ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to give educators tools to critically discuss and deconstruct the effects of popular culture, specifically the superhero genre, on youth using critical theories of race. Focusing on the graphic novel All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol. 1: The Magnificent Seven (2016), the author highlights how even when people of color take on the role of superhero in comics, the way their bodies are positioned by society at large is still a product of their race or skin color rather than their empowerment. One way of engaging with racialization is to encourage youth of color to create their own heroes, centered on their lived realities and experiences, who talk back to the effects of racialization and injustice more generally. This chapter will explore how encouraging youth, particularly youth of color, to create stories in which they are able to imagine, discuss, and embody resistance, can help them see themselves as agents of change in oppressive systems.