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Kim, Jiyeon. "A to Z of Superhero Movies." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1934.
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This project explores the question of originality and appropriation in the creative world by using mashup video as a medium. How can old repetitive stories be deconstructed and transformed into something new? I have created alphabetically ordered montages of shots/scenes containing words/letters from superhero films. By doing so, I do not provide a concrete answer to what is really original in today’s world, but rather encourage the audience to actively participate in the viewing experience of the carefully structured ontology and see the infinite possibility of the modern-day mashup culture.
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Turner, Caleb. "Spectacular rhythms : cultural conflict in the contemporary superhero film." Thesis, University of Kent, 2016. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/55167/.
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This thesis proposes a new analytical perspective to the interplay between the entertaining escapism afforded by spectacular action sequences and the expression of cultural themes in the 2000s-present contemporary superhero film cycle. In the introduction I give a review of the spectacle and narrative debate to explain how current studies on popular action film have tended to primarily focus on the way spectacular displays support narrative progression by driving forward the film plot’s narrative chain of cause-and-effect over time. However, the review then explains that whenever the cultural themes invested in these action film narratives are concerned, there is often an assumption that thematic values only surface intermittently as symbolic motifs at certain moments, and so do not really benefit from this kind of storytelling momentum to the same extent. The introduction then sets up my claim that spectacle not only aids the progression of plot by energising narrative causality and temporal progression, but spectacle also contributes other rhythmically kinetic arcs of narration able to developmentally evolve thematic tales of cultural conflict, which I term as narrativised spectacle. I explain my method as one combining a genre theory framework to uncover the cultural contradictions invested in action narratives alongside a neoformalist analysis of the rhythmic components of physical motion, editing, framing, composition and digital visual effects that express these thematic tensions. Examples are then given to show why contemporary superhero films depend on such kinetic kinds of spectacular rhythm, and provide a key case study to work with. Each chapter finds evidence for my claim by analysing how different kinds of kinetic arc are generated by the audio-visual rhythms of spectacle: able to introduce, challenge, destabilise, conflate, reinstate and eventually reconcile a series of conflicting cultural themes akin to an evolving tale. In the first chapter I explore the physical and spatial spectacle of action sequences. In the second chapter I look at the melodramatic theatrics of performance techniques. In the third chapter I critically interrogate the violent action of the superhero film alongside the themes of masculinity invoked therein. In the final chapter I deal with superheroines. Although these heroines employ these same thematic rhythms as male superheroes, the kinetic arcs are noticeably far more interrupted, due to being burdened with themes of androcentrism. The conclusion then summarises exactly what narrativised spectacle contributes to existing debates on spectacle and narrative, and why it is particularly useful for studying the contemporary superhero-action film.
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Kirkpatrick, Ellen. "Recovering the radical promise of the superhero genre : transformation, representation, worldmaking." Thesis, Kingston University, 2017. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/40865/.
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This thesis responds to a question: if the Western mainstream superhero genre is so radical then why does it feel so reactionary in practice? The framing of this distinctive question points to the genre's ideologically unstable and contradictory meaningscape. Genre meaning is polysemous and shaped by official and unofficial meaning-makers, and yet, it routinely falls into duality. The genre tells, and facilitates, an astonishingly seamless tale of opposing ideologies. But, how? This thesis, innovatively maps this untheorised ideological divergence through three fronts: transformation, representation, and worldmaking. It is sited outside the conventional parameters of genre discourse and knowledge production. It makes several contributions to knowledge, as indicated below, and introduces some new terms and tools. It demonstrates, for instance, the value in reconceoptialising the concept of escape as 'e-scape' and worldmaking as 'world-un/making'. It asserts that genre meaning (and our perception of transformation) is shaped by a nexus of divergent forces: concept (how we think about it), representation (how we show/see it), and practice (how we do it). It draws the idea of 'promise' from Haraway (1992) and Cohen (2012) and institutes the idea that superheroes, as well as monsters, possess 'promise' (radical or otherwise). It reveals superheroic transformation as an omnipresent source of radicalism. It goes on to identify and theorise a disconnect between the (radical) concept of a superhero and its mainstream representation (conservative). It asserts that even though portraying transforming figures, superhero representation stays firmly within hegemonic lines, and it concludes that the radicalism of transformation, and superheroes, is lost in the telling. But it does not stop there; to do so would be to mark an area of the genre's meaning-map, 'Here Be Monsters'. Fans and audiences, particularly minority fans, are the final, critical, worldmaking element of this thesis. Whilst the genre talks about fantastic transformations, transgressive minority superhero fans perform them. This thesis illuminates continuing minority engagement with a beloved, but exclusionary and often hostile, genre. It reconceptualises this transgressive mode of textual engagement as a form of textual escapology, or 'texcapology'; a practice that not only keeps the genre 'alive' for excluded audiences and fans, but aids the recovery of the genre's lost radical promise. Theorising the genre's multivocal meaningscape allows the assertion that genre meaning is promissory rather than binary. This thesis asserts that genre meaning is a case of 'both/and' (radical and conservative) rather than 'either/or'. It concludes that the genre's unstable and contradictory meaningscape is itself a site of radical promise.
