Tag Archives: Marvel Universe

On Malcolm, Martin and that X-Men Analogy Thing

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malcolmmagnetoOn the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the activist, orator and the man once referred to in eulogy by the late Ossie Davis as “Our Shining Black Prince,” El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (most commonly known as Malcolm X), I quite foolishly decide to wade into that whole X-Men analogy thingy. Of course I’ve been warned. Of course I know better. But since when has that stopped me? So then, let’s do this thing.

And that supremely bad ass Malcolm & Magneto mash-up art you’re seeing, is courtesy of the amazing John Jennings and his 2012-2013 exhibit Black Kirby. If yuh dunno, now yuh know.

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Tony Stark(s) is Ironman

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Iron Man_Ghostface_Killah_2“Tony Starks is Ironman!” Exact words of a friend who back in 2008 made the connection that Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, alternatively known as Tony Starks (with an s) was linked to the comic book icon, Iron Man–also known as Tony Stark (no s). Wu had just won over an otherwise oblivious new fan for Marvel.

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Race and Comic Books

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JLA 173“You’re the second donkey who’s tried blastin’ me away tonight, and like I tole the other fella, you got a lot to learn ’bout Black Lightning!”–Justice League of America #173 This week there was a disturbance throughout the geek “interwebs” after John Hugues at Comics Alliance published an article titled Outrage Deferred: On The Lack Of Black Writers In The Comic Book Industry. This has led to talk of Dr. Jonathan Gayles’s 2012 documentary, White Scripts, Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books. We’re also fast approaching the anniversary of the birthday and death of black comic book pioneer Dwyane McDuffie. All of this has magnified the usual buzz on race in comic books. And it jogged my memory. Back in 2000, I actually wrote on this very topic, as part of a presentation for a friend’s Blacks in Media course. In the fast-changing world of comic books however, that is of course several dozen crossovers ago. Nevertheless, given all the recent talk, decided to dig up the article and thought, what the heck, it’d make a decent blog. Continue reading →

Avengers- Why it was Frackin’ Fantastic

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Saw The Avengers late last night and twelve hours later… I’m still catching my breath! The movie was fantastic–frackin’ fantastic. I’ve been pretty cynical lately about comic book flicks. With the stellar exceptions of Watchmen and The Dark Knight series, I’ve placed recent comic or graphic novel remakes into three categories: decent, lackluster or WTF? Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, ranked among my decent. These were okay movies with all the required action, though they didn’t rise above my expectations. I walked out feeling I’d gotten my money’s worth, but wasn’t itching to see either again. The Hulk and X-Men First Class, I found rather lackluster. There were superheroes so that was nice, but otherwise the storyline and plot earned a rating of “meh.” Wolverine, Green Lantern and Ghostrider were so god-awful, I left the theater wondering how a few screenwriters could so mangle a winning popular comic book? I mean, straight up guys, WTF!?! So what made the Avengers different? What did the film seem to “get” that so many of their recent counterparts hadn’t? More, after the jump. But be warned…there be SPOILERS!

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