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Abstract :
[en] Superheroes have been supportive of the state’s ideologies for a long time. From WW II to the Cold War era, they have defended the status quo and fought countless enemies of the establishment while showing strong nationalist ideology. Yet, in their long existence, these characters and the narratives they feature in, have been subject to many redefinitions, usually during periods of ideological conflicts such as the Vietnam War or the overtly pro-masculine and pro-war politics of the Reagan era. Following this logic, it seems interesting to raise the question whether or not the superhero genre changed after the events of 9/11 and the subsequent ‘War on Terror.’ This question becomes even more important when one draws a parallel between the Bush administration’s political rhetoric of the early aftermath, and the classical superhero Manichean formula whereby good usually prevails over evil.
Whereas early superhero comics engaging with 9/11 presented cases of topical suffering, victimization, and sometimes revenge, later superhero texts have confronted readers with moral and political ambiguities. Indirectly or metaphorically referring to the traumatic events of September 11th and its aftermath, many post-9/11 superhero narratives have called into question the binary dialectic, long sustained by the medium itself, and rearticulated by the Bush administration; they have suggested that America was to some extent responsible for, or at least, implicated in the attacks. In doing so, these texts function as powerful political allegories which challenge America’s sense of moral exceptionalism, the state’s implementation of (inter)national security policies, and by extension, the very sociological role of the superheroic figure.
In this paper, I aim to demonstrate how two recent superhero comics’ series – Marvel’s multi-authored cross-over Civil War (2006) and Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp’s Black Summer (2008) – have allegorized the events of 9/11 to critique the above issues in different but related ways. More specifically, I argue that these narratives constitute revisions of traditional superhero texts which problematize the morality of superhero figures, comment on the pervasive effects of the mass media, and ultimately challenge the state’s intervention policies in the face of adversity.