Wordless Wednesday

Man of Steel

 

'Super' House Work

Well, I have been battling it out with home improvement projects for the past two weeks and I have finally achieved a small victory in what seems to be an almost never ending war. So I thought I would get back to posting, but, as fate would have it, I am leaving tomorrow for training in Germany for two weeks. Therefore it will probably be another two weeks until I can get back to business and post all the posts that I have been talking/thinking about. What kind of training you might ask; it is training for ninja skills, secret agent skills, computer hacking skills, (computer hacking skills is almost true but not really) my job as an electrical controls engineer. Basically, I will be learning about all the programs that I have been working with for the past few months in greater detail; it should be loads of fun.
As I was doing all the house work and yard work over the past few weeks I thought about some of the things that I was doing would be a lot easier if I had some super human power. I really wished I had super human strength when I had to pull out the 9 pampas grass stumps in the back yard. With my average human strength I would take a shovel and dig around the base of the stump until I could pry it loose from the ground without braking shovel number 2. At times I felt frustrated and mad enough to let lose in a 'green' rage and pull out the stumps by hand like the Hulk would. Or if I was the Human Touch I would just burn all the stumps to the ground with a flick of a finger. House work would be a lot more fun with super powers.

I think that with all these super hero movies coming out in the near and distant future, one of them should have a scene where some nosy, next door neighbor is peeking over a fence to see some 'super' yard work being done.

 

Spider-Man: The Musical

When I first read that they were going to make Spider-man the Musical I could not believe my eyes, it was one of those one of those rub your eyes and look again moments. I will admit that on occation I attend the musical theater; Peter Parker did it for Mary Jane and I do it for my girl. I saw a 'Spider-man Show' at Universal Studios, it was a 45 minute musical show; unfortunatly I thought it was really cheesey. At first when I heard the music was being written by Bono of U2 I thought that musical might have a chance but then I read one of the chacarter descriptions in the casting call and that thought went right out the window. Here is a direct quote:

[ARACHNE] Female, 20-35 years old, any ethnicity. A beautiful, boastful young woman turned into a spider for her hubris and lack of respect for the gods. She subsequently appears to Peter Parker and the audience as in turn a powerful spider-woman who comes from another time to inspire Peter; an otherworldly lover; a bride; a terrifying (and sexy) dark goddess of vengeance; a dance partner in a charged and violent spiders dance of death; and, finally, a lonely, fragile young woman. Possesses an ethereal, unique, gorgeous singing voice. Strong Celtic, Balkan style, e.g., Sinead O'Connor. Outside the box ideas are welcomed. Could be someone from the music industry.[s]

I don't claim to be a Spider-man expert, but I have no clue what universe they got that story from. If it was up to me and I was doing a brand new thing on Broadway, like bringing super heroes to the musical theater, I would defnitly go for a classic story line.

Would I like to see this show, yes. Do I think it will do well, unfortunatly no. I think it would be great if the show does well, but I think the show has to be pretty spectaular in order to do so.

Let me hear what you have to say about this whole Spider-man the Musical business in the comments.

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Holy Mythbusters Batman

The thing that really inspired to start posting again was the Super Hero episode of Mythbusters (see picture above). I have always liked watching Mythbuster but when I found out that they were going to do a super hero theme episode it instantly got scheduled into the DVR. One of the interesting things about the episode summary says "Hosts put Marvel comic heroes to the test;" but all the 'myths that they tested were base on DC characters, well mainly just Batman. Here is the run down of all the myths they tested:

Myth #1: Grappling Hook
Is it really possible to use a grappling hook to scale a building?
Myth #2: Ring Punch
Can you punch someone hard enough to leave a scar in the shape of that ring?
Myth #3: Batmobile Escape
Can you fire a grappling hook from the side of a car so that it wraps around a structure and pulls the car around a 90-degree turn at speed?

So I have decided to make a little series out of each myth they tested; I have decided to entitle my series

SUPER MYTHS

 

Captain America Lives

I know that I am kind of late in covering this earth shaking news, but I had a crazy busy weekend. I first heard the news that Cap was back from Quit Your Day Job and ComicBookMovie.com. Here is an official statement from Marvel.com:

Steve Rogers, the Sentinel of Liberty, was cut down in a hail of gunfire in March's CAPTAIN AMERICA #25. And whether or not you agree with the decision, he's still dead. But a character as iconic and important as Cap can never truly die. Who better to reimagine Cap for a new age, a new character, a new costume, than Alex Ross? Working closely with Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Tom Brevoort, Captain America makes his return—or debut, if you prefer—in January's CAPTAIN AMERICA #34. [s]

