Why be Moral?

Despite being at the heart of ethics, the question as to why one should behave morally is a surprisingly difficult one to answer. So difficult in fact that I have plenty of ethics texts that don’t even try to address it. Instead, they are happy to explain the types (and …

Comics, Ethics and AI

Having hit a double milestone recently for this site (six months and over 100,000 human-written words of content about the ethics of comic books!), I thought it was time for something different: examining the promise and peril of AI through my experience of researching and writing about comic book ethics. …

Fantastic Four Ethics

Most of these ethics overviews are of individual characters. But for Marvel’s Fantastic Four (FF) franchise, it doesn’t make sense to consider them individually. They are more than just a team of superheroes – they are a family, and one whose inter-relationships precede the origin of their powers. I am …

X-Men Ethics – Characters (Mi-Z)

This is my second “snapshot” overview of the ethics of many of the key mutant characters in the X-Men stories. I have already expanded some of these into stand-alone posts, but this should serve as helpful background for some of my upcoming commentaries (especially the conclusion to the A.X.E.: Judgment …

X-Men Ethics – Characters (A-Ma)

I thought I would provide here a quick “snapshot” overview of the ethics of many of the key mutant characters in the X-Men stories. I have already expanded some of these into stand-alone posts – and may do more in the future – but this should serve as helpful background …

The Vision ethics

The Vision is a reoccurring character with the Avengers in the Marvel Universe. He is an artificial being known as a “synthezoid” in the comics (a special type of android that that has synthetic humanoid body parts). He was married to the Scarlet Witch (a very significant character), and forms …

X-Men Ethics – Charles Xavier’s Redemption

I think Professor Ewing has summed up Charles Xavier (Professor X) … petty … darn … well. The normative ethics of this character has always harbored underlying issues, dating back to the creation of the X-Men. As I explained on my X-Men Ethics – Introduction page, the initial actions of …

X-Men Ethics – Professor X (Charles Xavier)

Thus speaks Charles Xavier’s oldest friend, Magneto, on his death bed. Like in my recent overview of Magneto’s ethics, I think Al Ewing‘s take on these two well-established characters is among the most thoughtful and well informed (from an ethics perspective) in the comics today. There is probably no character …

Official launch of Comic Philosophy

Welcome to my official launch post for comicphilosophy.com! I have been working for many months on preparing the look and feel of the site, and writing the background pages and initial character ethics posts. It has finally progressed to a stage where I’m willing to share it with the world, …