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Rouge and the Myth of the Southern Belle

A portion of Chapter 5 of my PhD dissertation. Specifically focusing on the role of Rogue from the X-Men. Probably one of the first characters I actively tried to read everything about when I first started reading comics. Rouge and the Myth of the Southern Belle In looking at the correlation between sexuality and power, and how female power and sexuality are constrained in superhero comics, the X-Men provide some of the most compelling examples. Not only does the development of mutant powers occur at the same time as development of sexual maturity, but often those mutant powers are interwoven into how the characters develop and deal with sexual maturity and relationships. When the mutant Toad develops greenish skin and a long sticky tongue, it does change how he deals with members of the opposite sex. Similarly, Rouge, and her mutant power to absorb the powers and memories of anyone she touches changes the type of relationships she can have. It also plays strongly into myths of femal
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Madwoman in Genosha

This was the culmination of my work on Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff. The ultimate end to that cycle of ideas, papers, and chapter portions. Through all of the work on my PhD, I found a lot of love for characters in DC and Marvel that I hadn't had much interest in before. Spending so much time with Phoenix, Batwoman (the original), Scarlett Witch, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy endeared them and their stories to me in a way I don't have with other characters. As of the publishing of this post, I haven't seen any of the Disney+ Wanda and Vision show yet and this love for the character is part of it. I'm always worried they are going to find another way to do this character wrong. It's also why, in my opinion, no matter how often they try to do The Dark Phoenix Saga in film, it always turns out trash. They just don't understand the actual under pinnings of that story. Madwoman in Genosha: The Fear of Female Sexuality, Power, and Autonomy in The Dark Phoenix Saga, Ave
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A Queer Reading of Joker & Batman

      While working on my PhD, my advisors would often set writing exercises for me. It was a way to keep my writing skills warm during long spaces of reading and consuming information. Often these exercises were for me to take a particular theoretical tool or point of view and apply it to the materials I was working with. Often these were theoretical tools I wasn't that good with, or familiar with as a whole. Most of them didn't really go anywhere specific, but some I really liked and got a lot out of. This is one of those. It was taking queer theory and applying it to Batman and the Joker. It doesn't have a conclusion so things just kind of drop off midpoint, but I think it has strength in the points and evidence, though there are still issues with the adherence to gendered binaries.  A Queer Reading of Joker & Batman In his now infamous book, Seduction of the Innocent , Dr. Fredric Wertham warned against the negative influence that the comics medium could have on y
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No More Capes

 One of my favorite things when I started teaching at SUU was 24 Hour Theater. SUU's Stage 2 would basically set up a 24 hour period, Friday to Saturday, put together random groups of actors, a director, and assign them a writer. The writers would spend all night writing a short play, sometimes with a prompt, always with a random number of actors, then give it to their group the next morning so they can rehears it and then put it on that next evening. I absolutely loved this. Not everything I churned out was great, but I always had fun. This was probably my favorite of those. I only had two actors so that simplified things a bit. And, as someone who loves superheroes, I'm always going to give the deconstruction of those tropes a try. Fun note, Impressiveman is a recurring character in a lot of my writing. I came up with the guy, and have been running with him for a while.   No More Capes Characters: Doctor Diabolic: A supervillain of the super genius type. His intellect is his
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