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UI Course Takes Superheroes Seriously

JD Hancock
/
Flickr
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a college course?

While Iowans will see superheroes and villains out trick-or-treating tonight, University of Iowa students will be seeing them in their textbooks this spring.

Zach King, a doctoral student at the University of Iowa and primary instructor of "Heroes and Villains: Super," says that comic books and their characters are gaining more legitimacy in the field of critical literature.

"Comic studies over the past 20 years has gained a certain place in the academy. But in terms of popular culture, we have something like 20 superhero movies coming up in the next six years and I think something that prevalent in the culture deserves to be studied."

In his class, students will examine everything from the very first comic book Superman appeared in to the latest Marvel movies to understand how superheroes and villains have evolved and what those archetypes tell us about identity in literature as a whole.

Class registration opens November 10th and King is confident the class will book up quickly.

rtr141031_superhero.mp3
Listen to host Ben Kieffer's interview with Zach King about his upcoming superhero-themed course.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River