Page 156 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

140 Visual Culture

instrumental in shaping how we come to defi ne those ideas. Heroes aren ’ t

by definition conservative or progressive; they are liminal figures who act
as proxies for audience members who are themselves working through
stressful changes in social reality. For example, when Spiderman was intro-
duced in a 1962 comic book, his transformation from average teen to
freakish insect - human hybrid was attributed to a bite from a radioactive
spider. This reflected widespread Cold War – era concerns about the exis-

tential dangers presented by the proliferation of atomic power. In the 2002

film version of Spiderman , the spider is genetically altered rather than
radioactive, and the Green Goblin ’ s evil nature results from a scientifi c
research project, funded by the military and undertaken by a giant corpora-
tion, that goes horribly awry. These narrative substitutions are indicative
of a shift in the focus of public anxiety from the threat of nuclear annihila-
tion to advances in biotechnology which threaten our sense of what it is to

be human. Similarly, the X - Men comic series, first published in 1963, called
the mutant heroes “ Children of the Atom, ” suggesting that their mutation
was the by - product of nuclear proliferation. The 2000 X - Men movie
more vaguely accounts for mutation as a process of accelerated evolution,
implying that genetic variation, even of the most extreme sort, is a natural
inevitability rather than a human elective. The mutants are metaphors
for all groups which are feared and persecuted on the basis of biological

traits that make them different from the dominant majority. The film is a
sustained attack on conservative policies – represented in the narrative by
Senator Kelly ’ s Mutant Registration Act – of intolerance toward sexual and
racial Otherness. X - Men , in its latest incarnation, deals pointedly with a

contemporary social conflict in which greater respect for cultural diversity
is opposed by forces dedicated to thwarting progressive change through
discipline and surveillance.
However, even as Spiderman and X - Men make gestures of protest toward
some established power structures, such as the military - corporate complex
and right - wing authoritarianism, they also reinforce other traditional
understandings and expectations of the world. Both fi lms foreground
White, heterosexual male protagonists (Peter Parker/Wolverine) who are
compelled to reluctantly abandon their normal lives (as a high school

student/a cage - fighting loner) in order to rescue a helpless damsel - in -
distress (Mary Jane/Rogue) from the clutches of a bad man (the Green
Goblin/Magneto) and almost single - handedly save the community (in both
cases, New York City). This is a story we ’ ve heard and seen many times
before. The narrative conventions that underpin both films can be traced