THE DUALITY OF IDENTITY IN THE SUPERHERO FILM
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of A the requirements for the Degree
FILM, Master of Arts •■£33 In Cinema Studies
by
Abas Ali Zadfar
San Francisco, California
August 2017 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL
I certify that I have read “The Duality of Identity in the Superhero Film” by Abas Ali
Zadfar, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in
Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University.
R.L. Rutsky, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Cinema
^ 2- 'SOLs'PrJ
Julian Hoxter, M.F.A. Associate Professor of Cinema THE DUALITY OF IDENTITY IN THE SUPERHERO FILM
Abas Ali Zadfar San Francisco, California 2017
This thesis examines the development of identity in superhero movies, specifically in the films Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, and Hulk. Referencing the concept of the shadow persona employed by Carl Jung and examining the notion of dual identity and the relationship between the real self and the imagined self, I will explore the essence and core of the personas of Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, and Bruce Banner, and how they apply to the relationship between the viewer and the main character. Through the concept of spectatorship, the paper will analyze how Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, and Bruce Banner are characters saddled with real-world issues and problems, and how their triumphs and tribulations enable them to become accessible to the audience.
I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis.
Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to give my utmost gratitude to Aaron Kemer and R.L. Rutsky. Without your helpfulness, guidance, patience, and support, I would not be able to finish my thesis and my education at this university. I also want to thank my awesome and very cool classmates Nettie Brock, Courtney Fellion, Rachel Hart, Carolin Kirchner, Ashley Nunes,
Megan Payne, Alina Predescu, Shahrzad Sabbagh, Patrick Brame, Sean Bristol-Lee,
Andrew Clark, Alexander Farrow, and Enrique Fibla Gutierrez for inspiring me in my life. And last but definitely not least, I like to thank my family and friends for your continuous support and for always being there for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction...... 1
Who Am I? I’m Spider-Man...... 6
Batman: Seeking A Home...... 13
Hulk: He Can’t Help Being Green...... 19
Happily Ever After?...... 26
v 1
Introduction The superhero cinematic genre, through the characters of Spider-Man, Batman, and the
Hulk, symbolizes the struggle of dual identities that Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, and
Bruce Banner grapple with in their daily lives. In addition to the dualism in identity, the genre illuminates the relationship between the main character and the viewer, and challenges the boundary between the human and non-human and the conscious and unconscious. In their own similar and distinctive ways, these three characters illustrate a form of wish-fulfillment for the viewer, representing figures that use their pain, torment, and anxiety to become something bigger than themselves. The alter egos of these three characters become a tool in fighting back against the suffocating guilt that consumes and threatens to engulf them, which inspires viewers to identify with and establish a relationship with them, and contributes to the audience envisioning themselves as these three characters.
Spider-Man, Batman, and the Hulk are larger-than-life, almost god-like figures, enabling the viewer to believe in these characters. Aristotle states that “the man who is isolated, who is unable to share in the benefits of political association or has no need to share because he is already self-sufficient, is no part of the polis, and must therefore be either a beast or a god.”1 When inhabiting their other persona, the three characters become superhuman, possessing a role that is above and beyond their human-selves.
They become beastly and embody an animalistic semblance, that of a spider, a bat, and a monstrous giant. By suffering through personal trauma, battling between their selves and their enemies, and through their fluctuating relationships with their friends and loved 2
ones, Parker, Banner, and Wayne journey through life, overcoming the loss and regrets that have impacted their lives. The films Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, and Hulk exhibit the main character reclaiming his identity and standing up for himself amidst his struggle and challenges in life.
While audiences might watch these movies for the spectacle, what makes these three characters relatable to the viewer is their humanness and the problems that they have to deal with. They become vessels for the viewer to believe in, figures that they can live vicariously through, an escape from their everyday lives. They allow fans to psychologically project themselves onto them, and as a result, it deepens the relationship between the character and the viewer. Through the viewing experience, Vivian Sobchack states, the relationship between the spectator and the film becomes “a dialogical and dialectical engagement of two viewing subjects who also exist as visible objects.” She notes that this manner of viewing “implicates both embodied, situated existence and a material world” and that the viewing subject “must be a body and be materially in the world, sharing a similar manner and matter of existence with other viewing subjects, but living this existence discretely and autonomously.”3 The viewing experience becomes a personal relationship between the viewer and the character, and it enhances the connection and alliance that fans have with the character. It allows the attraction to be solely for them. Parker, Wayne, and Banner encountering human issues such as coping with their identity, questioning their status and roles in the world, feeling guilty and 3
regretful about their decisions, and grieving about their past mistakes makes them relatable and enables the viewer to identify with and believe in these characters.
One way the three characters invoke empathy in the viewer is through their parental issues, which becomes the formation of the guilt that haunts their lives, and they use their extraordinary alter egos to help deal with the inner pain that they feel. Their alter ego allows them to temporarily become someone else, enabling them to escape from the torturous struggle of their lives as human beings. The challenges the three characters encounter in the films force them to reflect on their past and to focus on the regrets that they have experienced, and they try to ameliorate these struggles through their alter ego.
For Parker, Wayne, and Banner, their alter egos are a space where they can leave their real-world issues behind and become someone other than themselves for a while, a fantasy of their own making. They are moving away from the world that they are living in and are engaging in the realms of fantasy. They are living in an imaginative space where they are the rulers of that world, a creation where their subconscious can roam free, a space where they can feel free and unlimited. James F. Iacchino notes that Jung defined the persona as “our conscious outer face, our social mask that we put on to conceal the private self which lies within.”4 Iacchino also discusses the Jungian aspect of shadow and how it is “the one aspect of that self we tend to ignore and repress from consciousness,” and “how many people tend to cover up their shadow with the persona, but if they look under the social guise, they will find a brutal primitive waiting to be unleashed upon the world.”5 The alter ego feeds off their pain and regrets to make itself 4
known, and those pains and regrets congeal to become a part of their body and soul, thus becoming a part of their lives, a part they cannot get rid of no matter how hard they try.
They are enslaved to their childhood, while being present in mind and body. It is this pain and their continuous vulnerability that makes them relatable to the viewer.
By becoming another person, Parker, Wayne, and Banner are fulfilling a need that is lacking in themselves, a deficit that can only be fulfilled by becoming someone unlike themselves, a form of repression which comes from a lack of parental figures in their life.
