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Superhero Blockbusters
Seriality and Politics
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Book Presentation:
This is the first book-length study to examine the enduring popularity of block-buster films based on DC or Marvel superhero comics properties. It argues that the success of superhero movies is rooted in aesthetic practices unavailable to other types of film, and suggests that the multi-dimensional seriality of these movies, combining practices of serialisation, adaptation, and transmedia storytelling, endows them with an unmatched potential to engage audiences over time and to actively intervene in the discourses of online fandom. The book develops a critical theory of digital-era popular seriality, examining the narrative strategies of superhero movies and their evolution, from 1978’s Superman to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and beyond. It discusses textual and extra-textual practices of fan mobilisation, and considers the genre’s shared political imaginary and its purchase on contemporary political debates.
Book Presentation:
Explores the huge commercial success of contemporary superhero blockbusters and develops a critical theory of digital-era popular seriality
• Provides the first book-length study to focus exclusively on the genre of superhero blockbuster cinema
• Combines a discussion of seriality as a principle commercial cultural production with a consideration of different types of narrative serialisation in film and beyond
• Critically interrogates the ideology, infrastructures, and economic imperatives that orient big-budget commercial popular culture in the digital era
• Develops a theoretical framework and conceptual toolkit to discuss superhero movies and similar forms, and discusses practices of serialisation that are central to the genre’s commercial success
• Engages with a large body of material, encompassing 83 feature films released between 1978 and 2019, relevant source materials, transmedia tie-ins and spin-offs, as well as audience-produced online paratexts (such as fan-oriented journalism, user commentaries, film reviews, and criticism)
This is the first book-length study to examine the enduring popularity of block-buster films based on DC or Marvel superhero comics properties. It argues that the success of superhero movies is rooted in aesthetic practices unavailable to other types of film, and suggests that the multi-dimensional seriality of these movies, combining practices of serialisation, adaptation, and transmedia storytelling, endows them with an unmatched potential to engage audiences over time and to actively intervene in the discourses of online fandom.
The book develops a critical theory of digital-era popular seriality, examining the narrative strategies of superhero movies and their evolution, from 1978’s Superman to 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and beyond. It discusses textual and extra-textual practices of fan mobilisation, and considers the genre’s shared political imaginary and its purchase on contemporary political debates.
About the Author:
Felix Brinker is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the English Department at Leibniz University Hannover
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
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