BFM :: When We Last Left Our Heroes

The comic book, the strip, the superhero lark, they have traditionally been seen as a “low” cultural form - filled with coarse language, silly jokes, and subversive sentiments not worthy of critical attention. They have been overlooked by serious scholars and academics because they’re circulated in newspapers and sold at corner shops rather than hung in museums and galleries. Lately, however, the comic book is slowly beginning to gain the attention of serious academics...

The comic book, the strip, the superhero lark, they have traditionally been seen as a “low” cultural form - filled with coarse language, silly jokes, and subversive sentiments not worthy of critical attention. They have been overlooked by serious scholars and academics because they’re circulated in newspapers and sold at corner shops rather than hung in museums and galleries. Lately, however, the comic book is slowly beginning to gain the attention of serious academics...

The comic book is very much a part of "popular" culture. You are inundated with superhero news on a daily basis. You read in TIME Magazine that Captain America is secretly a Hydra double agent. You see in The Hollywood Reporter that Jeff Goldblum has been cast in the next Thor movie. You notice a serious article in a serious newspaper about why Civil War did better in cinemas than Batman v. Superman. But what you’re getting is something relatively sanitised. Something palatable...

The comic book is very much a part of "popular" culture. You are inundated with superhero news on a daily basis. You read in TIME Magazine that Captain America is secretly a Hydra double agent. You see in The Hollywood Reporter that Jeff Goldblum has been cast in the next Thor movie. You notice a serious article in a serious newspaper about why Civil War did better in cinemas than Batman v. Superman. But what you’re getting is something relatively sanitised. Something palatable...

Captain America: Civil War - which opens in cinemas this week - will mark the 13th chapter in the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. These movies have been the standard bearers for superhero cinema - the kind of films that satiate the fanboys and fangirls while at the same time still possessing the kind of mass appeal that make them box office successes. It’s a winning formula and Marvel are currently the ones to beat...

Captain America: Civil War - which opens in cinemas this week - will mark the 13th chapter in the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. These movies have been the standard bearers for superhero cinema - the kind of films that satiate the fanboys and fangirls while at the same time still possessing the kind of mass appeal that make them box office successes. It’s a winning formula and Marvel are currently the ones to beat...

We know Batman. We’ve seen him in the pages of comic books, on TV, and at the movies for over 75 years. The character is such an indispensable part of global popular culture, the lingo surrounding his world is so pervasive, that everyone - comic book fan or not - knows most everything about him. Ever since his inception, there has been one credit associated with everything Batman...

We know Batman. We’ve seen him in the pages of comic books, on TV, and at the movies for over 75 years. The character is such an indispensable part of global popular culture, the lingo surrounding his world is so pervasive, that everyone - comic book fan or not - knows most everything about him. Ever since his inception, there has been one credit associated with everything Batman...

Reading the superhero comic requires setting aside - among many other things - notions of legal niceties...

Reading the superhero comic requires setting aside - among many other things - notions of legal niceties...