From Ink to Screen
A Study of Comics
and Their Movies
1
Movies and Films and Documentaries for Class
The History Channel: A History of Comics
Starz: Comic Books Unbound
Alien – Superman
Superman: The Movie
Superman II
Superman: Doomsday
Superman Returns
Look Up on the Sky: A History of Superman
Rogue/Vigilante – Batman
Batman
Batman Begins
Batman: Year One
Police – Green Lantern
Green Lantern: First Flight
Green Lantern
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Amazon – Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Animated Film
Fool/Innocent – Spiderman
Spiderman I
Spiderman II
Spiderman III
Cowboy – Iron Man
Iron Man I
Iron Man II
Amazon – Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Animated Film
Behemoth/Jekyll and Hyde – Hulk
The Incredible Hulk – Ang Lee
The Hulk
God – Thor
Hulk Vs. Thor
Thor
Patriot – Captain America
The Avengers Movie - Animated
The Avengers II – Animated
Captain America: The First Avenger
2
The History Channel: Superheroes Unmasked
Starz: Comic Books Unbound
Setting a Context: No Art is created in a vacuum.
As you watch the documentary, list anything that you deem relevant for discussion.
Some examples: Dates and Appearances of Superheroes, creators and artists, social
movements when they happened and why, attitudes of society towards comics, historical
events that influenced comics, etc. Hopefully you get the idea, write it out here on this page.
3
Archetype
An original model of a person, an ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied,
modeled, patterned, or emulated; or a symbol universally recognized by all.
We start with the archetypal Alien, Rogue, Police, Amazon, Fool (Innocent), Cowboy, Amazon,
Behemoth/Jekyll and Hyde, God, and Patriot:
Try and define each and then we’ll discuss:
Alien:_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Rogue/Vigilante:________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Police:________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Amazon:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Innocent/Fool:__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Cowboy:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Behemoth/JekyllandHyde:________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
God:__________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Patriot:________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
4
ALIEN
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman Doomsday, Superman Returns, Look Up in the Sky: The Amazing
Story of Superman. Action Comics #1 online: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/actioncomics/cover.html
5
What I Know
What I Want To Know
6
What I Learned
Kill Bill Volume 2
Bill: As you know, I'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about
superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my
favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well drawn. But
the mythology … the mythology is not only great, it's unique.
The Bride: [who still has a dart in her leg] How long does this shit take to go into
effect?!
Bill: About two minutes, just long enough for me to finish my point. Now, a staple of the
superhero mythology is there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually
Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the
morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is
in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman.
Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's
Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket
he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What
Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume
Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what
are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward.
Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race
Story Arc
7
Plotting the Superman Story
Following a story arc, see if you can plot out the entire Superman story following the four movies we watched in class.
Superman: The Movie Main Plot Points
Superman II
Superman Doomsday
Superman Returns
8
Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
In Search of Superman's Inner Jew
By Jeffrey T. Iverson/Paris
The debate has raged for decades: is he Jewish, Methodist, Kryptonian Raoist? But finally, it's
been settled: Superman is definitely... a non-Aryan Protestant. The complex origins of many a
comic book character are deconstructed at the engaging and erudite exhibit, "From Superman to
the Rabbi's Cat" — through Jan. 27 at the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris — which
explores the impact of the Jewish experience on the evolution of the comic strip and graphic
novel.
Comics are serious culture in France, where they were named "the Ninth Art" in 1964 by
historian Claude Beylie. Today, the country hosts the preeminent annual international comic
book festival in the town of Angoulême. And it is in that committed comic-book aficionado spirit
that "From Superman to the Rabbi's Cat" presents some 230 American and European works
dating back to 1890, including the 1940 strip How Superman Would End the War. "I'd like to
land a strictly non-Aryan sock on your jaw," grumbles the Man of Steel as he drags Adolf Hitler
off to be tried for crimes against humanity. For the late comic-book artist Will Eisner, the Jewish
people, faced with the rise of fascism, "needed a hero who could protect us against an almost
invincible force." Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman in 1938 was only the first and — like
Bob Kane's Batman in 1939, Jack Kirby's Captain America in 1940 and many more that
followed — he was created by sons of Jewish immigrants living in New York.
Like their characters, many of these artists took on dual identities, says author and comic book
historian Didier Pasamonik, a consultant on the exhibit: "There was a kind of diffused antiSemitism at the time, and it was better to use a good American commercial name to reach the
wider public." Even as Robert Kahn had become Bob Kane and Jacob Kurtzberg worked as Jack
Kirby, their superheroes reflected some of the identity they were masking, evoking Jewish
concepts such as tikkun olam (repairing the world through social action) and legends such as the
Golem of Prague, the medieval superhero of Jewish folklore who was conjured from clay by a
rabbi to defend his community when it was under threat.
Years later, some comic superheroes would actually be identified as Jews, like Auschwitz
survivor Magneto and — the Golem myth incarnate — Ben Grimm (The Thing) of the Fantastic
Four. But despite the rumors, the Man of Steel is no Supermensch, says Pasamonik. "Superman
is not Jewish," he says. "When Superman gets married it's not at the synagogue!" Pasamonik has
not missed the heavy dose of Jewish culture Siegel and Shuster instilled in their character: baby
Superman's passage through space in a cradle-like vessel and subsequent adoption "is the story
of Moses," he says, adding that El of Superman's given name Kal-El is a Hebrew word for God.
But with a Methodist upbringing and extra-terrestrial origins, Superman, says Pasamonik, is best
described simply as a "non-Aryan" hero.
9
And why not? Non-Aryan describes most of the southern and eastern European and Asian
immigrants that crossed the oceans with the Siegels, Shusters, Kahns and Kurtzbergs in the late
19th and early 20th century. For the Pulitzer-prize- winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, World War
II-era superheroes embodied the American dream shared by the countless foreigners. "It wasn't
Krypton that Superman came from; it was the planet Minsk or Lodz or Vilna or Warsaw," wrote
Feiffer in his essay The Minsk Theory of Krypton. "Superman was the ultimate assimilationist
fantasy."
After World War II, the comic book genre became an unlikely vehicle for civic protest and
consolidation of memory. "The hour of immigrant assimilation gave way to the fight for
minorities and civil rights," explains Pasamonik. Harvey Kurtzman used the medium to tackle
racial segregation, the Cold War and McCarthyism in his satirical MAD magazine. In 1955,
when popular awareness of the Holocaust was scant, Bernard Krigstein and Al Feldstein caused
a shock by revisiting the concentration camps with the seminal graphic story Master Race.
During the '60s and '70s the genre opened up to the banal and biographical, with Pekar and
Crumb's darkly humorous American Splendor and Eisner's landmark graphic novel, A Contract
with God.
"Eisner brought an absolutely revolutionary dimension to the graphic novel, which was to make
it an instrument of memory," says Pasamonik. Finally, with a nod toward Edmond-Franois
Calvo's 1944 La Bte est Morte (The Beast is Dead) — which uses animals to tell the story of
World War II — Art Spiegelman brought the graphic novel worldwide recognition by winning a
Pulitzer prize in 1992 for his Holocaust saga, Maus. Eisner and Spiegelman's heirs now litter the
globe, from Frenchman Joann Sfar (The Rabbi's Cat) to Iranian Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).
"From Superman to the Rabbi's Cat" pays homage to these artists, inviting the viewer to consider
the subtexts at work even in comic books about men in tights.

Find this article at:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1679961,00.html
Copyright © 2010 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without
permission is prohibited.
Insert: Umberto Eco’s Superman Essay
10
From Superman Returns: Lois Lane’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Article
Why The World Doesn’t Need Superman
- By Lois Lane
Metropolis. For five long years the world has stared into the sky, waiting, hoping and
praying for his return. We’ve spent our days asking where he went, debating why he left and
wondered is he even alive. Perhaps he left us for another world, a world in peril, a world in
greater need of a saviour. Is it selfish desire him for ourselves? Are we expected to share
the man we’ve come to love or did we do something wrong?
Did we take him for granted? Perhaps we did. Maybe we all did, it's not our fault. We are far
from super. Yet a mother will accept her children regardless of their misfortunes. Why have
you rejected us for ours? Perhaps we’re a lost cause unworthy of help and doomed to
continue on a path of self-destruction. He has moved on, helping others with a foreseeable
future of peace and harmony.
From the first day he mysteriously appeared we were enamoured. He seemed too good to
be true. A man who could fly, see through walls, bend steel with his bare hands. A man who
never lied. A man who could do anything he wanted to yet he chose to be a hero. He chose
to fight for truth, justice and the American way, And we chose to believe. we put our faith,
not in the hands of God, but in the hands of another Lives were not saved by any kind of
divine intervention, miracle or act of God. they were saved by one man, and one man only,
our Superman. We didn’t question his intentions and other than a few basic facts we didn't
question his unbelievable origins. When did he actually arrive? Where did he live? Where
did he get that suit? It didn't matter. He was good, and good for us and that was enough.
A new generation of children have grown up idolising this hero, proud to wear a cape and
run around the family home. We welcome Superman into our homes and family. He was a
quintessential American. A role model for our children and the guardian of their lives. Does
a hero walk out on his family? Walk away from his children? After letting us place our hopes
on him, his disappearance must be seen nothing short of abandonment. A dereliction of
duty. No better that a parent abandoning a child, a doctor walking out on their patient. We
must ask our selves if Superman returned would we welcome him back? Could he heal the
scars he left behind? The city is in pain, its citizens angry, hurt and unforgiving. We have
learned from our bad judgement, and we are not prepared to make the same mistake again.
It would take more than one man to reunite the people. He is lost our trust, he betrayed us.
He turned his us back on us and walked away. We would have to question his motives for
his return. Why after all this time he would return? From the very beginning we labelled him
as a man. We even used the word it his titled - Superman.
Yet he was not a man. He was not even human. We expected an alien to share the same
feelings, emotions, beliefs and principles. Were the words truth and justice a second
language to him? Perhaps, we were fools to believe he would understand the true meaning
of words such as trust, loyalty or love.
11
What is a hero anyway? Does one has to have superpowers, special abilities or incredible
talent to be a considerable one? Well that's what we’ve been led to believe. Superman led
us to forget our real heroes. What happened to the firemen, policemen, teachers, social
workers or local figure that used to be considered a hero in our communities?
Each and every day of the year, firemen come to the rescue of those in need. They are
brave woman and men who serve communities with courage and uncompromising devotion
to humanity. These people are not just doing their job, they are the heroes who take each
task to heart and each life saved is a victory for their team. Because of their selfless bravery
and heroism, many fire-fighters sacrifice their own lives to save others every day. Their
actions will never been forgotten.
In cities, towns and villages around the world, legions of teachers spend every day
protecting the minds, souls and spirits of children. They commit their lives to the
development of the world’s most precious resource. A child's mind thirsts for knowledge. It
is this knowledge, the knowledge imparted to the youth that has given rise to the great man
and women of history. Knowledge gave birth civilisations and is the foundation of nations
including America. Teachers strive daily with little recognition to help each child become the
best they can. Teachers are heroes, our future lies in their hands. These are examples of
every day men and women. Men and women who are heroes.
Superman was not just a hero. Superman was a superhero. Why isn’t he living up to his
name? He was so much more that a mere mortal. Imagine a future with this superhero. A
future that was stolen from us. The world welcomed Superman with open arms and why
wouldn't we? Day after day we saw the effect he was having. Crime plummeted, natural
disasters were prevented, the impossible became possible. What was more remarkable and
often overlooked, was that he wasn't just saving peoples lives, he was changing them.
He gave us hope, he set an example and over the years we started following that example
whether we realised it or not. Wars stopped, all political, religious feuds set aside, even
volunteering and charitable donations increased. For the first time in history we saw the
closest thing mankind could call peace. And to think it took an alien to show us what it
meant to be human. Unfortunately the one thing that reduces a miracle to the mundane is a
world full of them. Once everything is special, nothing is special. In a world where he would
suddenly appear to save someone from a fire or divert a flood, there were no miracles. We
stopped looking both ways to cross the street. We didn't have to because if a car was about
to hit us odds were that he would zip at the last moment and save us. Soon we didn't even
remember how to look both ways. We lost our survival instincts. We became careless,
which wouldn't have really been a problem, but then he left.
Just as mysteriously he appeared he was gone, without warning, without explanation. We
looked to the sky and for the first time in years no one was there. Some panicked thinking
the worst had finally come to pass and someone has finally discover a weakness and
exploited it. Others held steadfast believing that his sudden absence must have a logical
explanation. Perhaps this was a test. Maybe he was watching from above and gauging our
reaction. Hundreds, if not thousands of ideas and theories sprang from every expert and
government official but no answer could satisfy us. Maybe there was no answer. Maybe
he’s just…gone.
12
In fact maybe it’s better that he is gone. How can we be expected to appreciate the good
without the bad? Through suffering do we not gain strength? Having relied on an almost
omnipotent saviour for years, we’ve forgotten how to rely on ourselves. He gave us
strength, but with it, weakness. In his absence, we must learn to unite and find strength in
one another. We must look not to the skies, instead we must look inside ourselves to find
trust, love and friendship for one another. Peace is our champion, not a Man of Steel. Alas
crime has skyrocketed, stocks plummeted and old wars have been rekindled. The peace he
inspired over the years, seemed to end overnight, replaced by fear,, confusion and betrayal.
Even worse problems once held by our own, now seem insurmountable without his help.
It is one year today that we witnessed one of the worst train disaster in recent history.
Among the 236 dead, were 28 school children and a pregnant mother. The nation's press
release said that all that was left was a mangled mess of metal and bodies. Recovery
workers and civilians united and worked around the clock, in the hope of finding just one
survivor, if any. But hope was given up, when 12 hours later they could raise no sound. The
train left a huge gorge in the suburban landscape where now stands a tribute to those who
died in the wreckage. Among those attending today’s memorial service, is the husband and
father of a deceased mother and their unborn child. To this day he is haunted by the
memories of the past. Through his suffering he speaks the voice of many Americans: How
could he let this happen? Curse you Superman...
