Posthuman Superheroes Part 4: Coming Off the Page

This is the fourth part of a four part essay dealing with posthuman superheroes. The superhero universe is full of characters that exhibit a wide range of posthuman features. With their abilities of shapeshifting and embodiment they are forms without form; characters which exhibit endless possibility and multiplicity. Using the work of Ihab Hassan, and the idea of embodiment as defined by Robert Pepperell, and Katherine Hayles, part one provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.

Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders' provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity.  It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.

Part two ‘Performing Gender’ theorises Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs as a negative ideal of a posthuman subject and analyses Martian Manhunter performing gender in two issues of Justice League Task Force.

Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes’ theorises the superhero characters, Mystique, Jean Grey, Apollo, Midnighter, The Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, as posthuman subjects.


Paula Rabinowitz asks the question ‘can the posthuman speak?’ (2000:42). In the space of one paragraph she cites the posthuman body as ‘living outside national, sexual, economic borders’, then exceeding and overriding borders, before finally speaking through a language that straddles the borders between ‘health/sickness, male/female, real/imaginary (2000:43). Rabinowitz’s point is made through oppositions and borders, and the idea of being “outside.” Using the work of Pepperell I would rather position the posthuman body as one reaching for a limit that can never be reached. There are no borders for the posthuman to straddle, no oppositions of which to be outside. As an embodied presence, they have no borders because they cannot live outside consciousness. Body and environment are continuous. They can only live within, embodied. She then decides that the posthuman, like the alien, the marginal, and the subaltern ‘probably cannot speak because it is always spoken through the stories that someone else has already told’ (2000:43). I would say that this is the point exactly. The posthuman, in true postmodern sense, only speaks through stories that have already been told. This is the whole point of what Klock calls the re-visionary comic narrative. Rabinowitz states further: ‘the posthuman body is still saturated with the stories of humanity’ (2000:43). Yes, and in being saturated with stories, actually take them to another level. The human is a genre, but the posthuman rewrites, is rewritten. In the realm of the superhero narrative posthuman superheroes characters speak through a troping of genre and character. The posthuman superhero body is saturated with narratives. Their stories, their origins, have already been told but in true posthuman/postmodern style these stories, characters, or tropes of characters will continue to be rewritten. They evolve. Batman is embodied in Watchmen’s Rorschach, Astro City’s The Confessor, and The Authority’s, Midnighter. Superman is embodied in Astro City’s the Samaritan, and Powers’ Supershock. Wonder Woman is embodied in Astro City’s Winged Victory. The list goes on.

Born of Metamorpho’s body, Shift is literally Metamorpho embodied. In a storyline where Shift reincorporates himself into his ‘father’ Metamorpho, he literally becomes embodied in Metamorpho. As Metamorpho explains: ‘I feel him in here. I have all his memories. His anger. His guilt. His love. I swear to you… it’s like I lived it’ (Winnick, McDaniel, and Owens, 2007:157, emphasis in original).  Metamorpho has been rewritten by Shift’s reincorporation.

As comics companies have come to realise, the idea of continuity is one which cannot be rectified simply by killing characters and making multiple Earths. No sooner has continuity been fixed, new continuities arise which conflict with the old. With countless writers and artists working across titles over decades, discontinuities and the multiplicity of mistakes that disrupt continuity are the only certainties of the superhero narrative. In a sense superhero narratives simply rewrite themselves. Multiple writers and artists, with their varied interpretations, refocusing, re-producing, re-writing characters and origins, have produced almost unknowingly, posthuman characters. In their natural evolution, their reflexivity, their reinvention of narrative and character, and indeed genre, superhero narratives have, and could only have, produced the posthuman characters for our time. Truly these characters represent Halberstam’s idea of someness. How many posthuman superheroes are there? Some. How many super powers can there be? Some. What does this mean? The continual reinvention of the superhero narrative and thus superhero characters, has produced the posthuman superhero. They are self-reflexive characters imbued with the weight of comic history who interrogate the limits (if any) of their powers and abilities. These characters are above the human, embedded in their environment, and have consciousnesses that extend beyond their physical bodies.

In 1971 a now famous experiment led by Philip Zimbardo, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, was conducted to ‘study the psychology of imprisonment – to see what happens when you put good people in a dehumanizing place’ (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:30). Scheduled for a period of two weeks, the experiment had to be stopped after six days when the participants conducting the role of guards began using increasingly degrading forms of punishment. The findings of this experiment were replicated in real life thirty-five years later in the actions of the guards at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This “Banality of Evil”, shows that ‘under certain conditions and social pressures, ordinary people can commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable’ and also accounts for ‘people taking no action when action is called for’ (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:30). However, inspired by the experiment, Zimbardo and co-researcher, Zeno Franco, have asked the question: ‘Is it also possible that heroic acts are something that anyone can perform, given the right mind-set and conditions? Could there also be a “banality of heroism”? (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:31). Their answer is a resounding yes. Through their research of heroism they have found it possible to foster a ‘heroic imagination’ which ‘can help guide a person’s behaviour in times of trouble or moral uncertainty’ (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:31). However, Franco and Zimbardo write that the idea of heroes and heroism has been diluted and dumbed down which impedes the fostering of the heroic imagination. To foster the heroic imagination society needs to resist the urge to rationalize inaction and the growing fear of personal conflict which diminishes the ‘hardiness necessary to stand firm for principles we cherish’ (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:34). Finally Franco and Zimbardo cite that a reconnection with the mythic ancient ideals of traditional heroic tales, especially for young people, enables:

a connection with the hero in ourselves. It is this vital internal conduit between the modern work-a-day ethic and the mythic world that can prepare an ordinary person to be an everyday hero (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:35).

Where do we find such examples of heroes now? Franco and Zimbardo cite heroism portrayed in such films as The Lord of the Rings trilogy which are based on the epic tradition, or even certain video games, as examples which could help children develop an internal compass in morally ambiguous situations or help them think about their ability to act heroically (Franco and Zimbardo, 2006-07:35). I would argue that superheroes occupy this position par excellénce providing concrete examples of, as Robert Reynolds calls it, a modern mythology.

When writing New X-Men, Grant Morrison wrote the characters as if they were role models:

And when supermen do come along, what are they gonna want to find? A role model. Like everyone else on the planet. We all want to find people who’ve trod our path before, who can suggest some ways to help us feel significant. So the idea behind a lot of what I was doing in X-Men and really all of my comics is to give these future supermen a template, to say “Okay you’re a superhuman, and maybe it feels a little like this” (Babcock, 2007).

While superhero comics as a form of heroic etiquette manual may at first seem absurd, consider that in 2004 The New England Journal of Medicine reported the first documented human case of a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth (Schuelke et al, 2004). The study focused on an abnormally strong four-year old German boy whose DNA was found to block production of the protein, myostatin, which limits muscle growth.[i] Thus he had the potential for unlimited muscle growth. In 2007 nineteen-month old, Liam Hoekstra, was found to have a similar condition, though a blood test determined that, unlike the German infant, he did not have the genetic mutation that blocks all production of myostatin. Rather, he has a myostatin blockade which leaves him with forty percent more muscle mass than normal, a speedy metabolism, and almost no body fat. The article reports that his mother has taken to calling him ‘The Hulk, Hercules, the Terminator’ (‘Rare condition gives toddler super strength’, 2007). He is one of roughly one hundred known cases in the world.

With the internet’s ability to connect special interest groups, could the internet be a facilitator of this expanding posthuman consciousness and condition? Individuals with similar experiences and conditions such as those exhibited by Liam Hoekstra, now have the possibility of meeting each other beyond the possibilities of chance. There is nothing to say that two of these abnormally strong individuals may produce offspring that are “super-powered.” The posthumans of the future may need to be schooled in the etiquette of heroism, especially if they have abilities above that of the common human and society expects them to be heroic. Why couldn’t comic book superheroes be inspirational for the coming posthuman era? Morrison’s characters then begin escaping from their flat two dimensional existence, as he iterates:

I said, way back, almost jokingly, that I thought super-people were really trying very hard to make their way off the skin of the second dimension to get in here. They want to get in here with us… the next stage is to clamber off the screen into the street. I think what you’re seeing with things like… the cyborg experiments and genetic manipulation that is now possible, is that pretty soon there’s gonna be super-people. You’ll be able to select for super-people: “I want my kid to have electric powers.” That kind of thing (in Babcock, 2007).

The idea that superhero comics could become text books or etiquette manuals for future posthumans is far-fetched, perhaps slightly absurd, but not entirely unrealistic. People of mutation could think differently about their body, their existence, and their consciousness, in an outward spiralling net that builds upon each new discovery and revelation. Indeed it may be the natural mutation of the human body that furthers the human race and our way of life. The posthuman populated world of tomorrow will be unrecognisable compared to ours. I feel it is only fitting to finish with the last words spoken by Batman, from Justice #12 (Aug. 2007):

Imagine if you will, Alfred, a world to come, a world transformed, a humanity beyond even our wildest imaginations. If our lives and the struggles we face were able to purchase that future, how could we not be grateful for the opportunity to fight for that possibility? That tomorrow? Perhaps, Alfred, one day, humanity… or what humanity will become… will look back at this time, and see the beginning of change. Of transforming into something greater

(Krueger & Ross et al, 2007:43-4, emphasis in original).

Read Part one 'Posthuman Bodies and Genders' 


Read Part two ‘Performing Gender’ 

Read Part three ‘Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes

Reference

Babcock, J. (02/01/2007) ‘An Interview with Grant Morrison, from the pages of Arthur Magazine’, www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1644 (Accessed 11 Oct 2007).

Franco, Z. and Zimbardo, P. (2006-07) ‘The Banality of Heroism’ in Greater Good Vol. 3, 2, Berkeley: University of California, pp30-5

Krueger, J. & Ross, A. (story), Krueger, J. (script), and Braithwaite, D. & Ross, A. (art) (2007) Justice, v1 #12 [of 12] (Aug 2007), New York: DC Comics.

Rabinowitz, P. ‘Soft Fictions and Intimate Documents: Can Feminism Be Posthuman?’ in Badmington, N. (2000) (ed.) Posthumanism, Palgrave, pp. 42-55.

‘Rare condition gives toddler super strength’ (30 May 2007) http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070530/strong_toddler_070530/20070530 (Accessed 16 Oct 2007).

Schuelke, M.,  Wagner, K. R.,  Stolz, L. E.,  Hubner, C. et al (2004) ‘The Myostatin Mutation Associated with Gross Muscle Hypertrophy in a Child’, New England Journal of Medicine  350, 26,  pp. 2682-9.

Winick, J. (w), McDaniel, S. (p) and Owens, A. (i) ‘Pay As You Go, Part Four: The Wrong to do the Right’ Outsiders #46, in Winick, J. (w), Mhan, P. et al (p), and Thibert, A., Bird, S. & Owens, A. (i) (2007) Outsiders: Pay As You Go, [Collecting 2007 Outsiders #42-6, Outsiders Annua’ #1], New York: DC Comics pp. 120-59.

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[i] For privacy reasons the name of the German infant was withheld in the article.

Posthuman Superheroes Part 3: Shapeshifters, Cyborgs, and Embodied Superheroes

This is the third part of a four part essay dealing with posthuman superheroes. The superhero universe is full of characters that exhibit a wide range of posthuman features. With their abilities of shapeshifting and embodiment they are forms without form; characters which exhibit endless possibility and multiplicity. Using the work of Ihab Hassan, and the idea of embodiment as defined by Robert Pepperell, and Katherine Hayles, part one provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity. It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders.

Part One: Posthuman Bodies and Genders provides an overview of posthuman theory which include evolution of the human through mutation; and the idea of embodiment which theorises that the mind, body, and environment are a continuous entity.  It then identifies a number of superheroes as having posthuman bodies and genders

Part two ‘Performing Gender’ theorises Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs as a negative ideal of a posthuman subject and analyses Martian Manhunter performing gender in two issues of Justice League Task Force.

Part four ‘Coming Off The Page’ investigates the growing real world emergence of the posthuman and the possibility of fostering a real world 'heroic imagination'.

Comic writers Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis have explored the concept of the Posthuman in the titles The Authority, Ultimate X-Men, The Invisibles, New X-Men, The Ultimates, and Stormwatch. Geoff Klock in his article ‘X-Men, Emerson, Gnosticism’ characterises Millar’s run on The Ultimates as exhibiting a ‘pessimistic post-humanism’ (2004). As a term in superhero narratives, posthuman is used in a straight forward evolutionary sense. The villain, Sabretooth, sums this up:

We’re monsters… I don’t dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human. Man was born crueller than apes and we we’re born crueller than men. It’s just the natural order of things (Millar, Kubert, Raney & Derenick, and Thibert et al, 2006:305, emphasis in original).

The X-Men villain, Magneto, pushes the point further in his rant against humans:

Man is a parasite upon mutant resources. He eats our food, breathes our air and occupies land which evolution intended Homo Superior to inherit. Naturally, our attacks upon your power bases will continue until you deliver this world to its rightful owners. But your replacements grow impatient (Millar, Adam Kubert & Andy Kubert, and Thibert with Miki, 2006:10, emphasis in original).

In Ultimate X-Men naming is a factor in becoming, or being represented as, posthuman, providing a new way of differentiating the posthuman from the human. As Professor Xavier explains to Storm of their monikers: ‘You’ve just been rebaptized as a post-human being… a name which describes your own skill and personality as opposed to those of a long dead ancestor’ (Millar, Adam Kubert & Andy Kubert, and Thibert with Miki, 2006:24, emphasis in original).

The DC Comics shapeshifter, Shift, also exhibits posthuman qualities. Shift is, for want of a better word, the son of the DC hero Metamorpho. Shift is a more evolved version of Metamorpho because he has the ability to absorb elements from outside himself, bypassing Metamorpho’s restrictions of only being able to use the elements contained in the human body. Naming himself “Shift” mirrors the naming of the X-Men in that, as Shift’s love interest Indigo says: ‘it complements your new persona as a shape-shifter’ (Winick et al, 2004b:108). Shift also uses his shape to express mood, feelings, and opinions, ostensibly exhibiting a body language.

Mystique: Shapeshifting Mutant

‘She, in fact, may no longer be a she, but the subject of quite another story: a subject in process, a mutant, the other of the Other, a post-Woman embodied subject cast in female morphology who has already undergone an essential metamorphosis’ (Braidotti, 2002:11).

The posthuman is enmeshed in notions of the body and the shapeshifter is defined by notions of what the body can do. Yet in the same instance the shapeshifter’s body subverts its own definition by continually doing what a common body cannot. The shapeshifter necessarily exhibits, represents, and makes clear, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performance. The shapeshifter as representative of posthuman gender also plays into Halberstam and Livingstone’s idea of someness, with some number of genders being available to assume. This virtually, though not necessarily dictates, that performance accompany the shapeshifting.

The shapeshifting mutant, Mystique, can also be described as being of posthuman gender. Her shape shifting ability raises questions about her original gender which has never been positively established. Whether Mystique only outwardly appears as the gender she exhibits or actually changes her body completely, i.e.: also her internal organs, is not known although she is able to move organs around her body. Her most common form with which she is associated is female, and she exhibits more female capabilities than male, not the least being childbirth, although in X-Men: True Friends #3 (Nov. 1999) she appears as a man named Mr Raven, raising the idea that perhaps at the onset of her mutation she was male.

