Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 1
“Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!”: The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II
TODD S. MUNSON 5
Supervillains and Cold War Tensions in the 1950s
LORI MAGUIRE 16
Kryptonite, Radiation, and the Birth of the Atomic Age
PETER LEE 29
Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco’s Spain
LOUIE DEAN VALENCIA-GARCÍA 45
The Inflexible Girls of Steel: Subverting Second Wave Feminism in the Extended Superman Franchise
THOMAS C. DONALDSON 62
Black Like Lois: Confronting Racism, Configuring African American Presence
CHRISTOPHER B. ZEICHMANN 78
Red, White and Bruised: The Vietnam War and the Weakening of Superman
JASON M. LATOUCHE 91
The Struggle Within: Superman’s Difficult Transition into the Age of Relevance
PAUL R. KOHL 103
“It’s Morning Again in America”: John Byrne’s Re-Imaging of the Man of Steel
DANIEL J. O’ROURKE and MORGAN B. O’ROURKE 115
The New “Man of Steel” Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp! Media Reactions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era
JACK TEIWES 125
More Human than (Super) Human: Clark Kent’s Smallville and Reagan’s America
MICHAEL SMITH 143
The “Triangle Era” of Superman: Continuity, Marketing and Grand Narratives in the 1990s
MATTHEW J. SMITH 156
Searching for Meaning in “The Death of Superman”
JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 166
Death, Bereavement, and the Superhero Funeral
JOSÉ ALANIZ 177
Superman and the Corruption of Power
STEFAN BUCHENBERGER 192
This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Comic Book Universe: The Return of the Golden Age Superman
JEFFREY K. JOHNSON 199
In a World Without Superman, What Is the American Way?
JOHN DAROWSKI 209
Traveling Hopefully in Search of American National Identity: The “Grounded” Superman as a 21st Century Picaro
RANDY DUNCAN 218
About the Contributors 231
Index 235