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Sheppard, Natalie R. "Invincible: Legacy and Propaganda in Superhero Comics." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2014. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1943.
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Captain America and Iron Man are both iconic American heroes, representing different American values. Captain America was created during the Golden Age of comics and represents a longing for the past, while Iron Man was created at the height of the Cold War and looks forward to a new America. This paper will first establish the historical and cultural relationship between comic books and propaganda, beginning with the first appearance of Superman. It will pay special attention to the similarities and differences of Captain America and Iron Man, focusing on their representation of American values over time, and discuss how that aspect of the characters affects their ongoing titles today.
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Moore, Abigail. "With Great Power: A Narrative Analysis of Ethical Decisions in Superhero Films." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2019. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/558570.
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Media & CommunicationM.A.
This study examines ethical decision-making processes as practiced by the cultural mythic hero of our time: the superhero. This study conducts a rhetorical narrative analysis of three key superhero films (The Dark Knight, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War) to locate moments when superhero characters make ethical decisions. The study evaluates their decision-making process using three ethical frameworks selected for their popularity in ethics courses as well as their relevance to the subject material; deontology, virtue ethics, and utilitarianism. Superheroes are famous for doing ‘the right thing’, and the purpose of this study is to determine to what degree these films function as an ethics education tool for the public which consumes them. In other words: do these films have a potential to instruct the viewer in answering ‘what is right’? This study looks closely at the ethical decision-making process in superhero films and determines the ways in which superhero films may indicate a potential for teaching ethical theory when these characters make the moral decisions for which they are famed. This study determined that utilitarianism and virtue ethics are both highly visible in superhero films, but rather than serving as a medium for learning, these films build and glorify a cult of personality. Ultimately, these films create messages which encourage the viewer to blindly accept ethical decisions made by the powerful, and to tolerate – and even crave – a tyrannical ruler. Because of the cultural impact these films have, a propagandistic message like this reaches millions of people, and it is vital to understand what the contents of that message are.
Temple University--Theses
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O'Connor, Lauren R. "Trusty Teens: Reading American Adolescence through the Superhero Sidekick." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555331330935278.
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Beemer, Lawrence W. "American Superhero Comics: Fractal Narrative and The New Deal." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1303837053.
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Smith, Joshua Ryan. "Dick Grayson: Relatability, Catharsis, and the Positive Development of a Superhero." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1605268454563874.
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Pape, Anthony P. "Overdose: Constructing Television from the Cracks in the Superhero Content Conglomerate." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors162025124846866.
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Mason, Lizabeth Dutilly. "American Masculinity in Crisis: Trauma and Superhero Blockbusters." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1277140451.
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Misailidou, Eftychia. "Female Representation in TV : the case of the superhero genre." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-41599.
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Kim, Michelle. "Cracking the Hollywood Formula: The Secret Powers of the Superhero Franchise." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/396.
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There are many perceived advantages of developing a film from a comic book series such as its preexisting built-in audiences, easy marketability, licensing opportunities of comic book characters, and easily adaptable stories. All these qualities make the comic book conducive to film adaptation and profitable franchises. Studios have also taken notice and have been producing comic book inspired films in record numbers in the past decade. This thesis will investigate the comic book-to-film phenomena and will attempt to quantify whether it is in fact as lucrative as it appears. In order to quantify the effect of the comic book variable on film's success, this study will utilize the ordinary least squares method. By regressing the comic variable along with all other control variables, we hope to determine if the effect of the comic variable varies between two different measures of success.
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Nicosia, Matthew. "Performing the Female Superhero: An Analysis of Identity Acquisition, Violence, and Hypersexuality in DC Comics." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1476751594815625.
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Zaidan, Sarah Z. "The adventures of MetaMan : the superhero as a representation of modern Western masculinity (1940-2010)." Thesis, Kingston University, 2011. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/22375/.
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The Adventures ofMetaMan: The Superhero as a Representation ofModem Western Masculinity (1940-2010) is a practice-based research project. The aim of this research project is to develop interactive works of art that interrogate superhero narratives and representations of male identity, with the potential to relate to the experiences of relevant users in educational environments. At the current stage of the project, young men aged 11-14 in the English school system are a possible target audience. The work of art takes the form of interactive software written in Adobe Flash, with additional visuals created by myself in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe lllustrator and through traditional pen-and-ink drawings. The conceptualisation, development and execution of both software and content took place over a three-year period. While numerous literary and artistic references were employed in order to actualise this work, the software's visuals and words were entirely self-created. The work's original contribution to knowledge is found in the project's form. In combining the platform of digital media with the artistic styles and narrative themes of the superhero genre of comic books, the project explores the subjects of heroes and masculinity and has the potential to help its target audience to understand that the definition of masculinity is always in a state of flux. As evidenced by the historical texts, studies of visual culture, gender, and media representations of heroes and men that were referenced to develop the software, different types of men, ranging from the civil rights activist of the 1960s to the macho action movie star of the 1990s and significant representations of masculinity between these decades have been regarded as hero figures at different points in time. The conc~pt of masculinity is fluid and reliant upon a variety of factors such as current events, cultural trends, politics, economics and popular culture and this is reflected in the evolution of the superhero in Western mass media. The MetaMan project showcases the impact that heroes and role models have and the way that art can echo culture and society. It can provide a fully interactive experience that places modern masculinity into the context of the user's life and circumstances, adapting to each user. The software is accompanied by a written component detailing the reasons for its form and potential audience, the artistic process necessary to create it, an account of a pilot scheme conducted with 120 male students aged 11-14 in the English school system and the further applications and plans for the future stages of the MetaMan project.
