Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T20:06:16.796Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hell's Kitchen's Prolonged Crisis and Would-be Sovereigns: Daredevil, Hobbes, and Schmitt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2013

Anthony Peter Spanakos
Anthony Peter Spanakos*
Affiliation:
Montclair State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Comic book heroes often have their origins in noir depictions of failed or failing states. The danger involved and the seeming anarchy that necessitates superheroes recall Hobbes's description of a state of nature and Leviathan as resolution. But comic book heroes generally inhabit states that are better identified by the Hobbes-inspired Carl Schmitt. Indeed, this articles argues that while the Hell's Kitchen of Daredevil comics has some characteristics of a state of nature, it is better characterized by the protracted crisis of state that Schmitt sees in liberal democracies. Hobbes and Schmitt elucidate the crisis that generates the need for a superhero but fail to explain why the superhero does not simply take over the city. This is better explained by American concepts of heroism which emphasize redemption and walking away from power (Lawrence and Jewett 2002).

Type
Symposium: The Politics of the Superhero
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 94 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bendis, Brian Michael (w), and Maleev, Alex (a). [2002–3] 2004. Daredevil vol 3. Marvel Comics. With Manuel Gutierez (a). Google Scholar
Bendis, Brian Michael (w), and Maleev, Alex (a). [2001, 2005–6] 2006. Daredevil vol 6 (#76–81, 16–19). Marvel Comics. With David Mack (a). Google Scholar
Bobbio, Norberto. 1993. Thomas Hobbes and the Natural Law Tradition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Translated by Gobetti, Daniela.Google Scholar
Hobbes of Malmesbury, Thomas. 1651. Leviathan or the Matter, Forme, Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill. Prepared for the McMaster University Archive of the History of Economic Thought by Rod Hay. Google Scholar
Hobbes of Malmesbury, Thomas. 1990. Behemoth or the Long Parliament. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. With a new introduction by Stephen Holmes. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, John Shelton, and Jewett, Robert. 2002. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Miller, Frank (w), and Mazzucchelli, David (a). [1984–5] 2010. Daredevil: Born Again. Marvel Comics.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1985. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Translated by Kennedy, Ellen.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 2004. Legality and Legitimacy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Translated McCormick, and edited by Jeffrey Seitzer with an introduction by John P..Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 2008a. The Concept of the Political. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Translation, introduction and notes by George Schwab, with comments on Schmitt's essay by Leo Strauss.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 2008b. The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of A Political Symbol. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Translated by Schwab, George and Hilfstein, Erna, Foreword and introduction by George Schwab, with a new foreword by Tracy B. Strong. Google Scholar
Spanakos, Anthony P. 2008. “Governing Gotham.” In Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul, eds. White, Mark D. and Arp, Robert, 55–60. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar