...of superheroes can be traced back to the comic books of the 1930s and even earlier, they have been depicted in media like film, television shows, video games, radio broadcasts and graphic novels. They even find their place in apparels like t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and underwear; stationery items like pencil boxes; accessories for electronic gadgets like cell phone covers and laptop skins; and various home furnishing items. Originally confined to a certain class of comic book fans, the popularity of superheroes has reached a wider audience with a lot of different people being happily associated with them. This phase of increasing infusion of superheroes into the mainstream culture started in the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century but it was only after the release of the film Iron Man that superheroes reached their present level of popularity. Therefore, it can be argued that Iron Man has led to the creation of what can be called, a ‘positive geek culture’. ‘Geek culture’, as it is popularly understood, has many different facets and it is not always associated with being a superhero fan. Geek culture includes interest in board games like Dungeons & Dragons, the film series Star Wars and martial arts films of the 1980s, and television series like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly among other things. Books like the Harry Potter series and many video games also form a part of the so called geek culture. Comic books and graphic novels too form an integral...
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...Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group 1. Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the problems created by bad luck, bad strategy or bad execution? Before addressing its bankruptcy, it is necessary to have a general understanding of the company being analyzed. Marvel Entertainment Group began in 1939 as Timely Publications, a comic book publishing company that gained fame around the time of the Second World War. One of its most successful characters from this period was Captain America, who was often depicted fighting against the Germans. Other new characters came in the decades that followed, some of which still maintain popularity to this day, including The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, and Spider-Man. Attempting to reflect the general “psychological spirit” of the era (WWII, Cold War, etc.), many of Marvel’s creations in the mid-20th century fought against Communist foes. Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee helped usher in the ‘Marvel Age of Comics’ of the 1960’s, writing most of the superhero titles himself, and restoring many of the aspects from the late 1930’s superhero genre. Skipping forward a few decades, Marvel Entertainment Group was bought in January 1989 by Ron Perelman for $82.5 million, financed using only $10.5 million of equity. The remaining portion was borrowed from a syndicate of banks led by Chase Manhattan, seeing this as a relatively insignificant amount for Perelman...
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...Have you ever been in a bad situation that your about to die. When your in trouble out there Spiderman is always there. When your in trouble Spiderman is not there but maybe someone could be your Spiderman like a fireman. I heard on the news that some house got on fire and a little baby was there in the house but the baby was asleep and the house was on fire but the fire fighter barley made it the fireman saved the day. Today I will be talking about Spiderman’s abilaties/ superpowers his creation and who is he. Let’s start by talking about his powers you might think of superpowers like heat vision or can fly or even fire . But his superpowers are kind of diffrent he has webs he uses the webs to swing mid-air and to building to building he...
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...A Modern Day Allusion The Elizabethan era, once filled with long dresses, courtship and theatre has now transitioned into a time when less clothing is considered better and with some teenagers, dating is a quick as a game of musical chairs, switching partners when the music stops. Teenagers are more interested in social media and texting than interacting with other people. There a two allusions that can be switched into Hamlet to allow it to appeal to a young and modern audience. Updating the term Termagant and Hercules could appeal to a more modern audience. Termagant was originally “a deity erroneously ascribed to Islam by medieval European Christians and represented in early English drama as a violent character.” This original allusion is used to describe a nasty or violent person and in Hamlet is it used in Act III Scene ii, before Hamlet performs his play. It is used in the context of “I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod.” Hamlet was telling the actors not to overdo their performance and to not have violent outbursts. Many teenagers would not know what this word meant unless they had to look it up for a project. The word bully would be a better fit for a modern audience, because for years, teenagers and kids have been taught about the definition of a bully and what it means to bully another person. The new line would read as “I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing a bully. It out-Herods Herod“ By making this replacement...
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...lessons from Marvel Entertainment Group’s bankruptcy Joseph Calandro Jr Joseph Calandro Jr is the Enterprise Risk Manager of a global financial services firm and a Finance Department faculty member of the University of Connecticut (joseph.calandro@ business.uconn.edu). s the current recession unfolds, indications are that corporate executives and strategists will be making decisions in an economically distressed environment for some time to come.[1] Historically, investment and M&A activity tend to decline during periods of economic distress. However, a specialty form of acquisition, known pejoratively as ‘‘vulture investing’’ has flourished during such times. Perhaps because it has been practiced as a specialty by financiers accustomed to balancing high risks for quick rewards, acquiring distressed companies has not been widely viewed as a corporate strategic opportunity. Recently, however, distressed M&A has become more common: A B as of April of 2009, there were 60 distressed M&A deals for the year including Valero Energy Corporation’s purchase of VeraSun Energy Corporation’s assets in bankruptcy; in 2008, there were 220 distressed deals; and in 2007, there were 134.[2] B B When assessing distressed M&A opportunities, corporate strategists should leverage their industry knowledge and expertise to search for hidden value, and also to select qualified industry experts to validate strategic and valuation assumptions. The interesting bankruptcy of Marvel Entertainment...
