Marco Mancassola's 'La vie sexuelle des super-héros' Explores Heroic Sexuality

In his novel 'La vie sexuelle des super-héros', Marco Mancassola imagines retired superheroes grappling with their newfound sexual freedom. The book, published by Éditions Gallimard, delves into the intimate lives of characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine, revealing their perversions and erotic adventures. Mancassola argues that sexuality is the stumbling block of the superhero condition, as predicted by Robin, Batman's assistant and lover, who said, 'Becoming real is the worst thing for a superhero.' Once retired and revealing their private lives on television, these former heroes are no longer seen as vigilantes or demigods. The Elastigirl laments that his body, once an object of study, is now his own and he does not know what to do with it. Freed from the constraints of their heroic exploits, the characters use their bodies only to fulfill their own and their partners' fantasies. Mancassola explores the social and political ambiguity of superheroes, who are both in the world and in the desert. He describes the sordid deaths of Batman, Mystique, and the son of Elastigirl, showing how the hero's body intertwines with the political body, and mourns the North American heroic model embodied by Superman and his companions. The novel concludes that superheroes die too.