Over the last several decades, comic book superheroes have multiplied and, in the process, become more complicated. In this cutting edge anthology an international roster of contributors offer original research and writing on the contemporary comic book superhero, with occasional journeys into the film and television variation. As superheroes and their stories have grown with the audiences that consume them, their formulas, conventions, and narrative worlds have altered to follow suit, injecting new, unpredictable and more challenging characterizations that engage ravenous readers who increasingly demand more.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Part I: "That's the Problem with You Readers, You Know All the Plots": Time, Genre and Narration
1. Comic Book Superheroes: An Introduction
Angela Ndalianis
2. 'Just Men in Tights': Rewriting Silver Age Comics in an Era of Multiplicity
Henry Jenkins
3. The Time of Heroes: Narrative, Progress and Eternity in Miracleman
Paul Atkinson
4. 'Worlds Within Worlds': The Role of Superheroes in the Marvel and DC Universes
Jason Bainbridge
5. Baroque Mutants in the 21st Century? Re-thinking Genre through the Superhero
Saige Walton
Part II: "We act normal, mom! I want to be normal!": Superbodies, Identities and Fans
6. Secret Identity Politics
Scott Bukatman
7. The Superhero as Labor: The Secret Corporate Identity
Greg M. Smith
8. When Fangirls Perform: The Gendered Fan Identity in Superhero Comics Fandom
Karen Healey
9. Recruiting an Amazon: The Collision of Old World Ideology and New World Identity in Wonder Woman
Clare Pitkethly
10. 'Oy Gevalt!': A Peek at the Development of Jewish Superheroines
Jennifer Dowling
Part III: "I'm Just a Puppet Who Can See the Strings": Revisions, Retellings and Auteurs
11. Entering the Green: Imaginal Space in Black Orchid
Sallye Sheppeard
12. The Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Clark Kent Surpassed Superman
Vanessa Russell
13. It's a Jungle in Here: Animal Man, Continuity Issues and the Authorial Death Drive
Steven Zani
14. Morrison's Muscle Mystery versus Everyday Reality ... and Other Parallel Worlds!
Martyn Pedler
15. Enter the Aleph: Superhero Worlds and Hypertime Realities
Angela Ndalianis
List of Contributors
Index
