The World of DC Comics

The first sustained study of the DC Comics Multiverse, this book explores its history, meanings, and lasting influence. The multiverse is a unique exercise in world-building: a series of parallel and interactive worlds with a cohesive cosmology, developed by various creators over fifty years.

Publisher Marketing: 1. A Brief History of the Multiverse 2. The Multiverse in Crisis 3. Cartographers of the Multiverse 4. Beyond the Multiverse Biographical Note : Andrew J. Friedenthal is an independent scholar, writer, and critic living in Austin, Texas. His previous publications include Retcon Games: Retroactive Continuity and the Hyperlinking of America, chapters in the collections Crossing Boundaries in Graphic Narrative: Essays on Forms and Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms, and articles in the scholarly journals ImageTexT and The Journal of Comics & Culture . Additionally, he is a regular theater critic for the Austin American-Statesman and pop culture columnist for the online magazine Sightlines. Publisher Marketing : The first sustained study of the DC Comics Multiverse, this book explores its history, meanings, and lasting influence. The multiverse is a unique exercise in world-building: a series of parallel and interactive worlds with a cohesive cosmology, developed by various creators over more than 50 years. In examining DC's unique worlds and characters, the book illustrates the expansive potential of a multiverse, full of characters, histories, geographies, religions, ethnographies, and more, and allowing for expressions of legacy, multiplicity, and play that have defined much of DC Comics' output. It shows how a multiverse can be a vital, energizing part of any imaginary world, and argues that students and creators of such worlds would do well to explore the implications and complexities of this world-building technique. Andrew J. Friedenthal has crafted a groundbreaking, engaging, and thoughtful examination of the multiverse, of interest to scholars and enthusiasts of not just comics studies, but also the fields of media studies and imaginary world studies.

Format: Paperback | Pages: 118 | Publication Date: 2021-06-30