Preface Torsten Caeners and Danny Graydon Introduction By Any Other Name? Rethinking the Concept and Definition of the Superhero Torsten Caeners Section I: Investigating Batman and/in Society Chapter 1: Ideology in the Superhero Film: Batman and Neoliberal Fantasy Robert Hyland Chapter 2: Leather Wings and Broken Things - The Negotiation of Cyclical Trauma by The Dynamic Duo Mikayla Laird Chapter 3: The Dark Right Rises: Bat-Manhood, Populist Heroism and Übermensch Aesthetics in Sublime-Uncanny Cinema Caleb Turner Chapter 4: Batman and the Infinite Loop of Delinquent Production Ewald Frühberger Section II: Investigating the Superhero Discourse through Cross-Medial and Meta-Textual Perspectives Chapter 5: Ready Player One and the New Mirror Stage: Superheroes, Virtual Reality and the Ideal Self Jessica Hoffmann Chapter 6: Masks, Values and Society. The Evolution of Superheroes into Antiheroes since the Dark Age Marco Favaro Chapter 7: Not every Hero is super. Unmasking the Super in Heroes of HBO''s Watchmen Alex von Ommen Chapter 8: ''It''s a Strange World. Let''s Keep It That Way.'' Warren Ellis and the Dominance of New Sincerity Superheroes Rafael Azevedo Chapter 9: Platonist Reflections on the Darkest Knight JG Ducreux Chapter 10: The Superhero Logo Visual Codes: A Superman Legacy Bruno Porto Section III: Cultural Negotiations in the Marvel Comic and Cinematic Universes Chapter 11: Derridean Responsibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Torsten Caeners Chapter 12: Thanos the Machiavellian Hero Svenja Kolpack Chapter 13: The Idylls of small-town America: Strategies of Overcoming T rauma and Grief in WandaVision Stefanie Caeners Contributors.