The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. A series of colourful comic panels make up the background. The first row of 3 panels show a man in a wheelchair trying to get in and out of a car from various angles. The first panel is blue and shows his back, the second panel is red and shows his side profile, and the third panel is yellow and looks to be from a slight distance away. The centre row of panels shows a bald man in a yellow panel, with speech bubbles. The speech reads “Yes of the paralyzed cripple terrible hated and sinister [?]E–/ So we meet at least, Eh? It was inevitable that we should clash!” To the right of the panel, on the same row, a black box with white text. The text reads the title “Uncanny Bodies” in large caps. The subtitle “Superhero Comics and Disability” in smaller caps below this. The names of the editors immediately below this in even smaller white caps. The bottom row consists of three panels. The first panel is red and appears to show a man in a suit chasing a motorised wheelchair. The second panel is blue and shows a faceless humanoid figure in a t-shirt using sign language. The third panel is yellow and appears to show two feminine presenting figures in cocktail dresses. One of them is using a forearm crutch. /end]

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Content Warning:

TBD

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Summary:

Superhero comics reckon with issues of corporeal control. And while they commonly deal in characters of exceptional or superhuman ability, they have also shown an increasing attention and sensitivity to diverse forms of disability, both physical and cognitive. The essays in this collection reveal how the superhero genre, in fusing fantasy with realism, provides a visual forum for engaging with issues of disability and intersectional identity (race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality) and helps to imagine different ways of being in the world. Working from the premise that the theoretical mode of the uncanny, with its interest in what is simultaneously known and unknown, ordinary and extraordinary, opens new ways to think about categories and markers of identity, Uncanny Bodies explores how continuums of ability in superhero comics can reflect, resist, or reevaluate broader cultural conceptions about disability. The chapters focus on lesser-known characters―such as Echo, Omega the Unknown, and the Silver Scorpion―as well as the famous Barbara Gordon and the protagonist of the acclaimed series Hawkeye , whose superheroic uncanniness provides a counterpoint to constructs of normalcy. Several essays explore how superhero comics can provide a vocabulary and discourse for conceptualizing disability more broadly. Thoughtful and challenging, this eye-opening examination of superhero comics breaks new ground in disability studies and scholarship in popular culture. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Sarah Bowden, Charlie Christie, Sarah Gibbons, Andrew Godfrey-Meers, Marit Hanson, Charles Hatfield, Naja Later, Lauren O’Connor, Daniel J. O’Rourke, Daniel Pinti, Lauranne Poharec, and Deleasa Randall-Griffiths.

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Notes:

This book is also a part of the Graphic Medicine series.

There is a kindle version.

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Archivist Comments:

I got so invested in disabled superheroes when I was in school. I would have been insufferable if I’d read this /j.

Apparently this is less of a look into the history of disability representation in comics, and more of a look at specific storylines and characters. I can’t find a list of every character/disability covered but some of the things they do discuss, according to reviews, are:

• Omega
• Autism spectrum
• Moon Knight
• Mental illness
• Echo
• Hearing loss
• Oracle
• Physical Mobility
• Operator
• Mobility
• Race
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Hawkeye
• Silver Scoprion
• El Deafo
• Cyborgs

I’ve marked all those disabilities down for now, and if I find any more I shall tag this post accordingly.

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