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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...