Tag Archives: Spider-Man

Our Favorite Black Heroes

Over the past couple months, we’ve had several requests from readers who are interested in comics, but would like to know about some black heroes. So in order to help our friends out, I’ve gone through and come up with a few of my favorites and some of the more popular ones. This is by no means an all inclusive list, but instead a good place to start.

John Stewart

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One of the four Green Lanterns from Earth, John Stewart has been guarding Sector 2814 since the early 70’s. Stewart is the by far the most stable and reliable of Earth’s Green Lanterns, providing a grounded perspective, especially when compared to fellow Lanterns Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner. After the launch of DC’s New 52 Stewart took over the star role in Green Lantern Corps.

Cyborg

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Victor Stone became Cyborg when he was seriously injured by a creature from an extra dimensional experiment gone wrong. Initially a member of the Teen Titans, Cyborg has earned himself a place as a fan favorite. Cyborg has taken an interesting turn in the last few years. There has been a serious push to make him more of a big deal since the start of the New 52. This has included making Cyborg a founding member of the Justice League, giving him a leading role in Teen Titans Go! and a rumored appearance in the new Superman-Batman movie. Continue reading

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Filed under Andrew Hales, Comics

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

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I’ve recently realized that a good superhero movie should make you want to go home and read a bunch of superhero comics. I felt that way after seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and now I feel that way after seeing The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

I have to admit that I never got around to seeing The Amazing Spider-Man. This was due in part to the bad taste Spider-Man 3 left me with and in part because I’m not a huge Spider-Man fan. By that point Marvel Studios had taken over the other Marvel characters and they were doing such a fantastic job, I wasn’t really up for a reboot of a franchise that wasn’t under their control. Thankfully, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does a great job of giving new viewers any information they may need but not getting too wrapped up in the previous movie’s plot. There are some occasional references to events in the first film and even a flashback to a scene, but that’s the extent of it, and it works.

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Filed under Andrew Hales, Movie Reviews, Movies

Winning Science April 30, 2014

Today is the launch of Amazing Spider-Man #1 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out in theaters tomorrow. How fitting, then, that Wired gives us a great article about the physics behind Spidey’s most famous piece of paraphernalia, his webs. Being an engineer, I’m familiar with most of the equations used in the article, but I had never put much thought into what the physical requirements must be for the webs. To pull of some of Spidey’s more impressive feats, the webs would need to be five times stronger than a steel cable.

Nobody does Spider-Man's webs quite like Todd McFarlane.

Nobody draws Spider-Man’s webs quite like Todd McFarlane.

I also really enjoyed the preemptive comment responses. This man has dealt with the internet before.

Observing un-contacted native tribes has always been a tough thing to do. Frequently contact eventually results the destruction of the very culture that is being observed. In an effort to prevent this from happening but still learn about the tribes, researchers are turning to Google Earth to monitor the behavior and activity of some tribes. This form of observation will also help set up buffer regions around the tribes to prevent inadvertent contact.

I see you...

I see you…

While this is a pretty great use of technology, it’s also a high tech form of voyeurism. Just a little creepy.

NASA has chosen to honor none other than William Shatner with their highest award, the Distinguished Public Service medal. This is a real no brainer. I’d bet considerable amounts of money that you couldn’t walk twenty feet in a NASA building without finding someone who has been inspired by the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and his successors. Shatner has also been a vocal supporter of the NASA and of space exploration in general.

William Shatner with Ricardo Montalban in the episode Space Seed.

William Shatner with Ricardo Montalban in the episode “Space Seed”.

I had no idea he was Canadian. Guess I’m not quite the trekkie I thought I was.  😦

 

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