These words echo amongst the people, reaching the far corners of the globe. In five years
we have seen the oceans rise and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and
children throughout Asia. We have seen civil wars destroy cities throughout the world and
religious feuds wipe our nations. Let the colour of Superman’s cape remind us of the
innocent people who have died for it is their blood that is on his hands.
In the past we have turned to God, in times of need we prayed. For five years we have
prayed for you Superman, “please bring back our Messiah.” The nation knelt before the
alter and begged for your return. We were blinded by your arrival, our faith misguided. For
many of us, Superman became our God. We only had to read the motto on our nations
currency to be reminded of the truth – In God We Trust.
These words passed between our hands countless times a day, yet we still managed to
forget. We put our trust, not in God, but in Superman – In Superman We Trust. We trusted
you, we all trusted you…I trusted you. Does he feel remorse, guilt or shame? Does he
simply not care? Perhaps the people of Earth are but a distant memory, a single snapshot
lost in a mind that is timeless.
Does he cry for the children who have died on his watch? Perhaps he really is a Man of
Steel – cold, emotionless and hardened by his own immortality. Would he say sorry?
Ultimately we are better off without him. It is true, we will come to endure hardship in his
absence. We will see more famine, environmental disasters, crime, wars and bloodshed.
But what is also true, is that the people of America will always, without falter, and without
abandoning their posts, continue to strive for truth, justice and the American way.
13
Leaving the fate of humanity in the hands of one man would have been a terrible mistake. If
we don’t learn to settle our grievances on our own we are doomed anyway. We became
dependent on someone unreliable, in fact he did us a favour by leaving. Now we can learn
to fend for ourselves, learn to work out our differences regardless of whether they are based
on race, creed, gender or political view.
Ultimately we will unite and establish peace around the globe. If Superman had stayed we
would never accomplish this. Under the surface there would have remained traces of a
corrupt society, a seed that would grow if it wasn’t for Superman’s cape blocking the
sunlight. Now that he is gone, the seed is left to grow, yet there is hope. For like a rose, we
always see the thorns before the flower. We will blossom and when we do, we will have
done it alone, we will have a world united.
People have always longed for God, messiahs and saviours to swoop down from the sky
and deliver them from their troubles but in the end these saviours always leave and we are
faced with the same troubles that were here from the beginning. We wait for our saviour’s
return though it will never happen and we realise it was better had he never come at all.
Superman Renounces His U.S. Citizenship in 900th Issue of Action Comics
By Hollie McKay Published April 28, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Superman is no longer an American.
In Action Comics’ new record-breaking 900th issue, the iconic super hero renounces his U.S citizenship
following a clash with the federal government.
The Man of Steel, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938, has always been recognized as a
devoted American warrior who constantly fought evil, but as of Thursday, he is no longer the country's
own to claim.
"I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my U.S.
citizenship," he says in a cell in the issue. "I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S.
policy."
Superman even questions his longtime motto: "Truth, justice and the American way."
"Truth, justice, and the American way -- it's not enough anymore," he states.
Superman's creators defended the decision.
14
"Superman is a visitor from a distant planet who has long embraced American values. As a character and
an icon, he embodies the best of the American Way," DC's co-publishers, Jim Lee and Dan DiDio said in
a statement to FOX411.com. "In a short story in ACTION COMICS 900, Superman announces his
intention to put a global focus on his never ending battle, but he remains, as always, committed to his
adopted home and his roots as a Kansas farm boy from Smallville."
The landmark issue is certainly sparking controversy.
"Besides being riddled with a blatant lack of patriotism, and respect for our country, Superman's current
creators are belittling the United States as a whole. By denouncing his citizenship, Superman becomes an
eerie metaphor for the current economic and power status the country holds worldwide," Hollywood
publicist and GOP activist Angie Meyer told FOX411's Pop Tarts column.
But not everyone is outraged by Superman's citizenship surrender.
"Superman has always been bigger than the United States. In an age rife with immigration paranoia, it’s
refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it’s as important to him as any other country
on Earth -- which, in turn, is as important to Superman as any other planet in the multiverse," wrote
Wired blogger Scott Thill.
"The genius of Superman is that he belongs to everyone, for the dual purposes of peace and protection,"
Thill added. "He’s above ephemeral geopolitics and nationalist concerns, a universal agent unlike any
other found in pop culture."
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to
colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.
First Superman comic sells for record $2.2 million
Thu, Dec 1 2011
LONDON (Reuters) - A copy of the first issue of Action Comics, in which Superman was unveiled to the world, has
sold in an online auction for a record $2.16 million. It cost 10 cents when it was published in 1938.
The comic, featuring a picture of the "Man of Steel" lifting a car above his head as people around him flee, had been
valued at just over $1 million by auction site ComicConnect.com.
U.S.-based ComicConnect described it as "the most important comic book in the history of comics," and said its
unusually good condition added to its value.
The copy of Action Comics No. 1 was stolen from a collector in 2000 but resurfaced after an entrepreneur bought the
contents of a storage unit near Los Angeles.
"What makes this copy so special ... is it's the highest graded copy known to exist -- it's a 9.0 on a scale of one to 10,"
said Vincent Zurzolo of ComicConnect.
Several reports in the United States said the owner of the comic at the time of the theft was Hollywood actor Nicolas
Cage, although there was no confirmation of the identity of the buyer or seller.
ComicConnect held the previous record for a comic sold at auction, for a similar copy of slightly lower quality, which
fetched $1.5 million in 2010. About 100 copies of Action Comics No.1 are believed to exist.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)
15
© Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for
their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content,
including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies
around the world.
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of
relevant interests.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to
colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.
Insert Umberto Eco’s essay on Superman
16
ROGUE/VIGILANTE
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Batman and Batman Begins to be watched in class. Insert Venn Diagram. Insert Essays on
Characters.
17
When Batman Was Gay
Filed by: Tyrion Lannister
July 24, 2008 12:00 PM
Everyone is pretty whipped up about the release of The Dark Knight, which shattered Spiderman 3's record for largest firstweekend box-office draw over the weekend. Unlike Spiderman 3, The Dark Knight is actually a very entertaining film.
Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise is darker, more serious, and, consequently more frightening. It also captures the
psychological complexity of the titular character in a way that the more stylized vision of Tim Burton - not to mention the dreck
produced by Joel Schumacher - never could.
Nolan's vision is inspired by the Golden Age Batman, who was a different
breed altogether. Batman of the early 1940s, for example, shot people, tossed them off rooftops, and had few reservations about
killing criminals. He menaced murderers, gangsters, and thugs, not overgrown graffiti artists. Early Gotham was a dark and scary
place, the sort of place that might inspire people to, you know, dress up like a giant bat. So what happened? Why did the dark and
menacing Batman of 1940s become the lame and tame Batman of the 1960s?
Much of it has to do with changing national mores and an evolving economic and social landscape. In this sense, Batman's story
is a microcosm for what happened throughout the entire comic book industry during that period and, to a lesser extent, some of
the changes that swept across the nation. One of the most important episodes in Batman's metamorphosis centered around the
startling accusation that Batman and Robin were gay and might seed impressionable youths with homosexual fantasies. Silver
Age Batman was indelibly shaped by the gendered expectations of the era and his failure to adhere to those expectations incited
criticism, predictably, that called into question his sexual identity.
I always preferred Batman to Superman, largely because Batman, the central implausibility of his character aside, was
psychologically interesting in a way that the bland Superman never was. Of course, my introduction to Batman was Frank
Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, a crucial revision of the Batman myth which imagined Batman as a psychologically scarred
character inhabiting an increasingly savage world.
18
In contrast, most baby-boomers may be more likely to associate Batman with the campy, absurdist version of the late-1950s and
1960s best captured in the long-running television series. In the pages of Detective in that era, Batman traveled through time,
verbally sparred with "Batmite", and foiled countless plots to deface many of Gotham City's iconic landmarks. In other words,
Silver Age Batman was a glorified boyscout, patrolling against vandalism - just like Superman without the awesome powers.
Outing the Caped Crusader
The accusation that Batman was a homo, as strange as it might sound to our own ears, was taken quite seriously by government
and public alike. It wasn't leveled by a marginal nut or crank, but by a world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Frederic Wertham.
Wertham was the Chief Psychiatrist for the New York Department of Hospitals and an important figure among the New York
City liberal intelligentsia. His writings were respected enough to help form part of the legal strategy for Brown v. Board. In 1954,
Wertham published a scathing indictment of comic books, The Seduction of the Innocent, which argued that comic books were
an invidious influence on American youth, responsible for warped gender attitudes and all manner of delinquency. Wertham's
accusations garnered the attention of Senator Estes Kefauver and his Senate Sub-committee on Juvenile Delinquency, where
Wertham repeated many of his central claims.
Batman and Robin, Wertham charged, inhabited "a wish dream of two
homosexuals living together." They lived in "sumptuous quarters," unencumbered by wives and girlfriends, with only an aged
butler for company. They cared for each other's injuries, frequently shared quarters, and lounged together in dressing gowns.
Worse still, both exhibited damning psychological characteristics: proclivities for costumes, dressing up, and fantasy play;
secretive behavior and double-lives; little interest in women; and, most damning of all, neurotic compulsions resulting in their
violent vigilantism. Indeed, Wertham argued, depictions of Batman and Robin were frequently homoerotic, visually emphasizing
Batman's rippling physique and Robins splayed, bare thighs.
"Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and psychopathology of sex can fail to realize the subtle atmosphere
of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures," wrote Wertham. "The Batman type of story may stimulate children to
homosexual fantasies."
Batman's creators and writers were aghast. Batman, they noted, had a series of dalliances with several Gothamite ladies, even if
he'd never settled down. Nor, they argued, had there ever been any explicit homosexual affection between Batman and Robin,
much less a portrayal of anything beneath their tights. And, in any case, what sense did it make to interrogate the sexual practices
of a character who lived only in the frames of a comic book? Any "sex life" Batman might possess was purely the imagination of
his critics and had nothing to do with Batman himself. Right? Right?! Imagination, as they say, is a powerful thing.
As literary critic Mark Best notes, "Wertham did correctly identify the possibility of a queer reading of the superhero, albeit as an
example of what was wrong with the comics."
19
If Bruce Wayne was a paragon of upper-middle class white masculinity - wealthy, cultivated, and
amiable - his secret identity represented the dark liberation found in the lurid city, cruising strange corners. Even if Batman's
genitals were never portrayed coming into contact with Robin, Batman's crime-fighting lifestyle still embodied a fantasy of
freedom from male familial responsibilities and, in a very real sense, from women altogether. Batman's world of the 1940s was
almost exclusively male.
The few females who appeared in the pages of Detective were usually for show or comic relief (Bruce Wayne's earliest fiance,
Julie Madison, was frequently duped by his double-identity and played for laughs). Like many closeted men, Bruce Wayne dated
women to keep up appearances, so that no one would suspect that beneath his placid veneer lurked the sort of fellow who
wrestled with criminals in dark alleys.
Batman vs the Nuclear Family
At a time when social norms dictated that men and women alike should form nuclear families and settle into comfortable
domesticity, Batman's homosocial world presented no small challenge to the "normal" family. Of course, only a decade before
the publication of The Seduction of the Innocents the idea of men living only with other men for the purposes of fighting other
men was not only uncontroversial, but, in the midst of World War II, it was the norm. Under war conditions, soldiers lived and
slept together. They depended upon one another for comfort and support, emotional and physical.
As John Ibson argues in Picturing Men, male-male physical affection in
the wartime context was normal and captured frequently in photography of the era. As Allan Berube has documented, soldiers
frequently also found sexual companionship with other soldiers, often with the knowledge of and without causing much
consternation from their peers and superiors. In fact, the military did little to aggressively police male-male sexuality until the
end of the war, when the military dishonorably discharged tens-of-thousands of service people on "morals" charges.
Indeed, the sort of intimacy between men enjoyed by millions of men in the early 1940s was increasingly suspect by the end of
the decade. Society moved quickly to restabilize heterosexuality and stigmatize many of the types of same-sex intimacy - sexual
and nonsexual alike - that had been common during the war. Margot Canaday notes in Building a Straight State that the architects
of the 1944 GI Bill designed it intentionally to make ineligible for benefits those tens of thousands of service people discharged
on morals charges.
20
The Lavender Scare
In addition, as tensions with the Soviet Union increased, psychologists, politicians, and demagogues linked communism to
homosexuality, arguing that communists and homosexuals alike were secretive and opposed to the "democratic" heterosexual
family unit. Even if homosexuals were not communist themselves, they could be blackmailed and strong armed into complicity
with communist schemes. Thus, the "lavender scare" - as historian Robert Johnson has called it - preceded the "red scare."
In 1950, a subcommittee chaired by Maryland Senator Millard Tydings
convened to investigate Joseph McCarthy's notorious list of "205 known communists." Tydings worked to discredit McCarthy's
claim, but, in the process, the subcommittee at least partially validated concerns that the State Department was overrun with
"sexual perverts." During the hearings, Nebraska Senator Kenneth Wherry memorably claimed that as many as 3,000
homosexuals were employed at State. By the end of 1950, 600 people had been dismissed from positions at the State Department
on morals charges.
How deeply this context specifically informed the creative forces at DC is difficult to tell. Regardless, the charges levied by
Wertham against Batman were bad for sales. Parents might steer their children away from the title toward more "wholesome"
comics and some communities might attempt censor the comic book altogether. In an effort, to combat the perception that their
product was morally suspect, DC made a number of changes.
