On 2009-03-28 CB, wrote: First off, it must be clarified that despite its title, ´How to Read Superhero Comics and Why´ is not an examination of the mechanics of the superhero genre in comic books a la Scott McCloud´s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, which is one of the truly indispensable books on the subject of comic books. Instead, Klock´s work is a scholarly examination of postmodernism in superhero comics over the last 25+ years, and a speculation on the future of the superhero comic book. It is for more of a specialized audience and not, it seems, necessarily intended for the casual comic book enthusiast.
Klock´s basic argument is this: with the advent of Frank Miller´s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons´ Watchmen in the mid-1980s, the two most consequential revisionist superhero yarns (which themselves tried to place superheroes into a more realistic, modern context), the comic world faced a crisis of identity. As a result, other postmodern comic books, such as Marvel Comics´ Marvels (Marvel Premiere Classic), DC´s Kingdom Come, and Image´s Astro City (volume One of which is Life in the Big City (Astro City, Vol. 1)) sought to rehabilitate the image of the superhero and react against the dark and grim ruminations Miller and Moore had brought to the fore. Klock also looks at Alan Moore´s ABC line (Which includes ´The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,´ ´Tom Strong,´ and others) as well as ´The Authority,´ and posits that comics such as ´Planetary,´ with their metatextual readings of superhero comics, point the way to the future of comic books.
First, the Good: Klock´s book, though now a few years out of date, is valuable because it dwells on recent superhero comics, instead of comics 50-60 years old. We rarely see good, scholarly examinations of newer comics in the literature, and Klock´s insights are much appreciated. Additionally, Klock offers insightful readings of ´Dark Knight´ and ´Watchmen´ that, I think, rival those of Richard Reynolds in his important Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology (Studies in Popular Culture).
Now, the Bad: Little, actually. Klock´s writing is lucid and flows well, though the work is probably too dense for those without a scholarly interest in comics. Additionally, Klock´s assertions are often, it seems, highly debatable, though he supports them with good evidence - readers with a good background in comics of the last 25+ years may find themselves disagreeing with his take on the trajectory of comics and its reasons.
In the end, Klock´s work deserves to be read and considered by comic book scholars, and it is a valuable addition to the literature.. And summed up by saying A Debatable Entry in Comic Book Scholarship. Currently How to Read Superhero Comics and Why has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
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Continuum International Publishing Group claimed ´How to Read Superhero Comics and Why´ brings literary critic Harold Bloom’s thesis that the meaning of a poem is to be found in its relationship with an earlier poem to the study of the modern superhero comic book. Superhero comic books are traditionally thought to have at least two distinct periods, two major waves of creativity: the golden age and the silver age. Reductively stated, the golden age was the birth of the superhero proper out of the pulp novel characters of the early 1930s, and was primarily associated with DC Comics. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are the most famous creations of this period. In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics launched a completely new line of heroes, the primary figures of the silver age: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, and Daredevil. An analysis of superhero comic books beginning with Frank Miller’s ´Batman: The Dark Knight Returns´ and Alan Moore’s ´Watchmen´ drawing on the literary and psychoanalytic theory of Harold Bloom and Slavoj Žižek, ´How to Read Superhero Comics and Why´ argues for the recognition of a new age of superhero comic books. Klock builds through a discussion of ´Marvels´, ´Astro City´, ´Kingdom Come´, Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics and Grant Morrison’s ´Justice League of America´ to argue that ´Planetary´, ´The Authority´ and ´Wildcats´ usher in the future of the superhero narrative: a future that will be what Spiderman and the Fantastic Four were in the early 1960s, and what Superman and Batman were in the late 1930s.
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