Comics, The X-Men, and Popular Culture Essay

In Understanding Comics, McCloud defines comics as, “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud, 1993, p. 9).

When read with a critical eye, the world of superhero comics often offers a lens with which we can examine society, our values, the meaning of justice, and the role of the individual in regards to the greater community. If all of this information is garnered from critical reading, then the way in which the medium of comics constructs these meanings will reflect an embrace or a rejection of the common symbols and ideology of it’s source culture. In the case of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s 1987 graphic novel, Watchmen, the second approach is used, as Moore’s writing draws upon the common cultural understanding of superheroes and exaggerates or tweaks them, exposing their underlying ideals. In this way, Watchmen functions not only as a

Superheroes can be defined in many ways by many experts. Clare Pitkethly’s academic background consists of comparative literature, culture and communication as she also speaks and writes comic books and superhero, defines a superhero to be different. In Pitkethly’s article “Straddling a Boundary: The Superhero and the Incorporation of Difference,” talks about

During the significant changes in American history, comic books contributed information that described what was happening during a specific event. Starting with Superman, battling against the corrupted ceo’s and government politicians to Batman being a juvenile delinquent who eventually became one with the law. Yet with these comic book characters relating to everything around a human beings life, changed the American youth culture in a great way.

The movie I will be talking about today is Dead Pool it is the most recent movie out by Marvel and has recently been rated the highest grossing rated R movie ever made.

Let’s be honest, we all loved a good comic book when we were younger, but now that we are older there are few things thought to be more childish than reading a picture book. This is exactly what Scott McCloud has set out to change with his graphic essay from Show and Tell. Being a cartoonist himself, he has set out to change our perspective on comic books from our default categorization in being for children, to being a possible contender in the adult reading scene. By showing the underlying complexity that goes into the formation of a comic McCloud is able to give a clear understanding that comic books are not as simple or easy to create as the general population believes. Multiple times within Show and Tell McCloud

Over the years, comic books have reflected what was happening in the world around us. Hot topics and issues have taken place in these fantasy worlds. They have been used as propaganda. For example during the second world war, you could read about your favorite heroes fighting and eventually defeating Hitler and the nazis, therefore saving the world. During the cold war, they fought the soviets.

But Marvel and DC made their reign with super heroes, there were many comics about dragons and already film comics about universes like Star Wars, Alien, Predator, these specific few were obtained by Dark Horse Comics. Image comics were popular in the 1990’s but lost steam after infighting and arguments, they to were another “Superhero, Supervillain” genre industry, similar to Marvel and DC yet on a much smaller scale. In fact Marvel and DC practically invented and revolutionized the superhero archetype, before the 1930s superheroes and supervillains were practically unheard of, and it’s thanks to this burst in popularity from the 1930s to circa 1950s that superheroes came about. As for American society, comics were a newform of media, cheap and easy to acquire, you could practically go to any store and bu a few comicds for 10xc a piece and read them for as long and as many times as you wanted, this raised the overall standard of like, oepeing up new jobs as plushi publishing companies comic compaines artissts and excetcre

The number of movies adapted from comic books has, in recent years, become more and more popular, and more comic book films are being released now than in the past. In this essay I will explore the reasons why this pattern has emerged and potential reasons for 'the prevalence of comic book adaptations in post 9/11 cinema'.

B. Relevance: Have any of you seen a Spider-Man movie? What about Thor or Iron Man? Very few of us in this room can say we have not seen an action packed Marvel movie at least once. Since its humble beginnings in 1939, Marvel has revolutionized not only the comic book world, but also set the bar incredibly high for all potential superhero movies. Marvel is completely relevant to the yearly cinema culture we find ourselves in the midst of, and continues to grow in popularity.

The movie X-Men First Class is a movie based on the X-Men comics. This movie is about how the characters Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr discover they have mutant powers. They take the names Professor X and Magneto and work together to recruit other humans with mutant powers to work for the United States government. They unite to stop Sebastian Shaw, another mutant who uses his power for evil, from starting a nuclear war. Throughout the movie, Charles and Eric begin to view their uniqueness in very different ways. Charles wants to adapt and live cohesively among normal humans as if there was no barrier mutant or normal. Eric, however, feels as though society holds a stigma against the mutants and wants to lead fellow

The film industry is increasing rapidly and providing fans amazing experience with culture, future and lots of entertainment. The April is on way and we have pick the best movies to watch this month including fast and furious, a comedy and many others that enhance the experience and will made your month brilliant experience.

“X-Men Apocalypse” is set 10 years after the events of “Days of Future Past” (although only two years have passed in reality). Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) has become a cult figure adored by mutants, although she has gone off the radar. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has devoted his time to his students at his school for gifted youngsters. Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender) has reinvented himself, becoming a simple industrial worker in Poland. Of course, all that changes when the titular villain (Oscar Isaac), the original mutant who also possess godlike abilities, awakens from a millennia long slumber. The X-Men must reunite to combat this new foe.

The speaker then points out that, contrary to the writing, the first popular comic strips were not American. According to the speaker, 100 years before the first American comic strip, there were popular comic strips in Europe. The lecture also states that Hogan’s Alley, the 1890s comic strip described as American in the article, is not completely American because the comic characters were not Americans. Moreover, the publisher and creator of the comic were immigrants from other countries.

Now in these days everyone one likes to read comic books since they became part of our society. What makes them interesting is how entertaining they could get giving us different points of views on different stories of superheroes. Many of us believe that “Classic superheroes stories are wildly fun, suspenseful and exciting” (Tom and Matt Morris) forgetting the idea of what really makes a hero. Different perceptions of superheroes are considered based on their wrong actions and way of thinking. Frank’s Miller Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is one of the comic books that make us “rethink the conception of the superhero and press each of us to reconsider some of the fundamental moral principles