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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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Hubbard, Ariel Elizabeth. "Stagnant Supers: Amplifying the Superhero Genre Through Novelistic Maturity." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2018. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6755.
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Few superhero scholars, if any, are discussing physical age or definitions of maturity. It seems Hollywood and consumers are reluctant to associate "adult" content with anything other than pornography, immature language, and excessive violence—a reluctance that should be explored by scholars and critics alike. Most superhero characters only reflect the insecurities of audiences who are currently undergoing the transition between adolescence and young adulthood. There are very few older, middle-aged, or retired superheroes depicted juggling the demands of a family along with their daring rescues. It is possible that superhero films could continue to enjoy longer, lasting success if they include more than the previously targeted immature audience. Live-action superhero films can target all ages more efficiently by avoiding the static "mature" audience narratives and presenting relatable and realistic adulthood with novelistic maturity along with adolescence and childhood.
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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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St, Amour Emily K. "“Superhero Women, Extraordinary Impact”: A Historical PodcastSeries." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors156580162543617.
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Van, de Water Wesley Colin. "The Bat and the Spider: A Folkloristic Analysis of Comic Book Narratives." DigitalCommons@USU, 2016. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4870.
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This thesis examines and argues that superhero narratives, beginning with their comic book origins in the early twentieth century, exhibit many of the qualities found in folklore. Furthermore, these narratives not only demonstrate a folkloric evolution across multi-media formats, including printed work, television, and film, but that they fit within classic hero narrative structures posited by various folklore theorists. The hero theories presented by Lord Raglan, Vladimir Propp, and Joseph Campbell, along with traditional folklore patterns of dynamism and conservatism discussed by Barre Toelken, Alan Dundes, and others, support the assertion that folklore can, and does, exist and propagate in the mass media popular culture sphere. What follows is an academic analysis of core folklore elements, as well as a presentation of how these core qualities can be found in superhero narratives, and how the discipline of folklore may benefit from a study of these narratives.
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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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Covich, Anna-Maria Ruth. "Alter/Ego: Superhero Comic Book Readers, Gender and Identities." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Social and Political Sciences, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7262.
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The academic study of comic books - especially superhero comic books - has predominantly focused on the analysis of these books as texts, as teaching and learning resources, or on children as comic book readers. Very little has been written about adult superhero comic fans and their responses to superhero comics. This thesis explores how adult comic book readers in New Zealand engage with superhero comics. Individual interviews and group conversations, both online and face-to-face, provide insights into their responses to the comics and the characters as well as the relationships among fans. Analysis of fans’ talk about superhero comics includes their reflections on how masculinities are represented in these comics and the complex ways in which they identify with superheroes, including their alter egos.
The thesis examines how superhero comic book readers present themselves in their interactions with other readers. Comics ‘geekdom’, fans’ interactions with one another and their negotiation of gendered norms of masculinity are discussed. The contrast between the fan body and the superhero body is an important theme. Readers’ discursive constitution and management of superheroes’ bodies, and their engagement with representations of superheroes are related to analyses of multiplicity in individual identities and current theories of audience reception and identification.
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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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Kaul, David. "Issues related to the development of a digital superhero." The Ohio State University, 1995. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1316703183.
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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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Donzella, Carmelo <1984>. "Jeff Lindsay and Showtime's Dexter: Serial Killer versus Superhero." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/2297.
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Il presente lavoro si propone di analizzare Dexter, protagonista dell'omonima serie TV e del romanzo "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", come un supereroe. Egli sembra una persona comune, ma possiede un'identità segreta: è un serial killer. Tuttavia il suo "codice" personale gli consente di uccidere solo altri assassini.
Nella prima parte analizzerò come è stato caratterizzato il personaggio, facendo riferimento a parti del libro o a scene tratte dalla serie TV. Nella seconda parte spiegherò come sia possibile che un serial killer diventi un personaggio gradito al pubblico. Nella terza parte cercherò di dimostrare che la serie Dexter si può leggere come un moderno esempio del "superhero genre" e che il suo protagonista – dal punto di vista del pubblico – è più simile a Batman che al Mostro di Milwakee.
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Willis, Joseph J. "Damsel, wonder, object : gender expectation and performance in superhero comics." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32993/.
