Cancer Plot

Reginald Wiebe is Associate Professor of English at Concordia University of Edmonton and gratefully lives on Treaty 6 territory. Dorothy Woodman is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and gratefully lives on Treaty 6 territory.

“Wiebe and Woodman take on a fascinating subject: the representation and significance of cancer in Marvel comics. They explore the paradox of cancer: how in a fantasy setting of extraordinary diversity and ‘miraculous’ feats, it alone remains immune from all cures -- a sort of zero-degree realism which vouchsafes the genre’s connection to the real world.” José Alaniz, University of Washington, author of Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: But I Don’t Want to Cure CancerI Bodies, Cancer, and Death Editor’s Note1 | Death and Cancer: Immortality and the Problem of Limits2 | Living with Cancer: Medical Narratives and SuperheroesII Cancer, Power, and Responsibility: Exploring Four Superhero StoriesEditor’s Note / The Death of Captain Marvel3 | This Whole Business of Death: Cancer and Captain Marvel Editor’s Note / Ultimate Spider-Man4 | Cure as Poison: Cancer and Spider-Man’s Moral BattleEditor’s Note / The Mighty Thor5 | Cancer as Fatal Opportunity: Thor and the Question of WorthinessEditor’s Note / The Despicable Deadpool6 | “Welcome to the Freak Show!”: Deadpool and Perpetual Remission Conclusion: The End That Is Not the EndAppendix 1Marvel Characters 1.1 Marvel characters who have had cancer but did not die of it1.2 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died of it1.3 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died attempting to cure it or destroy their enemies before succumbing to it1.4 Marvel cancer deaths by decadeAppendix 2DC Characters 2.1 DC characters who have had cancer2.2 DC characters with an unnamed terminal condition2.3 DC cancer and terminal condition by decadeNotesWorks CitedIndex