The superhero genre of comic books lends itself to explorations concerning the metaphysical puzzles of personal identity over time. This Olio will survey storylines in the Marvel and DC universes involving characters such as Deadpool, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Rogue, Jean Grey, The Hulk, Swamp Thing, Batman, and Superman, which present thought experiments that raise questions about whether or not a person’s identity can survive radical physical changes, mind control, consciousness switching, memory deletion, memory absorption, and more!

We will also discuss the ramifications of how we answer these questions about events in fictional universes on how we should understand our actual practices concerning identity and moral responsibility, criminality and mental illness in the real world.