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Along with Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman, the Joker is one of the most recognizable sequential art characters in popular culture. While there has been a great deal of scholarly attention on superheroes, very little has been done looking at the role of supervillains; The Joker: A Critical Study of the Clown Prince of Crime attempts to fill this gap. It is the first academic work to provide a comprehensive study of this character, asking the question, why, particularly today, is the Joker so relevant to audiences? Scholars from a wide array of disciplines look at the Joker through the lens of feature films, video games, comics, politics, magic and mysticism, psychology, animation, television, performance studies, and philosophy. This collection adds to our understanding of the role comic book and cinematic villains play in the world and the ways various media affect their interpretation. The Joker: A Critical Study of the Clown Prince of Crime will be useful for those scholars in Game Studies, Comic Studies, Graphic Narrative, Television and Film Studies.

It’s been argued that every good superhero needs an equally compelling supervillain. The Supervillain Reader sheds light on why “it’s all about the villain.” The editors have assembled a collection of both reprinted and original essays that tries to answer the question, Why are we so fascinated with the villain in our storytelling? The obsession with the villain is not some new phenomenon, and in fact one finds villains who are “super” going as far back as ancient religious and mythological texts. This innovative collection brings together essays, book excerpts, and original content from a wide variety of scholars and writers, weaving a tapestry of thought regarding villains in all their manifestations, including film, literature, television, games, and, of course, comics and sequential art. While The Supervillain Readerfocuses on the latter, it goes beyond comic studies to show how the concept of the supervillain is part our larger historical and popular consciousness. The principal goal of this reader is to collect in a single volume articles that show how the villain is a complex part of any narrative regardless of original text. The villain must be compelling, stimulating, and pro-active, whereas the superhero (or protagonist) is most often re-active. Our reader brings into clear focus the unique aspects of villainy and shows why the villain is so compelling, while also providing a theoretical foundation for villainy in numerous media. The editors have carefully curated this collection, and we hope it will be of interest to professors teaching graduate and undergraduate courses, the students they teach, and serious observers of popular culture across professions.