How 19th century composer's 'Ring' cycle influenced modern comic book http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/11/entertainment/la-ca-ring-heroes11-2010apr11
Richard Wagner's cycle has made its mark on comic books The roots of Thor and many other comic book figures stretch back to Wagner's epic and earlier. April 11, 2010|By David Ng >>> Look, up in the sky! In case you haven't noticed already, our entertainment stratosphere has grown crowded with muscle-bound superheroes in almost every conceivable shape and size: the franchise-rebooted likes of Spider-Man and Superman, battle-armored warriors such as Robin Hood and Perseus. To whom do we owe our super-saturated superhero culture? It would be easy to lay all of the credit (or blame) at the feet of comic-book artists and Hollywood executives. But superhero roots go much deeper than that, and if you excavate long enough, you will inevitably bump smack into Richard Wagner, the 19th century composer whose four- opera cycle "The Ring of the Nibelung" is regarded by many as an important genetic mother ship for today's fleet of action heroes.
