The Superhero Project: 9th Global Meeting 

THE MULTIVERSAL SUPERHERO 

Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September 2025 

The View Hotel, Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom

“Anyone can wear the mask. You can wear the mask. If you didn’t know that before, I hope you do now. Cuz I’m Spider-Man. And I’m not the only one. Not by a long shot”. – Miles Morales, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)  

In the 21st century, superhero audiences have become innately accustomed to the concept of The Multiverse and the sight of multiple / alternate versions of superheroes, thanks to the prominence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s post-Infinity Saga phases and TV shows like Loki and What If...?, as well as popular multiversal sagas in comics such as Dark Knights Metal.  

The multiverse provides avenues of exploration and opportunities for storytelling. However, even more so, the idea of the multiverse provides ground to expand upon the definition and function of superheroes and it also re-negotiates existing paradigms of representation, intermedial interaction and the social function of the superhero archetype.  

Multiversal Storytelling has expanded into various forms of media, from comics to video games, television, and multi-million-dollar films and is now an essential part of the contemporary superhero landscape, allowing not only the enrichment of long-established characters, but also the ongoing transmedial exploration of the very nature of the superhero concept.

For its ninth edition, The Superhero Project invites 20-minute papers that contribute to the exploration and discussion of the challenges, opportunities, successes and failures of the Multiversal Superhero and Multiversal Superhero Storytelling.  

Indicative themes for discussion in the context of superhero discourse may include but are not limited to: 

• Comics and the Multiverse
• Film / TV and the Multiverse 
• Video games and / as the Multiverse
• The Multiverse as Intertextual storytelling 

• Subversion, Parody and Pastiche through and in the Multiverse 

• (Postmodern) Nostalgia and the Multiverse 

• Gender and the Multiverse 

• The Multiverse and Origin Stories 

• World building and the Multiverse 

• Explorations of the Multiverse 

• Blockbuster storytelling and the Multiverse 

• The status quo and the Multiverse 

• Transmedia Multiverse(s) 

• Costumes and Iconography in the Multiverse 

• Identity construction in and though the Multiverse 

• Theme-Parks as a Multiversal space  

• Cosplay as Multiversal activity 

• The Multiverse and Negotiation of Continuity 

What to send: 

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Monday 31 March, 2025 to the following email addresses: t.caeners@superheroproject.net and m.j.laird@superheroproject.net.  

Emails should be entitled: SUPER IX Abstract Submission. 

All other Superhero Project enquires should be sent to t.caeners@superheroproject.net.  

Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both emails, abstracts should be in MS Word formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in the programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords. 

Accepted proposals will be notified by Monday 14th April 2025. 

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week, you should assume we did not receive your proposal. If this is the case, please do resent to both email addresses. If you have any questions, the team will be only too happy to assist. 

Danny Graydon (Founder and President) d.graydon@superheroproject.net 

Dr Torsten Caeners (Vice President) t.caeners@superheroproject.net  

Mikayla J. Laird (Information Manager) m.j.laird@superheroproject.net