On Thursday, June 22, 2006, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum Curator Dr. Arnold
T. Blumberg moderated a panel on superheroes and their role in popular culture
at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. The panel
was arranged through the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program and featured
Michael Uslan, the Emmy Award-winning writer and producer as well as the
executive producer of the Batman films; Tom DeFalco, former Marvel
Editor-in-Chief and author of Spider-Man: The Ultimate GuideSuperman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really
Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society, lent its name to the panel. Turnout
was excellent and the Carmichael Auditorium rang with laughter and conversation
as the panelists dove into multiple subjects, from the evolution of the
superhero over the decades to the role of childhood trauma in the origins of
many heroes to the place of women in the superhero sagas.

The panel was
scheduled to run from 7pm to 9pm, but with a far-ranging conversation that also
touched on censorship in comics and the adaptation of comic characters to other
media, as well as questions from attendees, the event actually ran until about
9:30. After the panel, the four guests stayed even longer to sign books for
attendees and chat a bit more about superheroes and comics. It was a very
successful evening and hopefully just one of many such events to come in the
future.

Special thanks to The Smithsonian Associates’ Vanessa Thomas,
Program Coordinator – Performing Arts and Humanities and Mary Helen Young,
Program Assistant for spearheading and coordinating this event, and thanks to
all who attended the panel.