Michael Goodrum & Tara Prescott-Johnson 
Gender and the Superhero Narrative 

Contributions by Dorian L. Alexander, Janine Coleman, Gabriel Gianola, Mel Gibson, Michael Goodrum, Tim Hanley, Vanessa Hemovich, Christina Knopf, Christopher Mc Gunnigle, Samira Nadkarni, Ryan North, Lisa Perdigao, Tara Prescott-Johnson, Philip Smith, and Maite Ucaregui


The explosive popularity of San Diego’s Comic-Con,
Star Wars: The Force Awakens and
Rogue One, and Netflix’s
Jessica Jones and
Luke Cage all signal the tidal change in superhero narratives and mainstreaming of what were once considered niche interests.


Yet just as these areas have become more openly inclusive to an audience beyond heterosexual white men, there has also been an intense backlash, most famously in 2015’s Gamergate controversy, when the tension between feminist bloggers, misogynistic gamers, and internet journalists came to a head. The place for gender in superhero narratives now represents a sort of battleground, with important changes in the industry at stake. These seismic shifts—both in the creation of superhero media and in their critical and reader reception—need reassessment not only of the role of women in comics, but also of how American society conceives of masculinity.



Gender and the Superhero Narrative launches ten essays that explore the point where social justice meets the Justice League. Ranging from comics such as
Ms. Marvel,
Batwoman: Elegy, and
Bitch Planet to video games, Netflix, and cosplay, this volume builds a platform for important voices in comics research, engaging with controversy and community to provide deeper insight and thus inspire change.

About the author

Philip Smith is associate chair of liberal arts and professor of English at Savannah College of Art and Design. He is author of Reading Art Spiegelman and Shakespeare in Singapore: Performance, Education, and Culture. He is coeditor of The Struggle for Understanding: Elie Wiesel’s Literary Works and Gender and the Superhero Narrative, published by University Press of Mississippi.