They repress their past by creating a new identity. Sigmund Freud defined repression as
“some force that prevented (people) from being conscious and compelled them to remain unconscious.”6 Repression allows them to disappear from public life and become a secret being, a creation that is of their own making, an invention that is solely for themselves, an island that only they know exists. For instance, in Ang Lee’s film, the Hulk is not a traditional superhero. Banner is just a person desiring to take control of his life and of his past. The Hulk looms over his shoulder and his daily life, and Banner wants nothing more than to get rid of his monstrous side and go fully back to being an ordinary human being.
For Banner, his other persona is a jail cell for his human body and rationality, a cage where Banner is held in check and cannot affect his alter ego. These three characters’ missing needs are fulfilled by their other personae, and their alter egos are essential to the fabric of their being. That is why Parker cannot stop being Spider-Man, why Wayne cannot stop being Batman, and no matter how hard he tries, why Banner cannot shed 5
himself of the Hulk. It is an organic part of who they are, and it is why one persona cannot live without the other.
These three characters are constantly struggling to overcome the heartache and torment that haunt them, and their continuous battles to resolve their internal and external conflicts allow them to be accessible to the audience. The repression of their emotions strengthens the fans’ connection to them in the way that it makes the characters seem more human and relatable. The notion that the three characters are not these invincible super-beings, but instead, are human beings prone to everyday human problems allows these characters to endear themselves to the viewer, and the viewer to engage with these characters they see onscreen. Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, and Bruce Wayne are not looked up to by viewers just because they have superpowers, but because they have faults and weaknesses that enable them to establish a strong rapport with their fans. The acceptance of responsibility, despite their imperfections, is the thread that connects
Parker, Wayne, and Banner. It is the maturity that arrives after accepting their destiny in life, and it is how they live with their other persona that shapes their outlook on life and tries to pave their way to salvation and peace with themselves. In addition, the state of society also contributes to their outlook on life. As Frank Miller told the Comics Journal,
“Batman only works if the world really sucks.”7 In these three movies, society is in constant peril by outside forces. If civilization is not under continuous threat, the world would not require superheroes, and there would be no need for a superhero movie. By filling their societal roles, these three characters’ other persona fills the void that is in 6
their hearts, the everyday void that represents frustration, regret, anxiety, loneliness, and the sense of belonging, while also providing a spectacle for the audience.
Even though they have loved ones, Banner, Wayne, and Parker are alone in their world and they are only accompanied by their alter ego. Mark K. Spencer states that
“bodily interaction with the world involves a feeling of being alive, of sensing our own vitality, and this is a matter of enjoyment or suffering.”8 They only have their other persona for company, and it is their other persona that knows the sacrifice and pain that they go through. Their other persona exists because of their pain, and they need their other persona in order to feel whole again and to be themselves, because without their personas, they are empty and broken shells of themselves. They are lost in their stream of consciousness, and they are lost in the world without an identity and a way to fend for themselves, and this struggle allows the viewer to empathize with the character, and enables them to project their feelings and desires onto the character, enhancing the viewer’s immersion into the character. Their other persona allows the character and the viewer to break out of their natural limits, and that eruption of natural barriers is especially prevalent in the character of Peter Parker.
Who Am I? I’m Spider-Man
In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Peter Parker is an ordinary high school student who ends up getting bitten by a radioactive spider. This accident gives Peter the enhanced capabilities of a spider, including wall crawling, super speed, super strength, and spider sense, which 7
alerts him to incoming attacks from his enemies, and these newfound powers allow him to help people who need saving. For Parker, Spider-Man becomes a figure with responsibility that he accepts after his uncle dies. At first, Peter treats Spider-Man as a money-making opportunity by entering a wrestling contest but after his uncle’s death,
Peter transforms Spider-Man into an instrument of justice. Spider-Man 2 sees Peter being more in control of his powers, and embracing the responsibility that comes with the power of putting on the suit. He uses his powers as a tool to help make a difference in people’s lives and in the world. His powers as Spider-Man gamer Peter recognition and infuses him with confidence in increasingly becoming Spider-Man.
Transforming into Spider-Man becomes a thirst for Peter, a hunger, a desire that needs to be satisfied, to the point where Spider-Man possesses his daily life, to the extent where in Spider-Man 2, Peter questions whether he can continuously become Spider-
Man, and this stems from the pain he feels for being responsible for his uncle’s death. He knows he had the chance to stop the thief, who robbed the wrestling promoter and who eventually shot and killed his uncle, but he wanted revenge on the wrestling promoter who refused to pay him his winnings, and that trauma has never been extinguished for
Peter. Peter becomes Spider-Man to avenge his uncle’s death and overcome the pain and trauma of his past. He uses Spider-Man as a rebellion tactic against the guilt that he has endured.
While the Spider-Man persona is a wish-fulfillment dream and spectacle for the viewer, Peter realizes his alter ego is damaging his psyche and is straining his 8
relationships with the people he loves, and he lets his circumstances dictate to him how to live his life. Greg M. Smith states that superhero narratives are “a daydream of effectivity, of having the ability to overcome whatever obstacles lie ahead.”9 Superhero stories are fantasies that enable the character to surmount any obstructions that might arise by using his/her talents and skills, and they also provide hope for viewers by speaking to the viewers’ hopes and fears. The superhero narrative explains to the viewer that if a flawed character like Peter Parker can become Spider-Man and endure various adversities in pursuance of helping others, then viewers can overcome any hardship that is thrown their way. Spider-Man 2 sees Peter facing various hardships, and having a difficult time balancing between being Peter Parker and being Spider-Man. Peter gives up his suit after finding out that the woman he loves, Mary Jane, is engaged to someone else, his best friend Harry is blaming him for his father’s death, his Aunt May is suffering under the duress of housing bills, and his spider powers are failing him during battle.
These factors contribute to Peter questioning his motivation in being Spider-Man, and pondering whether he is the right person for the job, examining whether he is destined to be Spider-Man for the rest of his life, and determining what effect that would have on his life and on his loved ones. He figures out that the consequences are not worth the responsibility.
What makes Peter destroy Spider-Man is his lack of confidence in himself, and his belief that he cannot be with Mary Jane while also being Spider-Man. Being Spider-
Man becomes a job for Peter because it forces him to stay away from Mary Jane. Peter’s 9
apprehensions about being Spider-Man become evident in the first scene of Spider-Man
2, where Peter says of Mary Jane, “If she only knew how I felt about her. But she can
never know. I made a choice once to live a life of responsibility. A life she can never be a
part of. Who am I? I’m Spider-Man, given a job to do.”10 His daily life pecks away at
him while he assumes the responsibility of being Spider-Man, and this eats him up inside.
