Tuesday, May 7, 2002

You can't help but think of evil with a human face in the story of the San Fernando Valley school district that won't allow high school graduates to participate in their own graduation ceremonies without proof of future plans. By denying these students any choice over their own lives, the school administrators have proven that they could have capably or at least enthusiastically run Dachau. You can also only hurl ridicule at the reporter who passes along administrator claims that this policy is a success because 90-95% of the students now have plans despite noting that many students will lie about this. It's clear the administrators only care about furthering their careers by increasing statistics while dehumanizing the students.



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Error-ridden article of the week comes from columnist Malcolm Johnson. It's syndicated so you can find it many places bearing a number of different titles; Johnson's own title "A Grand Parade Of Super Heroes And The American Way" deserves only sneers.



But oh let's count the mistakes:



First, Stan Lee was not the sole creator of Spider-Man. This was done in collaboration with Steve Ditko who also wrote many of the stories. Lee admits this in interviews and it's clearly stated in the film credits. Giving Lee credit as having "sired the Marvel gang" also ignores the equal input of people like Jack Kirby; Thor for instance is clearly much more a Kirby creation than Lee.



Second, this movie is not the "first live-action manifestation" of Spider-Man. That distinction goes to the 1977 TV movie The Amazing Spider-Man. (There have also been earlier live-action Spider-Man films in Japan and Turkey but they often just, er, borrowed the name.)



Third, "No follow-up to Blade II is on the drawing boards yet" is not correct. Writer David Goyer and director Guillermo del Toro have been working on Blade III since before the second film premiered as stated in numerous articles including one from Variety. There's also no mention that del Toro is currently in pre-production on another comics adaptation, Hellboy.



Fourth, the 1941 Captain Marvel serial was not based on a Marvel Comics character. That Captain Marvel was published by Fawcett and is now owned by DC Comics. Marvel's Captain Marvel came three decades later and has no relation to the earlier character.



Fifth, Superman did not inspire "the first wave of pulp gods and goddesses with dual identities." It was the other way around with pulp characters like The Shadow and Doc Savage inspiring superheroes.