Remembering the Holocaust in American superhero comics

ABSTRACT

This article considers the representation of Holocaust memory in Uncanny: X-Men and Superman. I argue that these comics may be read in relation to what I call ‘mythologised’ Holocaust memory, by which I mean a reduction of the complexity of the genocide so that it may be used as a basic, paradigmatic symbol of good versus evil. Such reduction allows the Holocaust to be employed as an archetype for other acts of violence and atrocity, undermining its historical specificity and complexity. Just as important as this mythologised memory is the appropriation of the Holocaust as a fundamentally American concern, and as viewed through a fundamentally American perspective. As I aim to show, the X-Men franchise is more successful in confronting the ways in which Holocaust memory has been appropriated, especially in the American context. However, it ultimately fails to add sufficient nuance when dealing with the atrocity. Similarly, Superman – one of the most explicit ‘All-American’ heroes, second perhaps only to Captain America – shows, but fails to acknowledge or criticise, this American appropriation and is thus complicit in the construction and simplification of American Holocaust memory.

KEYWORDS:

• Holocaust
• memory
• X-men
• superman
• fascism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For a detailed account of Magneto’s backstory, see Greg Pak’s X-Men: Magneto Testament (2009).

2. It is interesting to observe that the three special issues were brought out to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Superman, not the Holocaust.

3. Hirsch’s concept was developed in the context of Art Spiegelman’s canonical graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus (1986). First serialised in RAW Magazine starting in 1980, Spiegelman’s work has been credited with legitimising the medium of comics as a viable means of tackling serious issues.

4. For a more detailed account, see Peter Novick, The Holocaust and Collective Memory (1999) and Hilene Flanzbaum (ed.), The Americanization of the Holocaust (Flanzbaum 1999). For further discussions on the Americanisation of the Holocaust, see also: Landsberg (1997), Magid (2012), Mintz (2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanne Pettitt

Dr Joanne Pettitt completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent, where she currently teaches on a range of undergraduate modules. She has published widely on representations of Holocaust perpetration in literature. Her monograph entitled Perpetrators in Narratives of the Holocaust: Encountering the Nazi Beast has recently been published by Palgrave Macmillan.