'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

Rethinking Marvel's Avengers in a bigger sociocultural context We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience

Whedon talks Avengers filming day one | Moviehole Joss Whedon's message about the first day of shooting on the Avengers marks a key moment in Marvel's ongoing cinematic campaign. Bringing the Avengers to the big screen will basically act as the culmination of several years of careful construction of Marvel's cinematic universe. If you doubt this fact, a quick look of the Thor trailer shows Iron Man, Hulk, and Nick Fury. While films outside Marvel Studios have had no indication of a shared universe, Marvel produced films are all about the shared universe. We should not assume success, indeed problems related to the cost and time associated with making special effect heavy films has emerged as a problem for DC and Marvel related films. The time and money associated with bringing superheroes to life on the big screen is considerable. Moreover, they still need to make a good movie, something that is no easy task. Still, the odds are in Marvel and DC's favor. They h...

In the midst of my morning survey of pop culture landscape and I come across this story on the failure of Tron Legacy , Scott Pilgrim vs. the World , Watchmen , and Kick-Ass and the role of San Diego Comic-Con in creating or failing to create a success. Since I think seriously about comics and popular culture I have already thought about this. I know, very self serving, the professional media types at blastr.com write a story and I reply I have already thought about it /:-) Still, the analysis of the failure of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World after the great buzz at comic-con touched on these issues already. There are several factors playing in the background here. Still my reaction to this story is...duh its comic con!! If you have a comic or pop culture related movie bringing it to comic-con is the equivalent of bringing water to a person dying of thirst in the desert. Yes, he or she will be happy to see you. That doesn't mean he or she will let you move into their house ...

There is no doubt that academics have a very particular view of the world. The public can be dismissive of academic writing and thought because they "live in an ivory tower." People tend to forget the purpose of the "ivory tower" is to allow some small part of society to think and write without fear their words will lead to reprisals. Why do I mention this? Well, like any other subject that get a critical appraisal, comics, under the right critical lens, can be a source of contention. Above you see Michael Lecker at the 2009 Florida Conference of Historian. Mr. Lecker's “You Made Them Strong, We’ll Make Them Army (Avengers) Strong: How the Marvel Universe’s Story Arc and Ad Usage are Propaganda for Army Recruitment, " is one example of how Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men applies cutting edge scholarship. Lecker's work is heavily influence by French theorist Michel Foucault. Specifically, he is using Foucault's Biopower concept to explore how the ...