This is a talk I gave at the Comic Studies Society in 2025 about questions of ethics, justice, and power, especially as they relate to social vulnerability, in the Image comics Black Cloak (Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren, 2023) and The Power Fantasy (Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard, 2024).
Both comics set up really interesting ethical questions connected to their protagonists, and unlike most comics, the protagonists don’t always make particularly good decisions–or, at least, not decisions that many readers would be comfortable with. And yet, the creators manage to make those characters very appealing. I cannot recommend both series enough.
You can download the presentation here.
Chris Wildrick 