Butching up Batman
To address the general concern that Batman comics were too violent and encouraged socially reckless behavior, writers for
Batman increasingly penned stories with surreal, fantastical, or absurd story lines. Plots portrayed Batman traveling through time
to ancient Babylon, venturing to alien planets, and being the victim of magic spells. Rather than depicting Gotham as a den of
vice and crime, the writers portrayed the city as relatively safe and prosperous. Batman's foes became less violent, plotting capers
that often centered exclusively on symbolic crimes or "unmasking" Batman. Batman himself became less anti-social - frequently
cooperating with Gotham police and public safety committees - and DC began including public service advertisements in the
comic.
Other changes were designed to specifically undercut the accusation that Batman and Robin were gay. Alfred's role in the comic
was diminished (Alfred was even killed off for a while in the early 1960s, only to be, literally, resurrected for a while as a
villain). To supplement Alfred, Aunts Agatha and Harriet were introduced to provide care, nurturing and a woman's touch in
Wayne manor. At the same time, DC began to introduce a series of other female characters to provide romances for Batman and
Robin - Bat-girl in 1956 and Batwoman in 1961.
As Best notes, Bat-girl and Batwoman's complementary crime-fighting acted as a replacement for regular heterosexual courtship:
rather than dinner and a movie, a romantic Batman took his girl out on rooftops. In this sense, Batman's crime-fighting became a
sight for potential heterosexual productivity, a time when Batman could WOO! and COURT! The cast of female characters
21
provided Batman with something of a full family, or at least the groundwork for one. Even if the bat-family never achieved full
"normalcy," it at least blunted the edges of a lifestyle that was irreconcilable with the gendered expectations of the decade.
It's something of a cliché today to point out that the rigid expectations of domesticity in 1950s were, to say the least, unrealistic
and stifling for many people, straight and gay alike. Whether Batman experienced something of a Bat-Mystique is tough to
discern, though he seems, at times, to have chaffed under the care of Aunts Harriet and Agatha. But Batman's hypothetical
feelings on the matter were irrelevant to the suits at DC. The world had changed.
A Batman who continued to live in 1945 was an economic liability in 1955. He was a threat to the family and to the bottom-line.
Batman's "gayness," then, was a flash point for a larger set of social anxieties. Just as elites worked aggressively to purge society
and government of homosexuality, so too did DC purge Batman of any social deficiency which could be interpreted or construed
as "gay."
Was it enough? To satisfy the most vocal critics, yes. But, ironically, the
move to surrealism and fantasy also pushed Batman into the territory of high camp, in which Batman's ostensibly heterosexual
romances were suspiciously unbelievable. Indeed, in the camp world of the Batman television series, Batman's exaggerated and
largely asexual romances seemed almost like a parody of actual heterosexual romances - a tension best explored by Robert
Smigel's Ace and Gary.
In this sense, Silver Age Batman's partisans miss the central reason why Batman is a compelling and fascinating figure in the first
place. Batman's most important relationships have always been with criminals. What drives him to pursue them? How does he
distinguish himself from his queries? How is vigilantism anything but criminal? Indeed, Batman's most provocative implications
have centered around the distinction between law and justice - Batman's dedication to the latter, often at the expense of the
former.
Attempts to contrive a heterosexual "history" for Batman have always rang false, precisely because what rang true about Batman
had nothing to do with "normal" heterosexual romance. That hardly necessitates Batman occupy an all-male world and the next
Nolan film would benefit from a compelling female villain. Nevertheless, this much is certain: a character locked in any banal
romance, either with Dick Grayson or Rachel Dawes, hardly seems believable as someone willing to endure the deprivations and
burdens required of the Batman.
(Tyrion Lannister is a Bilerico-Indiana contributor. This post was bumped up from to the main site by Bil. If you enjoyed the article, please vote for it on
Digg and use the social networking tools below to share it with your friends.)
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/07/when_batman_was_gay.php
22
POLICE
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Green Lantern: First Flight
23
Themes of Universal Law (Justice) Vs. Universal Morality
Themes of Racism in Green Lantern and Green Arrow Comics
Read Green Lantern and Green Arrow: “Snowbirds Don’t Fly,” “They Say It’ll Kill Me But They
Won’t Say When,” and “ . . . And Through Him Save A World . . .”
24
AMAZON
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Wonder Woman 2009 to be watched in class.
25
The Legacy of Wonder Woman
An enlightening look at the feminist ideals that informed this
American icon
By Philip Charles Crawford -- School Library Journal, 03/01/2007
This year marks the 65th anniversary of one of comics’ oldest and most enduring characters,
Wonder Woman. For over half a century, she has entertained and inspired millions, appearing in
comic books, newspapers, novels, television, and cartoons. Her image is known throughout the
world, licensed on everything from Halloween costumes, Kraft brand macaroni & cheese, and
Underoos, to cookie jars, toothbrushes, and the American Library Association (ALA) poster,
“The World’s Greatest Heroes @ your library.” Along with Batman and Superman, she shares
the distinction of having been continually published in comic book form for more than six
decades. Like Snoopy, James Bond, Superman, and Tarzan, she has entered the collective
consciousness of 20th-century pop culture.
In the early 1970s, she was adopted as a role model by the feminist movement and appeared on
the cover of the inaugural issue of Ms. magazine. Yet few know that Wonder Woman was
created as a distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of
love, peace, and sexual equality to “a world torn by the hatred of men.”
While Wonder Woman is one of the most fascinating comic book characters ever created, she is
seldom mentioned in professional books, Web sites, and ALA lists about graphic novels. Perhaps
many see her as too “old school,” no longer relevant in a world among such kick-ass, girl-power
heroines as Buffy, the Birds of Prey, Electra, and Manhunter. Maybe, in a world dominated by
pastel, tartan, and lollipop-colored “chick lit,” Wonder Woman’s overtly feminist message has
no bearing on a readership who seems to prefer (and adore) consumer-driven, self-obsessed
heroines. For whatever reason, our most enduring feminist icon of American popular culture
seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. A brief exploration of Wonder Woman’s history will, I
hope, demonstrate why this heroine is important and deserving of a wide readership and a
prominent place on the library shelves.
When superheroes first began to appear in comic books of the late 1930s, the genre was
ostensibly an “all-boys club.” In fact, prior to Wonder Woman, there were very few costumed
heroines of any kind. Among the hundreds of comic books published during the 1930s, only a
scant few featured stories about costumed women heroes such as Black Widow, Invisible Scarlet
O’Neil, The Woman in Red, and Miss Fury. More common was the depiction of women as evil
seductresses, as the hero’s girlfriend (Lois Lane), or as his “help mate” (Bulletgirl and
Hawkgirl). In general, superhero comics of this era reflected and reinforced cultural norms about
gender. Images of male superheroes celebrated brute strength, physical perfection, male bonding,
and phallic imagery, while women were typically portrayed as helpless and in need of rescuing,
or as sexy, buxom pin-ups models, often in provocative bondage poses. Moreover, most
superhero comics were also violent and the hero resolved any and all conflict with physical
26
force. For example, in the earliest Batman stories, the caped crusader was a ruthless vigilante
who carried a gun and even murdered a couple of his adversaries.
In the early 1940s, a psychologist and feminist, Dr. William Moulton Marston, sought to change
this paradigm. Writing in The American Scholar, he discussed the negative effects of gender
stereotyping in popular culture: “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine
archetype lacks force, strength, and power…. Women’s strong qualities have become despised
because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a character with all the strength of
Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”
Marston wanted to create a positive role model for girls that would serve as a counter to the high
level of violence and the “blood curdling masculinity” he felt pervaded superhero stories. At the
time, he was already famous as the author of several best-selling books on psychology (and for
inventing the lie detector). As a columnist for Family Circle, he wrote an article extolling the
merits of comic books. In 1941, he was hired by M. C. Gaines to serve on the advisory
committee for DC Comics where he would further develop his ideas and create the first major
and important female superhero–Wonder Woman.
In late 1941, Wonder Woman made her debut in the pages of All-Star Comics and became the
lead feature in Sensation Comics #1 the following month, written under the pseudonym Charles
Moulton and illustrated by H. G. Peters. From the beginning, Marston infused the series with a
feminist ideology. Wonder Woman was an Amazon princess who had been sent by the goddess,
Aphrodite, to aid America in the war effort and to spread the Amazons’ message of love, peace,
and sexual equality. One of the central ideas of the strip was that through hard work and
discipline women could become strong and independent and free themselves from their
economic and psychological dependency on men.
Wonder Woman’s approach to crime fighting was different than male counterparts as well.
Where they used force to defeat the villain, she tried to reason with them and often convinced
them to reform. Only when this failed did she use force, or her magic lasso, which, like
Marston’s own lie detector, forced anyone bound by it to tell the truth.
However, like all superheroes Wonder Woman has her Achilles’ heel; if her bracelets are bound
together by a man, she loses her powers. In countless stories, she is chained and bound by male
villains, only to break free and triumph. The ropes and chains are symbols of patriarchy and the
drama is her ability to break the shackles of male domination they symbolize. Unfortunately,
most comic historians have ignored the feminist elements of the series, and focused on these
elements of bondage, reducing the complexity of Marston’s Wonder Woman mythos to little
more than a thinly disguised sadomasochistic sexual fantasy.
Dr. Marston’s heroine proved to be a tremendous success. At the height of her popularity,
Wonder Woman had a readership of 10 million and appeared in a total of four comics and a daily
newspaper strip. Unfortunately, this success would be short-lived. In 1947, Marston died, leaving
his heroine in the hands of writers who didn’t seem to understand or care about her. In the
postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, Wonder Woman would lose much of her trademark
27
feminism and become more conventionally feminine with her adventures focusing on two central
topics: marriage anxiety and battling duplicates of herself.
By the late 1960s, DC Comics scrapped Marston’s concept entirely: they killed Steve Trevor, got
rid of Amazons, and stripped Wonder Woman of her superpowers. This “new” Wonder Woman
was Diana Prince, an ordinary woman who ran a mod-clothing boutique and fought crime in her
spare time. For many she was a thinly veiled imitation of Mrs. Emma Peel from the British TV
show The Avengers. Feeling that the character had been stripped of her power, Steinem and
others pressured DC Comics to bring back the original character. With some reluctance, they
agreed. Wonder Woman got back her powers, her costume, and her Amazon sisters, but the
series lacked the complexity and feminist flare of Marston’s original stories.
During the 1970s, Wonder Woman entered America’s living rooms in the Saturday morning
cartoon Superfriends and in her own prime-time show. Meanwhile, the comic book series
suffered from constant changes in direction. Creatively, the Wonder Woman book was dying a
slow and painful death.
With nowhere left to go but down, DC Comics decided to give the character a new start. They
cancelled the original and launched a brand new series with help from Gloria Steinem.
Beautifully written and illustrated by George Perez, this new series splendidly updated the
original while staying true to the concepts established by Marston. This new Wonder Woman
provided readers with the best and most faithful version of the character since Marston’s
original.
For anyone interested in reading the original stories, I would recommend Wonder Woman
Archives series (DC Comics), which collects the first four years worth of strips. These stories are
some of the most unique of the 1940s, featuring a complex blend of feminism, wartime
patriotism, Greek mythology, and bondage imagery in stories that move seamlessly through the
genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology. The best stories from Perez’s tenure have been
collected into a four-volume series that begins with Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals (DC
Comics, 2004). Other volumes such as Paul Dini’s Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth (2001) and
Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman: Land of the Dead (2006, both DC Comics) provide a thoughtful
analysis of Wonder Woman’s heroism.
The best Wonder Woman stories inspire us to imagine a more equalitarian world and encourage
us to become agents of social change. They have the power to inspire girls (and boys) to become
heroes in their own lives. In this era of books about gossiping, “mean girls,” and YA novels
about distressed young women who starve, mutilate, and kill themselves, doesn’t Wonder
Woman’s feminist message of peace, justice, and sexual equality need to be heard?
Author Information
Philip Charles Crawford is the Library Director for Essex High School (VT). His review of Greg Rucka’s
Wonder Woman: Mission’s End appears on p. 238.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6417196.html
http://girl-wonder.org/papers/robbins.html
28
Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation
of Wonder Woman
by Charles Lyons
Posted: Wed, August 23rd, 2006 at 12:00AM PST
NOTE: The following article deals with adult situations.
She wasn't jettisoned from a doomed planet, she didn't
witness the brutal murder of her parents, and she was never
injected with radioactive venom, but the true story of
Wonder Woman's origin is one of the strangest and most
fascinating of any superhero. The Amazon princess debuted
in the back of "All-Star Comics" #8 in December 1941,
graduated to the cover story of "Sensation Comics" #1 in
January, and merited her own title by the summer of 1942.
Her powers were similar to those of Superman (who had
not yet learned to fly, see through walls, or fear
Kryptonite), but with a couple of interesting twists: she
Wonder Woman creator William
could deflect bullets with the heavy metal bracelets she
Moulton Marston and his family.
wore on her wrists, and she carried a magical golden lasso
which compelled anyone it snared to tell the truth.
Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero - she had been beaten to the punch by the
likes of the Black Widow (no relation to the Marvel character) and Bulletgirl - but she quickly
became the most successful and remains to this day the best known. DC Comics recently
relaunched the "Wonder Woman" title with a new #1 written by Allan Heinberg, Co-Executive
Producer of "The OC," and a feature film is in the works from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
creator Joss Whedon. Wonder Woman has been popular for over sixty years - and controversial
from the moment she was born.
Wonder Woman's creator was William Moulton Marston, a Harvard-educated psychologist,
lawyer and provocateur who invented a precursor of the modern polygraph (the likely inspiration
for Wonder Woman's lie-detecting lasso). In October 1940, the popular women's magazine
"Family Circle" published an interview with Marston entitled "Don't Laugh at the Comics," in
which the psychologist discussed the unfulfilled potential of the medium. Maxwell Charles
Gaines, then publisher of All-American Comics, saw the interview and offered Marston a job as
an educational consultant to All-American and sister company DC Comics. Realizing that strong
female role models in comics were virtually nonexistent, Marston sold Gaines on the concept of
a superheroine who would combine "all the strength of a Superman plus all the allure of a good
and beautiful woman" and began writing stories under the pen name Charles Moulton,
combining his and his publisher's middle names.
