Through a post-modern lens, I will primarily focus on comics books published by Marvel Comicsto demonstrate the myriad of ways in which graphic literature is used as a subversive tool of sociopolitical discourse. I will demonstrate this by deconstructing and redefining the role of myth as a means of transferring ethical practices through societies and the ways in which graphic literature serves this function within the space of a modern and increasingly atheistic society. The thesis first demonstrates how the American Civil Rights Movement was metaphorically translated and depicted to the pages of Marvel’s X-Men comics to expose its primarily white/ male readership to the plight of discriminated Black Americans through the juxtaposition of depicting white super heroes who represented the segregated experiences of othered or unwanted communities. Secondly, the X-Man Beast is closely analyzed to demonstrate the ways in which the rhetoric and depictions of graphic literature are altered through decades of publication to adapt its messages of social tolerance and peaceful coexistence to its contemporary audiences.
