Today we've got the second part of our roundup of some videos from Bob "MovieBob" Chipman's The Big Picture series about superheroes, politics and related pop culture. Incidentally the last video is the most recent, so if you want more I recommend checking out the rest of the Big Picture videos.
A examination of politics with the help of superheroes, as well as other cool things
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Big Picture Part 1
Today we've got a roundup of some videos from Bob "MovieBob" Chipman's The Big Picture series about superheroes, politics and related pop culture. Tune in tomorrow for the second part.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The Influence of EC Comics
The AV Club has an interesting article about EC Comics, a comics publisher popular in the 1950s that produced primarily crime, horror, and war comics, and some of it's seminal stories, writers and artists and how they've influenced the comic industry since, especially in underground comics.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
More Cracked Lists and Video
Today we've got some new superhero related lists from Crack, which are 6 Pathetic Attempts by Corporations to Create a Superhero, 5 Superhero Movie Scenes They'll Never Let You See, and the only-a-few-superheroes-on-the-list 6 Insane but Convincing Fan Theories about Kids Cartoons. And finally a video by Cracked on why some supervillians keep the good guy alive.
Why Supervillains Always Keep the Good Guy Alive -- powered by Cracked.com
Monday, November 26, 2012
Superhero 411: Mr. Incredible
Mr. Incredible
Occupation: Professional Superhero/Insurance Claims
Religion: Episcopalian
Religion: Episcopalian
Operates in: Metroville
Bob Parr was once Mr. Incredible, the most celebrated hero of Metroville, but after saving a man's life when he tried to commit suicide and subsequently being sued by the man for injuring him in the process, opening up the flood gates for other superheroes to be sued for personnel injury and collateral damage. This causes superheroing to be outlawed and forces all the superheroes into hiding through a government relocation program, including Bob and his new wife Helen, aka the superhero Elastigirl.
15 years later, Bob is working at an insurance company dealing with insurance claims and living a typical suburban life with his wife and three children, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Bob however finds this life unfulfilling, as he has to secretly help his clients navigate his insurance company's roundabout system to ensure they aren't cheated and regularly goes out superheroing with his old superfriend Lucius, aka Frozone, despite Helen's desire that they just live a normal life without superpowers.
It all comes to a head one day when, while being lectured by his boss about his clients' strange ability to get their claims by his boss, he witnesses a mugging and is prevented from helping by his boss, causing Bob to punch his boss through several walls, exposing his superpowers and costing Bob his job. Bob returns home depressed, and while trying to figure out what to tell Helen finds a package for him from the mysterious Mirage, offering him a job requiring his superpowers. Eager to relive his glory days while being able to support his family, he quickly agrees, telling his family he's going a business trip. Bob is taken to a tropical island where a rogue robot has been on a rampage and quickly defeats it. Bob is handsomely rewarded for his efforts, and upon returning home pretends to go to work everyday while secretly spending the day working out and getting back into peak shape. Bob is soon called back by Mirage for another mission, and this time encounters an improved robot that he is unable to defeat. The robot's creator, Syndrome, reveals himself, and Bob realizes that 15 years ago Syndrome was the kid who tried to be his sidekick before being rebuffed by Bob. Syndrome had vowed revenge for this, setting out to prove that he was better than all the other superheroes, and had been inviting any superheroes he could find to fight his "rampaging" robot to the death, improving his robot any time it was defeated before having a rematch. Bob is taken hostage so he can watch Syndrome "defeat" the robot with his remote after he unleashes it on Metrocity. His family comes to his rescue, but when their plane is shot down Bob believes his family is dead, however they survive and are eventually captured as Syndrome launches his robot towards Metrocity. The Incredibles are eventually able to escape, return to Metrocity and work together to defeat the robot and Syndrome, saving the city from being destroyed.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Saucer Contry
Comic Book Resources has an article about the television potential of the DC Comics' Vertigo series Saucer Country, which is about a Governor running for President when she is apparently abducted by aliens, and the implications as everyone as they try to figure out what's going on. The series started in March 2012 and has so far released 8 issues.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Wonder Woman! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
There's a new documentary in the works called "Wonder Woman! The Untold Story of American Superheroines" which talks about the history of Wonder Woman and the parallels of the feminist movement, and you can watch the trailer below.
