ABSTRACT
There are numerous articles and books that examine the formal organization of time in comic books with the emphasis largely on the most distinctive feature of the medium, the sequence of images on the page. This article also examines the aesthetic and formal properties of the comic book (or sequential narrative) but restricts its focus to the fi gure of the superhero and in so doing asks what features, on both the level of narrative and visual discourse, are specifi c to the representation of this type of character. This chapter is still interested in the temporality of the sequential narrative in the comic book, but the focus on the fi gure of the superhero allows for a more detailed investigation of temporality within this medium. The fi gure of the superhero both initiates and delimits the examination of the temporal properties of the medium, and consequently the study of this fi gure allows comic book serialization and visual form to be analyzed in relation to questions about immortality, progress, and the representation of eternity. To examine these issues, I have chosen Alan Moore’s Miracleman (1982-1992), in particular the fi rst volume, “A Dream of Flying,” due to its novel use of a wide variety of stylistic tropes, including its structural foregrounding of temporal themes and the exploration in the diegesis of the relationship between eternity, aging, and becoming. Moore directly attends to the asymmetries of power between humans and superheroes by drawing on classicist assumptions concerning the qualitatively different notions of time experienced by mortals and gods. One of the most innovative features of Miracleman (originally titled Marvelman)1 is the incorporation of story elements and stylistic features of the earlier edition (1954-1963) of the comic book which disrupts the usual patterns of serial continuity. Furthermore, Alan Moore’s Miracleman openly addresses the relationship between superheroes and their historical context, a theme that is also explored in his subsequent works, including Watchmen (1987) and Promethea (1999-2005).
