Short description:

Finding expression in comic books, television series and successful blockbuster films, the superhero has become part of everyday life. Exploring the superhero genre, its storytelling practices, its hero-types and its relationship with fans, this anthology fills a gap in research about the comic book superhero of the last 20 years.

Long description:

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.

'Angela Ndalianis's collection leaves no cape unfurled.' - M/C Reviews

'[A] genre-warping collection of essays... plenty of fanlike enthusiasm fuels these writers as they explore fascinating notions of time, space, identity, and colonialism inspired by superhero comics' colorful and disposable delights.' - The Village Voice, Sound of the City blog

Table of Contents:

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

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