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Plencner, Joshua. "Four-Color Political Visions: Origin, Affect, and Assemblage in American Superhero Comic Books." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18748.
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This project develops extant theories of political affect and relational identification and affinity formation by tracing how the visual images of an understudied archive--American superhero comic books--work to build multiple, alternative, fitful, inchoate, and sometimes radically creative spaces for visions of the political to take shape and develop over time. By analyzing and interpreting the generic superhero phenomenon of origin stories in comic books and by mapping the formal and narrative techniques used to construct origin stories, I show how received understandings of power, order, justice, violence, whiteness, masculinity, and heteronormativity often linger outside of language in an analytically untapped relational space between bodies--the space of political affect. Visual images of superheroes thus do more than take up space within political sign-systems; I argue them as material engines of affect, as engines of potential and usefully critical political identities and affinities. Superhero comic books, a cultural form often disregarded as childish or even ideologically dangerous, are thus recovered in this project as theoretically complex, offering speculative feminisms, anti-racism, and queer temporalities that link these popular objects of visual culture to ongoing traditions of utopianism and foundational revisionism within American political culture.
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Mandel, Susannah. "Mask and closet ; or, "Under the Hood" : metaphors and representations of homosexuality in American superhero comics after 1985." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40029.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-176).
An examination of the changing representation of male homosexuality in American superhero comics between the years 1986 and 2003. The thesis gives some theoretical attention to problems of epistemology, and the uses of connotative as opposed to denotative representation and reading. It traces the history of the discourse to the paranoia and anxiety generated by Fredric Wertham's 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent, which has led to an anxiety about "the gay-Batman reading" that has affected the shape of the genre's evolution. In Part One, the thesis examines the ways in which superhero comics have historically discussed homosexuality, using metaphors or symbolic "tropes," which variously imagine the superhero as a costume fetishist, as flamboyant, as sadomasochistic, as suspiciously homosocial, or as a pedophile. In Part Two, close readings of contemporary instances of gay characters in superhero texts offers insights into current trends in representation. The close readings examine Northstar, of the Marvel comics Alpha Flight and Uncanny X-Men; Apollo and the Midnighter, of the comics Stormwatch and The Authority, variously published by Wildstorm and DC Comics; and the character Terry Berg in Green Lantern, published by DC Comics.
by Susannah Mandel.
S.M.
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Cook, Joseph J. "Fantasies of Metal and Wires: Battling Corporate Hegemony and the Achievement of Posthuman Masculinity in Recent Superhero Cinema." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002909.
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Åhl, Rebecka. "The Superman Speaks and the Wonder Woman Keeps Quiet : Men and Women's Speech in Contemporary Superhero Movies." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-43182.
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This qualitative study aims to investigate how gender is reflected through language in the two superhero movies Wonder Woman and Man of Steel. Emphasis is put on five linguistic markers that have been found to differ between female and male speakers. These markers are: amount of speech, interruptions, questions, minimal responses and hedges. The analysis investigates the transcribed “cross-sex” conversation between the superhero and his or her companion in each movie. The findings reveal that even though it is difficult to detect any clear patterns, there are correlations with previous research regarding the markers amount of speech, interruptions and questions. These correlations show that the conversations to some extent reflect results from earlier studies concluding that men speak and interrupt more, whereas women ask more questions. No notable difference was detected regarding the use of hedges and minimal responses. Although some time has passed between the publication of several studies regarding these five linguistic markers and the selected movies, the results show correlation between the findings on men- and women’s language use.
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Buehner, R. James. "“I WARN YOU MING, STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!”:THE LANGUAGE OF SUPERHERO MYTHOLOGY IN FLASH GORDON." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1462995644.
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Monk, Ryan Michael. "Pretty/Violent: Cinematic Action Heroines From 2015 to 2020." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1617382007581432.
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Prince, Rob. "Say Hello to My Little Friend: De Palma's Scarface, Cinema Spectatorship, and the Hip Hop Gangsta as Urban Superhero." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1256860175.
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Jeffery, Scott W. "Superhuman, transhuman, post/human : mapping the production and reception of the posthuman body." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/19464.