When a shapeshifter changes bodies do they change gender? Do they change sex? Do their sexual organs only change on the surface of the body? The answer I would posit to all the questions above is, yes. How many sexes, genders, and therefore roles, can a shapeshifter occupy? Some. The potentiality of their form gives them the ability to be any gender/sex. They are engaged in a discourse with limits that can never be reached.

Rosi Braidotti writes that the body ‘is an interface, a threshold, a field of intersecting material and symbolic forces… a surface where multiple codes (race, sex, class, age) are inscribed’ (2002:25). Braidotti’s quote describes Mystique’s body as it represents a perfect interface; a surface of codes; a unique character able to assume a multiplicity – some number – of intersecting forms, roles, genders, sexes, races, classes, and ultimately identities. The role of the shapeshifter is dangerous to occupy as they disturb the familiar and the known. Barkan writes that ‘a subject whose essence is instability and mysterious change does not lend itself to classical orderliness’ (1986: xiii).

Mystique is one character, if not the only character, whose origin story while being hinted at, has not been fully revealed. In an industry where origin stories are continually revealed and rewritten Mystique's missing origin story is an anomaly. A character’s origin is seen and read at the same time, thus becoming known to the reader/viewer. Without a known origin Mystique has no fixed point of reference. She is a character built upon a non-existent place and story. The comfort of knowing how she “came to be” is removed. She simply independently exists. With an identity built on instability, a missing origin, Mystique is able to become other yet remains Mystique

Ontologically the shapeshifter promotes the idea of an unstable definition of the self, the idea of multiple selves, and thus the endless possibility of other ways of being. The shapeshifter’s performance of multiple roles, and as a metaphor, spreads further than just form. Mystique’s shapeshifting ability facilitates her to occupy a range of subject positions in her thirty plus years of comic existence. She is, and has been at one time or another, a mother, a lover, a wife, a stepmother, a step-grandmother, a detective, a model, a widow, a spy, a government operative, and an outlaw. Her allegiances are never completely known or stable, aligning herself with ‘good’ or ‘evil’ as it suits her or as circumstances dictate. She has been punished for not declaring her allegiance to patriarchy, or a defining sexuality, which also makes her posthuman. Mystique will never become a hero in the traditional sense until she renounces her queerness. Defying traditional hero and villain stereotypes, neither heterosexual nor good mother, she spurns hetero-normative relationships, adopts children, and is a leader. In contrast, the subject positions the classic heroes such as Superman, Batman, or indeed the Martian Manhunter, occupy are narrow to say the least. Mystique is:

capable of defeating the notion of fixed bodily form, of visible, recognizable, clear, and distinct shapes as that which marks the contour of the body. She is morphologically dubious (Braidotti, 2002:80).

Mystique’s unlimited potentiality threatens everything that is controlled, stable, and individual; the idea of the human itself.

Not an industry to rest on its laurels, the figure of the shapeshifter has itself evolved in superhero comics to become, what I believe, is the ideal posthuman subject: the shapeshifting cyborg – embodied by The Authority’s, The Engineer.

The Engineer  

(Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:28)

The Engineer: Shapeshifting Cyborg

The most visible and recognisable figure of posthumanism in the superhero narrative is the cyborg. Their numbers are vast in the superhero narrative and include, but are not limited to, Cyborg (Teen Titans), Midnighter (The Authority), Robotman (Doom Patrol), Wolverine (with his adamantium skeleton), Fuji (Stormwatch), Iron Man (with his artificial heart attachment), Forge, and the X-Men villains, The Marauders. At base level, with his numerous bat-gadgets, Batman can be said to be the first superhero cyborg. Frank Miller took this to extremes in The Dark Knight Returns where he depicted Batman using an armoured suit powered by Gotham City’s electricity grid to defeat Superman.

