Superheroes (Cultrface)

Black Cultures, FilmMay 22, 2021June 17

Justin Van Voorhis made a list of the 10 best Black superhero movies based on Rotten Tomatoes ratings. Of course, that means it might now be your top 10 list or anyone’s for that matter. But it’s interesting to see how the general public voted for them.

Alas, I have only seen 4 of them and heard of 6 which means I have a lot of catching up to do. I like that the list has films from all but one decade since the 70s (nothing from the 80s). I’m sure you can guess what the #1 was and I’m in full agreement.

Check the list and read about my attempt at compiling a crowdsourced list of Black superheroes.

Black Cultures, ComicsApril 25, 2021June 17

DC Comics / Links / Superheroes / Superman

FilmApril 24, 2021April 22

Acting / Superheroes / Superman / Video

Superman changes to Clark and then back and forth

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This scene is one of my favourite scenes in movie history. It shows Christopher Reeve as Superman in Superman II playing Superman, Clark Kent, Superman again, and then Clark Kent again. All it took was a change in body language and vocal tone and he was both characters.

Here’s what Ben Kuchera from Polygon had to say about it:

There are many remarkable things about the first Superman film, up to and including the obvious influence on every comic book movie that came later. There wasn’t much of a blueprint in pop culture for what a serious look at a comic book character should look like. There were not yet giants who had shoulders on which Superman could stand.
But what really made the film so special was the performance of the late Christopher Reeve, the only actor who could make the idea that no one recognized Clark Kent as Superman due to his glasses even remotely plausible. His performance as both Clark Kent and Superman kept the characters distinct, and it was done through his body. Christopher Reeve was his own best special effect.
One scene shows this transformation perfectly.
It happens after Superman takes Lois flying, right before her date with Clark Kent. He nearly tells her the truth, and shifts into the part of Superman to prove he is who he’s about to say he is.
The amazing part of this performance is how clearly you can see Christopher Reeve shift his body from Clark Kent to Superman. His voice changes a bit, sure, but it’s all there in the body language. It’s a powerful, physical performance that doesn’t require a change into the costume or any of the special effects that went into the flying scene. The burden is on Reeve to sell the transition, and holy hell does he do it convincingly.

Shout out to the Alexander Technique, which Reeve and a host of other actors and authors used (although there is no scientific proof of its alleged health benefits—I have to make that clear).

FilmApril 18, 2021April 18

1990s / Batman / DC Comics / Superheroes / Tim Burton

As I got older, I started wondering “what period was Batman Returns set in?”. Its predecessor, Batman, seemed modern for the time (1989) but Returns felt a lot older. People wore clothes from the early 20th century, maybe 20s-30s and the architecture was very Art Deco.

The problem is, when you Google “What year was Batman Returns set in?”, you get the year the film was released: 1992. Not helpful. Then I found this on Quora about the first film:

It’s hard to tell. The architecture suggests that, but the technology suggests what was then the present day.
That was 1989, meaning that Thomas and Martha Wayne were probably killed around 1969 or so. So why, in the flashback to that scene, were they and little Bruce dressed like it’s the 1940s? Did somebody mess with the timestream? Does the Keaton Batmobile have a flux capacitor?

Batman Returns has a similar issue. It almost feels like the main characters are stuck in a period they aren’t from, as they appear modern and the rest of Gotham is still in a weird 20th century time warp. But let’s look at this logically. In the film, we start with Oswald Cobblepot’s birth and early days as a baby 33 years before what we believe is 1992, taking us to 1959. Are you telling me 33 years pass and people haven’t updated their clothes? And there are other suggestions about the time, as a commenter on this blog post mentions:

Some more timewarp craziness, this time form (sic) Batman Returns:
Ted Bundy exists and is a known serial killer. (Bruce Wayne dialogue to Selina)
And yet, only about 30-40 years earlier (whatever Penguin’s age is), Gotham was something out of circa early 1900s (judging by Penguin’s parents’ dress and house furnishings, Pee Wee and Simone)
Comment link

Bundy was alive between 1946–1989 and he admitted to murders committed between 1974 and 1978 so it definitely wasn’t set in the 20s or 30s. So maybe, like Batman, it was set in an alternate universe’s 1992 where Art Deco and German expressionism never died. Did I mention Tim Burton was the director and the film was criticised for being too dark?

So, to answer the question “what year was Batman Returns set in?”, my answer is: probably 1992 but not our 1992.

Black Cultures, ComicsApril 14, 2021June 17

DC Comics / Links / Superheroes

Black CulturesFebruary 11, 2021June 17

Atlas Obscura / California / Superheroes / USA

ComicsNovember 3, 2020April 12

DC Comics / Superheroes / Twitter

Food & DrinkSeptember 26, 2020September 25

Spicy Food / Superheroes

Black Cultures, TelevisionSeptember 25, 2020June 17

Superheroes / Video

Phil LaMarr sat down with Vanity Fair and discussed some of his most iconic character voices, including Hermes Conrad from Futurama, Ollie Williams from Family Guy, Green Lantern from Justice League, Jack from Samurai Jack and Virgil aka Static from Static Shock.

