The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero

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