Historically, interdisciplinary studies on comics and gender have focussed on the superhero's representation of gender and the narrative's engagement with gender politics, not on sexuality. Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero collects fourteen essays by scholars in various disciplines, providing a rich engagement with history, postcolonial studies, pornography studies and more. Supersex offers an in-depth starting point to examine superhero sexuality and eroticism, although it does not pretend to offer an exhaustive overview of the topic. While a collection of this nature could be more inclusive by adding more essays on topics such as black queer studies, transsexuality, disability studies and more, it does provide an interdisciplinary contribution to the field of superhero studies by focussing on the sexuality and eroticism of the superhero in a genre that includes graphic violence as a selling point. As Peppard asks, “Can we continue to responsibly love stories that we know to be eminently capable of nurturing deeply problematic fantasies?” (22).

The first half of the collection highlights how the basic elements that make up the superhero genre are imbued with eroticism, which has historically been tempered by a conservative mainstream culture and its demands on the publishers. Richard Reynolds elaborates on the multiplicity of the genre and its eroticism as the superhero costume creates opportunities for masquerade, both in the superhero and in secret identities, confusion between which may indicate a fluid sexuality. The suppression of sex in the Silver Age of Comics led to a preoccupation with found family and symbolic reproduction, argues Matt Yokey. In contrast, chapters by J. Andrew Deman and Brian Johnson demonstrate how the Bronze Age produced texts that were deeply invested in female sexuality as a source of both eroticism and empowerment for the audience. Frustrated with the limitations of mainstream comics’ engagement with queer sexuality, underground comix expressed the needs of queer communities. As Sarah M. Panuska's insightful chapter argues, the lack of a gay community in mainstream superhero comics is what makes them heteronormative, as participation in a gay community demonstrates a gay identity beyond sexual proclivities and a domestic partner. Keith Friedlander further discusses this point on heteronormativity in mainstream superhero comics and how this can be subverted through an analysis of the Young Avengers series.

The desire to contain the supersexual is further discussed through the second half of the collection, which focusses on film and television as well as fan or audience responses to superhero narratives. What these analyses reveal is that progressive politics in superhero films are rendered inert through the narrative's reinforcement of traditional power dynamics. For instance, Deman's chapter on the X-Men comics highlights how the celebration of Storm's sexual agency made her an icon, while Christopher B. Zeichmann's chapter reveals how the Brian Singer X-Men films reject black liberation politics in favour of an ethics of assimilation and passing. Superhero sexuality can be titillating and thus superficially presents transgressive elements such as a powerful female sexuality or a fluid masculinity, but Samantha Langsdale's astute examination of the Thor trilogy's female characters and Anna F. Peppard's discussion on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman make clear that these progressive elements ultimately work to reinstate a conventional power dynamic as Lois ends up with a baby in the suburbs and Clark can have it all.

This dynamic is not limited to films or television but is also present in audience responses to these films. As Jefrrey A. Brown and Joseph Brennan document, both straight and gay porn parodies tend to reinforce conservative readings of the source material and reinscribe traditional power dynamics. In contrast, Olivia Hicks's and Anne Kustritz's chapters highlight how transformative fanworks such as fanfiction often work to celebrate female desire and play. Both final chapters address the traditional erasure of female comic book fans and recentre female audiences as crucial participants in fandom culture, and thus as essential contributors to the cultural capital that the original source material builds up.

The chapters are not just a collection, but a dialogue that allows for a subjective multiplicity that ultimately provides a rich tapestry of insights that are interlinked even (or especially) when they are contradictory. Like many chapters, the epilogue also offers a personal reflection on the eroticism of the superhero and the desires it can satisfy or indulge in its audiences while simultaneously reckoning with the damaging and painful power dynamics that they often replicate. The volume does not pretend it can resolve this duality, but offers a wonderful exploration of the contradictions inherent to supersex.