In this Book
- The Superhero Reader
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University Press of Mississippi
summary
Despite their commercial appeal and cross-media reach, superheroes are only recently starting to attract sustained scholarly attention. This groundbreaking collection brings together essays and book excerpts by major writers on comics and popular culture.
While superhero comics are a distinct and sometimes disdained branch of comics creation, they are integral to the development of the North American comic book and the history of the medium. For the past half-century they have also been the one overwhelmingly dominant market genre. The sheer volume of superhero comics that have been published over the years is staggering. Major superhero universes constitute one of the most expansive storytelling canvases ever fashioned. Moreover, characters inhabiting these fictional universes are immensely influential, having achieved iconic recognition around the globe. Their images and adventures have shaped many other media, such as film, videogames, and even prose fiction.The primary aim of this reader is twofold: first, to collect in a single volume a sampling of the most sophisticated commentary on superheroes, and second, to bring into sharper focus the ways in which superheroes connect with larger social, cultural, literary, aesthetic, and historical themes that are of interest to a great many readers both in the academy and beyond.Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. xi-25
- I. HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS
- pp. 3-6
- Comics Predecessors
- pp. 7-15
- Men of Tomorrow
- pp. 16-22
- The Great Comic Book Heroes
- pp. 30-33
- The Comics and the Super State
- pp. 34-45
- The Superman Conceit
- pp. 46-52
- The Great Women Superheroes
- pp. 53-60
- Fandom and Authorship
- pp. 61-72
- II. THEORY AND GENRE
- pp. 73-77
- Literary Formulas
- pp. 78-79
- Crowds of Superheroes
- pp. 80-83
- The Epic Hero and Pop Culture
- pp. 84-98
- Masked Heroes
- pp. 99-115
- The Revisionary Superhero Narrative
- pp. 116-135
- Jack Kirby and the Marvel Aesthetic
- pp. 136-154
- Navigating Infinite Earths
- pp. 155-169
- A Song of the Urban Superhero
- pp. 170-198
- III. CULTURE AND IDENTITY
- pp. 199-202
- Wonder Woman
- pp. 203-210
- Invisible Girl
- pp. 211-215
- Love Will Bring You to Your Gift
- pp. 216-236
- Batman, Deviance and Camp
- pp. 237-251
- Color Them Black
- pp. 252-268
- Comic Book Masculinity
- pp. 269-278
- Death Defying-Heroes
- pp. 295-304
- List of Contributors
- pp. 305-308
Additional Information
ISBN
9781621039549
Related ISBN(s)
9781617038068
MARC Record
OCLC
826530845
Pages
368
Launched on MUSE
2013-08-13
Language
English
Open Access
No