Mixed-Race Superheroes / / ed. by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins, Eric L. Berlatsky.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2021 English
• MitwirkendeR: Berlatsky, Eric L.,; Carter, Gregory T.,; Collins, Corrine E.,; Collins, Corrine Esther,; Dagbovie-Mullins, Sika A.,; David Tembo, Kwasu,; Gavaler, Chris,; Koenig-Woodyard, Chris,; Miller, Nicholas E.,; Mitchell, Jasmine,; Molina-Guzman, Isabel,; Molina-Guzmán, Isabel,; Resha, Adrienne,; Santos, Jorge J.,; Tembo, Kwasu David,
• HerausgeberIn: Berlatsky, Eric L.,; Dagbovie-Mullins, Sika A.,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (292 p.) :; 24 color images

American culture has long represented mixed-race identity in paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it has been associated with weakness, abnormality, impurity, transgression, shame, and various pathologies; however, it can also connote genetic superiority, exceptional beauty, and special potentiality. This ambivalence has found its way into superhero media, which runs the gamut from Ant-Man and the Wasp’s tragic mulatta villain Ghost to the cinematic depiction of Aquaman as a heroic “half-breed.” The essays in this collection contend with the multitude of ways that racial mixedness has been presented in superhero comics, films, television, and literature. They explore how superhero media positions mixed-race characters within a genre that has historically privileged racial purity and propagated images of white supremacy. The book considers such iconic heroes as Superman, Spider-Man, and The Hulk, alongside such lesser-studied characters as Valkyrie, Dr. Fate, and Steven Universe. Examining both literal and symbolic representations of racial mixing, this study interrogates how we might challenge and rewrite stereotypical narratives about mixed-race identity, both in superhero media and beyond.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part 1. Superheroes in Black and White -- 1. Guess Who’s Coming Home? Mixed Metaphors of Home in Spider-Man’s Comic and Cinematic Homecomings -- 2. The Ride of Valkyrie against White Supremacy: Tessa Thompson’s Casting in Thor: Ragnarok -- 3. “Which World Would You Rather Live In?” The Anti-utopian Superheroes of Gary Jackson’s Poetry -- 4. Flash of Two Races: Incest, Miscegenation, and the Mixed-Race Superhero in The Flash Comics and Television Show -- Part 2. Metaphors of / and Mixedness -- 5. “Let Yourself Just Be Whoever You Are!” Decolonial Hybridity and the Queer Cosmic Future in Steven Universe -- 6. The Hulk and Venom: Warring Blood Superheroes -- 7. Monsters, Mutants, and Mongrels: The Mixed-Race Hero in Monstress -- 8. Examining Otherness and the Marginal Man in DC’s Superman through Mixed-Race Studies -- Part 3. Multiethnic Mixedness (or Mixed-Race Intersections) -- 9. Talented Tensions and Revisions: The Narrative Double Consciousness of Miles Morales -- 10. “They’re Two People in One Body”: Nested Sovereignties and Mixed-Race Mutations in FX’s Legion -- 11. Into the Spider-Verse and the Commodified (Re)imagining of Afro-Rican Visibility -- 12. Truth, Justice, and the (Ancient) Egyptian Way: DC’s Doctor Fate and the Arab Spring -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Contributors -- Index