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Entertainment

A new generation of superheroes

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By Jake Pierle

ince the 1990s, the creation and success of superhero movies have been a steadily increasing trend. Most superhero movies come from Marvel Studios, a film studio birthed by Marvel Comics. Marvel has made comic books since the 1930s, originally named Timely Comics. It became Atlas Comics in the 1950s and Marvel in the 1960s. Marvel has given the world some of its most prominent superheroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men. Marvel Studios came into existence in the 1990s. It released its first film, Blade, in 1998. Since then, the studio’s production of comicbased movies has risen, producing 17 films in ten years. The last few years have seen the most superhero movies in the shortest time span to date. Marvel holds claim to most of the wellknown heroes that have been portrayed in movies. Marvel movies include the Spider-Man series, the Fantastic Four series,

Marvel

Hulk, Daredevil, The Punisher, X-Men and, most recently, Iron Man. DC Comics has mostly focused on Batman and Superman films. Not all of Marvel’s movies have been good, though. There were a few disappointments. Most people would say Hulk was a failure as well as Daredevil, due to poor acting and plot development. I did not even know Elektra existed. Some characters just made better comics than movies. It is a shame that they will be remembered because of the bad films rather than the amazing comics. Fortunately, Marvel is making The Incredible Hulk to make up for its sorry predecessor. It will be released June 13 . Marvel films are not to be judged by their few failures. The Spider-Man movies have had incredible success, with Midnight showings and merchandise. Iron Man tickets were on presale in some theaters for months. Already Marvel Studios is busy making Iron Man 2. Other Marvel movies planned for release are Thor in 2010, The First Avenger: Captain America in 2011 and The Avengers in 2011. The Punisher: War Zone is already completed and will be released Dec. 5. There are many others in development that do not yet have an estimated release time, including Ant-Man and Nick Fury. Nick Fury made a cameo in a post-credits scene of Iron Man. Anyone who has not seen Iron Man, I suggest waiting through the credits to watch the cameo scene. With so many hits already released and more to come, Marvel has established itself as a cornerstone for great movies. DC cannot match Marvel’s number of heroes or the ability of fans to relate to the characters. Despite their everyman demeanor, the heroes are no less awesome and creative, and that makes for excellent movies.

Speed Racer brings racing to forefront

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By Joey Meadors

omics are the most known, and most entertaining things to read in America. Comics have been around since the 20th Century. The most known and read comics are from the Marvel and DC collection. Some comics have been made into either TV shows or movies. The most famous superheroes came from DC, Batman and Superman. Both of these heroes have many movies named after them and they both have some in the making and on the way. There are many other superheroes to the DC world include, The Green Lantern and The Flash, but DC has not made these into a motion picture productions. One of the DC comic heroes, Catman, make an appearance in Nickelodeon’s TV show Fairly Odd Parents. The first Batman movie was titled Batman. It stared Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as Batman’s biggest enemy, the Joker. This movie has been argued as one of the best Batman movies made so far. Keaton has also been one of the greatest Batman. Other actors that played Batman include Val Kilmer and George Clooney. Clooney is a great actor, but he has been named the worst Batman so far. Val Kilmer stared in Batman Forever with other big actors, such as Jim Carrey as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent aka Two-Face. There has been an Anthology (four movies) of Batman that went in random order. Right now, DC and Warner Bros. are working on remaking all the Batman movies and making them go along with the comic books. The new Batman is Christian Bale. Another big super hero from DC is Superman, the Man of Steel. Superman has made one less movie than Batman. The same person has played Superman in all three movies. Christopher Reeves was paralyzed in a horse riding accident, breaking his neck. It can officially be said that he is the greatest Superman. Reeves has acted in the first two movies with Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Like Batman, Superman movies

are being remade. These movies will continue from where Superman III left off. Hitman, which was a game before a movie, came out in 2007. Not many people knew Hitman was part of DC. As of now, DC and Warner Bros. have many movies in production. They have already put out a “new” Batman and Superman. The Dark Knight, Batman, staring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as Joker comes out July 18. The trailers to the Dark Knight show signs of there being another Batman with the villain Two-Face. In 2009 Warner Bros. plan to putout a Justice League and a Wonder Woman. There was never a Wonder Woman movie; however, there was a television series. Last year, a Superman Movie was released, Superman Returns, and in 2010 Warner plans on releasing Superman: Man of Steel, but there are no commitments.

DC

to the plot, I could never be sure why a certain By Rachel Bond n May 9, Speed Racer hit the theaters character said or did something. There were with its bright, crazy colors, awesome many odd twists and turns, and everyone in the racing sequences and wacky anima- theater looked confused when racing sequences tion. were over. This movie is based on a popular cartoon Another thing that bothered me slightly spawned from a Japanese manga book. A boy was I did not know it was opening night for this named Speed Racer tries to purify the sport of movie. The amount of people at the theater did racing by not taking part in rigging races. His not even signal to me that it could possibly be family has racing in their blood, and his brother opening night. I was one of about 35 people in died in an accident during the Casa Cristo Rally the audience. Race. Speed Racer is rated PG for action sequencSpeed is played by Emile Hirsch (Lords of es, some violence and some off-color language. Speed Racer gets ready to take off in the Casa Cristo Rally Race, which he does in secret without his father’s permission. The movie premiered on May 9 and made $18.6 million in the box office. Dogtown, Into the Wild). Hirsch does an excel- However, younger children should be able to lent job in portraying Speed’s various emotions watch it with no problem. The language was not in his races and while dealing with criminals. consistent throughout the whole movie; only Mom Racer is played by Susan Sarandon (Step- two or three vulgar words were said. The viomom, Enchanted). She is always there for Speed lence was not that bad either, compared to most and is his main supporter. She only goes to the movies of today’s standards. races to see him, not because she has a love for It was rather long, and I thought it could racing. Pops Racer is played by John Goodman have been cut in a few places. The movie ran (Roseanne, Evan Almighty). He designs the cars 135 minutes, and I thought it was slightly drawn for Speed and is his own sponsor company for out. There were many parts that could have been his son. He also designed the Mach 5 in which cut out in order to make the movie shorter. After Speed races. about an hour and a half, I was getting restless, The movie has many racing sequences, but as were other people in the theater. the plot was somewhat overlooked. I enjoyed Overall, I thought that the movie was just the races because they were bright and colorful okay and not as good as it looked in the preas well and entertaining. However, when it came views.


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