Subtext is as much a part of comic books as superpowers, from the unconscious (Superman as
the ultimate assimilated immigrant) to the unintentional (Fredric Wertham saw Batman and
29
Robin's relationship as pedophilia). Wonder Woman's world is one that practically begs for
analysis: coming from a utopian island inhabited only by women, she wears heavy manacles on
her wrists and carries a rope everywhere she goes; she spent many of her early stories in bondage
or restraining others, and even disciplined villains on Transformation Island, an Amazonian
rehabilitation center that trained its all-female prison population to submit to "loving authority."
Even her classic catch-phrase raises the eyebrow - what's with all that suffering Sappho is always
doing, anyway?
Restraining the protagonist isn't necessarily sexual - after
all, it's one of the few ways the villain has to incapacitate the hero or heroine without killing
them (and thereby ending the story) - but in Marston's case much of this subtext was indeed
intentional. As he told interviewer Olive Richard in the August 14, 1942 "Family Circle," "Tell
me anybody's preference in story strips and I'll tell you his subconscious desires...Superman and
the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger
and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaborately
disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them."
But Marston was intent on more than merely fulfilling the fantasies of his male readers. In a
letter to comics historian Coulton Waugh, he wrote, "Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological
propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world." Marston believed
that submission to "loving authority" was the key to overcoming mankind's violent urges, and
that strong, self-realized women were the hope for a better future. Wonder Woman was very
consciously Marston's means of spreading these notions to impressionable young minds. As he
said to Olive Richard, "I tell you, my inquiring friend, there's great hope for this world. Women
will win!" He then goes on, "When women rule, there won't be any more [war] because the girls
won't want to waste time killing men...I regard that as the greatest - no, even more - as the only
hope for permanent peace."
With this unusual brand of feminism as his stated aim,
Marston filled his stories with bondage (both male and
female), spanking, sorority initiation rituals, cross-dressing,
infantilism, and playful domination. Armies of slave girls
were everywhere, and hardly an issue went by without a
full-body panel of Wonder Woman bound from head to toe.
In "Sensation Comics" #35 (November 1944) Wonder
Woman even lets slip that rope bondage was a popular
pastime back home. Apparently the best way to learn about
domination was to submit to it yourself: while Marston
Panel from "Sensation Comics"
personally advocated female domination of men, many of
#35, November, 1944
Wonder Woman's adversaries were female themselves, and
she often seemed to find herself at their mercy (perhaps this
is what she meant by Sapphic suffering). Just as Superman eventually developed an allergy to
Kryptonite, Wonder Woman had an Achilles heel of her own, and of course it had to do with
bondage. Her bracelets were reminders of the defeat of the Amazons by Hercules, and if ever
welded together by a man, she would lose her strength. Consequently, many of the villainesses
kept a handy male in their employ for just this service
30
It was no secret to anyone paying attention that Marston was an enthusiastic advocate of bondage
and domination, and he did not escape controversy. The Child Study Association of America
accused Marston of being a sadist. Another critic characterized Marston's agenda as leading to
"dictator dominance." In 1943, a fan serving in the Army wrote to Gaines, "I am one of those
odd, perhaps unfortunate men who derive an extreme erotic pleasure from the mere thought of a
beautiful girl chained or bound…Have you the same interest in bonds and fetters that I have?"
Editor Sheldon Mayer tried to tame some of the more extreme elements but later admitted he had
"probably made it worse." For his part, Marston fiercely defended his creation, declaring in a
letter to his publisher:
"This, my dear friend, is the one truly great contribution of my Wonder Woman strip to moral
education of the young. The only hope for peace is to teach people who are full of pep and
unbound force to enjoy being bound ... Only when the control of self by others is more pleasant
than the unbound assertion of self in human relationships can we hope for a stable, peaceful
human society ... Giving to others, being controlled by them, submitting to other people cannot
possibly be enjoyable without a strong erotic element."
Despite - or perhaps because of - the controversy, sales of "Wonder Woman" were strong, so for
the most part Gaines set aside any doubts he may have had and let the psychologist have his way.
Marston's erotic proclivities may have been plain to the general public, but his private life
contained a bigger bombshell. The psychologist's superheroine was at least partly inspired by his
wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, but there were actually two Wonder Women in the family .
Marston wasn't just kinky, he was a polyamorist.
The clues are in Marston's interviews with "Family Circle," conducted by a young woman named
Olive Byrne, who was in fact, the aforementioned interviewer Olive Richard. Though he refers
to Byrne as "my Wonder Woman" and claims her "Arab 'protective' bracelets" were the
inspiration for the ones worn by the Wonder Woman character, Byrne herself never disclosed to
readers that she was romantically involved with her subject. In fact, Byrne was a former student
and research assistant who moved in with Marston and his wife in the late '20s and subsequently
bore him two sons. The exact nature of the women's relationship is not known, but it's clear that
they were very close. Not only did the two know about each other and raise each other's children,
Elizabeth Marston formally adopted Byrne's children as her own and even appears to have
named her daughter after Olive.
While Olive Byrne may have provided the physical inspiration for Wonder Woman, Elizabeth
Marston was an Amazon in her own right, getting degrees in psychology and law, putting herself
through school and working to support the family for thirty-five years. "Olive stayed home with
the kids, while Mom continued to work," said Elizabeth's son Pete. "It was a wonderful situation,
a win-win deal for everyone." Indeed, by all accounts Marston's unconventional family was a
happy one. "It was an arrangement where they lived together fairly harmoniously," said
Marston's son Byrne to biographer Les Daniels. Sheldon Mayer, who became a family friend,
remembered Marston as "the most remarkable host, with a lovely bunch of kids from different
wives and all living together like one big family - everybody very happy and all good, decent
people."
31
Unfortunately, Marston was unable to enjoy his happy home life for long, as he first contracted
polio and then succumbed to cancer in 1947, reportedly continuing to write from his deathbed.
After Marston's death, his widows continued to live together for another four decades until
Olive's death in the late eighties. As Byrne Marston described it, "It's kind of crazy, but it worked
out and they got along quite well. They were just a pair from then on until they died." Elizabeth
Marston died in 1993, at the age of 100.
In modern terms, Wonder Woman might be best described
as a "bi poly switch." But with her creator's departure, the
Amazon lost her enthusiasm for bondage and much of her
proto-feminist message (within a couple years she had a
newfound appreciation of matrimony, and "Sensation
Comics" had become a romance book). Marston's theme of
submission to loving authority failed to transform society
and caused no apparent increase in sexual deviancy. His
"American matriarchy" has failed to materialize, and in
spite of tremendous advances in civil rights, gender
The name of Reform Island was
relations, and sexual freedom, we still live in a society
later changed to Transformation
where gay marriage is hotly opposed and Marston's unusual Island.
lifestyle remains controversial.
Marston may have been naive and even misguided in some of his aims. But he created an
enduring feminist icon who was adopted by Gloria Steinem as the cover girl for the first issue of
"Ms." magazine and stands with Superman and Batman as one of the longest-lasting superheroes
in comics. She has also become a popular symbol for gays, lesbians, and others whose sexual
identity lies outside of mainstream convention. Allan Heinberg, new "Wonder Woman" writer, is
openly gay, as is Phil Jimenez, who wrote and drew the characters' stories from 2000-2003.
Heinberg told Gay.com:
"You know, as a gay man, you would think I would be principally attracted to characters like
Batman or Superman or Robin, but for some reason I identify most strongly with [Wonder
Woman], because even within the superhero society she's a bit of an outsider."
Given her origins, Wonder Woman's role as a champion of tolerance seems
entirely fitting. Marston believed that in the future the world would be ruled by
love rather than hatred or fear. Hopefully, someday he'll be proven right.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=7921
32
June 29, 2010
Makeover for Wonder Woman at 69
By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES
Wednesday is a good day for Wonder Woman. This 69-year-old superheroine, published by DC
Comics, will don a new — and less revealing — costume and enjoy the publication of Issue No.
600 of her monthly series.
The costume ties into an alternative history for the character devised by J. Michael Straczynski,
the new writer of the series, and into a quest by DC to shine a critical and creative spotlight on
the heroine, who stands with Superman and Batman in its primary triumvirate of superstars,
despite her series’s modest sales.
In the reimagining of her story, Wonder Woman, instead of growing up on Paradise Island with
her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her Amazon sisters, is smuggled out as a baby when unknown
forces destroy her home and slaughter its inhabitants.
Mr. Straczynski, who created the television show “Babylon 5” and wrote the screenplay for
“Changeling” in 2008, starring Angelina Jolie, said in an e-mail message that he wanted to
address “the wardrobe issue” as soon as he took the job.
“She’s been locked into pretty much the exact same outfit since her debut in 1941,” Mr.
Straczynski wrote. “If you’re going to make a statement about bringing Wonder Woman into the
33
21st century, you need to be bold and you need to make it visual. I wanted to toughen her up, and
give her a modern sensibility.”
He added, “What woman only wears only one outfit for 60-plus years?”
Given Wonder Woman’s pre-eminence as a female character in the largely male superhero
pantheon, her looks have always been a matter of more than casual interest, to both fanboys and
feminists. In a 2006 interview about her work on the series, the novelist Jodi Picoult said: “One
of the first things I did was ask if we could give her breast-reduction surgery, because as a
woman, I know you wouldn’t fight crime in a bustier. But I was somehow shot down by DC.”
The new costume was designed by the artist Jim Lee, who in February was named co-publisher
of DC, alongside Dan DiDio. Given the assignment, “my first reaction was, ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” Mr.
Lee said in an interview. But he welcomed the challenge: “When these characters become so
branded that you can’t change things, they become ossified.”
The new look — with an understated “W” insignia, a midnight blue jacket and a flinty fusion of
black tights and boots — is darker than the famed swimsuit-style outfit, and aims to be
contemporary, functional and, as Tim Gunn of “Project Runway” might say, less costumey.
Given the hope that the character will one day have her own international film franchise (a
feature has long been gestating at Warner Entertainment, DC’s parent company), one test of the
design was to imagine how it would look standing next to, say, Batman’s politically neutral
ensemble. “The original costume was the American flag brought to life,” Mr. Lee said. “This one
is a little more universal.”
Mr. Lee has drawn his share of sexy superheroines (the X-Men’s Rogue among them), some in
skimpy costume, and knows what many fans will ask: “Why am I covering up her legs?”
Ultimately, he wanted her to look strong “without screaming, ‘I’m a superhero.’ ”
The arrival of Issue 600 is a bit of comic-book sleight of hand, or, as DC calls it, a return to
historical numbering. Wonder Woman’s first self-titled series, which begin in 1942, ended with
No. 329. The character was then overhauled, her previous continuity erased, and she starred in
Volume 2 as a heroine new to the world. That incarnation lasted 226 issues. Another new
direction spurred a third volume (and, to collectors who care about such things, another Issue No.
1) that ran for 44 issues. Do the math, and what would have been Issue No. 45 is now Volume 1,
No. 600.
The new costume will almost certainly be better received than the curveball thrown Wonder
Woman in 1968, when she lost her powers, dressed mod and practiced martial arts. It took the
attention of no less than Gloria Steinem to protest the change, and to help get the Amazon back
into her star-spangled duds. Ms. Steinem went on to use Wonder Woman, resplendent in red,
white and blue, on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine in 1972. A cover line proclaimed,
“Wonder Woman for President.”
That’s the kind of attention Mr. Straczynski thinks she deserves: “Wonder Woman is a strong,
dynamic, vibrant character who should be selling in the top 20, and I’m going to do all I can to
get her there.”
34
INNOCENT/FOOL
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2 to be watched in class.
35
May 7, 2002 12:30 p.m.
New Yorker, American
Spider-Man has perfect timing.
(WARNING: The following column on the new Spider-Man movie contains what might be considered
SPOILERS. It discusses a number of themes, scenes, and dialogue. As such, if you haven't seen it yet — a small
minority, based on last weekend's box-office figures — you might want to skip the column until you have. Don't
worry, we're not going anywhere.)
t's no surprise that war produces heroes. However, what seems to have gone unnoticed is that
the shadows of war seem to be the breeding ground for the artistic inspiration that gives rise
to the stories of fictional legend.
How else to explain that the greatest archetypal superheroes of the 20th century all emerged
during times of geopolitical tension? In 1938, as Europe was becoming embroiled in an
emerging threat arising from Nazi Germany two young kids from Cleveland, Ohio created
their own "Username" legend. The story owed as much to the Bible as it did science fiction: A
scientist and his wife, confronted with the fact that their planet is dying, launch their only child
into space so he may escape their fate. It is, in its own fashion, a reworking of the Moses tale.
The baby lands in the United States Midwest and is adopted by an elderly couple. The rest, as
they say, is history.
It is the origin of Superman. Out of a sense of traditional American values, mixed perhaps with
an inherited sense of noblesse oblige, he recognizes that he has an obligation to use his powers
to protect his adopted home.
One year later — as the European situation grew even tenser, another American artist, Bob
Kane produced a darker vision. A boy sees his parents murdered in the middle of a robbery and
vows vengeance. The orphan becomes Batman, a hero driven by vengeance.
Three years later — mere months before the United States is attacked at Pearl Harbor — the
team of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon introduce the ultimate patriotic archetype — Captain
America. He's a regular, but skinny Army Joe — too weak to be on the frontlines — called
Steve Rogers. He volunteers for an experiment that would make him a "super-soldier."
Perhaps not by coincidence, the creators of all of these heroes were all Jewish Americans, in
their teens or early twenties. Perhaps that ethnic heritage explains the common themes of
abandonment, loss of home, and the existential need to bond oneself to a greater good.
36
Flashing forward four decades, a metaphorical Iron Curtain is draped across Europe. In 1961, a
physical partition separates East and West Berlin. It's the same year that a young American
president takes office. Another year passes, and a different type of hero hits the newsstands.
