Uncanny Bodies : : Superhero Comics and Disability / / ed. by José Alaniz, Scott T. Smith.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• MitwirkendeR: Alaniz, José,; Bowden, Sarah,; Christie, Charlie,; Gibbons, Sarah,; Godfrey-Meers, Andrew,; Hanson, Marit,; Hatfield, Charles,; Later, Naja,; O'Connor, Lauren,; O'Rourke, Daniel J.,; Pinti, Daniel,; Poharec, Lauranne,; Randall-Griffiths, Deleasa,; Smith, Scott T.,
• HerausgeberIn: Alaniz, José,; Smith, Scott T.,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Graphic Medicine ; 18
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.) :; 36 illustrations

Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world.Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters-such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion-as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye, whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O'Connor, Daniel J. O'Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Uncanny Bodies -- 1 "Mechanical Boys" Omega the Unknown on the Spectrum -- 2. Sane Superheroes Mental Distress in the Gutters of Moon Knight -- 3. Echo. The Silence Between the Notes -- 4 Mistress of Cyberspace. Oracle, Disability, and the Cyborg -- 5 More than a Retcon Replacement. Disability, Blackness, and Sexuality in the Origin of Operator -- 6. "Okay . . . This Looks Bad" Disability, Masculinity, and Ambivalence in Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye -- 7. The deaf Issue Hawkeye #19 and Deaf Accessibility in the Comics Medium -- 8. That Hawkguy Deaf and Disability Gain in Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye -- 9. Dialectical Identity Silver Scorpion as Disabled/Superhero -- 10. "Of Course, I Am a Hero" Disability as Posthuman Ideal in Cece Bell's El Deafo -- 11 Unraveling the Supercrip: Superheroes as Subversion, a Personal Essay in Comic Form -- Fearsome Possibilities: An Afterword -- List of Contributors -- Index