The Engineer, a.k.a. Angela Spica, is perhaps the most telling, and even primary example of the posthuman in the superhero narrative. A former physicist and technologist, The Engineer, is a shapeshifting cyborg. Instead of prosthetics being grafted or attached to her body she has ‘nine pints of liquid machinery’ for blood (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:84). This liquid machinery is full of intelligent microscopic nanotech devices and by no means confined to her arteries. The liquid exists both as a part of her internal and external anatomy. Through her thoughts Angie uses this liquid to create anything she can think of including full body armour and jet engines. She is able to do this, because, as she says: ‘You can fit every book on earth into a drop of my blood’ (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000b:50). She is even able to spread and transform this liquid nanotech machinery into eighty-two fully workable bodies. This however is about as much as she can manage before her ‘personality starts to disassociate’ (Millar, Weston & Quitely, and Leach & Scott, 2002:31). Capable of multiple selves who operate independently and are themselves capable of multiple shapes, she actually shifts her shape to (an)other that is still her(self). She is not only posthuman in her representation of a cyborg, she is also connected to the environment, her body (anatomy) extending further than her identifiable body. This is embodied in her ability to create multiple selves, integrate with other machines, and to perceive environmental changes around her and around the world:

The longer I wear the liquid machinery, the longer I develop an invisible web of atom-sized machine sensors around me. A sort of security perfume… I get very sensitive to environmental changes (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000b:14).

She’s so sensitive to environmental changes in fact that they cause her to feel ill, not surprising considering the sensors are a part of her physiology, while also existing apart from her. The Engineer’s abilities recall Pepperell’s second and third points of his Posthuman Concept of Consciousness, those being: ‘The human body is not separate from its environment’ and ‘Consciousness, body and environment are all continuous’. Thus The Engineer is the synthesis of several strands of posthuman theory. The Engineer is also becoming the more she finds out about her abilities, and it the more she finds out, the more she is able to become, in a continual evolution. As a cyborg shapeshifter, The Engineer allows linkages and identifications as woman/other/animal/hybrid, and presents a posthuman ideal where she has evolved enough to decide how to evolve. When reminiscing about her former life, how chaotic and banal, though attractive it was, she comes to the conclusion that: ‘I’m not Angie anymore. I’m The Engineer’ (Ellis, Hitch, and Neary, 2000a:104). In renaming herself in the same manner as the X-Men characters in New X-Men, she confirms her posthuman identity.

Embodied Superheroes: Jack Hawksmoor, Jean Grey, Shift

The characters Jack Hawksmoor, Shift, Jean Grey, and characters of The Invisibles, also exhibit posthuman qualities. Jack Hawksmoor from The Authority (and previously Stormwatch), has been surgically enhanced by aliens, becoming ‘homo urbanus, one of a kind: city human. Human designed specifically to live in cities’ (Ellis, Hamner, and Story, 2002:148). Hawksmoor can communicate with cities as sentient beings and get them to help him in his superheroic endeavours, while also providing him with superhuman strength. He can also disperse his body into the urban environs, effectively becoming continuous with his body, consciousness, and the environment. In this sense he is also a shape-shifter.

The telekinetic X-Men member, Jean Grey (a.k.a. Marvel Girl and Phoenix), is another posthuman subject. In New X-Men #128 (2005) Professor Xavier and Jean experiment with her growing telekinetic power. Jean explains that all her senses seem to be melting together:

Jean:       It’s like I’m feeling more of everything… but it all melts together. It’s not just sight or sound… it’s all of my senses at once, sort of rippling out through my surroundings…

Professor Xavier: Your mind’s ability to precisely operate matter extends far beyond your physical body and deeply into your environment. But… I think there could be more to it…

(Morrison, and Kordey, 2005:39-40).

Indeed there is more to it. When Xavier touches a fork Jean is levitating with her mind in mid-air, Jean can feel Xavier’s pulse through the fork. Again in a posthuman idea, Jean’s consciousness extends beyond her body into the fork and surrounding environment, effectively exemplifying that she is embedded as part of that environment.

Read Part One: Posthuman Bodies and Genders

Read Part Two: Performing Gender

Read Part Four: Coming Off the Page

Reference

Babcock, J. (02/01/2007) ‘An Interview with Grant Morrison, from the pages of Arthur Magazine’, www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1644 (Accessed 11 Oct 2007).

