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Teri Stoddard Fathers4Justice Activists Atop Crane In Ohio 2008-09-27 Donald Tenn is a man of conviction. Since the day I met him, one thing, and one thing alone has guided his every move. Tenn is a Daddy who misses and worries about his daughter Madison every moment of every day. Madison and Tenn are victims of Madison’s mother Shannon and the disaster called the family court system. Shannon illegally abducted Madison from California to Illinois. When she learned the law would make her return Madison, she immediately filed false allegations of domestic violence against Tenn. As I described here and...

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Captain Euro saving the world with his diplomacy and polygot powers!

Who would have guessed that the latest Batman movie would have a conservative point of view?

The Rage Offstage at Marvel By BILL ALPERT Lawsuits against Marvel, Lee and Bill and Hillary are pressing Paul's claims that a dot-com he started with Stan Lee in 1998 was undone by the actions of the former president, short-sellers and Stan Lee himself. In a Manhattan federal district court, some of Paul's associates argue that the bankrupt dot-com, Stan Lee Media, still owns rights to Marvel characters like Spider-Man and The X-Men. On behalf of the former dot-com, they want half the profits that Marvel (ticker: MVL) is piling up, now that it's producing its own films like the...

DC Comics has just announced that it's sending its characters into the most terrifying parallel universe yet: the American political system. At a comic-con last week, the publisher's executive editor talked about its upcoming "DC Decisions" series, in which members of the DC universe will declare their partisan affiliations. "Everyone’s talking politics; it’s an elections year, and we’re going to try to see how the characters of our universe react to that," he said, which I think means that his writers have completely run out of material. So now that superheroes are going to start meddling in domestic politics, which...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Buoyed by the blockbuster success of "Iron Man" over the weekend, Marvel Studios on Monday announced plans for a string of superhero properties, including an "Iron Man" sequel set for April 2010. "Iron Man 2" will be followed in June 2010 by the big-screen adaptation of another of Marvel's popular comic book characters, "Thor," the mighty, hammer-wielding hero based on the Nordic god of the same name, the company said. "Captain America" and "The Avengers" are next in line for the summer of 2011. The nearly $99 million opening weekend of "Iron Man," Marvel's first fully...

At first sight, Iron Man, which hits theatres today, appears to be just another superhero movie. His gimmick? He's a modern day Sir Lancelot in high-tech armour that brings him enormous powers, ideal for slaying the villainous dragons of the comic-book universe. But there's much more depth to the Iron Man character than first meets the eye. In fact, he may be the superhero best fitted for the post 9/11 era -- a politically contentious hero for politically contentious times. In a new book, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, by Andy Mangels, comic artist Jorge Lucas is quoted describing Iron...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wonder Woman, King Kong and Shrek are heading for the Persian Gulf as part of the rush to build what could become the world's largest theme park playground. But even as the ink dries on the billion-dollar deals in the United Arab Emirates, movie studios are grappling with ways to make their signature characters and amusement parks fly in the conservative Muslim region. Politically sensitive characters such as Captain America could be left at home. Prayer rooms will join the list of accommodations, and menus will likely feature falafel and humus alongside pizza and hot dogs....

With so many superhero movies around, such as Spiderman or Hulk, we are used to see people with special abilities in fiction. But people with amazing abilities actually do exist in real life; here's a list of 10 of the most amazing of these people!

WASHINGTON – Endowed with superhuman strength, yet looking different as day and night, the Amazing Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk will stand shoulder-to-shoulder as the Postal Service launches its latest set of super hero stamps. The 20-stamp set premieres Thursday at Comic-Con, the comic book and pop culture show in San Diego. The 41-cent stamps honor the creations of Marvel Comics, and also include Sub-Mariner, The Thing, Captain America, the Silver Surfer, the Spider-Woman, the Invincible Iron Man, Elektra and Wolverine. In addition, 10 of the stamps highlight covers of comic books featuring the characters. Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man,...

Hi guys, I was just wondering if anybody had seen Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I saw it this weekend and I liked it a lot. The movie vastly improved on the original and included some terrific adventure. The film is very humorous by showing the squabbling relationships among the four heroes without diverting from the mythic atmosphere and storyline. The Silver Surfer is a wonderful character, though I wish that they showed more of him. The final battle with Doctor Doom is awesome. The film took many elements from some of the classic storylines in the comic...

