Superhero phenomena exploded into 20th- and 21st-century popular culture by way of the visual medium of comic books. In an increasingly secular (yet spiritual) culture that has largely renounced “the gods” (and even religion), what does the return of the superhero through our own pop cultural mythologies say to us―or even about us? This collection of essays from leading and up-and-coming scholars in the fields of comparative mythology and depth psychology considers the return of the superhero as representative of our own unique emergent modern mythology: a wildly diverse pantheon that reflects back to us our most far-reaching hopes and (im)possible (super)human desires. In placing the interpretive tools of comparative mythology and depth psychology alongside the comic book phenomenon, a super-powered palette emerges that unveils the hidden potential of modern readers’ own heightened imaginations. The essays in this anthology examine select comic book and superhero characters from the “Silver Age” 1960s through contemporary 21st-century adaptations and innovations, as readers are invited to discover and uncover what the (re)emergence of these perennial gods and goddesses have to say about our own secret super selves today.
Author(s): David M. Odorisio
Series: Contemporary Religion and Popular Culture
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 262
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Contributors
List of Figures
A New Gnosis: The Comic Book as Mythical Text
References
Part I: A New Gnosis: Comic Books as Modern Mythology
Dreaming the Myth Onward: Comic Books as Contemporary Mythologies
The Mythically Tinged Origins of Comic Books
The New Mythographers
A Gnosis of Bright Fragments
References
From Horror to Heroes: Mythologies of Graphic Voodoo in Comics
Introduction
Graphic Voodoo in the Jungle
Graphic Voodoo in Cartoon Comics
Graphic Voodoo in Horror Comics
Conclusion
Mystico-Erotics of the “Next Age Superhero”: Christian Hippie Comics of the 1970s
Introduction
Kripal’s Super-Story and Its Mythemes
The World of Christian Hippie Comics
A Brief History of Archie's Sonshine (1974)
Mystico-Erotic Themes in Archie’s Sonshine
A Brief History of The Little Flirty Fishy
Mystico-Erotic Themes in The Little Flirty Fishy
Conclusion
References
The Flying Eyeball: The Mythopoetics of Rick Griffin
Graphic Mythologies
Egyptian Books of the Dead
Navajo Sand Paintings
Where the Two Came to Their Father
Conception, Departure, and Journey
House Made of Dawn
Return to the Mother
Battles with Monsters
C.G. Jung’s Red Book
Conclusion
References
Part II: Archetypal Amplifications: Comic Books, Comparative Mythology, and Depth Psychology
Archetypal Dimensions of Comic Books
Introduction
A Brief Overview of the Silver Age of Comics
The Fantastic Four
Promethea
Conclusion
References
All-Female Teams: In Quest of the Missing Archetype
References
Infirm Relatives and Boy Kings: The Green Man Archetype in Alan Moore’s The Saga of The Swamp Thing
The Green Man
Mythic Wounds
The Wounded Masculine
Masculine Victimization
The Return to Elysium
References
The Shadow of the Bat: Batman as Archetypal Shaman
Bat-men: Bat-Man Images in Early Cultures
Comparison: The Centaur
The Chinese Bat-Man
The Christian Bat-Man
The Alchemical Bat-Man
The Bat as Guardian of the Sacred
The Modern Bat-Man
Conclusion
References
“To Survive and Still Dream”: Ritual and Reclamation in Little Bird
References
Graffiti in the Grass: Worldbuilding and Soul Survival Through Image, Immersive Myth, and the Metaxis
References
Afterword: Comics and Gnostics
Superpowers and Historiography
Superhumans Among Us
Sex and Race in the Super Story
Super Social Justice
Index
