On Tuesday (July 3), moviegoers will get their first look of a new version of Spider-Man

when “The Amazing Spider-Man,” directed by independent film veteran Marc Webb,

hits theaters — only 10 years after the first film in director Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man”

franchise premiered.

With “The Avengers” breaking box-office records worldwide since it premiered in early

May, and “The Dark Knight Rises,” the last film in the “Dark Knight” Batman series,

premiering July 20, the summer of 2012 “once again proves superheroes dominate the  

movie complex,” says Shaun Treat, University of North Texas assistant professor of   

communication studies.

Treat is the instructor of “Mythic Rhetoric of the American Superhero,” a course that

he has regularly taught teaches and has been offered this summer. He is available to    

discuss the depiction of superheroes in films to members of the media, including how this   

summer’s group compares to superheroes in earlier films and what they reveal about 

American culture and post 9/11 heroism.

Treat says Batman, Spider-Man and other spandex-clad icons “communicate fascinating

myths, values and tutelary fantasies about ‘truth, justice and the American way’ in ways

that are both overt and subtle.”

“Equally important to these superheroes are the changing supervillain threats they must

face – dark reflections of very real social anxieties about genetic experimentation,

unchecked corporate power, growing economic inequality, the moral responsibilities of

great power and terrorist ideologues out to change the world to fit their own singularly

self-interested agendas,” he says. “Numerous important philosophical, ethical and even

political perspectives become far more engaging when those who express them are 

dressed in capes and masks.”

Treat's research interests include rhetorical theory and criticism, political communication, 

cultural and media studies, psychoanalysis, free speech issues, and constitutive rhetoric 

of postmodern civic identities. He has published articles that explore connections between

leadership rhetoric, mythic narrative, political consciousness, and personal identity in

the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal of Critical-Cultural Media Studies, KB Journal 

and Journal of Radio & Audio Media, and will have articles in two forthcoming anthologies  

on superhero mythologies.

Treat may be reached at 940-565-2588 or shauntreat@unt.edu.