Peter realizes that his life as Spider-Man is cancerous to the people in his daily life. He
hurts the ones he loves, while aspiring to be the person he wants to be. He could not
handle the responsibility of both lives, and that is why he gets rid of Spider-Man. He
hands the task of saving people to law enforcement while he focuses on his studies and
on fixing the relationships in his life.
After throwing his costume in the garbage and living his life as just Peter Parker, however, he finds out that a normal ordinary life is not meant for him, when shortly after
shedding his costume, Peter passes by a burning house, and finds out that people are
trapped inside, that firefighters are undermanned, and that he and his powers are the only
way to save the day. He attempts to change into Spider-Man, and finds out that he is not
wearing his costume, but he rushes into the fray anyway. With his quickness and his
spider-sense, he rescues a baby and returns the baby to his parents. This incident and his aunt telling him that she believes “there is a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally, allows us to die with pride, even though
sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most,”11 clinches his return to the superhero life. He finds that the superhero life is the place where he most fits 10
in, the space where he can be himself. At the end of the film, Mary Jane finds out that she needs Peter in her life, in the same way that Peter needs her in his life, and she tells him as much at the end of the movie after finding out Peter’s Spider-Man identity while he is battling Doctor Octopus. Mary Jane says to him, “I know there’ll be risks but I want to face them with you. It’s wrong that we should be only half alive, half of ourselves.”12
Once Mary Jane tells Peter how she really feels about him, Peter is then free to become the person that he wants to be. The ending of Spider-Man 2 allows Peter to be Spider-
Man and to also have Mary Jane in his life. This is inspiring for the viewer because it shows that despite everything that he has endured, Peter achieves his happy ending.
Spider-Man, Batman, and the Hulk’s masks, costumes, and powers make them exist outside of the human species, but it is the human community that Parker wants to return to in Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man works as a guardian for the community, but because of his otherness, he cannot become accepted as part of the community, and it is
Peter’s desires to become part of society that causes Peter to question whether Spider-
Man is his destiny. Peter Parker’s chronic doubts and otherness are what makes him accessible to the audience, which empowers the viewer to believe in him. It is Peter’s selflessness that makes him a superhero, but it is also his selflessness that forces him to be socially distant from the people he cares about. His identity as Spider-Man puts him in an awkward position with his loved ones and makes him put his career over his personal life. He makes saving people a priority over his own goals and ambitions and even his friends and family. Spider-Man’s mystique comes from the way he lives for other people 11
than for himself, the way he cares for others than for his own life. He tries miserably to
prioritize family and work, his private and public lives, but his role as Spider-Man takes
precedence.
His constant struggle to balance his public and personal life is a reason why Peter
is accessible to audiences. Peter is a teenager living in the real-world, and he has teenage
concerns, including keeping up with his schoolwork, making money, undergoing physical
changes, bullying, figuring out what his life goals are, working on his relationships with
his friends, and dealing with his guilt and regrets. Peter represents a person with faults,
and his learning how to cope with his faults and his trying to overcome his faults in order
to become the person he desires to be, endears him to the audience. Peter’s appeal to fans
comes from the way he is just one of them, a person with insecurities and issues
progressing through life and trying to survive. The fans’ belief in Peter deepens their
affection for him when he transforms into Spider-Man because of their adoration for the
person underneath the mask. They care for Peter as much as they care for Spider-Man
because they see themselves in Peter, and their belief in Peter allows them to respect and
love Spider-Man as well.
Cinematically, the rush and thrill of Spider-Man swinging through New York City
provides a visual and aural thrill and spectacle to the audience that grants them the
privilege of fantasizing what it would be like to be in Spider-Man’s shoes. As the camera
displays Spider-Man as he soars through the sky, the viewer is treated to a dazzling sight where Spider-Man freely swings between buildings and over automobiles. Scott 12
Richmond states that every time we see Spider-Man swinging through the environment,
“it enmeshes us ever deeper in the diegetic world by soliciting our identification with the
protagonist,” and “in exacerbating the sensational impact of the film, it elaborates and
aestheticizes our embodied presence in the cinema.”13 The camera tracks Spider-Man as
he travels through the city, and the way it is digitally filmed makes it seem like the
camera is swinging along with him. This filmmaking technique allows viewers to feel that they are Spider-Man, and they themselves are traversing through the city. While he has powers like enhanced strength and the capability to crawl walls, it is Spider-Man’s
swinging abilities and his talent to shoot webs from his wrists that mainly makes a person
dream to be Spider-Man, and the sequences of Spider-Man flying through the air is a dream come true for Spider-Man fans. No longer confined to the comic book page, seeing
Spider-Man fly is a wish-fulfillment fantasy and a testament to a Spider-Man fan’s
imagination playing out onscreen.
While Spider-Man provides the spectacle, it is the character of Peter Parker who
strengthens the rapport between the viewer and the superhero. Peter is loved and adored by audiences because even though he has superpowers, he is just a person who is trying to figure out who he is and the type of person he wants to become. He encounters loss and pain and happiness and joy, and he has concerns like any other person. From a fan’s perspective, Peter Parker is me and I am Peter Parker. What makes Peter special or unique is the fact that he is not special or unique, and that why is when Peter’s aunt is kidnapped or when he is battling Doctor Octopus or whenever Peter pities himself for not 13
having a perfect life, the audience feels compassion for him and can relate to him, because he symbolizes that no one is perfect, not even Spider-Man. Even with his constant troubles and worries that endlessly plague him, Peter does not give up and that is what makes him a fan-favorite character, and the refusal to not give in is also evident in the character of Bruce Wayne.
Batman: Seeking a Home
For Bruce Wayne, Batman has positive ramifications in that it allows him to escape his daily life and use his pain for good, but it also has negative consequences in that his
Batman persona takes a toll on Bruce’s mind and body, and like Peter, relegates his loved ones to a supporting status, while his superhero persona takes precedence over his daily life. Wayne uses Batman to fight his own demons and to protect a city that is his sanctuary. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman so he can exist as Bruce Wayne. He needs
Batman to live his life, because without it, he cannot go on. Batman is the vessel in which
Wayne pours in his raw emotions, his feelings of neglect after his parents were murdered, and his emotions of regret and blame for causing his parents’ murder in the first place.
