For Wednesday: Landis, Superman: American Alien (“Dove” and “Hawk”)



NOTE: Read the first two stories/chapters of the book, "Dove" and "Hawk" for Wednesday's class. If you're confused about where to stop, you can stop reading where you see the full page of Clark on a boat with a with a bunch of women and champagne glasses.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Discuss how the art in one of the chapters helps to tell the story, and is also appropriate for that story. Why would this story be much different if we just had the words? Discuss at least one specific panel or page in your response.

Q2: What does Clark mean in “Dove” when he tells his father, “When you break something, you’re not just breaking the thing, you’re like...hurting everyone who made it the way it was”? Why might this also say something about Clark’s relationship to his powers and his mysterious identity as an “alien”?

Q3: In class on Monday we discussed how modern heroes, and especially super heroes, are often more “gray” than “white,” and how they often resemble the “dragons” in fantasy stories. How does “Hawk” discuss the thin line between being a hero and a villain for Clark? According to this story, what makes him a hero rather than a “monster”?

Q4: In-between the two chapters, there is a two-page illustration called “The Castaways.” How does it connect the two stories without “telling” us outright? Why can  single picture do this even more powerfully than a paragraph or an entire story?

Comments