Marvel Cinematic Universe

Introducing an instant classic--master storyteller Neil Gaiman presents a dazzling version of the great Norse myths. Gaiman has long been inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction. Now he turns his attention back to the source, presenting a bravura rendition of the great northern tales.

The Trickster and the System offers an analytical paradigm which can be used to examine relationships between tricksters and systems, change and stability, in a wide range of social, political and cultural contexts. It covers a range of systems, describes different types of tricksters and discusses possible conflicts, tensions and dialogues between the two opposing sides.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most ambitious experiment in cinematic world building to date. The MCU is like other blockbuster adaptations in that it adapts preexisting narrative material, but it is also distinct insofar as it doesn’t adapt a finite story featuring a stable set of characters. What is being adapted from Marvel Comics is not stories but rather an approach to world building. The MCU embraces a logic of transfictionality, def ined as an intertextual relation that "uses the source text's setting and/or inhabitants as if they existed independently" (Saint-Gelais 2005, 612). The comics are positioned as complementary to yet diegetically separate from the films. Convergences between these complementary storyworlds reward fans’ knowledge and encourages multiple close viewings of the films.