It is, of course, International Star Wars Day, and we shall celebrate it in the ways of our ancestors. Not by going out and buying trade paperbacks of [[[Star Wars: Legacy]]], although that would be cool too… but by staring a long time at a screen far, far away…
I lost track of all the things that got mashed into this one, from Thor, Captain America, and Superman to Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, and Leia’s slave girl outfit, all to an Enrique Iglesias tune.
If we could find a way to jam Donald Trump, William, Kate and Pippa in there, it would create a black hole of search engine optimization…
…only with less of the punching and more of the shooting.
We look forward to the years of comics with titles like “They Saved Bin Laden’s Brain!”
Distant Drums, a film almost forgotten except for one scream
The Wilhelm Scream is a film and television stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and many other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games. The scream is often used when someone gets shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.
The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western where the character was shot with an arrow. The scream shows up in hundreds of films– see (or rather hear) what we mean.
Yes, we run these just to tick off Rich Johnston. We already got an earlier example of Prince William in comics than his (although, to be fair, he still holds the record for Kate Middleton) but now we have this from the front page of a Norwegian newspaper website:
From the pages of American Flagg! #3, published in December 1983 by First Comics, written and drawn by Howard Chaykin and edited by ComicMix‘s own Mike Gold, and set in the year 2031. When the comic was written, Prince William wasn’t even two years old.
American Flagg! © 1983 Howard Chaykin Inc. and First Comics Inc. All rights reserved.
Once again, caught up in too many stories. Here’s some of what’s open in my browser:
Anything else? Consider this an open thread.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the controversy– ZOMG SUPERMAN RENOUNCES AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP!!! A lot of people are taking this panel at right from Action Comics #900 out of context.
For me, I always thought that “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” was a bit redundant. At least, I hoped that it was, because that implied that the American Way didn’t actually include truth and justice. As it turns out, the phrase wasn’t even original to the character. Remember the introduction to the Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 40s?
Heard it? Never-ending Battle for Truth and Justice… but no American Way. Same with The Adventures Of Superman radio show, which started with:
Look! Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
It’s Superman!“Yes, it’s Superman–strange visitor from the planet Krypton who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice.”
And this was during World War II, not exactly a time short on American patriotism.
It wasn’t until 1952 that the TV series gave us:
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! (“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!”)… Yes, it’s Superman … strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman … who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way! And now, another exciting episode, in The Adventures of Superman!
Why was “the American Way” phrase added? Probably for the same reason that the words “under God” started showing up in the Pledge of Allegiance around the same time– it was supposed to help fight communism.
Considering this issue shipped the same day Barack Obama had to take extraordinary steps to prove that he was born in this country to the same sort of people who are now braying that Superman has betrayed them, I cannot help but be a bit confused. The fictional character is a real American citizen, and the President of the United States isn’t?
Of course, Superman really wasn’t born in the United States. (He really wasn’t born at all, but play along with me here.) If you asked Superman to produce a birth certificate, he couldn’t– hell, the Kents lied to get Clark one.
Now, whether DC made a good storytelling choice here– that’s for the next article.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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