SWAMP LOOP HERO TRIAL

We’re still struggling in superhero comics with the same realities of narrative constraint introduced by the Man of Steel, but that doesn’t mean that some writers and artists are satisfied to make all monumental events, the reason we read superhero comics in the first place, transient. Eco even pointed out that “What If” stories are the only recourse to exploring meaningful life developments for superheroes like having long-term relationships or kids, milestones that can be neatly tucked away as “out of continuity”.

SWAMP LOOP HERO TRIAL

The end of the ROT WORLD crossover arc raises the question that Umberto Eco posed in his famous essay on Superman in 1972: can there really be change in a superhero universe? Doesn’t that imply aging, and movement toward an end, death, in fact? Whereas the constant return to a status quo at the end of each trial or adventure puts readers back in a position of looping time, and any seeming change in the lives of superheroes is seen to be a kind of necessary illusion.

Swamp loop hero