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The figure of the cyborg, or more latterly, the posthuman body has been an increasingly familiar presence in a number of academic disciplines. The majority of such studies have focused on popular culture, particularly the depiction of the posthuman in science-fiction, fantasy and horror. To date however, few studies have focused on the posthuman and the comic book superhero, despite their evident corporeality, and none have questioned comics’ readers about their responses to the posthuman body. This thesis presents a cultural history of the posthuman body in superhero comics along with the findings from twenty-five, two-hour interviews with readers. By way of literature reviews this thesis first provides a new typography of the posthuman, presenting it not as a stable bounded subject but as what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) describe as a ‘rhizome’. Within the rhizome of the posthuman body are several discursive plateaus that this thesis names Superhumanism (the representation of posthuman bodies in popular culture), Post/Humanism (a critical-theoretical stance that questions the assumptions of Humanism) and Transhumanism (the philosophy and practice of human enhancement with technology). With these categories in mind the thesis explores the development of the posthuman in body in the Superhuman realm of comic books. Exploring the body-types most prominent during the Golden (1938-1945), Silver (1958-1974) and contemporary Ages of superheroes it presents three explorations of what I term the Perfect Body, Cosmic Body and Military-Industrial Body respectively. These body types are presented as ‘assemblages’ (Delueze and Guattari, 1987) that display rhizomatic connections to the other discursive realms of the Post/Human and Transhuman. This investigation reveals how the depiction of the Superhuman body developed and diverged from, and sometimes back into, these realms as each attempted to territorialise the meaning and function of the posthuman body. Ultimately it describes how, in spite of attempts by nationalistic or economic interests to control Transhuman enhancement in real-world practices, the realms of Post/Humanism and Superhumanism share a more critical approach. The final section builds upon this cultural history of the posthuman body by addressing reader’s relationship with these images. This begins by refuting some of the common assumptions in comics studies about superheroes and bodily representations. Readers stated that they viewed such imagery as iconographic rather than representational, whether it was the depiction of bodies or technology. Moreover, regular or committed readers of superhero comics were generally suspicious of the notion of human enhancement, displaying a belief in the same binary categories -artificial/natural, human/non-human - that critical Post/Humanism seeks to problematize. The thesis concludes that while superhero comics remain ultimately too human to be truly Post/Humanist texts, it is never the less possible to conceptualise the relationship between reader, text, producer and so on in Post/Humanist terms as reading-assemblage, and that such a cyborgian fusing of human and comic book allow both bodies to ‘become other’, to move in new directions and form new assemblages not otherwise possible when considered separately.
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Gaswint, Kiera M. "A Comparative Study of Women's Aggression." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1523032004159866.
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McWilliams, Ora C. ""Hey Batman, what are your parents getting you for Christmas?" the orphan narrative and non-traditional families in American superhero publications /." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1245711175.
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Poulsen, Emelie. "Superman and Wonder Woman to the rescue : “Man of Steel” and “Wonder Woman” as pedagogical aids to discuss gender in the EFL classroom." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-81680.
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As the American superhero films continue to increase their popularity around the globe, and because of the reccurent criticism against their poor and stereotypical representation, this essay aims to analyse the two newly made productions Man of Steel and Wonder Woman from a gender perspective. The essay argues a difference in Superman and Wonder Woman’s superhero images and further discussess the opportunities as well as potential problems the superhero narratives can offer to discuss gender in the EFL classroom.
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DeGalan, Anna Jean. "Crescendos of the Caped Crusaders: An Evolutionary Study of Soundtracks From DC Comics' Superheroes." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1598268218822254.
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Larsson, Vix. "Låt ingen komma undan : Hanteringen av främmande kroppar i Marvels filmuniversum." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-25607.
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This essay examines the appearance of non-normative bodies in three films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe; The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), in an attempt to find qualities that might suggest queer, non-binary or gender disruptive attributes, in addition to looking at how the movies handle them. Using a combination of feminist film theory, queer theory and discourse analysis, the Otherness of these bodies are put into contrast with the normative and hegemonic gender expressions employed by the protagonists, the heroes of the films. While the study finds several indications of transgressive bodies and 'gender ambiguity' among the creatures and beings who play the part of inhuman threat, as well as the presence of discourses that paint them as threatening partly because of these qualities, they remain blurred and ill-defined, their queerness inferred rather than overt. The preferred reading, the analysis suggests, offers little in the way of identification, but all the more with regard to oppression. The way these bodies are treated in all three films implies that the tolerance for bodily deviance is virtually non-existent, and that a defining quality of masculine leadership is the ability to banish them from existence.
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Budirska, Alzbeta. ""This Is a Forced Feminist Agenda" : IMDb users and their understanding of feminism negotiated in the reviews of superheroine films." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-104302.
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The thesis examines how users of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) negotiate feminism in their reviews of four superheroine films – Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, and Wonder Woman 1984. By combining critical discourse analysis with methods of corpus linguists, this corpus-based study of over 18,000 reviews analyses the frequency of the topic of feminism in the reviews, words and topics associated with it and the way the reviewers reflect broader mediated discourse over the four films, and the role of IMDb as a space for these reviews. The findings show that feminism is still understood as an anti-male movement where female-led films are shielded from criticism by the mainstream media by the virtue of the lead’s gender, the superheroines are criticised for being overpowered particularly where they have no equal male supporting character and that perceived feminist messaging is usually written off as a forced political agenda or as an insincere cash grab made by corporates which effectively use feminism for promotion. It also reveals IMDb as a highly polarised platform where the users leaving 1- and 10-star reviews are generalized as representatives of different sides of the political spectrum (antifeminist vs feminist, conservative vs liberal) regardless of the actual content of the review.
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Johnson, Seth. "HISTORY, MYTH AND SECULARISM ACROSS THE BORDERLANDS: THE WORK OF MICHAEL CHABON." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1392155557.
