The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics

by Ramzi Fawaz

Overview

2017 The Association for the Studies of the Present Book Prize

Finalist Mention, 2017 Lora Romero First Book Award Presented by the American Studies Association

Winner of the 2012 CLAGS Fellowship Award for Best First Book Project in LGBT Studies

How fantasy meets reality as popular culture evolves and ignites postwar gender, sexual, and race revolutions.

In 1964, noted literary critic Leslie Fiedler described American youth as “new mutants,” social rebels severing their attachments to American culture to remake themselves in their own image. 1960s comic book creators, anticipating Fiedler, began to morph American superheroes from icons of nationalism and white masculinity into actual mutant outcasts, defined by their genetic difference from ordinary humanity. These powerful misfits and “freaks” soon came to embody the social and political aspirations of America’s most marginalized groups, including women, racial and sexual minorities, and the working classes.

In The New Mutants, Ramzi Fawaz draws upon queer theory to tell the story of these monstrous fantasy figures and how they grapple with radical politics from Civil Rights and The New Left to Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements. Through a series of comic book case studies—including The Justice League of America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The New Mutants—alongside late 20th century fan writing, cultural criticism, and political documents, Fawaz reveals how the American superhero modeled new forms of social belonging that counterculture youth would embrace in the 1960s and after. The New Mutants provides the first full-length study to consider the relationship between comic book fantasy and radical politics in the modern United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479823086
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/22/2016
Series:	Postmillennial Pop , #1
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	873,287
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ramzi Fawaz is a Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics and co-editor of Keywords for Comics Studies. With Darieck Scott, he co-edited the special issue of American Literature, “Queer About Comics,” which won the 2019 best special issue award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: Superhumans in America 1

1 The Family of Superman: The Superhero Team and the Promise of Universal Citizenship 37

2 "Flame On!" Nuclear Families, Unstable Molecules, and the Queer History of The Fantastic Four 66

3 Comic Book Cosmopolites: The Fantastic Fours Counterpublic as a World-Making Project 94

4 "Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!" Mutant Superheroes and the Cultural Politics of the Comic Book Space Opera 125

5 Heroes "That Give a Damn!" Urban Folktales and the Triumph of the Working-Class Hero 164

6 Consumed by Hellfire: Demonic Possession and the Limits of the Superhuman in the 1980s 200

7 Lost in the Badlands: Radical Imagination and the Enchantments of Mutant Solidarity in The New Mutants 234

Epilogue: Marvelous Corpse 269

Notes 283

Bibliography 301

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

10/12/2015
Fawaz, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, takes a hard look at the politics behind superhero comics in this uneven but satisfying debut. Drawing on queer theory, Fawaz proposes that superhero comics from the Silver Age (mid-1950s to early ’70s) onward have consistently reflected contemporary political debates, particularly around marginalized groups. In his view, post-WWII superheroes, in contrast to their prewar counterparts, were “queered” by their portrayal as vulnerable and threatening outsiders. For instance, the Fantastic Four, introduced in 1961, gain their powers through “bodily vulnerability” after being accidentally exposed to “cosmic rays” that made their bodies’ molecules “unstable.” These abilities, Fawaz writes, “produced nonnormative or ‘queer’ effects” shown as “expressions of deviant gender and sexuality.” By contrast, the X-Men, from their first appearance in 1963, are outsiders empowered by genetic mutations and confronted by an intolerant public. For Fawaz, their appearance “dramatized the politics of inequality, exclusion, and difference” in line with the concurrent civil rights movements. This is a strong work with minor pacing problems; some studies are more fleshed out than others. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable and perceptive study and any failings would be easy to fix in a (fingers crossed) follow-up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Much thats previously been crackling and exciting in the burgeoning field of comics studies has investigated the innovations of comic book form, or engaged with narratives of autobiography and realism that most closely mimic the prestigious kinds of storytelling recognized in literary novels. Now comes the sharp, smart, theoretically savvy exploration of the bombastic content of superhero comics, which Ramzi Fawazs exuberant tour de force reveals that we trivialize to the detriment of our understanding of sexuality and race in postwar America, and of the ways we use fantasy to make and re-make the meanings of both. Among hypertrophic giants and mutations that grant world-conquering powers, Fawaz finds world-making that embraces universal difference as the basis for affiliative politics and puts the cosmic back into cosmopolitanand queerness galore."

Darieck Scott

"Fawaz draws on close readings and sharp analysis."

Pacific Standard

"Mov[es] fluently between an overarching look at postwar comics to more specific analysis of how mainstream comics offers a place for subversive world building."

American Literature

"I have never encountered anyone—not Art Spiegelman, R. Crumb, Douglas Wolk, Stephen Burt, or even Michael Chabon—who has addressed himself to superheroes withRamziFawaz's generosity of spirit and unsatisfiable critical fervor. In this book, one is caught up in the way in which we and the likes of Superman, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Silver Surfer share a common terrain of both history and imagination. All sorts of people will bring a long-nurtured, even fetishized familiarity toFawaz's pages, and it won't survive—the most familiar stories are, here, radically, thrillingly new."

Greil Marcus

"Ramzi Fawaz's marvelous new book,The New Mutants, digs deep into the long history of superheroes and unearths a radical political tradition that has mostly goneunnoticed until now. . . .an eye-opening read, and Fawaz offers a way of reading superhero comics that is rooted both in scholarship and in the rich history of superhero narratives. Its clear that Fawaz is both a scholar and a fan, a dynamic that results in a book that should be appreciated by academics and true believers alike."

Popmatters

"The New Mutantsprovides considerable substance to the argument that comic books are indicative and powerful literary publications which assist their readers in coping with their marginalization in a society which often pretends to include everyone or to portray the world as a happy, global family."

Journal of American Culture

"Fawaztakes readers into the wondrous world of American comic books, where we encounter an array of outcasts: the mutant, the cyborg, the alien, and the superhuman. This band of visionaries,Fawaz persuasively shows, pushed back against the constraints of postwar liberal citizenship, conjured new, emancipatory forms of social belonging, and called into question the meaning of the human being. A model of interdisciplinary scholarship,The New Mutantsis a must-read, not only for comic book fans, but for anyone interested in understanding how popular culture fueled the gender, sexual, and race revolutions of the late twentieth century."

Natasha Zaretsky

"The New Mutantis not only one of the smartest critiques Ive ever read, its one of the most brilliant academic engagements with pop culture, period."

Patheos

"A powerhouse one-of-a-kind book! By charting the radical transformations of the comic book superhero in the post-war period, Fawaz brings to light the extraordinary secret history of American Otherness. Truly fantastic."

Junot Díaz

11/15/2015
Fawaz (English, Univ. of Wisconsin) leans heavily on queer theory and Marxist criticism in this well-documented study of the political and cultural evolution of American comic books, from the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics in 1938 to the present day. Comparing DC and Marvel comics, including the Justice League of America, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the New Mutants, Fawaz traces shifting values, regarding for example, income inequality and transgender concerns, the superheroes exemplified through the Cold War, the civil rights movement, the 1960s counterculture, the women's and gay liberation movements, and radical politics in the 21st century. The author examines how the comics' treatment of issues such as diversity, identity politics, and economic and social justice both reflect and transform the values of their times, supporting his analysis with evidence drawn from scholarly sources as well as comics readers' letters to the editor. VERDICT A strong piece of interdisciplinary research, this chronicle reads like a well-argued, clearly written doctoral dissertation. As such, its primary audience will be academics, especially those interested in popular culture and LGBTQ studies.—William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

Library Journal

"A powerhouse one-of-a-kind book! By charting the radical transformations of the comic book superhero in the post-war period, Fawaz brings to light the extraordinary secret history of American Otherness. Truly fantastic."

Junot Díaz

"Mov[es] fluently between an overarching look at postwar comics to more specific analysis of how mainstream comics offers a place for subversive world building."- American Literature

"A powerhouse one-of-a-kind book! By charting the radical transformations of the comic book superhero in the post-war period, Fawaz brings to light the extraordinary secret history of American Otherness. Truly fantastic." -Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“ The New Mutan t is not only one of the smartest critiques I’ve ever read, it’s one of the most brilliant academic engagements with pop culture, period.”- Patheos

"Ramzi Fawaz's marvelous new book, The New Mutants , digs deep into the long history of superheroes and unearths a radical political tradition that has mostly gone unnoticed until now. . . . an eye-opening read, and Fawaz offers a way of reading superhero comics that is rooted both in scholarship and in the rich history of superhero narratives. It’s clear that Fawaz is both a scholar and a fan, a dynamic that results in a book that should be appreciated by academics and true believers alike.”- Popmatters

"[A] well-documented study of the political and cultural evolution of American comic books, from the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics in 1938 to the present day. A strong piece of interdisciplinary research..well-argued, clearly written."- Library Journal

"I have never encountered anyone—not Art Spiegelman, R. Crumb, Douglas Wolk, Stephen Burt, or even Michael Chabon—who has addressed himself to superheroes with Ramzi Fawaz's generosity of spirit and unsatisfiable critical fervor. In this book, one is caught up in the way in which we and the likes of Superman, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Silver Surfer share a common terrain of both history and imagination. All sorts of people will bring a long-nurtured, even fetishized familiarity to Fawaz's pages, and it won't survive—the most familiar stories are, here, radically, thrillingly new."-Greil Marcus,author of Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music

“ The New Mutants provides considerable substance to the argument that comic books are indicative and powerful literary publications which assist their readers in coping with their marginalization in a society which often pretends to include everyone or to portray the world as a happy, global family.”- Journal of American Culture

"Fawaz draws on close readings and sharp analysis."- Pacific Standard

"Much that’s previously been crackling and exciting in the burgeoning field of comics studies has investigated the innovations of comic book form, or engaged with narratives of autobiography and realism that most closely mimic the prestigious kinds of storytelling recognized in literary novels. Now comes the sharp, smart, theoretically savvy exploration of the bombastic content of superhero comics, which Ramzi Fawaz’s exuberant tour de force reveals that we trivialize to the detriment of our understanding of sexuality and race in postwar America, and of the ways we use fantasy to make and re-make the meanings of both. Among hypertrophic giants and mutations that grant world-conquering powers, Fawaz finds world-making that embraces universal difference as the basis for affiliative politics and puts the cosmic back into cosmopolitan—and queerness galore."-Darieck Scott,author of Extravagant Abjection

"This will go a long way towards making comics an acceptable medium of study in academia."- San Francisco Book Review

"Fawaz takes a hard look at the politics behind superhero comics in this...satisfying debut. [A]n enjoyable and perceptive study."- Publishers Weekly

"Fawaz takes readers into the wondrous world of American comic books, where we encounter an array of outcasts: the mutant, the cyborg, the alien, and the superhuman. This band of visionaries, Fawaz persuasively shows, pushed back against the constraints of postwar liberal citizenship, conjured new, emancipatory forms of social belonging, and called into question the meaning of the human being. A model of interdisciplinary scholarship, The New Mutants is a must-read, not only for comic book fans, but for anyone interested in understanding how popular culture fueled the gender, sexual, and race revolutions of the late twentieth century."-Natasha Zaretsky,author of No Direction Home: The American Family and the Fear of National Decline, 1968-1980

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