The MCU has dominated recent blockbuster cinema. Through expanding its reach into TV, Marvel has developed new immersive transmedia storytelling techniques, taking superhero narratives to unprecedented levels of exposure and engagement. It hasn’t always been this way, though.

In this talk, Dr Michael Goodrum will trace the origins and development of Marvel from the 1940s to the present day. In the process, Goodrum will set out the challenges Marvel, and the comics industry as a whole, faced, how they sought to overcome them, and their successes and failures along the way.

Together, we shall think about the nature of the characters created, the adventures they had, and how they engage with the society around them, engagement that includes the Cold War, domestic politics, Civil Rights, feminist movements, and sexuality. In this way, we see how the history of Marvel can be used to discuss wider histories of the US – our hopes and fears written, drawn, and projected across the years.

Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm – come down early to grab a good seat!

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Michael Goodrum (he/him) is Reader in Cultural History at Canterbury Christ Church University. His books include Superheroes and American Self-Image: From War to Watergate (2016) and Gender & the Superhero Narrative (2018). Goodrum has published widely on comics, film, and literature in US history, with a particular focus on superheroes, science fiction, and horror. Goodrum is currently working on projects on horror films ranging from the 1940s to the present day.

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