Special Guest Villain: Racism
Vincent Price as Egghead is as good as any villain in the Adam West Bat-canon. Physically large, he looms ominously and awkwardly, while rolling every “eggs…actly” and “eggs..quisite” off his lips and...
View ArticleBruce Goes Camping
The Batman TV Show is known for its campiness, but it reaches an apotheosis of arch gay subtext in the episode with Liberace as the villainous pianist Chandell and his evil(ler) twin brother, the...
View ArticleWorld’s Best Cinecomic
The return of Arrow and The Flash from their midseason break continues the love-fest each program has enjoyed with fans. The CW’s dynamic duo (sorry) has sparked hopes of a DC cinematic universe by...
View ArticleHoly Unstable Hierarchy, Batgirl!
In his study of the Batman TV show from last year, Matt Yockey argues that season three’s introduction of Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) carefully maintains patriarchal norms. Batgirl is always subordinate...
View ArticleBatman Never Goes Bad
Various people had informed me that the Batmobile drove off a cliff in the third season of the Adam West TV series. Budgets plummeted, single episodes rather than two-parters became the norm,...
View ArticleThe Hole Picture: Art, Religion, and Identity
“…all beings have a twofold face, a face of light and a black face. The luminous face, the face of day, is the only one that the common run of men perceive. Their black face, the one the mystic...
View ArticleShould a Superhero Have a License to Kill?
James Bond might not be a superhero, but he does dedicate his life to battling bad guys. Plus he has a codename: 007. Yeah, that means he’s just one guy in a league of 00s, so nothing unique—same as...
View ArticleWonder Woman in Batman vs. Superman
There’s a new (new!) Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer. Watch it now! Online reaction seems pretty skeptical, centering on Jesse Eisenberg’s jittery camp. People don’t want jittery camp...
View ArticleFrank Miller Triumphant
Frank Miller (c. 2016) is the Donald Trump of comics. Not merely because he’s demonstrated some ebullient racism, not because he really hates Muslims, not because of his warped ideas about women, but...
View ArticleSuperhero Parents: The Hidden Difference
This is part of a series of essays written for Chris Gavaler’s comics class. What happened to Peter Parker’s real parents? Most people cannot answer that question, and many have never even considered...
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