(CBS) NEW YORK -- Like many who become superheroes, Nestor Rodriguez's transformation is rooted in loss: His father, a civil rights activist and New York City councilman, is murdered in front of him. Yet unlike other superheroes who gain their powers through the bite of a radioactive spider or through birth on an alien planet, Rodriguez is changed through an Afro-Caribbean religious ceremony. The unusual twist is thanks to Marvel Entertainment Inc. editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who in his seven-year tenure has shown an ability to push forward comic book tradition by encouraging controversial changes to characters and taking risks on...

Superheroes With a Muslim Message - 99 Islamic Superheroes Find Success on Newsstands Alongside Batman, Superman By REBECCA LEE May 16, 2007 — Watch out, Captain America. Step aside, Superman. There's a new breed of crime fighting superheroes looking to capture the comic book scene, with 99 characters from around the world with one trait in common amid their superpower strengths -- they are rooted in Islam. "Islam is not mentioned directly in these comics, but the back story is very much based on Islamic tradition and culture," said Kuwaiti psychologist Naif al Mutawa, who teamed up with cartoon giant...

UFO: Unidentified Funny Object For the offbeat quirky types ... and who at Free Republic isn't offbeat and quirky? ... this is a feast.

I have commented that there is an undercurrent of anti-Western self-loathing permeating parts of our popular culture and our news media. There is. But there are also some other trends worth studying. I watched the movie Superman Returns recently. I knew it had received some criticism in advance. Rather than Superman’s traditional motto “truth, justice and the American way,” his mission had now been transformed to “truth, justice and all that stuff" by scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris. “The world has changed. The world is a different place,” Harris said. “The truth is he’s an alien. He was sent...

(English-language translation) “Holy God!”, my grandmother would have said if she were still alive, if she spoke English, and if she would have read the [film] review of “Superman Returns” written by Richard Corliss titled “The Gospel of Superman” that appears in the June 26 issue of “Time”. We read that Bryan Singer’s version emphasizes the superhero’s divinity and elaborates: “He is not a super man; he is a god (named Kal-El), sent by his heavenly father (Jor-El) to protect Earth. That is a mission that takes more than muscles; it requires sacrifice, perhaps of his own life. So he...

First there were the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now, for many Christian moviegoers comes another gospel. As the hype machine shifts into high gear for new release Superman Returns, some are reading deeply into the film whose hero returns from a deathlike absence to play saviour to the world. "It is so on the nose that anyone who has not caught on that Superman is a Christ figure, you think, 'Who else could it be referring to?"' said Steve Skelton, who wrote a book examining parallels between Superman and Christ. As one of society's most enduring pop-culture...

STUDIOS love magazine stories that breathlessly hype their summer popcorn movies, so you would think that Warner Bros. might have been happy with Alonso Duralde's cover story about "Superman Returns," which gushed, "Superheroes — let's face it — are totally hot." There was a twist: Duralde's "Superman Returns" story was not in Entertainment Weekly or Newsweek or Premiere. It ran in the May 23 issue of the Advocate, the prominent national gay magazine, next to the headline: "How Gay Is Superman?" Man of Steel has been missing from the movies for 19 years, and now that he's scheduled to fly...

POW! (How far should I go to protect my rights?) BAM! (What's my position on gay marriage?) ZING! (Look out for that embedded reporter!) In today's comic books, superheroes aren't just thinking about how to defeat the usual kryptonite-wielding villains. They're also tackling topics such as terrorism, war, and civil liberties as a heavy dose of 21st-century reality seeps into their alternate universe. In Civil War, a sprawling new Marvel series, superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America must choose sides over whether the government should be allowed to register them. In a comic book called Ex Machina, a 9/11 hero-turned-mayor...

UP, UP AND OY VEY!: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero Release Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Publisher: Leviathan Press ISBN: 1-881927-32-6 Format: Paperback "Up, Up, and Oy Vey chronicles how Jewish history, culture, & values helped shape the early years of the comic book industry."The early comic book creators were almost all Jewish, and as children of immigrants, they spent their lives trying to escape the second-class mentality which was forced on them by the outside world. Their fight for truth, justice, and the American Way is portrayed by the superheroes they created. The...

