Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society

Why are so many of the superhero myths tied up with loss, often violent, of parents or parental figures? What is the significance of the dual identity? What makes some superhuman figures “good” and others “evil”? Why are so many of the prime superheroes white and male? How has the superhero evolved over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries? And how might the myths be changing?

Why is it that the key superhero archetypes-Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, the ...