Terrence R. Wandtke is a professor of literature and media studies at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, where he teaches classes in comic books, graphic novels, visual art, and new media. He is the founder and director of the Imago Film Festival.

“scholarly...interesting”—School Library Journal; “enlightening”—Critical Mass.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Preface      Introduction: Once Upon a Time Once Again      PART I: SUPERHEROES IN THE GOLDEN AND SILVER AGESRetconning America: Captain America in the Wake of World War II and the McCarthy Hearings      Super-Girls and Mild Mannered Men: Gender Trouble in Metropolis      From Jimmy Durante to Michael Chiklis: The Thing Comes Full Circle      PART II: SUPERHEROES IN THE MODERNFrank Miller Strikes Again and Batman Becomes a Postmodern Anti-Hero: The Tragi (Comic) Reformulation of the Dark Knight      The “Transcreation” of a Mediated Myth: Spider-Man in India      Warren Ellis Is the Future of Superhero Comics: How to Write Superhero Stories That Aren’t Superhero Stories      PART III: SUPERHEROES IN THE MULTI-MEDIAWonder Woman as World War II Veteran, Camp Feminist Icon, and Male Sex Fantasy      Smallville as a Rhetorical Means of Moral Value Education      “Le Western Noir”: The Punisher as Revisionist Superhero Western      The Nietzschean Influence in The Incredibles and the Sidekick Revolt      Afterword: Conclusion to the Never-Ending Story(s)      About the Contributors      Index