Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Popular Culture

This thesis examines the process of adapting comic book properties into other visual media. I focus on the DC Animated Universe, the popular adaptation of DC Comics characters and concepts into all-ages programming. This adapted universe started with Batman: The Animated Series and comprised several shows on multiple networks, all of which fit into a shared universe based on their comic book counterparts. The adaptation of these properties is heavily reliant to intertextuality across DC Comics media. The shared universe developed within the television medium acted as an early example of comic book media adapting the idea of shared universes, a process that has been replicated with extreme financial success by DC and Marvel (in various stages of fruition). I address the process of adapting DC Comics properties in television, dividing it into “strict” or “loose” adaptations, as well as derivative adaptations that add new material to the comic book canon. This process was initially slow, exploding after the first series (Batman: The Animated Series) changed networks and Saturday morning cartoons flourished, allowing for more opportunities for producers to create content. References, crossover episodes, and the later series Justice League Unlimited allowed producers to utilize this shared universe to develop otherwise impossible adaptations that often became lasting additions to DC Comics publishing. Concepts developed in this paratextual universe became popular enough to see recursive adaptation in DC Comics ongoing comic book universe and other media, emphasizing the importance of cross-media connections. The continued popularity and success of comic book media is reliant on cross-media synergy and shared universes.

Committee: Jeffrey Brown PhD (Advisor); Becca Cragin PhD (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: American Literature; American Studies; Comparative Literature; Fine Arts; Literature; Mass Media; Modern History; Modern Literature; Multimedia Communications