Batman acts as a form of therapy for Wayne and helps him try to sort out his feelings and emotional complexity inside himself. The costumed hero acts as a form of medicine, something to cure the ills of Bruce Wayne, and a way to help him overcome his emotional sickness. Batman is the prescription that allows Wayne to keep sane and not go off the deep end. It allows him to have a sense of duty, a mission, a responsibility to 14
himself and to his city. It makes him get away from the forlorn emotional destruction that
is embedded in Bruce Wayne.
Batman is life and death for Bruce Wayne. Like Peter, Bruce feels guilty, and that
is what enables him to become Batman. He feels that he caused his parents’ murder at the
hands of a gunman when he begged them to leave the Opera House early. Like Peter, this
guilt stays with Bruce through his childhood and adult life, and makes him promise
himself that something like that will not happen to anyone again. It is the memory of his
parents being killed that continuously feeds his motivation in becoming Batman. In
Batman Begins, a flashback shows young Bruce asking his parents if they can leave the
Opera House because the bats in the show were scaring him. After they leave the
performance, they are stopped by a robber and after refusing to give up their valuables
and attempting to break free from the robber, Bruce’s parents are shot and killed. Bruce
feels responsible for his parents’ death, and it infects his life, to the point where it
becomes the primary driving force for him to become Batman. Sally MacEwen notes,
“The affective hero sits at the intersection of ideology and desire. To feel safe, humans
desire to know their parents will protect them.”14 It is this intersection that becomes a
dilemma for Batman and for Bruce Wayne. Batman sets out to do good by cleaning up
Gotham City, but for Wayne, there is more to it than just doing good. It is more of a
selfish desire to ease his childhood pain, a revenge tactic to relieve the mental anguish that he carries, and to alleviate the painful memories that torment him. 15
Wayne’s continual pain is also why he retreats to the Batcave when he transforms
into Batman. It is the place where he can hearken back to his childhood and feel at home
with his parents, and it also represents the cave where he became frightened by bats, as
seen in Batman Begins. The Batcave symbolizes Jung’s concept of the maternal womb, a place where a mother’s love represents “homecoming, shelter, and the long silence from which everything begins and in which everything ends.”15 It is where he sheds the mask
of being Bruce Wayne and dons the outfit of Batman. The Batcave marks the end of
Bruce Wayne and the beginning of Batman. Batman did not exist when Wayne’s parents were alive, but their death manifested in the creation and formation of Batman. Andreas
Reichstein notes, “Crawling back into the cave is looking for security and dashing out is
facing, and in a way fighting, life. Using a cave as his secret hideout suggests that the
Bruce Wayne figure represents someone who is afraid of life.”16 Wayne’s life, like
Parker’s and Banner’s, is irrevocably damaged by the loss of his parents, and the rest of his life is essentially picking up the remnants and trying to make something of himself
Similar to how the Fortress of Solitude provides comfort for Superman, the Batcave is a place of security for Wayne, a place where he can be himself. Batman permits Wayne to
strike back against his fear. Changing into Batman allows Wayne, and fans, to discard their insecurities and fight back against life itself.
Wayne’s past continues to haunt him, and this haunting past also pertains to the history of Batman’s creation as a comic book character. Comic book artists Bob Kane and Bill Finger, who were both raised in Jewish households, introduced Batman in March 16
of 1939, and during this time, the Second World War was about to begin. Through the
1940s, Batman was a dark, noir-style character, who even carried a gun in his very first appearance. From the 1950s through the 1960s, however, the Batman character was portrayed as a form of escape from the everyday world. In this decade, Batman was represented as a cheesy do-gooder, a depthless character doing everything the right way while being humorous but silly at the same time, and these traits were all exemplified in the mid-1960s television series Batman. The show was basically catered as a form of entertainment for children and young adults, and its use of exclamations, like “POW!,”
“SPLATT!,” and “THWACK!,” in its fight scenes made the show more of a comic-book come to life. It was not until the 1970s, and Frank Miller’s 1986 graphic novel The Dark
Knight Returns, that Batman returned to his 1940s version, embodying deeper and darker connotations, and eventually becoming the Dark Knight, which is the Batman that is portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. This Batman character conveyed the post-war era, and this representation is a cynical, world-weary portrayal in a world that is ruthless and uncaring.
Wayne creates Batman so he can comfort his own torturous pain, and it is his agony that makes him an intriguing character. Carl Jung states that the persona is “a kind of mask designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.”17 Batman adopts an all-black outfit that allows him to blend in the shadows and use the darkness to gain an advantage on his enemies. The darkness represents the hurt within his soul, which makes him accessible to 17
the viewer, because the pain shows Wayne’s imperfections. Even though Wayne is a wealthy man, life has tortured his soul and has taken a toll on him, and he uses Batman to escape his pain. Wayne is able to save Gotham, but he is not able to save the people that he loves. In The Dark Knight, Wayne’s close friend Rachel dies, and his frenemy Harvey
Dent’s face becomes scarred turning him into Two-Face, and this all happens indirectly because of him. The Joker targets Rachel and Harvey, but he targets them because of their association with Batman, and this just adds another layer of pain and regret to
Wayne’s soul. When Bruce asks Alfred how he can proceed with being Batman with so many people dying, Alfred tells him, “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman. He can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.”18 Wayne suffers because of his association with
Batman, but yet, he continues to be Batman, and it is the character of Batman that fans want to see. While they can relate to Bruce Wayne, fans aspire to be Batman. For fans, the spectacle of Batman lies in the different ways that Batman delivers punishment to his enemies. Their desire is to live through Batman as he uses his gadgets and skills to take out his anger on the various criminals and crazed villains, like the Joker, that are terrorizing Gotham City.
For Bruce Wayne, Batman is a form of vengeance against the pain that tortures him, and this form of power makes him relatable to the viewer. When a human being feels agony and is regretful about his/her past, would it not be satisfying or gratifying to have the strength to soothe the guilt that is burning up his/her soul? Batman is Wayne’s 18
answer to alleviating his guilt. The audience sees a person who is hurting, but who does
not give up and fights for what is right, which is inspiring for the viewer. Even when the
chips are down, and the people he cares for dies, and gangsters and the Joker are
terrorizing him and his city, Batman does not turn his back on Gotham. He endures not
because he wants to but because he has to. Jung notes, “The mirror does not flatter. It
faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world
because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor. But the mirror lies behind the
mask and shows the true face.”19 The costumed hero is where Bruce is at ease, the
persona where he is himself. In his mansion in The Dark Knight, Wayne is mostly
brooding, wondering why the Joker is menacing Gotham, and thinking about how
gangsters have destroyed his city. He is thinking about Batman, even when he is just
Bruce Wayne, and this feeds into his psyche. Gotham and Batman are interlinked.