When I heard back in March that Captain America, the man of 'truth liberty and the American way,' was dead I thought to myself 'what are they [the writers] doing ??' When you think of classic Marvel super heroes Captain America is at least in the top five and then they go and kill him off. But as I found out from the reading the rest of the Marvel news article it says that everything was "all very, very planned out, believe it or not." Another interesting point that the writers talked about was that Captain America was old school according to the world of today and with this new Captain America they would have a chance to modernize the character. But ironically the inspiration they used for the new costume was the 1940s movie serial costume design. And to top it all off they gave him a gun; it will be interesting to see if the gun is a way to give the new Cap an iconic look or if it will play a major role in defeating the the villains he will face.
The writers also brought up an insightful point :

"As is typical when you change a classic character around," explains Brevoort, "there are going to be some who'll love it and some who'll loathe it. But it does have the advantage that this isn't Steve Rogers, so what might seem right or wrong for his Captain America won't necessarily hold true in the same way for our new guy." [s]

So, even though there can be a potential for losing fans forever they still went through with it. I think if they wanted to bring the old Cap into the modern era they could have come up with a good transformation story, or another idea I thought of is they could of a made a passing the torch story where the old Cap chooses/trains the new Cap; and no one would have to end up dead. But now we all have to wait and see how it all comes to together in January when CAPTAIN AMERICA #34 comes out.

 

Wordless Wednesday

In honor of the latest Marvel super hero movies coming out.

 

I'm Back

A lot of things have happen since I last posted here on Random Super Heroes. I got new job, moved half way across the country, bought a house, took on all the responsibility of owning a house (yard work, general maintenance and upkeep,....), and started fixing it up; there always seems to be a never ending list of things to do. But most all of the dust has settled and I now have some time to get back to saving the world from total destruc..... posting on this blog. I know in the past I have largely focused on the up coming super hero movies to the point where that was be all I would post about but I want to change that, I want to cover a boarder spectrum of the world of super heroes.
To begin, I am working on post that will be about my origins with super heroes and comic books, going back to where it all began. In the mean time I have found a few super hero related posts and new stories that I will post about until I can get the 'origins' post up.
I'm back like Superman from Krypton.

Check out my new About page.

Technorati tags: Random, Super Heroes

 

I've Seen SPIDER-MAN 3

I saw SPIDER-MAN 3 tonight, I am glad to say that I was part of the opening weekend stats. I thought the movie was great. After watching this movie it is hard for me to say which of the three films was the best, or even which one I like the best, I like them all. I am the type of person that could sit down and watch super hero movies all day everyday. I will say one thing about this movie, in the the other two films you see the Peter Parker's inner struggle, but in the one it's an inner battle. Over all I think it was a great movie, I just wish they had more time to develop the stories surrounding all the characters included in the movie.
I wish I could say more but it say more about it, but the movers show up in two days and there is still a lot of packing to do.

I think Spider-Man 3 is a movie that is definitely worth seeing.

Technorati tags: Marvel, Spider-Man 3, Movies

 

Kryptonite is Real

'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. ' [s]

Dr. Chris Stanley, who found this new mineral, discovered that its chemical composition matches the composition of kryptonite while he was searching for the new mineral's chemical formula on the Internet. (chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide)

"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns," Stanley said. [s]

Unfortunately this new mineral, which is going to be called Jadarite, is not a shinny green crystal, Jadarite is actually a 'white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and is non-radioactive.'

I think that since this new mineral has the same chemical formula as kryptonie that they should call it krytonite. I say who cares if there is some scientific method for naming new things, I bet a lot more people would remember it if they named it krytonite. I know that I am not going to remember to call it 'Jadarite," I'm just going to call it the "real krytonite".
Reading this article got me thinking about how the writes of Superman came up with a chemical formula that matched the formula of a substance that had not been discovered yet. If anyone can shed some light on this subject let me know in the comments.

Technorati tags: Superman, Krytonite, Serbia

 

Dealing with the Real World

Between getting laid off, finding a new job, flying out for interviews, negotiating offers, accepting an offer, flying out for a house hunting trip and having to pack up everything and move half way across the country, I have been a little busy over the past few weeks and thus is the cause behind the "super" neglect of the blog.
I don't start my new job until the 14th of May and there is still a lot to do before then; with having to pack up everything and then the actual moving everything, I am going to be pretty busy. I will try to post when I can, but things should get better and I will have more time to devote to the blog once all the dust has settled.

 

TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The new animated movie TMNT opened this past weekend, and it did so well that at the end of the weekend it was in the number one spot. On opening day the movie grossed $8.7 million according to ShowBIZ Data. It is estimated that the movie had a weekend total of $25.45 million [s], which actual is roughly where the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action movie opened back in 1990 [s]. Although the ninja turtles don't fall under the original category of super heroes that I had in mind when I began this blog, I thought that news like this was note worthy enough to mention.

