Do The Gods Wear Capes?: Spirituality, Fantasy, and Superheroes

Description

Brash, bold, and sometimes brutal, superheroes might seem to epitomize modern pop-culture at its most melodramatic and mindless. But according to Ben Saunders, the appeal of the superhero is fundamentally metaphysical - even spiritual - in nature. In chapter-length analyses of the early comic book adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and Iron-Man, Saunders explores a number of complex philosophical and theological issues, including: the problem of evil; the will-to-power; the tension between intimacy and vulnerability; and the challenge of love, in the face of mortality. He concludes that comic book fantasies of the superhuman ironically reveal more than we might care to admit about our human limitations, even as they expose the falsehood of the characteristically modern opposition between religion and science. Clearly and passionately written, this insightful and at times exhilarating book should delight all readers who believe in the redemptive capacity of the imagination, regardless of whether they consider themselves comic book fans.

Ben Saunders is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. He is author of Desiring Donne: Poetry, Sexuality, Interpretation (Harvard University Press, 2006) and co-editor, with Roger Beebe and Denise Fulbrook, of Rock Over the Edge: Essays in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002).

'Ben Saunders sets the bar high for himself when he says at the outset that a book about pop superheroes must be a book about spirituality and therefore about love. That might seem to place an unsupportable weight on the shoulders of Superman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman, and Iron man, but in this learned yet entirely accessible essay, Saunders makes both his thesis and his heroes stand up.' - Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law, Florida International University, USA 'Ben Saunders has done for comics analysis what Alan Moore did for comics literature. Do the Gods Wear Capes? is a provocative, intelligent, and thought-provoking work, and Saunders' insights rise from the page with the same power and grace as those iconic characters he examines. Certainly the best critical work on the meaning and impact of those marquee super-heroes that define the genre and that we encounter in myriad ways every day as has ever been written.' - Greg Rucka, novelist and author of Batwoman: Elegy, Whiteout, and Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia In this excellent book, four iconic superheroes serve as Saunders's role models for social and spiritual awareness...Saunders's superb essay on Wonder Woman at long last makes sense of the odd ideological mix of feminism, pseudo-Greco-Roman spirituality, and sadomasochism(?) underpinning the character. He is one of the few comic scholars who appreciates and understands this revolutionary and deeply spiritual character...This volume is highly recommended. -- Marc DiPaolo * Religious Studies Review * Ben Saunders gets at the crossover between psychology and superheroes, and at the difficulties it imposes, in his excellent 2011 book about the intersection between religion and superheroes, Do the Gods Wear Capes? -- Noah Berlatsky * The Atlantic *