"Half Gandalf, Half Mr. Kipling" : Paul Cornell at Marvel and DC

Flanagan, MJ

Abstract

Paul Cornell’s work for the ‘big two’ U.S. publishers transfers a distinctly British (mainly, but not exclusively, English) sensibility into a field where the centre of cultural gravity, in terms of tropes and iconography, tends to be the USA. Cornell’s skills at writing fresh versions of thinly-drawn superheroes like Blade led to a run on one of Marvel’s leading titles, Wolverine (2013-14), and he has at various times been given the controls of Superman and Batman by DC. In a move encapsulating his authorial signature, DC gave Cornell the opportunity to imagine what English analogues of Batman and Robin would be like (in Knight and Squire, with artist Jimmy Broxton [2010-11]). Unlike earlier efforts of Marvel’s UK wing to work American characters into British landscapes dominated by icons of international recognisability, Cornell’s work on Captain Britain and MI-13 (2008-9) and other titles uses a less mechanical method of introducing a British dimension to the Marvel Universe. Rather than ‘postcard views’ (Liz, 2014: 5), it relies on a sense of a collective British consciousness, with appropriate symbols playing their part and magic presented as a unique driving force. A de-emphasis on physical power and spatial value, and an accent on feelings (defined in various ways), also characterises his work. In terms of the national dimension, and squaring a British symbol-system with the US-centric mythology of DC and Marvel, Cornell’s motto might be drawn from the pages of Knight and Squire #1: ‘You don’t need power, you need moderation’.

Influenced by British television (for which he has scripted Doctor Who), we can regard the Britain that emerges through Cornell’s work as deploying a familiar and eccentric cast of characters, or, viewed in a different light, a host of repressed cultural obsessions rising up (as does Richard III in Knight and Squire). Thus, Cornell provides a way for cultural motifs from outside the U.S. to be exercised on the terrain of some of the most famous superheroes.

Citation

Flanagan, M. (2014, October). "Half Gandalf, Half Mr. Kipling" : Paul Cornell at Marvel and DC. Presented at Transitions 5 (Conference), Birkbeck University of London

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Transitions 5 (Conference)
• Conference Location: Birkbeck University of London
• Start Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Apr 22, 2016
• Publisher URL: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/news/cfp-transitions-5-2013-new-directions-in-comics-studies
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference