DOI 10.6094/helden.heroes.heros./2017/01/12

Christiane Hansen 95

Superheroic Genres, Industries and Aesthetics Review: James N. Gilmore and Matthias Stork. Eds. Synergies: Characters Go Digital. Lanham [et al.]: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.

In the last years, superhero blockbusters have circulation of hero(in)es and the cultural process- not only dominated the box offices, but also ing of heroic figurations? How can frameworks of moved into the focus of academic attention. rapid change of medium or the genre itself as In-depth studies of on-screen superhero(in)es well as collapsing genre distinctions be squared stand beside critical assessments of the “aggre- with a specific cultural demand for heroic figura- gate texts” (Arnett 3) generated within the fiction- tions? Can we specify in how far negotiations of al and industrial framework of franchising, meta- the (super)heroic interfere with particular anxie- franchising and crossfranchising. Through the ties about the commoditisation of art and enter- “labyrinthine vastness of their textual networks” tainment? (Parody 213), these allow for multiple points of Although not expressly ‘heroic’ in focus, the entry and routes of navigation (ibid.), thus com- volume stakes out various aspects which prove plicating traditional approaches of adaptation, highly illuminating from this standpoint. The col- intertextuality and intermediality. A case in point lection is introduced by several papers focusing is James N. Gilmore’s and Matthias Stork’s vol- on spectacular visual effects in the superher­o ume Superhero Synergies (2014). Comprising genre and transformations of the ‘image’ in digit­ thirteen case studies framed by an introduction al media. Tying in with a growing corpus of re- as well as a brief foreword and afterword, it uses search on digital effects in contemporary cine- the superhero genre to trace its relationship to ma, these papers pinpoint the construction of the digital technology in the 21st century. In this con- (digital) heroic body and the digital construction text, the eponymous concept of ‘synergies’ is of space. James N. Gilmore’s article takes his proposed not so much as a distinctive analytic cue from the paradoxical invisibility of photo­ tool, but as a deliberately open-ended alternative realistic digital effects and explores the digital to the ubiquitous academic idiom of transmedial experimentation with the body and space in Ang ‘convergence’: The superheroic is seen not only Lee’s Hulk. Hulk’s body, as Gilmore argues, is as a “site of converging media” (3),1 but also exposed as a deliberately un-real spectacle, in- as a generic interface offering “multiple points viting the audience to admire both the hero him- of intermedial exchange” (ibid.). Charting this self and the technological artifice representing – admittedly complex – field, the case studie­s him. This paper is complemented by Matt Yock- assembled in this volume provide insights into ey’s paper on Hulk, bringing into focus questions adaptations of seminal comic book hero(in)es for of emotion and (im)perfection in an emphatically the digital screen, but also consider the reper- digital environment. Finally, Lisa Gotto focuses cussions of digital cultures on comic books, mul- on the convergence of the digital and the visual timedial theatre productions, online communities in three-dimensional cinematic and vide­o and video games. games. Claiming that digital 3D serves as a The volume has been received favourably in cata­lyst for “new spatial sensibilities and viewing earlier reviews, which have credited its compre- capacities” (41), these cultural products are read hensive insights regarding the evolution of the as an exploration of dimensionality in itself. This, digital genre, franchising and transmedial for- as Gotto argues, is complemented by a focus on mations. Slightly refocusing these evalu­ations, extraordinary powers of vision as a specifically the following considerations assess this vol- (super)heroic agency – think X-ray, night or tele- ume’s contribution to research on cultures of the scopic vision – as well as the preoccupation with heroi­c – not least as the precise ‘heroic’ quali- looking at, and seeing through a mask, the use ties and functions of the all-too-obvious super- of mapping and the process of technological me- heroes more often than not pass unquestioned. diation. Superheroes, in this vein, stand out to What does Superhero Synergies contribute to be looked at and admired, but also comment on our understanding of heroisations, the medial the shift from analogue to digital environments: helden. heroes. héros. Christiane Hansen

