A01=Ezra Claverie
Author_Ezra Claverie
Batman
Black Panther
Blade
Blockbusters
Captain America
Category=ATFA
Category=ATFN
Category=DSK
Category=JBCC1
Christopher Nolan
Comics Studies
DC
DC Comics
Deadshot
diversity
duopoly movies
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eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
film rights
Iron Man
Jack Kirby
Jack Valenti
Jerry Siegel
Joe Shuster
licensing
Marvel
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Motion Picture Association of America MPAA
production rights
Robin
space Nazis
studio franchises
Suicide Squad
Superman
supervillains
talent guild
The Avengers
The Flash
The Hulk
The Walt Disney Company
trade union
Universal Paramount Columbia Pictures
video piracy
Warner Bros
Wonder Woman
World War II
X-Men
Product details
- ISBN 9781496851321
- Weight: 272g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 17 Jun 2024
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Copyright Vigilantes: Intellectual Property and the Hollywood Superhero, 1998–2018 explains superhero blockbusters as allegories of intellectual property relations. In movies based on characters owned by the comics duopoly of DC and Marvel, no narrative recurs more often than a villain’s attempt to copy the superhero's unique powers. In this volume, author Ezra Claverie explains this fixation as a symptom of the films’ mode of production.
Since the 1930s, the dominant American comics publishers have treated the creations of artists and writers as work for hire, such that stories and characters become company property. Thus, publishers avoided sharing the profits both from magazine sales and from licensing characters into other media. For decades, creators have challenged this regime, demanding either shares of profits or outright ownership of their creations. Now that the duopoly rents, licenses, and adapts superheroes for increasingly expensive franchises, and for growing international audiences, any challenge to intellectual property relations threatens a production regime worth billions of dollars. Duopoly movies, therefore, present any attempt to break the superhero’s monopoly on their powers as the scheme of terrorists, mad scientists, or space Nazis—assuaging studio anxieties and revealing the fears of those who benefit most from the real-world ownership of superheroes. Weaving together legal analysis, Marxist political economy, and close readings of movies, Copyright Vigilantes explains the preoccupations of Hollywood’s leading genre.
Since the 1930s, the dominant American comics publishers have treated the creations of artists and writers as work for hire, such that stories and characters become company property. Thus, publishers avoided sharing the profits both from magazine sales and from licensing characters into other media. For decades, creators have challenged this regime, demanding either shares of profits or outright ownership of their creations. Now that the duopoly rents, licenses, and adapts superheroes for increasingly expensive franchises, and for growing international audiences, any challenge to intellectual property relations threatens a production regime worth billions of dollars. Duopoly movies, therefore, present any attempt to break the superhero’s monopoly on their powers as the scheme of terrorists, mad scientists, or space Nazis—assuaging studio anxieties and revealing the fears of those who benefit most from the real-world ownership of superheroes. Weaving together legal analysis, Marxist political economy, and close readings of movies, Copyright Vigilantes explains the preoccupations of Hollywood’s leading genre.
Ezra Claverie writes for Washington University in Saint Louis. His work has appeared in such publications as the Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of American Culture, and Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media.
