The Problem of Evil in DC Universe Animated Movies, 2007–2016. DC Multiverse, an Ironic Illustration of Leibniz’s Theodicy?

This article explores the question of evil and its metaphysical and moral implications in a series of animated movie adaptations of the DC Universe produced since 2006. The contemporary evolution of the medium, called the “Iron Age of comics”, has seen the auto-reflexive nature of comics produce problems and themes related to the main question discussed in Christian theodicy: how can we perceive and define the possibility of evil in a world where God’s omnipotence should have eliminated such a possibility? Moreover, why does evil seem to spread indefinitely in spite of all the efforts deployed by superheroes to stop evil? We will discuss the problem of evil as a natural narrative topic in light of comics’ mythological and religious roots and with a particular study case: DC Comics Multiverse as an illustration of Leibniz’s “best of all possible worlds” argument

Drawn Stories, Moving Images. Comic Books and their Screen Adaptations

The comic transcends the merely entertaining, and fans of comics become engaged and invested in the field through a range of activities. Major cities host regular comic conventions, attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees each year, who search for special issues of their favourite comic-book series, meet artists, attend workshops and buy merchandise. Many fans do not stop at just attending conventions; they do so dressed as their favourite comic characters or wearing badges, buttons, T-shirts or sweaters with images of those characters on them. In other words: many fans do ot merely consume comic books; rather, they arrange a considerable part of their lives around them and in some cases even embody their heroes, that is, they copy their behaviour and their language. The comic universe, the comic books and the range of activities emerging out of them and around them become a meaningful universe for fans

Marriage and its representations in Classical Hollywood Comedy (1934-1945). Stanley Cavell, the concept of skepticism and Kierkegaard's legacy

This article explores the questions of marriage and divorce as discussed by Stanley Cavell in his study of Classical Hollywood comedies, dubbing what he considered as a popular subgenre of the American comedy of the thirties and forties: the “comedy of remarriage”. We will focus on Cavell’s analysis of a series of films, and the way these comedies belong to a specific American school of thought, with a case study of The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, US 1937). We will then try to identify, in Cavell’s original approach of marriage and divorce in the light of his discussion of philosophical skepticism, traces of Kierkegaard’s moral legacy, by way of Wittgenstein’s influence on the American thinker