Superhero: More Than Just A Word

       The definition of superhero is defined as an extraordinary being with powers or abilities far beyond those of mortal humans, but superheroes represent more then just an apt description reminding us of how insignificant we are. Superheroes inspire us, motivate us and ultimately give us access into another universe full of characters supernatural and/or out of this world (literally). It starts at an early age, or birth if you have parents that dressed you up in a Superman costume at the hospital (do they even make costumes that small) and the appeal lasts a lifetime. What begins mostly as a harmless hobby or overwhelming obsession grows into a "career" of collectables, collections and objects deemed worthless to others, but priceless to its owner. These are comic book fans. Whether one was in the store when the first issue of Action Comics was released, or whether a young child just picked up the latest issue yesterday, comic fans are comic fans and they will never change. 

      It all started with the creation of a character born in the deep reaches of space, the last son of Krypton we've come to know as Superman. The tone darkens a year later when Batman is created. The first two superheroes opened a gateway into another reality, which would soon be inhabited by hundreds of thousands of heroes, villains, supporting cast, cities, galaxies, and tales so suspenseful they make us want more. At the root of it all one would look at a comic book fan and just assume that it's an interest, something to pass the time when we've finished our homework and have no date to the movies, but every fan knows that somewhere down the line we come to think of comics as more then just a piece of fiction, media created just for a few moments of enjoyment, but something real, another world we wish was our own with powers and lives we wish we had, characters we relate to and characters that we come to refer to as people, that we care for and cheer for. 

Smallville: Top 5 Of Season Three

      After the lighter tones of the first two Smallville seasons, season three took a dark turn for most of our main characters. It seemed as though every other episode would have someone facing his or her inner demons or struggling through a surprisingly depressing story. That being said, it still produced great episodes, some of which are considered the best of the series, like these five:

5. Perry

      This episode featured the first appearance of (you guessed it) Perry White. This version of the character, however, is not like any other Perry Whites we’ve encountered in past media. Being recently fired from the Daily Planet and working for a low rated television studio that hunts the bizarre and unexplained, Mr. White becomes an alcoholic and almost hits Clark with his car. Half awake, White witnesses Clark’s display of powers and spends the rest of the episode trying to prove it. Clark however experiences power glitches due to a solar flare on the sun, which lead to some pretty good misuses of his abilities. White is an episode that introduces a new take on a classic character (something Smallville does a lot in the later seasons), includes action and comedy making it a good Smallville episode.

Favorite Moment: Clark struggles to lift a tractor thanks to the flare, then his powers go into overdrive as he accidentally launches the tractor a few miles away, landing right in front of the nosy Mr. White.

4. Exile

       Clark’s rebellious attitude is displayed at its finest in Exile. Having been exposed to red kryptonite for the past 3 months, Clark grows more and more careless. His judgment and well-being for others is compromised making him do unusual things such as rob a bank and even evade the police. This episode is a great representation of the danger Clark poses to the world should he ever lose sight of what’s right and wrong, not to mention this is a rare glimpse at an “evil” Clark; something we only see a handful of times during the show, but it is used perfectly here. We are also given a teaser into Lex’s delusions as he slowly loses his grip on reality.

Favorite Moment: A gang of clown mask-wearing criminals intends to rob a bank (where have I seen this before?) but a red kryptonite wearing Clark plans to take the money for himself and will take down anyone in his way.

Have You Read: Batman Hush

       Hush was a tremendously created, ultimately mesmerizing and original story written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by comic book legend Jim Lee. This story features the majority of Batman’s most popular enemies along with a substantially large cast of supporting allies, ready to help the Caped Crusader unravel the mystery of Hush, and also survive the experience.

     Hush is essentially a series of events pitting Batman against several of his most deadly foes. Each villain has their own individual “evil plan”, which acts as a subplot for the entire series. Hush consists of two volumes, totaling 12 issues. Volume one features guest appearances by Oracle, Huntress and Catwoman along with villains such as Killer Croc and Poison Ivy. The events in the first volume are not as connected as they are in volume two, but there are certain arcs that intertwine, concluding with a showdown between Batman and the Man of Steel (not unlike the classic battle between the two in The Dark Knight Returns).

      Volume two still features slightly separate story arcs based on a particular villain, but mainly focuses on a character named Thomas Elliot, an old childhood friend of Bruce Wayne’s. This is where we get a full look at the new villain called Hush, and with him comes many surprises. Nightwing, Harley Quinn and the Joker are all necessary pieces to the puzzle that is this story and work well to advance the book’s subplots. Much more waits inside the pages of Batman: Hush volumes one and two, but I don’t want to spoil it all now do I?

       Batman: Hush is one of the greatest comic stories ever; compiling everything you could ever want from a story featuring this character. Action, great artwork, great storytelling, mysteries and Batman, what more could you want? If you haven’t read these two volumes I suggest you visit your nearest comic book store and check’em out.

Spider-Man's 50th: Thanks To Stan Lee

        Stan Lee- arguably the most recognizable person in all of comics, for without him we wouldn’t have many classic creations such as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Hulk, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, Spiderman and literally hundreds and hundreds more. Stan Lee (along with the creative team of artists working with him over the years) has created an entire universe of heroes and villains, powers and events and storylines from scratch. Out of all of his many creations, many would consider Spiderman to be his most famous, most popular, most successful and generally his best.