Marvel Studios has hired Jon Favreau to develop and direct the big-screen adaptation of "Iron Man" and has attracted an impressive roster of writers to help bring some of its high-profile characters such as Captain America and Thor to the big screen. Favreau will direct a feature version of Marvel's armored hero and develop the script with the writing team of Arthur Marcum and Matt Holloway ("Convoy"). The project originally was set up at New Line with Nick Cassavetes directing. In the comic, Iron Man's real identity is that of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, who develops an armored suit that...

The Battle Outside Raging, Superheroes Dive In By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES Published: February 20, 2006 Embedded reporters on the front lines of war. The search for weapons of mass destruction. An attack on civil liberties. Sounds like a job for ... Spider-Man? America's current real-world political issues will wind themselves into the lives of the heroes of Marvel Comics in "Civil War," a seven-issue limited monthly series set to begin in May. In the series, the beliefs of many well-known Marvel characters, including Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Spider-Man, will be challenged. Marvel will also publish a...

HUDSON FALLS -- Banana Boy is supposed to be a superhero. But his powers couldn't get him out of a trip to the village police station Thursday afternoon. An actor playing the part of a mythical superhero by the name of Banana Boy was arrested Thursday along with two of his friends after police came upon what appeared to be a fight in a Main Street parking lot. They came under police scrutiny because they were acting out a fight in which one of the actors, Luke Van Scoy, 17, of South Glens Falls, accosted a man wearing a large...

Official announcement came today that the comic book publisher that put “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” on the map will get a nod from the US Post Office next year, when DC Comics characters get their own postage stamps, this according to a USPS release listing the various stamp designs coming in 2006. “Our 2006 program commemorates a wide range of diverse American icons with something that will appeal to everyone,'' Postmaster General John E. Potter said in announcing the planned designs. One touch of reality though – the new stamps of 2006 will cost 39 cents, as the...

From Superman to Ant-Man, comic book heroes can be used to explain some of physics' basic principles -- and make the learning fun. Honest. OK, physics-phobes, here's a test. When the Green Goblin knocks Peter Parker's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, off a towering bridge in New York City, she dies even though Spider-Man catches her in his web just before she plunges into the river. Did the fall or the webbing kill her? As big questions in physics go, it's not quite up there with string theory and high-temperature superconductivity. But Jim Kakalios, a University of Minnesota physics professor, knows it's...

Thursday, October 20, 2005 By Don Kaplan PHOTOS Click image to enlarge Rally your undersea friends! Aquaman (search), the world's most misunderstood superhero, is suddenly a big fish in Hollywood. As the King of Atlantis, Aquaman's superpowers add up to having the ability to talk to marine life, breath underwater, swim really fast and wear a scaly orange and green costume. Thursday night, he pays a visit to young Clark Kent on the WB's "Smallville" (search) and has been at the heart of this season's edition of HBO's "Entourage." (search) Also, like most of the DC comic book characters, he...

CAIRO -- Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in the Middle East. "I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skintight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops. Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her own to fight the forces of evil. There are also Aya the Princess of Darkness, Zein...

Move over Superman, the Arab super heros are here! Fri Sep 23, 1:24 PM ET CAIRO (AFP) - Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in the Middle East. "I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skin-tight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops. Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her...

it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in West Asia. "I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skin-tight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops. Also see: Sify Offbeat special Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her own to fight the forces of evil. There are also Aya the Princess of Darkness,...

CAIRO (AFP) - Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in the Middle East. "I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skin-tight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops. Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her own to fight the forces of evil. There are also Aya the Princess of Darkness,...

I saw Batman Begins this week, and somewhere along the way I realized that all Superheroes are American. I mean the ones with supernatural powers that fight the bad guys. It's one of our "landmarks" the way the Eiffel Tower is one of their landmarks.

Today, Warner Bros. Pictures unveiled the first image from the highly anticipated action adventure Superman Returns, starring newcomer Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel. Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him...

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of comic book movies. I say, "No Mas." The ugly far outnumber the good. For every "X2," there's an "Elektra." For every "Spider-man," there's a "Tank Girl." For every "Superman," there's a "Superman III." Enough already. While I've always wanted to see my favorite comic heroes on the big screen, I've come to the realization that superheroes are fine just where they are - on the page. After all, not only do comics succeed visually like films do, but they succeed as prose. Moreover, I think it's high time we put the...

