What is a Superhero?
How Myth Can be a Metacode
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i1.26860Keywords:
Superheroes, Marvel comics, imagination, myth-makingAbstract
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.
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.
Published
2015-04-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
MacKendrick, K. (2015). What is a Superhero? How Myth Can be a Metacode. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 44(1), 19-25. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i1.26860
