Description
This title is a consideration of the modern Superhero comic as an expression of spiritual desire, showing what Superheroes can teach about our most essential human needs. Ben Saunders shows that Superhero comics address deep emotional needs. From their earliest days, Superheroes have engaged with some of the most profound spiritual questions that a human being can face: What does it mean to be good? Why is there evil? Why can't I have what I want? How should I live, knowing that I must die? The book suggests these fantasies of power and romance are attempts to wrestle and negotiate with some fundamentally spiritual issues: the problem of evil, the inescapability of human imperfection, and the stark fact of mortality. Saunders argues that the best Superhero comics are not only significant aesthetic achievements - expressions of a misunderstood and under-appreciated art-form as distinctly American as Jazz or Rock & Roll - but that their aesthetic significance derives at least in part from their unique handling of these religious and spiritual themes. With chapters on Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and Iron-Man, he considers these characters as artistic projections of our most primitive desires, and our highest aspirations. This series aims to showcase new work at the forefront of religion and literature through short studies written by leading and rising scholars in the field. Books will pursue a variety of theoretical approaches as they engage with writing from different religious and literary traditions. Collectively, the series will offer a timely critical intervention to the interdisciplinary crossover between religion and literature, speaking to wider contemporary interests and mapping out new directions for the field in the early twenty-first century.
A consideration of the modern Superhero comic as an expression of spiritual desire, showing what Superheroes can teach about our most essential human needs.
About the Author
Ben Saunders is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. He is author of Desiring Donne: Poetry, Sexuality, Interpretation (Harvard University Press, 2006, nominated Finalist of the Oregon Book Award) and of numerous essays on different aspects of literary culture from Shakespeare to the present. He is also co-editor, with Roger Beebe and Denise Fulbrooke, of Rock Over the Edge: Essays in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002).
Reviews
'Ben Saunders sets the bar high for himself when he says at the outset that a book about pop superheroes must be a book about spirituality and therefore about love. That might seem to place an unsupportable weight on the shoulders of Superman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman, and Iron man, but in this learned yet entirely accessible essay, Saunders makes both his thesis and his heroes stand up.' - Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law, Florida International University, USA
'Ben Saunders has done for comics analysis what Alan Moore did for comics literature. Do the Gods Wear Capes? is a provocative, intelligent, and thought-provoking work, and Saunders' insights rise from the page with the same power and grace as those iconic characters he examines. Certainly the best critical work on the meaning and impact of those marquee super-heroes that define the genre and that we encounter in myriad ways every day as has ever been written.' - Greg Rucka, novelist and author of Batwoman: Elegy, Whiteout, and Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia
... my summaries here do not begin to do justice to the depth of Saunders' own work. His reading and analysis of William Marston's professional writings in psychology-and the subsequent light they shed on Wonder Woman-are unprecedented; and he then goes on to bring in feminist theologians such as Rosemary Radford Reuther, Daphne Hampson, and Sarah Coakley. Although this is only one example, it is indicative of the quality of work found throughout the entire book. * Transpositions *
In this excellent book, four iconic superheroes serve as Saunders's role models for social and spiritual awareness...Saunders's superb essay on Wonder Woman at long last makes sense of the odd ideological mix of feminism, pseudo-Greco-Roman spirituality, and sadomasochism(?) underpinning the character. He is one of the few comic scholars who appreciates and understands this revolutionary and deeply spiritual character...This volume is highly recommended. -- Marc DiPaolo * Religious Studies Review *
Capes offers the perspective that superheroes might be much more than simply an adolescent power fantasy. And within the confines of this slim 150-page book, Saunders argues this cogently and coherently ... Perhaps one of the most important facets of the book comes from the varied think ers to whom Saunders refers. There are references to philosophers and theologians, from Slavoj Zizek to John Caputo, Kant and St. Augustine and Nietzsche, but little reference to comic book theorists. Indeed, in trying to place this book into a continuum of like-minded works, Grant Morrison's Supergods and David Lewis and Christine Kraemer's collection Graven Images are two of only a few that spring to mind, and Saunders acknowledges this explicitly when he writes "I am actually trying to elevate the status of superhero comics by association" (6). Rather than privilege solely either analysis of the form, or of the cultural moment that these stories seem to emblematize, Saunders asks us to think about superheroes as part of a much longer lineage, one that has been a fundamental part of human conscious ness almost since the beginning of human consciousness: the lineage of art that interrogates existence. -- Tom Miller * TOPIA *
[Listed in "Too Many Words: 15 fantastic books to help you learn about comics"] There's no shortage of books about superheroes and their mythological significance, but this one stands out from the rest. Written by Ben Saunders, who runs the Comics and Cartoon Studies program at the University of Oregon, Do the Gods Wear Capes? makes an enthralling case for superheroes as spiritual entities, and has the sharp analysis of text and pop culture to back it up. With chapters focusing on Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and Iron Man, this is a great way to see your favorite heroes in a new light. * blastr *
Book Information
ISBN 9780826441980
Author Dr Ben Saunders
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Continuum Publishing Corporation
Publisher Continuum Publishing Corporation
Series New Directions in Religion and Literature
Weight(grams) 271g
A consideration of the modern Superhero comic as an expression of spiritual desire, showing what Superheroes can teach about our most essential human needs.
