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Vij, Aanchal. "“American God” to a Soviet Superman: Exploring the Cathartic Function of Counterfactual Narratives." Comics and Catharsis. Exploring Graphic Narratives of Trauma and Healing. Ed. Jordan Tronsgard. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2025. 121–41. Added by: joachim (17/10/2025, 17:23) |
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| Resource type: Book Chapter Language: en: English DOI: 10.2307/jj.25465088 BibTeX citation key: Vij2025 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Red Son", "Superman", "Watchmen", Freud. Sigmund, Gibbons. Dave, Millar. Mark, Moore. Alan, Superhero, United Kingdom, USA Creators: Tronsgard, Vij Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi (Jackson) Collection: Comics and Catharsis. Exploring Graphic Narratives of Trauma and Healing |
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This chapter puts counterfactual fiction in dialogue with American exceptionalism to demonstrate the cathartic function of reparative narratives. I use two comics (one by an English and another by a Scottish author respectively )—Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1986) and Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son (2014)—to assert that the manifestation of a nostalgic reparation of historical events performs a cathartic function for both an individual and the collective. Both visual narratives underscore the politics, and a spectacle, of such catharsis by demonstrating the desire to repair histories in the face of the Cold War. Following a brief introduction to counterfactual fiction, I examine the suitability of counterfactual graphic narratives to host American exceptionalism within their alternate reality. At the same time, these texts challenge the cathartic release that is achieved through the reparative plot structure and demonstrate the futility of the pursuit of exceptionalism; the counterfactuals, then, underscore the stage of Freudian repetition in which both texts find themselves stuck. Through a close reading of both texts, I raise larger questions about the comics form and its suitability for such catharsis, the inextricability of counterfactual fiction and catharsis, and the complexity of the Freudian repetition and “working through” in the reparative narrative form.
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