Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2019 Infinity ars:W Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire Peter J. Bruno The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3353 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFINITY WARS: POST 9/11 SUPERHERO FILMS AND AMERICAN EMPIRE by PETER J. BRUNO A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2019 © 2019 PETER J. BRUNO All Rights Reserved ii Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire by Peter J. Bruno This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Date George Fragopoulos Thesis Advisor Date Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire by Peter J. Bruno Advisor: George Fragopoulos In the last two decades, superhero films have accounted for some of the most popular and financially lucrative films of all time. This thesis analyzes some of the aesthetic and ideological dimensions of various superhero films following their post 9/11 boom. Beginning with America’s response to the events of 9/11 and a subsequent retreat into a Manichean world of good versus evil, I introduce the term “empirical reality” in order to account for the ways daily American life is shielded from the worst effects of U.S. foreign policy. On screen this manifests by perpetuating the myth of the “clean war” through depictions of mass destruction without civilian casualties. Next, building on Achille Mbembe’s concept of “necropolitics,” I introduce the term “digital Others” to assess for the ways these films’ enemies are routinely digitized and dehumanized, rendered only to be killed. However, beyond the aesthetics of death, I investigate the narratives of post 9/11 superhero villains, often portrayed as aspiring conquerors bent on world domination. This imperial shadow, I argue, is simultaneously both a rejection and a projection of colonial guilt, with America imagining itself as the necropolitical target of its own policies. However, post 9/11 superhero films are also filled with ideological tensions. Occasionally, these films present critiques of institutions like the military industrial complex, but more often than not, such critiques often fall to the wayside by the end of the film. As a means to understand such contradictions, I turn to Mark iv Fisher’s concept of “capitalist realism” in order to trace how post 9/11 superhero films cannot imagine alternatives outside of empire and its capitalist hegemony. This thesis ends by examining two post 9/11 superhero films that come the closest towards refusing the status quo of empire. Keywords: Superhero, Post 9/11, Capitalist realism, Empire, Imperialism, Necropolitics v TABLE OF CONTENTS Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire Introduction: Every Superhero has an Origin Story 1 Never Forgetting: 9/11 and the Interruption of Regularly Scheduled Programming 6 Fascist Aesthetics: Wars without Blood 14 On Superheroes and Subhumans: Digital Others and the Necropolitical Imagination 24 Capitalist Realism and the Commodification of Critique 36 Conclusion: The End of History or Something New? 47 Works Cited 52 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Original trailer for Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi, Sony Pictures Releasing, 2002. 1 Figure 2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Directed by Zach Snyder, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2016. 15 Figure 3. Superman Returns. Directed by Brian Singer, Warner Bros. Pictures. 2006. 15 Figure 4. Iron Man. Directed by Jon Favreau, Paramount Pictures, 2008. 16 vii Bruno 1 Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films and American Empire Fig. 1. Close-up on Spider-Man's eye focusing on the World Trade Center before apprehending criminals in between the twin towers. This sequence can be found in the original Spider-Man (2002) trailer, directed by Sam Raimi, but was removed shortly after 9/11. Introduction: Every Superhero has an Origin Story “The line between war and entertainment has always been permeable and negotiable, especially in a world saturated with electronic media...It may not be such a stretch to say that every representation of conflict must wrestle with the ethics of its own entertainment value." (4) − Roger Stahl, Militainment, Inc. “Hey Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?” “If they’re shooting at you, they’re bad.” − Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier “I have successfully privatized world peace. What more do you want?” − Tony Stark, Iron Man 2 “Every superhero has an origin story,” the advertisement boasts on repeat. It is late at night and I am sitting inside of a half-empty movie theater waiting for the 2019 film Captain Marvel to begin. The film has been out for a couple of weeks now, earning the ire of young men online skeptical of its so-called “feminist agenda.” The ad returns once again, “Every superhero Bruno 2 has an origin story,” the narrator proclaims. The music builds and crescendos, showcasing the flying skills of all women pilots as the narrator continues, “We all got our start somewhere. For us, it was the U.S. Air Force.” While it is not completely out of the ordinary to see ads for branches of the military on television or in movie theaters, it is somewhat unusual to see the military referring to their own soldiers as superheroes. However, none of this is coincidental. In the film, Captain Marvel herself is a former U.S. Air Force pilot, and it is perhaps unsurprising that the U.S. Air Force has played a large part in the marketing and the production of the film, going as far as providing equipment in exchange for having the final say on the film’s script, a practice that has become routine for militaristic Hollywood films (Braslow). As the popular veteran publication Task and Purpose remarks, “Captain Marvel is the recruiting tool of the U.S. Air Force’s dreams” (Keller). But why is this exactly? Upon first glance at the film, Captain Marvel’s ideology appears to come out against “the wars” and “the lies” of her former people (known as the Kree), disavowing those only interested in solidifying their own borders and killing off refugees once referred to as “terrorists” (Captain Marvel). Hardly positions seemingly associated with the U.S. Air Force. And yet, the film still operates functionally as a worthwhile investment for the military as a recruiting tool. These contradictions between funding and messaging are squared, in part, because of the United States’ own self-image of itself as an empire against empires. In other words, Americans don’t view themselves as being part of an empire, but rather, they view themselves as being part of a republic with a long history of fighting against imperialists and oppressors (Immerwahr 19). This means that Captain Marvel’s anti-colonial narrative actually fits directly in line with those of liberal humanist understandings of freedom and what scholar Lisa Lowe might refer to as, “the politics of our lack of knowledge,” selectively affirming and forgetting the conditions by which freedom has been historically constituted (39). These are some of the sites of tension that I Bruno 3 explore further in my thesis, examining how post 9/11 superhero films might simultaneously both reinforce and occasionally subvert American empire and its capitalist hegemony amongst the backdrop of the amorphous and seemingly never-ending global “War on Terror.” As of 2019, superhero films have accounted for five of the top ten highest grossing films of all time, with more than 70 superhero films released since 9/11 (and still counting). Some have theorized that this post 9/11 boom reflects a reactionary tendency towards re-exerting the United States as a moral good against an imagined evil (Altheide 11; Laderman and Gruenewald 142; Hassler-Forest 28), while others emphasize narratives of American exceptionalism as coinciding with growing revolutions in computer technologies (“American Exceptionalism” 114). Certainly, there is room for both interpretations. However, for the purposes of this thesis, I am not so interested in speculating as to why the films themselves are so popular, but rather, I am much more interested in examining the films’ sometimes contradictory ideological effects because they are so popular. The first chapter begins by detailing one of America’s modern origin stories, the attacks on 9/11 and the fostering of a simplistic Manichean worldview in response to the events, while detailing some of its direct effects on Hollywood. In considering 9/11 both as a literal tragedy and as an event experienced via television screens, I discuss the interruption of what I refer to as “empirical reality,” or the sense of imperial normality that accompanies living inside of an empire, where its effects are rendered mostly invisible, unimaginable, and inconceivable to those inside of it, and how the effects of empire’s reach remain largely outside of normal daily American life. This chapter details a few examples of how post 9/11 superhero films attempt to re-master the trauma of 9/11, while simultaneously fighting back against “evildoers.” Chapter two attempts to reckon with the ways that the destruction of cities and people are presented both aesthetically and ideologically in post 9/11 superhero films.