New comic book course examines cultural identities of superheroes

Medium worthy of more respect from academics - professor

Corey Henderson is excited to be studying comics in depth with Enns. Photo: Lizzy Hill

Do Batman and Robin have an idyllic gay lifestyle? Is Wonder Woman a dominatrix, embodying the sadomasochistic fantasies of her male creator? Is Superman actually a pro-Nazi symbol of Aryan superiority?

These are all questions professor Anthony Enns' class will debate this term in Dalhousie's new course, Cartoons and Comics. 

Several students are still on the waiting list for entry into this course. Not surprisingly, though, some of these students signed up hoping for an easy A.

“Quite a lot of people dropped (the course), as soon as they saw the syllabus,” Enns admits. While the course may be packed with lighter comic series such as Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman, it also contains scholarly texts, such as Umberto Eco's “The Myth of Superman” and Mitra C. Emad's “Reading Wonder Woman's Body: Mythologies of Gender and Nation.”  The class reflects upon the ways in which people recreate the identity of superheroes, based upon the cultural ideologies of the time. 

Take Superman. Many critics viewed him as a pro-Nazi figure, representing Aryan superiority. Yet, “on the other hand, the creators were Jewish and there's a lot of evidence that they actually intended Superman to represent the Jewish immigrant, who's trying to assimilate and trying to do his best to embrace his new culture,” says Enns.

Batman's identity is equally loaded. In the '50s, there were a lot of protests about Batman and Robin's relationship, says Enns.  “Apparently they slept in the same bed, and there were no women involved ... as a result of the criticism, the editors decided to introduce some more female characters,” such as Bat Girl. But then in the '80s, critics were starting to champion Batman and Robin, as “these sort of campy gay heroes,” showing a shift in our cultural value system, says Enns. Wonder Woman's sexuality comes under similar scrutiny, because some, like Enns, believe her creator was an “S&M freak, who was really into bondage.”

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Professor Anthony Enns reads Windsor McKay's "Little Nemo," a serial comic strip from the early 1900's. Photo: Lizzy Hill

A “really cool” history lesson

Corey Henderson, a 20-year-old comic book fan is happy to get more than he expected out of the course.

“There's a lot more social context than I thought would be there, but it's really cool to learn,” he says.

Sinziana Balaban, 21, took the course because she loves comics and was keen to study them more in depth.

“I think the course is awesome because it really takes a look at what was going on in society at the time through a totally different perspective,” she says. “The artists who were working on these comic strips had obviously very strong opinions, which really show through their work.”

I also learn a lot more about comics, when I audit Enns’ course. We study Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie comic strips from the '20s and '30s.  I learn that Daddy Warbuck's character was used as a mouthpiece to voice Gray’s own hatred of trade unions, favour of vigilante justice and free market capitalism and obvious disdain for the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Enns’ course will not simply discuss the material in comics, but will focus on the subject matter that didn't often make it into comics in the past, such as the lives of minorities, the poor and women. He includes comics from the collective women's comic movement in the '70s, selecting works from artists such as Aline Kominsky-Crumb, author of “Sex-Crazed Housewife” and “Nose Job,” Diane Noomin and Phoebe Gloekner, which bring underrepresented perspectives to the forefront. 

These are heavy subjects to treat in a seemingly light class, but comics provide an easy entry into lively debates and conversations about gender inequality, body image, racism and fascist ideology. Enns doesn't entirely understand why comics have taken so long to gain the respect they deserve in the academic world, but is hopeful this will change. He can easily imagine more professors will integrate comics into their course material in the future, as they already do with film.

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