Superhuman futures

This comic explores the idea of the superhuman, with a particular focus on some of the science fiction stories that have influenced it, such as Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, The Coming Race (1871) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Gladiator (1930) by Philip Wylie, and Odd John (1935) by Olaf Stapledon. It also draws on the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Julian Huxley, Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, Michel Foucault, Dziga Vertov, Donna Haraway, and others, to consider the wider social and conceptual implications of the superhuman. The first story takes the form of a research paper in comic form and argues that the contemporary figure of the superhuman, most often encountered in comics, is a reaction to the modern industrial world, but also has ancient origins and functions as both an aspiration and a warning about human evolution and the future. This draws on debates about eugenics, transhumanism, and posthumanism. It is also argued that developments in media, including the emergence of comic books and film, use the innovations of these new ways of representing human experience as a metaphor to imagine the capabilities of the superhuman. The two other stories featured here put some of these ideas into practice, and drawn on some of the tropes and conventions of the superhero genre, and especially their capacity for parody, satire, and intertextual allusion.