SAGES Fellow Brad Ricca discusses fathers in pop culture

Pop’s fictional fathers run gamut from heroic to horrible

Daily Gazette: In honor of Father’s Day, the newspaper takes a look at fathers in pop culture, from Herman Munster to Cliff Huxtable and even comic book dads. “In superhero comics, many of the best fathers are actually absent ones,” said SAGES Fellow Brad Ricca. “Superman’s father Jor-el, Batman’s Thomas Wayne, even Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben are all characters who appear only briefly as part of the character’s origins. All three of them, often in the first few pages, actually sacrifice their own lives in different ways that inspire the eventual superhero.”