Roundup of all the Superhuman Feats (and More) of 2012

18 Predictions for the Year 2013 from Science Fiction Stories

io9 has rounded up a collection of predictions for 2013 from science fiction stories, including several comics like the Legion of Super-Heroes' Design Aesthetic Wars. The full article can be read here.

Group Collecting Superhero Capes for Sandy Hook Survivors

A middle school student from Connecticut and her mom want the survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting to know the devastating actions of one person haven't taken their strength from them. Allison Anderson, 13, and her mother, Camie Mollica, have started collecting "superhero" capes for the survivors of the shooting to recognize the bravery so many showed on that day. The Andersons coordinated with Northwest Catholic School in West Hartford to organize Capes for Kids, an organization that hopes to give all 525 students at Sandy Hook a cape. "They need to know that the world thinks they are all superheroes... and every superhero needs a cape," a statement reads on the group's Facebook page. The full article can be read here.

Police Plan to use Internet to Find and Stop Mass Shooters

The New York Police Department is examining ways to use the Internet to identify potential "deranged" gunmen before they cause devastating attacks. The full article can be read here.

Teens React to Newtown School Shooting

City votes Mayor "Supervillian of Year"

Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto, Canada, has been voted "Supervillain of 2012" in a poll conducted by news site Torontoist.com, and one of his biggest opponents in City Council was voted "Superhero of 2012". Ford has been significantly criticized in recent months for a wide range of issues including several driving altercations, attempts to buy city property, regularly leaving meetings to oversee a highschool football team, firing the city's popular public transit manager for telling Ford that his plans would be too expensive for the city's budget, cutting funding to youth outreach and anti-gang programs, and regularly insulting minorities, LGTB activists and anyone else who disagreed with him. He has recently been found guilty of breaking Conflict of Intrest laws and been ordered to vacant his position, although he has been granted a stay until his appeal is heard in January. The full article on what won Ford a vote he probably didn't want can be read here.

Chinese State TV Uses Clips from Anime to Criticize Japan

 State-run Chinese Central Television (CCTV) used clips from the 2002 anime film Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street in a piece criticizing what it described as Japan's move toward right-wing conservatism and political nepotism. The piece covered Sunday's national election in Japan and focused on how 75 of the 480 winners are progeny of previous generations of politicians, including Shinzo Abe, the presumptive next prime minister from the winning center-right Liberal Democratic Party. The clip used shows the character Shiho "Ai Haibara" Miyano looking at a ballroom full of children of Japan's politicians with disdain, saying that this lineage is "what led to a corrupted future. […] It's because of this politics of inheritance which led to human beings repeating its mistakes in history." After the piece CCTV aired an uncensored version of James McTeigue's live-action film adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta comic book series, and both moves have led to speculation about ideological shifts in both the station’s output and also the ruling administration headed by the newly-installed Chinese Communist Party general secretary, Xi Jinping. The piece can be viewed (in Chinese) here, and move can be read here.

Concept Art Shows how Weird Fouth Live Action TMNT Movie Could Be

Recently released concept art for the fourth live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shows just how weird some of the ideas for the film were, including a new fifth "extreme" turtle called Kirby, after legendary artist Jack Kirby. The full collection of concept art can be seen here.

Superheroines Showoff Their Formal Wear

Artist Hanie Mohd, whom you may have heard of last year when her series of superheroines in sweaters from last year, has started a new series of superheroines in formal wear. Both series can be viewed here.

All the Batman Logos on One Poster

Artist Cathryn Lavery has created a poster collecting all the Batman logos used since Batman's conception in 1940. The poster can be order and other batman related artwork can be seen here.

Superheroes get house Banners

Several superheroes, among other heroes and protagonists, have been given Game of Thrones style House banners courtesy of artist Lokiable. The full collection can be seen here.