Amongst the characters he discussed, Phil went into how Hermes could have disappeared if it wasn’t for one vital change.

Then about three episodes in, the writers sort of realized that the Hermes character was fine, but they didn’t really have anything that was working, working. And I remember Matt Groening coming up to me in the hallway, and said, “Well, we just wanna try something with Hermes. Can you do a Jamaican accent?” I said sure, I can do that. I auditioned for Cool Runnings just like every other Black man in 1980 whatever. Adding the accent gave the character another dimension, added depth. ‘Cause all of a sudden instead of just writing accountant jokes, they were writing Jamaican jokes. And then laying accountant stuff on top of ’em. Like okay, so what if he’s sort of laid back but not laid back at all. I think actually, had Matt not suggested that, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here. I probably wouldn’t have made it past episode four.

Phil also talked about what inspired each voice and how they brought his characters to life, like the Green Lantern.

It was wild to be The Green Lantern. I’d seen Bruce Timm’s work on Batman Beyond and knew the character designs and all that. And in terms of finding the voice, that was sort of easy to do. Because the way he draws men, they’ve got these little tiny legs and these great big chests. So you feel like everybody’s gotta have a deep voice. They talked about the character. It was like, well, he was a Marine. He was from Detroit. And I’m like oh well my dad’s from Detroit. So I added a little bit of a level, sort of an homage to my dad, because my dad was like a, you know, sort of this smoky voice, so I wanted to put a little of that in there. So it wasn’t just, you know, I’m big hero. It was also a little bit of this, you know. The guy has, he’s been somewhere. He’s done some things, you know.

Phil LaMarr Breaks Down His Most Famous Character Voices | Vanity Fair

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FilmSeptember 20, 2020February 24

Batman / DC Comics / Superheroes / Video

ComicsSeptember 17, 2020April 12

Gender / Marvel / Superheroes / Supervillains

Black Cultures, ComicsSeptember 7, 2020June 17

Black Panther / Marvel / Superheroes

Black Cultures, ComicsSeptember 5, 2020June 17

Black Panther / DC Comics / Marvel / Superheroes

A few weeks ago, I sent the following tweet:

Important question: when you think of Black superheroes, who comes to mind? Name as many as you can and DON'T Google them. Obscure and well known, all comic brands. Go (and RT please)!
— Luke Davis (He/Him) (@LukeDavisSEO) August 16, 2020

I left it open-ended as not to restrict the potential answers. The purpose of the tweet was to see which Black superheroes people knew without looking them up. Here are the results:

Superhero	Count
Black Panther	17
Storm	16
Luke Cage	11
Spider-Man	10
Static Shock	9
Falcon	8
Green Lantern	7
Nick Fury	6
War Machine	6
Bishop	6
Spawn	6
Cyborg	5
Mister Terrific	4
Black Lightning	4
Blade	4
Ironheart	3
Shuri	3
Misty Knight	3
Icon	3
Bloodwynd	2
Steel	2
Batwing	2
Catwoman	2
Monica Rambeau	2
Bumblebee	2
Martian Manhunter	2
Lightning	2
Thunder	2
Deadshot	2
Human Torch	2
Vixen	2
John Diggle	2
Okoye	2
Starfire	2
Black Vulcan	1
Jakeem Thunder	1
Rocket	1
The Herald	1
Forge	1
Superman (Val-Zod)	1
Apocalypse	1
Pixie	1
Rage	1
The Signal	1
Batman	1
Goliath	1
Amenadiel	1
Blue Marvel	1
Bat-son	1
M’Baku	1
Michonne	1
Hardware	1
Deathblow	1
Battalion	1
Killer Croc	1
Sister Night	1
Blood Syndicate*	1
Max (from Batman Beyond)	1
Bronze Tiger	1
Lunella Lafayette	1
Frozone	1
Domino	1
Butterfly	1
Valkyrie	1
Hancock	1
Victor Stone	1
Hawkgirl	1
Firestorm	1
Darwin	1
Amanda Waller	1
Dr Mid-Nite	1
Dr Manhattan	1
VooDoo	1
Cloak	1
W’Kabi	1
Heimdall	1
A-Train	1

I will be updating this periodically if any new responses come in but, unsurprisingly, Black Panther came out on top (although he was neck-and-neck with Storm for most of the time).

For any of the pedants out there, some of these aren’t technically superheroes but I didn’t try to correct anyone because 1) my Black comic book knowledge is poor and 2) I wanted to see what people’s interpretation of Black superheroism was. Do you need to have superhuman powers to be a superhero? That’s a question for another day.

FilmAugust 29, 2020April 18

Batman / Superheroes / Tim Burton / Video

ComicsAugust 23, 2020February 24

Black Adam / DC Comics / Justice Society of America / Superheroes / Supervillains / Video