Superheroes and Contemporary Cultures
Cross-Medial Explorations and Societal Perspectives
Distributed for Intellect Ltd
Superheroes and Contemporary Cultures
Cross-Medial Explorations and Societal Perspectives
Offering a global and interdisciplinary perspective on the superhero genre across comics, television, and film, this book presents a diverse range of contemporary superhero scholarship. It combines close readings of iconic characters like Batman, Iron Man, and The Watchmen with critical analysis of broader cultural and societal discourses.
The volume explores how superheroes reflect and problematize ideology, the military-industrial complex, and notions of public and private responsibility. Key themes include identity construction through secret identities and masking, as well as cultural and personal grief and trauma in relation to race and politics. Designed for students, scholars, and fans alike, this work reveals the enduring mainstream appeal of superheroes and their complex intersections with global popular culture.
Table of Contents
Preface
Torsten Caeners and Danny Graydon
Introduction
By Any Other Name? Rethinking 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 Azevedo
Chapter 9: Platonist Reflections on the Darkest Knight
JG 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
Contributors