Any Comics Fans?

[Boffo97]

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/07/17/marvel-new-captain-america-african-american/

Marvel shakes things up with new African-American Captain America

Marvel made a big announcement Wednesday night when they revealed that the new Captain America is going to be Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon.

What's the big deal? Well, not only is a popular character changing hands, but Sam Wilson – who had long played Cap's friend and crime-fighting partner as the Falcon – is African-American.

It is a progressive move by Marvel, who recently announced that the mantle of Thor would be taken on by a woman in coming story lines.

Marvel revealed the news on "The Colbert Report." Host Stephen Colbert has long been a Captain America fan, even having the hero's iconic shield hanging on the wall of his show's set since the supposed murder of Captain America in 2008.

Now, Steve Rogers - Cap's alter-ego - is giving up the title of Captain America after he was drained of the super soldier-serum that gave him super strength and longevity, aging him 65 years. It only makes sense for his longtime partner to take over the role.

The move is said to be part of a push by Marvel to increase diversity among its massive cadre of heroes, including the reported creation of a teenage superhero Ms. Marvel - who is a 16-year-old Muslim girl named Kamala Khan - and the creation of an African American Spider-Man with Miles Morales taking on the role of Spidey in the "Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man series."

In Marvel's"Captain America" film franchise, Chris Evans stars as Cap, while Anthony Mackie recently starred as the Falcon in the "Winter Solider" installment of the movie series. It's unclear if this move by Marvel will have any effect on future film adaptations.
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I'm ordinarily against replacing white male characters with minority characters, but that's only because they feel compelled to kill the original character to bring in this completely new guy.

Here, the substitute is an established character who makes a lot of sense and they're NOT killing the original. So this is quite acceptable.

 

[Boffo97]

If I think she's hot, will @Thordaddy come after me?!
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Thor is now a woman

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/07/15/thor-is-now-woman/

Thor’s not a guy anymore.

Thor’s a gal.

Marvel Comics announced that their male hero of yore was no longer worthy to hold the mighty hammer Mjölnir.

(Bear with us.)

"The inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well it’s time to update that inscription," said Marvel editor Wil Moss in a statement. "The new Thor continues Marvel’s proud tradition of strong female characters like Captain Marvel, Storm, Black Widow and more. And this new Thor isn’t a temporary female substitute – she’s now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!"

Wait, there’s more.

"This is not She-Thor. This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is THOR,” said writer Jason Aaron. “This is the THOR of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever seen before."

Thor will be Marvel’s eighth comic featuring a female in its leading role, which the publisher says “aims to speak directly to an audience that long was not the target for Super Hero comic books in America: women and girls.”

So watch your back, Captain America.
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One random note: The "He" line has been broken before. In the DC vs. Marvel miniseries, it turns out that Wonder Woman was in fact worthy to possess the power of Thor, which really freaked Thor out later when she picked up the hammer and gave it to him.

 

[TK42-RAM]

Loki was a female a few years back and then reverted back to a male again -- I suspect this Thor gender change will be a similar ploy ..

 

[Boffo97]

Loki was a female a few years back and then reverted back to a male again -- I suspect this Thor gender change will be a similar ploy ..

Yeah, but that's because he was Loki, and there was even a further plan behind the whole thing rather than confuse people by being hot.

On a side note, I'm actually liking the current portrayal of Loki quite a bit.

 

[TK42-RAM]

On a side note, I'm actually liking the current portrayal of Loki quite a bit.

I haven't kept pace with the Marvel Universe for a few years now -- get the occasional digital comic -- what's Loki up to ? I think his portrayal in the movies have been quite good.

 

[Boffo97]

I haven't kept pace with the Marvel Universe for a few years now -- get the occasional digital comic -- what's Loki up to ? I think his portrayal in the movies have been quite good.

For a while, he was reborn as a child, and now he's a young man who kind of looks like Tom Hiddleston... for some reason.

And, at least seemingly, he's doing good things and on great terms with Thor. But there's an old Loki who looks and acts like Loki used to and insists he's this new Loki's inevitable future, which new Loki seems very unhappy about.

He's also managed to hook up with a human woman who has the very minor super power of instantly and effortlessly seeing through any lie. That's in his own series "Loki: Agent of Asgard". So you can imagine that hijinks are afoot there.

 

[TK42-RAM]

That's in his own series "Loki: Agent of Asgard". So you can imagine that hijinks are afoot there.

Sounds good -- may give it a read ..

 

[Boffo97]

I'm actually a lot more of a DC guy than I am Marvel, but I've not been happy since the New 52 reboot.

It's irritating since it's basically an "Ultimate Marvel" thing for DC... except Marvel didn't cancel all their old books when introducing the Ultimate universe.

Even after "Crisis on Infinite Earths", most of the old stories still happened. With the New 52, pretty much everything except Batman and Green Lantern (not coincidentally, the two highest selling properties) had all their history wiped out.

