ABSTRACT
Filibus is an Italian silent film that contains traces of the superhero narrative in its narrative parallelism, its imagination of technologies, and most strikingly, in the multiple, secret, and transforming personas of its lead character. In Filibus, the Baroness relies on her medium in her manifestation, illumination, and animation. Fantomas became a popular comic book character in Latin America in the 1960s. As a morally upstanding character, Judex was designed in direct opposition to the villainous Fantomas. The charismatic Judex is at the centre of a collective of characters, including some who seem to be resurrected from presumed death, all of whom are dedicated to justice. The costuming, mise-en-scene, and silent film techniques that incarnate the fantastic worlds that in Filibus, Fantomas, and Judex create compelling characters and convoluted serial narratives that produce layered fantasies that, at moments, destabilise the willing suspension of disbelief.
