The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I found the introduction to McTaggart's article to be amazing;however, I did not really like the rest of the piece.  I felt that McTaggart stated alot of obvious facts in her work, yet didn't really elaborate on them.  Two ideas in her work caught my eye though. The first was that Graphic Novels are simply rising in popularity along with the action packed superheros. The second, that "Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, TV programs were rescheduled and movie releases were delayed or abandoned" (29).  I feel that the rise of popularity of superhero's, comic books, and graphic novels are due to the attack and results of 9/11.  While many may think this is far fetched, I have wondered this many times while the new commercial for Avengers, or Dark Knight flashed on my television.  It would make sense, and I was excited that McTaggart mentions it a little bit in this article.  The Comic book industry stepped forward the soonest after our country experienced extreme vulnerability.  I figured as well that it would be a natural reaction.  What better to fantasize about but a superhero solving our problems.  A superhero could help save the world, and after 9/11 there was a clear wish for someone or something to come along and help us in our time of need.  It is clear that many individuals love of comics, superheros, and graphic novels could have originated from a change in our culture.  It is also clear that these pieces of artistic literature are beneficial for student learning, so why not encourage most schools to start collections?  If these works have been resurfaced in popularity and are becoming a significant symbol of our culture and our countries response as a whole, why not allow them to aid learning? I cannot stress, as a nerd, how happy I was to see that McTaggart had been wondering the same thing I had been when it came to the re-rising of graphic novels, comic books, and superheros :).