We are living in the age of the superhero and we cannot deny it. Avengers Assemble! is a vibrant and theoretically informed interrogation of one of the defining and most financially successful film franchises of the new millennium. In the first single-authored monograph on the topic of the Marvel cinematic universe, Terence McSweeney asks, "Why has the superhero genre reemerged so emphatically in recent years?" In an age where people have stopped going to the cinema as frequently as they used to, they returned to it in droves for the superhero film. What is it about these films that has resonated with audiences all around the globe? Are they just disposable pop culture artifacts or might they have something interesting to say about the fears and anxieties of the world we live in today?Beginning with Iron Man in 2008, this study provocatively explores both the cinematic and the televisual branches of the series across ten dynamic and original chapters from a diverse range of critical perspectives which analyse their status as an embodiment of the changing industrial practices of the blockbuster film and their symbolic potency as affective cultural artifacts that are profoundly immersed in the turbulent political climate of their era.

AcknowledgementsPrologue: The Heroes We Need Right Now?: Explaining 'The Age of the Superhero'Introduction: Superheroes in the New Millennium and 'The Example of America'PHASE ONE1. 'That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it ... and it's worked out pretty well so far': The Stark Doctrine in Iron Man and Iron Man 22. Allegorical Narratives of Gods and Monsters: Thor and The Incredible Hulk3. State Fantasy and the Superhero: (Mis)Remembering World War II in Captain America: The First Avenger4. 'Seeing ... still working on believing!': The Ethics and Aesthetics of Destruction in The AvengersPHASE TWO5. 'Nothing's been the same since New York': Ideological Continuity and Change in Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World6. 'The world has changed and none of us can go back': The Illusory Moral Ambiguities of the Post-9/11 Superhero in Captain America: The Winter Soldier7. Blurring the Boundaries of Genre and Gender in Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man8. 'Isn't that why we fight? So we can end the fight and go home?': The Enduring American Monomyth in Avengers: Age of UltronTHE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE ON TELEVISION9. 'What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for?': The MCU on the Small Screen in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel's Agent Carter10. The Necessary Vigilantism of the Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron FistConclusion: 'Whose side are you on?': Superheroes Through the Prism of the 'War on Terror' in Captain America: Civil WarEpilogue: The Superhero as Transnational IconFilmographyBibliographyIndex