Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.

With its starting point that superhero comics are and have always been political, Superhero Culture Wars is a welcome examination of Marvel’s moves toward diversifying its characters in the 2010s. It illuminates not only the tensions between fans and storytellers, but also the tensions inherent in a company’s neoliberal strategy of marketing its products and itself as progressive in order to increase its profits.

• Introduction: Mockingbird and Milkshakes: Comicsgate, Identity, and the Politics of Marketing in an Age of Outrage Chapter One: From Stan’s Soapbox to Twitter: Politics and Story-Telling in the Marvel Universe Chapter Two: Diversity Done Right?: Miles Morales and Kamala KhanChapter Three: “Captain America is Black and Thor is a Woman”: Gender- and Race-Bent Mantle Passing in Marvel’s All-New, All-Different CampaignChapter Four: Rethinking Secret Empire: Writing and Marketing Political Comics in an Age of Rising FascismConclusion: Marvel Legacy and Fresh Start: Selling (and Selling Out) Progressive Politics Works CitedIndex

Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.

With its starting point that superhero comics are and have always been political, Superhero Culture Wars is a welcome examination of Marvel’s moves toward diversifying its characters in the 2010s. It illuminates not only the tensions between fans and storytellers, but also the tensions inherent in a company’s neoliberal strategy of marketing its products and itself as progressive in order to increase its profits.

• Introduction: Mockingbird and Milkshakes: Comicsgate, Identity, and the Politics of Marketing in an Age of Outrage Chapter One: From Stan’s Soapbox to Twitter: Politics and Story-Telling in the Marvel Universe Chapter Two: Diversity Done Right?: Miles Morales and Kamala KhanChapter Three: “Captain America is Black and Thor is a Woman”: Gender- and Race-Bent Mantle Passing in Marvel’s All-New, All-Different CampaignChapter Four: Rethinking Secret Empire: Writing and Marketing Political Comics in an Age of Rising FascismConclusion: Marvel Legacy and Fresh Start: Selling (and Selling Out) Progressive Politics Works CitedIndex

Judith Leggatt and Monica Flegel are Associate Professors of English at Lakehead University, Canada.

With its starting point that superhero comics are and have always been political, Superhero Culture Wars is a welcome examination of Marvel’s moves toward diversifying its characters in the 2010s. It illuminates not only the tensions between fans and storytellers, but also the tensions inherent in a company’s neoliberal strategy of marketing its products and itself as progressive in order to increase its profits.

• Introduction: Mockingbird and Milkshakes: Comicsgate, Identity, and the Politics of Marketing in an Age of Outrage Chapter One: From Stan’s Soapbox to Twitter: Politics and Story-Telling in the Marvel Universe Chapter Two: Diversity Done Right?: Miles Morales and Kamala KhanChapter Three: “Captain America is Black and Thor is a Woman”: Gender- and Race-Bent Mantle Passing in Marvel’s All-New, All-Different CampaignChapter Four: Rethinking Secret Empire: Writing and Marketing Political Comics in an Age of Rising FascismConclusion: Marvel Legacy and Fresh Start: Selling (and Selling Out) Progressive Politics Works CitedIndex