Superman! Batman! Wonder Woman! The Flash! Green Lantern! Aquaman! The Martian Manhunter! The Justice League of America in its very own series! But will their first adventure be their last? Featuring the first appearance of the mind-controlling villain Despero!

The first superhero team from the Silver Age of comics, DC's Justice League has seen many iterations since its first appearance in 1960. As the original comic book continued and spin-off titles proliferated, talented writers, artists and editors adapted the team to appeal to changing audience tastes. This collection of new essays examines more than five decades of Justice League comics and related titles. Each essay considers a storyline or era of the franchise in its historical and social contexts.

A study of one of popular culture's superstars whose enchanting mystique pervades the modern world

Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics #1 (1938) proclaimed that the character would “reshape the destiny of the world.” The advent of the first superhero initiated a shared narrative—the DC superhero universe—that has been evolving in depth and complexity for more than 80 years. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have become key threads in the tapestry of the American mythos, shaping the way we think about life, right and wrong, and our relationship with our own universe. Their narrative world is enriched by compelling stories featuring lesser-known characters like Dr. Fate, the Doom Patrol, John Constantine, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Stories set within this shared universe have explored questions of death, rebirth, the apocalypse, the nature of evil, the origins of the universe, and the destiny of humankind. This volume brings together the work of scholars from a range of backgrounds who explore the role of theology and religion in the comics, films, and television series set in the DC Universe. The thoughtful and incisive contributions to this collection will appeal to scholars and fans alike.

This comprehensive collection of essays written by a practicing psychiatrist shows that superheroes are more about superegos than about bodies and brawn, even though they contain subversive sexual subtexts that paved the path for major social shifts of the late 20th century. Superheroes have provided entertainment for generations, but there is much more to these fictional characters than what first meets the eye. Superheros and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks begins its exploration in 1938 with the creation of Superman and continues to the present, with a nod to the forerunners of superhero stories in the Bible and Greek, Roman, Norse, and Hindu myth. The first book about superheroes written by a psychiatrist in over 50 years, it invokes biological psychiatry to discuss such concepts as "body dysmorphic disorder," as well as Jungian concepts of the shadow self that explain the appeal of the masked hero and the secret identity. Readers will discover that the earliest superheroes represent fantasies about stopping Hitler, while more sophisticated and socially-oriented publishers used superheroes to encourage American participation in World War II. The book also explores themes such as how the feminist movement and the dramatic shift in women's roles and rights were predicted by Wonder Woman and Sheena nearly 30 years before the dawn of the feminist era.

Follow your favorite caped crusaders (and foes) to learn about the current world order. Mariano Turzi explains the main theories of international relations through Batman, Two-Face, and the Justice League. The Hulk illuminates Russia's foreign policy and Aquaman sheds light on climate change. The X-Men experience the same dramas as refugees and Tony Stark personifies modern warfare. How is Spiderman like the UN and Wonder Woman's soft power comparable to the European Union? You will learn about globalization through Flash and about American hegemony with Superman and Captain America. Even Bane and his face mask appear, anticipating the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Taking superheroes and supervillains as myths or modern archetypes, the book invites you to a super-journey through the fascinating universe of structures, themes, protagonists, and problems of world affairs.