The Dark Knight’s Dystopian Vision: Batman, Risk, and American National Identity

This essay argues that Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001-02) are grounded in a specific type of anticipatory consciousness that we read as risk consciousness. With their sustained and systematic confrontation of risk discourses, the two graphic narratives can be seen as key examples of what we call risk fiction, that is fictional engagements with and expressions of global risks that are the products of late modernity. Our focus on risk is based on Ulrich Beck’s articulation of “reflexive modernity” and reveals the specific ways in which Miller’s Dark Knight series signals a transition in American national, racial and gender identities since the 1980s. It is our contention here that Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns begins a deliberate engagement with how the sense of global risk shapes social cohesion at the height of the cold war, and The Dark Knight Strikes Again brings this engagement to the twenty-first century. We identify three levels of risk representation in the two graphic narratives: apocalyptic riskscapes, individual risk-taking as edgework, and the staging of global risk in the media

Practices of Speculation

This volume offers innovative ways to think about speculation at a time when anticipation of catastrophe in an apocalyptic mode is the order of the day and shapes public discourse on a global scale. It maps an interdisciplinary field of investigation: the chapters interrogate hegemonic ways of shaping the present through investments in the future, while also looking at speculative practices that reveal transformative potential. The twelve contributions explore concrete instances of envisioning the open unknown and affirmative speculative potentials in history, literature, comics, computer games, mold research, ecosystem science and artistic practice

Surface composition and structure of Co\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3eO\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e(110) and the effect of impurity segregation

The Co3O4 (110) single crystal surface has been characterized by low energy electron diffraction (LEED), Auger electron spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). LEED analysis of the clean Co3O4 (110) spinel surface shows a well-ordered pattern with sharp diffraction features. The XPS spectra are consistent with stoichiometric Co3O4 as determined by the concentration ratio of oxygen to cobalt (CO /CCo) and spectral peak shape. In particular, the cobalt 2p XPS spectra are characteristic of the spinel structure with Co3+ occupying octahedral sites and Co2+ in tetrahedral sites within the lattice. During prolonged heating at 630 K, bulk impurities of K, Ca, Na, and Cu segregated to the surface. Sodium desorbed from the surface as NaOH at 825 K, potassium and calcium were only removed by sputtering since no desorption from the surface was detected for temperatures up to 1000 K. Copper also disappeared upon heating above 700 K, most likely by desorbing although the possibility of diffusion back into the bulk could not be eliminated. The appearance of copper impurities correlated with Co3O4 (110) surface reduction to CoO, and the surface could not be fully reoxidized even upon extended oxygen annealing as long as the copper impurity remained on the surface. Upon removal of the Cu from the near-surface region, the surface was easily reoxidized to Co3O4 by O2

The Dark Knight’s Dystopian Vision: Batman, Risk, and American National Identity

This essay argues that Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001-02) are grounded in a specific type of anticipatory consciousness that we read as risk consciousness. With their sustained and systematic confrontation of risk discourses, the two graphic narratives can be seen as key examples of what we call risk fiction, that is fictional engagements with and expressions of global risks that are the products of late modernity. Our focus on risk is based on Ulrich Beck’s articulation of “reflexive modernity” and reveals the specific ways in which Miller’s Dark Knight series signals a transition in American national, racial and gender identities since the 1980s. It is our contention here that Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns begins a deliberate engagement with how the sense of global risk shapes social cohesion at the height of the cold war, and The Dark Knight Strikes Again brings this engagement to the twenty-first century. We identify three levels of risk representation in the two graphic narratives: apocalyptic riskscapes, individual risk-taking as edgework, and the staging of global risk in the media

Practices of Speculation

This volume offers innovative ways to think about speculation at a time when anticipation of catastrophe in an apocalyptic mode is the order of the day and shapes public discourse on a global scale. It maps an interdisciplinary field of investigation: the chapters interrogate hegemonic ways of shaping the present through investments in the future, while also looking at speculative practices that reveal transformative potential. The twelve contributions explore concrete instances of envisioning the open unknown and affirmative speculative potentials in history, literature, comics, computer games, mold research, ecosystem science and artistic practice