Like Superman and Batman, he is in orphan, though like the former he is taken in and
"adopted" into a nurturing environment. Unlike Captain America, he is not in the military. He's
just a high-school kid who gets bitten (in the original story) by a radioactive spider. Then,
through an act of adolescent selfishness, tragedy strikes. Thus, the fourth great superhero
archetype is born — driven by a guilt-induced responsibility and painfully aware of what can
occur when that responsibility is ignored. His name is, of course, Spider-Man.
(Interestingly, just as the nation feared the atomic bomb in the '50s and early-60s, radioactivity
of some sort figures into the creation of many of the early "Marvel" comic book heroes.
Cosmic rays create the Fantastic Four; gamma rays produce the Incredible Hulk; a radioactive
canister gives the blind Daredevil extra senses; radiation at the cellular level produces the
mutant X-Men, etc.)
Like his World War II era counterparts, Spider-Man would also have Jewish lineage in writer
Stan Lee. The background of Spidey's co-creator, Steve Ditko, is somewhat shrouded in
mystery though the Pennsylvania-born artist is said to have eastern European parents.
This back-story is particularly notable because, as the Spider-Man movie emerges, war and
rumors of war fill the American psyche to a degree not seen in decades. At the end of the film,
the wall crawler lands upon a flagpole bearing a huge American flag. The feeling conveyed is
obvious. Comic books — especially the superhero trope — are a unique part of Americana and
the blue-red-webbed hero is part of that tradition. The scene is reminiscent of the end of the
first Superman movie as the Man of Steel flies off holding a flagpole with Old Glory unfurled.
But, more than that, Spider-Man is an American hero — a human being — born of a particular
American moment. In this movie, the newly gifted teenage Peter Parker, after having beaten up
the school bully something proper, is told by his uncle that he is now at the age when "a man
changes into the man he'll become for the rest of his life." Ben Parker — though unaware of
his nephew's super-talents — nonetheless tries to impress upon him that can't just go around
beating up bullies. Whatever gifts he has must be put it to a worthy purpose.
But, remember, this is a Kennedy-era creation. The words "with great power comes great
responsibility" were originally written barely a year after the nation's brand-new commanderin-chief vowed in his inaugural address to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
Months after those words were spoken, America began its full involvement in Vietnam.
How the phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" takes on brand new context in
these uncertain early moments of the 21st century.
Spider-Man always has been the quintessential New Yorker. In fact, it is an eerie feeling,
watching Spider-Man swing through a fairly accurate on-screen depiction of the Big Apple. It's
not just Manhattan. Queens houses look like Queens houses. Soho diners look like Soho
37
diners. Yet, it is that faithfulness that reality makes it difficult to watch. As much as one is
drawn into the amazing fantasy taking place on the screen, the post-9/11 consciousness forces
inevitable questions to perk up. How can those celluloid New Yorkers — having been caught
in the middle of two super beings tearing up Times Square — stop to applaud Spider-Man's
coming to the "rescue"? There are buildings falling down around them!
However, in the movie's most satisfying scene, the hero finds himself high above the
Queensboro Bridge. The Goblin challenges Spider-Man to decide whom to save — his
girlfriend or innocent kids in a cable car. "We are who we choose to be," mocks the Goblin as
he drops his would be victims off the bridge. The words seem be an almost intentional contrast
to Ben Parker's observation to Peter Parker. The Goblin has made his choice. He has chosen
power — without responsibility.
The hero, of course, rejects the false "choice" thrust upon him and goes to save all of the
Goblin's victims — just as the villain zeroes in for the kill. But then, the tables are turned! In a
perfect inversion of the paradigm, Spider-Man himself is saved as a crowd starts throwing
things at the Goblin, distracting him just long enough. "You mess with one of us, you mess
with all of us," screams one New Yorker; it's the "Let's roll" moment — unexpected, yet
perfectly exhilarating. Consider too that the vituperative Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah
Jameson has decided that he can sell more newspapers pushing the idea that Spider-Man is a
criminal in league with the Green Goblin. In siding with Spider-Man, the crowd implicitly
rejects the media manipulation.
They know who their hero is; they know who the good guy is. But in helping to save him, the
average New Yorker manages to become a hero too. It is fitting, as the hero happens, powers
aside, to be an average guy. After saving the innocents, he then goes to extinguish the evil that
is the Goblin. How can any great power do less?
The message of that scene is that we can't just depend on our "heroes" to be perfect and save
our society. All Americans — not just the "heroes" — have to recognize that there are such
things as sacrifice involved as great power is wielded. Humility is a virtue that must be
mastered and arrogance a vice that must be tempered. America, as a great nation with great
power must exercise great responsibility. But, even those without "great power" manage to do
something great — or even merely "good" — just through basic human decency.
These are the lessons from Spider-Man. The character is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but
like any true archetypal hero, he always shows up at just the right time with just the right
message. The superhero reminds us what being American is all about.
— Mr. George is an editorial writer for the New York Post.
http://old.nationalreview.com/george/george050702.asp
38
Spiderman I Trailer removed because of 9-11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEm7yzaERos&feature=related
Amazing Spiderman #36 9-11 Tribute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcSlJqlq2yA
39
COWBOY
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Iron Man 1 and 2 to be watched in class.
40
Western (genre) http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/41275
The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts.
Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became
the Western United States (known as the American Old West or Wild West), but also in Western Canada,
Mexico ("The Wild Bunch", "Vera Cruz"), Alaska ("The Far Country", "North to Alaska") and even
Australia ("Quigley Down Under", "The Proposition"). Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of the
Alamo in 1836 but most are set between the end of the American Civil War and the massacre at
Wounded Knee in 1890, though there are several "late Westerns" (e.g., "The Wild Bunch" and "100
Rifles") set as late as the Mexican Revolution in 1913. There are also a number of films about Westerntype characters in contemporary settings where they don't fit in, such as "Junior Bonner" set in the 1970s,
and "Down in the Valley" and "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" in the 21st Century.
Westerns often portray how primitive and obsolete ways of life confronted modern technological or social
changes. This may be depicted by showing conflict between natives and settlers or U.S. Cavalry, or by
showing ranchers being threatened by the onset of the Industrial Revolution. American Westerns of the
1940s and 1950s emphasise the values of honor and sacrifice. Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s often
have more pessimistic view, glorifying a rebellious anti-hero and highlighting the cynicism, brutality and
inequality of the American West.
Themes
The Western genre, particularly in films, often portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the
subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original
inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organised around codes of honor, rather than
the law, in which persons have no social order larger than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps
themselves alone. The popular perception of the Western [this entire section largely summarises the
analysis of Kim Newman: "Wild West Movies"] is a story that centres on the life of a semi-nomadic
wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.
In some ways, such protagonists could be considered the literary descendants of the knight errant which
stood at the center of an earlier extensive genre. Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight
errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting
villains of various kinds and bound to no fixed social structures but only to his own innate code of honour.
And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress.
The technology of the era – such as the telegraph, printing press, and railroad – may be
evident, usually symbolising the imminent end of the frontier. In some "late Westerns", such as "The Wild
Bunch", the motor car and even the aeroplane are referenced. Weapons technology is very evident and a
recurring theme is the merit of the latest piece of "hardware", be it a repeating rifle produced by the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company or a Colt Single Action Army handgun. Dynamite also features
somewhat, both as a blasting agent and as a weapon, and to a lesser extent the Gatling gun.
The Western takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, usually set against the
spectacular scenery of the American West. Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and
frequently set the action in a desert-like landscape. Specific settings include isolated forts, ranches and
homesteads; the Native American village; or the small frontier town with its saloon, general store, livery
stable and jailhouse. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasises that this is the
"Wild West": it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), girls (often prostitutes), gambling
(draw poker or five card stud), drinking (beer or whiskey), brawling and shooting. In some Westerns,
where "civilisation" has arrived, the town has a church and a school; in others, where frontier rules still
hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value".
41
Film
Characteristics
Most of the characteristics of Westerns were part of 19th century popular Western literature and were
firmly in place before film became a popular art form. [Henry Nash Smith, "Virgin Land: The American
West as Symbol and Myth", Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1950.] Referred to as "dumbo's"
in film industry headlinese, Western films commonly feature as their protagonists stock characters such
as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, often depicted as semi-nomadic wanderers who wear
Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival, and
ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on faithful steeds.
The films often depict conflicts with Native Americans. While early ethnocentric Westerns frequently
portray the "Injuns" as dishonorable villains, the later more culturally neutral Westerns give the natives
more sympathetic treatment. Other recurring themes of Westerns include Western treks and groups of
bandits terrorising small towns such as in "The Magnificent Seven".
Early Westerns were mostly filmed in the studio, just like other early Hollywood films, but when location
shooting became more common from the 1930s, producers of Westerns used desolate corners of New
Mexico, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Kansas, Texas, Colorado or Wyoming. While many Westerns
were filmed in California and Arizona, most of them depicted Texas. Productions were also filmed on
location at movie ranches.
Often, the vast landscape becomes more than a vivid backdrop; it becomes a character in the film. After
the early 1950s, various wide screen formats such as cinemascope (1953) and VistaVision used the
expanded width of the screen to display spectacular Western landscapes. John Ford's use of Monument
Valley as an expressive landscape in his films from "Stagecoach" (1939) to "Cheyenne Autumn" (1965)
"present us with a mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West, embodied most
memorably in Monument Valley, with its buttes and mesas that tower above the men on horseback,
whether they be settlers, soldiers, or Native Americans". [Peter Cowie, see below]
Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in a desert-like
landscape with isolated forts, ranches, homesteads, Native American villages, and small frontier towns.
Wild west towns often have a saloon, general store, livery stable and jailhouse. Many films focus on the
conflicts between the settled townspeople and farmers (the epitome of "civilisation") as against the freeranging cattle herders opposed to fencing the land (epitomising "nature").
Western films, until recent times, had many anachronisms, particularly the firearms. Winchester 1892model rifles were frequently used in films set in the 1870s. Since the late 1960s, however, films have
shown more of the wide variety of period-appropriate arms used during the 1870s. For example, Arthur
Hunnicutt carries a revolving rifle during part of "El Dorado" (1967) and Lee Van Cleef is equipped with a
veritable arsenal of frontier firearms in "For A Few Dollars More" (1965).
ubgenres
The Western genre itself has sub-genres, such as the epic Western, the shoot 'em up, singing cowboy
Westerns, and a few comedy Westerns. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Western was re-invented with the
revisionist Western.
;Classical Westerns:The first Western film was the 1903 film "The Great Train Robbery", a silent film
directed by Edwin S. Porter and starring Broncho Billy Anderson. The film's popularity opened the door for
Anderson to become the screen's first cowboy star, making several hundred Western film shorts. So
popular was the genre that he soon had competition in the form of William S. Hart. The Golden Age of the
42
Western film is epitomised by the work of two directors: John Ford (who often used John Wayne for lead
roles) and Howard Hawks.
;Spaghetti Westerns:During the 1960s and 1970s, a revival of the Western emerged in Italy with the
"Spaghetti Westerns" or "Italo-Westerns". Many of these films are low-budget affairs, shot in locations (for
example, the Spanish desert region of Almería) chosen for their inexpensive crew and production costs
as well as their similarity to landscapes of the Southwestern United States. Spaghetti Westerns were
characterised by the presence of more action and violence than the Hollywood Westerns.
:The films directed by Sergio Leone have a parodic dimension (the strange opening scene of "Once Upon
a Time in the West" being a reversal of Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon" opening scene) which gave them
a different tone to the Hollywood Westerns. Charles Bronson, Lee van Cleef and Clint Eastwood became
famous by starring in Spaghetti Westerns, although they were also to provide a showcase for other noted
actors such as Jason Robards, James Coburn, Klaus Kinski and Henry Fonda.
;Osterns:Eastern-European-produced Westerns were popular in Communist Eastern European countries,
and were a particular favorite of Joseph Stalin. "Red Western" or "Ostern" films usually portrayed the
American Indians sympathetically, as oppressed people fighting for their rights, in contrast to American
Westerns of the time, which frequently portrayed the Indians as villains. They frequently featured Gypsies
or Turkic people in the role of the Indians, due to the shortage of authentic Indians in Eastern Europe.
:Gojko Mitić portrayed righteous, kind hearted and charming Indian chiefs ("Die Söhne der großen Bärin"
directed by Josef Mach). He became honorary chief of the tribe of Sioux when he visited the United
States of America in the 1990s and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe one of his
films. American actor and singer Dean Reed, an expatriate who lived in East Germany, also starred in
several films.
:The Ostern genre developed in the Soviet Union as a home-grown counterpart to the American Western.
Osterns are set in Central Asia or the Russian steppes during the post-revolutionary Russian Civil War.
The historic setting of the Russian Civil War shared many of the iconic features of the Wild West: a
romantic opposition of good and evil, a culture clash with occasionally hostile natives, horseback riding,
trains, lawlessness, gunplay, and vast landscapes. The quintessential example of the Ostern is the cult
film "The White Sun of the Desert".
;Revisionist Western:In genre studies, films that change traditional elements of a genre are called
"revisionist." After the early 1960s, many American film-makers began to question and change many
traditional elements of Westerns. One major change was in the increasingly positive representation of
Native Americans who had been treated as "savages" in earlier films ("Little Big Man"). Audiences were
encouraged to question the simple hero-versus-villain dualism and the morality of using violence to test
one's character or to prove oneself right.
:Some recent Westerns give women more powerful roles. One of the earlier films that encompasses all
these features was the 1956 adventure film "The Last Wagon" in which Richard Widmark played a white
man raised by Commanches and persecuted by Whites, with Felicia Farr and Susan Kohner playing
young women forced into leadership roles.
