Chapter 12. Representing the state of exception
Power, utopia, visuality and narrative in superhero comics
This article explores the relationship between the superhero and the state and the subversive potential within that relationship, both thematically and visually. The superhero must act above the law in order to uphold it, and thus question the legitimacy of authority. The comic book narrative has to convey the illusion of causality, movement and sound through the means of consequent still, silent images. Both examples here show a paradox that must somehow be resolved in order to make sense of them. The article approaches these questions through Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the state of exception, which is used to analyse the problematics presented by the visual narrative and the questions raised by the political status of the superhero.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Marini, Anna Marta & Michael Fuchs
2024.
Necropolitics and Pandemic Premediation in The Fall’s Neo-Western State of Exception.
The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship 13:1
Stein, Daniel
2020.
Conflicting Counternarratives of Crime and Justice in US Superhero Comics. In
Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment,
► pp. 139 ff.
Peters, Timothy D
2015.
Beyond the limits of the law: a Christological reading of Christopher Nolan'sThe Dark Knight.
Griffith Law Review 24:3
► pp. 418 ff.
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