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Masculinity Enactment in Early Marvel Comics
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November 2, 2026
This book analyzes historical hegemonic masculinity constructions, found within superhero comics, based on understanding masculinity as “several stories at once" (Kimmel, 1994:125) and gender as a practice of “improvisation within a scene of constraint" (Butler, 2004:1). Connecting superhero masculinity enactment to the historical, social and cultural constructed-ness of US-American masculinities during the 1960s this volume approaches superheroic masculinity via intersectionality: highlighting how gender, class, ‘race’ constructions and the male body as cultural fantasy determine how male characters can claim hegemonic masculinity. Closing existing gaps within academic research on male gender constructions in superhero comics, the focus is on the first appearances of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther and Falcon, whose comics debut occurs between 1963 and 1969. The sixties have only ever been sporadically addressed in superhero studies. Earliest appearances of Marvel’s first black superheroes, Black Panther and Falcon are hardly ever discussed in detail. When deconstructing gender in superhero comics masculinity constructs are often allocated a backseat compared to femininity constructs. This book rectifies such imbalances.
Ranthild Salzer, Vienna University, Austria