The Comic Thread
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Re: The Comic Thread
Interesting review of Batman Begins here by John David Ebert, I looked this up on his site after hearing him talk about the Native American origins of modern superheroes on Decline of the West:
http://cinemadiscourse.com/batman-begins/
"Batman, moreover, was the first of the 1930's superheroes to be linked with an animal totem as part of his iconography. His half-human, half-animal persona is an updating of an ancient tribal motif, for in their visionary trance flights shamans routinely transform themselves into animal figures in order to communicate with the herds they hunted. Batman, thus, is a sort of cyber-shaman who produces technological gadgets in his underworld cavern as aides to his megapolitan-wide exorcisms...
...which echoes the motif of all the great Lords of the dead throughout the history of myth who inhabit caverns underneath the earth, like Hades, Yama, or Osiris. Batman on his electronic throne under the earth is a retrieval of this mythic image, and the figures of the night that he fights: Joker, Scarecrow, Catwoman, are the ghosts and spirits who plague Gotham and must be magicked away by its resident shaman."
http://cinemadiscourse.com/batman-begins/
"Batman, moreover, was the first of the 1930's superheroes to be linked with an animal totem as part of his iconography. His half-human, half-animal persona is an updating of an ancient tribal motif, for in their visionary trance flights shamans routinely transform themselves into animal figures in order to communicate with the herds they hunted. Batman, thus, is a sort of cyber-shaman who produces technological gadgets in his underworld cavern as aides to his megapolitan-wide exorcisms...
...which echoes the motif of all the great Lords of the dead throughout the history of myth who inhabit caverns underneath the earth, like Hades, Yama, or Osiris. Batman on his electronic throne under the earth is a retrieval of this mythic image, and the figures of the night that he fights: Joker, Scarecrow, Catwoman, are the ghosts and spirits who plague Gotham and must be magicked away by its resident shaman."
With sad countenance and downcast eyes, Aeneas wends his way, quitting the cavern, and ponders in his mind the dark issues.
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Re: The Comic Thread
That is awesome.Penner wrote:
I think my first exposure to The Ghost Who Walks was from some old Charlton comics hidden in my elementary school's library. They were different from the Marvel&DC stuff I was familiar with, more news-strippy.
I never imagined that the character had such a following in Papua New Guinea.
With sad countenance and downcast eyes, Aeneas wends his way, quitting the cavern, and ponders in his mind the dark issues.
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Re: The Comic Thread
Yeah, that was a good video and I also didn't know that until I watched it. The reason why I posted it was because you reminded me of it when you mentioned "totem". You can find a lot of youtube videos that would explain everything about comics- for all nerds and geeks out there, and also helps you to understand what is going on in the movies as well (well, at least for the MCU).Mercury wrote:That is awesome.Penner wrote:
I think my first exposure to The Ghost Who Walks was from some old Charlton comics hidden in my elementary school's library. They were different from the Marvel&DC stuff I was familiar with, more news-strippy.
I never imagined that the character had such a following in Papua New Guinea.
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Re: The Comic Thread
Speaking of mythological aspects of iconic characters; DC's cinematic universe has been a little bumpy so far, but this looks like it may be their best film yet:
With sad countenance and downcast eyes, Aeneas wends his way, quitting the cavern, and ponders in his mind the dark issues.
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Re: The Comic Thread
Mercury wrote:Speaking of mythological aspects of iconic characters; DC's cinematic universe has been a little bumpy so far, but this looks like it may be their best film yet:
Oh, the trailer does look really good but I am not holding my breath. Right now, DC is like 0/3 on any movie that is good (which would be, in my book, a movie that is good because it's a good movie and not because it's about one of my many childhood era characters that I grew up with - like watching Harley Quinn on Batman the Animated Series. That was a good TV show).
Also here is a video explaining Wonder Woman's origins. The real life story of her creation is, in my opinion, is just as interesting than her comic book background:
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Re: The Comic Thread
I remember it well.that was a good TV series
The series was praised for its thematic complexity, darker tone, artistic quality, film noir aesthetics, and modernization of its title character's crime-fighting origins.[4]
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Re: The Comic Thread
Did you know two things also about this series;TheReal_ND wrote:I remember it well.that was a good TV series
The series was praised for its thematic complexity, darker tone, artistic quality, film noir aesthetics, and modernization of its title character's crime-fighting origins.[4]
1. It gave Mr. Freeze a proper backstory, and the show's backstory was so much better than the one that Mr. Freeze had in the comics that the comics adapted the show's backstory and made that the official backstory of Mr. Freeze?
2. Harley Quinn was actually created for the Animated Series and was such a hit, that they made her an official comic book character.
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Re: The Comic Thread
I think the chains thing was because Hercules had enslaved the Amazons in the past, but that may have been (and probably was) a retcon. Marston was kinda into stuff like that anyways: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ts/380788/Penner wrote:Mercury wrote:Speaking of mythological aspects of iconic characters; DC's cinematic universe has been a little bumpy so far, but this looks like it may be their best film yet:
Oh, the trailer does look really good but I am not holding my breath. Right now, DC is like 0/3 on any movie that is good (which would be, in my book, a movie that is good because it's a good movie and not because it's about one of my many childhood era characters that I grew up with - like watching Harley Quinn on Batman the Animated Series. That was a good TV show).
Also here is a video explaining Wonder Woman's origins. The real life story of her creation is, in my opinion, is just as interesting than her comic book background:
With sad countenance and downcast eyes, Aeneas wends his way, quitting the cavern, and ponders in his mind the dark issues.
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- Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:11 pm
Re: The Comic Thread
Totally agree on the DCCU. Haven't seen Suicide Squad, but Dawn of Justice was a train wreck.
With sad countenance and downcast eyes, Aeneas wends his way, quitting the cavern, and ponders in his mind the dark issues.