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Comic book masculinity and the new black superhero
African American Review, Spring, 1999 by Jeffrey A. Brown
Unlike the communal response documented in Slim's Table, the Milestone books do not reject the properties of the "cool pose" and the dominant binary logic of our culture's key masculine/feminine gender distinction. Rather, their reworking allows pervasive and popular conceptions of gender and race to be expanded by incorporating previously disassociated concepts of softness with hardness, of mind with body. Instead of merely championing the Clark Kent side of masculine duality as a legitimate role in and of itself, the Milestone books work to infuse gentler, more responsible, and more cerebral qualities within the codes of dominant masculinity. As the Milestone principals are well aware, images of cool black characters ("cool" as measured against existing definitions of what it means to be both black and a man in Western culture) and pre-adolescent fantasies of superhuman abilities are undeniably ingrained in anyone who might pick up a comic book, and are powerful forms through which individuals must learn to negotiate their own lives. Rather than trying to ignore or eradicate the influential reality of existing norms of gender- and race-informed patterns of behavior, the Milestone books seem to work most effectively for many of their readers by providing alternatives from within the dominant modes of discourse, by maintaining many of the fundamental conventions of comic book heroism at the same time that they expand the traditional definitions of the medium. "They're still great superhero stories," a young boy explained while his older brother waited for him at the cash register, "but they're different, ya know, and not just because of the color of their skin."
Note
1. Despite Milestone's award-winning stories and art, and their wide-spread distribution arrangement, the company's line of comic books continues to struggle for a sufficiently large audience of readers within the highly competitive comics market. As of this writing, Milestone's future is unclear. Disappointing sales and a weakened financial base may prove more fatal to Milestone than any supervillain.
Works Cited
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-----. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Los Angeles: U of California P, 1993.
Bukatman, Scott. "X-Bodies (The Torment of the Mutant Superhero)." Uncontrollable Bodies: Testimonies of Identity and Culture. Ed. Rodney Sappington and Tyler Stallings. Seattle: Bay P, 1994. 93-129.
Duneier, Mitchell. Slim's Table: Race, Respectability, and Masculinity. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992.
Easthope, Antony. What a Man's Gotta Do: The Masculine Myth in Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Paladin, 1970.
Goar, Carol. "Issues of Race Will Confront Americans at Every Turn." Toronto Star 7 Oct. 1995: A1 +. hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Toronto: Between the Lines P, 1992.
-----. "Feminism Inside: Toward a Black Body Politic." Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art. Ed. Thelma Golden. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994. 41-56.
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