Michael Chabon on Superheroes

[A beaker full of death]

This was published early last year, but I just read it in the New Yorker. Chabon, like me, seems to be most familiar with comics as they were in the late 70s, the so-called Bronze Age.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fact_chabon?currentPage=all

Any thoughts or reactions?

 

[A beaker full of death]

Don't all shout out at once.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

What a lovely and interesting article. Chabon has a deep understanding of the appeal of superheroes at both the unconscious psychological and cultural levels. The passage in the middle about how the costumes simultaneously glorify and neuter the idealized human form is pure brilliance.

 

[Mistral]

He might have been talking about my childhood....I remember wearing shorts like that.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Michael Chabon is one of my favorite writers. His novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my favorite books. I've read this essay before and, as usual, it's insightful and entertaining.

He has other essays on comic books in his recent collection Maps and Legends.