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  • 7 - Superheroes in Graphic Novels

  • from Part I - History and Genre
  • Edited by Jan Baetens, KU Leuven, Belgium, Hugo Frey, University of Chichester, Fabrice Leroy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel
    Published online:
    10 January 2024
    Print publication:
    28 September 2023, pp 122-138

  • Summary

    This chapter deals with a genre that, at first sight, clashes with both the major themes and the publication format of the graphic novel: superhero comics. However, the history of the graphic novel demonstrates that it cannot be completely separated from superhero comics. Some important forerunners of the graphic novelists have had long careers in producing superhero comics, and some of their works went far beyond the standards of comics publication in the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, when the graphic novel gradually consolidated, comics publishers such as Marvel began to adopt the format and to use the direct market system as a response to the decline of comic book distribution. The chapter offers a close analysis of two graphic novels that had superheroes at their core: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Miller) and Watchmen (Moore and Gibbons). It gives an overview of the imitations and continuations of these books, with a special look at Eddie Campbell’s “Graphic Novel Manifesto” (2004). It concludes with a case study of the Batman universe.