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Maulden, Hannah Leah. "Heroes and Villains: Political Rhetoric in Post-9/11 Popular Media." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1431964700.
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Woods, Brittany Nicole. "The International Community's Response to the Hypothetical Emergence of Superheroes." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1510.
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In a golden era for comic based media, this paper uses the hypothetical emergence of superheroes to analyze the assumptions and predictions of three international relations theories: realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Comics consistently reflect the real world, paralleling events and concepts discussed in foreign affairs dialogues. The thought experiment, and the comic genre itself, provides a vehicle for thinking broadly about the political and social ramifications of successful or failed problem solving, state interaction, and scientific advances.
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Hatch, Kevin. "With great power comes no responsibility : reflexive ideology through spectacle-violence in the superhero films of Marvel Studios." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/47092.
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This work critically interrogates the superhero films of Marvel Studios and their textual treatment of, and the ideological function of, violent action spectacle. In Chapter One, I trace a chronology of superhero films and their corresponding treatment of violence, up to the onset of Marvel Studios, and the release of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in 2008. I argue that Marvel superhero films respond to the genre’s previously tenuous treatment of spectacle-violence in the face of 9/11 and other instances of sociopolitical violence. Instead, Marvel Studios reappropriates action-violence interludes as ‘safe’ sites for audience enjoyment, undiminished by sociopolitical reflection. In doing so, Marvel crafts a brand identity of ‘reflexive wit,’ further integrating comedy into action sequences, and foregrounding provocative, yet superficial, sociopolitical commentary. In doing so, the Marvel films discourage audience preoccupation with the politics or ethical ramifications of spectacle violence. The films court the sense that, through such reflexivity, no further reflection is necessary, allowing audiences to unrepentantly enjoy the action violence.
In Chapter Two, I explore the narrative techniques employed in Marvel films to foster viewer connection with their superheroes. I argue that the Marvel films draw upon a blend of comic book textual references, mythic intertexts, and pathos and humour, to court a dichotomy of ‘mythic accessibility,’ coding their heroes as sympathetic, valorized, sanctioned, ‘acceptable’ agents of violence. As such, Marvel utilizes violent action spectacle to mediate dominant cultural ideologies. In Chapter Three, I discuss the resonance of this support for the heroic protagonist, arguing the Marvel films thematically perpetuate textual ideologies of deference and unquestioned subservience. Such ideological resonance extends not only to exceptional superheroes, but to the political superstructures they are affiliated with, which are, by proxy, equally valorized (namely, the United States military and NSA, by means of surrogate entity, ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’).
Ultimately, I argue that the Marvel films purportedly privilege an active audience, but subliminally endorse a passive, unreflective one. This allows for textual amplification not only in regards to the scope and intensity of spectacle violence and action combat, but the political intertexts ideologically mediated through said action sequences, rebranded as unreflective ‘fun.’
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Dhungana, Navaraj. "Background discrimination studies and measurements of droplet and bubble size for the Picasso experiment." Thesis, Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2014. https://zone.biblio.laurentian.ca/dspace/handle/10219/2188.
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The Project in Canada to Search for Supersymmetric Objects (PICASSO) searches for cold dark matter through the direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via spin-dependent and spin independent interactions with 19F nuclei. The detection principle is based on the superheated droplet technique; the detectors consist of a gel matrix with millions of liquid droplets of superheated fluorocarbon (C4F10) dispersed in it. In order to reduce the background, it is essential to distinguish the signature of different background particles interacting in the detector. A dedicated setup was developed in order to study the response of the C4F10 droplets in the presence of different backgrounds.
The main objectives of this research are to identify the actual size (diameter) of the droplet increases due to phase transition and to check and establish the correlation between the droplet size and the maximum amplitude of the signal. In addition, the alpha-neutron discrimination was studied by observing each event’s image frames and the associated acoustic signal to get the amplitude distribution. The mean ratio of bubble size to droplet size was found to be 5.48, independent of temperature and type of interacting particle. Furthermore, no correlation was found between the droplet size and the maximum amplitude of the signal. As for the discrimination studies, the analysis of the signal events has confirmed that alphas generated outside the active liquid in the gel are much more difficult to discriminate from neutron than when alphas are generated inside the active liquid.
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Milosavljevic, Filip, and Philip Wernersson. "Kvinnliga superhjältar i en maskulin värld : En jämförelse av tre kvinnliga superhjältar på film och i tv-serier mellan 1974 - 2020." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-44038.
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In this essay, we examine how three female superheroes in movies are portrayed and how that role has changed over time. We have chosen to examine Wonder woman, Supergirl and Black widow. The time period exanimated was a period between 1974 and 2020. The time period was chosen by availability to material from real feature movies and TV series. The purpose of the essay is to investigate whether there are any general differences in how female superheroes have been portrayed in movies and in TV series during the specified time period. What we examine is whether they have been sexualized, both in appearance and personality. We selected a goal-oriented selection that has been made of the movies and TV series we examined. Our findings indicate that the portrayal of these female super heroes has over time changed by increasing the depth of emotions. Our first analysis showed that the first portrayal did not include emotions but later on in the new movies and TV series we can find that the heroes have a more emotional story line and character. In the first movies and TV series, the superheroes do not encounter any major problems other than having to save the world, in the 2010s the storyline goes in to more depth and they face difficulties in managing their superpowers or having to deal with their past. The category of superpowers has not changed among the characters if we ignore Wonder woman. Clothes are from the beginning something that sexualized the characters and does not change over time, however, the sexualization of the superheroes' clothes is questioned in the later movies and TV series. We can also see a pattern of the female characters having feminine traits. The portrayal of a female as tender and maternal has over time not changed but there is a change over time in giving female characters’ other traits like aggression.
