When the world catches up with science-fiction: Doctor Doom and the missing view screens

Some science fiction technologies have yet to become reality - we don't yet have jet packs or meals in pill form, for example - but when they eventually do slip into everyday life their previous existence as futuristic wonders can be forgotten.

One example of this is Doctor Doom and his constant use of viewing screens during the Marvel Age of comics from 1961 to 1987. An empirical analysis of texts published during this period clearly demonstrated that this technology was one of Doom's key character signifiers, but a survey of over two hundred current fans and academics undertaken in 2020 showed that almost nobody remembered it.

This paper will explain how these two different methods of assessing a character came to such different results, and suggest that the survey respondents missed out viewing screens as a notable futuristic technology because they had become part of their working life in the twenty-first century. It will then argue that this demonstrates the usefulness of taking an empirical approach to superhero research, rather than relying on unreliable memory and opinion, and provide other examples of this process in action.