‘The superhero symbol: media, culture & politics’

EDITED BY LIAM BURKE, IAN GORDON & ANGELA NDALIANIS

Reviewed by Vinodh Venkatesh

Excerpt: “‘Becoming the Superhero’ is perhaps the most interdisciplinary section of the anthology. Steven Conway gets things rolling with an incisive examination of agency and narratology in the Arkham series of Batman videogames. Conway homes in on the importance given to the Joker in the series, furthering that the use of the character ‘targets the jaded, postmodern videogame player, whose default hermeneutic position is skepticism’ (168). In the following chapter, Claire Langsford digs deep into the world of cosplay. Surveying a variety of social media and real-world examples, Langsford convincingly argues that cosplayers tend to gravitate towards two tropes, specifically ‘the quest for justice and the performance of epic feats’ (175), as they use the rhetorical devices extant in the genre to create community.” Read the full review here