Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Julian C. Chambliss is a professor of United States history at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. His research examines race, identity, and community in real and imagined spaces. William L. Svitavsky is an associate professor and emerging services librarian at the Olin Library of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. His research includes American comic book history and geek culture. Daniel Fandino is a history graduate student at Michigan State University. His academic interests include American and Asian popular culture, video games, nationalism, and technology. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Filmography

Section I—“In order to form a more perfect union”:

The Cultural Context of the Transmedia Universe

Multiliteracies of the MCU: Continuity Literacy

and the Sophisticated Reader(s) of Superheroes Media (Perry Dantzler)

“A bigger universe”: Marvel Studios and Transmedia Storytelling (Liam Burke)

#ITSALLCONNECTED: Assembling the Marvel Universe (Lisa K. Perdigao)

America Assemble: The Avengers as Therapeutic Public Memory (Derek R. Sweet)

“Your ancestors called it magic”: Building Coherence in the MCU Through Continuity with the Past (William L. Svitavsky)

Section II—“Establish justice”: The Social Context of the Cinematic Universe

Stark Contrasts: Reinventing Iron Man for 21st Century Cinema (Sarah Zaidan)

Silly Love Songs, Gender, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron (James Rovira)

Hooked on the Wrong Kind of Feeling: Popular Music and Nostalgia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Masani McGee)

Tracing Views of Nature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Elizabeth D. Blum)

Bodies That Shatter: Violence and Spectacle in The Avengers

(Antony Mullen)

Section III—“Provide for the common defense”: The Geopolitical Context of the Cinematic Universe

“You were the world’s first superhero”: Marvel Studio’s Superheroes, Law and the Pursuit of Justice (Jason Bainbridge)

Enemies, Foreign and Domestic: Villainy and Terrorism in Thor

(Sasha-Mae Eccleston)

More Than a Shield: Security and Empire Building in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Vergil’s Aeneid (Jennifer A. Rea)

Acting with Limited Oversight: S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Role of Intelligence and Intervention in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Jennifer Beckett)

“To be the shield”: American Imperialism and Explosive Identity Politics in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Samira Shirish Nadkarni)

Bibliography

Contributors

Index