About the Author
Ben Saunders is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. He is author of Desiring Donne: Poetry, Sexuality, Interpretation (Harvard University Press, 2006, nominated Finalist of the Oregon Book Award) and of numerous essays on different aspects of literary culture from Shakespeare to the present. He is also co-editor, with Roger Beebe and Denise Fulbrooke, of Rock Over the Edge: Essays in Popular Music Culture (Duke University Press, 2002).
Reviews
'Ben Saunders sets the bar high for himself when he says at the outset that a book about pop superheroes must be a book about spirituality and therefore about love. That might seem to place an unsupportable weight on the shoulders of Superman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman, and Iron man, but in this learned yet entirely accessible essay, Saunders makes both his thesis and his heroes stand up.' - Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law, Florida International University, USA
'Ben Saunders has done for comics analysis what Alan Moore did for comics literature. Do the Gods Wear Capes? is a provocative, intelligent, and thought-provoking work, and Saunders' insights rise from the page with the same power and grace as those iconic characters he examines. Certainly the best critical work on the meaning and impact of those marquee super-heroes that define the genre and that we encounter in myriad ways every day as has ever been written.' - Greg Rucka, novelist and author of Batwoman: Elegy, Whiteout, and Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia
... my summaries here do not begin to do justice to the depth of Saunders' own work. His reading and analysis of William Marston's professional writings in psychology-and the subsequent light they shed on Wonder Woman-are unprecedented; and he then goes on to bring in feminist theologians such as Rosemary Radford Reuther, Daphne Hampson, and Sarah Coakley. Although this is only one example, it is indicative of the quality of work found throughout the entire book. * Transpositions *
In this excellent book, four iconic superheroes serve as Saunders's role models for social and spiritual awareness...Saunders's superb essay on Wonder Woman at long last makes sense of the odd ideological mix of feminism, pseudo-Greco-Roman spirituality, and sadomasochism(?) underpinning the character. He is one of the few comic scholars who appreciates and understands this revolutionary and deeply spiritual character...This volume is highly recommended. -- Marc DiPaolo * Religious Studies Review *
Capes offers the perspective that superheroes might be much more than simply an adolescent power fantasy. And within the confines of this slim 150-page book, Saunders argues this cogently and coherently ... Perhaps one of the most important facets of the book comes from the varied think ers to whom Saunders refers. There are references to philosophers and theologians, from Slavoj Zizek to John Caputo, Kant and St. Augustine and Nietzsche, but little reference to comic book theorists. Indeed, in trying to place this book into a continuum of like-minded works, Grant Morrison's Supergods and David Lewis and Christine Kraemer's collection Graven Images are two of only a few that spring to mind, and Saunders acknowledges this explicitly when he writes "I am actually trying to elevate the status of superhero comics by association" (6). Rather than privilege solely either analysis of the form, or of the cultural moment that these stories seem to emblematize, Saunders asks us to think about superheroes as part of a much longer lineage, one that has been a fundamental part of human conscious ness almost since the beginning of human consciousness: the lineage of art that interrogates existence. -- Tom Miller * TOPIA *
[Listed in "Too Many Words: 15 fantastic books to help you learn about comics"] There's no shortage of books about superheroes and their mythological significance, but this one stands out from the rest. Written by Ben Saunders, who runs the Comics and Cartoon Studies program at the University of Oregon, Do the Gods Wear Capes? makes an enthralling case for superheroes as spiritual entities, and has the sharp analysis of text and pop culture to back it up. With chapters focusing on Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and Iron Man, this is a great way to see your favorite heroes in a new light. * blastr *
Book Information
ISBN 9780826441980
Author Dr Ben Saunders
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Continuum Publishing Corporation
Publisher Continuum Publishing Corporation
Series New Directions in Religion and Literature
Weight(grams) 271g
