Abstract

Beyond their mythological dimension, the contemporary movie adaptations of the Marvel superheroes universe offer a pedagogy about the technological relationship between body and mutation. Throughout the history of the superhero comic-book, the myth has evolved from the original unfolding of the hero, double identity and mutation towards narratives related to the oneiric and also to a field of philosophical tension between transhumanism and the posthuman. This article takes a historical and conceptual journey through the superhero archetype to emphasize the assembly between the possibilities of comics and the cinema. Both the contemporary singularities of the mutant, on the one hand, and the unorthodox approaches to the superhero by the filmmaker Manoj Night Shyamalan constitute a philosophical, ethical and mythological investigation of the political, social and perceptive devices that accompany the legacy of this tradition born at the same time that the adventurous comic-strips of the thirties.

Key Words: Superhero | Mutant | Marvel Universe | DC Comics | Posthuman