Description
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Superhero Synergies Comic Book Characters Go Digital 2014 Edition by James N. Gilmore, Matthias Stork
In the age of digital media, superheroes are no longer confined to comic books and graphic novels. Their stories are now featured in films, video games, digital comics, television programs, and more. In a single year alone, films featuring Batman, Spider-Man, and the Avengers have appeared on the big screen. Popular media no longer exists in isolation, but converges into complex multidimensional entities. As a result, traditional ideas about the relationship between varying media have come under striking revision. Although this convergence is apparent in many genres, perhaps nowhere is it more persistent, more creative, or more varied than in the superhero genre. Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital explores this developing relationship between superheroes and various forms of media, examining how the superhero genre, which was once limited primarily to a single medium, has been developed into so many more. Essays in this volume engage with several of the most iconic heroes-including Batman, Hulk, and Iron Man-through a variety of academic disciplines such as industry studies, gender studies, and aesthetic analysis to develop an expansive view of the genre's potency. The contributors to this volume engage cinema, comics, video games, and even live stage shows to instill readers with new ways of looking at, thinking about, and experiencing some of contemporary media's most popular texts. This unique approach to the examination of digital media and superhero studies provides new and valuable readings of well-known texts and practices. Intended for both academics and fans of the superhero genre, this anthology introduces the innovative and growing synergy between traditional comic books and digital media. Table of contents :- Foreword: The Industrial and Economic History of the Superhero Blockbuster, Drew MortonIntroduction: Heroes, Converge!, James N. Gilmore and Matthias StorkChapter 1: Will You Like Me When I'm Angry? Discourse of the Digital in Hulk and The Incredible Hulk, James N. GilmoreChapter 2: Secret Origins: Melodrama and the Digital in Hulk, Matt YockeyChapter 3: Fantastic Views: Superheroes, Visual Perception, and Digital Perspective, Lisa GottoChapter 4: From Motion Line to Motion Blur: The Integration of Digital Coloring in the Superhero Comic Book. M.J. ClarkeChapter 5: Assembling the Avengers: Re-Framing the Superhero Movie through Marvel's Cinematic Universe, Matthias StorkChapter 6: From Scientific Romance to Disney Superhero: Genre Fluidity and the Marketing of John Carter, Andrew MyersChapter 7: The Cult of Comic-Con and the Spectacle of Superhero Marketing, Kevin McDonaldChapter 8: The Dark Knight Levels Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Convergent Superhero Franchise, Justin MackChapter 9: The Fears of a Superhero: Batman Begins and Batman: Arkham Asylum, Benjamin BeilChapter 10: "I Am Catwoman, Hear Me Roar": Gender between Film and Video Game, Martin HennigChapter 11: Melodrama, Romance, and the Celebrity of the Superhero, Benjamin D. GrisantiChapter 12: In Franchise: Narrative Coherence and the Multiverse, Russell BackmanChapter 13: Spectacular Superheroes on Stage: Theatre's Unique Contribution to Batman's Transmedia Story, Mathias BremgartnerAfterword: When Storyworlds Collide: Superhero Movies and Transmedia Patchworks, Andreas RauscherBibliographyIndexAbout the ContributorsAbout the Editors