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...Twist or a Huckleberry Fin in these books. These characters are super heroes and super villains trying to save the world from destruction. Born during the great depression, Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922 in New York City. After Stan changed his last name to Lee, he was hired as an office assistant by Timely Comics in 1939. In the early 1940’s he was promoted to an interim editor. Stan Lee also served time with the United States Army during World War II. During the war, Lee worked as an illustrator and writer for the Army (Stan Lee, 2013). After World War II, Stan Lee continued working with Timely Comics, which was now known as Marvel Comics. In order to compete with DC comics and their new Justice League of America comics, Marvel instructed Lee to create a new comic series. With this, Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four in 1961. After this, a multitude of new characters were created by Lee. The Hulk, Thor, the X-men, and Spider Man were all creations of Stan Lee (Stan Lee, 2013). Stan Lee was promoted to editorial director and publisher in 1972 after his characters made Marvel highly successful. Even while his work with the comics continued, he moved to the west coast in order to be involved with Marvel’s film and television ventures. He was also named chairman emeritus...
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...Iron Man is an American fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. He made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963). An American billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer, Tony Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping in which his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction. He instead creates a powered suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. He later uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Through his corporation ― Stark Industries ― Tony has created many military weapons, some of which, along with other technological devices of his making, have been integrated into his suit, helping him fight crime. Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and business in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War themes to contemporary concerns, such as corporate crime and terrorism. Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. The character is...
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...Innovation By the end of the 1970s, the market for comic books was reduced to an all-time low. Readers had lost interest in comics. In the 1980s, Marvel began to target different demographics in the market, and began to use new distribution outlets including shopping malls. Perelman pushed Marvel to expand into other areas with the 1992 purchase of Fleer Corporation, which made trading cards. Marvel Mania was opened as a theme restaurant with servers in costume and menu selections with superhero descriptions. Marvel made some of its comic book archives online through its Digital Comics division in 2007. By the end of the decade, Marvel was well on its way to becoming a leader in the entertainment industry, with two self-produced feature films in 2008.The company transitioned From a traditional publisher and toy maker into a new media and entertainment company. Online business Marvel made some of its comic book archives available online through its Digital Comics division in 2007. 15% of the segment’s revenues came from sales of advertising and subscriptions, including its online business. Because of the growth of the Internet and the potential for online readership, online comic books were launched in 2007 through Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, in an attempt to reach existing readers in a new medium while also further extending Marvel’s reach to new readers. Expand distribution channels and product lines In the 1980s, Marvel began to target different demographics in the...
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...in the Marvel Franchise, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War was released in April 27, 2016. The film’s events come directly after what happened in the second avengers movie: the Avengers has lost the faith of the public due to their otherwise ‘heroic’ actions that consequently puts the lives of the innocent in jeopardy. Another factor that instigates this is the mission Steve Rogers or Captain America (Chris Evans), Sam Wilson (Anthonie Mackie), Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) in Lagos, Nigeria. They were trying to stop the then-turncoat security official, Crossbones (Frank Grillo), from obtaining a biological weapon. In the fight, he planned on committing suicide, in order to take down Captain America with him. However, Wanda notices this and decides to contain the explosion (and Crossbones) within a container formed from her psyche powers and sends it upward, detonating it. Unfortunately, she sends it near a commercial building, and the explosion kills innocents. Following this disaster, the United Nations decided to make the Sokovia Accords, where in the Avengers will be placed under a governing body. This divides the Avengers, with one side supporting the Sokovia Accord with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) at the head, and the other against it, headed by Steve Rogers. The movie was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who were also the directors of the previous Captain America films. They based the movie on the Marvel Comic Arc: Civil...
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...is my paper. I hope you like it. It was hard to write. Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics existing in itsshared universe. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in the anthology comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 This is some new stuff that I am now writing. When Comic boOks were accused of causing crime, many, many people wanted to ban comic books, comic books are not the reason kids are mean and violent. Or breaking the law. Or just being all around jerks. That’s whats inside, tnot what is from comci books . First, when Spider-Man originally appeared in the 1960s, adolescents in superhero comics were usually relegated to sidekick...
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...film • Influenced the atmosphere of the films • Affected characterization • Provided transitional changes • Helped mirror the director’s intent Expression Maltese Falcon Shot in black and white this film depends on the use of multiple elements to attain the desired emotional response and reaction to the characters and the plot of the story. The use of lighting to obtain physical shadow, create depth, and establish area and time are very important but lighting is also used to indicate darker or lighter moods and situations. Black & white is a great contribution to the expression of this story, it has layers and shades of grey that add to the overall enjoyment of watching this movie. Spider-Man 2 This movie portrays a comic book superhero and is shot in bright, bold, sometimes exaggerated colors to obtain this effect. It has moments of lightness with cooler coloring and lighting for a few romantic and comical scenes but for the most part the coloring is very bright (to highlight action, astonishment, and awe) or dark to indicate evil, defeat, or hopelessness, as when Peter Parker was in the alley and decided he would give up his calling to be Spiderman. The colors and use of them in this movie were very effective and were integral in the overall expression of the picture. Atmosphere Maltese Falcon Atmosphere in a...