;Acid Western:Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum refers to makeshift 1960s and 1970s genre called the acid
Western, associated with Dennis Hopper, Jim McBride, and Rudy Wurlitzer, as well as films like Monte
Hellman's "The Shooting", Alejandro Jodorowsky's bizarre experimental film "El Topo (The Mole)", and
Robert Downey Sr.'s "Greaser's Palace". The 1970 film "El Topo" is an allegorical, cult Western and
underground film about the eponymous character - a violent, black-clad gunfighter - and his quest for
enlightenment. The film is filled with bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf
performers, and heavy doses of Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy. Some spaghettis also
43
crossed over into the acid genre, such as Enzo G. Castellari's mystical "Keoma" (released in 1976), a
western reworking of Ingmar Bergman's metaphysical "The Seventh Seal".
:More recent films include Alex Cox's "Walker", and Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man". Rosenbaum describes
the "acid Western" as "formulating a chilling, savage frontier poetry to justify its hallucinated agenda."
Ultimately, the "acid Western" expresses a counterculture sensibility to critique and replace capitalism
with alternative forms of exchange.cite web|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0696/06286.html|title="Acid
Western: Dead Man"|publisher="Chicago Reader"|date=June 26th, 1996|first=Jonathan|last=Rosenbaum ]
;Contemporary Westerns:Although these films have contemporary American settings, they utilise Old
West themes and motifs (a rebellious anti-hero, open plains and desert landscapes, and gunfights). For
the most part, they still take place in the American West and reveal the progression of the Old West
mentality into the late twentieth century. This sub-genre often features Old West-type characters
struggling with displacement in a "civilised" world that rejects their outdated brand of justice.
:Examples include "Hud" starring Paul Newman (1963), Tommy Lee Jones' "The Three Burials of
Melquiades Estrada" (2005); Sam Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974); John
Sayles' "Lone Star" (1996); Robert Rodríguez's "El Mariachi" (1992); Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain"
(2005); Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knocking" (2005); and the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning
"No Country For Old Men" (2007).
;Science fiction Western:These films introduces science fiction themes or futuristic elements into a
Western setting. Examples include "The Dark Tower series" by Stephen King, "Back to the Future Part
III", "Westworld", and "Wild Wild West". This style is distinguished from space Westerns, such as
"Serenity" or "Bravestarr", which introduce Western elements into a science fiction backdrop.
;Curry WesternThe ever-popular spaghetti westerns laid the place for "Sholay" first in line for a line of
Indian westerns, affectionately calledcurry westerns.
Genre studies
In the 1960s academic and critical attention to cinema as a legitimate art form emerged. With the
increased attention, film theory was developed to attempt to understand the significance of film. From this
environment emerged (in conjunction with the literary movement) an enclave of critical studies called
genre studies. This was primarily a semantic and structuralist approach to understanding how similar films
convey meaning.
Long derided for its simplistic morality, the Western film genre came to be seen instead as a series of
conventions and codes that acted as a short-hand communication methods with the audience. For
example, a hero wears a white hat, while the villain wears a black hat; when two men face each other
down a deserted street, there will be a showdown; cattlemen and ranchers are loners, while townsfolk are
family and community-minded, etc. All Western films can be read as a series of codes and the variations
on those codes.
Since the 1970s, the Western genre has been unraveled through a series of films that used the codes but
primarily as a way of undermining them ("Little Big Man" and "Maverick" did this through comedy). Kevin
Costner's "Dances with Wolves" actually resurrects all the original codes and conventions. "Unforgiven",
written by David Webb Peoples and directed by Clint Eastwood, uses every one of the original
conventions, only reverses the outcomes. Instead of dying bravely or stoically, characters whine, cry, and
beg; instead of a hero saving the innocent, it is a villain who steps in to seek revenge.
One of the results of genre studies is that some have argued that "Westerns" need not take place in the
American West or even in the 19th century, as the codes can be found in other types of films. For
example, a very typical Western plot is that an eastern lawman heads west, where he matches wits and
44
trades bullets with a gang of outlaws and thugs, and is aided by a local lawman who is well-meaning but
largely ineffective until a critical moment when he redeems himself by saving the hero's life. This
description can be used to describe any number of Westerns, as well as the action film "Die Hard". "Hud",
starring Paul Newman, and Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", are other frequently cited examples of
films that do not take place in the American West but have many themes and characteristics common to
Westerns. Likewise, films set in the old American West may not necessarily be considered "Westerns."
Influences
Many Western films after the mid-1950s were influenced by the Japanese samurai films of Akira
Kurosawa. For instance "The Magnificent Seven" was a remake of Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", and
both "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Last Man Standing" were remakes of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", which itself
was inspired by "Red Harvest", an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Kurosawa was
influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford. [Patrick
Crogan. " [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/00/9/kurosawa.html Translating Kurosawa] ." "Senses of Cinema".]
Despite the Cold War, the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own
take on the genre, the so called "Red Western" or "Ostern". Generally these took two forms: either
straight Westerns shot in the Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the Russian Revolution and civil war
and the Basmachi rebellion in which Turkic peoples play a similar role to Mexicans in traditional
Westerns.
An offshoot of the Western genre is the "post-apocalyptic" Western, in which a future society, struggling to
rebuild after a major catastrophe, is portrayed in a manner very similar to the 19th century frontier.
Examples include "The Postman" and the "Mad Max" series, and the computer game series "Fallout".
Many elements of space travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western
genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams'
"Outland" transferred the plot of "High Noon" to interstellar space. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the
"Star Trek" series, once described his vision for the show as "Wagon Train" to the stars".
More recently, the space opera series "Firefly" used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier
worlds. Anime shows like "Cowboy Bebop", "Trigun" and "Outlaw Star" have been similar mixes of
science fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either
Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging
essentially to other genres. For example, "Kelly's Heroes" is a war film, but action and characters are
Western-like. The British film "Zulu" set during the Anglo-Zulu War has sometimes been compared to a
Western, even though it is set in South Africa.
The character played by Humphrey Bogart in film noir films such as "Casablanca", "To Have and Have
Not" or "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" - an individual bound only by his own private code of honour has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western, has also explored noir elements,
as with the film "Sugar Creek".
In many of Robert A. Heinlein's books, the settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly
modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his "Tunnel in the Sky" settlers set out to
the planet "New Cannan", via an interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in conestoga wagons,
their captain sporting moustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse - with Heinlein
explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more
practical than machines.
Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, high
fantasy, science fiction and horror. The protagonist Roland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and
personality are largely inspired by the "Man with No Name" from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the
superhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only
45
powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. The Western genre has been parodied on a
number of occasions, famous examples being "Support Your Local Sheriff!", "Cat Ballou", Mel Brooks's
"Blazing Saddles", and "Rustler's Rhapsody".
George Lucas's "Star Wars" films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for
"Star Wars" to revitalise cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The Jedi, who take their
name from Jidaigeki, are modeled after samurai, showing the influence of Kurosawa. The character Han
Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the Mos Eisley Cantina is much like an Old West saloon.
Television
Television Westerns are a sub-genre of the Western, a genre of film, fiction, and drama in which stories
are set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West), Western Canada and
Mexico during the period from about 1860 to the end of the so-called "Indian Wars." When television
became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, TV Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. A
number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right. Notable TV Westerns include
"Gunsmoke", "The Lone Ranger", and "Bonanza".
The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during prime-time. Increasing
costs of American television production led to most action half hour series vanishing in the early 1960s to
be replaced by hour long television shows, increasingly in colour. [Kisseloff, J. (editor) "The Box: An Oral
History of Television"] In the 1970s, new elements were incorporated into TV Westerns, such as crime
drama and mystery whodunnit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included "McCloud", "Hec
Ramsey", "Little House on the Prairie", and "Kung Fu". In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and
slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced. As well, new elements were once again
added to the Western formula, such as the Western-science fiction show "Firefly", created by Joss
Whedon in 2002. "Deadwood", which aired on HBO, was a critically-acclaimed Western series which
aired from 2004 through 2006.
Literature
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West between the years of 1860 and 1900.
Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the
mid 20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised
Westerns such as "Bonanza". Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and has reached a
new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, only carry a small number of
Western fiction books.
Literary forms that share similar themes include the gaucho literature of Argentina and tales of the
European settlement of the Australian Outback.
Visual art
A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American
West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of
art includes paintings, sculptures and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included
exploration of the Western states and cowboy themes. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are
two artists who captured the "Wild West" on canvas. Some art museums and art collectors feature
American Western Art.
46
Other media
The Western genre is also used in comic books, computer and video games and role playing games. In
comics, the Western has been done straight, as in the classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s;
in the 1990s and 2000s, the Western comic has been done in a more Weird West fashion, usually
involving supernatural horror such as vampires and ghouls. In computer games, the Western genre is
either straight Western or a Western-horror hybrid.Some Western themed-computer games include the
1970s game" The Oregon Trail", the 1990s game "Outlaws" (a first-person shooter), and the 2000s-era
"GUN", "Red Dead Revolver" and Call of Juarez. Another game that falls into the space-western category
is the 2000 game "Gunman Chronicles" in which you played a gunman, against an oppressive general
who was robed in uniform much like that used during the civil war. Your enemies would include outlaws
and bounty hunters armed with laser pistols and other weapons (as well as fighting aliens and even
dinosaurs on some levels). One level took place on a desert planet, looking much like the old American
west.
47
BEHEMOUTH/JEKYLL AND HYDE
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Hulk dir. Ang Lee
The Incredible Hulk Reboot
Hulk Vs. Wolverine
48
The Hulk: Fact vs. Fiction
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
July 2, 2003
A few years ago, the filmmakers behind The Hulk began surfing the Internet in search of some real-life science
to update the classic comic book story about a shy scientist who transforms into a raging beast.
On the Web site for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they found what they were looking for: the
Gamma Sphere, a super-advanced spectrometer designed to detect gamma rays, extremely powerful radiation.
With its vivid colors and angled metal supports, the hulking machine looked the perfect part. Hollywood
technology wizards quickly built their own replica of the Gamma Sphere. In the movie, the monster within Bruce
Banner is unleashed after the scientist is hit with gamma rays during an experiment.
"The Gamma Sphere in the movie is very realistic and looks the same as the real one," said I-Yang Lee, who
heads Berkeley's nuclear physics program. "But there's one big difference. Our Gamma Sphere doesn't emit
radiation, it detects it."
OK, so there may not be a real gamma ray machine that occasionally zaps poor scientists and turns them into
giant green monsters. Hollywood can still twist the truth to fit or embellish a story.
But the science behind Hollywood movies is turning increasingly sophisticated. As audiences grow more
science savvy—there are even Web sites rating movies based on the plausibility of movie physics—filmmakers
strive to make their movies as scientifically realistic as possible.
Mutated DNA
In The Hulk, Banner's father, David, an Army scientist, gets a little carried away with an experiment to boost his
immune system by mutating his DNA. He survives, but passes on the mutated DNA to his son, Bruce.
When Bruce, who grows up to be a scientist, is hit with a massive dose of gamma radiation—fatal to anyone
with a normal genetic makeup—he doesn't die. Instead, the accident triggers the mutated DNA and unleashes
the Hulk within Bruce.
To ensure that the story was based on accurate science, Universal Pictures hired a science consultant, John
Underkoffler, to work on the movie.
"The first thing they wanted me to come up with was an explanation for the research that the scientists in the
film were pursuing, which would then lead to the accident that creates the Hulk," said Underkoffler.
"[The director] also wanted all the background, the techniques and gestures, from how to hold a beaker to the
more theoretical, to be as realistic as possible."
While the mutations that the Hulk goes through are clearly in the comic book realm, doctors in real life are able
to introduce genes into the body to repair damage on a sub-cellular level.
The catalyst that triggers the younger Banner's transformation may not be that far-fetched either. Studies have
49
documented the amazing effects of the addition of a simple dose of adrenaline into the bloodstream of animals
and humans.
Adrenaline boosts has been known to provide brief episodes of superhuman strength, like the time when a 123pound (56-kilogram) Florida mom reportedly lifted a 3,000-pound (1,350-kilogram) vehicle off her trapped child.
Teaching Comic Book Science
A few books, such as The Science of Superheroes by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg, test the science
depicted in comic books. Some university professors, like James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis, even believe the fantastic feats of superheroes are useful for teaching physics.
Kakalios teaches a physics course nicknamed, "Everything I know of science, I learnt from reading comic
books," where final exam projects have posed such questions as: "If you, like the comic book hero the Flash,
were to run around the world in 80 seconds, how much would you have to eat in order to have the calories?"
(Answer: everything in The Joy of Cooking—26 times).
"Students are so busy enjoying their superhero ice cream sundae that they don't notice that I'm sneakily getting
them to lower their guard and eat their spinach at the same time," Kakalios told an American Physical Society
meeting in Austin, Texas, this spring.
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics
Then there are the self-proclaimed "techno-nerds," who dissect and criticize every technical or scientific detail
in movies. One Web site, "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics," even reviews movies based on their scientific
merit.
Titanic, Pearl Harbor and the first Terminator movie all receive a "PGP" rating for "pretty good physics."
Meanwhile, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Armageddon, and AI: Artificial Intelligence were slapped with
"XP" ratings for containing "physics from an unknown universe." Tom Rogers, an engineer who runs the Web
site, has not seen The Hulk, but based on the trailers and on-line reviews his impression is that its physics are
"pure comic book silliness."
"In theory, a rapid metamorphosis process is possible, but not on the level depicted in the movie," he said.
Rogers believes that, short term, the Hulk's strength could increase by as much as ten times, and the perceived
size could increase by, say, 25 percent.
This could be done by some combination of inhaling and changing to a more upright posture.
"However, it couldn't be done without decreasing density," he said. "The Hulk appears to be at least twice his
normal human height when he first appears.
"This would mean an increase in volume of eight times and an increase in weight of eight times. Where would
all this mass come from?"
Meanwhile, I-Yang Lee, the nuclear scientist at the Berkeley lab, saw the movie. He agrees that it's not realistic,
but says he still liked it.
