But Who The Heck Will Ever Remember The Term 'Metonymy'?
Marc Singer weighs in with
an
excellent essay about how the best superhero comics generally
derive meaning: It's not by having a super-powered character
stand in for another thing; it's by
having such a character
become
an exemplary case of the thing being commented on. I highly
recommend reading this piece. It's good grounding for the
never-ending "Are superhero comics capable of telling worthwhile
stories?" debate that perennially pops up in the comics
blogosphere. (I particularly like Marc's example of Thanos:
"Why (to jump back to
my
Thanos rant) would you try to make a supervillain a
metaphor
for the death-drive implicit in autocratic conquerers when you could
just
have him try to fuck Death? On one level, of course, a
character named 'Thanos' might seem to be just about the most
metaphoric one in comics, but on another level he works precisely
because the fantastic elements of the genre allow him to embody that
death-drive in a horrifically literal manner.")
After reading Marc's essay, I'm especially glad that I didn't slip up
and incorrectly refer to Kate's powers as "metaphorical" in
my
review of Demo #5.