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With iconic characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man representing the wider culture’s understanding of comics, popular perceptions of the medium are that comics are a male-centric medium focused on male experience and readers. As the medium and the dominant superhero genre has gained attention, focus and research has been placed on the medium and how these narratives deal with representation. With the perception and stereotypes of comic readers and comic narratives as predominantly male, the question of female representation, especially within the dominant superhero genre, is a topic that has garnered attention. In my thesis, I look at the history, sources, and perpetuation of gendered performances within superhero comics. By looking at the field of comics, the perceived dominant reading position, and the constrained meaning of texts, I show that the act of creating, reading, and talking about comics are parts of a logonomic system. This system functions to deliver an expected and constrained representation and meaning about female characters and female experience. In superhero comics, female characters are constrained to performances of the monster or angel. Through the way their powers, costumes, and identities are narratively constructed, female characters are forced to be either submissive and objectified angels who conform to patriarchal power structures, or dangerous and monstrous women who need to be punished and normalized. Superhero comics work to interpolate the perceived dominant reading position, deliver pleasure, assuages fear, and transmits an expected meaning of male/female relationships and performances.
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Galbraith, Jeanne Susanne. "Multiple perspectives on superhero play in an early childhood classroom." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1180468850.
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Yockey, Matt. "The new crusaders Apocalypse, utopia, and the contemporary superhero film /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3277971.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Communication and Culture, 2007.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 3642. Adviser: Barbara Klinger. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 30, 2008).
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De, Dauw Esther Ludwina Lucia. "Hot pants and spandex suits : gender in American superhero comics." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/40664.
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This thesis analyses the representation of gender and its intersection with sexuality and race by examining twelve mainstream comic book superheroes in their socio-historical context, particularly those published by the ‘Big Two’ publishers in the industry: Marvel and DC. The superheroes are: Superman, Captain America, Iron Man, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Wiccan, Hulkling, Batwoman, Black Panther, Falcon, Storm and Ms Marvel. Focusing on superheroes’ first appearance in World War II up to their current iterations, this thesis discusses how superheroes have changed and adapted to either match or challenge prevailing ideas about gender, including dominant views on masculinity and femininity in the US military, attitudes to American national identity and the Other, homonormativity and minority communities. Engaging with Butler’s theory of gender performance and Critical Race Theory, this thesis extends existing comic scholarship by moving beyond justification or condemnation of the genre. It contends that superheroes create gendered scripts that are increasingly pro-diversity, supporting gender, sexual and racial equality, and yet fail to construct anti-hegemonic narratives that challenge the status quo.
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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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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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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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Day, Kenna Alise. "Crazier than Sack of Ferrets!: Deadpool as the Post-Watchmen Superhero." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/75308.
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Watchmen has been hailed as revolutionary not only for the literary quality of Alan Moore's script and the precise execution of Dave Gibbon's art, but also for the novel's successful exploration of sophisticated subject matter and realistic moral conflict. Perhaps the most interesting question Watchmen forces us to consider is why an individual would put on the costume and don the mask, and how such a constructed persona affects the individual psychologically and morally. For those heroes that came before, the compulsion to fight crime was often an in-born ideology of justice. But for Moore's Watchmen, we find that even superheroes are corruptible, flawed, imperfect, and even (more than) a little crazy. In the wake of what is arguably one of the most influential superhero novels published to date, the comics industry saw a rise in the popularity of anti-heroes like Moore's, but it wasn't until the 1991 creation of Marvel's Deadpool that fans saw exactly what it means to be a hero in the post-atomic, post-Vietnam age. Through self-reflexivity, genre deconstruction, and dark hysteria, Deadpool shows us that it isn't so easy to walk the straight line of the righteous, and that sometimes it's much easier to submit to the madness of a chaotic, morally ambiguous world.Master of Arts
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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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Garris, Bill R., and Bethany A. Novotny. "From Cape to Cardigan: Fred Rogers as a Human Services Superhero." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3143.
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Robinson, Elizabeth. "The influence of superhero characters on moral judgment in school-age children." Thesis, Alfred University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3618692.
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Social learning has been shown to have a significant impact on moral development. Research has established that the progression of moral development is consistent and universal. Several factors can impact the rate at which children progress through the moral stages. Children's moral reasoning can be shaped by observations of media characters. Due to their recent resurgence in popular culture and the media, as well as their consistent popularity with children, superheroes have been identified as potential social models of morality. In a sample of 108 fifth grade students, a significant positive correlation was revealed between superhero knowledge and exposure. The sample was divided by gender due to significant differences in superhero knowledge and exposure as well as level of moral judgment. A linear multiple regression for the males approached but did not reach significance. A linear multiple regression for females also failed to reach significance. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research are discussed.
