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Discrimination against superheroes is a common theme and plot element in American comic books and superhero fiction, usually as a way to explore the issue of superheroes operating in society or as commentary on other social concerns. The backlash against superheroes and metahumans in the fictional world has been compared to the real-life moral campaign against comic book superheroes in the mid-1950s.[1]
A common plot point in stories about discrimination against superheroes are Registration Acts, fictional legislative bills which, when passed into law, enforce the regulation of extra-legal vigilante activity vs. criminal activity, or the mandatory registration of superpowered individuals with the government.[citation needed]
The first mention of the broad concept was in Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981).[citation needed]
In the alternate universe of the Watchmen, first published in 1986, there is a backlash against superheroes in 1977, which causes most of them to go into retirement.[2]
In an essay Ethan Faust argued that the depiction of superheroes in the 2004 film The Incredibles is used to examine societal attitudes towards those with disabilities, first by showing them through the prism of ableism in providing unwanted help to people they view as unable to help themselves and later as those forced to hide their differences that are now an object of discrimination.[3]
References
edit- ^ Brokenshire, Mark (May 2013). "Justice League of America: The Nail". Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes & Superheroes. pp. 385–388 – via EBSCOHost.
- ^ Beaty, Bart H.; Weiner, Stephen (2012). Critical survey of graphic novels: Heroes & superheroes. Vol. 2. Ipswich, Massachusetts: Salem Press. pp. 622–626. ISBN 9781587658655.
- ^ Deys, Kellie; Parrillo, Denise F. (2021). Social Order and Authority in Disney and Pixar Films. p. 144.