Abstract
This chapter analyzes the form and management of memory by mainstream superhero publishers, with a focus on the publications of Marvel Comics. In superhero comics publishing, memory is related to “continuity,” the constraint of intertextual coherence that stories have to adhere to, whoever their creators are. In this context, memory is localized (restricted to the output of one company), narrative-centered (considering stories rather than style), and malleable (since memory can be modified to accommodate commercial and creative developments). Such a corporate narrative memory requires specific editorial practices for its preservation and its mediation to readers and for its adaptation to their current needs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beaty, Bart, and Benjamin Woo. 2016. The Greatest Comic Book of All Time: Symbolic Capital and the Field of American Comic Books. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Berthou, Benoît. 2011. “La bande dessinée: un ‘art sans mémoire’?” Comicalités. http://journals.openedition.org/comicalites/518.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dony, Christophe. 2014. “The Rewriting Ethos of the Vertigo Imprint: Critical Perspectives on Memory-Making and Canon Formation in the American Comics Field.” Comicalités. http://comicalites.revues.org/1918.
Eco, Umberto. 1972. “The Myth of Superman.” Diacritics 2 (1): 14–22.
———. 1985 [1979]. Lector in Fabula. Paris: Grasset.
Fingeroth, Danny. 1985. Editorial. Marvel Saga, December 1. New York: Marvel.
Friedenthal, Andrew J. 2012. “Monitoring the Past: DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Eraths and the Narrativization of Comic Book History.” ImageTexT 6 (2). http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v6_2/friedenthal/.
Friedenthal, Andrew J. 2017. Retcon Game: Retroactive Continuity and the Hyperlinking of America. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Groensteen, Thierry. 2006. Un objet culturel non identifié. Angoulême: Éditions de l’An 2.
Hatfield, Charles. 2005. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Harvey, Colin B. 2015. Fantastic Transmedia. Narrative, Play and Memory Across Science Fiction and Fantasy Storyworlds. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
Jenkins, Henry. 2009. “‘Just Men in Tights’: Rewriting Silver Age Comics in an Era of Multiplicity.” In The Contemporay Comic Book Superhero, edited by Angela Ndalianis, 16–43. New York: Routledge.
Kelleter, Frank. 2017. “Five Ways of Looking at Popular Seriality.” In Media of Serial Narrative, edited by Frank Kelleter, 7–34. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.
Klock, Geoff. 2002. How To Read Superhero Comics and Why. London and New York: Continuum.
Kukkonen, Karin. 2010. “Navigating Infinite Earths. Readers, Mental Models, and the Multiverse of Superhero Comics.” Storyworlds 2: 39–58.
Méon, Jean-Matthieu. 2017. “Raconter une autre histoire. La bande dessinée alternative américaine entre autonomie et aspirations à la légitimité artistique.” In Culture et (in)dépendance. Les enjeux de l’indépendance dans les industries culturelles, edited by Olivier Alexandre, Sophie Noël, and Aurélie Pinto, 51–65. Brussels: Peter Lang.
Maj, Krzystof M. 2015. “Transmedial World-Building in Fictional Narratives.” Image 22: 83–96.
Marvel Comics. 2012. Now, Marvel Announces Marvel NOW! (Press Release). ComixMix.com, July 8. https://www.comicmix.com/2012/07/08/now-marvel-announces-marvel-now/.
Minett, Mark, and Schauer, Brad. 2017. “Reforming the ‘Justice’ System: Marvel’s Avengers and the Transformation of the All-Star Team Book.” In Make Ours Marvel: Media Convergence and a Comics Universe, edited by Matt Yockey, 39–65. Austin: University of Texas Press.
O’Sullivan, Mike, ed. 2012. History of the Marvel Universe. New York: Marvel.
Pizzino, Christopher. 2016. Arresting Development: Comics at the Boundaries of Literature. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Proctor, William. 2013. “Ctl-Alt-Delete: Retcon, Relaunc, or Reboot?” Sequart, February 8. http://sequart.org/magazine/18508/ctl-alt-delete-retcon-relaunch-or-reboot/.
———. 2017. “Schrödinger’s Cape: The Quantum Seriality of the Marvel Multiverse.” In Make Ours Marvel: Media Convergence and a Comics Universe, edited by Matt Yockey, 319–45. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Pustz, Matthew J. 1999. Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Reynolds, Richard. 1992. Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Robertson, Chris. 2007. “Mark Gruenwald, the Father of Modern Superhero Comics.” Robertson’s Interminable Ramble, July 2. http://www.chrisroberson.net/2007/07/mark-gruenwald-father-of-modern.html.
Saint-Gelais, Richard. 1999. L’Empire du Pseudo. Modernités de la Science-Fiction. Québec: Éditions Nota Bene.
Saint-Gelais, Richard. 2011. Fictions transfuges. La transfictionnalité et ses enjeux. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
Yockey, Matt. 2017. Make Ours Marvel: Media Convergence and a Comics Universe. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Méon, JM. (2018). Sons and Grandsons of Origins: Narrative Memory in Marvel Superhero Comics. In: Ahmed, M., Crucifix, B. (eds) Comics Memory. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91746-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91746-7_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91745-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91746-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)