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Johnson, Ryan. "A Boy and His God: The Promise of Masculinity in Captain Marvel." The Phoenix Papers 4. 1 2018. Accessed 21Jul. 2021. <https://fansconference. ... 7-A-Boy-and-His-God.pdf>. Added by: joachim (7/21/21, 10:11 AM) Last edited by: joachim (7/21/21, 10:17 AM) |
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| Resource type: Web Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/XJCU7 BibTeX citation key: Johnson2018a Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Captain Marvel", Gender, Psychology, Superhero, USA Creators: Johnson Collection: The Phoenix Papers |
Views: 78/1073
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| Attachments | URLs https://fansconfer ... oy-and-His-God.pdf |
| Abstract |
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Film and popular culture critic Bob Chipman has argued that, during the Golden Age of comics, one of the primary draws for many readers was the relationship between the adult-male hero and his young sidekick. Many boys, left without present fathers during the 1930s and ‘40s, found ersatz masculine role-models in the superheroes of the day, particularly those who mentored a young sidekick, as with Batman and Robin. While Chipman’s theory accurately explains one strong appeal of comics characters such as Batman, Superman, or Captain America to young boys, it does not account for the interest in one of the most dominant figures of the Golden Age: Captain Marvel. The best-selling comics star for a number of years in the 1940s, Captain Marvel was a super-strong, flying champion of justice, who in reality was preteen Billy Batson. The relationship between boy and man was, therefore, markedly different for the Fawcett Comics publication. In this analysis, the author examines the precise nature of the relationship between Marvel and Billy through the lens of 1940s-1950s masculinity in comics and culture, examining how the Captain alters and adapts the traditional heroic role of the ersatz-father to provide an idealized version of self-reliant maturity.
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