Genre and Intertextuality in A-Force

Genre and intertextuality as Bauman defines it greatly affects the way that A-Force is read. These two factors give a framework as to how the piece could be interpreted. Genre is determined by a reader’s relationship with previous texts. This causes expectations for the reader that they assume will be followed.  Intertextuality as defined by Bauman is “the relational orientation of a text to other texts”. Therefore genre and intertextuality are connected.

A-Force could fall into a few distinct genres: superhero, science fiction, fantasy and dystopian.  All of these genre, specifically superhero, allows the reader to not be surprised when the main characters start to fly or are walking around in costumes.  Once the reader learns that A-Force also falls into a dystopian genre this also creates more expectations on top of the previous. For example, it is not surprising that there is an omniscient absolute ruler who reigns over the world and has a secrete police force. What is surprising is who these people are. This plays with the reader’s expectation and creates intrigue. 

Intertextuality also gives expectations for the reader. If the reader has even a basic understanding of Marvel and the Avengers, any variations there of, they have certain expectations.  A lot of these expectations are broken within this work. First off we get the first all female Avengers, which can change what they can do and opens up the cast to a number of different heroes who may have been excluded before.  Since this work comes at the end of the Secret Wars, with the parallel universes have already collided and breaking down, if the reader has not read a majority of the pervious Secret Wars material or does not have a large knowledge of the Secret Wars and only knows the basics of Marvel, many things will break their expectations.  This could include the role of the Thors, Doctor Doom, and Loki as well as the treatment of certain characters such as Ms. America. This is not necessarily a bad thing it just changes the reading experience.

Genre and intertextuality shapes how the comic is read and what a reader will get out of the comic. It sets up certain expectations depending on what the reader has read before as well as what they know about the characters and the worlds.  Sometimes these expectations are kept and sometimes they are broken. It is interesting as to which expectation is kept.