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Presents a diverse range of perspectives on contemporary superhero scholarship. It links in-depth close readings of central texts of the superhero discourse from a variety of media (comics, TV, film) with larger societal and cultural discourses such as cross-medial, meta-textual and more general intersections and negotiations between the figure of the superhero and culture.
The book explores various functionalizations of superheroes such as Batman, Iron Man or Watchmen within society, analysing how superheroes reflect and problematise ideology, the military industrial complex, public and private responsibility. Processes of identity construction are analysed by looking at the superheroes’ secret identity and the notion of masking. Furthermore, cultural and personal grief and trauma in relation to such discourses as race and politics are investigated.
Torsten Caeners works as a senior lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen and is the Vice-President of the International Society for Superhero Studies. His research focuses on Anglophone Literature and Popular Culture, here especially Superheroes.
Danny Graydon works as an associate professor at Richmond University London and is the President of the International Society for Superhero Studies. His research focuses on Popular Culture and, especially, Superheroes.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Torsten Caeners and Danny Graydon
Introduction: By Any Other Name? Re-thinking the Concept and Definition of the Superhero
Torsten Caeners
Section I: Investigating Batman and/in Society
Chapter 1: Ideology in the Superhero Film: Batman and Neoliberal Fantasy
Robert Hyland
Chapter 2: Leather Wings and Broken Things – The Negotiation of Cyclical Trauma by The Dynamic Duo
Mikayla Laird
Chapter 3: The Dark Right Rises: Bat-Manhood, Populist Heroism and Übermensch Aesthetics in Sublime-Uncanny Cinema
Caleb Turner
Chapter 4: Batman and the Infinite Loop of Delinquent Production
Ewald Frühberger
Section II: Investigating the Superhero Discourse through Cross-Medial and Meta-Textual Perspectives
Chapter 5: Ready Player One and the New Mirror Stage: Superheroes, Virtual Reality and the Ideal Self
Jessica Hoffmann
Chapter 6: Masks, Values, and Society. The Evolution of Superheroes into Antiheroes Since the Dark Age
Marco Favaro
Chapter 7: Not every Hero Is Super. Unmasking the Super in Heroes of HBO’s Watchmen
Alex von Ommen
Chapter 8: ‘It’s a Strange World. Let’s Keep It That Way.’ Warren Ellis and the Dominance of New Sincerity Superheroes
Rafael Alves Azevedo
Chapter 9: Platonist Reflections on the Darkest Knight
Jean-Guy Ducreux
Chapter 10: The Superhero Logo Visual Codes: A Superman Legacy
Bruno Porto
Section III: Cultural Negotiations in the Marvel Comic and Cinematic Universes
Chapter 11: Derridean Responsibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Torsten Caeners
Chapter 12: Thanos the Machiavellian Hero
Svenja Kolpack
Chapter 13: The Idylls of small-town America: Strategies of Overcoming Trauma and Grief in WandaVision
Stefanie Caeners
Notes on Contributors
Index