Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology (Studies in Popular Culture)

Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: This book forever changed the way that I read superhero comics. Reynolds discusses the factors that are present in virtually every superhero comic since Superman was created. Some are apparent (devotion to justice, secret identitities), and some are subtle (lost parents, accountability only to one's own conscience). Virtually all factors are recapitulations of the developmental struggles of the primary audience of these comics: adolescent males. Reynolds continues by illuminating the grand, mythical nature of the comic-book universes, all stories blending into one vast "canonical" story, each comic becoming part of a larger continuity. This continuity shares several features of classical mythologies, which Reynolds explores in depth, citing the X-Men, the Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns series (among others) as evidence. Read this, it's great.

Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: This book forever changed the way that I read superhero comics. Reynolds discusses the factors that are present in virtually every superhero comic since Superman was created. Some are apparent (devotion to justice, secret identitities), and some are subtle (lost parents, accountability only to one's own conscience). Virtually all factors are recapitulations of the developmental struggles of the primary audience of these comics: adolescent males. Reynolds continues by illuminating the grand, mythical nature of the comic-book universes, all stories blending into one vast "canonical" story, each comic becoming part of a larger continuity. This continuity shares several features of classical mythologies, which Reynolds explores in depth, citing the X-Men, the Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns series (among others) as evidence. Read this, it's great.