An Extensive History of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Feminism

California State University student  Marina Hollon has published a thesis on the history of Wonder Woman and Supergirl and their objectification. From the thesis summary,

"This study argues that comic book publishers, editors, writers, artists, and fans imposed multiple limitations on Wonder Woman’s and Supergirl’s powers and independence. Although Wonder Woman and Supergirl embodied significant liberated characteristics: superpowers, independent lifestyles, higher education, white-collar careers, and financial independence, they were most limited by advertisements aimed at males and were also portrayed as unintelligent women, disempowered, and objectified. 
This study compares 242 of Wonder Woman’s and Supergirl’s comics from 1959 to 1984. The plots, images, and letter pages were analyzed in the context of Second Wave Feminism and the Cold War era. This study indicates a change over time from the superheroines’ portrayals of liberation to sexual objectification and the editor’s, writer’s, artist’s construction and fans’ reception of the women’s movement in comic book culture. The present study enhances existing scholarship in the fields of Women’s Studies, Media and Popular Culture Studies, and Sociology challenging popular cultural images of empowered superheroines. Although this study may seem of concern to only a small group of scholars and comic book fans, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about why gender inequity continues to exist. My original contribution shows how the influences of fans’ letters in Wonder Woman and Supergirl and the editors’ responses to the fans’ requests limited the superheroines’ liberated powers and behaviors by encouraging a sexualized style of superheroine art." 

The full 163 page thesis can be read here.

4Chan Made Kim Jong Un Time Readers’ Person of the Year

4Chan has manipulated Time's 2012 Man of the Year Reader Vote to make Kim Jong Un the winner, among other things. More about the incident can be read here.

US Spy Agency Predict Transhuman Future by 2030

io9 has a summary of a much anticipated forecasting report from the US National Intelligence Council that has just been released, which predicts the major trends and technological developments expected in the next 20 years. Among the predicted trends are the decrease in the power of Superpower Nations, the increase influence of individuals on the masses, and the dawn of transhumanism and everyday cyborgs. The full article can be read here.

Resurgence of Kid Oriented Comics

New Statesman has an article about the recent resurgence of kid oriented comics, which can be read here.

The Past and Future of Software Patents

Political Comic about Rabbis Backtracking

New Voices has an article about an incident involving some Rabbis trying to support mutual understanding with Palestine only to be forced to retract their statements, and the political comic that further drew attention to the incident, which can be read here.

State Legislator's Comic Book Shop

The North Haven Register has an article about a comic book shop owned by a Connecticut State Legislator, which can be read here.

Psychologist Creates Asperger's Comic Book

A psychologist has created a comic book about a superhero child with Asperger's in an effort to help explain Asperger's to children and create a character that children with Asperger's could relate to. The full article can be read here.

Ethnocrunching in Comics

Bleeding Cool has an editorial about the lack of diversity in the comics industry and the problems that some people have breaking into the industry, which can be read here.

Superheroes and Faith

The Jesuit Post has an interesting article about the impact superheroes can have on faith and the imagery superheroes pull from faith, which can be read here.

3 Extreme Climate Fixes

Can Money Buy Happiness

Science and Gun Violence

A Deadpool and Boba Fett Christmas

Don't Make Killers Sound like Anti-Heroes

A psychiatrists and Charlie Brooker's perspective on news coverage's perpetuation of mass shootings in schools. The full version of this program is currently viewable in the UK via BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jf3hx/Newswipe_Episode_1/

Pacific Rim Trailer

The first trailer for Guillermo del Toro's new giant monsters verses giant robots film Pacific Rim has been released, which can be viewed below. io9 also has a scene by scene breakdown for the trailer, which can be scene here.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Concept Art Collection

io9 has amassed a collection of concept art from the first six Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies, aka Marvel Studio's Phase One. The whole collection can be viewed here.

Conan O'Brien interviews Statistician Nate Silver

Conan O'Brien has done an interview with Statistician Nate Silver where they talk about the 2012 Presidential Election, Statistics, the changing role of media and Nate's accurate prediction of the election results.

