Hickman Talks Avengers, The Manhattan Projects & East Of West and Ball State U's Christy Blanch On T

On today's Word Balloon podcast, we catch up with Jonathan Hickman , who's taking the Avengers into new directions. New Avengers #3 had a startling finish and we talk about it. We also discuss his Image books The Manhattan Projects East Of West (which debuts next month) and the current status/fate of the espionage book Secrets .

Then Ball State University Lecturer Christy Blanch talks about her new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Gender Through Comics Books. The course will look at how men and women were depicted in comics from the 1930's to today. Blanch will have many guest speakers for the class, and the subjects discussed involve comic book history and a sharp look at characters like Lois Lane and Wonder Woman , who both started as capable strong rolemodels in the 1940's only to become lonley-heart single women desperate to marry their beaus in the 1950's. What happened? The male superhero stereotypical portrayals are also examined.