[Comicsstudiessociety] New book - Hero Me Not: The Containment of the Most Powerful Black, Female Superhero

[Mike Rhode]

 Hero Me Not: The Containment of the Most Powerful Black, Female Superhero
CHESYA BURKE
Rutgers University Press 2023

"Hits hard at the tough questions. Deeply thought-provoking!"
--N.K. Jemisin, author of The Inheritance Trilogy

First introduced in the pages of X-Men, Storm is probably the most
recognized
Black female superhero. She is also one of the most powerful characters in
the
Marvel Universe, with abilities that allow her to control the weather
itself. Yet that
power is almost always deployed in the service of White characters, and
Storm is rarely treated as an authority figure.

Hero Me Not offers an in-depth look at this fascinating yet often
frustrating character through all her manifestations in comics, animation,
and films. Chesya Burke examines the coding of Storm as racially “exotic,”
an African woman who nonetheless has bright white hair and blue eyes and
was portrayed onscreen
by biracial actresses Halle Berry and Alexandra Shipp. She shows how Storm,
created by White writers and artists, was an amalgam of various Black
stereotypes, from the Mammy and the Jezebel to the Magical Negro, resulting
in a new stereotype she terms the Negro Spiritual Woman.

With chapters focusing on the history, transmedia representation, and
racial politics of Storm, Burke offers avery personal account of what it
means to be a Black female comics fan searching popular culture forpositive
images of powerful women who look like you.

CHESYA BURKE is an assistant professor of English and U.S. literatures and
Director of Africana studies at Stetson University. Her story collection, Let’s
Play White, is being taught in universities around the world.

Publishing April 2023
Paperback | $27.95 | 9781978821057 | 162 pages, 21 color images | 6 x 9
Cloth and e-book available

Please email requests for review copies to
publicity at rutgersuniversitypress.org and be sure to include the title,
author, ISBN number, as well as the address of the person to whom the book
should be sent. Rutgersuniversitypress.org

“For the creators behind modern myths this is a necessary interrogation of
what matters on the page and in the real world. For readers, this is a deep
dive into why these stories appeal to us and how they challenge dominant
narratives. Burke's Hero Me Not reminds us all that diversity, inclusion,
and intersectionality are more than buzz words or jargon. The stories we
tell, the stories we consume matter on every level.”
— Mikki Kendall, author of Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a
Movement Forgot
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