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World Views

Hollywood Showcase's the LGBTQ Superhero

Hollywood Showcase's the LGBTQ Superhero

I'm not a big fan of the latest rage of the superhero genre of movies although, I did devour the original comic books when I was a kid. Even back then (in the 60's) they were platforms for social justice issues such as bullying and racial equality, both of which were an added bonus to reading them. I lost my interest in comic books when the superhero took on the evil environmental polluter. Superheroes need a super-villain to fight and save the world from, not some soulless CEO of an oil company (boring). Now that Hollywood is mining old comic books to make movies with, they must have felt that it was incumbent upon themselves to inject LGBT characters into their movies (also boring). They have succeeded in making a movie that is "woke" and promotes an immoral life style, that at least half of their audience rejects. I hope that the rejection is shown by the box office receipts. Read the article below that was posted in the on-line edition of World Magazine by Mary Jackson a World reporter.

 

LGBT superheroes

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is ready to gamble that its massive audiences are diehard enough to embrace its first LGBT superhero. Spoiler alert: It’s the Asgardian warrior Valkyrie.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con that fans can expect an LGBT Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson, in Thor: Love and Thunder, set to release in November 2021.

Feige also indicated fans can expect other LGBT portrayals in Marvel’s forthcoming content, telling the blog io9, “How that impacts the story remains to be seen with that level of representation you’ll see across our films, not in just Thor 4.”

Thompson teased the news during Comic-Con’s Thor: Love and Thunder reveal, telling fans, “As the new king, she needs to find her queen. … That will be her first order of business.” The movie also will include actress Natalie Portman as the first female to wield Thor’s hammer, leading some to speculate a Portman-Thompson hookup.

These absurdities might surprise some, but Marvel has been inching toward LGBT plotlines in recent years under increasingly intense pressure and scrutiny from activists. The staggeringly successful Avengers: Endgame included a short scene of a homosexual man, played by the movie’s co-director, Joe Russo, lamenting the loss of his partner. “It was incredibly important to us to have a gay character represented somewhere in [the Avenger] movies,” Russo told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “We felt so strongly about it that I wanted to play that character in the film.”

Meanwhile, Marvel Comic’s X-Men series Northstar, considered the first comic book about an openly gay superhero, featured a same-sex wedding in 2012.

Marvel isn’t the only comic franchise introducing LGBT superheroes. Earlier this year, the CW Network rolled out a Batwoman TV series featuring a lesbian crime fighter played by actress Ruby Rose, who is a lesbian in real life. In 2016, DC Comic’s Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka told fans that lead character Diana is bisexual.

Posted by Art Flickinger
in Media

50th Anniversary of Man Landing on the Moon

Just 65 years after the Wright brothers made their historic 12 second, 120 foot long flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C., the Apollo 8 spacecraft, under the command of Frank Borman orbited the moon, a 3 day 250,000 mile journey. Live from space on Christmas Eve as pictures of the moon were televised back to earth the crew members took turns reading the creation story from Genesis I. One year later Neil Armstrong's voice crackled over the radio, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Soon afterwards, Neil Armstrong declared as he set foot on the lunar landscape, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I still get goose bumps as I vividly recall witnessing these events live on the television in the comfort of my living room. I remember watching in awe as pictures of the moon and the Earth rise above the lunar landscape, portrayed the stark contrast of the deep blackness and empty void of space with the blue colored orb suspended in the vastness. "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which thou has ordained; what is man that thou dost take thought of him?" "The heavens declare the glory of God." My mind needs to go to the psalmist, who never dreamed of space travel, for an adequate response to express what we have witnessed.

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Posted by Art Flickinger
in Media

What's On Your Book Shelf?

My friend Bill Mehaffey sent me this interesting article by Mihail Neamtu, entitled, "Dostoevsky and the Triumph of Poetry over Ideology." Dostoevsky's literary work's give us insight into understanding the origins of modern atheism, Western nihilism and the logic of the secular age," contends Neamtu. Neamtu discusses," The Brothers Karamazov" as a prime example of Dostoevsky's understanding of the human condition and it's relationship to the theological and philosophical issues of his day. My big take away from reading this article was a reminder of how timeless the books are that we consider to be Classics. They wrestle with the big issues of life that never become outdated and deserve to be read over and over again. 

Posted by Art Flickinger

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