Sequart‘s Karra Shimabukuro was given early access to the new book by A. David Lewis, American Comics, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife. Due out in November from Palgrave Macmillan, Shimabukuro detailed what readers can expect from the forthcoming book on superheroes, the afterlife, and audiences’ notions of personal selfhood.

As more and more people question the purpose and definition of self in the modern world, Lewis’ work is particularly timely.

Shimabukuro particularly noted the incorporation of theorists Benedict Anderson and Jeffery Burton Russell as personal attractions to the text. The book, she says, will be of interest to readers intrigued by the “argument for multiple selfhoods, and how this relates not only to how we view characters (in relation to reboots, revisions, and retcons), but also how we understand characters through the ever growing intertextual connections such as movies, cartoons, fan fiction, etc.”

Read more here.