"If She Be Worthy": The Illusion of Change in American Superhero Comics

Abstract

In 2014, Marvel Comics "recast" two major characters: a woman took up the mantle of Thor, and a black man became Captain America. This paper argues that while at first glance these changes seem progressive, they are in fact highly engineered opportunities to insert diversity—all in the service of a temporary, pseudo-diversity. History proves that these changes give way to an inevitable reversion to masculine and hegemonic norms. This paper demonstrates that when these kinds of conspicuous changes occur, the gay, feminine, or racially diverse iteration is frequently ephemeral, and subsequently subjugated.

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