Gotham is Batman’s world, and without Batman, the city would be awash in violence.
When Bruce says to Alfred, “What have I done, Alfred? Everything my family... my
father built...I wanted to save Gotham, I failed,” Alfred comforts him by saying, “Why do
we fall sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up.”20 Bruce Wayne might not be the
ideal portrayal of how to live one’s life, but it is a portrait on never giving up no matter how dire things might seem, and that is what makes him a captivating and inspiring
character for fans. While Batman is the spectacle that fans come to see, it is Bruce
Wayne’s struggles that lends credence to Batman. Wayne is consistently looking out for
Gotham while also harnessing his own struggles at the same time. He is easy to root for 19
because he is a person just trying to do good for his city and for himself, despite the
struggles he is going through. Wayne makes a wealthy playboy become relatable by
showing the audience the anguish that he is going through, a person who cannot help
himself but is still on fixed on helping others in need. Wayne’s ideals of putting the needs
of Gotham City above himself, and using his power and energy to restore order, even if it
means risking his life, makes him beloved by fans worldwide.
Hulk: He Can’t Help Being Green
What these three characters all have in common is their tortured past and a desire to get
away from the past and make things right, which makes them accessible to the audience.
For Parker, Wayne, and Banner, the past, in some way, is constantly infiltrating and
making its way into the present. It is voluntary for Parker and Wayne to become their
other persona, but it is involuntary for Bruce Banner, who struggles to contain his pain.
He keeps his regrets under wraps, in order to keep the beast inside of him tamed. The
Hulk symbolizes all the frustrations, anxieties, regrets, and tragedies that Banner has
gone through and experienced in his life. The Hulk was introduced by Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby in The Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962. Both Lee and Kirby, along with the co-creator
of Batman, Bob Kane, all changed their surnames when they started writing comic books.
For instance, Stan Lee changed his surname from Lieber to Lee and Kirby changed his
surname from Kurtzberg to Kirby. The changing of names can possibly signify them masking their Jewish heritage, protecting themselves from the pains of anti-Semitism, or 20
it can symbolize a new start, a fresh beginning, a place where they can be themselves,
like perhaps embodying an alter ego. When asked why he changed his name when he first
started writing comics in 1940, Stan Lee explains, “Comics were not held in high regard at the time and that’s putting it mildly. Not wanting my name to be sullied by them, I used the pen name of Stan Lee, saving Stanley Martin Lieber for the great novel to come.” Lee states that he changed his name legally to Stan Lee because that is the name everyone knew him by but he has second doubts stating, “But I have a confession to make. To this day I regret that name change.”22 Whether it is not desiring to be categorized as a Jewish artist, wanting to create works for all people by using a nondescript name, or yearning to escape from their recent history by creating a new identity, Lee, Kirby, Kane, and other Jewish artists invented a split existence which transferred to the characters they created, and an example of that transference is epitomized in the character of the Hulk.
Bruce Banner regards the Hulk as a curse rather than a blessing. Banner wants to dispose of the Hulk so he can return to a normal life, but the Hulk will not go away. The
Hulk destroys Banner like a plague, and does not loosen its grip on him until he is done rampaging and destroying. Banner is victimized by the Hulk’s attacks, and he becomes an unwilling and unwitting participant in the Hulk’s body. The Hulk is a monster that knows no boundaries. The dichotomy between the two selves of the Hulk represents two different identities and two different souls. They are two distinct halves of the same person. This riff on dual personalities is based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case 21
o f Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written in 1886. In the novel, Dr. Jekyll is the Bruce Banner
of the story, while Mr. Hyde personifies the Hulk. Unlike the Hulk however, Mr. Hyde is the epitome of pure evil. Hyde murders innocent people, and evil thoughts and emotions take over Jekyll’s mind. At the end of the book, Jekyll cannot stop his transformations, and he loses himself to Hyde. In his last moments, Jekyll writes in a letter, “Here then, as
I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy
Henry Jekyll to an end.” Jekyll is defenseless against Hyde’s power and strength, and he is forced to give in to Hyde’s whims and desires. Hulk, like Hyde, is unrestrained by the rules of society and is the epitome of the unconscious running free, without any boundaries limiting him or holding him back. A gamma ray accident gives Banner the power to become the Hulk, but the Hulk becomes unleashed by feeding on Banner’s insecurities and the demons of his past.
Spider-Man, Batman, and the Hulk would not exist if it were not for the past regrets, pain, and frustrations that Parker, Wayne, and Banner have gone through in their
lives. For Banner, the Hulk’s origin lies in his past traumas and regrets all rolled up into one monster, his own personal beast who only understands him and no one else, which makes him an attractive character for fans. Weakness make characters human and more relatable and Banner’s frustrations become the audience’s entry point into creating a relationship with the character. Banner’s fragile emotions and psyche allows the audience into Banner’s mindset and puts the viewer into Banner’s shoes. The Hulk is the 22
audience’s reward for suffering along with the character. The beast is tuned to his negative feelings, and it is formed because of it.
The Hulk’s creation results from Banner’s inability to control and contain his insecurities, which have been present since his childhood. Jung states, “Hidden in the neurosis is a bit of still undeveloped personality, a precious fragment of the psyche lacking which a man is condemned to resignation, bitterness, and everything else that is hostile to life.”24 The Hulk revels in Banner’s anger about the absence of his parents and capitalizes on those emotions to become a vile version of Banner. The Hulk is a mirror version of Banner, if Banner let rage take over his entire body and soul. Hulk is a manifestation of Banner’s feelings of anger, depression, and feeling sorry for himself.
Banner’s monster is epitome of Banner’s traumatic past, and it is the uncontrollable and irrational beast that exists because of the suffering that Banner has gone through in his life and from the people who have caused him trouble in his life. It is his troubles that weaken Banner, and it is his troubles that garner adoration from fans, because without his difficulties, the Hulk would not exist.
Banner is tortured and attacked by the Hulk, and he cannot extinguish the fire of the beast within him. When he is made angry, which happens a handful of times in Hulk, it is the “brutal primitive” that Iacchino describes that emerges from Bruce Banner.