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Ernsth, Bravell Gunnar. "The Super-Male and the Super-Female : Gender Criticism in Watchmen." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-42767.
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This essay aims to analyze if the graphic novel Watchmen criticizes the conventions of the superhero comic genre in regards to gender. The literary theory applied is gender studies. The essay examines the visual portrayal of male and female characters, as well as the male-dominated narrative. The novel does, to some extent, satirize the genre conventions. This can be seen in the hyperbolic visual portrayals of the characters, as well as the comments made on them. However, as there is a lack of self-aware criticism, the novel could not be considered as a satire of the visual representation of genders within the genre, but rather a reinforcement of them. Furthermore, the male-dominated narrative is present in Watchmen, and Laurie could be seen as satirizing this genre convention, as she is a hyperbolic interpretation of the girlfriend archetype. However, there is little change or self-aware critique against the genre norms here as well, thus it cannot be considered satire. Laurie does, however, show criticism of the violence against women within the genre by making a number of comments on the attempted rape of her mother. This may not be satire but she does provide commentary of this trope. In conclusion, while there are instances of criticism, the novel as a whole cannot be considered satire of the superhero genre.
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Rohrdanz, Jessica Lynn. "Superheroes for a Superpower: Batman, Spider-Man and the Quest for an American Identity." Connect to resource online, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1242442545.
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Söderström, Gardevåg Rebecka. "Challenging Adamant Norms : An analysis of the portrayal of childhood and gender in the Handbook for Superheroes books." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema Barn, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-160208.
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Children’s literature is one of many important influences of childhood socialization and teaches children about contemporary society. Therefore, it is important to understand what messages children’s literature convey. In this thesis, I analyze four contemporary, Swedish graphic novels, aimed at children between the ages of six and nine years old. My research questions are: how do the studied books portray children and childhood? And how do the books portray the intersectional positions of girlhood and boyhood? To gather and analyze my data, I used close reading and thematic analysis. This process resulted in three themes, which I call: ‘a child in need of protection or the competent child’, ‘the gender-neutral superhero or the gendered superhero’ and ‘constructing girlhood and boyhood’. The results show that the books depict children in two ways; either as dependent and vulnerable or as competent agents. This relates to traditional, developmental understandings of children as well as understandings of children as formulated by the new paradigm for the study of childhood. Moreover, the results problematize the role of the superhero, specifically the ways in which the books explicitly gender the superhero in the text and portrays what could either be interpreted as a gender-neutral or an implicitly masculine superhero in the illustrations. Finally, the results indicate that the books depict girlhood and boyhood as contrasting identities. In conclusion, the authors of the books seem interested in challenging conventional norms regarding children and childhood, in line with a larger trend among Swedish children’s literature. At the same time, the books also convey traditional norms regarding both girlhood and boyhood, such as by the clear markers of age and gender in the illustrations.Barnlitteratur är en av många viktiga influenser på barndomssocialisation och lär barn om det samtida samhället. Därför är det viktigt att förstå vilka budskap som barnlitteratur förmedlar. I denna uppsats analyserar jag fyra samtida svenska grafiska noveller riktade till barn mellan sex och nio år. Mina frågeställningar är: hur skildrar de studerade böckerna barn och barndom? Och hur skildrar böckerna de intersektionella positionerna flickskap och pojkskap? För att samla in och analysera min data har jag använt mig av närläsning och tematisk analys. Denna process resulterade i tre teman som jag kallar: ’ett barn i behov av skydd eller det kompetenta barnet’, ’den genusneutrala superhjälten eller den könade hjälten’ och ’att konstruera flickskap och pojkskap’. Resultaten visar att böckerna skildrar barn på två sätt: antingen som utsatta och i beroendeställning eller som kompetenta agenter. Dessa relaterar till traditionella, utvecklingsmässiga förståelser av barn liksom förståelser av barn så som de formulerats av det nya paradigmet för studiet av barndom. Dessutom problematiserar resultaten superhjälterollen, specifikt det sätt på vilket böckerna explicit könar superhjälten i text och porträtterar vad som antingen kan tolkas som en genusneutral eller en implicit maskulin superhjälte i illustrationerna. Till sist så indikerar resultaten att böckerna skildrar flickskap och pojkskap som kontrasterande identiteter. Sammanfattningsvis så verkar författarna av böckerna intresserade av att utmana konventionella normer rörande barn och barndom, i linje med en större trend bland svenska barnböcker. Samtidigt så skildrar böckerna också traditionella normer gällande både flickskap och pojkskap, så som genom de tydliga markörerna för ålder och genus i illustrationerna.
