defender - Tampereen yliopisto

317 Pages·2012·6 MB·English

by  Mervi Miettinen

MERVI MIETTINEN

Truth, Justice, and the American Way?

The Popular Geopolitics of American Identity
in Contemporary Superhero Comics

ACADEMIC DISSERTATION
To be presented, with the permission of
the board of the School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies
of the University of Tampere, for public discussion
in the Auditorium Pinni B 1096, Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere,
on December 15th, 2012, at 12 o’clock.

UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE
ACADEMIC DISSERTATION
University of Tampere

School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies

Finland

Copyright ©2012 Tampere University Press and the author

Distribution
Bookshop TAJU
P.O. Box 617
33014 University of Tampere
Finland Tel. [phone]
Acknowledgements

This work has been years in the making, and, accordingly, the list of people who

have made it possible is equally long.

The commitment and support of my supervisors, Maarit Piipponen and

Markku Salmela, made the completion of this work a reality. Maarit’s critical

insight and ability to identify discontinuities in my writing have continuously forced

me to challenge my thinking, while Markku’s constant support and encouragement

have made all the difference during times of self-doubt. I cannot thank you both

enough. I also wish to thank Päivi Pahta, Pekka Tammi, Nigel Mapp, Matti

Hyvärinen, Arja Rosenholm, and everyone else at the University of Tampere who

has (knowingly or unknowingly) contributed to the completion of this study during

its various stages.

The Fulbright Center generously granted me the opportunity to go and study

in the United States. My stay at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, in 2009–

2010 was a rewarding experience in more ways than I can count. I wish to thank

BGSU’s American Culture Studies Program for hosting me, and especially Don

McQuarie, Esther Clinton, Chuck Coletta, and Ellen Berry for being generous with

their time, guidance, and suggestions during my stay. I am also indebted to Andrea

Hulme, Natalie Wiseman, Tim Bavlnka, Meredith King, Lizabeth Mason, Kevan

Feshami, and everyone else I met in BG—you made me feel at home in Ohio, and

for that I remain eternally grateful.

This work would not have been possible without the financial support

provided by the following instances: the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, the Finnish

Cultural Foundation (Pirkanmaa Regional fund), the Scientific Foundation of the

City of Tampere, Matti and Hilkka Ahde, the Tampere University Foundation, the

Fulbright Center, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation. I also want to

acknowledge the generosity of Marvel, DC, and Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

(and Titan Books) for letting me use their images in this dissertation.

During the long writing process, I have had the pleasure of meeting several

people who have, in some way or another, influenced my work in significant ways.

Jopi Nyman and Kai Mikkonen read my work in its Licentiate phase and provided

much-needed critical commentary and feedback. Karin Kukkonen, the other half of
the “Finnish School of Alan Moore,” remains a source of support and inspiration.

Aino Tegelman’s unhealthy obsession with Magneto’s offspring and her willingness

to share the intricacies of this obsession proved to be invaluable. Kent Lentz

graciously shared his collection of superhero comics and introduced me to texts I

would otherwise never have read. I also want to extend my gratitude to Josh Kopin,

who not only sends me superhero comics, but also offered crucial corrections on

matters that count, and to Jouni Forsström, who unwittingly set the ball rolling years

ago by donating me his worn copy of Watchmen.

I offer my sincere thanks to my pre-examiners, Dr. Jared Gardner and Dr.

Chris Murray, who read the work carefully and provided comments that were both

encouraging and insightful. All mistakes and flaws that may still remain are my

own.

I have been blessed with incredible friends whom I cannot thank enough.

The world of a graduate student can be a lonely and desolate place, and I especially

want to thank Katariina Mäkinen, Netta Nakari, Anu Lampinen, and Maria Vihlman

for making it less so.

My family remains a constant source of love and support: my parents, who

have always encouraged me to continue with my studies (and never ever told me not

read comics), and my siblings, who continue to remind me that there is life outside

academia. You have made me the person I am today.

