So gathering my thoughts on my topic....the post 9/11 superhero

I'm not going to lie to you, its been a bit of a slow week on the dissertation front. Other modules have been collapsing on top of me and my brain is a bit frazzled. Although, I am starting to break down areas and characters that I will be able to study in depth for my dissertation topic.

'A study into the social, political and historical aspects of the post 9/11 Marvel superhero'. This is the title that  I'm currently happy with at the moment. AT THE MOMENT.

I'm currently looking into many different series of comic books that relate well with the characters or 'superheroes' in which I want to aim my topic around. Since I'm thinking of focusing purely on Marvel characters, I've been looking at the 'Civil War' series, the 'Ultimates' and Astonishing X-Men. All are post 9/11 creations and feature interesting subject matter that relates to a post 9/11 world (consciously and subconsciously). While these comics are just a starting base for the paper based superheroes, I have also been looking at the way superheroes are portrayed on screen. There has seemingly been a significant shift in comic book content matter and the way that superheroes have been portrayed in comics since the terrorist attacks on America on September 11th 2001.

                 An image from 'Marvel's 'Civil War' (Image Courtesy of Marvel and Google images)

Ndalianis. (2009). The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero. [Book]New York: Routledge- This book that I have recently been studying features a collection of great articles on different aspects of the superhero. One particular article by Jason Bainbridge entitled 'Worlds within Worlds; The role of Superheroes in the Marvel and DC Universe', is a fantastic insight into the place and role of the superhero inside their fictional worlds and the real on. 

'Comics have led the way in terms of the cultural shift that took place after the devastation of September 11th and the more intelligent and adult approach to story-telling we've been experiencing across all forms of media ever since.'- [Mark Miller] (Ndalianis, 2009)

I'm going to leave you with a two video's; the first encapsulates some of what the comic series 'Civil War' was all about. The second video talks about the role of Marvel's  super patriot, Captain America and what his comic book death potentially means to readers and writers. In my next post I'm going to be looking into the heroes that I want to use for my case study and some of the issues that I could possible talk about in my dissertation in regards to politics, history and culture. 

 
 
Both videos courtesy of Youtube -users (Gengarking0212 and apesandbabes)