Dark Knight Returns and Civil War

[Matthew Swanson]

Hi all.

I'm teaching a new course this year at my school that looks at different themes through the lens of pop culture and history. My first two units deal with the Cold War and Women and Feminism.  The students explore the historical theme and then how media presents each.  The course is also centered around graphic novels.  My students are reading New Frontier, Watchmen, Dark Phoenix Saga, and Ms. Marvel for the first two units.  I'm trying to put together my third unit which is going to revolve around the concept of justice and I'm thinking the focus might be on the post-9/11 context since for these students that would be history in their eyes.  The books I've chosen for this unit are Dark Knight Returns and Civil War.  Both deal with the idea of vigilantism and justice and in some ways the idea of terrorism. I figure both of these will be high interest works in the spring with the movies coming out.  

I was wondering if anyone has taught Dark Knight and has resources they might not mind sharing.  This is a social studies course but the reading is an important part of this final unit.  I'm trying to come up with a media driven project to go along with them also.  I feel like I'm floundering with this one and was looking for ideas from other MCPop readers.