by Matt Peters How does Spider-Man keep his legs and core flexible? How does the Human Torch warm up his arms and shoulders before he puts his strength and endurance to the test? Matters like those don’t lend themselves to flashy comic book covers, but they fill the pages of one of Marvel’s more unusual projects from the 1970s, Stan Lee Presents: The Mighty Marvel Strength and Fitness Book. Writer-editor Stan Lee had a knack for finding new ways to connect to readers. In the 1960s, he helped build the Marvel brand by bringing a new take to the superhero… Read More
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
Guest Review by Edward Dorey Writers working in the field of graphic medicine often look at how comics portray sick people. For example, in the book Graphic Medicine Manifesto (Penn State University Press, 2015), MK Czerwiec, Ian Williams, Susan Merrill Squier, Michael J. Green, Kimberly Myers, and Scott T. Smith review many portrayals of illnesses, such as schizophrenia, congenital arthritis, cancer, and lupus, in different graphic novels. Through these analyses, Ian Williams’s goal of having those working in the field examine “the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare” has partially been fulfilled (qtd. in… Read More