Marvel Comics and Manifest Destiny Spider-Man is going to India. Just how universal are America's most cherished comic-book ideals? by David Adesnik 01/28/2005 12:00:00 AM ONLY SUPERHEROES have superpowers. But are superpowers the only ones who have superheroes? Let me explain: In the six and a half decades since the birth of the superhero comic-book genre, a disproportionate number of super-powered men and women have--surprise, surprise--turned out to be American citizens. Most were born in the United States. Others, such as Superman, were aliens (illegal, presumably, given the immigration restrictions in place when he arrived in 1938) who decided to...

February 15, 2005 COMMENTARY It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's the Fading Future of Comics By Gerard Jones, Gerard Jones is the author of "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book" (Basic Books, 2004). A federal judge ruled last week that Marvel Comics owes millions of dollars to its longtime writer, Stan Lee, in unpaid profits from movies based on the characters he created: Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk. Lee's lawsuit had sent a modest shock wave through the comics community — not because a comic book publisher scammed one...

Every twenty years or so, we don the mask. The author on a uniquely American phenomenon.He's a fairly ordinary, middle-class fellow who doesn't act as though he wields near-godlike power. But he's nearly unstoppable, capable of besting any imaginable enemy, and yet he seems perfectly content with his lovely wife, three kids, and a nice house in the suburbs. Or…almost content, anyway. Despite the edicts of self-righteous lawyers, carping media twits, and nitpicking politicians, he patrols the bad alleys of his city, looking for the kind of trouble that only he can stop. Oh, he's been accused of being the...

Paris - Spiderman, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil have bounded across the Atlantic in a single leap - a giant donation of almost 300 000 vintage comic books to a French museum. Jean-Pierre Mercier, who manages the collection for France's National Centre for Comic Books and Images, said he was "flabbergasted" when he learned in March that Marvel Enterprises wanted to donate the huge quantity of comic books dating back as far as the 1950s. The gift, from one of the top US comic publishers, was made through Gifts in Kind, a US charity that distributes donated items....

We'be had Superman, Batman, Spider Man, and now we're ready to cycle back to Superman again. 4 Superman sequels, 4 Batman sequels, and a 2nd Super Man sequel is coming. Meanwhile, there's been movied based on the X-Men, Men in Black, the Incredible Hulk, Tarzan, Dick Tracy, Daredevil, Teen-Age[d] Mutant Ninja Turtles, Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, The Crow, The Rocketeer, Mystery Men, Richie Rich, The Shadow, Time Cop, Catwoman, Judge Dredd, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Supergirl, Tank Girl, Gost World, Casper the freindly Ghost, Scoobey Doo, Sheena and even Josey and the frickin' Pussycats. Ummm... No Wonder Woman...

Ready to take your fandom to the next level? MTV has opened applications for a new reality show, the premise of which will involve a group of fans who have designed their own super hero characters. Here’s the rub though – the finalists will live together in a house as their hero, and compete against celebrity villains for the grand prize – having their character published in a comic book. According to the production company, a “Legendary Comic Book Creator” As the production company is being mum about further details, it’s unclear if this show is the previously announced teaming...

Superman too super a role model 17:01 19 November 04 Superman is too good a role model. Fans of the man from Krypton unwittingly compare themselves to the superhero, and realise they do not measure up. And as a result, they are less likely to help other people. Researchers made the discovery whilst examining how people’s decision-making can be influenced by surreptitiously placed ideas, usually via seemingly unrelated questionnaires or word puzzles. For example, one study has shown that people primed with helpful words were more likely to help a friend pick up spilt pens. Such effects usually last only...

For decades, kids have enjoyed following the out-of-this-world exploits of comic-book heroes, learning along the way about courage and heroism, and the need for the forces of good to triumph over the nefarious plots of those possessed by evil. Every generation needs to learn their own duty to sacrifice and fight for the good. But lately, ever since the first "Spiderman" live-action movie roared at the box office, fans of the long-lasting Marvel Comics stable of superheroes have been inundated with big, noisy, expensive blockbusters bringing these two-dimensional pen-and-ink heroes to life. Unfortunately, in attempting to dramatize Marvel honcho Stan...

