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THE IMPACT OF COMIC BOOKS ON PRESENT-DAY CULTURE CAN BE APpreciated if one realizes that tens of millions are sold each month and that they have transcended cultural and language boundaries. Viewing the comic book as contemporary mythology, I shall focus specifically on the comic-book superheroes and consider them in relation to the myth of the birth of the hero of classical mythology. The manner in which the superheroes acquire their powers will be related to the phases of the family romance fantasy. This fantasy subsumes not only the oedipal conflict, but the entire sequence of psychological development from infancy to adulthood. Specific superheroes seem especially relevant to each of the various developmental levels.
Man attempts to delineate his external and internal reality and to deal with the unknown by dipping into the reservoir of his own