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...those then how about Iron Man vs Man of Steel? Marvel movies have and will be the biggest movies ever made and DC movies are following in the shadows of Marvels Success. I know that man of steel movie didn't do better than any Iron Man movies in the box office because Marvel has great Movies already in its pockets. My evaluation of the target audience for this article happens to be toward young adults and older that are interested in movie income. To be most specific it would also go to the people that have a big fan base towards Marvel or DC. This article hits many clues towards its audience. First of all the Marvel and DC fan base, by including the names of Tony Stark and Clark Kent. These two names are very well known in the comic and movies since late due to movies and comics. The article also includes the amount that both moves made when it hit box office. This leads me to believe that the target audience is towards DC and Marvel fans and also young adults and older adults in financing. For the articles purpose was to get your answer if the man of steel movie would be a bigger hit in the box office than iron man 3. This article is date to June 2013 the same month the man of steel was released so upon further research the man of steel movie was only able to produce a 443 million dollar profit as to the iron man 3 movie produce a whopping 1 billion dollar profit. This difference can only be explained to the other movies that Marvel has made so there fan base is at higher margin...
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...Running head: WEEK THREE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1 Popular Literature Paper SOC/105 October 10 2012 WEEK THREE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 2 The following paper will describe to the reader a brief overview, followed by a little bit about the author, and then explain how this type of popular fiction fits with other literature in the same genre. Comic books of yesterday and today have introduced a lot of new and interesting characters. The character that I selected to right about is the Incredible Hulk. The Incredible Hulk was introduced to the world in a comic book back in 1962. This character, Bruce Banner, was a scientist that was working with atomic weapons when an atomic bomb went off and exposed him to an enormous amount of gamma radiation. When he was exposed to the radiation, it turned him into a savage and extremely strong animal of a human being. Normally when Mr. Banner becomes enraged the Incredible Hulk is exposed and only when the Incredible Hulk calms down does he turn back into Bruce Banner. Although the Hulk's color has varied just a bit over the time that he has existed, the majority of the time he is the favorable and most popular green color. Whenever Bruce Banner turns into the Incredible Hulk, he is then capable of immense strength, minus the brains. Strong emotions such as anger, terror and grief are also triggers for...
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...red cape with blue leggings is probably not an ordinary image being pictured in one's head. Superheroes come in all varieties, shapes, and forms, but behind each superhero lies a secret to why they were created. The reasons for creation range from events that previously occurred in history to recent changes in today's society. Comic book superheroes were indeed influenced by history, but the comic book superheroes also continually influence history itself. This reciprocal influence continues to affect the generations of comic book fans for years on end. Comic book creators have been known for using a strategy to create characters which tend to resemble infamous gods to separate the common ideal mortal heroes from the indestructible immortals. By using this strategy, comic book creators are able to give their characters a fierce outer shell with a scholarly uplift (Reynolds 53). With the creation of the Mighty Thor comic book character in 1962, Lee and Thomas used this strategy perfectly (54). Asgardian characters were just ready-made superheroes waiting to be transformed into the comic-book world (57). Being named one of the most unusual creations in comic book history, Thor truly defined “…the first successful attempt to harness existing mythology on a large scale to construct the mise en scene of a superhero” (54). In relation to history, Thor was the son of Odin, the universal father, and Frigga queen of the gods. His name dates back to ancient Norse Mythology where he was...
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...Dreams Dreams. The word “dream” gets thrown out a lot, and I think that has caused people to devalue the meaning of the word “Dream”. To me, dreams are everything. Right now, at this very moment in my life, dreams are the only thing I have. Direct a movie, become a writer for marvel, and find the love of my life. Those are my dreams. My dreams are the reason of why I get out of bed every morning. Kevin Smith is a person I admire. He is the kind of person I want my kids to grow up to be. He is not a very well-known director, but he is one of the best, and overall, a great person. He is the reason why I want to become a director myself. I want to tell a story through a movie screen. I want people to see my story, and not only see it, but feel something. Anger, sadness, happiness, anything. I want to pull the strings on their emotions. Many of the movies that made me feel something as a kid were super hero movies. Super heroes are literally a thing out of this world. Their stories are fascinating. I want to write those stories, and the only way I can do that is by becoming one of MARVEL’s writers. MARVEL is the number one comic book publisher, and I want to become their number one writer. I want to write one of the stories where the hero grabs the girl and gives her his hand, and they ride away into the sunset. Riding away into the sunset. That seems like a great way to end a story. I want that ending. I want to find that one girl that will change everything. I...
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