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Clarke, Emma Jane. "Boom, the 21st century superhero film: the output of Hollywood industrialised culture." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/13316.
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The proliferation of superhero films is entrenched within Hollywood blockbuster cinema. Fundamental to Hollywood production is a complex nexus of cultural, economic, historical, industrial, and legal dynamics. In this thesis, I will explore what “the genius of the [contemporary] system” entails, focusing specifically on how superhero blockbusters exemplify the attitudes, behaviours and practices of Hollywood studios. The superhero film maps a recent movement within the Hollywood system toward conglomeration and consequent domination within the cultural industries. Classical Hollywood established this cultural impetrative to monopolise and continues to structure the practices of Hollywood studios. Superhero blockbusters articulate the capabilities of Hollywood studios for authorship. The implications of the subsumption of DC Comics and Marvel within the corporate structures of Warner and Disney, and the licensing contracts with Sony and 20th Century Fox is that Hollywood studios possess considerable power in moulding superhero films to comply with their tastes, desires and risk-manage their anxieties over unpredictable box office returns. I will further explore what I term the ‘Hollywood’s culture of production’ within contemporary Hollywood. I view this production culture through the lenses of social theory, history, legal structures, and mythologies. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, Foucault and Althusser will reveal how ideologies shape Hollywood studio practices. An account of the industrial histories of Hollywood and comic books will reveal the particular social, temporal and legal circumstances of the convergence between these two texts and industries. An analysis of the mythologies of the American monomyth and Christianity will illuminate that the culture of production in Hollywood is ingratiated within American commodified culture. Thus, superhero films, often dismissed as escapist mass entertainment, are actually highly socially meaningful commodities that elucidate the complex industrial relationships, the history, and contemporary culture of production in Hollywood.
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Lewis, A. David. "The superhero afterlife subgenre and its hermeneutics for selfhood through character multiplicity." Thesis, Boston University, 2012. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32028.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityComic book superheroes venture frequently into the afterlife, to the extent that the recurring conventions of such tales constitute a superhero subgenre. These generic elements help ensure that the stories can be read normatively by their audience (e.g. one's soul continues separately to function after the death of the body, existence after death is its own reality and discernible from illusion). The new subgenre, however, can also be regarded as masking an alternate understanding of narrative character and suggesting an alternative model of selfhood to readers. Beginning with the genre theory work of Paul Ricoeur, Tzvetan Todorov, and Peter Coogan, this project applies their perceived linkage between generic character and audience models for selfhood to the concerns of Helene Tallon Russell, J. Hillis Miller, and Karin Kukkonen. This second set of theorists warns against narrative characters being understood as whole and unified a priori when the presumably counterfactual idea of a multiple self better matches with the goals of religious pluralism and healthful self-understanding. Through these combined sets of theoretical lenses, the project focuses on popular recent depictions of the afterlife in the word-and-image medium of top-selling comics titles such as Thor, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Planetary, and Promethea. The comics, with their dual sign systems and 'low-art' fringe status, provide a consideration of personal multiplicity more naturally than prose does alone. Jeffery Burton Russell and Andrew Delbanco recount modern Americans' declining investment in the afterlife, one steeped in traditionally Augustinian models of singular selfhood. As H.T. Russell champions in Irigaray and Kierkegaard: On the Construction of the Self, this model may serve more as a hindering relic than as a useful system for consideration of one's full selfhood. This superhero subgenre offers a hermeneutic for integrating multiplicity into religious practices and considerations of the afterlife.
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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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King, Zachary Harrison. "Comic book realism: sincerity, ethics, and the superhero in contemporary American literature." Diss., University of Iowa, 2016. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6782.
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Comic Book Realism: Sincerity, Ethics, and the Superhero in Contemporary American Literature reads a trio of recent American novels in the context of superhero comics, the influence of which looms large over these texts but has for one reason or another been largely neglected by critics. Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude, and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao feature protagonists whose immersion in their comic book collections translates into their lives by allowing them to comprehend and interact with the world in the language of the superhero metaphor.
