Time-Travel and Teleology: Morality, Society, and the Life of Lucas Bishop
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37536/reden.2024.5.2414Keywords:
Superheroes, X-Men, Bishop, Time-Travel, Morality, Convention, Society, Development, DystopianAbstract
The paper focuses on a rarely analyzed superhero within the X-Men universe: the time-traveling mutant and law enforcement officer Lucas Bishop. Through highlighting core narrative themes consistent throughout his various depictions in comics and animation through the lens of a constructivist approach to sociomoral development (Social Cognitive Domain Theory; SCDT), the author contends that the character’s complexity and multifaceted nature potentially has implications for understanding superheroes like Bishop as subjects worthy of scholarly and pedagogical inquiry. The narrative themes examined in support of this argument pertain to (1) how different dystopian social orders or arrangements potentially inform his morally relevant decisions, (2) the distinction between the arbitrary and non-arbitrary treatment of mutants in interactions bearing on human rights, and (3) the potential parallels between Bishop’s morally relevant decisions and related research on sociomoral development.
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