Supervillians: A Reflection of Terrorists
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Abstract
In recent years, superhero films have dominated the global film market. Film, as a form of media, proves an efficacious communication tool. In addition, Hollywood has been overt in its use of terrorism in storytelling. Thus, a nuanced comprehension of the relationship between film and terrorism is crucial. Despite a significant amount of literature on this and related topics, only a few studies have managed to establish a clear relativity between terrorists and those posing violent threats in superhero films, the supervillains. This article, therefore, intends to forge a strong bond between supervillains and Terrorists. By utilizing concepts regarding terrorist’s ideologies, weapons, and prevalent terrorism myths by Richard Jackson and his colleagues in a textual analysis of six films [Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame, and Aquaman], profound implications between these two are revealed. These implications further disclose the supervillains’ internal ideological conflicts and nuances, mythologies inherent to their usage of terrorist weapons, and the hierarchy of their powers; all of which could address both infallible and flawed understandings of current literature on the topic.
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References
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