"Half Gandalf, Half Mr. Kipling" : Paul Cornell at Marvel and DC

Flanagan, MJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1488-7784 "Half Gandalf, Half Mr. Kipling" : Paul Cornell at Marvel and DC , in: Transitions 5 (Conference), October 2014, Birkbeck University of London. (Unpublished)

Microsoft PowerPoint (Slides presented at 'Transitions 5') - Presentation Restricted to Repository staff only Download (2MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Paul Cornell’s work for the ‘big two’ U.S. publishers transfers a distinctly British (mainly, but not exclusively, English) sensibility into a field where the centre of cultural gravity, in terms of tropes and iconography, tends to be the USA. Cornell’s skills at writing fresh versions of thinly-drawn superheroes like Blade led to a run on one of Marvel’s leading titles, Wolverine (2013-14), and he has at various times been given the controls of Superman and Batman by DC. In a move encapsulating his authorial signature, DC gave Cornell the opportunity to imagine what English analogues of Batman and Robin would be like (in Knight and Squire, with artist Jimmy Broxton [2010-11]). Unlike earlier efforts of Marvel’s UK wing to work American characters into British landscapes dominated by icons of international recognisability, Cornell’s work on Captain Britain and MI-13 (2008-9) and other titles uses a less mechanical method of introducing a British dimension to the Marvel Universe. Rather than ‘postcard views’ (Liz, 2014: 5), it relies on a sense of a collective British consciousness, with appropriate symbols playing their part and magic presented as a unique driving force. A de-emphasis on physical power and spatial value, and an accent on feelings (defined in various ways), also characterises his work. In terms of the national dimension, and squaring a British symbol-system with the US-centric mythology of DC and Marvel, Cornell’s motto might be drawn from the pages of Knight and Squire #1: ‘You don’t need power, you need moderation’. Influenced by British television (for which he has scripted Doctor Who), we can regard the Britain that emerges through Cornell’s work as deploying a familiar and eccentric cast of characters, or, viewed in a different light, a host of repressed cultural obsessions rising up (as does Richard III in Knight and Squire). Thus, Cornell provides a way for cultural motifs from outside the U.S. to be exercised on the terrain of some of the most famous superheroes.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Schools:	Schools > School of Arts & Media > Arts, Media and Communication Research Centre
Funders:	University of Salford
Depositing User:	MJ Flanagan
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2016 08:19
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 23:27
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/38773

Actions (login required)

Edit record (repository staff only)