Preface
Torsten Caeners and Danny Graydon
Introduction
By Any Other Name? Rethinking the Concept and Definition of the Superhero
Torsten Caeners
Section I: Investigating Batman and/in Society
Chapter 1: Ideology in the Superhero Film: Batman and Neoliberal Fantasy
Robert Hyland
Chapter 2: Leather Wings and Broken Things – The Negotiation of Cyclical Trauma by The Dynamic Duo
Mikayla Laird
Chapter 3: The Dark Right Rises: Bat-Manhood, Populist Heroism and Übermensch Aesthetics in Sublime-Uncanny Cinema
Caleb Turner
Chapter 4: Batman and the Infinite Loop of Delinquent Production
Ewald Frühberger
Section II: Investigating the Superhero Discourse through Cross-Medial and Meta-Textual Perspectives
Chapter 5: Ready Player One and the New Mirror Stage: Superheroes, Virtual Reality and the Ideal Self
Jessica Hoffmann
Chapter 6: Masks, Values and Society. The Evolution of Superheroes into Antiheroes since the Dark Age
Marco Favaro
Chapter 7: Not every Hero is super. Unmasking the Super in Heroes of HBO’s Watchmen
Alex von Ommen
Chapter 8: ‘It’s a Strange World. Let’s Keep It That Way.’ Warren Ellis and the Dominance of New Sincerity Superheroes
Rafael Azevedo
Chapter 9: Platonist Reflections on the Darkest Knight
JG Ducreux
Chapter 10: The Superhero Logo Visual Codes: A Superman Legacy
Bruno Porto
Section III: Cultural Negotiations in the Marvel Comic and Cinematic Universes
Chapter 11: Derridean Responsibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Torsten Caeners
Chapter 12: Thanos the Machiavellian Hero
Svenja Kolpack
Chapter 13: The Idylls of small-town America: Strategies of Overcoming Trauma and Grief in WandaVision
Stefanie Caeners
Contributors