The Mix : What are people talking about today?

MARTHA THOMASES: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

MARTHA THOMASES: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The horrific events this week at Virginia Tech have elicited the usual pompous political rhetoric about the evils of Hollywood entertainment – violent video games, rap music, movies and television are to blame. “Our kids are being trained to be murderers,” thunder the politicians. “They learn to shoot at their enemies instead of reasoning with them. They become calloused by this violence, which dehumanizes others. Let us regulate this evil, lest our children slaughter us in our beds.”

Except that’s not how it works. If the media were that effective, we would all be effective code crackers, physically fit from our active lifestyles, enjoying out fabulously large New York apartments. That’s what the non-violent media teaches.

I’ve been a non-violent activist since high school, where I regularly risked expulsion by distributing an anti-war magazine. I dropped out of college for 18 months to work with the War Resisters League, and I now serve on the Board of Directors for the A. J. Muste Institute (http://www.ajmuste.org). Doing this work, I’ve met a lot of people who are deeply and thoughtfully concerned about popular culture, and think it degrades people. After decades of rational and reasonable conversation, I need to disagree.

In Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence, author (and sometimes comic book writer) Gerard Jones examines why children enjoy playing at violence, and why it can be a good thing for them. If I may grossly over-simplify an entire book into a few sentences, he says that children play to work out their feelings, including anger, frustration and helplessness. It’s far better to pretend to kill the monsters with rayguns or laser beams than to hit another kid because he’s got better stuff in his lunchbox than you do.

Kids aren’t the only ones who feel this way. As a human being and a New Yorker, I face frustration dozens of times a day. The traffic lights are slow, the tourists don’t know how to walk down a city sidewalk so other people can pass them, my neighbors don’t clean up after their dogs. I think about killing them all the time. Because I’m an adult, and because I understand that actions have consequences, I don’t do these things. Instead, I watch Kill Bill or read Punisher.

I also understand that other people have feelings. This understanding did as much to shape my politics as anything else – I saw people on television, dying in Viet Nam, realized I didn’t want to die, and the people I saw, even the Communists, probably didn’t want to die, either. From there, I could see that the people making the decisions to go to war weren’t the ones fighting, but they and their friends were getting rich.

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Say it ain’t so, Spidey!

Say it ain’t so, Spidey!

Remember that Batman musical we were all dreading a couple years ago? The one with Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater dancing in the dark in full costume? Well, the good news is, that ain’t happening.

However, your friendly neighborhood webslinger will be swooping down on Broadway – and, if successful, theaters all over the Real Universe. It’ll be directed by The Lion King‘s own Julie Taymor (that’s The Lion King on Broadway, not to be confused with the even stupider Tarzan on Broadway) and the music will be provided by … wait for it … Bono and The Edge.

No first-night date has been announced, but I’m sure American Idol wannabees are scouring the trades for casting calls.  However, if you can’t wait for Spider-Man The Musical, perhaps a naked Harry Potter will do, as, according to Playbill, the London show is headed for Broadway after its June closing. Hmmm… just in time for the new book. That should scare the horses!

(Oh, I’m kidding about Baldwin and Slater; grow up!)

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On-screen comics?

On-screen comics?

If you saw last night’s episode of Smallville – even on TiVo – you probably noticed a vaguely animated "comic book" story starring their version of the Justice League (Green Arrow, Aquaman, Cyborg, and a Flash), as opposed to, say, DC’s version or the version they’re trying to bring to the big screen in a few years. This comic book is actually a commercial for the Toyota Yaris, and it will continue through the show’s next-to-last season finale on May 17.

It’s almost good.

The interesting part of all this is that the comic book / commercial is promoting a contest whereby the winner can get one of those Yaris (wasn’t that an old video game called Yaris’ Revenge?). Until recently, advertisers thought superheroes could only sell Underoos and POGs, so this is a great leap forward in consumer recognition.

You can see / read / experience the comic book, play the game, and enter the contest by going to the appropriate spot on The CW’s website.

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Blame Game

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Blame Game

Monday April 17, 2007 at Virginia Tech University a gunman took 32 lives. I am writing this the following day, Tuesday April 18. To give this piece a little more perspective I tell you this: I lost my sister and grandmother some time ago and when ever I hear of any random act of violence like what happened at Virginia Tech I always pause and think of what the families are going though. I say a silent prayer and hope that somehow the pain that they feel now will ease a bit over time. It never goes away but I hope that they find some comfort from what will seem like an eternity of grief.

My family unit was my mother, sister, grandmother and myself. So half of my family was taken from me. I had to deal with losing my sister and grandmother; my mother had to deal with losing her first-born child and her mother. It hit us both very hard. We were lucky enough to have friends and family around us to comfort us. After a while – a great while we had to deal with the why of what happened. Why them? Why now? Why not me? Why were they there? Etc, etc.

There was always a why.