I argue that these texts should be studied because of, and not despite, their affiliation with superhero comics, against what seems to be a latent critical bias which has led many to overlook or disregard the superheroic elements of these texts. Understanding how Chabon, Lethem, and Díaz engage with the superhero genre is essential to understanding their engagement with issues of identity, ethical responsibility, and masculinity. Daniel Bautista has read Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as a work not of magical realism but of something new, “comic book realism,” which blends a realist approach to literature with popular culture citations in order to represent with accuracy the myriad cultural influences coming to bear on his characters’ lives. I suggest that Bautista’s label should be extended to Chabon, Lethem, and a variety of other authors who are engaging with the genre as Díaz does; in so doing, I connect a variety of novels which have either seldom been studied before or have never been studied in connection with each other.
I begin by examining comic book realism’s affinity with emerging theories about the literary movement following postmodernism, which some have dubbed “post-postmodernism.” I argue that comic book realism’s approach to questions of identity, as informed by the dynamic between superhero and alter ego, aligns with Adam Kelly’s sense of a post-postmodern New Sincerity, which rejects any ironic valence between identity and mass culture; consequently, the novels of comic book realism unironically engage with superhero comics as tools for identity formation. I then turn to Levinasian ethics in order to address the charge that superhero comics are solely escapist; instead, I argue that escapism in these novels necessitates an act of memory, an ethical awareness of the absence from which these characters are attempting to escape. These texts, then, are not unethical in their attempts to escape historical atrocities like the Holocaust. Rather, they constitute an ethical act of remembrance in foregrounding this absence.
In my penultimate chapter, I take up the question of masculinity, so central to the gendered space of superhero comics, arguing that the novels of comic book realism reject the hypermasculine standard of the superhero in favor of what I call an ideal of “mild-mannered masculinity,” after the superhero’s alter ego. Compared to the virile and confident Superman identity, Clark Kent represents a model of masculinity that is weak and timid, a model valorized by Chabon, Lethem, and Díaz. In my final chapter, I take stock of the contributions of women writers to the genre of comic book realism, whose work is overlooked by the presupposition that superhero comics are a boy’s domain. Here I find that the women writers evince a need to create their own space in the superhero genre, while I suggest that recent trends in the genre suggest that the next generation of women writers may engage with the genre in a different, somewhat unpredictable way.
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Lindamood, Jr Stephen Douglas. "Revolutionizing The Run: A Wearable Technology Study." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49541.
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Recent advances in technology are reshaping and enhancing the role of the industrial designer. While industrial designers are already trained to be experts in process and possess a wide range of skills, there must be a higher level of fusion between design, science, and technology than ever before. This paradigm presents an opportunity in the emerging field of wearable technology; industrial design, engineering and computer science would be an optimal collaboration for the inevitable increase in mixes of disciplines to address all aspects of a product and its development.
By investigating products from companies such as Nike and Adidas, and also by exploring themes of personal augmentation in science fiction, this thesis will explore the conceptualization of a soft, wearable garment system for runners that utilizes developing advancements in technology, apparel and graphical user interface.Master of Science
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Ehritz, Andrew A. "FROM INDOCTRINATION TO HETEROGLOSSIA: THE CHANGING RHETORICAL FUNCTION OF THE COMIC BOOK SUPERHERO." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1155044370.
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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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Gillespie, Ian Trent. "Social Supers: A Content Analysis of Non-Physical Aggressions in Popular Superhero Movies." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2016. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6127.
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In recent years superhero movies have skyrocketed in popularity, bringing with them plots and characters that tend to exhibit high levels of aggression. As social learners, humans often learn from what they observe, and especially emulate characters they admire – including fictional superheroes and villains. Consequently, this study content analyzed non-physical aggressions (verbal aggression, relational aggression, and violent ideation) in the top 25 highest grossing superhero movies between 2005 and 2015. Results found an average of 171.8 acts of non-physical aggression per movie. Females in these movies were also significantly more likely to engage in verbal and relational aggressions, which contributes to gender stereotypes about aggression. Unfortunately, due to a failure in intercoder reliability testing, these results are unreliable.
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Hooper, Tegan. "Is it easier to make superhero films with male protagonists? What the X-Men can tell us about the challenges of adapting female superheroes to film." Thesis, Curtin University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88379.