LOS ANGELES - After a couple of false starts, "Superman" is ready to leap to the big screen again with a new director: "The Usual Suspects" filmmaker Bryan Singer. The role of "Superman" himself, however, has not yet been determined. Singer, 38, has already proven adept at comic-book adaptation with "X-Men" and "X2: X-Men United." He said the original Christopher Reeve movie is a favorite. "My interest in 'Superman' dates back many, many years," Singer said in a statement late Sunday. "In fact, it was the (1978) Richard Donner classic film that was my day-to-day inspiration in shaping the 'X-Men'...

LOS ANGELES - Marvel Enterprises Inc., creators of such comic book superheroes as "Spider-Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" is suing The Walt Disney Co. in a royalty dispute over animation programs aired on Disney's ABC Family channel. Marvel is asking for nearly $55 million in compensatory damages, interest and other fees it says it is owed for royalties generated by made-for-television episodes of "Spider-Man," "X-Men" and "The Incredible Hulk." The agreements at issue in the lawsuit, filed late Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, were made before Disney acquired Fox Family Worldwide in 2001. The lawsuit claims Disney has...

A word of background... City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer game where thousands of people congregate together and pretend to be super heros. You can make any kind of hero you wish, the author of this piece had a reaction to a patriotic Captain America style hero that, sadly, is a very real truth about Modern America and one that should scare even the Liberals out there. (End text not in orgininal article) When Captain America throws his mighty shield.... Posted on Thursday, June 24, 2004 Last night, after the day started to wind down I logged into my...

Indian Spiderman to wear sarongFrom correspondents in New Dehli June 21, 2004SPIDERMAN will put on a sarong and fight the bad guys through the rickshaw-clogged streets of Bombay in an Indian version of the US comic classic, according to reports. Peter Parker, the American who becomes a superhero thanks to a spider bite, will be replaced by Pavitr Prabhakar who gets his crime-fighting powers from a Hindu holy man. The Indian Spiderman, whose girlfriend will be not Mary but Maya, will swing across Bombay landmarks such as the Gateway of India monument and the Taj Mahal luxury hotel. Instead of...

Did anyone catch “The Justice League: Starcrossed" last night? Although it had a few too many heavy handed allusions to US occupation of Iraq and the WOT, the writing was top notch and once again they gave a lot of depth to the relationship between Hawk Girl and Green Lantern. In fact the show does a great job of bringing humanity to all the heroes. I won’t give away the ending for those who didn’t see it, but afterwards they showed clips from “The Justice League Unlimited” coming in August. Two quick words RED TORNADO!!!! Good show.

Bad cartoons tend to make bad citizens. And my generation suffered from the worst cartoons of all. Pity the poor male children of Generation X: there we sat, on Saturday mornings in the '70s and early '80s, clutching our bowls of Count Chocula and enduring the soul-sucking monotony of ugly Filmation cartoons populated by heroes who fought without actually fighting. You could watch cartoons for hours and never see a superhero actually sock a supervillain in the gut, or a commando pump hot lead into a live non-robot terrorist, or a ranger thrust a pointy-sharp arrow into some dragon's malevolent...

I thought I would create a harmless post and ask if any of you watch Justice League on the Cartoon Channel? I usually watch it with my grandsons. Last nights episode dealt with the villians using mind control to manipulate the heros feelings towards one another, causing the JL to break up. As usual, as the end, the heroes unite and kick arse. I like a couple things about the episode. At the end, one of the villians goes to punch Batman when Superman appears and stops him. After Batman ties up the villian he begins to say that he...

At-Risk Children’s Drama Group In Jeopardy Children from "Angry Theater" role play to learn how to handle potentially dangerous situations. The program targets youths from violent neighborhoods. By MICHAEL CHANDLER Contributing Writer Friday, October 10, 2003 A single bulb lights up the stairwell in a West Oakland housing project just before two X-Men characters, Magneto and Wolverine, come to life. They battle fiercely, Wolverine struggling to defend himself against Magneto's mutant powers. But before long, Wolverine is backed into a corner, Magneto poised to lunge after him. "Freeze!" yells UC Berkeley senior Katherine Morgan. "Now, de-escalate!" Magneto backs away...