96 Photorealistic digital bodies in digital spaces of the sexes” (185). However, Henning’s essay thus link iconic abbreviations of (super)heroism justly highlights the possible impact of video to a continuous expansion of representative pos- games on cultural reconceptualisations of the sibilities, reflecting more general concerns with heroic and its implications for masculinity. digital imagery and virtuality. Thirdly, a range of essays in this volume pro- Adopting a different perspective, three vide much-needed insights into the commercial essays navigate video games as significant en- hero factories, floodlighting the transmedial traf- tries in a , drawing atten- fic between comic books, cinematic block­busters tion to their potential in cultural negotiations of and their paratexts as a co-evolution of econom- the heroic. In doing so, Arkham Asylum (2009) ic, narrative and formal aspects. Matthia­s Stork’s is, in Justin Mack’s contribution, analysed in its chapter focuses on Marvel’s Avengers as an inter­textual transformations of the Batman films “emblematic tie-in movie” (79), which tackles the and comics, showing how video games estab- corporate control of popular culture products as lish “distinct canonical tracks within transmedia a big-budget business strategy. The Avengers franchises” (138) that are no longer restricted to project is argued to be designed not only as “yet the narrow audience of the gaming community. another superhero text battling for market share In a separate essay on the Batman franchise, in the oversaturated Hollywood summer lineup” Benjamin Beil focuses on the representation of (79), but rather as an attempt to reconfigure the fear in both and digital interactive games. entire market context: As such, it seeks to initiate His close readings compare the distinctive a process of regenrification in Altman’s terms (62- audiovisual aesthetics of both media platforms, 68), keeping the genre in play both aesthetically especially the stylistic devices conveying expe- and industrially. Meticulously, Stork shows how riences of subjectivity and reliable representa- this specific cinematic creation of a superheroic tion in modulations of the point-of-view shot: In world is achieved with product shots, distributed Batman Begins (2005), ‘perception shots’ throw across different media platforms and para­texts, into relief the traumatic sequences and effects of redefining an over­saturated mainstream genre. Scarecrow’s infamous ‘fear gas’, establishing in- Russell Backman, in a separate chapter on dependent ‘fear sequences’. In Arkham Asylum, X-Men, takes issue with Jenkins’s implication the audiovisual effects of the perception shot that transmedia narrative worlds are to a large are decoupled from a point-of-view structure, a degree premeditated, assuming that “conver- technique which Branigan has described as ‘pro- gence primarily happens as an ad hoc procedure jection’: Beyond its mere expressive effect, this making use of available tools and hampered by audiovisual arrangement is used to obscure the residual inheritances from preexisting media reliability of the image, as it “essentially trans- conditions” (201). Tracing the “slow develop- forms the effects of character subjectivity into a ment of something like narrative convergence metaleptic form” (166). with the increasing adaptability of the X-Men Enquiring into the video game’s specific franchise” (218), transmedia structures and their outlook on gender, Martin Hennig shows that overarching narrative frameworks are shown to (hero­ic) masculinity seems to manifest itself in be produced rather than presupposed: Fran- individualism, transgressivity and a pronounced chises,­ thus, are not only an effect, but a “crucial autonomy from social institutions, while (super-) figure for developing the bridges between these heroines display little tolerance for transgres- material media realities” (218). Finally, Andrew sive behaviour. Instead, they often appear as James Myers considers the importance of the reduced, strongly sexualised versions of the (gendered) target audience as a catalyst for re- super­hero template, never fully independent genrification, choosing Disney’s John Carter as from their male allies. Video games superficially a case study. While the transformations of hero­ adopt these patterns, but foster the emergence ic paradigms in these contexts remain mostly of less polarised heroic models: Arkam Asylum, implicit, these papers provide a useful perspec- for instance, entails a sidequest series centred tive for investigating the market rationales of the on Catwoman, who is given different attributes super­heroic genre with practices of heroisation and abilities, but not necessarily depicted as infe- and hero consumption in the 21st century. rior. Similarly, in vs. DC Universe, The volume does not restrict itself to the more the conventional visual trends are “counteracte­d obvious effects of digitalisation on cinematogra- by the actual gameplay” (184), where female phy, but takes into account alternatives routes ava­tars have no disadvantages for the player. of media transfer and the migration of both con- One may hesitate to concur that gameplay in- tent and semiotic vocabulary in the process. This duces the rise of “a digital era […] which is char- includes M.J. Clarke’s study of digital colouring acterized not only by a convergence of media, technologies in comic books, and Ben Grisan- but also by an equivocation and convergence ti’s work on “Melodrama, Romance, and the

helden. heroes. héros. Review: Gilmore, James N., and Matthias Stork. Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters go Digital

