Table of Contents

CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 The Freedom of Power: Some First Thoughts of Superheroes i Origin Story ii Powers and Responsibilities iii Powerful Adversaries 2 Watching the Watchmen: Saving a World with Superheroes 3 Dark Knights, Time Lords and Mutants - Sustaining the Superhero Narrative i Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns' ii Kurt Busiek's 'Avengers Forever' iii Grant Morrison's period on 'New X-Men' 4 A Kind of Epic Grandeur - Events and Reboots in the Comics Universe 5 Gifted and Dangerous: Joss Whedon's Superhero Obsession 6 Superherovision: From Comic to Blockbuster Bibliography Filmography Index

Promotional Information

Discusses the slow accretion of comics universes from the thirties onwards, the debate within the conventions of the superhero comic about whether superheroes are a good thing and the discussion within the comics fan community of the extent to which superhero comics are disfigured by misogyny and sexism.

About the Author

Roz Kaveney is the editor of and main contributor to 'Reading the Vampire Slayer', and the author of 'From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film' and 'Teen Dreams: Reading Teen Film and Television'. She is widely published as a reviewer of film and as a cultural commentator; in the 1980s, she was one of the first mainstream critics to write about graphic novels.

Reviews

"Roz Kaveney writes about the superhero myths with intelligence and love, from the inside, without the lofty alienation that says these texts are interesting but too dumb to know it. This book should be on the shelf of every comics fan, and proves that everyone should be a comics fan. - Paul Cornell (comics writer and scriptwriter for Doctor Who)"