Superhero Justice (2025)

Martin, J. F. (2025). Figuring out fairness: Justice considerations in superhero comics. ImageTexT, 15(2).

• Highlights three superheroes through events from respective illustrative comics: Seventh Circle (2016, Daredevil and retributive justice), Trial of Jean Grey (2014, Jean Grey and procedural justice), and Peace on Earth (1999, Superman and distributive justice).

• Despite the ubiquity of analyses of superheroes via justice considerations, analyses rooted in developmental psychology and constructivism.

• A Social Cognitive Domain Theory (SCDT) informed analysis provides opportunities to explore intersections between features of superhero comics as a medium and features of psychological processes suggested to be involved in navigating complex social situations.

“The findings suggesting that people understand morally relevant actions involving antagonists differently than those involving others–coupled with the fact that various forms of this distinction feature heavily in superhero narratives (e.g., hero-villain, criminal-victim, innocent-guilty, malevolent force-unwitting host)–point to a potential area of scholarly inquiry when thinking about what it means to treat others fairly across different contexts.”