Fandom: DC

  • Evolution of Queerbaiting

    Evolution of Queerbaiting

    Welcome back to our post-millennial analysis of the current state of fandom. Today we’ll discuss queerbating. While we’ve come a long way since the time where “gay” was a dirty word, even today, pop culture carries unfortunate baggage regarding homosexuality, especially when it comes to women.

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  • Bats, Bullet Casings and Questions

    Bats, Bullet Casings and Questions

    Welcome back to our post-millennial analysis of the current state of fandom. Today we’ll be exploring Batwoman, an enduring lesbian icon for good reason. This article will explore her impact on both queer media and the larger sphere of pop culture.

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  • Signature Showcase: Neil Gaiman
  • The Sandman, Part 2

    The Sandman, Part 2

    In this instance, we’ll explore how Gaiman revitalizes the roles of women and trans/queer characters (a segment of the comic book population which has been trampled by sexist expectations in the comic book medium previously). We will also explore how he resuscitates the roles of family identity (an age-old and worn-out theme in the hands…

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  • The Sandman, Part 1

    The Sandman, Part 1

    We owe one of the greatest sea changes in comic book history to the “British Invasion” of the 1980s and ’90s, from the likes of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Watchmen and The Sandman ushered in a new era of comics as a legitimate storytelling medium, not just a shallow arena for tights-clad muscle men…

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  • Superheroes in Flux–Watchmen Part 2

    Superheroes in Flux–Watchmen Part 2

    Authorship in comics is a tricky business. Superheroes and the trajectory of their identities, more often than not, take on lives of their own. The legendary ones are written by slews of authors and drawn by dozens of different artists. At peak popularity, they go on to live in video games, movies, TV shows, and…

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  • Superheroes in Flux–Watchmen Part 1

    Superheroes in Flux–Watchmen Part 1

    Comics, as a genre, are deeply rooted in history and pop culture. In order to understand any part of modern comic books (or graphic novels) one must first understand the history behind them. The two works I will focus on in this essay are Alan Moore’s Watchmen, a story of remarkably normal superheroes, and, to…

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  • Warts and All

    Warts and All

    The comic book as a storytelling medium is a remarkable and unique creature. Comic book icons have a flexibility and a capacity for redirection. Characters with solid decades-long histories and worldwide popularity, paradoxically, do not achieve it through a rigid retelling of the same stories, but through their endless ability to adapt their meaning. Well-known…

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  • The Paragon & The “Psycho” Pathologist

    The Paragon & The “Psycho” Pathologist

    In this week’s installment of Chasing at Shadows, we’ll address the characters of Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn: their hidden similarities, their stark differences, and the importance of their influence on what it means to be a well-rounded, well-written female character in comics.

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  • The Dark and Haunted Prince

    The Dark and Haunted Prince

    I whole-heartedly believe that comics, movies, and television shows are imbued with all the power and meaning of the classic works we read in university classrooms—and as such, deserve to be written about critically, and linked to the pillars of literary theory. In this new series, a collection of academic close-studies of popular culture, I…

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