Barkan, L. (1986) The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Braidotti, R. (2002) Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming, Malden Blackwell Publishers: MA.

Ellis, W. (w), Hamner, C. (p) and Story, K. (i) ‘Orbital’ in Millar, M. (w), Weston, C. & Quitely, F. (p) and Leach, G. & Scott, T. (i) (2002) The Authority: Earth Inferno and Other Stories, [Collecting 2000, 2001 The Authority v1#17-20, 2000 The Authority Annual, and 2001 Wildstorm Summer Special] New York: Wildstorm Productions.

Ellis, W. (w), Hitch, B. (p) and Neary, P. (i) (2000a) The Authority: Relentless, [Collecting 1999 The Authority v1 #1-8] New York: Wildstorm Productions.

Ellis, W. (w), Hitch, B. (p) and Neary, P. (i) ‘Outer Dark’ in Ellis, W. & Millar, M (w), Hitch, B. & Quitely, F. (p) and Neary, P. & Scott, T. with Williams, S. et al (i) (2000b) The Authority: Under New Management, [Collecting 2000 The Authority v1 #9-16] New York: Wildstorm Productions.

Millar, M. (w), Kubert, A., with Raney, T. & Derenick, T. (p), and Thibert, A. et al (i) ‘Return to Weapon X, Part Six of Six’ Ultimate X-Men #12, in Millar, M (w), Kubert, A., et al (p), and Thibert, A. et al (2006) Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vol. 1, [Collecting 2001, 2002, 2006 Ultimate X-Men #1-12, Ultimate X-Men #1/2], New York: Marvel Publishing.

Millar, M. (w), Kubert, Adam & Kubert, Andy, (p), and Thibert, A. with Miki, D. (i) ‘The Tomorrow People’ Ultimate X-Men #1, in Millar, M (w), Kubert, A., et al (p), and Thibert, A. et al (2006) Ultimate X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vol. 1, [Collecting 2001, 2002, 2006 Ultimate X-Men #1-12, Ultimate X-Men #1/2], New York: Marvel Publishing.

Millar, M. (w), Weston, C. & Quitely, F. (p) and Leach, G. & Scott, T. (i) (2002) The Authority: Earth Inferno and Other Stories, [Collecting 2000, 2001 The Authority #17-20, 2000 The Authority Annual, and 2001 Wildstorm Summer Special], California: Wildstorm Productions.

Morrison, G. (w), Kordey, I. (art) ‘New Worlds’ New X-Men #128 in Morrison, G. (w), Kordey, I. et al (p), and Kordey, I. et al (i) (2005) New X-Men Vol. 3: New Worlds, [Collecting 2002 New X-Men #127-133] New York: Marvel Publishing pp. 27-50.

Morrison, G. (w), Quitely, F. with Grant, K. (p) and Avalon Studios (i) ‘Kid Ω’ New X-Men #134 in Morrison, G. (w), Quitely, F. with Grant, K. (p) and Avalon Studios (i) (2005) New X-Men Vol. 4: Riot at Xavier’s, [Collecting 2003 New X-Men #134-138] New York: Marvel Publishing.

Winick, J. (w), McDaniel, S. (p) and Owens, A. (i) ‘Pay As You Go, Part Four: The Wrong to do the Right’ Outsiders #46, in Winick, J. (w), Mhan, P. et al (p), and Thibert, A., Bird, S. & Owens, A. (i) (2007) Outsiders: Pay As You Go, [Collecting 2007 Outsiders #42-6, Outsiders Annual #1], New York: DC Comics pp. 120-59.

Winick, J. (w), Raney, T., Chriscross, & Reis, I. (p), and Hanna, S., Parsons, S. & Campos, M. (i) (2004b) Outsiders: Sum of All Evil, [Collecting 2004 Outsiders #8-15] New York: DC Comics.