Superhero Breakdown

Plants are essentially blank slates as far as most humans are concerned. They don't communicate in a way that humans can easily notice and mostly just sit there. They don't even have faces for us to project emotions on to (something that I'm sure any pet owner will be familiar with.) As such, when plants are anthropomorphized the results tend to be much more direct in their inspiration whenever they're more than just a man in a plant suit. A freshly emerged swamp thing in The Saga of the Swamp Thing (1982) #21 tries to be more than just a man in a suit. Alan Moore was part of a team that revolutionized The Swamp Thing with DC. They aimed to transform them from just some guy that got turned into plants instead into something different. Part of this revamp involved the introduction of a communal plant hive-mind of sorts known as "the green" which spans the globe. It can be argued that this was an attempt to distance the plants from traditional human intelligence...

Mr. Sinister in Powers of X uses genetic experiments in a way that is sometimes silly and sometimes cruel, but a look at his decision making can be used to shine a light on a larger issue in the ethics of genetic manipulation in people: Who gets to call the shots? A Mr. Sinister clone not calling the shots in Powers of X #4 Proponents of human genetic manipulation often tout benefits such as the curing of genetic diseases, but the question that stems from this is what counts as a disease that needs to be cured? At first this may seem silly, "well obviously cancer or HIV risk" some might fairly say, however others may go further. Schizophrenia has some genetic component , autism has some as well, even sexuality and gender are sometimes deemed to have a genetic component. Which of these are diseases? Which should be cured if any? Look at the states across the world trying to ban LGBT people from public life, clearly some would view it in such a way. This simple thought expe...

Mother nature is often described as fickle, with her anger coming through in bad weather and natural disasters. Of course, these are in reality the result of complex interconnecting systems, which can often be unpredictable in the same way as the emotions that were ascribed to the behaviors. The hero Storm herself represents a blending of the analogy and reality with her powers as seen in Storm (2014). Storm thinks to herself about her growth in Storm (2014) #1 The 2014 Storm run opens with her thinking about how she's grown as a person and as a mutant. "I'm older. And I hope a little wiser." she thinks to herself as she plans how to protect a town from a tsunami. This mirrors how industrial society's understanding of nature has evolved over time since Storm's debut in Giant-Size X-Men (1975) #1. This new understanding places an emphasis on the interconnectedness of the various aspects of nature and how unpredictable the response can be to sudden changes. As s...

Japan has a complex history with technology, especially nuclear technology. This history has led to many different portrayals of technology and man's relationship to it. The destructive potential can often be on full display, but just as often the bright future it can help create is shown. Osamu Tezuka's works, for example, depicts both quite directly through super-powered robots created in the human image. Michi from Metropolis (1949) shows the great destruction that can be wrought when humanity messes with technology that it's not ready for. In contrast, Mighty Atom has a much more hopeful outlook where some technology, Atom, can help protect humanity from those that would seek to use it for evil. Michi goes rogue in Metropolis (1949) Atom attempts to destroy the Mad Machine (1958) Being adopted by Professor Ochanomizu and the kindness received helps shape him into someone that works for good, representing the ways that technology can be good. In the Mad...

The nuclear age saw the beginning of the silver age of comics under the Comics Code Authority. With the ongoing Cold War, nuclear forces pervaded popular culture in the USA, including within comics. These nuclear forces, usually in the form of radiation, are seen in comito be both dangerous and in some ways freeing. In New Mutants , Ramzi Fawaz argues that the Fantastic Four's affliction of cosmic ray exposure also represents "their failure to live up to the sexual and gender norms of cold war culture" in the ways they struggle with their bodies (67). The group bombarded by radiation in Fantastic Four (1961) #1 This queer reading can be seen through the whole group with how they hide (or don't) their abilities where possible. The group itself also exhibits a found family dynamic which is common among queer people; especially historically these groups were often required as being found to be queer could often leave people disowned and homeless. These bonds based on sha...

The Spider-Man comics have covered a lot of styles over the years, but one thing that's of particular note is how they handle movement. The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) and Spider-Man (1990) primarily utilize speed lines following behind the action to emphasize movement which is pretty typical for comics.   A kick with speed lines from The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #50   The latter's much more realistic art style allows the emphasis on the chaos of shapes from the webs to help emphasize this. They form into nonsensical shapes and patterns that grab the eye and embody flying through the air at high speed. The chaos of these webs even manages to break beyond the panels in a few places. Flying with knots of webs in Spider-Man (1990) #1 A more recent example of a similar style is used in the comics with Spinstress which mainly use speed lines as a backdrop for more intense scenes with a focus primarily on the posing to show movement. Here dramatic poses serve to allow the comic to ca...

Science is a process. This fact is imparted through as people make it through high-school. As we observe the natural world and find new patterns we must adjust our hypotheses to suit these new ideas. This has been seen in many cases, such as Newton's law of gravitation which was famously modified by Einstein's theory of relativity as new research was done. Now the question is, how is this information usually conveyed to the general public? There was a time when people gathered in coffee shops to gossip about the latest breakthroughs. Most people don't tend to read scientific articles in the modern era, though there are a handful that subscribe to scientific magazines. The massive rise of popular science has been greatly influenced by the internet in this day, mirroring the coffee shops that once housed rousing discussions on an often much grander scale. One common way is through viral "fun facts" shared on social media, though these can often be sensationalist if ...