New Man of Steel Trailer Released

Warner Brothers has released a new trailer for the upcoming Superman film, ``Man of Steel``, which received over 1 million view on YouTube in its first 10 hours, which you can watch below, and see a shot-for-shot breakdown here.

Alan Moore’s Essay for the Activist Occupy Comics Anthology

Wired has an exclusive excerpt for Alan Moore`s extensive essay, titled “Buster Brown at the Barricades”, for the new Occupy Comics anthology, which is slated for release in spring 2013. You can read the excerpt, as well as more information about the anthology, here.

Japanese Superhero goes from Fighting Villains to Promoting Tourism

Jangara, the local superhero of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, has had to switch from fighting costumed villains to the fear that the area is unsafe to visit after the earthquake and tsunami disaster that triggered meltdowns at the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March last year.
The Jangara character was first introduced in autumn 2010 amid a nationwide boom for community-based superhero characters, but his show was stopped after the disaster, officials saying the character was "suffering" from a few injuries in the catastrophe, before restarting this October.

Jangara's costume reflects the traditional Jangara Nenbutsu Odori (Jangara Buddhist prayer-chanting dance), a set of long "tasuki" sashes trail from his shoulders, and his mask was inspired by the head of a coelacanth, a fish that was long thought extinct, from the city's Aquamarine Fukushima aquarium. His emblem is a stylized い, the first hiragana character for Iwaki (いわき市) to let people know where he`s from.
Jangara appears at local events for children to confront the masked villains, Deresuke (a sloppy person in the dialect of Iwaki) and Horosuke (a fool), and discipline them, and since his comeback has appeared on television and around Japan to promote not just his original mission to deliver "dreams and courage" to people, but also to "spread the word that Iwaki is a vibrant and fun place".
"The worst enemy now is Fuhyo (negative reputation)," Jangara says, "It will likely be a long battle, but I won't lose."
You can read more about Jangara here,

io9's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Holiday Specials

io9 has a round up of some of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy holiday specials, which includes entries from Batman, Superman and The Tick, among other superheroes. The full list can be read here.

Syrian Rebels Built their own Tank from Scratch

In a move reminiscent of the X-Men superhero Forge, Syrian Rebels have turned an old car chassis into a tank with a mounted machine gun turret, which you can read more about here.

Iran Launches State Sponsered Version of YouTube

Iran has launched its own video-sharing website to replace YouTube, which has been censored in Iran since 2009. Called 'Mehr', meaning affection in Farsi, the site aims to attract Persian speaking users and promote Iranian culture, although functionality is said to be limited and the site is heavily monitored by the Iranian government.
The move comes as Iran has been increasing its attempts to prevent its citizens from accessing several foreign websites, claiming they undermine their Islamic regime. Iran has come under criticism over these actions, as other countries accuse Iran of trying to implement an "electronic curtain" and cut its citizens off from the world. Iran is currently working on a walled off national intranet cut off from the worldwide Internet, that they say will be "clean of un-Islamic content". You can read more about it here.

Australian Prime Minister Pooks Fun at Mayan Doomsday Predictions

The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has recorded a tongue-in-cheek video for Australia's Triple J radio warning Australians about impending doom from things like zombies and K-pop. The full video can be seen below.

Norman Rockwell Batman and Superheroines Nouveau

Artist Mark Dos Santos has created a series of illustrations that blend Norman Rockwell and Batman that he's calling the Gotham Evening Post. You can check out the full series, along side other superhero and science fiction artwork, on his site and even order prints of them if you like.

And if you want to see some heroines in an Art Nouveau style, check out Kishokahime's Heroines Nouveau series.

Superhero 411: Tigra

Today we're featuring one of the superheroes on the American Superhero Team, and delve deeper into their history. In this article, we'll be looking at the furriest superhero on the list, Tigra. Warning! Some Spoilers Ahead!


