In any case, Regalado has studied the source material, and the chapter, “From Strange
Visitors to Men of Tomorrow,” highlights numerous instances in the pages of Superman comics
in which the Kryptonian strongman wrestles with images of modernism (weapons manufacturers,
tenements, bogus oil stocks). Captain America and Wonder Woman too, are spotlighted, the
latter repeatedly neutralizing “violent situations in completely nonviolent ways.” But it’s the
scholar’s appraisal of comics fandom and the new misanthropy of today’s corporate comics that
really hits hard. When he concludes, “Run by relatively small companies and intimately tied to
fan communities, superheroes were arguably more connected to their consumers for much of
their publication histories,” readers will be left mulling an important issue: Are today’s
mainstream comics, steeped in progressive values yet more violent and cynical than ever, truly
more subversive than yesterday’s white-patriarchal products? The answer is rewardingly
complex thanks to Bending Steel, and two other indispensable UMP releases (The Ten Cent
War, The British Superhero).
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