These amazing retro-modern superhero posters, which we spotted over at My Modern Met, manage to give us those warm nostalgia feelings and a vision of the future all at once. Created by French artist and graphic designer Grégoire Guillemin as part of his “exercises in style” series, they remind us of an imaginary golden age of real-life superheroes that we desperately wish existed, like the ones portrayed in stories like Watchmen and The Incredibles. Click through to check out our gallery of Guillemin’s work and dream of pop culture’s modern knights, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Thanks to the success of the Spider-Man and X-Men film franchises, and more recently, the Captain America movie, you don’t need to be a comic book geek to appreciate the beauty of these minimalist Marvel posters by Marko Manev — but it definitely doesn’t hurt. Click through for his understated odes to some of our favorite superheroes and villains in the Marvel Universe, and let us know in the comments which ones you’d like to hang on your apartment’s walls.
New Yorkers will recognize the voice of Carolyn Hopkins, but they might have a hard time placing it. That’s because she has recorded many of the voiceovers used in New York’s subway system, alerting commuters about incoming trains and the like (you can hear a recording at the New York Times). As in real life, these voice actors often go unnamed and unappreciated. So, in honor of Mrs. Hopkins, we decided to look at 10 of the most memorable disembodied voices in film.
It was announced yesterday that a forthcoming issue of Archie will feature President Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. In Archie #616: Campaign Pain Part 1, which will be released this December, Obama and Palin become involved in an “out of control” campaign for student government between Archie and Reggie. And yes, a second part comes out a month later in which Riverdale becomes “the center of a national crisis” that somehow involves the Secret Service. Of course this isn’t the first time a politician has made a cameo in a comic book. Click through for more examples, including an earlier appearance by President Obama.
Like most pop-culture artifacts, comic books have a history of sexism. Yesterday, in an attempt to end the stereotypical portrayal of women with exposed legs and low-cut tops, DC Comics gave Wonder Woman a makeover. The 69-year-old superhero debuted her new outfit in issue number 600 of her monthly series. Writer J. Michael Straczynski, who recently took control of the series, told The New York Timeswhy he felt the wardrobe update was needed:
She’s been locked into pretty much the exact same outfit since her debut in 1941. If you’re going to make a statement about bringing Wonder Woman into the 21st century, you need to be bold and you need to make it visual. I wanted to toughen her up, and give her a modern sensibility.
View 10 other comic book heroes who have undergone costume changes, though perhaps not for such a noble cause. There’s a surprise ending.
With his series CubeDudes, Pixar animator Angus MacLane (aka the Cube Dude) elevates Legos from toddler choking hazard into the realm of fine art. With careful attention to detail and, we’re guessing, a high level of patience, Maclane has transformed squares with circles into some of our favorite pop culture icons, including Iron Man, RoboCop, and Homer Simpson — all with remarkable accuracy. Sometimes it looks like Maclane has altered the pieces from their original shape to get the right fit, but Lego has always been about enhancing creativity and expanding the imagination, right?
See if you can identify the six other characters after the jump.
Today at Flavorpill, we loved GOOD’s infographic version of the most controversial books in America. We found out what Conan O’Brien was really thinking during his 60 Minutes interview. We wondered how someone would react to spotting one of Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s oil paintings in our apartment. Total conversation piece. We considered dropping $1000 to have ’90s rocker Juliana Hatfield write a personalized song for us. We realized that skinny jeans, do in fact, serve an important function. We chortled over the “Is It Steampunk?” Flowchart — it’s so funny because it’s true. We wished that the New York City Department of Buildings would leave Shepard Fairey alone. We wanted Hollywood to stop mining our childhood for sequel ideas. We got a kick out of Ironing Man. And finally, we wanted to thank Yeasayer’s Chris Keating for introducing us to some of the band’s more obscure influences in a new mixtape.
In 2007, Jon Favreau had the audacity to make an Iron Man movie that was actually good. Two years later, we have our first glimpse of the inevitable sequel. What follows is a play-by-play breakdown of the new trailer for Iron Man 2 (or, as we call it, War Machine: Origins), featuring Mickey Rourke’s Burning Man-appropriate metal teeth, Scarlett Johansson’s laughable attempts at be-leathered badassery, and the brazen ripoff of a Dark Knight set-piece.
For your pleasure, we’ve highlighted some of the best parts (Sam Jackson as Nick Fury) and some of the worst (basically all the parts that do not include Sam Jackson as Nick Fury).
While Disney would like to think the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, home of Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, and many more Stan Lee creations, helps solve the $50 billion problem of providing entertainment to over-sugared, rambunctious young males, we see the purchase as the ultimate victory for cross-branded buddy films. In the spirit of the Disney-Marvel deal, here are our best pitches; we’re pretty sure this is exactly how Stan Lee pictured the future would be like when he drew his first comics in 1941. Read More »