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Nyberg, Evelin. "Leadership, assembled : A narrative analysis of the construction of leadership in relation to democracy in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame." Thesis, Jönköping University, HLK, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-53618.
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Superhero film is currently a popular form of entertainment, which during recent years has become political in its content. While research has previously shown that the superhero narrative carries messages of ideology and social issues, little is known of how the film genre communicates regarding leadership. Through examining the narratives in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, this study aims to explore how leadership is constructed in relation to democracy in a democratic context by using the United States as an example. The study utilises theorisations of democracy as well as representation theory, supplemented by three concepts borrowed from the leadership theory trait theory. The narrative analysis and the narrative plot points are used as method with a model of analysis to retrieve the empirical evidence. The study’s results show that the villain, while having a societal motivation which can be considered democratic, mostly represented nondemocratic traits. The superheroes mostly show democratic leadership, but they are not able to solve the conflict with the villain democratically. This suggests that the leadership constructed in a democratic context still contains some limitations, which could be connected to how nondemocratic actions are justified in some situations even in the democratic context.
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Kilbourne, Kylee. "With Great Power: Examining the Representation and Empowerment of Women in DC and Marvel Comics." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/433.
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Throughout history, comic books and the media they inspire have reflected modern society as it changes and grows. But women’s roles in comics have often been diminished as they become victims, damsels in distress, and sidekicks. This thesis explores the problems that female characters often face in comic books, but it also shows the positive representation that new creators have introduced over the years. This project is a genealogy, in which the development of the empowered superwoman is traced in modern age comic books. This discussion includes the characters of Kamala Khan, Harley Quinn, Gwen Stacy, and Barbara Gordon and charts how these four women have been empowered and disempowered throughout their comic canon. It rejects the lens of postfeminism and suggests that an intersectional feminism is still needed in today’s ever-evolving and diversifying world. Popular culture must be representative of everyone, and today’s women authors will be the driving force of diversity in comic books.
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Hutton, Zina. "Queering The Clown Prince of Crime: A Look at Queer Stereotypes as Signifiers In DC Comics’ The Joker." FIU Digital Commons, 2018. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3702.
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The goal of this thesis is to explore the way heterosexism and homophobia are present in the coding that has created an implied and monstrous queer identity for the Joker, present in many versions of the character over the past forty years. Through close readings of several of the Joker’s most iconic appearances, queer theory texts, and analytical essays on pop culture, this paper will analyze the use of queer signifiers present in the comics and the way that these portrayals of the Joker are rife with harmful and heterocentric perceptions of what comic creators have seen as necessary signifiers for queerness. Additionally, I will be using knowledge gleaned from my own preexisting work with fan and cultural studies in order to talk about the way that this portrayal of the Joker has been developed within fandom/fan communities and how it is continually replicated in superhero media.
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Bonadè, Sophie. "Des superhéroïnes à Gotham City : une étude de la (re)définition des rôles genrés dans l’univers de Batman." Thesis, Université Paris-Saclay (ComUE), 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019SACLE024/document.
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La thèse Des superhéroïnes à Gotham City: une étude de la (re) définition des rôles genrés dans l'univers de Batman s'intéresse à l'apparition et à l'évolution de trois superhéroïnes – Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman – dans les comic books de l'éditeur DC Comics. Cette recherche vise à montrer comment le contexte de production a influencé les origines de ces personnages. Ces origines, si elles sont sans cesse réécrites dans les comic books, ne se détachent jamais totalement de ces éléments initiaux, mais construisent des variations à partir de ceux-ci. Depuis les années 1980, alors que le nombre total de superhéroïnes du catalogue de l'éditeur DC Comics augmente significativement, ces personnages se retrouvent soumis à de nouveaux stéréotypes de genre dans des récits où elles sont des personnages secondaires. Les récits parus postérieurement, dans lesquels Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman sont protagonistes, héritent de ces stéréotypes qu'ils peuvent reproduire, détourner et/ou dépasser. Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman, puisqu'elles apparaissent à différents moments de l'histoire des superhéroïnes et de l'éditeur DC Comics – les débuts des années 1940, la relève des superhéros durant les années 1960 et les questionnements autour des questions de représentativités des années 2000 – nous offrent trois approches différentes de la place des superhéroïnes dans l'univers de BatmanSuperheroines in Gotham City: (Re)Defined Gender Roles in the Batman Universe examines the emergence and evolution of three superheroines - Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman - in comic books from the publisher DC Comics. This research aims at showing how the production context has influenced the origin of these characters. Although rewritten time and again in comic books, these origin stories never completely detach themselves from their initial elements, instead creating variations on them. Since the 1980s, when the total number of superheroines in DC Comics' catalogue increased significantly, these characters have found themselves subjected to new gender stereotypes in stories where they are secondary characters. Later stories, where Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman are protagonists, inherit these stereotypes either by reproducing, diverting and/or overcoming them. Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman are three heroins created at different key moments in the history of both DC comics productions and superheroines : the early 1940s, the resurgence of superheroes in the 1960s, and the 2000s within a context of questioning representation issues in comics. As such, they present us with three different approaches to the role of superheroines in the Batman universe throughout its publication history
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Friedenthal, Andrew J. "Heroes of the past, readers of the present, stories of the future : continuity, cultural memory, and historical revisionism in superhero comics." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/24947.