    Stan Lee has stated that during his creation of Spiderman, many thoughts and variables crossed his mind. In wanting to use a new power, normally not seen in previous characters, he gave this character the ability to stick to walls, like an insect. From then on, such names like “Insect-man”, “Mosquito-man” and “Fly-man” initially entered his mind, until he finally cam across Spiderman; a name that had a scary, but heroic ring to it. Stan stated that he owes a lot of credit to a pulp magazine he read when he was younger titled: The Spider, Master of Men. Stan’s publisher at the time insisted that he change the character’s name, and basically the character himself. His reasons for this were: “people hate spiders. You cant name the lead hero after spiders because it wont sell”, along with “the hero cant be a teenager. Teenagers can only be sidekicks.” Lets just say that Stan and the millions of fans are glad he never listened to his publisher’s harsh criticism.

Happy 50th: Spider-Man's Best Movie

      Comic books and television can only do so much to market a superhero. As we have all learned quite recently that to promote anything effectively, make a big budget movie of it. Despite it’s conclusion, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy will go down as the second greatest superhero trilogy of all time (next to TDK of course), and with the Amazing Spiderman being almost as satisfying I cant wait to see the rest of the new installments. Keeping with the trend of this month, being Spiderman’s 50th birthday I’ve chosen what I believe to be, based on facts, common knowledge and overall personal opinion, the best Spiderman movie thus far: Spiderman 2.

      While Spidey 2 is my number one pick, we can’t knock how great the other three have been. Spiderman (along with the first X-Men movie) was really the first great superhero movie and without it we may not have all the Marvel movies we have today. Before the first film, fans could only read motionless panels and watch cartoons to see Spidey’s swinging action, but the first film introduced us to something we all dreamed about since August of 1962, Spiderman on the big screen. Along with great special effects (for it’s time) and an effective cast, the movie set box office records and became an instant classic. I’ll jump ahead to Spiderman 3; while it did not contain the gripping, almost flawless story that it’s predecessors had, the third and final installment of the Raimi films shattered the previous films’ records. Making up for a severely flawed story, a lot of redundant scenes and some poor portrayals of characters, the action and effects were nothing short of spectacular. No one can deny that everyone in the theatre received an excessive amount of chills when Peter woke up, upside down, in the black suit. In short, this movie was not a good movie with great scenes, but a mediocre movie with good scenes. About a month before it’s release I questioned whether The Amazing Spiderman was coming out too soon, too soon for a reboot and after viewing it several times my answer is hell no. Amazing had a stellar cast, more interesting then the original, a cool new Spidey in a “different” suit, and a new villain, never before portrayed in previous films. The story was intoxicating and the special effects were just awesome. I would have believed this was the best Spiderman movie yet, until I glanced at my DVD shelf, shattering my previous belief and making me realize I was very, very wrong.

Happy 50th: Spider-Man's Best Artists

      I'd been trying to collect the correct words to describe why each of the greatest Spiderman artists are, well, great, then it hit me. These are artists, some of the best in both Spiderman and Marvel comics' history so i figured i should let their art work do the talking for them. Please enjoy samples of comic art from legends such as John Romita, Steve Ditko and more.

Steve Ditko started us off as the first Spidey artist,
And he set the bar pretty high too.

John Romita was next in line. If Ditko "created" the look of
Spidey's world, then Romita perfected it, creating
designs that are still referenced today.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past... No, Really

      Whether you read the initial comic books or watched any of the animated series, you have always wanted to see “X-Men: Days of Future Past” on the big screen. Not too long ago Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2 Director… First Class Producer) announced that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will be loosely based on the classic story from the comics, Days of Future Past. Every mutant fanboy has waited to see this classic story come alive in a big budget film since it’s original release in 1981. But I fear we shouldn’t get excited just yet. While there are plenty of reasons to suggest that this comic-to-movie idea will be great, we must consider what is needed in order for this film to be a success.

       First Class brought the mutant franchise back to life after the disappointing “Last Stand” and mediocre “Wolverine” films. It established brand new characters and revamped classic ones like Xavier and Magneto. One thing that Days of Future Past needs to do completely different from its predecessor is stay away from creating a “prequel.” The filmmakers of First Class must think we fans are completely clueless; to attempt to convince us that First Class was a prequel when countless errors were made in regard to that assumption: Alex Summers being born before Scott, Beast being “hairy” then not, and much more.

    Some quick, key elements that should be incorporated in the film include:

-       Sentinels, Sentinels, an army of Sentinels. They are a nearly endless, unstoppable force, worthy of battling the X-Men of the present and the future.

-       We all liked the cast of First Class, so we want to see as many of them return as possible. Also, since the story takes place in the future this is a great time to introduce new characters to the films; classic mutants like Bishop.

-       Trying to replace Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is like replacing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, it can’t be done, so bring him back to the new film as an “older” Wolverine, trying to save the future alongside Bishop.

         The great thing about comic book movies (and what makes the majority of them a treat to watch) is the fact that the creators have years and years of classic characters and stories to examine and recreate. In my opinion, when a superhero film tries to create too much out of nothing it usually doesn’t end too well. First Class was a success due to the many references to the classic comics. This is very important in this case, especially when a very delicate and unique story like Days of Future Past is being used. My impeccable advice to the filmmakers is: try to make it as similar to the comics as you can. I’ll be happy, X-Men fans will be happy and you will be happy knowing you just created yet another successful X-Men film.