Ezra Klein makes the (convincing to me, at least) that American foreign policy should better be expressed as Superman versus Jack Bauer. Though to be honest the foreign policy we’ve got right now bears more resemblance to Lex Luthor.
Archive for the 'Superman' Category
Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman.
A federal judge here on Thursday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to reclaim their share of the U. S. copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner’s international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.
And it reserved for trial questions about how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner’s film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with its “Superman Returns” in 2006, or only from the DC unit’s Superman profits.
Still, the ruling threatened to complicate Warner’s plans to make more films featuring Superman, including another sequel and a planned movie based on the DC Comics’ “Justice League of America,” in which he joins Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes to battle evildoers.
Up, up, and away.
Next month, Superman turns 70.
The intergalactic traveller from the planet Krypton has starred in comic books, TV and radio shows, movies, newspaper strips and video games.
His likeness appears on toys, statues, posters and all types of memorabilia.
But Superman had humble beginnings. In April 1938, the fledgling National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) took a leap of faith and introduced the world to a character unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
On the cover of Action Comics No. 1 was a circus-like strongman in blue tights, lifting a car over his head. The pictures inside the book were just as astonishing, showing a man bouncing bullets off his chest and leaping over buildings.
That comic went on to become iconic, and copies of Action Comics No. 1 sell for more than $500,000 US today.
“When Superman came along, he became one of the seminal characters because it was a radical departure from the norm. It wasn’t a humour thing, he wasn’t a detective. All of a sudden you had this alien Man of Steel who could do anything,” said Richard Olsen, professor emeritus of the University of New Orleans and a rabid comic book fan who regularly contributes articles to the annual comic industry valuation book the Overstreet Price Guide. “People were just captivated by it.”
Still. Forever. Always. (via)
I’m not into motorcycles or anything (I have enough trouble driving a car as is) but if I were, my bike would probably look something like this or this.
Investigations are underway into claims by approximately twenty villagers from Gemeni in Mehedinti county that a figure that looked remarkably like Superman flew above their village for a period of time.
According to local police all the witness statements are consistent. “He looked like Superman and was flying slowly at about 100 yards from the ground in a standing position. He didn’t make any smoke or sound. Just cruising around,” said one witness.
“We talked to people of different ages who are all reliable citizens in our village. They all said they saw this strange creature who flew over their houses in his shiny blue costume. We’ll just have to see what happens next,” said a police officer.
What nefarious plan is Lex Luthor cooking up in Romania? Will Superman stop him in time? Stay tuned.
The secret revealed.
Fight the power.
Kiwis Pat and Sheena Wheaton may be forced to abandon their brave battle with authorities for the God-given right to name their son "4real", but have announced similarly creative backup plan.
If a legal challenge is not mounted, The New Zealand Herald reports the infant will bear the official handle "Superman". According to the loving couple, the boy’s family will still call him "4real".
Superman is such a better name than 4real.
A: TWO Supermen. And one is a clone from the freaking future and stuff. TWO!
The linkage is clear.
If Superman had installed that giant key, none of this intrusion would have happened.
Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it “the Sistine Chapel of crystals,” but Superman could call it home.
A sort of south-of-the-border Fortress of Solitude, Mexico’s Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of the world’s largest known natural crystals—translucent beams of gypsum as long as 36 feet (11 meters).
How did the crystals reach such superheroic proportions?
In the new issue of the journal Geology, García-Ruiz reports that for millennia the crystals thrived in the cave’s extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatures hovered consistently around a steamy 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), and the cave was filled with mineral-rich water that drove the crystals’ growth.
Lex “WRONG!!!!” Luthor will be back. I hope Superman: Man of Steel learns from the mistakes made in the Batman franchise and Spider-Man 3, and doesn’t pile on the villains. Lex vs. Superman is the heart of the character, and they shouldn’t mess with that dynamic.
How did I not come up with this?
Superman fanatics are everywhere.
Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.
A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero’s nemesis Lex Luther to weaken him in the film “Superman Returns.”
“We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn’t want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!,” said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.
Laugh it up, scientist boy, but if Lex Luthor gets his hands on this it will be THE END OF SUPERMAN… FOREVER!
So I went to the comic book store in Silver Spring today (as I write this I am in the Borders in Silver Spring - and here’s the funny thing my choices are paid wifi or free wifi from the city - which do you think everyone is using?) and I have a feeling that the comic book industry is sucking wind. In the last ten years I have severely cut down on my comic book purchases - not because of maturity, I will always be 10 - but because it’s so darned expensive. $2.95 for a comic book buys you a short 24 pages, whereas a magazine would bring you 100 or so pages of content. I also preface my comments by saying my primary interest is in superhero comics. I read other stuff, but frankly most of the time if I want grand introspection on life I’ll read a novel. I read comics to see people who can pick up a bus (That’s also why I’m not wild about Batman and other costumed vigilantes. If you’re dumb enough to run around fighting crime in a ridiculous outfit you should at least be able to pick up a bus, and no smaller than a school bus at that).
That said, today’s comics feel like they have all the life sucked out of them. I don’t know if it’s the popularity of manga or what but so much of the artwork is flat and lifeless. The coloring, now done on computer cannot do the work on its own. While they suffered bad writing at least the comics of the ’90s had sweet art (I’m speaking of the Image era). Furthermore the stories just seem like they’re kind of flailing. Marvel just ended its Civil War thing where they killed off Captain America (he’ll be back) and I saw something where Spider-Man has gone through three different costumes in a two-month period (conveniently going back to the black costume mere months before the movie is released - synergy!).
Things aren’t much better in DC. There’s yet another relaunch of Justice League (I bought it but I’ve seen this story so many damn times), Batman is brooding over something, and in the Superman issues I bought I’m not expecting anything earth shattering and the art is very blah (where the heck did Ed McGuiness go?).
An outgrowth of this was the guy at the comic book store checkout desk. This is the second time I’ve shopped there and I almost think it’s everything screwy with the world of comics. Usually he’s chatting with his other comic book buddies about some movie or story arc and doesn’t say a word to me the entire time. I don’t expect more than a “hi” or “thanks” but don’t even get that. And that’s just it. While comic books are never going to be a mass medium, the advent of the comic book store - as great as that is - seems to have created an amazingly insular world. There were some demerits to writing comic books to be read by children as they mostly were from the ’30s - ’80s, but the upside of that was that comics created a world of wonder. But I feel as if today’s comics are just about making the comic book store guys chuckle and leaving everyone out, yet the box office receipts of the Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men and Superman franchises clearly show there’s an entire universe of people who even a sliver of them would give comics a chance.
But the comics have to be open too, and sadly they are not.
Manga-ized DC Comic heroines makes me hate manga even more. The rise of japanese anime and mange is just something I hate from an artistic standpoint (I understand the subject matter is occasionally better than our productions) where every character looks the damn same.
Superman’s hidden past in porn.
Once Bizarro has made a pact with Alternate-Universe Communist Superman, we have no hope.
And when you’re done fighting crime…
Time enough to save up and buy me a 14 Disk Superman DVD Box Set. You know, for kids.