 

[TK42-RAM]

I'm more Marvel ... Does Firestorm the Nuclearman still have a book ?? He changed to African-American too five or so years back !

 

[Boffo97]

I'm more Marvel ... Does Firestorm the Nuclearman still have a book ?? He changed to African-American too five or so years back !

At the current time, no.

He was actually a funny case with The New 52. Basically, in the new continuity, Ronnie Raymond (the white guy) and Jason Rusch (the black guy) can both turn into *A* Firestorm, along with a handful of other people... and in fact several countries are involved in an arms race with Firestorm technology.

Raymond and Rusch can also combine into a more powerful Firestorm, with Raymond in control, and Rusch providing assistance and commentary mentally.

They're in the middle of an imaginary series set in the future called New 52: Future's End where Ronnie took too long answering a call for help from Green Arrow, which caused him to die. Jason knew it was Ronnie's fault, so Ronnie kept him trapped in Firestorm for about a month or so.

Yeah, not entirely pleasant.

 

[TK42-RAM]

At the current time, no.

He was actually a funny case with The New 52. Basically, in the new continuity, Ronnie Raymond (the white guy) and Jason Rusch (the black guy) can both turn into *A* Firestorm, along with a handful of other people... and in fact several countries are involved in an arms race with Firestorm technology.

Raymond and Rusch can also combine into a more powerful Firestorm, with Raymond in control, and Rusch providing assistance and commentary mentally.

They're in the middle of an imaginary series set in the future called New 52: Future's End where Ronnie took too long answering a call for help from Green Arrow, which caused him to die. Jason knew it was Ronnie's fault, so Ronnie kept him trapped in Firestorm for about a month or so.

Yeah, not entirely pleasant.

wow ... talk about convoluted -- can't Batman just go in and punch guy gardner and make it all better ?

 

[Boffo97]

wow ... talk about convoluted -- can't Batman just go in and punch guy gardner and make it all better ?

First, if you're a fan of that group, I absolutely recommend the 24 issue series "Justice League: Generation Lost". Awesome story and practically a love letter to those guys. And another thing the New 52 ruined because it set up the return of a Justice League International monthly series and because New 52 killed the continuity, we got a group of the same people but none of the backstory... and then 5 issues in, they start killing members.

Second, the reason Batman can't do that is Guy Gardner, who has abandoned his classic look for...

...is as the picture would seem to indicate, the head of the Red Lantern Corps, or at least a faction of them. He's battling another faction led by Atrocitus in a monthly Red Lanterns series. (Hal Jordan, btw, is the current head of the Green Lantern Corps after most of the Guardians got killed and replaced by new Guardians who would rather tour the galaxy right now than run the Corps)

Oddly enough, even though the old JLI stuff is no longer in continuity, Guy Gardner and Ice are still in an on-again/off-again relationship.

 

[RhodyRams]

I just cant believe they killed of Archie and plan on bringing him back as a zombie !!!

 

[Boffo97]

I just cant believe they killed of Archie and plan on bringing him back as a zombie !!!

The thing with Archie is that pretty much any kind of major plot event like that is only in an alternate future and thus maintain the status quo in the "regular universe".

Like it made news a few years back that Archie was going to resolve his eternal love triangle and marry one of the girls. Turns out they ran two "future" stories concurrently in the same book: Archie marries Veronica and Archie marries Betty.

Strangely enough, Jughead ended up with Midge, who's typically Moose's girlfriend in the regular stories.

That said, I could be wrong about the newest story. I don't read Archie too much anymore.

 

[MerlinJones]

I'm pretty burned out on the zombie stuff, but Afterlife with Archie actually isn't too bad of a read.

 

[Angry Ram]

So Thor is a Disney princess now. OK. I honestly think the new female Thor is pretty cool. I do hope this doesn't effect the cinematic universe tho. Chris Hemsworth IS Thor.

Oh and The Falcon isn't the first black Captain America. There's Isaiah Bradley...

Finally, if Sam Wilson is now Captain America, will he now be known as Captain Falcon?

 

[MerlinJones]

How about Captain American Eagle?

At least then he can keep the wings.

 

[Angry Ram]

But...he's a Falcon tho.

 

[MerlinJones]

But...he's a Falcon tho.

Everybody knows that eagle trumps falcon. It's bird hierarchy 101.

Consider it a promotion.

Seriously though (as serious as the topic allows anyway), I don't know why he can't just stay the Falcon and take on Catain America's leadership role. But then I'm not in the business, so what do I know?

 

[Angry Ram]

Steve Rodgers will ALWAYS be Cap. Marvel's comics is always changing, so in the future Steve will probably be back in some form. This is just another part in the story, which is in it's own little seperate world.

Oh and there's already an American Eagle.