If I have any regrets, they arise from the knowledge that people who should

be with me today are not. My deepest gratitude and affection goes to Matti

Savolainen (1949–2012), whose love, support, wisdom, and guidance even in the

face of insurmountable odds made this work possible.

This is for Turkka. You never read this dissertation (and I never asked you

to), yet without you this work would never have been completed. Thank you for

your patience, thank you for your understanding, and most of all, thank you for your

love (and the Hulk hands).

November, 2012.

Mervi Miettinen
Mervi Miettinen
Tampereen yliopisto
Kieli-, käännös- ja kirjallisuustieteiden yksikkö
Englantilainen filologia

MIETTINEN, MERVI: Truth, Justice, and the American Way? The Popular
Geopolitics of American Identity in Contemporary Superhero Comics

Väitöskirjassani tutkin supersankarisarjakuvan suhdetta Yhdysvaltojen populaariin
geopoliittiseen identiteettiin. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat erityisesti viimeisen
kolmenkymmenen vuoden aikana julkaistut supersankarisarjakuvat, joiden kautta
tutkin ja analysoin niiden luomaa kuvaa supersankarista fiktiivisenä
”amerikkalaisuuden” ruumiillistumana. Työni lähtökohtana toimii populaari
geopolitiikka, kansakunnan ja kansallisuuden ”kertominen” populaarikulttuuristen
tekstien kautta. Supersankari toimii yhtenä lukemattomista populaarin geopolitiikan
välittäjistä, ja sankarin kautta on mahdollista tuottaa erilaisia geopoliittisesti
latautuneita kertomuksia, jotka osaltaan vaikuttavat Yhdysvaltojen jaetun
kansallisen minuuden rakentumiseen.
Keskityn tutkimuksessani erityisesti supersankarisarjakuvan luomaan
äärimaskuliiniseen identiteettiin, joka tuotetaan sekä suhteessa toisiin, eitoivottuihin maskuliinisuuksiin että alisteisiin naishahmoihin. Tuon myös esille sen,
miten supersankarin edustama maskuliinisuus on vahvasti sidoksissa väkivallan
käyttöön. Supersankarisarjakuvien väkivalta on monin tavoin ongelmallista, sillä se
esitetään usein paitsi voimaannuttavana, myös luonnollisena miehisyyden ilmaisuna.
Väkivallan ja maskuliinisuuden esiin nostamat kysymykset liittyvät myös
keskeisesti vallankäytön kysymyksiin, joihin keskityn erityisesti poikkeustilan
käsitteen kautta. Poikkeustilan käsite mahdollistaa supersankarisarjakuvan
poliittisemman luennan nostamalla esiin hahmon ristiriitaisen suhteen sekä
demokratiaan että valtioon ja vallan kysymyksiin. Keskeiseksi kysymykseksi
tutkimuksessani nousee supersankarin ristiriitainen suhde juuri demokratiaan, jonka
periaatteet ovat voimakkaasti ristiriidassa supersankarin todellisen toiminnan
kanssa.
Viimeisessä luvussa keskityn tutkimaan näiden elementtien muutosta
supersankarisarjakuvassa ja sen geopoliittisessa merkityksessä amerikkalaiselle
identiteettikäsitykselle 11.9.2001 tapahtuneiden WTC -iskujen jälkeen.
Tapahtumalla oli valtava geopoliittinen vaikutus, ja supersankarisarjakuvat pyrkivät
välittömästi tapahtuman jälkeen tarjoamaan lukijoilleen uusia geopoliittisia malleja,
jotka korostivat kansallista yhtenäisyyttä sekä ylistivät pelastustyöntekijöitä päivän
”todellisina” sankareina. Tämä yhteisöllinen vastareaktio oli kuitenkin
lyhytaikainen, ja tutkimukseni tuokin esille tämänhetkisen supersankarisarjakuvan
sankaruutta kyseenalaistavan luonteen.
Tutkimukseni muodostaa kattavan kokonaiskuvan supersankarisarjakuvan
kulttuurisesta merkityksestä ja sen mahdollisista ongelmakohdista Yhdysvaltojen
populaarin kansallisen identiteetin muokkaajana ja ylläpitäjänä. Tutkimukseni
esittelee uuden tavan tarkastella kansallisen identiteetin rakentumista
populaarikulttuurin kautta ja samalla tuo esille erityisesti Yhdysvaltojen populaarin
geopolitiikan lausuttujen ihanteiden ja todellisuuden välisiä ristiriitoja
supersankarisarjakuvien kautta. Etenkin WTC -iskujen jälkeen supersankarin
merkitys joutui laajan uudelleenarvioinnin kohteeksi, ja tämä kansallinen trauma
pakotti Yhdysvallat pohtimaan uudelleen kansallista minuuttaan—myös
sarjakuvalehtien sivuilla.
Analysointimenetelmäni korostaa käsitteiden, ei teorian varaan pohjaavaa
tutkimussuuntausta, joka mahdollistaa aidosti poikkitieteellisen lähestymistavan,
jota sarjakuva tekstuaalisena ja visuaalisena hybridisenä muotona edellyttää.
Keskeisiä, tieteenaloja ylittäviä käsitteitä tutkimuksessani ovat maskuliinisuus,
väkivalta ja poikkeustila, joiden kautta lähestyn ja puran kohdetekstieni suhdetta
Yhdysvaltojen populaariin geopolitiikkaan. Maskuliinisuuden ja väkivallan kautta
on mahdollista tarkastella kriittisesti niin sankari-identiteettiä kuin sen kautta
ihannoitua kansallista minuutta. Samoin näiden käsitteiden kautta voidaan
analysoida laajemmin supersankarisarjakuvien politiikkaa ja niiden edustamaa
paradoksaalista poikkeustilan pysyvyyttä.