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This research investigates if it is easier to adapt male superheroes to commercially successful films, using the adaptation of X-Men as a case study. Reviewing existing interviews and sales data identifies concerns affecting the selection of film protagonists. These concerns are compared to stereotypical gender differences in X-Men comics that inspired the films. This analysis finds that because of these differences, male superheroes can more easily be adapted than female superheroes, to commercially successful films.
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Topp, Sydney Fisher. "The Gender Differences in Subjectivity among Superbeing Characters in the Comic Book Film Genre." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/87472.
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This study intends to evaluate the extent to which gender inequality permeates representation in the media. By drawing on the literature of feminist phenomenology I define subjectivity as the tendency of characters to interact with the world around them rather than merely have that world act upon them. I use the themes of sexual spectacle, motivation, and violence and protection to evaluate the gender differences among superbeing characters from the DC and Marvel franchises. Through the use of a qualitative content analysis this study has shown that the dichotomous gender hierarchy actively subordinates female superbeing characters through their diminished subjectivity. A character�s ability to act upon the world through act-break motivations, direct capacity for violence, and the protection of others defines them as subjects. Conversely, a character�s inability to do those actions as well as their instances of sexual spectacle and unmotivated sexual displays in costuming and gender performance relegates them to the role of object. The subjectivity score is used to more clearly show a definitive ranking of these characters. Female superbeing characters often hold negative scores. This means that their total deductions from categories that diminish their subjectivity, such as instances of sexual spectacle or revealing costumes, outweigh any points they earn from categories that award them more subjectivity, such as protection/rescuing others. The male characters hold double or triple the scores of their female counterparts, which perfectly highlights the gendered division of the attributes that inform subjectivity. By allowing superbeing characters to transcend gender dichotomy and engage with the full human spectrum of emotion and wellbeing, we could celebrate people as fully human and disrupt the gender normativity that maintains inequality.Master of Science
Marvel and DC Comics are two of the most popular comic book companies in the US. They are responsible or the creation of well-known characters such as Superman and Iron Man. Within the last few decades the comics because popular film franchises. Both companies release several films every year from their respective cinematic universes. These are highly grossing movies and popular enough to have character costumes produced for purchase. Popular cultural phenomenon such as these film franchises provides an opportunity to study social topics such as gender inequality and heteronormativity. This study focuses on the on-screen depictions of these superbeing characters in order to establish a connection between gender and subjectivity in these super-human bodies. Subjectivity, defined by Iris Marion Young’s conceptualization of a feminist phenomenology uses the themes of motivated action, violence and protection, and sexual spectacle to determine if there is a gendered difference in the ways these characters are able to be super and how that impacts their overall subjectivity level. The data supports the theory that male superbeing character are allowed to be full subjects who are able to act upon the world while female superbeing characters are still relegated to the sphere of objectification.
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Goodrum, Michael. "'In brightest day, in blackest night' : superhero narratives and US historical trauma 1938-2010." Thesis, University of Essex, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.537930.
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Francis, Fred. "Dark Ages : a study of 1980s superhero comics and the nineteenth-century American romance." Thesis, University of Kent, 2017. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/66026/.
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This study seeks to redefine, and refine, the knowledge of the period in the 1980s and 1990s when the superhero comic is often considered to have gained cultural legitimacy. The repeated story of Anglo-American comics is that 1986 was the year when comics 'grew up', and serial comics bought in comics shops and read by teenage boys became graphic novels bought by adults in bookshops. Studies in comics have a long history of attempting to challenge or revise this narrative. However, in the world of superhero comics the importance of works like Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen has meant that a version of the 1986 narrative is repeated, often implicitly, throughout studies of the form. As studies in comics becomes increasingly institutionalised, and a tacit canon of Anglo-American comics is formed in the process, a better understanding of why, and how, this narrative retains its power is necessary. This thesis provides an in-depth examination of the texts of this key moment, often referred to as the 'Dark Age'.
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Rossetti, Lavinia. "Super Air : The asthma inhaler for superheroes." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för design (DE), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-45143.
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Nobody can live without oxygen. What happens when you have a chronic disorder that prevents the oxygen from reaching your lungs? This condition is called asthma and affects millions of people. Symptoms might be from a wheezing to a severe asthma attack with airways obstruction. It is difficult, above all for children, to accept a condition that might unexpectedly come anytime. The Super-air inhaler is thought as a Super Hero, the worship the child has for the Hero will make the child feel strong and he will not feel ashamed of using it when having an attack. The inhaler has also been designed to make it easy for the child to take his medicine during the day and at night time too.
