The Avengers
She Has No Head! – Superheroines On Film Are Killing It
I’ve spent most of my life aching for great superheroine portrayals on film. To see some of my comic book heroines reflected back to me on 40-foot screens. With a few awesome exceptions (X-Men, X2) I have been disappointed again and again (Catwoman, Elektra, Sue Storm in Fantastic Four, Batgirl in Batman & Robin, Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin, Supergirl, Mary Jane in Spiderman, okay not a superheroine, but still) the list of bad performances, bad writing, bad directing, and just bad ideas is painfully long.
Clockwise From Top Left: Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts in Iron Man 3, Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson in Dredd, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov/Black Widow in The Avengers.
She Has No Head! – Bests (and a few worsts) for 2012!
In an effort to piss off Greg Burgas (because what else in life is fun?!) I’m posting my best and worsts 
of 2012 before the year ends. As always, my feeling is that if I haven’t read it by the end of December (and there are MANY I have not read) then I’m not going to be able to get to it in time for it to make my bests and worsts lists anyway…so it’s all the same in the end.
Also as always, I didn’t get to nearly enough books this year. I especially failed on the Graphic Novel front, reading far too few on the whole and not getting to a ton that I’m really interested in – seriously, I’ve got a list as long as my arm to get to (and I have pretty long arms).
What’s going to be on the list? Well you can bet it’s going to be Hawkeye-Saga-rific! That’s of course not in an effort to piss off Burgas, but you know…BONUS! Seriously, I’ve never had a list so dominated by two titles…but what can I say? I really loved these books they did everything right and made me happy every time I read them.
Let’s get to it, shall we? And sound off in the comments about some of your favorites for the year.
How The Avengers Movie is like a Musical
Like a lot of people, last weekend I went to see The Avengers movie (and if you haven’t, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil any surprises here.) Anyway, I saw the movie and had a revelatory moment while watching it. Before the movie, I always thought that I was part of this big community of adults who all enjoy reading the same superhero comic books. I had assumed that all of us were basically in the same boat, enjoying the same things about them. In fact, it never really occurred to me to question what it was that I was enjoying in contrast to what other adults got out of it.
Committed: The Weird Life of Avenger Couples
After I saw the Thor and Captain America movies, I got pretty excited about The Avengers movie (that was the idea, wasn’t it?) Thor, Captain America and Iron Man all stand up pretty well, but after a while these solo movies feel like a complicated teaser campaign and we find ourselves gasping for the payoff of The Avengers movie. With this anticipation grinding away at me, I thought I’d look at some old Avengers comic books.
