Papers by Kyle A Hammonds
The Globalization of Superheroes: Diffusion, Genre, and Cultural Adaptations
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication
Superheroes are a global phenomenon. The superhero genre has been proliferated through modern ind... more Superheroes are a global phenomenon. The superhero genre has been proliferated through modern industrial societies by way of movies, television, comics, and other forms of popular media. Although virtually every nation in the world has heroic myths, the modern superhero, as marked by the inception of recent American comics heroes in 1929, is a uniquely Western invention. Superheroes are “Western” insofar as they embody and exhibit Western civic values, such as democracy, humanism, and retributive justice. These characters have been communicatively incorporated into globalization processes by means of diffusion and thereby enact aspects of cultural imperialism. Even so, superhero figures have been in high demand across many populations for their entertainment value. As superheroes have diffused in non-Western cultures, they have not only been absorbed by new cultures but also refigured and adapted. These non-Western adaptations have had a recursive influence, such as the global popul...
Comics conferences indicate a friendly relationship between popular culture creators and their fa... more Comics conferences indicate a friendly relationship between popular culture creators and their fans. These author/audience relationships are often fun and productive. Superhero fans, specifically, have acquired a reputation for being passionate about their feedback to comics creators. Reynolds (1992) aptly observed that “adult superhero readership (a sub-section of the adult comic readership as a whole) has come to identify itself as a small and very cohesive subculture” with organizations such as “specialist comic-book retailers, ‘marts’ and full-scale conventions as the outward signs of this cohesion” (p. 7). Despite this cohesion among superhero fans themselves, though, there has also historically been a bit of uneasiness between authors and audiences. While this uneasiness has not been limited to comics creators/consumers, it has certainly included them. The author/audience tension might be essentially summed up in this way: authors rely on audiences to consume their content, while audiences want authors to generate content that they enjoy. When author and audience objectives have clashed in the past, each side has navigated the tension in different ways. One way comics authors have navigated tensions with their audience was to use their work to communicate their feelings to their consumers. McCloud (1993) supported the notion of authors using work to convey information to audiences when he wrote that comics are an effective means of communication because “comics [act] as intermediary between storyteller and audience” (p. 172). McCloud also concluded that this communicative function of comics remained intact regardless of an author’s present standing with an audience. He clarified that “all aspects of comics have the potential for self-expression, even when economic survival is the artist’s main concern” (p. 182).
A particular set of comics characters who may be particularly representative of creator/consumer tensions have made a flashy recent re-appearance in the public eye. In 2014, the CW released their first episodes of a TV adaptation of superhero The Flash. The first season of The Flash – a story about a young forensic investigator named Barry Allen who accidentally receives a super ability of incredible speed – also features a character who functions as a narrative foil: Barry Allen’s arch nemesis, the Reverse-Flash. Reverse-Flash, also known as Eobard Thawne, was a super fan of the Flash who gained his power by stealing from his idol. The resurgence of these characters in the contemporary limelight hail audiences back to comics storylines from the 1960s – stories which
The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 34
utilize allegory to express authors’ feelings
of tension with their increasingly powerful
consumers. This essay seeks to review
examples of comics creator/consumer
conflict by examining the Reverse-Flash’s
origin story for simple allegorical qualities,
provide historical context for the topic of
authorial power in literary criticism,
excavate rhetorical representations of
author/audience tensions from the Flash /
Reverse-Flash allegory, and, finally, argue
for the potential heuristic value of the
uncovered allegorical lessons from the Flash
and Reverse-Flash. In short: theories of
active stakeholdership and relational
dialectics will be applied to the
Flash/Reverse-Flash origin story and mined
for lessons. In this analysis, we will focus
our scope on ideological trends in literary
criticism as an explanation of comics
creator/consumer relationships. While we
may not cover all factors that may result in
creator/consumer tensions with our selected
scope (e.g., market trends and increased
consumerist aspects of fandom), we aim to
provide a productive historical snapshot
with potential applicability to contemporary
relationships between consumers and fans.
Scholars and fans alike, both consciously and unconsciously, often mine comics for their pedagogi... more Scholars and fans alike, both consciously and unconsciously, often mine comics for their pedagogical potential. Despite the ever increasing popularity of the manga (and anime) series Death Note, though, little formal analysis has been done on the lessons contained in its noir(ish) story. Ohba – Death Note’s co-creator – claims that the story does not have a moral, pedagogical mission. Meanwhile, scholars have criticized the story as glorifying potentially dangerous behaviors, including philosophies on the virtue of violence and apocalyptic religion. Is there truly any “moral of the story” to be extracted from Death Note? (And, if so, how can we be sure that our interpretation has legitimacy?) In this lecture, we find that Death Note is not merely a melancholy detective story; but, rather, a complex narrative in which chaos is the ultimate determinant of morality and the only way to access control is through the power of naming. Death Note serves to take a metaphor/model for communication – the social constructivist model – and literalize it in the context of fantasy. In other words, the narrative of Death Note serves as a not-so-friendly reminder that our communication impacts our reality in ways that can be creatively constructive or profoundly damaging.