Friday, November 23, 2012
President Wonder Woman
I've told you about the times Superman, Captain America and Batman were President, but how about the time Wonder Woman was President? And she did it in 1943 in her 7th issue, long before the others. The flip side of it is that it's a vision of the future, the year 3000, when women rule the world after the creation of the "Life Vitamin" that grants eternal youth. I'm not sure what to take from that. Did the writer and Wonder Woman creator, William Moulton Marston, think that there could never be equality, only one sex dominating the other? Did he also think that women wouldn't achieve any such gains for a thousand years? Given that the issue also features an electronic dictation machine that makes your hands auto-type on a typewriter, numerous ridiculous outfits and prisoners find copious amounts of rope and chain in an abandoned dungeon in the prison, I'd say this issue is full of the typical craziness that was in comics at the time, and I haven't even gotten to some of the crazier stuff.
That's only half the comic. The other half has a brief story about Joan of Arc (which isn't bad if over simplified), a story of a 3700 President Diana going on a diplomatic mission to Primal Island, which turns out to be kidnapping and enslaving girls, so she takes over the island with an army of women equipped with rings that squirt muscle relaxant on to people when you punch them, and finally a story about Wonder Woman teaching a little girl the importance of kindness by fighting a giant octopus. If you think I'm making these up, you can read the issue, along with the rest of the first 8 Wonder Woman Comics, here at Old Comics World.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Comic Book Commentary and Anti-Bully Superheroes
Urban Times has an interesting article about how graphic novels have been used for social and political commentary over the years, which can be read here.
Some children in New York won an Anti-Bullying contests featuring a child superhero called Super Nice Guy explaining why bullying is wrong to two bullies, which you can watch below. You can read more about the contest and the contestants here.
Some children in New York won an Anti-Bullying contests featuring a child superhero called Super Nice Guy explaining why bullying is wrong to two bullies, which you can watch below. You can read more about the contest and the contestants here.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Superhero Cars, Possitive Role Models, and the Dangers of Torture Techniques
DC and Kia teamed up gives some cars custom paint jobs based on DC superheroes like Batman, Flash and Green Lantern to help promote the We Can Be Heroes charity. You can read more about the cars here.The Sequart Research & Literacy Organization has an interesting article about the importance of superheroes as positive role models for children and the effects it has on their mindset, which can be read here.
And finally we have another comic from Wonderella detailing the dangers of torture techniques.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Superheroes Run and Deal with the Law
High Point, North Carolina recently held a Superhero 10k run, where participants were encouraged to dress up as superheroes.You can read more about it and see the full gallery here.
Unleash The Fanboy has a review of the new book "The Law of Superheroes", put together by the same folks behind the website Law and the Multiverse, where the lawyers/authors explore legal issues that might arise for superheroes.
Phoenix Jones recently defended himself against a racist aggressor who threatened to follow Jones home unless he fought him, to which Jones finally agreed after trying to convince the man otherwise and trying to leave, and quickly knocks the man out. The whole thing was recorded by one of Jones' associates, and is apparently completely legal under Washington State's "Mutual Combat Law" since both parties agreed. You can read more about the incident here and here, and an official statement from the police detailing the Mutual Combat Law here.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Superhero 411: Green Lantern Kyle Rayner
Real name: Kyle Rayner
First Appearance: Green Lantern v3 #48 (1994, DC Comics)
Creators: Ron Marz (writer) and Darryl Banks (artist)
Creators: Ron Marz (writer) and Darryl Banks (artist)
Operates in: All over the Universe
Kyle Rayner was a struggling-but-gifted freelance graphic artist
who lived and worked in Los Angeles. After the first human Green Lantern Hal Jordan,
grief-stricken over the destruction of his home town of Coast City,
went on a mad rampage killing various members of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force,
and their overseers, the Guardians of the Universe, Rayner was found by
the last surviving Guardian, Ganthet. Ganthet gives Kyle the last
working Green Lantern power ring, a device that would allow him to conjure any
form of matter or energy through sheer force of will.
While Kyle only had a passing knowledge of the Green Lanterns before, he soon found the ring allowed him the ultimate expression of his fertile imagination
and create just about anything his artist mind could think of,
including futuristic weapons, mechas, and even other superheroes, making
Kyle an unpredictable and formidable opponent.