Tigra

Real name: Greer Grant-Nelson
First Appearance:As The Cat: Claws of the Cat #1 (1972), as Tigra: Giant-Size Creature #1 (1974)

Creators: The Cat: Roy Thomas (writer-editor), Linda Fite (writer), and Marie Severin (artist), Tigra: Tony Isabella (writer), Don Perlin (artist)

Occupation: Professional Superhero
Religion: "Mystically empowered"

Operates in: All over America

Greer Grant was a native of Chicago, and when she was a sophomore at the University of Chicago, she met her future husband, a policeman named Bill Nelson, and dropped out to marry him. While their marriage was strong, her husband was soon killed in a shooting, and she had to take a job as an assistant to a former professor, Dr. Tumulo, who was working on an experimental treatment to make people physically enhanced to peak performance. Not trusting the project's financial backer, Greer convinces the professor to preform the experiment on her, where she gains superhuman physical and mental capabilities. After the backer has the lab destroyed in an attempt to keep the experiment under his control, Greer sets out to expose the backer while wearing a costume designed to further enhance her abilities, but he commits suicide rather than be apprehended, and all the equipment is destroyed in a fire started by the fight.
Greer takes the codename The Cat and begins a career as a superhero, later encountering a community of advanced sorcerer scientist cat people who had been hiding in society, which includes Tumulo. Unfortunately the community is discovered by HYDRA, and while Greer managed to drive them off, she was mortally injured in the fight. Tumulo summoned a gathering of Cat people and offer Greer a chance to survive, let the Cat people to transform her into their legendary warrior Tigra. She accepts, and becomes a super-powered human-animal hybrid, with razor-sharp claws, superhuman senses and strength. She has since effectively abandoned her previous life as Greer Grant and The Cat, with the Cat identity and costume being taken up by Hellcat, and fully become Tigra. She's had many adventures with numerous heroes, including Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four, later becoming a members of the Avengers, where she saved the world on a few occasions, including single handedly stopping Molecule Man and convincing him to seek help from a therapist.
Tigra later left the Avengers after an encounter with Ghost Rider deeply affected her, and moved to San Francisco where she started a detective business with the then depowered Jessica Drew. The two forged a strong friendship and made a very effective team, so much so that they were going to make it permanent when Tigra was approached by The Vision to become a founding member of the Avengers' new west coast-based team, which she accepted. During her time with the team Tigra felt increasingly dominated by the cat side of her personality, which came to a head when a long banished colony of cat people summon her and the West Coast Avengers, offering to help her if she kills a longtime foe of the cat people. She accepts, but is unable to carry out the deed at the critical moment, refusing the violate the Avengers' code of not killing. The colony strips her of the "Tigra soul" granting her powers, which reverts her back to her human self, and is imprisoned with the rest of the team. Hellcat, who had been with the group when they were abducted, gives Grant back the Cat supersuit, which again enhance her still present superhuman abilities. The group then attempts to escape, and during the fight the colony king decides to release the "Tigra Soul" back into Grant in the hopes it will turn her into a loyal cat person that would turn on her team mates, but the tactic fails as her supersuit enhances her human side and allows for the two sides to fully merge, making her much stronger, faster and more feline than before and completely in control of herself. The cat people instantly recognized her as the true legendary warrior Tigra and stopped their hostility instantly. The full merger saw a change in her personality, as she now freely indulged her natural feline inclinations without feeling guilty or self-conscious. Most notably she changed her mind about killing, stating that it was sometimes necessary, eventually leaving the Avengers for a time and joined with Mockingbird and Moon Knight.
When she returned to the team she underwent another transformation in a more beastly and feral form, completely losing her human intellect and becoming a danger to those around her. In order to contain her she was shrunk smaller than a housecat and put in a cage while her teammates looked for a cure, but she escaped and lived as a wild animal in the suburbs for awhile until rescued and restored by associate of the West Coast Avengers and noted witch Agatha Harkness, and rejoined the West Coast Avengers. During a mission in Japan Tigra was badly stabbed in the abdomen by some supervillians, and using one of the Avengers' Quinjets to escape she passed out from blood loss and crash landed in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal territory in northern Australia. The Aboriginals rescued her and helped her back to health, and she decided to stay there for a while, enjoying the pleasures of the area and naming a replacement for the West Coast Avengers. Soon after however, the West Coast Avengers disbanded, and Tigra resumed her wide-ranging adventures before finding herself as a member of the New York City police force and occasionally aiding in Avenger operations when called upon, which later leads her to join the space fairing Avengers Infinity team briefly before returning to Earth, where she was instrumental in saving the planet after alien underestimated her abilities.
