WonderCon Anaheim 2015

An aristocrat dresses in a weird batlike costume and fights evil. Batman? Nope; it's Spring-Heeled Jack from the 19th century. A genius uses weaponized armor to battle bad guys. Iron Man? Nope; it's the Flaming Avenger from 1933. Who were the superheroes before Superman? Peter Coogan (Washington University, St. Louis), Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight), Molly Mahan (Dynamite Entertainment), and Chris Gavaler (Washington and Lee University) travel back before the big bang of Action Comics #1 in 1938 to examine the pulp vigilantes, mystery men, gentleman thieves, and sci-fi Ubermenschen who laid the groundwork for the superhero genre, as well as the role of eugenics in the emergence of the superhero and how these proto-superheroes are being revived today.

Spider-Man has been one of the most widely known superheroes in popular culture for over 50 years. What is it about this character-based on an arachnid that most people hate or are afraid of-that has made Spider-Man resonate with the populace? Robert G. Weiner (Texas Tech University), Robert Moses Peaslee (Texas Tech University), Christina Angel (Metropolitan State University of Denver), and Hannah Means-Shannon (Bleeding Cool.com) address this issue and discuss the process of putting together the collection Web-Spinning Heroics: Critical Essays on the History and Meaning of Spider-Man (McFarland Books) and their individual contributions-"the hermeneutics of Spider-Man," Peter Parker's role in Elizabethan England from Neil Gaiman's 1602, why Mary Jane is really the only girl for Spider-Man, and how Freudian analysis can help us understand the inner workings of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films.

How do comics use the future to examine the present? Christine (Capes and Whips) explores how Sarah Stone's art in the Transformers comics Starscream and More than Meets the Eye is particularly female and queer-friendly through character design and facial expressions. Michele Brittany (Spyfi & Superspies) analyzes how Garth Ennis effectively employs space opera and horror genre tropes, with particular attention to gender identity, body transformation, and societal values. Ajani Brown (San Diego State University) uses the lens of AfroFuturism to explore what it means to be identified as "alien" or "other" in figures such as ICON, Concrete, Deathlok, Papa Midnite, and the Black Panther.