"At least it had a plot," he said. "Science fiction movies don't always have that."
© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
50
Hulk
Release Date: 2003
Ebert Rating: ***
By Roger Ebert Jun 20, 2003
The Hulk is rare among Marvel superheroes in that his powers are a curse, not an advantage. When
rage overcomes Dr. Bruce Banner and he turns into a green monster many times his original size, it
is not to fight evil or defend the American way, but simply to lash out at his tormentors. Like the
Frankenstein stories that are its predecessors, "Hulk" is a warning about the folly of those who would
toy with the secrets of life. It is about the anguish of having powers you did not seek and do not
desire. "What scares me the most," Banner tells his only friend, Betty Ross, "is that when it happens,
when it comes over me, when I totally lose control, I like it." Ang Lee's "Hulk" (the movie's title drops
"the") is the most talkative and thoughtful recent comic book adaptation. It is not so much about a
green monster as about two wounded adult children of egomaniacs. Banner (Eric Bana) was fathered
by a scientist (Nick Nolte) who has experimented on his own DNA code, and passed along genes that
are transformed by a lab accident into his son's hulkhood. Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) is his
research partner; they were almost lovers, but it didn't work out, and she speaks wryly of "my
inexplicable fascination with emotionally distant men." Her cold father is General Ross (Sam Elliott),
filled with military bluster and determined to destroy the Hulk.
These two dueling oedipal conflicts are at the heart of "Hulk," and it's touching how in many scenes
we are essentially looking at damaged children. When the Hulk's amazing powers become known,
the military of course tries to kill him (that's the routine solution in most movies about aliens and
monsters), but there's another villain who has a more devious scheme. That's Talbot (Josh Lucas), a
venal entrepreneur who wants to use Banner's secret to manufacture a race of self-repairing soldiers.
Lots of money there.
The movie brings up issues about genetic experimentation, the misuse of scientific research and our
instinctive dislike of misfits, and actually talks about them. Remember that Ang Lee is the director of
films such as "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility," as well as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon"; he is trying here to actually deal with the issues in the story of the Hulk, instead of simply
cutting to brainless special effects.
Just as well, too, because the Hulk himself is the least successful element in the film. He's convincing
in closeup but sort of jerky in long shot--oddly, just like his spiritual cousin, King Kong. There are
times when his movements subtly resemble the stop-frame animation used to create Kong, and I
wonder if that's deliberate; there was a kind of eerie oddness about Kong's movement that was
creepier than the slick smoothness of modern computer-generated creatures.
"King Kong" is of course one of Lee's inspirations, in a movie with an unusual number of references to
film classics. "Bride of Frankenstein" is another, as in a scene where Hulk sees his reflection in a
pond. No prizes for identifying "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as the source of the original comics. Other
references include "Citizen Kane" (the Hulk tears apart a laboratory) and "The Right Stuff" (a jet
airplane flies so high the stars are visible). There also is a shade of Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Gen.
Ross, who is played by Elliott in a masterful demonstration of controlled and focused almostoveracting.
The film has its share of large-scale action sequences, as rockets are fired at the Hulk and he
responds by bringing down helicopters. And there are the obligatory famous landmarks, real and
unreal, we expect in a superhero movie; the Golden Gate Bridge, Monument Valley, and of course an
elaborate secret laboratory where Hulk can be trapped in an immersion chamber while his DNA is
51
extracted.
But these scenes are secondary in interest to the movie's central dramas, which involve the two sets
of fathers and children. Banner has a repressed memory of a traumatic childhood event, and it is
finally jarred loose after he meets his father again after many years. Nolte, looking like a man in
desperate need of a barber and flea powder, plays Banner's dad as a man who works in the same
laboratory, as a janitor. He uses DNA testing to be sure this is indeed his son, and in one clandestine
conversation tells him, "You're going to have to watch that temper of yours." Connelly's character also
has big issues with her father--she trusts him when she shouldn't--and it's amusing how much the
dilemma of this character resembles the situation of the woman she played in "A Beautiful Mind."
Both times she's in love with a brilliant scientist who's a sweetheart until he goes haywire, and who
thinks he's being pursued by the government.
The movie has an elegant visual strategy; after countless directors have failed, Ang Lee figures out
how split-screen techniques can be made to work. Usually they're an annoying gimmick, but here he
uses moving frame-lines and pictures within pictures to suggest the dynamic storytelling techniques
of comic books. Some shots are astonishing, as foreground and background interact and reveal one
another. There is another technique, more subtle, that reminds me of comics: He often cuts between
different angles in the same closeup--not cutting away, but cutting from one view of a face to another,
as graphic artists do when they need another frame to deal with extended dialogue.
Whether "Hulk" will appeal to its primary audience--teenage science fiction fans--is hard to say. No
doubt it will set the usual box office records over the weekend, but will it reach audiences who will
respond to its dramatic ambition? Ang Lee has boldly taken the broad outlines of a comic book story
and transformed them to his own purposes; this is a comic book movie for people who wouldn't be
caught dead at a comic book movie.
Cast & Credits
Bruce Banner: Eric Bana
Betty Ross: Jennifer Connelly
Father: Nick Nolte
Ross: Sam Elliott
Talbot: Josh Lucas
Young David Banner: Paul Kersey
Universal Pictures Presents A Film Directed By Ang Lee. Written By John Turman, Michael France,
James Schamus, Jack Kirby And Stan Lee. Based On The Story By James Schamus. Running Time:
138 Minutes. Rated PG-13 (For Sci-Fi Action Violence, Some Disturbing Images And Brief Partial
Nudity).
copyright 2005, rogerebert.com
52
Hulk Vs. Wolverine, 2009
What is the point of this film? We have not discussed Wolverine as a character but I’m sure
many of you are familiar with him. What is the contrast between Hulk and Wolverine?
53
THE GOD
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
54
Thor Vs. Hulk: 2009
What are the themes of this film?
Explain the character of Thor, who is he, what does he do, what does he stand for?
What is Asgaard? How is it an ideal?
55
NPR
This Is Something Of A Thor Point
Categories: Movies, Comics
11:25 am
August 11, 2010
by Glen Weldon
Marvel
Chris Samnee's gorgeous art lifts one new Thor comic far above the rest, on pigeon's wings.
Sort of.
Last year, as casting news for the upcoming Thor film (helmed by Kenneth Branagh, helmeted
by a coupla great big honkin' pigeon wings) began to leak out, I expressed some doubts.
Not that Branagh wasn't the right man for the job; the guy knows his way around thees and
thous, as I mentioned, and his hagiographic Henry V was less heavy-hangs-the-head boy king,
and more superhero-in-a-bowl-haircut.
No, my misgivings ran more to the order of "Your lead character's a haughty, shouty, empathyproof god whose whole schtick is to act like a self-serious jerk, so, yeah, good luck with that." I
56
may have also mentioned that those wings on his helmet made him look like a Bally's showgirl
on the juice.
I heard from Thor fans, who defended their hero with oaths invoking Odin, and from devotees of
classic drama, who threw words like hubris and hamartia around. Which, let's note, only sound
like delicious Mediterranean appetizers.
The Thor fans assured me that his recent writers have gotten a good handle on the character,
while the theater geeks reminded me that bringing the haughty down to earth has been a
dramatic staple ever since Seven Against Thebes was standing-room-only.
But here's the thing: The character just plain leaves me cold. Always has, and neither fanboy
assurances nor dramaturgical dissertations can change that. You respond to a given hero, or
you don't, and Thor's in my don't pile. I can point to things like his haughtiness; his daunting,
can't-tell-the-pantheon-without-a-scorecard cast of fellow Asgardians; or the hilariously
fatalistic/portentous tone that clings to him. (Ragnarok'll do that to you). But that'd be like trying
to articulate why you don't like, say, cantaloupe.
Last month, producers showed an extended trailer of the Branagh film at Comic-Con. A
remarkably crisp HD version leaked online soon after. Marvel keeps taking it down until they
officially release it to theaters, but if you're curious, it remains just a quick Google search away.
As trailers go, it's good-looking. When it comes to Asgard, you either go big or go home, and
Branagh has gone big. Frost Giant big. The costumes are exactly as unapologetically over-thetop as they should be — Loki's helmet, for example, is famously, even iconically ridiculous, the
kind of thing you can't imagine working in three dimensions — but there it is. As Thor, Chris
Hemsworth gets his shout on — you haven't seen nostrils flare like that since Seabiscuit — and
there's Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Hopkinsing around.
It's also, as trailers go, crazy long and plot-heavy. And it's certainly true to the character — well,
to my own perception of the character, anyway, as my reaction to it was essentially: "Yep.
That's the Thor I know and can take or leave, right there."
Marvel's cranking up more Thor comics in advance of the movie. I mean, just look at this page
— I count 4 mini-series, a spin-off, several one-shots and reprints, plus the main ongoing series.
Which is to say: They're getting this guy ready for his Iron Man closeup.
Amid this thicket of Thors, one title — Thor: The Mighty Avenger, written by Roger
Langridge, with art by Chris Samnee — stands giant-pigeon-wings-and-shoulders above the
rest.
57
Marvel
It's an all-ages title, for one thing, which means the book's mood doesn't default to
brooding/fatalistic/self-serious. And while there's a overall story arc running in the background,
there's a clear intent to tell a stand-alone story in each issue.
58
Marvel
We've previously discussed why and how Langridge is deserving of your attention. He's doing
great work here, even if his approach is straight from the fish-out-of-water playbook. Langridge
has essentially rebooted the character, sending him crashing to earth with only hazy memories
of his Asgardian life, having him meet-cute a museum curator named Jane who introduces him
to the modern world as he attempts to reclaim his powers and his place among the gods.
59
Langridge's Thor, in other words, is everything the Thor who lives in my head is not: humorous,
vulnerable, fascinated by the life on Earth and — here's a word I'd never thought I'd type in re:
the God of Thunder — downright cheery. It's the oldest trick in the book, rebooting him like this,
but the reason it's still in the book is because, when done with as much care and humor as it's
done here, it works.
Langridge got me interested, but he wasn't what turned me around, what makes me love this
book and this character to the (still surprising!) extent that I do. That's Chris Samnee.
Marvel
Samnee's art is freaking gorgeous — you admire his layouts, and the way his linework manages
to seem whimsical and cartoony while lending the characters, and the world, a palpable realism,
a definite heft. But what really makes Thor: The Mighty Avenger great comics is Samnee's
60
visual storytelling — the grin on Thor's face as he gets up from a bar brawl, the wary stance he
adopts upon first encountering an answering machine. Samnee fills the book with happy little
details that pull your eye across the page. The guy even makes the pigeon wings work.
Marvel
61
Marvel
Meanwhile, over on the main Thor title, writer Matt Fraction is taking over in September, with
art by Pasqual Ferry. Fraction's one of my personal Whither-Thou-Goest-I-Will-Go writers, so I
was already going to check out their first issue. When I first heard the news — long before I
picked up the Langridge/Samnee book — I was encouraged that Marvel put a writer like
62
Fraction, who enlivens his books with an easy, unforced humor, onto a character like Thor, who
... not so much with the funny, as noted.
I was encouraged, but not hopeful: There'll still be years of backstory to contend with; I couldn't
pick Frigga out of a lineup of Balders; and there's the ever-looming threat that the title could
get swept up in some company-wide crossover event at the drop of a helm. And at the end of
the day, I told myself, it'll still be Thor. Arrogant, omnipotent, tiresomely "Thou didst not reckon
on the might of Thor, knave!" Thor.
But you know what? I'm in. And I may even pick up some of those reprints, to get up to speed.
All because, practically overnight, because of one very specific, whimsical and, again, freaking
gorgeous take on the character, I've become that which I once mocked: A fan of Thor. ...Thor!
By Odin's beard.
63
PATRIOT
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
64
Sniper dispatches Captain America, a superhero since '41, in latest edition
updated 3/8/2007 10:35:13 AM ET
NEW YORK — Captain America has undertaken his last mission — at least for now. The
venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the
New York Daily News reported.
On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a
courthouse, according to the newspaper.
It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941 to incarnate
patriotic feeling during World War II. Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of
"Captain America" comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have
been sold in a total of 75 countries.
But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment editor in
chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible.
Still, the character's death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon.
"We really need him now," said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise Captain
America as a foe for Adolf Hitler.
According to the comic, the superhero was spawned when a scrawny arts student named Steve
Rogers, ineligible for the army because of his poor health but eager to serve his country, agreed
to a "Super Soldier Serum" injection. The substance made him a paragon of physical perfection,
armed only with his shield, his strength, his smarts and a command of martial arts.
In the comic-book universe, death is not always final. But even if Captain America turns out to
have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel has said it is developing a
Captain America movie.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
65
Captain America, thought dead, comes back to life




Story Highlights
Captain America being resurrected; superhero was killed off over two years ago
Recent issues of Marvel comics shed light on plot behind superhero's death
"It just feels like the right time," says Marvel Comics editor
By Chris Kokenes
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Perhaps he should be called Captain Phoenix?
Rising from the dead after being killed off over two years ago, Captain America is being
resurrected by Marvel Comics.
Though the circumstances of his return are being closely shielded, the star-spangled superhero
returns July 1 in a five-comic-book series, "Captain America Reborn."
A big-budget movie in development by Marvel is also expected in 2011.
After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in
2007, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes, amid a controversial story line.
He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of supervillains, but a sniper's bullet cut Captain America down in 2007, a move that shocked many of
his fans.
"The reaction was amazing," says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. "It certainly was like
the world went crazy for three days. Everybody had a point of view about it, including fans who
hadn't read the comic for 30 years."
In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed
after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event. Marvel said the comic story line was
intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the war on
terror and September 11.
Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse
steps. It was a violent and strange end for an American hero and icon.
The primary shooter, Crossbones -- working under the orders of Captain America's longtime
nemesis, the Red Skull -- was caught. The identity of a second shooter is revealed in issue 600,
which goes on sale Monday.