During the Civil War storyline she supported the superhero registration act and became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. to help enforce it, eventually infiltrating those opposed to it as a mole, but their own mole quickly outed her to those in charge and she was used to feed disinformation to the pro-registration forces. After the war she was made a founding instructor at Camp Hammond, the training compound for the Fifty State Initiative, and resumed her romantic relationship with fellow superhero Hank Pym, whom she had had a brief relationship with when they were both members of the West Coast Avengers, unaware that he had recently been kidnapped and replaced by a Skrull imposter. Tigra served in the Initiative as a senior staff member of the central organization, and was the leader of the Arkansas Initiative team "The Battalion".
Later she was shot and severely beaten by the supervillian Hood in her home in retaliation for having beaten a member of his fledgling super-criminal organization. The Hood and his gang later reappeared in her apartment demanding to know the location of the new Avengers headquarters, and intentionally misled them into an ambush, where she personally took down the Hood.
When Norman Osborn took over the Initiative she learned of the Hood role as Osborn's right hand man and resolves to out the two for their wrong doings.
After the Skrull invasion reveals Hank Pym, among others, as having been replaced, Tigra discovers that she is pregnant and believes the father to be Hank, although she is unsure if it was the real Hank or the imposter, and becomes conflicted about terminate the pregnancy, regardless of the father's identity. When Norman Osborn learns of her pregnancy, he tells her that he is going to take the baby for genetic testing in the hopes of creating an anti-Skrull bio weapon, as well as make the Hood chief operating officer of the Initiative. Tigra quickly escapes along side fellow hero Gauntlet and co-founds the Avengers Resistance, hoping to restore honor to the team's traditions, and acting as the de facto leader. Outlaws under Osborn reign, the team start going after members of the Hood's gang, savagely attacking and beating them. After Norman is brought down, the Hood depowered and the two taken into custody, Tigra confronts him in a jail cell and tells him that she's comfortable with the idea of killing him, the sight of his child outside convinces her that a life in prison or on the run would be far worse punishment, as he'd never be able to get close to his child again, and killing him would jeopardize her own future with her child.
As Tony Stark's administration begins taking over and rebuilding the Initiative, she gives birth to a healthy cat person kitten, the gestation period having been only two months due to the feline physiology. She names her son William, after her late husband. Tigra vows to not only restore the good name of the Avengers, corrupted in the hands of Osborn, but to also make the world a safer place for her child to grow up in.
With the dismantling of Osborn's criminal empire and the repeal of the Superhuman Registration Act, Steve Rogers is named America's head of a new national security team. Tigra is among the 25 heroes he personally invites to join him in creating a new heroic age, and she serves as part of the founding faculty of Avengers Academy, training a new generation of heroes in the traditions of the world's elite superhero team, along side other heroes, including the real Hank Pym. Here she learns that while the Pym she met at the Initiative was a Skrull impostor, he had copied Pym down to the genetic level, making William half-human, not half-Skrull, making Pym the genetic father. Tigra asks Hank to take care of William in the event anything happens to her.
When a former associate of the Hood plans to release a commercial video of Tigra's beating, she arranges to have the footage broadcast live in its entirety during a live interview, so that her experience may serve as an example to other trauma survivors and inspire them to seek help, and announces the foundation of several "Always an Avenger" centers to provide support to veterans, children, spouses and other trauma victims. Several members of the Avengers Academy react to news by tracking down the unpowered on the run Hood, attacking him and releasing video of the attack on the internet, rather than simply taking him into custody. Tigra becomes furious at them for their unheroic actions and refusal to take the situation serious, and so expels all those involved, although after talking with the rest of the faculty staff they are instead put on probation.