In September of 2011, DC Comics revamped the fictional universe that the characters of their comi... more In September of 2011, DC Comics revamped the fictional universe that the characters of their comic books inhabit by launching 52 new book titles in an effort to “reboot” their franchises. In the same month, Bender, Kambam, and Pozios submitted an op-ed to the New York Times ("Putting the Caped Crusader on the Couch") calling for DC to generate stories in their “New 52” that utilize more accurate – or at least less harmful – rhetorics of mental illness than in previous DC stories which convey an intrinsic association between illness and evil. Since Bender, Kambam, and Pozios’ call for action, a host of fan voices have chimed in to agree with the need for new mental illness narratives in comic books, but little work has been done to assess if DC writers have actually responded to the call.
In this discussion, a narrative analysis of the Snyder & Capullo Batman story "Death of the Family" – featuring the re-introduction of the iconic Joker character, whose name is nearly synonymous with insanity – is employed to examine evil in the Batman universe. Ultimately, the presentation will look to ways in which the creative team behind the New 52 Batman universe de-linked insanity and evil as necessary counterparts. Instead, the creative team traced the evil of the Joker to other pressing social elements, including post-modern cynicism and crises of belonging.
Some scholars (several of whom will be referred to in this chapter) approach the subject of human... more Some scholars (several of whom will be referred to in this chapter) approach the subject of human communication from the standpoint of performance. The term "performance" is notoriously ambiguous and potentially refers to a variety of things. argue that performance has historically been referred to as one of three entities: 1) an essentially contested concept, 2) a text, and/or 3) a metaphor or metonymy. It is important to remember that many scholars, particularly those in the performance-as-text group, treat performance as a mode of inquiry. This means that making and watching performance is a way to generate knowledge. In this way performance can serve as both the object of study as well as the means by which it is studied. Other scholars, such as those in the performance-as-metaphor group, consider performance a lens to see, interpret, and critique the world. Extending from these positions, in this introduction, we, the authors, dedicate our writing to providing foundational information for studying human communication as performance.
Book Reviews by Kyle A Hammonds
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Papers by Kyle A Hammonds
A particular set of comics characters who may be particularly representative of creator/consumer tensions have made a flashy recent re-appearance in the public eye. In 2014, the CW released their first episodes of a TV adaptation of superhero The Flash. The first season of The Flash – a story about a young forensic investigator named Barry Allen who accidentally receives a super ability of incredible speed – also features a character who functions as a narrative foil: Barry Allen’s arch nemesis, the Reverse-Flash. Reverse-Flash, also known as Eobard Thawne, was a super fan of the Flash who gained his power by stealing from his idol. The resurgence of these characters in the contemporary limelight hail audiences back to comics storylines from the 1960s – stories which
The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 34
utilize allegory to express authors’ feelings
of tension with their increasingly powerful
consumers. This essay seeks to review
examples of comics creator/consumer
conflict by examining the Reverse-Flash’s
origin story for simple allegorical qualities,
provide historical context for the topic of
authorial power in literary criticism,
excavate rhetorical representations of
author/audience tensions from the Flash /
Reverse-Flash allegory, and, finally, argue
for the potential heuristic value of the
uncovered allegorical lessons from the Flash
and Reverse-Flash. In short: theories of
active stakeholdership and relational
dialectics will be applied to the
Flash/Reverse-Flash origin story and mined
for lessons. In this analysis, we will focus
our scope on ideological trends in literary
criticism as an explanation of comics
creator/consumer relationships. While we
may not cover all factors that may result in
creator/consumer tensions with our selected
scope (e.g., market trends and increased
consumerist aspects of fandom), we aim to
provide a productive historical snapshot
with potential applicability to contemporary
relationships between consumers and fans.
In this discussion, a narrative analysis of the Snyder & Capullo Batman story "Death of the Family" – featuring the re-introduction of the iconic Joker character, whose name is nearly synonymous with insanity – is employed to examine evil in the Batman universe. Ultimately, the presentation will look to ways in which the creative team behind the New 52 Batman universe de-linked insanity and evil as necessary counterparts. Instead, the creative team traced the evil of the Joker to other pressing social elements, including post-modern cynicism and crises of belonging.
Book Reviews by Kyle A Hammonds