Banner hulking out is a spectacle and is the equivalent of an animal getting loose from its cage, a lion being free in a city, King Kong decimating New York City, Godzilla terrorizing Japan. The Mr. Hyde side of Banner comes out, and there is no way Banner 23
can control it, until it has run its course. It is a rush, and it is this rush that makes Hulk a cherished character by fans. Banner is the substance behind the Hulk, but it is the Hulk rampaging and causing destruction that is the highlight of a Hulk movie, and his physicality is a factor in the spectacle. Lisa Purse notes that the Hulk’s actions and activity do “not display the expected correspondences with his environment, a fact that becomes more apparent the longer he is on screen,”25 and this inconsistency adds to his beastly aura. Insufficient special effects may have played a role in this inconsistency, but it actually enhances the Hulk’s monstrousness in the film. It further differentiates the
Hulk from humanity by showing that he is out of place in their world because of his uniqueness. It is this uniqueness that makes the Hulk an appealing character for fans.
Even though Banner does not embrace his uniqueness, it is this feeling of not belonging and being different that is attractive to fans. The Hulk is caused by Banner’s pent-up rage, and it is an extreme example of what happens when a person is tired of fitting in. Yann Roblou explains that the Hulk’s physicality is comparable to that of the sublime, “in the sense that the sublime is constituted through the combined sensations of astonishment, terror, and awe that occur through the revelation of a power greater, by far, than the human.”26 The Hulk takes over Banner’s memory to the point that even the people he loves, like Betty, become barely familiar to him. Morality and human rationality go out the window, because the Hulk is no longer a human being. Roblou states that the Hulk’s “existential fear and hatred of the whole world takes on a fantasized capability of destruction and yet lends him the dimension of an object of pity in the eyes 24
of the spectator.”27 The Hulk disturbs the order of life by simply being a monster, but he is a fan favorite because he is a misunderstood monster. The fans know the hurt that
Banner is going through, and that is why they have an affection for him. They know that deep down inside, Banner is not a monster but a human being. It does not matter to the
Army that there is a person inside of it. It is not important when General Ross’s own daughter Betty tells him that there is a human being underneath the beast, because the fact that the Hulk exists is justification enough to kill Bruce Banner. This is also what
Bruce’s father David tells Betty when he says, “My son is unique. That’s why you can’t relate to him. And because he is unique, the world will not tolerate his existence.”
When the Hulk is being chased by the Army, he is not outright attacking his predators, but he is defending himself, while running away from them. The Hulk is attacked by helicopters and tanks and even has a bomb dropped on his location, and somehow, someway, he survives. For the fans, the more destruction the Hulk causes, the greater the spectacle and the more fun they have, but to the military and his own father, Banner is a beast that needs to be stopped.
Banner, Parker, and Wayne all have parental issues that result in who they eventually become. The absence of parental guidance force and enable Parker, Wayne, and Banner to welcome their alter ego into their lives. In Ang Lee’s film Hulk, Banner is placed in a foster home after his father, David, tries to kill him, but ends up accidentally killing his own wife instead. Bruce is targeted because David believes that he passed on a mutation in his genetic makeup to Bruce, and he does not want to have a defective child. 25
The death of his mother joined together with the repression of his emotions bottled inside of him materializes when Bruce becomes the Hulk. Banner’s emotions overpower him, and his unconscious takes over. In contrast to the Hulk, Spider-Man and Batman do not allow their unconscious to trump their consciousness. The Hulk comes into being because of Banner’s childhood. Bruce’s father is responsible for the genetic mutation in Bruce’s
DNA, and he is also responsible for the repressed memories that Bruce carries. David
Banner is the reason that the Hulk exists. Because of his traumatic childhood experience,
Bruce represses his memory of his parents and tries to forge a new life for himself, including undertaking a new surname. Whereas Spider-Man and Batman are the actualizations of Parker’s and Wayne’s super-ego, the Hulk is an extreme materialization of Banner’s id, which represents a fantasy situation where a person can break out and let his/her emotions• run wild. • Although Freud notes, “Where id is, there shall ego be,” 9Q the
Hulk is formed because Banner’s id is no longer satisfied by his ego. The Hulk emerges because Banner’s ego lets him down, and his id becomes tired of being contained. That is why the Hulk is not much of a superhero, but is, instead, a person who is trying to regain his humanity, and because Banner is consistently fighting against himself and trying to make a better life for himself, the viewer wants to see him succeed.
Laws and boundaries are of no use to the Hulk, and when Bruce transforms, it is a manifestation of an outpouring of emotion, and that outburst is what makes Bruce Banner relatable. Bruce’s transformation is similar to a person screaming or throwing a temper tantrum. It is an emotional eruption where a person cannot take it anymore and has to let 26
loose by pouring out his/her feelings all at once. It is a common occurrence in life, where bursting out of a shell can lead to a calmer state of mind and body. The Hulk’s
symbolism is prevalent in pop culture and an example is in the character of Hulk Hogan, a professional wrestler, where after typically getting beat down for most of the match, he begins to “hulk up” by pumping himself up and becoming impervious to pain, pointing at his attacker, punching his adversary three times, laying down a leg drop, and pinning his opponent to win the match. By “hulking up,” Hogan enters into another dimension of being, someone who is larger than his natural self, and the eruption of natural boundaries is why Ang Lee’s film is titled Hulk, not Bruce Banner. The audience wants to see the
Hulk causing destruction, which is their payoff for sitting through a Hulk movie. It is this escalation into someone else, something that is a part of you but is heightened to an extreme degree, that is attractive about the Hulk.
Happily Ever After?
Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, and Hulk all showcase fan favorite characters, but their endings do not feature happy payoffs neatly tied up with a bow. Instead, they all end with a notable character tragically dying and the main character being shown in a vulnerable state. Spider-Man 2 shows Otto Octavius, after being convinced by Peter that the tentacles that are attached to his skull are possessing his mind and telling him to destroy the world as Doctor Octopus, risking his life to destroy his doomsday contraption and dying as a result. The ending also shows Mary Jane running away from her wedding 27
ceremony to be with Peter. While they are sharing a moment, Peter hears police sirens and hesitates, but Mary Jane encourages him to become Spider-Man and do what needs to be done. The last shot shows Mary Jane apprehensively looking out the window. This scene shows Peter getting the girl while not giving up his alter ego, but his hesitance in leaving Mary Jane and becoming Spider-Man reveals he is still divided between his two identities, and that he is still trying to balance both facets of his life. The ending signifies
Peter’s maturity and development from questioning his role in the beginning of the film to the finale where he has saved the world once again but has also achieved his dream of having Mary Jane by his side and in his life. The ending also expresses Mary Jane’s uncertainty with having Spider-Man in her life. She loves Peter, and Spider-Man did save her life, but the ending shows her contemplating whether she chose the right future for herself.
