Crisis of Infinite Intertexts! Continuity As Adaptation in the Superman Multimedia Franchise
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Crisis of Infinite Intertexts! Continuity as Adaptation in the Superman Multimedia Franchise Jack Peterson Teiwes ORCID identifier 0000-0001-8956-1602 Doctor of Philosophy November 2015 School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the PhD degree Produced on archival quality paper Abstract Since first appearing as a comic book character over three quarters of a century ago, Superman was not only the first superhero, spawning an entire genre of imitators, but also quickly became one of the most widely disseminated multi-media entertainment franchises. This achieved a degree of intergenerational cultural dissemination that far surpasses his comic book fandom. Yet despite an unprecedented degree of adaptation into other media from radio, newspaper strips, film serials, animation, feature films, video games and television, Superman’s ongoing comic books have remained in unbroken publication, developing a long and complex history of narrative renewal and reinvention. This thesis investigates the multifaceted intertextuality between the comic book portrayals of Superman and its many adaptations over the years, including how such retellings in other media have a generally stronger cultural impact, which exerts in turn an adaptive influence upon these continuing comics’ internalised narrative continuity. I shall argue that Superman comics, as a case study for the wider phenomenon in the superhero genre, demonstrate via their frequent revisions and relaunches of continuity, a process of deeply palimpsestuous self-adaptation. The Introduction positions my research methodology in relation to intertextual theory, with an emphasis on providing terminological clarity, while Chapter 1 expands into a literature review on pertinent key scholarship on adaptation studies and the comics studies field specifically. Chapter 2 explores the history and application of adaptation to other media in the Superman franchise, and how this has progressively manifested in ‘feedback’ processes in the comics that are the notional source material, an increasingly problematised textual designation. Chapter 3 refocuses on Superman’s comic book diegesis and unpacks the definitions and internal methodology of continuity and its revision, with a particular focus on the pertinent writings of Umberto Eco regarding the “oneiric” nature of Superman comics’ temporal narratology, and I weigh in on debates involving his later critics. Finally, Chapter 4 delves into the history and theoretical implications of comics’ process of perpetual and accelerating cycles of continuity revision, and their increasingly intertextual lines of influence with past and concurrent adaptations to other media within the wider franchise. Using Gerard Genette’s conception of the textual palimpsest, I argue that comic book continuity has become a highly iterative succession of self-adapting rearticulations of their core narratives, utilising much the same intertextual processes as adaptations between different media expressions, in search of a constant generational renewal and creative renegotiation. ii Declaration This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD, (ii) due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used, (iii) the thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signed: Date: 20th November, 2015 iii This thesis has referenced two pieces of my work previously published during the research process, in the following forms: Teiwes, Jack, 2011, “A Man of Steel (by any other name): Adaptation and Continuity in Alan Moore's ‘Superman’,” ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, Vol. 5, No. 4, http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v5_4/teiwes/. Teiwes, Jack, 2012, “The New ‘Man of Steel’ Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp!: Media Reactions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era,” in The Ages of Superman: Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times, ed. Joseph J. Darowski, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, London, 125-42. These publications have been cited on four occasions, with a few sentences from the ImageTexT article repeated in this thesis. Citations from the chapter in the Darowski collection are included as a suggestion for further reading. iv Acknowledgements My sincere appreciation goes out to those who have assisted me in the long process of bringing together my research project and this resulting final thesis. I would especially like to thank: My supervisors Angela Ndalianis and Djoymi Baker, for their perseverance, guidance, encouragement and frankness when it was needed most. Randall W. Scott of Michigan State University Libraries' Comic