Those questions are as biting now as they were then. My mother and I still deal with those questions every single day. As I said we had help getting though it.

In the last 24 hours I have heard the Virginia Tech Massacre described in many ways by many people in the media.

A National tragedy

A Nation mourns

America is saddened

United as one

We all feel this

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Happy Birthday, Simpsons!

Happy Birthday, Simpsons!

It was twenty years ago today, Homer Simpson taught the land to strangle his son.

On April 19, 1987 The Tracey Ullman Show aired a two-minute animated short by Matt Groening that introduced the world to the Simpsons, a family from Springfield, USA. And, quite literally, television has never been the same. The Simpsons has gone on to become one of the longest continuously-aired television shows in American history. What had been seen as "good grief, look what they’re shoveling onto the children now" has become one of the most honored and most respected shows of all time.

Michael Pinto points us to a Parade interview with Simpsons producer Al Jean.

Artwork copyright Fox. All Rights Reserved.

Counting down on MySpace

DC Comics has just announced it’s partnered with the comic books section of MySpace to preview the first two issues of its much-anticipated Countdown series, which has reverse numbering because we aren’t confused enough.

The first 10 pages of Countdown #51 will be up on MySpace/comicbooks on May 4, followed on May 11 by the last 12 pages of that issue and the the first 12 pages of issue #50. The final ten pages of Countdown #50 will be on the site on May 18.

Why the sudden interest in the site? Well, DC’s also launching its own DC Nation MySpace page on May 2, so that could have something to do with it.

While it’s always good to see major corporations paying attention to the netroots, let’s hope smaller efforts aren’t completely usurped by the bigger fish.

Eisner nominees announced

Eisner nominees announced

The Oscar race of the comics industry is underway, as the 2007 Eisner nominees (for work that came out in 2006) have been announced .

Thank goodness Heidi MacDonald (from Barcelona, yet!) has all the nominees listed, so we don’t have to.

Marc Andreyko speaks to ComicMix Podcast!

Marc Andreyko speaks to ComicMix Podcast!

Today’s pop quiz includes the brain busting questions of who was Dickie Goodman, where has Manhunter been, why is someone ripping off Richard Dawson, wow does The Doctor get to the fast lane, and WHO was "John And Ernest?" We give you good news on a much loved DC book, dig into Doctor Who’s latest romp, we hear from comics writer Marc Andreyko, and much more.

After all that, wouldn’t you feel guilty if you DIDN’T press the button?

MATT RAUB: Your weekly Who review!

MATT RAUB: Your weekly Who review!

Hey gang, Matt Raub back again, and that can only mean one thing – it’s Who time! So here we are, already a quarter of the way through another explosive year of Doctor Who. And what better time to start the season three story arc than in the 727th produced episode, beating out all of the Star Trek series combined!

In the episode, entitled “Gridlock,” the Doctor and Martha travel on their third voyage together, this time to the future city of New New York. Some of you may remember that we’ve been to New New York, and fairly recently (Don’t worry, Martha brings that up too). Last time, the Doctor and Rose visited a sick friend in very chic hospital above ground, but this time we find our traveling duo deep in the city’s bowels and on the New New York Motorway, which reaches all the way to New New Jersey. Fun thing about this motorway is that, due to the traffic, it takes about 10 years to go four miles. Well, in all the chaos, Martha is kidnapped by two motorists hoping to get into the express lane. The doctor then does his doctor thing and declares he will find her if it’s the last thing he’ll do.

The greatest part of this episode isn’t a quirky part of dialogue, or interesting plot point, but the way the episode was shot. The majority of this episode is going from car to car, whilst the doctor searches for Martha. Now, each car is shot in the exact same set, just with a change of furniture and a few new actors. This makes for an incredibly cheap budget for the episode, and while this is completely unnecessary for the BBC’s top rated show, it reflects some of the ingenuity that American TV lacks. My hat is tipped to executive producer and episode writer Russell T. Davies and the boys and girls overseas for this particular stunt.

Back to the episode, while looking for Martha, the doctor comes across an old buddy – in fact, the same old buddy he came across the last time we were all in New New York: The good ol’ Face of Boe. Those of you who remember the last encounter with that giant head-in-a-jar, remember that Boe said he would meet the Doctor a final time, and then he would tell him the great secret. So now here we are, and that big secret is? **SPOILER WARNING**

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More Marvel video games

More Marvel video games

If you’re going to appear in a Marvel movie, you might as well try to get into the video games as well.

Marvel Entertainment has expanded its deal with Sega Europe and Sega of America, under which they will develop and distribute games based on Marvel’s upcoming feature films, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and Thor.  This new exclusive, multi-year licensing deal follows Marvel and Sega’s pact to create game titles based on Marvel’s upcoming Iron Man movie, with both game and movie set for release in May 2008.

Pixel Avengers by Ben Cooper. Check out the rest of the roster here.