Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

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Random House Publishing Group, Jun 26, 2012 - Social Science - 480 pages

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. They are on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and in our dreams. But what are they trying to tell us? For Grant Morrison, one of the most acclaimed writers in the world of comics, these heroes are powerful archetypes who reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, archetypes, and their own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of our great modern myth: the superhero.
 
Now with a new Afterword

 

Contents

THE GOLDEN AGE 137 27
1
LIGHTNINGS CHILD
27
THE SUPERWARRIOR AND
37
THE EXPLOSION AND THE EXTINCTION
47
THE SILVER AGE
59
CHEMICALS AND LIGHTNING
81
THE FAB FOUR AND THE BIRTH
89
SUPERPOP
103
THE RENAISSANCE
265
MAN OF MUSCLE MYSTERY
267
WHATS SO FUNNY ABOUT TRUTH JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY?
289
RESPECTING AUTHORITY
307
HOLLYWOOD SNIFFS BLOOD
321
NU MARVEL 911
345
THE DAY EVIL WON
361
IRON MEN AND INCREDIBLES
375

INFINITE EARTHS
111
SHAMANS OF MADISON AVENUE
121
THE DARK AGE
143
BRIGHTEST DAY BLACKEST NIGHT
145
FEARED AND MISUNDERSTOOD
175
FEARFUL SYMMETRY
189
ZENITH
207
THE HATEFUL DEAD
229
IMAGE VERSUS SUBSTANCE
241
KING MOBMY LIFE AS A SUPERHERO
253
OVER THE EVENT HORIZON
383
STAR LEGEND SUPERHERO SUPERGOD?
395
NUFF SAID
413
AFTERWORD TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
419
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
427
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING
431
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
435
INDEX
437
Copyright

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About the author (2012)

Grant Morrison is best known for their innovative work on comics from the graphic novel Batman: Arkham Asylum to acclaimed runs on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the X-Men, as well as their subversive creator-owned titles such as The Invisibles, Seaguy, The Filth and WE3. In television, they have developed adaptations of their comic series Happy! for Syfy and Netflix and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World for Peacock. In addition, Grant is an award-winning playwright, a musician, occult practitioner and stray cat magnet. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods. Morrison was awarded an MBE for services to film and literature. 

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