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 9

This weekend we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. This is the final part, and I hope you have enjoyed the articles.

• This manga-inspired Greenpeace video borrows from Hunger Games to get its point across
• “The Black Marble”: A New Satellite View of the Earth That Will Leave You In Awe
• Asterix: The Great Unsung Fantasy Hero 
• China gets set to grow veggies on Mars — and plant the communist flag 
• Never-seen Dark Knight concept art reveals the terrifying origins of the Joker’s Clown Gang 
• Practice your silent ninja skills with the Franssen Effect audio illusion
• USA orders a World War 2 alien drama from Walking Dead producer
• Why US Air Corps servicemen were allowed to wear such badass bomber jackets in WWII
• After extensive mathematical modeling, scientist declares “Earth is F**ked”
• A Simple Chart That Explains Why Batman Would Have a Short Career
• One of the earliest victories in the war on science

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 8

Today we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• Is this the Justice League’s big, bad villain?
• Man of Steel poster imprisons Superman in handcuffs and lens flare
• What would it take to be Bane? A Dark Knight Rises infographic
• Japan’s new ‘communications robot’ will prevent astronauts from getting lonely in space — by being absolutely adorable
• How to make your voice sound like Darth Vader
• The sci-fi inspired buildings that communism built
• At first glance, The CW’s Wonder Woman show seems to be getting back to Diana’s roots
• Remember that time Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra teamed up to do a PSA for NASA?
• Your First Look at the Animated Remake of the Soviet Union’s Most Monty Python-esque Movie
• The Top 10 Claims Made by Creationists to Counter Scientific Theories

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 7

Today we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• A world map of average life expectancy by country. How does your nation rank?
• Harry Houdini’s incredible book about home science experiments — free online!
• Mapping Nobel Prizes and Notable Laureates
• Christopher Nolan originally approached Heath Ledger to play Bruce Wayne
• Here’s Stan Lee’s latest sad superhero-based project
• These creatures live in a lake that’s been sealed beneath ice for 2,800 years
• Why we all secretly want the apocalypse to happen
• Watch Dan Harmon’s surprisingly inspirational keynote speech on the death of television
• Name that pair of Superhero underwear
• Science Fiction Under Totalitarian Regimes, Part 2: Tsarist and Soviet Russia
• No, the North Korean government did not claim it found evidence of unicorns
• The Hostess Fruit Pie ad Sandman and the Endless never made
• Serbian village council issues warning that a vampire may be on the loose
• The original Batmobile is going on sale January 19th
• DeLorean taxi takes you to your appointment across town and half an hour ago
• Find out when your house will be overtaken by rising seas

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 6

Today we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• You can now watch the 1940s Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons online
• Cosplaying gentlemen assemble in skimpy versions of male superhero costumes
• Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system to monitor women’s movements 
• How NASA might build its very first warp drive
• 19 science fiction movies that could change your life
• The Autobots thwart Megatron’s diabolical lunch plans in adorable new Kre-O Transformers short
• Why Smug Atheists Should Read More Science Fiction 
• College application fees are a barrier to getting an education 
• A Robot That You Can Train to Do Almost Anything
• Cosplayers go wild at Bangalore’s first-ever Comic Con
• A robot overlord’s most dangerous quality is not necessarily malevolence
• SpaceX founder unveils plan to send 80,000 people to Mars
• Terry Gilliam’s newest future dystopia is surprisingly colorful
• Captain Planet returns to kill off the rest of Earth’s human population
• The Ghostbusters finally get gender balanced

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 5

Today we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• A children’s anime series with rainbow-colored, gut-wrenching lessons in ethical philosophy
• How modern technologies made the fighting in Gaza even worse
• Pulp Science Fiction Under German Totalitarianism
• Here’s China’s impossible plan to build the world’s tallest building in a mere 90 days
• The 1965 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was fucking terrifying
• The Time Mormons Baptized Adolf Hitler and Vlad the Impaler
• The emerging science of ‘collective intelligence’ — and the rise of the global brain
• 5 Historical Myths About Real Scientific Discoveries
• Which Bond villain’s scheme had the greatest chance of financial success?