Initially Kyle took his new powers lightly, and his girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt encouraged him to be more responsible, helping him create a new uniform and train to be a superhero. However, she was soon brutally murder and stuffed into a refrigerator for Kyle to discover by a supervillain. The guilt of the incident drove Kyle to take his role more seriously and strive to be the best Green Lantern he could. Kyle, feeling he needed a fresh start, moved to New York City. Not long after Kyle was invited to join the Justice League, and while at first clashing with some members who didn't feel he could measure up to his predecessors, he earned their respect with his friendly personality, hard work and willingness to learn. He also begins a relationship with the superhero Jade.While Kyle only had a passing knowledge of the Green Lanterns before, he soon found the ring allowed him the ultimate expression of his fertile imagination
and create just about anything his artist mind could think of,
including futuristic weapons, mechas, and even other superheroes, making
Kyle an unpredictable and formidable opponent.
For a brief period of time Kyle achieved near godhood after absorbing left over energy from a previous event, and could now bend time, space and reality allowing him to do things like be in many places at once. The drawback of this was that Kyle could no longer sleep or separate himself from the overwhelming responsibilities of these new powers. Kyle decided to abandon his omnipotence rather than sacrifice his humanity, and used the power to recharge the Green Lantern Corps' Central Power Battery, helping to create a new group of Guardians and restarting the Green Lantern Corps. Kyle changes his uniform to reflect his new maturity. However, following all this, Kyle has several crisises of self about his place in world and the danger he puts his loved ones in, and repeatedly goes on lengthy self-imposed exiles into space. After one of these exiles his girlfriend Jade broke up with him, and during a later exile he finds the body of Hal Jordan and discovers the true reason for Jordan's rampage: he had been possessed by the alien parasitic entity Parallax, who was the non-corporeal embodiment of fear. Subsequently Kyle was given special status amongst the Guardians as the "Torch-Bearer", the Green Lantern who carried their legacy through the Corps' darkest period.
When Jade dies during an intergalactic war she transfer her power to Kyle, catalyzing a re-transformation into Ion. Kyle is subsequently put through a series of tests by outside forces eventually revealed to be the Guardians, done to test whether he could handle his new powers in anticipation of their granting him an honored position as their Torchbearer now that he could revive the Corps again if it is destroyed for a second time, and instead of patrolling a sector like normal Green Lanterns, he would assist other Lanterns in situations they could not handle alone. Kyle also discovers he is now being targeted by outside forces and is being impersonated by a supervillian who has been going on a rampage. After clearing his name Kyle learned his mother was dying of an unknown cause, and after being delayed by an inter-dimensional conflict, he returns to Earth to find his mother has died. Using his powers to reanimate his mother, she declines resurrection and asks to be allowed to die, which the grief-stricken Kyle grants as they have a tearful farewell.
Soon after the supervillain Sinestro abducts Kyle and reveals that he had killed Kyle's mother in a plot to break Kyle's will so he could serve as Parallax's new host, and that Ion is actually a a benevolent energy entry similar to Parallax that thrives on willpower and Kyle is its unknowing host. Kyle's power is then drained and is immediately taken over by Parallax, which turns the hair on top of his head gray. Parallax soon captures the other human Green Lanterns and tortures them with visions of fear as he takes them back to Sinestro. The entire Green Lantern Corps is eventually called to rescue the captured Lanterns and defeat Parallax, but Parallax murders a Lantern and crushes his power ring in the ensuing fight. He is prevented from murdering another by the intervention of other Lanterns and the Ion entity before escaping and proceeds to lead an attack on Earth. It is soon revealed that Kyle has been trapped within his own mind the entire time, locked within his childhood home, helplessly watching as Parallax went on his rampage. Kyle attempts to fight back but is unable to, and Parallax begins taunting him with his greatest fear, failing the people who depend on him, especially the women in his life, many of whom have come to harm because of their association with him and are the causes of Kyle struggles with guilt and responsibility, and that this was what allowed Parallax to possess him. Enraged, Kyle is able to summon a pencil and stab Parallax in the eye, but the creature is unfazed and continues to taunt Kyle before disappearing. In anger he is about to smash a painting before noticing his mother's signature on it, realizing she had painted it years ago. This unexpected and deep connection with his mother gives Kyle hope, and with renewed faith in himself, walks into the painting, finding himself in a field walking towards a bright green star.Meanwhile Parallax is confronted by Hal Jordan, but is defeated and absorbed, strengthening Parallax, while another Lantern retrieves the actual painting from Kyle's mother's house, remembering how Kyle had spoke of it previously. When Parallax is shown the painting which visibly affects his demeanor, while Kyle and Jordan are able to defeat Parallax within Kyle's mind, freeing the two from his grip. The now-separated Parallax is quickly entrapped by four Lantern Power Batteries, and Kyle is reinstated as a normal Green Lantern. He and Jordan quickly defeat Sinestro, stopping his invasion of Earth.