Asiasanat: supersankari, sarjakuva, Yhdysvallat, geopolitiikka,
maskuliinisuus, väkivalta, sukupuoli, poikkeustila, valta, 9/11. identiteetti,
Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 9

1.1 “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s…” .......................................................... 9

1.2 Setting the Study Question .................................................................. 13

1.3 Defining Boundaries............................................................................ 23

2. Superhero Comics and Popular Geopolitics: Defining Nations,
Defining Identities ..................................................................................... 33

2.1 Origin of a Species: A Short History of Superhero Comics .................. 34

2.2 Embodying the Nation: Defining America through Popular
Geopolitics ......................................................................................... 54

3. Imagining Super-Men: Masculinity in the Superhero Comic ...................... 75

3.1 Calling for (Super)Heroes: White Masculinity in Crisis ....................... 81

3.2 Displaying Deviance: Sexual (and Textual) Others .............................107

3.3 Women in Refrigerators: The Problem of the Female in
Superhero Comics..............................................................................136

4. Fantastical Forces: The Superhero, Violence, and Power ..........................159

4.1 From Dark Knight to Kick-Ass: Justifying Vigilante Violence ............163

4.2 All Men Are Not Created Equal: Power, Subjectivity and
Resistance in Superman: Red Son ......................................................191

5. Confusion of Powers: The Superhero in a State of Exception ....................208

5.1 Exceptions within the State, or, How the Superhero is a Fascist
in Disguise .........................................................................................210

5.2 Freedom and Security: Marvel’s Civil War .........................................230

6. After 9/11: From Defense to Offense .......................................................246

6.1 United We Stand: Narrating American Identity after 9/11...................249

6.2 No More Heroes: Evil and Fractured Identities in The Death of
Captain America ................................................................................273

7. Conclusions: …to Be Continued? .............................................................291

8. Works Cited:.............................................................................................296
1. Introduction

SUPERMAN! Champion of the oppressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to
devote his existence to helping those in need! (Action Comics #1, Jun 1938, 3)