Art Collection, for his kind assistance with accessing a wealth of obscure primary materials. Gentleman scholars Michael Bailey, Danny Graydon, and Jim Moon, for corroborating various arcane facts at odd hours, across international time zones. Rosie and Luigi, for comfort. Mark, Nick, and Tom, for putting up with this glacial phase of my life, and being my brothers through it all. And most especially to Fred and Kath, my parents, for a depth of love, support, and fathomless patience which I cannot begin to describe or adequately express my gratitude. v Table of Contents Introduction 1 Issues of Terminology: Intertextual Theory from Kristeva to Genette 3 Overview of the Following Chapters 15 Chapter One: Superman and Transmedia Adaptation Theory 18 Adapting a Methodology from Adaptation Theory 18 Comics Studies and Methodology 38 Comic Book Adaptations and Filmic Intertextuality 52 Conclusion 58 Chapter Two: Intertextual Adaptation 59 Franchise 61 Influence, Transmission and Resonance 75 Adaptation 83 Feedback 97 Kneel Before Stamp! 105 Conclusion 115 Chapter Three: Understanding Oneiric Continuity 117 What is ‘Continuity,’ and Why Does it Matter? 118 Adopting Fan Terminology 119 The ‘Ages’ of Superhero Comics 131 Eco, Superman, and Oneiric Continuity 135 Imaginary Stories, Elseworlds, and Other Continuity Outliers 145 Multiplicity and Pastiche 151 Conclusion 156 Chapter Four: Palimpsestuous Continuity Management as Adaptation 157 Approaches to Continuity 158 Crisis of Continuity Conundrums 161 Moore’s Metacomics as Continuity Critique 168 Complicating the Continuity Model 174 Genette and Hypertextual Considerations 177 Superman’s Ongoing Continuity 182 Continuity Management 194 Continuity versus Interpretation 198 Palimpsestuous Continuity 204 More of Moore’s Metacritique 207 Conclusion 213 Conclusion 215 Bibliography 222 vi INTRODUCTION This thesis argues that comic book continuity, particularly the phenomenon of the diegetically-justified continuity ‘reboot,’ is a process of internalised adaptation within a serialised medium. This idiosyncratic form of adaptation will be examined through a case study of the Superman franchise, demonstrating how this process is comparable to (and draws upon) other forms of transmedia adaptation, yet is ultimately a unique form of evolving intertextuality. The choice to focus on the Superman transmedia franchise in particular is due to its comic books featuring not only the first superhero character, but moreover being the one with the longest uninterrupted history of perpetual re-adaptation. Superman is a particularly meaningful case study because the Man of Steel is the superhero most widely, repeatedly, and consistently adapted into other media for over 75 years. Beginning with a decade-spanning adaptation to radio within the first two years of his comic book debut, Superman has gone on to feature in dramatised adaptations via at least one other concurrent medium per decade for the length of his existence. This has included radio, audiobooks, film serials, theatrical animated shorts, stage musicals, multiple “Saturday morning” cartoon series, over two dozen direct-to-video animated films, four long-running live-action television series, and, as of 2016, eight feature films, as well as television series and films starring his supporting characters, with Superman having been portrayed by over a dozen actors in live-action media alone. Even in his original comic book medium alone, Superman’s diegesis has been the most frequently and obsessively reworked of any comparable superhero, with generations of different writers and artists building upon the original iteration created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Subsequent notable comic professionals such as Mort Weisinger, John Byrne, Alan Moore, Geoff Johns, and many others had hands in defining Superman’s textual identity anew for different eras, by rearticulating its past. The analysis of how these particular forms of metatextual interplay operate in a heightened manner throughout Superman narratives both within and beyond comic books has wider application to the study of other serialised narrative forms, and most especially transmedia franchises, which seek to disseminate their intellectual property simultaneously via multiple different media. 1 Issues which this study will examine in detail will include some fundamental assessment of how comic book continuity functions as both continuous and shared diegesis,1 and the distinctions between fan terms ‘retcon’ and ‘reboot’ and how they differ from similar literary mechanisms in other narrative forms, especially in their highly complex diegetic permutations. Analysis of how these alterations to continuity are influenced by issues of cultural shifts in audiences, continuous production, corporate ownership and