66
Many felt Captain America's death in 2007 was symbolic of the time. And his return now?
"The tenor of the world now is when we're at a point where we want to believe in heroes.
Someone who can lead the way," said Brevoort. "It just feels like the right time."
Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a
symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers.
As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was born before the Great
Depression in a very different America. He disappeared after the war and only reappeared
recently in the Marvel timeline.
Keeping superheroes dead and buried does not come easy. Even Superman, who was killed off
by DC Comics in 1993, came back to life a year later.
And what of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes? After taking up the shield and mission
of Captain America for the past year, it'll be time to relinquish the mantle. Is there room for two
sentinels of liberty? Stay tuned.
Glenn Perreia contributed to this report.
Captain America Lies A-Mouldering in the Grave
By Lev Grossman on March 8, 2007
So Captain America is dead. I know this not because I've read the comic, but because I've read
the news reports about the comic.
Oddly enough I'm a fan of Captain America. I say 'oddly' because when I was a kid old flaghead
wasn't considered one of the 'cool' comics -- he wasn't dark and edgy like the X-Men. He wasn't
secretly a nerd. He was a big ol' jock with jingoistic iconography all over him. He was The Man.
Nobody loves The Man.
But the weird thing was, I like CA more the older I've gotten. He's just so deeply unpretentious -there's no power cosmic about him, no moaning and groaning about good and evil. He got his
shots, and now he punches people (and whacks them with his shield) like I punch a clock. He
doesn't sing a damn opera about it. There's a particular run of his, it must have been in the late
eighties, when he was fighting the Red Skull and his Skeleton Crew, who at the time included
the busty and rather tragic Mother Night, and the deeply awesome Taskmaster (I always wanted
his powers), as well as headless Arnim Zola and his weirdly gelatinous Doughboy -- you read
those issues, which were so rich and violent and sharply written, and so perfectly worked-out,
and so unfussy, and you just said, yeah, screw those emo whiners, this is what I want. This is
what it would really be like.
67
That said, I just can't get that worked up about his death. When an icon like Captain America
eats a bullet, you know it's just a publicity stunt. An effective one, given the coverage it's gotten,
but come on. There's going to be a clone, or some time traveling, or some alien medicine, or
something. (There's already theories about this out there.) Guys like Captain America just don't
stay dead. Why mourn them? Right? Name one instance where one of the big guys went down
and stayed down...
Read more: http://techland.com/2007/03/08/captain_america_lies_amoulderi/#ixzz0vTZALlDJ
68
THE FOUR VIRTUES: Morrell Talks
"Captain America: The Chosen"
by Dave Richards, Staff Writer |
Mon, August 13th, 2007 at 12:00AM (PDT)
In February of this year, one of the Marvel Comics' greatest
heroes, Captain America was slain, but that doesn't mean there
aren't more tales left to be told of the Sentinel of Liberty.
Beginning this September, writer David Morrell and artist Mitch
Breitweiser will give readers a brand new Captain America story
with the six-issue "Captain America: The Chosen" miniseries.
Morrell, the author of 24 novels including the 1972 thriller "First
Blood," which introduced the world to the iconic action hero
John Rambo, has been a comic fan at various points in his life.
"When I was a kid I used to go on roller skates to a store that
was five blocks away. They sold new comics but most of their
trade was in used ones," Morrell told CBR News. "I'm of an age
that I was around when the EC Comics were coming out, like
'Tales From the Crypt.' I just loved those. After what happened
with the government and comic books, things were all so tepid;
so I sort of lost my interest.
First Look at "Captain America: The
"Time moved on, I think my interest got rekindled when
Chosen" #4
'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' came out and I saw how you
could have that realistic look and go for deep psychological
themes. I can't say that I've been a constant reader because the nature of my life is that I always
have deadlines so I can't keep up with everything."
69
Morrell has, however, kept up with the comic book work of some his
friends and fellow novelists. "One of my friends is Max Allan Collins,"
Morrell said. "I've watched his career of course, with 'Dick Tracy' and
particularly what he did with 'Road to Perdition.' I also know Joe
Lansdale ["Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo"], who's worked in comics. So,
a lot of my friends have worked in comics and I always thought it
would be nice to be in that world but I didn't know how to make it
happen. Also given that comics are illustrated stories, it seemed like a
secret society in the sense of 'How the heck did these things get
written?'"
"Captain America: The Chosen" #1" on
sale in September
Morrell's entrance to the world of comics came when former
Marvel Editor Andy Schmidt contacted him. "I believe he found
my website and e-mailed me through the site. I answer all the emails I get there," Morrell explained. "He said, 'Can we talk? I
have a project you might be interested in.' So we got on the
phone and he said he had been thinking about ways to add some
new vitality to Captain America. One of the things that he
thought was that it would be fun for the creator of Rambo to
write a Captain America story."
Schmidt's offer intrigued Morrell, so he told the editor he was interested -- but they just had one big
hurdle to clear first. "I needed to find out if I could write for comics. It's a different train track from
novels," Morrell explained. "I like to do research so I immediately read books of theory about how comic
books are created and written also Andy had sent me an awful lot of material about Captain America
and some other heroes. I looked at some comic scripts and was sort of reminded of storyboards for
films. I've written for films.
"I immediately thought this could kind of cool because, Will Eisner talks about this, the space
between the panels is a main force in a comic book," Morrell continued. "You sort of only hit the
highlights and as a consequence a close up of just a face staring has tremendous power. I went
out and read most of what Will Eisner had to say about writing for comics."
Morrell was also intrigued by the unique way in which comic books can surprise the reader. "I've not
seen this written down but I assume every comic writer understands this, and it was something I
grasped a little slowly, is if say you're looking at page two of a comic you're also looking at page three.
Your peripheral vision sort of does a gestalt of those two pages but whenever you turn the page the
opportunity for surprise is very great. I tried to have some of the really big images of my story occur in
that fashion. Like in one particular issue you turn the page and all these fighter jets are screaming at you
almost in 3-D. When Mitch showed me those images I gasped and thought how exciting things can get
when you turn the page like that."
Once Morrell felt comfortable with his ability to pen a great comic script he began discussing the
details of his story with Marvel. "I told them what I wanted to do was a big story that would be
70
set in Afghanistan and it would have the feel of a mini-novel," Morrell stated. It would deal with
the very big theme of being a superhero in today's world, especially a superhero named after the
United States."
After the story details were ironed out development seemed to stop on Morrell's Captain America
project, so the writer took the initiative. "I wrote the first issue. I didn't have a contract yet. I just wrote
it and sent it in," he explained. "This got some attention at Marvel because it showed my enthusiasm for
the project. I guess they don't have that happen every day from somebody who is an established
novelist.
"Then it hung fire for a little bit longer," Morrell continued. "I thought, 'I'm not going to let this
stall.' So I wrote the second issue. I eventually got paid but this was essentially on spec to show
them what it is that I wanted to do and to get the contract so I could write the remaining four
issues. This really drew attention to the project at Marvel, so they said, 'Yes, let's do this.'"
There one was one other reason for some of the delay to "Captain America: The Chosen." "The more I
learned, the more I wanted to rewrite," Morrell said. "I kept tinkering with it. I wanted to make it as
good as I possibly could. When I got to issue #6 there was so much material that I got permission to do
an extra four pages. In the sixth issue there are twenty six pages instead of twenty two."
Most of the changes Morrell made to his series were because he wanted to make the book better,
but there was one change made to "Captain America: The Chosen" necessitated by developments
in Cap's regular series. "Originally, it was called 'Captain America: The End,'" Morrell
confirmed. "I was not informed about Marvel's plans for Steve Rogers to be shot on the
courthouse steps in February. It came as a big shock to me. I knew I had to change the title
because readers might think that my project was somehow a follow up or an explanation to
something that happened earlier in the year. My story is totally self contained and could have
happened at any time.
"I prefer the new title 'Captain America: The Chosen' anyhow," Morrell continued. "It just has a real epic
ring to it. Apart from that, regardless of what happened in February, this story remains identical to what
it was when we finally sent everything over to Mitch Breitweiser."
In Morrell's story, one of Captain America's lines of dialogue sums up what the writer feels are
the Sentinel of Liberty's defining personality traits. "There is a mantra that Captain America
keeps repeating to a Marine Corps corporal, whom he's kind of mentoring. The mantra is the four
military virtues, which are courage, honor, loyalty and sacrifice. If you think about it, those
should not be just military virtues. Those should be the code by which everyone conducts the
way they live. That's why I felt so compatible with Captain America because courage, honor,
loyalty and sacrifice are themes that I use a lot in my books.
"Talking about these matters give you an idea of how high I wanted to aim here. I wanted to analyze the
way people behave," Morrell continued. "Captain America was frozen for a time and revived many years
after. In this mini-series he thinks about how the world has changed during the period when he was
frozen and how levels of civility that he was used to seeing back then are no longer enforced and how
71
the culture seems to have changed in a bad way. It's a story with a lot of action but this kind of approach
will distinguish the story."
Another unique element of Morrell's Captain America story is the story's setting. "My story
could have happened anytime after 9-11 because there are a lot of references to 9-11," Morrell
said. "There are pictures of the Cole after the hole was blown into it and pictures of the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. There's one of the Madrid train bombings and one of the London
bus bombings so it's very contemporary. This story could have happened any time in the last
couple of years and could be considered to predate what happened in 'Captain America' #25."
"Captain America: The Chosen" takes place in a country tied to those events, Afghanistan.
"There's an initial big battle in a village but the bulk of the story takes place in a cave," Morrell
stated. "The point here is that since this is a dark, psychological examination of Captain America
the cave is very appropriate. We're getting into the darkness and the depths. That's the metaphor I
was trying for."
Accompanying Captain America and the reader on their journey into
the darkness and the depths is a new character, a corporal in the
United States Marine Corps named James Newman. "He's in
Afghanistan and he's been over there so long and has been in so
much fighting. He has a wife and son who live in San Francisco and
he's at the point now where all he wants to do is go home. You can't
tell the good guys from the bad guys over there and he's just
absolutely overwhelmed with the combat and the conditions. It's
under there circumstances that he and Captain America cross paths."
Morrell couldn't reveal much about the plot of Captain America
and Corporal Newman's adventure together except to reiterate
that his intentions were to write a superhero story that's rooted
firmly in reality. "Again if you go back to 'The Dark Knight
Returns,' you believe Batman in that," Morrell said. "You say,
'Yes I can thoroughly understand and empathize with whatever
is happening to that character.' That was something I really
"Captain America: The Chosen" #2
wanted to do. We take for granted that Captain America is a
superhero. What does it feel like to be a superhero? He's been
doing this since 1940 what goes on in this guy's head after all the stuff he's seen? There's a
section in the story to do with the Nazis and the death camps. That's a really powerful image.
Mitch did a great job on that. So the real world and Captain America coincide in this series."
Since the real world and Captain America coincide in "The Chosen," readers shouldn't expect
appearances from other costumed characters in the mini-series. "There are no super nemeses. It's
all real stuff," Morrell explained. "The kind of hostile forces that are over in Afghanistan is what
they're up against. Except for a few allusions to his history there are no cross-over characters
from other Captain America stories."
72
One of the events from Captain America's history that Morrell will reexamine in
"The Chosen" is the circumstances that turned him into a super soldier. "The
origin of Steve Rogers as Captain America is fairly well known but I was seeing
things in the origin that had not been developed before," Morrell said. "For
example after the ray machine and the elixir turned Steve into Captain America
and the assassin killed the professor Steve went a little berserk. He threw the
assassin at the ray machine and destroyed it. What was that about? Of all the
places to throw the guy why did he do that?
"I'm going to have the readers of my novels coming to this project and
most of them don't know Captain America from Batman, so naturally they
need some help in order to understand the myth and the origin," Morrell
"Captain America: The
continued. "At the same time I'm very aware of the sophisticated readers
Chosen" #3
who would say, 'We already know that. That's old news.' So my goal in
the section where Captain America explains to a character how he came to be who he is, was that
the origin would remain the same but the interpretation of the events would be forty five degrees
to the side so that everyone would be seeing things from a totally different perspective. So it was
kind of fun to keep the same events but reinterpret them in a new fashion."
Morrell is aware that a realistic toned Captain America adventure that occurs after 9-11 may
sound familiar to readers of John Ney Rieber's run on "Captain America" from a few years ago.
"I know those stories and that's kind of the tone we're going for," Morrell said. "The one that
really stuck in my mind was kind of a hymn to all the emergency responders and all the pain that
was there and how Captain America was working trying to save people there. I had bought that
issue about the World Trade Center as soon as it came out. I made a bee line to get it. That kind
of realism is what I wanted. The difference is my story is intended to be a self contained plot.
The kinds of arcs that I would use in a novel are what I use here."
Morrell has greatly enjoyed writing the scripts for "The Chosen" and derived even more pleasure
from the way his collaborators Mitch Breitweiser and colorist Brian Reber brought his scripts to
life. "Mitch Breitweiser's art is beyond anything that I hoped for. It has a gritty feel to it almost
like watching a movie," Morrell stated. Brian has done a tremendous job as well. In the script I
stipulated that we'd begin in a muted yellow-brownish pale blue sky as appropriate to
Afghanistan and the first real vibrant color would be the red of blood in a battle sequence.
Captain America's appearance is halfway through the book and after a number of pages of those
muted colors that brilliant costume just blows you away. It's so striking. We were experimenting
a lot with color. What Brian did with that just added to Mitch's art. They both really outdid
themselves."
"Captain America: The Chosen" is Morrell's first comic book project and there's a good chance
that it's not his last. "Marvel and I have talked about doing something else," Morrell said. "It's
just a matter of if we can all make things come together the way we want."
73
Batman Vs. Captain America
Superman Vs. Spiderman
74
Hulk Vs. Superman
Thor Vs. Wonder Woman
75
Green Lantern Vs. Thor
Batman Vs. Iron Man
76