As a sign of how hectic life has been of late, I have managed to forget to use every possible outlet I have at my disposal to spread the word: as of January of this year, I have a new book out.
The book in question is Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics, which I co-edited with my partner in scholarly crime Sean Guynes.
The book marks an attempt to make critical inquiry of whiteness and its effects integral to the continued study of superheroes. That is not to say that there hasn’t been any such scholarship before – there has – and we’re definitely not claiming to be saying the final word on the subject; we most definitely aren’t. We only hope to help bring a critical mass to bear on superhero studies so that this important topic becomes impossible to avoid.
Whether or not we’ve succeeded is up to you, and only time will tell. I for one think we have helped bring some truly amazing contributions to the topic to the table, but we’re in for a struggle if we’re ever to abolish whiteness.
Martin Lund 