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How Superhero comics teach information literacy Part 2

So we've talked about how superhero comes walk you through the process of recognizing citations and citing your sources and how the Easter eggs and references cause the reader to do research, now we're going to talk about a subject everyone knows and confronts regularly in research.. bias.

Comics, like most storytelling mediums, have a built in way to show bias. Some of this is from the obvious storytelling tricks of showing different perspectives. Comics like Marvels or Astro City do this rather well, taking the reader out of the typical head space of the superhero and into the world around them, those who look up and see the superheroes in their world and how that impacts them. These, however, are more subtle ways that the comics confront, show, and reveal the concept of bias to readers.

The most obvious tools that comics have are characters that are implicitly and strongly biased. For instance, Marvel has the infamous J. Jonah Jameson, who has a one man war against Spider-Man regardless of all the good he does. J. Jonah Jameson literally will not admit on any level that Spider-Man is a hero, even after Spider-Man has openly saved Jameson's life. Reading stories like this show children especially as they're growing up the power of bias and how even in the face of the truth, people can and do allow their bias to cloud their judgement and change the story.

Other recommendations for dealing with bias and perspective:

Any Lex Luthor story - There are several, but basically Lex sees Superman as an attack on the idea that humanity can raise themselves up.. because he's a God and he does it for them. It's an interesting line of thinking.. though obviously destructive.

Transmetropolitan - This is definitely for a adults/teens, but great book about journalism, seeing the world for how it is and using the power to shape public opinion but with facts, not just your opinions. It's honestly a great book.

Transformers Robots in Disguise/Optimus Prime & Transformers More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light - I've praised this series before, but it's really great about perspective and bias as if you don't know the whole concept of Transformers from the beginning is that there are two factions, the Autobots (aka the Good Guys) and the Decepticons (aka the Bad guys) and they are stuck in an eternal war for dominance and anyone unlucky to get caught in their path is destroyed. Robots in Disguise takes place after the war with the Autobots and Decepticons back on their home world Cybertron and trying to rebuild after a 4 million year war. It's a sticky mess as the factions no longer mean what they once did and we slowly discover, they may never have. More than Meets the Eye and it's follow up, Lost Light, follows a ragtag band of merry bots across the galaxy as they help, hurt, and search for a perfect past to help heal Cybertron. Again the decades long factions dissolve and change as the crew grows, adjusts, and even change some themselves. Finally Optimus Prime picks up from the end of Robots in Disguise as Optimus tries to bring Earth into the Council of Worlds as a colony of Cybertron. Things get even stickier here as Optimus balances his own team (made up of mostly new colonists), the Decepticons (who have come to Earth for a peaceful life), and humanity and all our baggage.

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