Virginia Postrel: Superhero Glamour The writer Virginia Postrel examines superheroes as objects of glamour for The Atlantic (link up for three days), going at it from this direction: "Glamour is an imaginative process that creates a specific, emotional response: a sharp mixture of projection, longing, admiration, and aspiration. It evokes an audience's hopes and dreams and makes them seem attainable, all the while maintaining enough distance to sustain the fantasy. The elements that create glamour are not specific styles -- bias-cut gowns or lacquered furniture -- but more general qualities: grace, mystery, transcendence." Makes sense to me.
Even more interesting than the Atlantic piece is Postrel's blog entry on the article, where the writer talks about how Marvel dragged out the permissions process in relation to an illustration of Storm they wished to use and then how Marvel made an odd request regarding the "super hero"/"superhero" thing.
The writer Virginia Postrel 