Technorati tags: TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

Batman Buzz

I just heard some interesting news, a possible spoiler for the upcoming movie The Dark Knight. For those of you that don't want to find out secrets like this until you see the movie I have left it off the main page, although it's pretty minor as far as spoilers go, but if you are like me and want to know as much as you can about the movie before it's released then click the link below:
Here is the direct quote from Ain't It Cool News site:

Both Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan have seen a new Batsuit & there's been a fitting. I told this person how I didn't particularly dig the suit in Batman Begins and said it was too bulky. To this he/she replied, "Well then you'll love the new one." He/she also stated that Bats changes his suit halfway through the film - and its a major plotpoint as to the how and why this happens.
He/she sadly, had no news about the Joker's get up.

I think spoilers like these are great they give just enough to get you on the edge of you seat and then it just leaves you there. It will be interesting to see what the "new suit" looks like, but even more interesting is the plot point that the change revolves around. I am sure that as time goes on the will be more "leaks" about this part of the movie.

Technorati tags: Dark Knight, Batman, movie

 

Super Stamps

Just when I thought that there would be no reason in the world why I would ever need to go to the post office or mail a letter, I find out that the US Postal Service is getting into the Super Hero market. As part of the 2007 Commemorative Stamp Program the US Postal Service is coming out with a Marvel Comics character stamp series.
Characters included are

• Spider-Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Sub-Mariner
• The Thing
• Captain America
• Silver Surfer
• Spider-Woman
• Iron Man
• Elektra
• Wolverine

Also included in the collection with the ten characters are ten covers featuring the characters

• Amazing Spider-Man #1
• Incredible Hulk #1
• Sub-Mariner #1
• Fantastic Four #3
• Captain America #100
• Silver Surfer #1
• Marvel Spotlight #32 (Spider-Woman)
• Iron Man #1
• Daredevil #176 (Elektra)
• X-Men #1

Here's a quote from Geek Speak about the X-men #1 being featured:

About the only curious item is "X-Men" #1. Saunders notes it's the one from 1963. Thing is, we all know Wolverine wasn't in that issue.
Whatever. If you can get a stamp of the first X-Men comic and a stamp of Wolverine, so much the better.

I think is totally awesome that the Post Office is doing this, I just might have to start collecting stamps.

As a bit of old news, last July the Post Office came out with DC Comic stamp commemorative series.

Technorati tags: USPS, Post Office, Stamps, Marvel, Comic

 

DC Comics "Stamp" Out Crime

As a bit of old news and in relation to the next post, in July of last year the US Postal Service came out with 20 DC Comic stamps. Included in this commemorative collection are 10 characters

• Batman
• Wonder Woman
• Plastic Man
• Superman
• Green Lantern
• The Flash
• Aquaman
• Hawkman
• Supergirl
• Green Arrow

Also there are ten covers featuring each character

• Plastic Man #4
• Batman #1
• The Brave And The Bold #36
• Green Lantern #4
• The Flash #111
• Wonder Woman #22 (2nd series)
• Aquaman #5 (of 5)
• The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1
• Superman #11
• Green Arrow #15

The here's a little blurb from the USPS page featuring the stamps:

With these 20 colorful stamps, the U.S. Postal Service honors stars from the world of DC Comics. Ten stamps on this pane show portraits of super heroes; the others show covers of individual comic books devoted to their exploits. Art director Carl T. Herrman worked with the creative staff at DC Comics on the design of this issuance.

The Post Office is also coming out with a Marvel stamp commemorative series.

Technorati tags: USPS, Post Office, Stamps, DC, Comics

 

The Dark Knight Character Lineup

So far the cast includes Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart.

The actors from the previous film are Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordon. Here is the latest news on all the newest cast members.

Now it has been confirmed that Maggie Gyllenhaal is in final talks to star as Rachel Dawes, formerly played by Katie Holmes. It will be interesting to see what she brings to the part and what role her character will play in the up coming film.

In an interview with the London Paper, Christopher Nolan briefly talks about the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, he says

"It's going to be very exciting – we're doing things on a really grand scale this time. And Heath Ledger as the Joker is going to be extraordinary"

I am very excited to see how Heath Ledger portrays his infamous character - The Joker.

The Latest Villain to be added to the cast is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. This is what he said during and interview with MTV

Is Eckhart exclusively Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight"? "Yeah," Eckhart said, before reconsidering after a brief pause, "Well, I'm Harvey Dent ... then I go into Harvey Two-Face." And what of speculation that, in this new installment, it's going to be the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) who scars the eager district attorney? "I think I'll be killed [if I comment on that] — I'm not even sure I can say as much as I have," Eckhart joked as a wicked, Dent-ian smile broke across his face.

