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Bright and Colorful Masks Assessing the Literary Potential of the Superhero Genre By Kristian Bjørkan A Master's Thesis presented to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages. UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Fall 2013. 2 Bright and Colorful Masks Assessing the Literary Potential of the Superhero Genre By Kristian Bjørkan 3 © Kristian Bjørkan 2013 Bright and Colorful Masks: Assessing the Literary Potential of the Superhero Genre. Kristian Bjørkan http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo 4 My thanks to my advisor Rebecca Scherr for her patient support and advice; to the many people at the university who helped me maneuver the long process of research and writing; and to my friends who helped keep my spirits up and gave me coffee and time when it was needed. Without you all, this would never have been finished. 5 List of Contents. Introduction..........................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1: The Construction of the Superhero Genre......................................................... 13 1.1. An Exceptionally American Genre................................................................... 14 1.2. What came first, the super-chicken or the super-egg? Defining a genre.......... 18 1.3. Perception and Stigma...................................................................................... 23 1.4. Sturgeon's Law..................................................................................................26 1.5. The problem of fantasy: Escapism....................................................................27 1.6. Why Comics? The significance of the medium................................................ 28 1.7. Tune in Next Week: The serialized publishing model...................................... 30 1.8. *: See issue 498 for details. The Oneiric Climate and continuity.....................33 1.9. Chasing a moving target: cultural relevance and revision................................ 37 1.10. Graphic Novels: the solution to the problem of stigma, or just another layer of it?......................................................................................................................................... 39 1.11. Conclusion...................................................................................................... 41 1.12. Works cited in chapter 1..................................................................................42 Chapter 2: The Superhero Genre as a tool for other discussions in Alan Moore's ABC Universe...............................................................................................................................44 2.1. America's Best Comics: A cohesive literary project......................................... 45 2.2. An artificially aged continuity...........................................................................47 2.3. Superhero genre conventions in the ABC universe.......................................... 48 2.4. Sex and sexism in superhero comics................................................................ 55 2.5. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 59 2.6. Works cited in chapter 2....................................................................................61 Chapter 3: Social Commentary and generic experimentation in the comics of Warren Ellis......................................................................................................................................64 3.1. Drawn Lines in Genre: Are these superhero comics?.......................................64 3.2. Planetary: A narrative of revision.....................................................................66 3.3. Revisionism as theme....................................................................................... 67 3.4. Super-Science................................................................................................... 71 3.5. Global Frequency: A different kind of super-team........................................... 73 6 3.6. Superhero genre conventions and publication format...................................... 74 3.7. Authoritarian vs egalitarian structures.............................................................. 76 3.8. The superhero in the Global War on Terror.......................................................77 3.9. Transmetropolitan: Journalism as superpower................................................. 80 3.10. Serialization and generic conventions in Transmetropolitan..........................80 3.11. Social Commentary in Transmetropolitan...................................................... 83 3.12. The contrast of words and images.................................................................. 85 3.13. Inherently Conservative?................................................................................ 86 3.14. Conclusion...................................................................................................... 87 3.15. Works cited in chapter 3..................................................................................91 Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 93 Bibliography........................................................................................................................ 99 7 Introduction. The Superhero genre has long stood as an emblem of American popular culture. Since Superman's first appearance in 1938, during the Great Depression and with World War II on the horizon, superheroes provided simple, morally unambiguous entertainment that fit the national mood and immediately became massively popular. After a turbulent period in the early post-war years which saw the genre supplanted by violent crime and horror comics, superheroes returned to prominence in the late 50s and 60s, and have remained dominant in the American comics industry ever since. In fact, while in Europe and Japan comic books have a long and varied tradition, in America the words "comic book" and "superhero" have historically been so closely linked together as to be almost interchangeable. Throughout the modern history of the medium, comic books have been considered an unserious format, capable only of delivering mindless entertainment fit for children. In America, when comic books began appearing that strove for mainstream literary acceptance, one of the big lessons the public took away from it was that the comic book medium was capable of much more than just superhero stories. Texts like Art Spiegelman's Maus and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis rightfully garnered great praise. However, with the exception of a few high-profile titles like Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, the superhero genre itself was still perceived as being almost inherently unserious. Today, almost thirty years after the first wave of graphic novels appeared, comics with mainstream literary success have become common, and no-one questions the merit of the medium. However, the superhero, still the most dominant popular genre within American comics, continues to languish in mediocrity. The lesson learned, it seems, was not that all varieties of comic books have the potential to be proper literature, but instead that the way for comics to become proper literature was to step away from the superhero, the genre which had dominated the medium but which was still dismissed as mindless entertainment for children. In the aftermath of the movement towards more respectable, literary comic books, the superhero genre also developed a greater diversity and variety of styles. The purpose of this thesis is to consider the superhero genre as literature, to ask why it is the way it is, where and why the stigma of childishness is rooted, and to consider some particular superhero texts that attempt to resolve the problems of the genre and take on a more mature and profound aspect. 8 This thesis is divided into three main chapters. Chapter 1: “Genre History” takes a detailed look on the historical development of the superhero genre, with particular attention paid to devices and conventions that suffer from accusations of childishness, overreliance on formula, and lack of depth. There is also a focus on how the conventions and characteristics of the genre can be traced to particular historical events and periods. Superman's arrival in 1938 was an immediate, astonishing popular success, which spawned a host of imitators so closely-knit in style and content that it formed its own genre. This new genre gradually distinguishing itself from the old adventure comics it had sprung from, and quickly grew to dominate the entire American comic book industry. Throughout World War II, the superhero genre remained dominant, but faded in the early post-war years as other genres rose in popularity. The superhero returned to prominence, however, as it was better able to adapt to the Comics Code, a draconian censorship regime that all but ended the violent crime and horror genres that had taken over the industry. While the superhero genre beat its competition, it still languished under a strict array of regulations. The Comics Code was intended to keep all comic books fit for children, and did so by forbidding anything which would make them interesting to adults, thus cementing the reputation of the genre as being childish and simplistic. By the 1980s, the Comics