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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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Moule, Jennifer Carla. "The masked masquerade : superhero and princess narratives and gendered masquerade in an early childhood setting." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45299.
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Drawing from a poststructuralist feminist paradigm, this thesis considers the questions “How do the observed popular fantasy narratives in a child care setting intersect with three- and four-year-olds’ gendered subjectivities?” and “How and why do these narratives contribute to marginalised subjectivities in this setting?” I spent two-and-a-half months in an early childhood classroom using ethnographic-type methods, with a perspective of “methodological immaturity” (Gallacher & Gallagher, 2008) in departing from the Mosaic approach of multiple methods (Clark, 2005). The study included six children – two girls and four boys from three- to four-and-a-half-years-old – with whom I engaged in “conversations with a special purpose” (Eide & Winger, 2005), participant-observation, and the occasional activity-based methods.
In considering Butler’s (2008) conceptualisation of gender as masquerade, the children’s gender performances intermingled meaningfully with the fantasy play narratives of superheroes and princesses. The children seemingly masqueraded these commodified identities in body and discourse towards better satisfying the implicit expectations of a well-performed gender discursively put upon young children’s bodies. Further, through these embodied discourses, other child bodies were relegated to the margins. Much of this was demonstrated through the restricting discourses called upon by me in the research conversations themselves, such as calling on a boy/girl binary in asking about the “rules for boys.” Thus, limitations of the research methods used are thoroughly discussed. This research suggests departing from an all-or-nothing mentality on “allowing” this play, and encouraging new ways to engage with and depart from these narratives.
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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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Herman, Janique Luschan Vogl. "An interrogation of morality, power and plurality as evidenced in superhero comic books: a postmodernist perspective." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1005646.
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The desire for heroes is a global and cultural phenomenon that gives a view into society’s very heart. There is no better example of this truism than that of the superhero. Typically, Superheroes, with their affiliation to values and morality, and the notion of the grand narratives, should not fit well into postmodernist theory. However, at the very core of the superhero narrative is the ideal of an individual creating his/her own form of morality, and thus dispensing justice as the individual sees fit in resistance to metanarrative’s authoritarian and restrictive paradigms. This research will explore Superhero comic books, films, videogames and the characters Superman, Spider-Man and Batman through the postmodernist conceptions of power, plurality, and morality.
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Wang, Lorraine. "You’re Not a Superhero, or Even an Artist! How the “Alias” Comic Book Holds the Answers." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/800.
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Superhero comic books are not art, and middle-aged, non-white women are not superheroes. I seek to disprove both of these assumptions, and I use the "Alias" comic books from 2001-2004 for my argument.
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Lucchine, Dana P. "Beneath the mask and spandex reviewing, revising, and re-appropriating the superhero myth in Alan Moore's Watchmen /." Click here for download, 2009. http://proquest.umi.com.ps2.villanova.edu/pqdweb?did=1943369611&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=3260&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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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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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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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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Dean, Brandon O'Neal. ""Look up in the sky:" Superman as lived religion in contemporary American culture." Diss., University of Iowa, 2016. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2065.
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This dissertation will argue that, rather than simply reflecting the religious worldviews of his creators and readers, the presentations of Superman that span more than 75 years in a variety of mass media, have produced a mythology, iconography, ethical code, and set of practices that reflects a dynamic relationship with the complex religious systems in the United States. Obviously, the presentation of Superman by his creators and the reception of Superman by his readers are heavily influenced by Christianity, Judaism, and American civil religion (he does, after all, represent “truth, justice, and the American way”) along with many other religious worldviews. It explores the dynamic and complex interactions between Superman and his fans and show that the figure of Superman is utilized by his fans to understand theological and ethical issues, while, at the same time, their understanding of Superman shapes those theological and ethical opinions and ideas. American religious traditions influence the popular images and representations of Superman, but Superman also influences the understanding religious traditions across a breadth of historical and cultural contexts.
Superman’s state of multiple expressions of permanent liminality allows the character and his stories to be useful sites for people to perform the religious work of constructing, strengthening, and/or negotiating boundaries between categories, such as the human and the divine or the secular and the religious. It is through these boundaries that people define and interpret their religious worldviews.
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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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