Culture

Reviews of X Men First Class are generally coming up roses (via EW, WaPo, etc. Although it has its detractors, including Rogert Ebert, who...

You've probably already thought of most of these, but Funny or Die has put them all in one place.

Flashpoint is going to end in new #1 issues across the board and new origin issues for everyone, that much is clear. Will it be the earth shattering annihilation of Crisis on Infinite Earths, or the long-forgotten supposed reboot of Zero Hour?

As incredible as it is to believe, there is OTHER news today. Like a guest ACT-I-VATE strip called "Even Gorillas have Pride!" written by Stan Lee and drawn by Dean Haspiel for the PANELS FOR PRIMATES series.

The complete image of the new Johns-Lee rebooted JLA has surfaced (apparently at IGN) and it's clear that we have a "Big Seven" of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. Most of the new costumes involved higher collars. Superman has a new logo and no trunks over his tights. There are lots of other details, but when we mentioned earlier that these characters looked about the same we meant it -- these are tweaks on the traditional (Super Friends, licensing) looks for these characters, not huge changes.

Gerry Giovinco's blog is always worth reading, but here's a telling piece setting the two titans' accounts of the origins of Marvel side by side and coming to a conclusion:

What would a Stan Lee convention report be like? Twitter hath answered this question for the ages with his trip to this weekend's Phoenix Comic-Con in Arizona, which drew some 25,000 people -- the most ever. First with the packing anxiety common to all con-goers:

Secret Headquarters, the LA- based comics shop, is selling some swell t-shirts, including this one featuring Stan the Man Lee which should fulfill both your hipness, homage, and fashion needs as we head into summer.

Given all the talk of late about geek girls, this Onion story from 2004 seems pretty dated: Osley attended the convention from Friday to Sunday,...

Once again, BookExpo America, “the leading North American publishing event” took place at the Javits Center in New York City. Just like various comic cons, attendees and journalists love to analyze the zeitgeists floating around the exhibition hall, while others prefer to ignore the elephants in the room. So, following in the grand tradition of industry analysts and bloggers (beware the Camel’s nose!), I will give you my opinions at what I experienced this year.

It's a new style of pimping. Instead of selling their bodies, or busting their backs digging ditches, some Chinese prisoners are forced to play World of Warcraft and pass the winnings on to cruel prison guards.

With all the talk about comics and racial stereotypes, this show running at NYU sounds like a must see. MARVELS AND MONSTERS looks at images of Asians in comics from the stereotyping of World War II through to the 80s. Curator Jeff Yang has some installation in progress photos on his Facebook Page. Sadly we missed the opening talk and reception last night but it looks to be a very comprehensive show, looking at different stereotypical roles including The Alien, the Kamikaze, the Brute, the Lotus Blossom, the Guru, the Brain, the Temptress, and the Manipulator. How well we know all those. The show runs until August 19th. Deets below: