Review: Superheroes and Philosophy (Open Court)

Superheroes and Philosophy
Edited by Tom Morris and Matt Morris
2005
Non-fiction Book
Open Court

Part of the "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series of books (other titles include Buffy, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Lord of the Rings, and so on), this book should be either informative on super hero / comic book culture or even academically charged to provide new intellectual insight into these characters and universes. Sadly the book does neither.

Instead this anthology of essays provides poorly written (for the most part), terribly thought out (on all counts), contrived and useless essays by supposedly well educated people. I reviewed and revised that sentence numerous times and truly could not come up with a less offensive way to say it. This book should have been sharp, interesting, fun, and educational. Enough about what it should have been, let's review what it is.

The book is an attempt to relate super heroes and their worlds to philosophical theories in a very sociological manner. The book is broken into four parts: The Image of the Superhero, The Existential World of the Superhero, Superheroes and Moral Duty, and Identity and Superhero Metaphysics. Each section has between 3 and 6 essays on different characters across the major publishers (and only the major two, Marvel and DC) and how they relate to some larger philosophical issue. The authors are primarily PhD recipients or candidates in academia, though there are a handful of comic book writers and such included as well (and these tend to be the best).

The first section, the Image of the Superhero, reviews Superman and his very human social qualities, the idea of a superhero, memes and the Crimson Viper, and superhero revisionism. From the start, three of these four essays sounded like "woah" and they could really do a lot. Sadly the texts didn't cite much, if anything, fell flat on their faces in terms of readability, and really provided the comic book enthusiast with absolutely nothing to work with. Being a comic book enthusiast and having a sociology degree myself, I learned nothing and felt that no one would have, regardless of their background - these essays simply missed the point of the exercise.

The second part, The Existential World of the Superhero, explore religion and Daredevil, Power, Myths and X-Women, Oracle and morals, Batman and social networks, the Fantastic Four and family, and wisdom. This section proved yet again to have such potential, and no execution. With my own personal bias lying with Oracle / Barbara Gordon and the X-Women, I was very excited for these essays. Yet again I find that nothing is offered here - and even worse they are boring and not even worth getting through. The X-Women essay centers only on the characters from the first two films, a true injustice to such intriguing characters as Storm, Phoenix, and Mystique (though there are far better choices here as well). The Oracle article proves to be one of the better, as it actually explores some dialogue and storylines from the breadth available on the character - yet again contributes nothing to her world or the analysis of it.

The third section, Superheroes and Moral Duty, analyzes (or hopes to) the idea of goodness, the choice to do good, responsibility, morals, and theology. Here the essays take on a more abstract and theoretical series of subjects which proves to be an up-turn in the essay content, but again is freed from any serious insight or analysis.

The final section, Identity and Superhero Metaphysics, features the final three chapters on identity and the Hulk, time travel during DC Crisis, and masks and secret identities. Yet again, the most useful part of these essays is the short length, allowing for a quick (and sadly worthless) read.

Overall the book is an intriguing endeavor, one that warrants credit for simply coming to fruition. As a comic fan and social analyst, I find it shocking that such useless and poorly produced essays were chosen. It almost seems the project may have been rushed in the end and prevented the real meat from being included. The essays occasionally make you go "Hmmm" with intrigue, but sadly I find that Archie comics make me go "Hmmm" the same amount of times as these essays. This does provide some quick and "interesting for the sake of the topics" reading for a comic book fan. Sadly no one but a comic book fan could even read it, as it provides little citation and reference to actual storylines. Definitely a project worth revisiting, definitely not a book worth reading.

Overall Grades:
Overall Writing = C- (Essays ranged from B to D-)
Overall Rating = D+