This feeling of uncertainty is also prevalent in the ending of The Dark Knight, where Batman, after Gotham’s district attorney Harvey Dent dies after causing violence as Two-Face, takes the blame for the violence in Gotham City, becomes public enemy number one, and escapes on his Batpod. Batman takes the responsibility for Dent’s crimes because he believes if the people of Gotham ever found out what their city’s hero
Dent had done, then chaos and anarchy would reign in the streets. By the end of the film,
Gotham is reeling from the devastation caused by the Joker, and Wayne finds himself more internally scarred than he was at the beginning of the film with the loss of Rachel and Harvey Dent. The ending also shows Batman presumably exiling himself from 28
Gotham City. Speaking of exile, at the end of Hulk, the viewer finds Bruce Banner in a
forest in a third-world country in South America handing out medical supplies to the
people, and government officials coming in to take the supplies, threatening Bruce in the
process, and Bruce telling the head official that the official would not like him if he
becomes angry. The scene shows that Bruce has learned to suppress his alter ego by running away from civilization after his father’s death, but a dose of angriness can easily trigger the Hulk’s return, signifying the loss and pain that Bruce still feels in his heart. All three movies have an open-ended, ambiguous feeling with a melancholic awareness where the main character is not fully comfortable with who he is or what he has become, but has enough of a grasp on his alter ego that allows him to continue living with his other persona.
A possible reason for these open-ended endings is so filmmakers can use the ending as a transition or jumping-off point for the next films in the franchise, illustrated by Spider-Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises, or for a sequel that never arrives, which is what happens continuously with the Hulk. Spider-Man and Batman have had numerous solo movies, but for the Hulk, it has been one reboot after another. Other than his continuous role in The Avengers franchise, the Hulk has been an elusive character for filmmakers to get right. Filmmakers might not have a grasp on which tone they want to convey, whether to make a fun Hulk movie where Hulk is the hero who has to save the world from the Abomination, like in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, or someone who has to save himself, as in Ang Lee’s version. A shortage of compelling villains may have 29
also played a role in the lack of Hulk movies. While Spider-Man has the Green Goblin
and Doctor Octopus and Batman has the Joker and Bane, Hulk has unappealing rivals
like Abomination, Absorbing Man, General Thunderbolt Ross, and Moonstone. Hulk’s
lack of competition also may be a reason why he works so well in a team setting, where
he is the strongest among the Avengers, and is relied upon to help defeat numerous
enemies or a supervillain, such as Ultron in Avengers: Age ofUltron (2015). Whether it is
a solo movie or a group effort, the Hulk endures because of his uniqueness of being a
revered character who loves to cause destruction.
Male characters are not the only ones beholden to identity issues in the superhero
genre. Females characters like Wonder Woman, Batgirl, She-Hulk, and Jean Grey all
have issues with identity to deal with in their lives. As Hollywood keeps churning out
superhero and comic-book movies and reboots with no end in sight, the genre has
evolved and has continued evolving by becoming more serious in its tone and becoming
more personal with its stories, with movies like Chronicle (2012), Man of Steel (2013),
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn o f Justice (2016), and Logan (2017). The turn for the
dramatic may be a response to the similar-looking superhero-archetype films that have
oversaturated the genre. The superhero template is basically comprised of a person
inheriting powers, finding out what he/she is supposed to do with those powers, and
battling and defeating the villain, while saving the world in the process. Similar to Hulk, movies like Chronicle, Logan, and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) still contain elements of that superhero template, but they go in a different direction, focusing more on 30
the main character’s mentality and personal journey, rather than mixing their personal issues with world-saving adventures, like in the case of Guardians o f the Galaxy (2014) or Wonder Woman (2017). There are, of course, less dramatic superhero movies being released like Green Lantern (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Ant-Man (2015), but they all still deal with the notion of individuals figuring out who they are and determining what their role is in the whole scheme of things.
It is the determining of their role in the universe and how it affects the people around them that is at the heart of Parker, Wayne, and Banner’s identification concerns.
In their own distinctive ways, they are all suffocated by the pressures of their alter ego, and the effect it has on themselves and their loved ones. It is their other persona that makes them different from the people around them. Spider-Man and Batman are superheroes who try to protect their city at all costs. Spider-Man’s powers give Peter
Parker the ability to become the person he was destined to become after the death of his uncle, a responsible protector who takes care of people in peril. It is not the superpowers that make Spider-Man a superhero. It is the using of his powers for good and his dedication for being a champion of the people that makes him a superhero. Batman, while having no traditional superpowers like enhanced strength or speed, is a superhero because he willingly goes above and beyond the call of duty to save his city. Wayne develops his gadgets, trains his body, and uses his brainpower to outwit and attack the plagues that are infecting Gotham City. Superpowers does not make one a superhero. It is what the person does with those superpowers that makes that person a superhero. Joseph Campbell states, 31
“The hero of yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow, unless he crucifies himself
O A today.” Wayne sacrifices his body to safeguard Gotham City as Batman. Wayne does question whether Gotham needs someone like Batman, especially in The Dark Knight, but he never submits to the temptation of erasing Batman from existence, and he even sacrifices his good name as Batman so Harvey Dent’s reputation would not be tainted. It is Batman’s ideals and commitment to protect Gotham City and his sacrifice for others that puts him in the superheroes category along with other characters like Spider-Man,
Wonder Woman, and Superman.
In The Avengers and its sequels, the Hulk would also be considered as part of that superhero group, but in Hulk, he is a different kind of superhero. Banner would not consider the Hulk to be a superhero. Instead, he would recognize Hulk as a menace, but in battling against himself and fighting for his sanity against internal and external forces and coming out of it with a bit of control, the Hulk is a superhero. Banner fights for what is good within himself, and he is forced to do it against an Army, his own father, and his rage and frustrations, which are embodied by the Hulk. In the end, he succeeds in escaping the Army, extinguishing his father and the torment and pain that he caused, and having some control over containing his Hulk, as seen in the ending in South America.
The Hulk, unlike Mr. Hyde, is not an evil monstrosity. Banner is just dealing with his frustrations in a monstrous way, and he is threatening to the ones who threaten him.
Bruce’s father, for instance, dies not because Bruce voluntarily kills him, but because he 32
is overpowered by the energy he absorbs from his son. By trying to control his powers
and better himself in the process, the Hulk is a superhero.