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 4

This weekend we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• Gift Guide: Graphic Novels That Even Non-Comics Fans Will Love to Read 
• Retro travel posters for the world’s top cryptozoological hot spots
• The 10 Books You Absolutely Must Read to Understand the History of Earth
• Humans can survive the harsh conditions found on Mars, scientists say
• “Heroes of Science” action figures are light on “action,” heavy on the “heroes” 
• Why Marvel’s upcoming “Age of Ultron” may actually be the event that changes everything 
• 21 Pictures that Sum Up the Whole History of Science Fiction
• Hitler’s forgotten attempt to build the world’s largest Olympic stadium
• The extremely tentative but potentially triumphant return of Rom: Spaceknight 
• Marvel’s Cinematic Universe Mega-Set returns — and a new Thor alternate ending! 
• Here are the most futuristic European cities that never existed
• Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution?

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 3

Today we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com.

• Watch the first trailer for the Alan Moore-scripted movie Jimmy’s End 
• Remembering Neft Dashlari, Stalin’s utopian ocean city made from oil and steel
• Einstein’s brain was definitely not like the others, scientists say
• When does an animal count as a person?
• The Women of Marvel as James Bond Cover Girls 
• Infamous TV pitch Gotham High gets fake trailer
• Despite his own mental illness, Nikola Tesla advocated eugenics for the year 2100
• SNL reveals what happens when Hawkeye runs out of arrows 
• Roger Ebert Recounts That One Time His Misogynistic Editor Asked Him to Stop Reviewing Movies with Strong Female Leads 
• How materials scientists are about to change the very fabric of the world
• The world’s most beautiful gardens are miracles of geoengineering

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 2

This weekend we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• Thousands of Australian students are taught that Robots led the Russian Revolution
• This is the most accurate American election map we’ve seen yet
• A first: An electric car has been awarded Motor Trend’s top prize
• 20 Essential Books About the Next Step in Human Evolution
• An Open Letter to the President: US physics education is crap. Let’s fix it.
• Could this immortal hydra polyp inspire advanced rejuvenation therapies for humans?
• The Weirdest Monuments Of The Communist Era That Are Still Standing 
• Which species stand to benefit the most from global warming? 
• What are the worst pseudoscientific myths you ever learned from pop culture? 
• Iron Man concept art shows Tony Stark’s gadgets that we never saw 
• You could own the original sketch that transformed Jack Nicholson into the Joker!
• Could there be life in Earth’s Stratosphere?

io9 Roundup of Superhero, Political and Futurist Articles, Part 1

This weekend we've got a roundup of recent, relevant, and few just really cool, articles from the science, science fiction and fantasy blog io9.com. Stay tuned for all the parts.

• The weirdest political messages in the history of comics (Probably the best article of the list)
• 12 Facepalm Moments When U.S. Politicians Talked About Science and Technology
• Science Fiction’s Presidents Of The 21st Century 
• Who destroyed the White House best? (Includes both historical and fictional examples)
• Lavie Tidhar’s Osama wins World Fantasy Award
• Environmental Laws: A Defense Against Zombies?
• Alternate history maps of the 2012 US presidential election
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt probably didn’t have polio after all
• Do science fiction writers have “expertise” on future developments in science? 
• Futurist Magazine unveils its predictions for 2013 and beyond
• Are satellite orbits being compromised by global warming?
• What happens to women denied abortions? This is the first scientific study to find out.
• Are humans getting dumber?
• The U.S. will become energy independent by 2035 — but at what cost?

Gizmodo and io9 Roundup

Today we've got a roundup of some political and comic related articles from Gizmodo.com and sister site io9.com.

• Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Appear in Upcoming Issue of Superman
• 5 Amazing Real Life Facts About Superman from Neil DeGrasse Tyson
• NOVA does show on William Marsten, creator of Wonder Woman and the Polygraph Test
• Who defaced Mount Rushmore best? Featuring mostly superhero examples
• What if the Justice League defended the Ottoman Empire?
• 9 Reasons to Elect a Supervillain President with examples of supervillain presidents
• 9 Incredibly Nice Animals Who Ran for Public Office
• There's an Official White House Petition that Wants the US to Build a Death Star
• Evolutionary Anthropology Shows Ayn Rand's Theories Fail
• Could DNA Hacking Be Used to Wipe Out World Leaders?
• Man in a Red Skull mask robs a bank, is foiled by Jewish vigilantes

Spawn, The Comedian and Politics

USA Today has an interview with Brian Azzarello, the writer of Before Watchman: The Comedian, about the comic's involvement with 1960s politics, which can be read here.

And Todd McFarlane has given an interview over at Comic Book Resources about Spawn's turn towards politics with the recent "Obama/Romney Wins!" story and what it means for the future of Spawn, which can be read here.

Infamous Dictators Reimagined as Anime Ladies

From Japan, a new book featuring biographies of 40 dictators was recently released, with the twist that it includes illustrations of the dictators drawn by famous Japanese artists as women, in an anime style, with several done in the "cute girl" moé sub-style.
(At right, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, & Omar al-Bashir)
While turning things into anime-style characters has been popular lately, the book, Nyotai ka!! Sekai no Dokusaisha Retsuden (にょたいか！！世界の独裁者列伝 or loosely, "In Female Form?! Biographies of World Dictators"), has been criticized by some for "trivializing" the dictators with the depictions, although some have said that some of the images, like the one of Pol Pot at right, can make the dictator appear more frightening. More information and a gallery of some of the images can be found at Kotaku.com.
If you want to see anime-styled personifications of the nations of the world, check out the Hetalia series.
And if you wanted to know which dictator has been responsible for the most deaths, you can check this infographic from popten.net.

The Hawkeye Initiative

In the history of mocking the ridiculous poses female superheroes are put in, none has gained the attention The Hawkeye Initiative has. It started when the artist known as Blue posted an image switching the poses of Hawkeye and Black Widow (at right). Following the positive response to the image, Blue and fellow artist Noelle Stevenson (also known as Gingerhaze and creator of the fabulous webcomic Nimona) issued a public challenge: fix those "Strong Female Character" poses by replacing them with Hawkeye doing the same thing, and a Tumblr was created. Despite being only a few days old the Tumblr now has over a hundred Hawkeye images and thousands of comments, with the artists often having a bit fun like adding sparkles or making Hawkeye mug for the camera, like in the images below.

Superhero 411: Big Bertha

Today we're featuring one of the superheroes on the American Superhero Team, and delve deeper into their history. In this article, we'll be looking at probably the heaviest superhero on the list (when she wants to be), Big Bertha. Warning! Some Spoilers Ahead!


Big Bertha

Real name: Ashley Crawford
First Appearance: West Coast Avengers v2 #46 (1989, Marvel Comics)

Creator: John Byrne (writer, artist)

Occupation: Fashion model
Religion: Unknown

Operates in: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

When Mr. Immortal put out an advertisement for superheroes to join his new team the Great Lakes Avengers, Ashley Crawford was among the few applicants. With her ability to manipulate her body size and mass giving her super-strength and endurance when she enlarges, she was a huge asset to the team, and used the codename Big Bertha. When not superheroing, Ashley worked as fashion model, where her powers allowed her to manipulated her body into a picturesque figure, making her the most famous model Wisconsin. She received many offers for more glamorous opportunities, but declined them all, choosing to stay in Milwaukee with the team that she had grown to consider family, and eventually becoming team's primary financial backer.

While the Great Lake Avengers have frequently been the butt of jokes, they have proven themselves time and time again to be capable, if some what odd, superheroes, and have managed to earn the respect of most of the superhero community.