The Cancer Plot

Terminal Immortality in Marvel's Moral Universe
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-77212-711-9
Verlag: University of Alberta Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 536 g

In The Cancer Plot, Reginald Wiebe and Dorothy Woodman examine the striking presence of cancer in Marvel comics. Engaging comics studies, medical humanities, and graphic medicine, they explore this disease in four case studies: Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Thor, and Deadpool. Cancer, the authors argue, troubles the binaries of good and evil because it is the ultimate nemesis within a genre replete with magic, mutants, and multiverses. They draw from gender theory, disability studies, and cultural theory to demonstrate how cancer in comics enables an examination of power and responsibility, key terms in Marvel’s superhero universe. As the only full-length study on cancer in the Marvel universe, The Cancer Plot is an appealing and original work that will be of interest to scholars across the humanities, particularly those working in the health humanities, cultural theory, and literature, as well as avid comics readers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Woodman, Dorothy

Wiebe, Reginald

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: 20./21. Jahrhundert Pop Art, Minimalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Gesundheitssoziologie, Medizinsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Invalidität, Krankheit und Abhängigkeit: Soziale Aspekte
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Comics & Cartoons (Design)
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction: But I Don’t Want to Cure Cancer
I Bodies, Cancer, and Death
Editor’s Note
1 Death and Cancer: Immortality and the Problem of Limits
2 Living with Cancer: Medical Narratives and Superheroes
II Cancer, Power, and Responsibility: Exploring Four Superhero Stories
Editor’s Note / The Death of Captain Marvel
3 This Whole Business of Death: Cancer and Captain Marvel
Editor’s Note / Ultimate Spider-Man
4 Cure as Poison: Cancer and Spider-Man’s Moral Battle
Editor’s Note / The Mighty Thor
5 Cancer as Fatal Opportunity: Thor and the Question of Worthiness
Editor’s Note / The Despicable Deadpool
6 “Welcome to the Freak Show!”: Deadpool and Perpetual Remission
Conclusion: The End That Is Not the End
Appendix 1
Marvel Characters
1.1 Marvel characters who have had cancer but did not die of it
1.2 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died of it
1.3 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died attempting to cure it or destroy their enemies before succumbing to it
1.4 Marvel cancer deaths by decade
Appendix 2
DC Characters
2.1 DC characters who have had cancer
2.2 DC characters with an unnamed terminal condition
2.3 DC cancer and terminal condition by decade
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Woodman, Dorothy
Dorothy Woodman is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and gratefully lives on Treaty 6 territory.

Wiebe, Reginald
Reginald Wiebe is Associate Professor of English at Concordia University of Edmonton and gratefully lives on Treaty 6 territory.