Superhero comics

FC -- Half title -- Bloomsbury Comics Studies -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Series Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Historical Overview, Part 1: Pre-Comic Origins -- I The Mythic Superhero -- The superhero with a thousand masks -- Minimally counter-intuitive fairy tales for grown-ups -- Brutal fairy tales and epic violence -- Children's great men fables -- Mythical myths -- II The Imperial Superhero -- The British superhero -- American supermen -- Imperial expansion -- New frontiers -- III The Wellborn Superhero -- On the origin of supermen: 1883-1905 -- Experiments in hero hybridization: 1893-1928 -- Acts of sterilization: 1929-39 -- IV The Vigilante Superhero -- Vigilante hero -- Superman -- Superhero -- 3 Historical Overview, Part 2: Pre-Code and First Code Origins -- I The Fascist Superhero -- Champion of the oppressed -- Eager to strike back -- Heroic doings -- II The MAD Superhero -- Crisis: 1961-2 -- Turning point: 1962-3 -- Aftermath -- 4 Social and Cultural Impact -- I The Black Superhero -- Pre-Code era, 1934-54 -- First Code era, 1954-71 -- Second Code era, 1971-89 -- Third Code era, 1989-2000 -- Fourth Code and Post-Code eras, 2001 to present -- II The Gendered Superhero -- Super binaries -- Super queer -- 5 Critical Uses -- I The Visual Superhero -- 1. Layout rhetoric -- 2. Framing rhetoric -- 3. Juxtapositional closure -- 4. Page sentencing -- 5. Image-texts -- 6. Representational abstraction -- 7. Visualizing Elektra -- 6 Key Texts -- I The Authorial Superhero -- Pre-Code era, 1934-54 -- First Code era, 1954-71 -- Second Code era, 1971-89 -- Third Code era, 1989-2000 -- Fourth Code era, 2001-11 -- Post-Code era, 2011 to present -- Glossary -- Resources -- Works Cited -- Index.