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A complete guide to the history, form and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar of comic book genres. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals: The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st century evolutionsCultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, KKK vigilantism, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representationKey texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black PantherApproaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction.