Here’s a course many of you would ace. The University of Baltimore will be offering a class that will explore the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The course is called “Media Genres: Media Marvels” and will be offered in the 2015 spring semester.

The class is going to be taught by Arnold T. Blumberg, an adjunct faculty member at the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences. Blumberg is a comics and pop culture historian who served as editor of ‘The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide’ and co-author of ‘The Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide.’ In addition to his vast knowledge of comic books, Blumberg is also a zombie expert. Not only has he taught classes on zombies, Blumberg makes an appearance in ‘Doc of the Dead’ and hosts his own podcast, ‘Doctor of the Dead’.

Blumberg plans to analyze the Marvel movies, starting from ‘Iron Man’ all the way to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ along with TV shows and comic books, as a means of gaining a better understanding of modern culture.

“Every issue facing our world today is encapsulated in deceptively simple morality takes featuring four-color comic book heroes whose histories stretch back to 1939,” Blumberg states.

The course will incorporate Joseph Campbell’s monomyth philosophy about ‘The Hero’s Journey’ as a way to show that the Marvel cinematic universe reflects what our society values, whether its justice, love, peace or the power of good over evil.

“Every generation has a modern media mythology that serves as a framework for entertaining as well as educating about ethics, morality, issues of race, gender, class, and so on,” Blumberg says. “For the past several years ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ have served in that role of tens of millions. When I was younger, it was the first ‘Star Wars’ series, which I saw in the theater. For me, that saga- along with many other science fiction stories – provided that essential exploration of the hero journey, the struggle of good vs. evil, in a mainstream pop culture context.”

This definitely sounds like a worthwhile class, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe clearly continues to make a strong impact on our culture in a variety of ways. Plus, I hear you get extra credit if you bring shawarma for everyone.

Source: University of Baltimore