All three characters use their alter ego to better themselves and their lives, and
each of their alter egos widens their perspectives on life. It allows them to see the world and their lives in relation to the world in a new light, and their alter ego allows the viewer to see themselves and the character in a new light as well. The characters’ weaknesses make them believable, and that is why cosplay is prominent at comic-book conventions.
Dressing up, as Ellen Kirkpatrick notes, “is a visual means of transforming one’s reading in identity, a way of being other, another way of being.”31 Cosplay, like movies and books and other types of media, empowers fans to believe they are these characters, even if it is temporary. Spider-Man, Batman, and the Hulk are life-affirming, larger-than-life characters who showcase and exhibit the unlimited potential of what a person is capable of, and they give their fans hope of a better life. They are not role models. Instead, they are flawed human beings who amplify themselves, literally and figuratively, to better themselves, and that is what makes them believable characters. Is that not the whole point of life? To gain experience and maximize life to its fullest potential? These three characters are close to relatable and inspirational as a fictional character can be because they display the peaks and valleys that life is comprised of, and they encourage people to never give up no matter how difficult life might seem. 33
Endnotes 1 Aristotle, Politics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1959), 26. 2 Vivian Sobchack, The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology o f Film Experience (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992), 23. J Vivian Sobchack, The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology o f Film Experience (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992), 23. 4 James F. Iaccino, Jungian Reflections within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis o f Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998), xiii-xiv. 5 James F. Iaccino, Jungian Reflections within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998), xiv. 6 Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (New York: Norton, 1977), 28. 7 Kim Thompson, “Return of the Dark Knight: Frank Miller,” The Comics Journal, August 1985, 36. 8 Mark K. Spencer, “With Great Power: Heroism, Villainy, and Bodily Transformation,” in Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of Inquiry, ed. Jonathan J. Sanford (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2012), 137. 9 Greg M. Smith, “The Superhero as Labor: The Corporate Secret Identity,” in The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero, ed. Angela Ndalianis (New York: Routledge, 2009), 132. 10 Spider-Man 2, directed by Sam Raimi (2004; Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD. 11 Spider-Man 2, directed by Sam Raimi (2004; Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD. 12 Scott C. Richmond, “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes: Ilinx, Identification, and 4 Spider-Man,’” Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture 34, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 116. 13 Sally MacEwen, Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons (Lewiston: New York: Edwin Mellon Press, 2006), 75. 14 Carl Jung. “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 92. 15 Andreas Reichstein, “Batman-An American Mr. Hyde?, Amerikastudien/American Studies 43, no. 2 (1998): 341. 16 Carl Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), 190. 17 Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan (2005; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2005), DVD. 18 C.G. Jung, “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 20. 19 Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan (2005; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2005), DVD. 20 Stan Lee, Foreward to Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation o f the Superhero, ed. Danny Fingeroth (New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2007), 10. 21 Stan Lee, Foreward to Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation o f the Superhero, ed. Danny Fingeroth (New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2007), 10. 22 Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case o f Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 64. 23 C.G. Jung, “The State of Psychotherapy Today,” in Civilization in Transition, ed. Gerhard Adler (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 169. 24 Lisa Purse, “Digital Heroes in Contemporary Hollywood: Exertion, Identification, And the Virtual Action Body,” Film Criticism 32, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 13. 25 Yann Roblou, “Complex Masculinities: The Superhero in Modern American Movies,” Culture, Society, and Masculinities 4, no, 1 (Spring 2012): 81. 26 Yann Roblou, “Complex Masculinities: The Superhero in Modern American Movies,” Culture, Society, and Masculinities 4, no, 1 (Spring 2012): 81. 34
27 Hulk, directed by Ang Lee (2003; Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD. 28 Hulk, directed by Ang Lee (2003; Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD. 29 Sigmund Freud, “The Dissection of the Psychical Personality,” in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis {London: Penguin, 1991), 112. 30 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004), 326. jl Ellen Kirkpatrick, “Toward New Horizons: Cosplay (Re)Imagined Through the Superhero Genre, Authenticity, and Transformation,” Transformative Works and Cultures 18 (March 2015). 35
Works Cited Aristotle. Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Doniger, Wendy. The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Durand, Kevin K. and Mary K. Leigh, ed. Riddle Me This, Batman: Essays on the Universe o f the Dark Knight. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2011.
Freud, Sigmund. Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. New York: Norton, 1977.
Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. London: Penguin, 1991.
Iaccino, James F. Jungian Reflections within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis o f Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.
Jung, Carl. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
Jung, Carl. “The State of Psychotherapy Today.” In Civilization in Transition, edited by Gerhard Adler, 157-175. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.
Jung, Carl. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Kirkpatrick, Ellen. “Toward New Horizons: Cosplay (Re)Imagined Through the Superhero Genre, Authenticity, and Transformation.” Transformative Works and Cultures 18 (March 2015).
LoCicero, Don. Superheroes and Gods: A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2008.
MacEwen, Sally. Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellon Press, 2006.
Purse, Lisa. “Digital Heroes in Contemporary Hollywood: Exertion, Identification, And the Virtual Action Body.” Film Criticism 32, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 5-25. 36
Reichstein, Andreas. “Batman-An American Mr. Hyde?.” Amerikastudien/American Studies 43, no. 2 (1998): 329-350.
Richmond, Scott C. “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes: Ilinx, Identification, and ‘Spider-Man.’” Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture 34, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 113-144.
Roblou, Yann. “Complex Masculinities: The Superhero in Modem American Movies.” Culture, Society, and Masculinities 4, no, 1 (Spring 2012): 76-91.
Sobchack, Vivian. The Address o f the Eye: A Phenomenology o f Film Experience. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Smith, Greg M. “The Superhero as Labor.” In The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero, edited by Angela Ndalianis, 126-142. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Spencer, Mark K. “With Great Power: Heroism, Villainy, and Bodily Transformation.” In Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of Inquiry, edited by Jonathan J. Sanford, 131- 143. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2012.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case o f Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Dover Publications, 1991.
Thompson, Kim. “Return of the Dark Knight: Frank Miller.” The Comics Journal. August 1985.
Uricchio, William and Pearson R.E. The Many Lives o f the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1991. 37
Films Batman Begins. Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2005. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2005. DVD.
Hulk. Directed by Ang Lee. 2003. Los Angeles, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD.
Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi. 2002. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2002. DVD.
Spider-Man 2. Directed by Sam Raimi. 2004. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2004. DVD.
Spider-Man 3. Directed by Sam Raimi. 2007. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2007. DVD.
The Dark Knight. Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2008. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2008. DVD.
The Dark Knight Rises. Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2012. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2012. DVD.