Grant. 2012. Supergods. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Nongbri, Brent. 2013. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept. New Haven: Yale University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300154160.001.0001.
Saler, Benson, Charles A. Ziegler, and Charles B. Moore. 2010. UFO Crash at Roswell: Genesis of a Modern Myth. Washington, DC: Smithonian Books.
Skolnick, Deena and Paul Bloom. 2006. “What does Batman think about Spongebob? Children’s Understanding of the Fantasy/Fantasy Distinction. Cognition 101 (1): B9–B18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.10.001.
Veloso, Francisco, and John Bateman. 2013. “The Multimodal Construction of Acceptability: Marvel’s Civil War Comic Books and the PATRIOT Act.” Critical Discourse Studies 10: 427–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.813776.
Collected Marvel Civil War Editions
Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto, writer. 2007. Civil War: Peter Parker, Spider-Man. Angel Medina and Sean Chen, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Bendis, Brian Michael, writer. 2007. Civil War: The New Avengers. Howard Chaykin, Leinil Yu, Olivier Coipel, Pasqual Ferry, and Jim Cheung, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Bendis, Brian Michae,l and J. Michael Straczynski, writers. 2013. The Road to Civil War. Alex Maleev, Mike McKone, Ron Garney, and Tyler Kirkham, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Brubaker, Ed, writer. 2013. The Death of Captain America: Complete Collection. Mike Perkins, Lee Weeks, Stefano Gaudiano, Steve Epting, Butch Guice, and Roberto De La Torre, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
David, Peter and Fabian Nicieza, writers. 2010. Civil War: X-Men Universe. Dennis Calero and Staz Johnson, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Fraction, Matt, writer. 2007. Civil War: Punisher War Journal. Ariel Olivetti and Mike Deodato, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Gage, Christos, Daniel & Charles Knauf, and Brian Michael Bendis, writers. 2013. Civil War: Iron Man. Jeremy Haun, Patrich Zircher, and Alex Maleev, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Gray, Justin and Jimmy Palmiotti, writers. 2009. Civil War: Heroes for Hire. Billy Tucci and Francis Portela, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Guggenheim, Marc, writer. 2013. Civil War: Wolverine. Humberto Ramos, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Hine, David, writer. 2007. Civil War: X-Men. Yanick Paquette, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Huldin, Reginald, writer. 2007. Civil War: Black Panther. Scot Eaton, Manuel Garcia , Koi Turnbull, and Marcus To, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Jenkins, Paul, writer. 2007a. Civil War: Front Line Book 1. Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, and Leandro Fernandez, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Jenkins, Paul, writer. 2007b. Civil War: Front Line Book 2. Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, and Lee Weeks, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Millar, Mark, writer. 2012. Civil War. Steve McNiven, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Nicieza, Fabian, writer. 2010. Civil War: Thunderbolts. Tom Grummett, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Reed, Brian, writer. 2007. Civil War: Ms. Marvel. Roberto de la Torre, Mike Wieringo, and Giuseppe Camuncoli, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Slott, Dan, Paul Jenkins, Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis, Marc Guggenheim, Robert Kirkman, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Michael Avon Oeming, and Ty Templeton, writers. 2007. Civil War: Marvel Universe. Paul Smith, Tom Raney, Marc Silvestri, Leinil Yu, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, David Aja, Scott Kolins, Roger Langridge, illustrators. New York: Marvel.
Straczynski, J. Michael, writer. 2007. Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man. Ron Garney, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Straczynski, J. Michael and Dwayne McDuffie, writers. 2011. Civil War: Fantastic Four. Mike McKone, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Thomas, John Rhett, writer/coordinator. 2007. Civil War: Companion. New York: Marvel.
Tieri, Frank, writer. 2007. Civil War: War Crimes. Staz Johnson, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
Wells, Zeb, writer. 2011. Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways. Stefano Caselli, illustrator. New York: Marvel.
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