Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Why Comic Books
1. Race in Black and White
2. Captain America Rules!
3. The Fantastic Four, Incorporated
4. Coded Complications
5. The Guardians of Goofiness
6. Islamophobia
7. Wayne’s World
Coda: Are Comic Books Dying?
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Jeffrey Kahan is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in California.

Reviews

“This comprehensive, exhaustive volume offers a bounty of riches for those in the subfield of superhero studies. Kahan, who with the late Stan Stewart constructed the first and second editions of Caped Crusaders 101 (2006, 2010), has built on that previous research and analysis while addressing issues and concerns overlooked or marginalized in the earlier works.... this text is an important contribution to superhero pedagogy...highly recommended”—Choice

“Why We Need Superheroes is a welcome contribution to contemporary popular culture studies. Elegant, comprehensive and infinitely readable, this is a book for teachers, scholars and anyone who’s ever been curious about the world of superheroes.”—Miranda Corcoran, University College Cork, Ireland