In The Cancer Plot, Reginald Wiebe and Dorothy Woodman examine the striking presence of cancer in Marvel comics. Engaging comics studies, medical humanities, and graphic medicine, they explore this disease in four case studies: Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Thor, and Deadpool. Cancer, the authors argue, troubles the binaries of good and evil because it is the ultimate nemesis within a genre replete with magic, mutants, and multiverses. They draw from gender theory, disability studies, and cultural theory to demonstrate how cancer in comics enables an examination of power and responsibility, key terms in Marvel’s superhero universe. As the only full-length study on cancer in the Marvel universe, The Cancer Plot is an appealing and original work that will be of interest to scholars across the humanities, particularly those working in the health humanities, cultural theory, and literature, as well as avid comics readers.
Authors
- Pages
- 376
- Published in
- Edmonton, CA
Table of Contents
- Front cover 1
- Title page 4
- Copyright page 5
- Dedication 6
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgments 10
- Introduction 12
- I Bodies, Cancer, and Death 36
- Editor’s Note 38
- 1 Death and Cancer 40
- 2 Living with Cancer 62
- II Cancer, Power, and Responsibility 82
- Editor’s Note / The Death of Captain Marvel 84
- 3 This Whole Business of Death 86
- Editor’s Note / Ultimate Spider-Man 116
- 4 Cure as Poison 118
- Editor’s Note / The Mighty Thor 150
- 5 Cancer as Fatal Opportunity 152
- Editor’s Note / The Despicable Deadpool 192
- 6 “Welcome to the Freak Show!” 194
- Conclusion 226
- Appendix 1 234
- 1.1 Marvel characters who have had cancer but did not die of it 234
- 1.2 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died of it 239
- 1.3 Marvel characters who have had cancer and died attempting to cure it ordestroy their enemies before succumbing to it 244
- 1.4 Marvel cancer deaths by decade 245
- Appendix 2 246
- 2.1 DC characters who have had cancer 246
- 2.2 DC characters with an unnamed terminal condition 249
- 2.3 DC cancer and terminal condition by decade 251
- Notes 252
- Works Cited 278
- Index 302
- About the Authors 331