It seems like this movie will be pretty actioned packed with all the these characters but there is some speculation on whether Cillian Murphy, aka The Scarecrow, will be returning in this sequal. In an interview with ComingSoon.net Cillian said that he is not a liberty to say whether he is or is not in the sequel, but here's what Coming Soon thinks

ComingSoon.net suggests that both the new Joker and Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face might need the type of psychiatric help that only a trained mad doctor like Dr. Crane could give.

It is still hard to believe that The Dark Knight is scheduled for release July 18, 2008, but I am excited at the possibility to find out more details as they begin filming next month.

Technorati tags: The Dark Knight, Batman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Joker, Aaron Eckhart, Two-Face

 

Captain American is No More

I am the barer of bad news, I read today that Captain America is killed in the latest issue of his namesake comic. Quoting the article:

"It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries."

I don't understand why things like this have to happen, to me the great thing about the super hero world is that since it's an imaginary world those characters within it can potential live forever. I know there are those out there that say comic books can closely relate to the real world, but I say if that was true where are all the real costume wearing heroes running around. There are rumors out there of a "resurrection", but if the writers are going to go through all the trouble to set up Cap. being killed only to later being him back, what's the point. If he was able to survive being frozen in a block of ice back in the 40's and then being discovered by the Avengers as the block began to melt, his ultimate end should have been a little more "heroic" then being a snipers target.
One brighter piece of news about Captain America is that "even if Captain America turns out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel is developing a Captain America movie." I am sure that this new movie will be a whole lot better that the old school Capitan America movie.

Technorati tags: Captain America, comic books

 

Green Archer Misses the Target

It has been a while since I visited myLot (which is one of the reasons that inspired me to create this blog) and I came across a discussion that was asking for your favorite characters from the comic world. The person that started this discuss named his favorite characters as: Green Archer, Wolverine, and Silver Surfer. At first I thought to myself "who is this Green Archer character, I have never heard of him before," and that's because the Green Archer doesn't exist. I think the character that he meant to say was Green Arrow, although he was close keeping with the whole archery theme. Growing up primarily with Marvel comics it took me a while to realize that DC's Green Arrow was the equivalent to Marvel's Hawkeye (one of my favorite characters). I just thought Green Arrow had a bow and basic arrows. I think it would be awesome to have trick shoot challenge between Hawkeye and Green Arrow.

Saving the world one post at a time.

Technorati tags: DC, Green Arrow, Marvel, Hawkeye

 

Shedding Some Light on the Dark Knight

The LA Daily News made a brief mention that the Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight, will begin filming in April; the film is deep in pre-production right now. They asked director Christopher Nolan what his reasons were behind casting Christian Bale (Batman) in three films (Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight), Nolan said "Christian has got a very, very extreme form of intensity that comes across on the screen." I though that was very interesting.

In other Batman news, Maggie Gyllenhaal will be the new leading lady in the Dark Knight, replacing Katie Holmes as the hotshot lawyer. I found this from Lee's blog Quit Your Day Job. Lee talks about if Maggie's character ends up being more of a "damsel in distress" role, just taking up precious screen time what's the point. And I totally agree with him, to me a movie is so much more exciting when the hero is try to save the world from evil domination rather save the girl who happened to get mixed up with the villain. I know that I have talk about this in other posts (particularly with this film), but I still do not under stand why actors refuse to continue playing their role in sequels. To me it's like me going into work for three days a week and then having someone else coming in to finish off the week, life just doesn't work that way and neither should movies. If I had the power the make the decision, I would leave the Katie Holmes character completely out, especially if the character is just going to be some marginal part in the plot. Do it right or don't do it at all, that's what I say.

Technorati tags: Dark Knight, Batman, movie

 

The Incredible Hulk eh?

I found a story on Hollywood North Report site that reported that the Universal/Marvel Entertainment production team "has been scouting studio locations to set up shop in either Toronto or Vancouver." So the new Hulk movie is going Canadian eh? The rest of the article just goes through the background of the Hulk and the other two main characters that have been talk about for this movie "Thunderbolt" Ross and Abomination (aka Emil Blonsky).
I think if the production team does decide on filming in Canada that one of the outtakes should be the Hulk saying "Hulk smash everything eh?"

Update:

Torontonians beware! The Incredible Hulk is coming. The city has been chosen as a principal filming location for the upcoming Marvel Studios production of "The Incredible Hulk." "The Incredible Hulk" is expected to begin shooting this summer for about four months. (source)

Technorati tags: Incredible, Hulk, movie, Marvel, Canada