Celebrity of Superheroes”. Slightly off the beat- an outline of the results – and perspectives for 97 en path, Bremgartner’s discussion of the 2011 future research – would have been helpful. From stage show Batman Live integrates an approach a ‘heroic’ perspective, one might then need to to in Jenkins’s terms with ask how this contributes to our understanding a specifically performative mediality. Describing of how specific mediascapes and their internal the show along the lines of contemporary circus rationales resonate with cultural practices of dramaturgy, he argues that many of the live- hero­isation. action elements serve the purpose of visual Undisputably, Superhero Synergies is a attraction­ rather than contributing to the narra- strong and relevant contribution to patterns of tive, while the combination of the stage setting digital media production. Offering a wide range with comic book images on the LED wall en- of material and perspectives, it helps to elu- gender the illusion of three-dimensional, undis- cidate the cultural productivity of present-day closed scenery. superhero(in)es, and points out blind spots of It goes without saying that the articles collect- hero research through its focus on market im- ed in this volume cannot cover every conceivable peratives, boundaries of the genre and affective aspect of synergetically formatted superheroes. immersion. It might be that precisely by ignoring Questions of gender, for instance, are discussed the obvious concern with the representations in three essays in the collection, but not explicitly and functional integration of their hero(in)es, this tackled in the broad majority of papers focusing present volume is a viable contribution to studie­s on the more unmarked masculine heroics. The of hero production and consumption, paving the highly productive intersections of genre and gen- way for future research into cultural practices of der should thus be revisited in future research, heroisation and the cultural processing of the especially as one might wonder how digital heroic in the ‘digital age’. super­hero franchises reiterate, adapt or possibly redefine the historically resistant articulations of the heroic with the masculine, and how digital 1 All direct quotations are from the reviewed volume, un- technologies provide specific interfaces of nego­ less otherwise indicated. tiating the heroic in a gendered perspective. The 2 See Halfyard or Whittington on the use of sound in the same is true for questions of race and class. superhero blockbuster and in digital cinema. Moreover, within a range of papers focusing on 3 Notably, Liam Burke’s recent monograph on the super- visuality, narrativity and spectacle, the dimen- hero genre also pushes at the distinctions between adapta- sion of sound is almost conspicuously missing.2 tion and convergence as distinctive medial processes. The interferences of visual and auditive codes thus still warrant in-depth analysis, especially in frameworks of collapsing or diffusing genre dis- tinctions, but also with respect to establishing Works Cited subjectivity. Emphatically pluralistic in terms of methodo- Altman, Rick. Film/Genre. London: British Film Institute, logical and theoretical approaches, this volume 1999. does not propose a unified perspective on the Arnett, Robert P. “‘Casino Royale’ and Franchise Remix: evolution(s) of the superhero genre. The quality as Superhero.” Film Criticism 33 (2009): 1-16. and variety of the individual contributions com- Branigan, Edward. Point of View in the Cinema: A Theory of pensate for this lack of rigid coherence, as they Narration and Subjectivity in Classical Film. Berlin [et al.]: indeed highlight synergetic effects between dif- Mouton Publishers, 1984. ferent media platforms and impressively under­ Burke, Liam. The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring line the cultural importance of the superhero Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre. Jackson, MS: UP of genre in these processes. At the same time, the Mississippi, 2015. vagueness of the umbrella term “synergies” is Halfyard, Janet K. “Cue the Big Theme? The Sound of the slightly frustrating. As Clare Parody has pointed Superhero.” The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual out, it still needs to be clarified how the fictional Aesthetics. Ed. John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013: 171-193. and industrial frameworks of multimedia fran- chises, as dominating the contemporary me- Jenkins, Henry: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New diascape, are related to – and may indeed be Media Collide. New York/London: New York UP, 2006. transforming – practices of adaptation.3 Super- Parody, Clare. “Franchising/Adaptation.” Adaptation 4.2 hero Synergies productively reiterates this need (2011): 210-218. to detail the cultural mechanisms behind con- Whittington, William. “Lost in Sensation: Reevaluating the vergence, adaptation, franchising and entertain- Role of Cinematic Sound in the Digital Age.” The Oxford ment branding. Yet, while the introduction con- Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media. Ed. Carol cisely explains the common focus of the book, Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson. Oxford: Ox- ford UP, 2013: 61-76. helden. heroes. héros.