ABSTRACT

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.

part |2 pages

Part I “That’s the Problem With You Readers, You Know All the Plots”: Time, Genre, and Narration

part |2 pages

Part II “We Act Normal, Mom! I Want to Be Normal!”: Superbodies, Identities, and Fans

chapter 6|17 pages

Secret Identity Politics

BySCOTT BUKATMAN

chapter 7|18 pages

The Superhero as Labor: The Corporate Secret Identity

ByGREG M. SMITH

chapter 10|19 pages

‘Oy Gevalt!’: A Peek at the Development of Jewish Superheroines

ByJENNIFER DOWLING

part |2 pages

Part III “I’m Just a Puppet Who Can See the Strings” Revisions, Retellings, and Auteurs