Description
Book SynopsisAvengers Assemble! explores the cinematic and televisual branches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe from a diverse range of critical perspectives. Beginning with
Iron Man, the book considers them both as embodiments of the changing blockbuster film and as affective cultural artifacts that are immersed in the turbulent political climate of their era.
Trade ReviewThe book engages with superhero films on a very deep level, making it not only informative but an extremely pleasurable read as well. -- Devapriya Sanyal Hindu College, University of Delhi * Journal of Popular Culture *
A magnificent book. As insightful and comprehensive as it is engaging and timely, this full-length examination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a rewarding read for passionate superhero fans as well as researchers in the fields of film studies, political science, and cultural studies. -- Marc DiPaolo, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, author of
War, Politics, and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and FilmThis is a timely and entertaining volume that will prove very useful in the development of genre courses in the next few years as the superhero genre finds its place in taught modules across film and media programmes. The work is scholarly and well referenced in ways that open it to further reading and research, but accessible to undergraduate readers. The author takes an epistemically specific approach that is not inappropriate given the avowed focus on the MCU specifically, rather than the superhero genre on the whole or its historical roots. As such, the range of contemporary readings on terrorism, conflict, and the power structures of the twenty first century (mainly American) is again both timely and informative. Intellectually, the breaking of the MCU into its industrially determined ‘phases’ again focuses the chronology but also opens new arenas of interrogation. The ‘phase two’ section demonstrates the degree to which the frames of reference change between 2008 and 2013, freeing the franchise (and scholarly debate) from some of the immediate trauma narrative tropes of the first phase, and allowing the discussion to delve into some of the more liminal spaces of the MCU, such as in
Thor: The Dark World and
Guardians of the Galaxy on gender and fantasy. The final section on the recent television incarnations of the franchise is useful without delving too deeply into the political economy of transmedia in the Netflix age (which is another topic entirely) -- Harvey O'Brien, University College. Dublin
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Prologue: The Heroes We Need Right Now?: Explaining ‘The Age of the Superhero’
Introduction: Superheroes in the New Millennium and ‘The Example of America’
PHASE ONE1. ‘That’s how Dad did it, that’s how America does it … and it’s worked out pretty well so far’: The Stark Doctrine in
Iron Man and
Iron Man 22. Allegorical Narratives of Gods and Monsters:
Thor and
The Incredible Hulk3. State Fantasy and the Superhero: (Mis)Remembering World War II in
Captain America: The First Avenger4. ‘Seeing … still working on believing!’: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Destruction in
The AvengersPHASE TWO5
. ‘Nothing’s been the same since New York’: Ideological Continuity and Change in
Iron Man 3 and
Thor: The Dark World6. ‘The world has changed and none of us can go back’: The Illusory Moral Ambiguities of the Post-9/11 Superhero in
Captain America: The Winter Soldier7. Blurring the Boundaries of Genre and Gender in
Guardians of the Galaxy and
Ant-Man8. ‘Isn’t that why we fight? So we can end the fight and go home?’: The Enduring American Monomyth in
Avengers: Age of UltronTHE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE ON TELEVISION9
. ‘What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for?’: The MCU on the Small Screen in
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and
Marvel’s Agent Carter10. The Necessary Vigilantism of the Defenders:
Daredevil,
Jessica Jones,
Luke Cage and
Iron FistConclusion: ‘Whose side are you on?’: Superheroes Through the Prism of the ‘War on Terror’ in
Captain America: Civil WarEpilogue: The Superhero as Transnational Icon
Filmography
Bibliography
Index
