While much of the scholarship on superhero narratives has focused on the heroes themselves, Batmans Villains and Villainesses: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arkhams Souls takes into view the depiction of the villains and their lives, arguing that they often function as proxies for larger societal and philosophical themes. Approaching Gothams villains from a number of disciplinary backgrounds, the essays in this collection highlight how the villains multifaceted backgrounds, experiences, motivations, and behaviors allow for in-depth character analysis across varying levels of social life. Through investigating their cultural and scholarly relevance across the humanities and social sciences, the volume encourages both thoughtful reflection on the relationship between individuals and their social contexts and the use of villains (inside and outside of Gotham) as subjects of pedagogical and scholarly inquiry.
Recenzijas
For serious readers of Batman comics and graphic novels, this book offers something for everyone. Many of the villains in Batmans world are described and dissected, including corrupt politicians and police. -- Robin S. Rosenberg, University of California, San Francisco
Introduction. Not Exactly a Cowardly Lot: Gothams Villains
Marco Favaro and Justin F. Martin
Chapter
1. Death, Monk, and Strange: The Predecessors to the Supervillain in
Detective Comics
John Darowski
Part I. Arkham City: The Asylum, the City and the Ones Who Rule Them
Chapter
2. This Place Isnt a Prison: Institutions, Choice, and the Case of
Arkham Asylum
Tony Spanakos and Damien K. Picariello
Chapter
3. You Cant Fight City Hall!: The Villains Hidden in Gothams
Government
Ian J. Drake and Matthew B. Lloyd
Chapter
4. The Owls Nesting in the Bats City: Secrecy, Gothams Social
Structures, and the Court of Owls
James C. Taylor
Part II. Confronting Batman: Outsiders, Doppelgängers and Parodies
Chapter
5. The Mutants, the Sons of Batman, and the Long Shadow of the Bat
Damien K. Picariello
Chapter
6. Bane: the Man Who Doppelgängered the Bat
Jesśs Jiménez-Varea
Chapter
7. Outcasts and Oppressors: Killer Moth and Killer Croc
Jason D. DeHart
Part III Creating a Villainous Identity: Form, Function, and Reboots
Chapter
8. Flesh, Scars and Clay: The Role of Pain and Bodies in the Creation
of Identity and Meaning
Marco Favaro
Chapter
9. Controlling the Appearances: Thomas Elliots Hush, His Masks, and
the Desire to Dominate Perceptions
Sean C. Hadley
Chapter
10. My relationship with Batman has never been what Id call
stable: Catwomans Flirtations with Superheroism and Her Evolving Role as
the Monstrous Feline Fatale. Carl Wilson
Chapter
11. Kite Man, Hell Yeah!: Revisionism, Masculinity, and the Role of
the D-tier Supervillain
Nicholas T. James
Part IV. Dangerous Women: Victims, Vixens, and Villainesses
Chapter
12. From Good Girl to Bad Girl toSomething In-Between: Harley Quinn
as a Morally Complex Character
Nathan Miczo
Chapter
13. There Is One Thing You Have Never Understood About Me, Batman:
The Liminality of Talia al Ghul
Tosha R. Taylor
Chapter
14. Militant Earth Mother: Viewing Poison Ivy as an Ecofeminist
rather than as an Ecoterrorist
Christina M. Knopf
Chapter
15. Hear me Roar: Trauma Representation of Catwoman in Comic Books
and Cinema from 1983-1995
Sean Travers
Chapter
16. Arkhams Sirens: Analyzing the Roles of the Body and the
Transcendental Subject in Arkhams Villainesses and Antiheroines
Marco Favaro
Part V. We Are What We Believe: Ethics, Theology, and Motivations
Chapter
17. The Demons Head and the Ethics of the Anthropocene
Daniel Goff
Chapter
18. Cold-Hearted: Mr. Freeze and Moral Development
Justin F. Martin
Chapter
19. The Pleasure of Fear: the Scarecrow as an Extremely Immoral,
Vicious and Pro-Passion Character According to Stoicism
Francisco Miguel Ortiz
Chapter
20. Batman, Defender of the Status Quo?: On Anarchy and Anarky (Guest
Villain: The Ventriloquist)
Eduardo Veteri and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns
Chapter
21. The Hole in Things: Dr. Hurts Textual History, Religious
Significance, and Role in Grant Morrisons Batman Run
Matthew Brake
Marco Favaro, is program manager at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Berlin.
Justin F. Martin, is assistant professor of psychology at Whitworth University.
