Great Power and Great Responsibility: The Philosophical Politics of Comics

Great Power and Great Responsibility is a thought-provoking collection of essays that delves into the philosophies that underlie many of the great comic series. From the Watchmen to Bomb Queen, Douglas Mann considers a wide variety of comic storylines and characters, as well as the culture that both creates and enjoys them. A fascinating and unusual look at two pieces of society that do not generally appear on the same page.

CHAPTERS

PART ONE. PHILOSOPHY

1. An Introduction to Comic Books

2. To Compromise or Not to Compromise, that is the Question: Watchmen as Ethical and Political Dialogue

3. Secret Societies and Better Worlds in Planetary

PART TWO. POLITICS

4. Civil War and the Right to Revolt

5. A Primordial Rumble in the Comic Book Jungle: Sheena Rehabilitated

6. It's Fun to Blow Stuff Up! Bomb Queen as a Satire on American Foreign Policy

PART THREE. INTERTEXT

7. The Post-Ideological Hero: Comic Books go to Hollywood

8. The Phenomenology of Geekdom