***

The better American is the man who does what his heart tells him is right -- for the
betterment of all mankind -- not just for other Americans.
(Captain America #8, Mar 2003, 6)1

1.1 “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s…”

Depending on who you ask (and what your definition is), comics as a distinct

medium has its roots either in Egyptian hieroglyphics (circa 1300 BC) and Mexican

codices (circa 1500 AD) (McCloud, 1993), in 18th-century British gag cartoons by

William Hogarth and James Gillray (Harvey, 2009), or in Swiss artist Rodolphe

Töpffer’s satirical picture stories from the mid-1800s (Kunzle, 2009). All these

pictorial precursors culminated in America in 1894 with the emergence of the

newspaper comic strip and the first appearance of The Yellow Kid (Duncan and

Smith, 2009) and the subsequent formation of the comic book as a distinct

entertainment medium in the 1930s America (Wright, 2001). While the definition,

history, and developments of the medium have been extensively studied elsewhere2

and comics themselves have explored virtually every genre from crime and horror to

autobiography and journalism, comics—and especially American comics—are still

most often associated with superhero comics (Wright, 2001, xiv; Murray, 2011,

243). First arriving in the form of Superman in 1938, the superhero, with his

1

All direct quotes from comics follow the comic’s visual way of emphasis: bolded words signal
those bolded in the original comic, and instead of dashes, comics’ tradition of two hyphens (--) is
reproduced. Omission of words within direct quotations will always be indicated with the use of three
periods with a space before each and a space after last ( . . . ).
2
See for example: McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993); Sabin, Adult Comics (1993); Harvey,
The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History (1996); Groensteen, The System of Comics (2007);
Duncan and Smith, The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture (2009); or Gardner,
Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty–First–Century Storytelling (2012).

9
brightly-colored long underwear, amazing powers, and the dedication to “helping

those in need” (Siegel and Shuster, 1938, 2) has, for many, become the distinct

emblem of the medium, assuring that “the comic book medium would be forever . . .

associated with adolescent power fantasies of muscular men in tights” (Duncan and

Smith, 2009, 32).

This associative connection between comics and superheroes can be

approached both in terms of medium and in terms of genre, and both have been

claimed as distinctively American. Comics themselves have been viewed by several

critics as one of the few indigenous art forms of America (cf. Inge, 1990; Heer and

Worcester, 2004), and it is the American superhero that first emerged as a character

that fully embraced the medium and its potentials (cf. Coogan, 2006; Duncan and

Smith, 2009). Indeed, the combination of the medium of comics and the genre of

superheroes became a recipe for success:

In symbiotic reciprocity, they [superheroes and comics] contributed to each other’s
success. Superheroes in comics sparked a demand for comics—and that demand

created the need for original superhero material, written and drawn expressly for the
medium. (Harvey, 1996, 35)

Indeed, comics were the only medium in the early 20th century capable of literally

depicting the fantastical adventures of the superheroes, as neither books, movies,

nor radio shows could deliver these superhuman feats with the same amount of

conviction, authority, and impact (ibid.). Following the first appearance of

Superman, in Action Comics #1 (Jun 1938), the superhero has become a cultural

phenomenon reaching far beyond comics into TV, radio, movies, games, and

countless other forms of merchandise, from collectable cards and action figures to

T-shirts and lunchboxes. Today, the superhero is a highly recognizable cultural icon

of America with a vast array of meanings that also echo several decades’ worth of

interaction between politics and popular culture.

The superhero’s relevance precisely as a cultural icon of America cannot be

overstated: as I will demonstrate in this dissertation, the superhero is a distinctively

American hero-character that is the result of a vast array of cultural, social, and

historical influences that can be labeled as particularly “American.” The most

obvious example of a distinctively American superhero, Captain America, has been

seen by Jason Dittmer as a “blatant” example of the way superheroes represent the

United States, his symbolism underlined with a red, white, and blue uniform as his

first comic book cover saw him punching Hitler himself in the face (2010, 80–81).

10