You know about Batman; Superman; and Spiderman; but have you heard of Doll Man; Doctor Hormone; or Spider Queen? In The League of Regrettable Superheroes; yoursquo;ll meet one hundred of the strangest superheroes ever to see print; complete with backstories; vintage art; and colorful commentary. So prepare yourself for such not-ready-for-prime-time heroes as Bee Man (Batman; but with bees); the Clown (circus-themed crimebuster); the Eye (a giant; floating eyeball; just accept it); and many other oddballs and oddities. Drawing on the entire history of the medium; The League of Regrettable Superheroes will appeal to die-hard comics fans; casual comics readers; and anyone who enjoys peering into the stranger corners of pop culture.
#2983341 in eBooks 2014-08-20 2014-08-20File Name: B00NDI27QQ
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Chengs revision of Modernism is a delight. She gives full credence to those scholars who ...By Seaboard Lit ProfChengs revision of Modernism is a delight. She gives full credence to those scholars who have criticized the way Modernist architecture and art invented a self-serving ideology of "primitivism" that was the foil for their own claim to be the avant-garde of humanity. But she wants to rethink the relationship between Modernism and the racialized fetishism that it created.Modernists like Picasso; Corbusier; and Adolph Loos clearly had a fascination with Josephine Bakers sensual performances and her play with primitivist signifiers (animal skins; choreographic excess; stylized nudity). Much of their reaction to her fell in line with the mixture of aversion and desire that defines fetishism. But Cheng asks whether Modernist artistsndash;ndash;and; indeed; Baker herselfndash;ndash;were really concerned with expressing an essence ("civilization;" "modernity;" or "black femininity"); and instead may have been experimenting with formal ways to design a "second skin;" a surface on which to create a palimpsest of contradictory identifications.To put it more schematically; Cheng wants to move away from a simple opposition between Modernist abstraction and Primitive ornamentation. She wants to think instead about how the idea of "skin"ndash;ndash;both the unadorned architectural surfaces of Modernism and Bakers performance of nudityndash;ndash;can be a site of where different kinds of persons (white European men; women and people of color) tried to enact ways of being other than the "essence" assigned to them by colonial ideologies.This is a complicated but exhilarating thought experiment that combines history; psychoanalytic theory; and cultural histories of modern art and architecture. Chengs clear and lively prose makes it a pleasure to follow her in this revisionary approach to race and primitivism within Modernist culture.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Simon WorrallIntelligent; perceptive new look at the Josephine Baker story; with none of the old cliches.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Richard BraithwaiteBeautifully written. Even better than her first; The Melancholy of Race.