Afterwards Kyle is assigned to mentor the new host for Ion, Sodam Yat, and begins a romantic relationship with fellow Lantern Soranik Natu. However this relationship is revealed to be in violation of one of the Guardians new rules: No relationships between Green Lanterns.
During the rising conflict between the Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps, Kyle was sent back to Earth after trying to disway the Guardians from executing the Sinestro Corps members, but quickly traveled to the living planet and Green Lantern Oa, encountering a swarm of black rings that were reanimated the deceased Lanterns in Oa's crypts, bringing Kyle face to face with the reanimated Jade. Kyle quickly learns that these Black Lanterns are not truly the deceased person but grotesque mockeries of them. Kyle tries to destroy the false Jade, but she torments him with images of people he has failed until she is destroyed by Natu. The Black Lanterns begin attacking the Central Power Battery on Oa and breach a power lantern. Anticipating its detonation, Kyle professes his love for Natu and sacrifices himself by taking it to a crowd of Black Lanterns as it exploded. The Black rings attempt to reanimate Kyle, but are destroyedby the Corps, Munk of the Indigo Tribe, and Miri Riam of the Star Sapphires,
whose power embodies love. Having sensed the love between Kyle and
Soranik in jeopardy, Miri uses her power to connect Kyle's heart to
Natu's, and restores him to life. They then journey to Earth, where the Black Lanterns have been focusing their attack, where Kyle encounters a Black Lantern Alexandra DeWitt before helping defeat the Black Lantern Corps leader, Nekron, and in the process restoring to life some of the Black Lanterns, including Jade. Kyle later reveals that when Miri restored him to life and showed him his true. love he saw Jade and not Natu. An angry Natu breaks up with him, telling him not to come near her again. Kyle returns to Earth and resumes his normal superheroing before getting involved in the latest galactic crisis.
Because of the way in which Kyle's girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt was murdered led Gail Simone to coin the phrase "Women in Refrigerators" and subsequently drew attention to the disproportionately number of female characters who had been injured, killed, or depowered as a plot device within various superhero comic books.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Russian Politician's Biographical Comic and Deadpool vs Zombie Presidents
A.V. Club has an in-depth article about Deadpool's new comic where he fights zombie presidents, which can be read here.
ComicBooked.com has an intersting editorial on Election Politics in the Entertainment Industry, which can be read here.
The East Valley Tribune has an article about a political encounter with Todd McFarlane and the similarities between superheroes and politicians, which can be read here.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Italian Politians are Wannabe Superheroes, Batman makes Kids Eat Healthier and Other Blips
An Italian political party that's holding primary elections to determine a new leader on November 25th has released a photo depicting the five candidates as the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, photoshopping a poster from the 2007 film "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer". The photo quickly lead to Italian Media reporting the site had been hacked before being revealed to have been created by the party. The image is still up on the party's website as of this writing.
A recent study by The Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University has found that children will make healthier food choices when asked which choice Batman would make, and that the effect works on everyone when their favorite idol was used. You can read more about the study in this article from the Huffington Post, and the study itself here.
Seattle's most famous real-life superhero Phoenix Jones has created an officially organized superhero team for the city, including monthly dues and a health plan. You can read a more about it in an interview with Phoenix Jones in this article from NPR.
Film Equals has an interesting run down of their favorite women from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which can be read here.
And finally we have some more videos from MelodySheep, whose videos I just like.
Friday, November 16, 2012
A History of Female Superheroes
From the beginning of superhero comic book history, women were usually delegated to supporting roles, and were usually portrayed as either career women, romance-story heroines, or comedic teenagers.
