Twenty-first-century political scientists have not shied away from using their conceptual wares to analyze significant pop culture phenomena. Name your favorite piece of intellectual property—Harry Potter, Battlestar Galactica, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Star Wars—and political scientists have written a book about it. There are entire podcasts devoted to the intersection of political science and science fiction.
The latest addition to this lineup is , a volume edited by Nicholas Carnes, a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University, and Lilly Goren, the chair of the history, political science, and religious studies department at Carroll University. Even among behemoths like and , the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) might be the hegemonic actor of the pop culture universe. Eight of the 25 highest-grossing films of all time are Marvel films, more than those registered by the , , , and DC Extended Universe franchises combined. In 2021, Statista polling revealed that 82 percent of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 34 had seen at least one MCU film.
