ABSTRACT
Graphic narratives of trauma often freeze moments that exercise a hold on the protagonist, sometimes through repetition, sometimes through the difficulty of recollection. Trauma narratives often include the inverse or negative of such a persistent traumatic image as well: persistent images that fail to show the traumatic events revealed or implied through words are central to several narratives about atrocity, genocide and ecological disaster. The self vacated in response to the overwhelming power of psychic trauma and the uncontrolled re-living of trauma have inspired fantastic and mythic visions of possession and metamorphosis from the earliest era of shell shock. The use of animals and monsters, particularly the visualized human–animal transformation, in a genocidal or military context visually connects genocidal cause and traumatic impact. Monstrosity as a traumatic transformation can be a revision of the “full-bodied, kinetic performance” enacted by superheroes, except as a reverse superpower which absorbs the transformative impact of shock.
