The Joker is finally on trial for murder.\u00a0 If he is found guilty, he will get the death penalty.\u00a0 There is only one problem: the Joker is innocent.\u00a0 What does Batman do?\u00a0 Let the innocent Joker die or save his biggest enemy?<\/p>\n
This moral judicial question from the graphic novel “The Joker: Devil’s Advocate” is explored in Sinclair Community College’s Popular Culture class on Wednesday evenings.\u00a0 Associate Professor Craig This uses comics and comic books to explore past and present values and issues in American pop culture.<\/p>\n
“The comic book is the gateway to open up a bigger discussion about life,” This says.<\/p>\n
He uses comic books as a way to discuss issues such as racism and sexism that some students might otherwise be uncomfortable with.\u00a0 Discussing superheroes and villains allows the class to explore questions such as “What makes a hero?” and “What does it mean to sacrifice?”<\/p>\n
“It’s a fun class,” This says.<\/p>\n
Comics can show how cultural values have changed over time, according to This.\u00a0 One trend he points out is the re-casting of classic characters.\u00a0 Batwoman, the female counterpart to Batman, was recast as a lesbian in 2006.\u00a0 Nick Fury, originally a Caucasian, was played by Samuel L. Jackson in “Iron Man.”<\/p>\n
Usually, about half of the students who take the class have not read comic books before, according to This.\u00a0 Sometimes students begin reading comic books after taking the class, he says.\u00a0 This says that he gets a lot of good feedback about the class from students.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the class, students create a hero of their own complete with a name, secret identity and superpower.\u00a0 Some students even create a villain or a character sketch for extra credit.<\/p>\n
The Popular Culture class will be offered again during the Fall 2009 quarter on Wednesday nights.\u00a0 The spring class is listed as SOC-117-50.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Joker is finally on trial for murder.\u00a0 If he is found guilty, he will get the death penalty.\u00a0 There is only one problem: the Joker is innocent.\u00a0 What does Batman do?\u00a0 Let the innocent Joker die or save his biggest enemy? This moral judicial question from the graphic novel “The Joker: Devil’s Advocate” is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[91,1976,14],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-classes","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-sinclair"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-om","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15380,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/15380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}