WonderCon 2016

What is a superhero without a supervillain? And what is more supervillain than a Nazi? For decades, Nazis have filled the role of the symbolic counterpoint to comic books' greatest heroes. They're the gift that keeps on giving because they stand for evil in iconic and mythic ways. Because the world of comics allows for exaggeration, they can be used in all sorts of interesting ways, such as putting Hitler's brain in an ape's body. Peter Coogan (Washington University at St. Louis) leads a discussion on the relationship between Nazis and superheroes, and why Nazis were the perfect supervillains for Golden Age superheroes.

Marvel Comics' Civil War and the film Captain America: Civil War explore superheroes' place in a post-9/11 world where some argue that civil rights conflict with public safety. Captain America leads superheroes fighting for liberty, while Iron Man leads others concerned about national and international security-but why? Travis Langley (Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology), Jenna Busch (Legion of Leia), Alan Kistler (The Unofficial Spider-Man Trivia Challenge), Patrick O'Connor (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology), Kathleen McClancy (Texas State University), Lara Taylor Kester (Geek Therapy), Janey Tracey (Outer Places), and Billy San Juan (The Walking Dead Psychology: Psych of the Living Dead) discuss how character motivations on both sides of the Civil War arise from positive human qualities. Are any of them truly in the right?

As characters such as Wolverine, the Flash, and Spider-Man become common utterances within the average household, what kind of examples are they? Dr. Patrick O'Connor (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology), Dr. Edgar Ramos (Concordia University Chicago), Dr. Sean B. Knuth, Joseph Serrano (Adler University), and Elizabeth Smith (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology) explore and describe the interpretation of influence of comic books on moral development during adolescence. Panelists will offer insight into the impact of comic books on moral development, which also promotes greater advocacy for benefits of comic books within the field of psychology. This panel will also address the importance of role models in one's life, and how these characters can help shape a person.

Edgar C. Samar (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) looks into the implications of monstrous appearances of female antagonists in Philippine comics artist Mars Ravelo's Darna and Dyesebel to locate the contributions of these imagined monstrosities to the imagination of what it means to be truly human. Tiffany Babb examines how Loki, in combining the characteristics of the trickster and the stereotypes of the comic book villain, addresses the repetitive and circular trap of the superhero genre narrative, which must both always change and never change. Deanna Rodriguez (Texas State University) investigates how comics provide a platform for Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie to explore fandom, celebrity culture, and the myth of the devil with the character of Lucifer in The Wicked + The Divine.

WonderCon and Comics Arts Conference special guest Jeremy Love (Bayou) is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and animator. His critically acclaimed, Eisner-nominated, serialized graphic novel Bayou has been used as curriculum at various high schools and colleges including the University of South Carolina and Dartmouth College. It was also selected by the American Library Association as a Great Graphic Novel for teens. Other projects include Blackest Nightmare for DC Comics, Fierce and Shadow Rock for Dark Horse Comics as a writer and GI Joe, Fraggle Rock for Archaia, and Midnight Mover for Oni as an artist. Love is currently hard at work completing Bayou as well as a new miniseries from Dark Horse, The Black Lotus. Peter Coogan (Washington University at St. Louis) moderates.

Emily Rauber Rodriguez (University of Southern California) examines the methods Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro have used in Bitch Planet to critique and revise the message of exploitation films for a more diverse audience and the essentiality of the comics medium to that critique. Ayanni C. Hanna uses feminist science fiction critique, coupled with close readings and a creator interview, to examine the ways Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa in Sky Doll question and deconstruct the common perceptions of both "woman" and "human" while also forcing readers to examine not only their understanding of normalcy, but the binaries they've come to rely upon. Using David Coon's critique of suburbia, Michele Brittany (Fanboy Comics) examines the suburban American Dream in Dark Horse's Lady Killer through the familial unit, representations of gender, and the concept of tradition.

A psychologist created the world's most famous superheroine. A psychiatrist attacked that psychologist and the character as part of his war on the comic book industry. One helped bring the Golden Age of Comics to life, one helped end it. Their repercussions have lasted to this day. After them, comics psychology largely died until the 21st century, when a growing number of psych pros resurrected it in books, blogs, podcasts, videos, and more. Join psychologists Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology; Captain America vs. Iron Man), Elizabeth Ann (Star Wars Psychology), Patrick O'Connor (Comicspedia), and Janina Scarlet (Superhero Therapy), along with Alan Kistler (Agents of Style) and Matt Munson (The Project Workbench) for a look at the comic book psychos.

Erika Rothberg (Loyola Marymount University) demonstrates the ways in which Watchmen can be used to teach introductory Foucauldian power theory to undergraduate students and keep them engaged with (instead of afraid of) critical theory. Derek Heid (Temecula Valley High School) shows how to use Dan Walsh's Garfield Minus Garfield to introduce the notion of "formalism" and literary theory in high school English classes and to demonstrate how adherence to rules and the perversion of those rules works within genre. Matthew Hoffman (Florida State University), and Sara Kolmes (Florida State University) examine the heteronormative and amatonormative shift in the transformation of Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship from platonic to romantic.

Emily Decker (American Academy of Art) unmasks the myth of the superwoman by compiling material from canonical feminist art history to connect the feminist movement in comics today with the feminist movement of the 1960s and the 1970s. Ajani Brown (San Diego State University) examines the legacy of Jackie Ormes, the first African American woman cartoonist, in her socially and politically aware strips Patty Jo 'n' Ginger and Torchy Brown, as well as the impact of Ormes' work on other cartoonist such as Barbara Brandon-Croft (Where I'm Coming From) and Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks). Andrew Fogel (Purdue University) argues that superheroes' fantasy geographies developed as an imagined Jewish homeland, a response to Jewish existence outside statehood-defined modernity.