The Perfect Body

Abstract

Section Two of this book presents a cultural history of the posthuman body in superhero comics. The book presents three types of posthuman body which I have dubbed the Perfect Body, the Cosmic Body and the Military-Industrial Body. This typology marks a new, and one would hope useful, contribution to our current understanding of the posthuman body. Because there are multiple entryways into the rhizome of the posthuman body it is worth highlighting that the categories of Perfect, Cosmic and Military-Industrial bodies, though of heuristic value, are necessarily contingent and overlapping. The question is not just what each of these bodies IS but what they can DO. What the cultural histories presented here aim to highlight is how these assemblages develop more fully according to wider trends in the discourse of posthumanity.