This all began to change in the 1940s, as part of the growing women's empowerment of the time. The first known female superhero is Fantomah, a jungle woman with super natural powers, who debuted in Fiction House's Jungle Comics #2 on February 1940, made minor minor appearances in a few comic before disappearing, eventually lapsed into public domain and has since made several appearances in modern comics with the rediscovery of her first female superhero status, most recently in Hack/Slash. 1940 saw the arrival of several female superheros, including the original Black Widow, the first costume superheroine, Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, the first comic strip superheroine, and Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the first superheroine to headline a comic book. Femme fatales started becoming common archetypes. Wonder Woman, the most famous superheroine, soon made her debut in All Star Comics #8, published January 1942 and is frequently used as a feminist symbol, usually in a positive fashion.
Things changed in the 1950s with the implementation of the Comics Code, which placed certain restrictions on things like the portrayal of women in comics, like DC's In-house Editorial Policy of "The inclusion of females in stories is specifically discouraged. Women, when used in plot structure, should be secondary in importance, and should be drawn realistically, without exaggeration of feminine physical qualities". This resulted in women being relegated to supporting roles for some time, but writers began pushing against this by creating or reintroducing superheroine versions of popular superheroes, like Supergirl, Batwoman and Batgirl.
As the 50s changed into the 60s and second-wave feminism started, superheroines became more predominate, becoming equal (albeit gradually and often outnumbered) members of superteams, such as The Fantastic Four's Invisible Girl's developing the additional ability to generate force fields and transitioning from a damsel in distress to a confident second in command before changing her name to Invisible Woman and the increase in more prominent women on the X-Men. While at first often the "token female member", eventually they stated becoming the leaders of superteams, such as Storm becoming the leader of the X-Men. 1975 saw the reintroduction of the X-Men to the public after a five year hiatus, with the regular series Uncanny X-Men being written by Chris Claremont, whose 16 year run as the book's writer, in addition to other comics, was lauded for things like the creation of several strong female characters, including Shadowcat, and Mystique, and growing existing superheroines like Storm and Jean Grey. Claremont's depiction of smart, powerful, capable and multifaceted superheroines is credited for reinvigorated the portrayal of women in comic.
Feminism became a recurring subject in comic books, both positive, like the feminist solidarity symbol Ms. Marvel with her women's magazine editor day job and tagline "This Female Fights Back!", and negative, like the feminist "parody" supervillian Man-Killer. Superheroines saw a significant increase in their own titles, with some comic books like Spider-Girl becoming major sellers. The 90s saw an increase in more sexually open (and sexually explicit) comics as LGTB issues became story topics and underground and alternative comics grew in popularity with characters like Tank Girl. The rise of the internet allowed people to come together and re-examine past comics, and sites like Women in Refrigerators, which collected incidents of discrimination against women in comics and seek to analyze why these plot devices are used disproportionately on female characters, were created and incidents of women being portrayed as sexual objects are quickly reported and derided, such as the Mary Jane Laundry Statue or the recent Sexpot Starfire Controversy. Because of the attention these kinds of incidents have gathered depictions of women as stereotypes, sexual objects and victims of brutality has decreased in recent years.
Given that the audience for superhero comic books was primarily male until recently, female characters were designed to be targeted towards the male demographic. Despite the number of female superheroes created few have had significant stand alone success. It has long been debated if the perceived lack of female readership was due to male writers being uncomfortable or unable to write for or about women or if they are afraid that trying to appeal to women will lose them male interest. Some have said that women in general have a lack of interest in comics, but the rising number of women artists and writers, especially outside the superhero genre, suggests that's not the case. Whatever the reason, the growing trend of empowered and realistically portrayed women and superheroines is a positive sign for the industry, even if there are occasions where people in the industry lapse into misogynistic mindsets.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Wonder Woman Cover Girl and Other Blips
Wonder Woman is making an appearance on the cover of the 40th Anniversary Issue of Ms. Magazine in a cover similar to its first issue published in 1972 which also featured the superheroine, which you can read more about here.
Barack Obama will be making his first appearance as a second term president in a comic in Spawn #225, which we had previously mentioned would have a different story based upon who won the election. The issue will be released on November 21st, and you can read more about it here.
A new version of the Watchmen film has been released blending the "Ultimate Cut" with the original graphic novel. Director Zack Snyder has given an interview about the new version, the politics of Watchmen and the new Superman film he's directing, which you can read here.
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