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This dissertation is a study of cultural memory, exploring how superhero comic books, and their readers and creators, look back on and make sense of the past, as well as how they use that past in the creation of community and stories today. It is my contention that the superhero comics that exist as part of a long-standing "universe," particularly those published by DC and Marvel, are inextricably linked to a sense of cultural memory which defines both the organization of their fans and the history of their stories, and that cultural memory in comics takes the twinned forms of fandom and continuity. Comic book fandom, from its very inception, has been based around memories of past stories and recollections about favorite moments, creators, characters, etc. Because of this, as many of those fans have gone on to become creators themselves, the stories they have crafted reflect that continual obsession with the histories -- loosely termed "continuity" by creators, fans, and comic book scholars -- of these fictional universes. Often, this obsession translates into an engagement with actual events from the past. In many of these cases, as with much art and ephemera that is immersed in cultural memory, these fans-turned-creators combine their interest in looking at the history of the fictional universe with a working out of actual traumatic events. My case studies focus on superhero comic books that respond to such events, particularly World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11.text
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Vena, DANIEL. "Becoming Superman: Interpolating Transsexuality into the Superman Narrative." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1974/8507.
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Reflecting the masculine ethos of the larger comic book industry, superhero comics continue to be male-dominated spaces. Within comic studies, superhero scholars problematically normalize this androcentrism by reiterating the genre’s masculinist rhetoric, repeatedly positioning superheroes as stoic figures of whiteness, nationhood, heteronormativity and able-bodied masculinity. Although some intervention has been made to challenge these interpretations, scholars fail to acknowledge how transgender and/or transsexual readers evaluate comic heroes. This thesis provides one such intervention into the field, specifically focusing on the last son of Krypton, Superman. Drawing together the work of trans, queer, feminist, psychoanalytic, and monster theorists, my research attempts to “trans” Superman; thus, (re)reading the Man of Steel in a way that distinctly reflects the experiences of those who are denied access to the figure via their/our own gender “transgressions”. By interpolating transsexuality into the Superman narrative, I rewrite the figure’s place within the genre’s cis-sexist, masculinist history and while doing so, (re)position him as a more suitable hero for the trans community.Thesis (Master, Gender Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-05 10:35:05.511
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Kidder, Orion Ussner. "Telling stories about storytelling: the metacomics of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis." Phd thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10048/1037.
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The Revisionist comics of the 1980s to present represent an effort to literally revise the existing conventions of mainstream comics. The most prominent and common device employed by the Revisionists was self-reflexivity; thus, they created metacomics. The Revisionists make a spectacle of critically interrogating the conventions of mainstream comics, but do so using those same conventions: formal, generic, stylistic, etc. At their most practical level, Revisionist metacomics denaturalise the dominant genres of the American mainstream and therefore also denaturalise the ideological underpinnings of those genres. At their most abstract level, they destabilise the concepts of "fiction," "reality," "realism," and "fantasy," and even collapse them into each other.
Chapter 1 explains my methodological approach to metacomics: formal (sequence and hybridity), self-reflexive (metafiction, metapictures, metacomics), and finally denaturalising (articulation and myth). Chapter 2 analyses two metacomic cycles in the mainstream (the Crisis and Squadron Supreme cycles) and surveys the self-reflexive elements of Underground comix (specifically with regard to gender and feminist concerns). Chapter 3 presents three motifs in Revisionist comics by which they denaturalise the superhero: the dictator-hero, postmodern historiography, and fantasy genres. Finally, Chapter 4 analyses three major Revisionist comic-book seriesTransmetropolitan, Promethea, and Sandmanall of which comment on contemporary culture and the nature of representation using the dominant genres of American comics (science fiction, superhero, and fantasy, respectively).English
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Plyley, Kathryn. "Tolerated illegality and intolerable legality: from legal philosophy to critique." Thesis, 2018. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/9259.
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This project uses Michel Foucault’s underdeveloped notion of “tolerated illegality” as a departure point for two converging inquiries. The first analyzes, and then critiques, dominant legal logics and values. This part argues that traditional legal philosophers exhibit a “disagreement without difference,” generally concurring that legal certainty and predictability enhance agency. Subsequently, this section critiques “formal legal” logic by linking it to science envy (specifically the desire for certainty and predictability), and highlighting its agency- limiting effects (e.g. the violence of law en-force-ment). The second part examines multiple dimensions of tolerated illegality, exploring the permutations of this complex socio-legal phenomenon. Here the implications of tolerated illegality are mapped across different domains, ranging from the dispossession of Indigenous peoples of their lands, to the latent ideologies embedded in superhero shows. This section also examines the idea of liberal “tolerance,” as well as the themes of power, domination, politics, bureaucracy, and authority. Ultimately, this project demonstrates that it is illuminating to study legality and (tolerated) illegality in tandem because although analyses of “formal legality” provide helpful analytical texture, the polymorphous and entangled nature of tolerated illegality makes clear just how restricted and artificial strict analyses of legality can be.Graduate