Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability PDF
Preview Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability
UNCANNY BODIES SUPERHERO COMICS AND DISABILITY EDITED BY SCOTT T. SMITH AND JOSÉ ALANIZ UNCANNY BODIES Susan Merrill Squier and Ian Williams, General Editors editorial collective MK Czerwiec (Northwestern University) Michael J. Green (Penn State College of Medicine) Kimberly R. Myers (Penn State College of Medicine) Scott T. Smith (Penn State University) Books in the Graphic Medicine series are inspired by a growing awareness of the value of comics as an important resource for communicating about a range of issues broadly termed “medical.” For health-care practitioners, patients, families, and caregivers deal- ing with illness and disability, graphic narrative enlightens complicated or difficult experiences. For scholars in literary, cultural, and comics studies, the genre articulates a complex and powerful analysis of illness, medicine, and disability and a rethinking of the boundaries of “health.” The series includes original comics from artists and non-artists alike, such as self-reflective “graphic pathographies” or comics used in medical training and education, as well as monographic studies and edited collections from scholars, prac- titioners, and medical educators. other titles in the series: MK Czerwiec, Ian Williams, Susan Merrill Henny Beaumont, Hole in the Heart: Squier, Michael J. Green, Kimberly R. Bringing Up Beth Myers, and Scott T. Smith, Graphic MK Czerwiec, Taking Turns: Stories from Medicine Manifesto HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 Ian Williams, The Bad Doctor: The Paula Knight, The Facts of Life Troubled Life and Times of Dr. Iwan James Gareth Brookes, A Thousand Coloured Peter Dunlap-Shohl, My Degeneration: Castles A Journey Through Parkinson’s Jenell Johnson, ed., Graphic Aneurin Wright, Things to Do in a Reproduction: A Comics Anthology Retirement Home Trailer Park: . . . When You’re 29 and Unemployed Olivier Kugler, Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees Dana Walrath, Aliceheimers: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass Judith Margolis, Life Support: Invitation to Prayer Lorenzo Servitje and Sherryl Vint, eds., The Walking Med: Zombies and the Ian Williams, The Lady Doctor Medical Image Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah UNCANNY B O D I E S SUPERHERO COMICS AND DISABILITY EDITED BY SCOTT T. SMITH AND JOSÉ ALANIZ the pennsylvania state university press | university park, pennsylvania Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Smith, Scott Thompson, editor. | Alaniz, José, editor. Title: Uncanny bodies : superhero comics and disability / edited by Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz. Other titles: Graphic medicine. Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsyl- vania State University Press, [2019] | Series: Graphic medicine | Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Explores how superhero comics, with their creative fusions of fantasy and realism, provide a flex- ible visual form for engaging issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, class, gender, sexuality) as well as for imagining and valuing different physical and cognitive ways of being in the world”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019027765 | ISBN 9780271084749 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780271084756 (paperback ; alk. paper) Subjects: MESH: Disabled Persons | Graphic Novels as Topic | Personal Autonomy | Sociological Factors | Graphic Novels Classification: LCC HV1551 | NLM HV 1551 | DDC 362.4—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027765 Copyright © 2019 The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992. In memory of Eric Sweet, super friend. (Scott) For Kristin and the family, with love and gratitude. (José) CONTENTS ix Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: 5 More than a Retcon Uncanny Bodies 111 Replacement: Disability, josé alaniz and Blackness, and Sexuality in scott t. smith the Origin of Operator lauren o’connor 1 “Mechanical Boys”: 35 Omega the Unknown on 6 “Okay . . . This Looks Bad”: the Spectrum 125 Disability, Masculinity, josé alaniz and Ambivalence in Matt Fraction and David Aja’s 2 Sane Superheroes: Mental Hawkeye 59 Distress in the Gutters of daniel pinti Moon Knight charlie christie 7 The deaf Issue: Hawkeye #19 141 and Deaf Accessibility in the 3 Echo: The Silence Between Comics Medium 79 the Notes naja later sarah bowden 8 That Hawkguy: Deaf and 4 Mistress of Cyberspace: 157 Disability Gain in Matt 95 Oracle, Disability, and the Fraction and David Aja’s Cyborg Hawkeye marit hanson sarah gibbons Contents 9 Dialectical Identity: Silver 11 Unraveling the Supercrip: 173 Scorpion as Disabled/ 205 Superheroes as Subversion, Superhero a Personal Essay in Comic deleasa randall- Form viii griffiths and daniel andrew godfrey-meers j. o’rourke 217 Fearsome Possibilities: 10 “Of Course, I Am a Hero”: An Afterword 187 Disability as Posthuman charles hatfield Ideal in Cece Bell’s El Deafo lauranne poharec 225 List of Contributors 227 Index ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to the good people at the Penn State University Press for their guidance throughout the long process of conceptualizing and completing this project. We want to give thanks especially to Kendra Boileau, editor extraordinaire, and to Alex Vose, editorial assistant without peer, for all their help and discernment. And we feel fortunate to be part of the Graphic Medicine series, which is a fine home indeed for this book. Special thanks to Charles Hatfield for providing an afterword that is full of crackle and insight, and most of all, thanks to our wonderful contributors, whose hard work and diligence have made this collection a compelling contribution to comics studies and disability studies both. And finally, we express gratitude to all the creators of the works exam- ined in these pages. José Alaniz wants to acknowledge and commend the leading role played in this project by Scott T. Smith, who imagined it, proposed it, and performed the lion’s share of the labor on making it real—with all the tenacity of the Black Racer.
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