Sunday, November 11, 2007

G- Girl (My Super Ex-Girlfriend)


Frustrated by his lack of progress in asking out secret crush Hannah (Anna Faris), Matt (Luke Wilson) starts dating shy stranger Jenny (Uma Thurman). After several dates, Jenny displays increasingly-neurotic and aggressive behaviour, becoming more demanding and ultimately injuring Matt during their first sexual encounter. Soon after, Jenny reveals to him that she is in fact a superhero, G-Girl, who accidentally absorbed powers such as invulnerability, heat vision, and super-senses after she was exposed to a crashed meteorite as a teenager.

As Matt and Hannah's friendship develops further, and after becoming aggravated with Jenny's escalating jealousy, Matt ends the relationship. An angered Jenny vows to make Matt regret the decision, using her superpowers to publicly embarrass him and eventually causing him to lose his job. Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), a former boyfriend of Jenny and now G-Girl's arch-nemesis, contacts Matt in order to enlist his aid in defeating her. Matt refuses and makes plans to leave the city. As he does so he is contacted by Hannah, and after confessing their feelings to one another, they end up in bed.

Jenny (as G-Girl) discovers them in bed the next day and attacks the pair. Angered, Matt contacts Professor Bedlam and agrees to help him defeat her, as long as Bedlam retires from being a supervillain. He instructs Matt to lure Jenny to a meeting where she can be exposed to a piece of the meteorite which gave her superpowers, telling Matt that this will draw away her powers, leaving her a mere mortal. Matt agrees and meets Jenny for a candlelit dinner at his apartment, under the pretence of wanting to resume their relationship. However, Hannah arrives to see Jenny sitting on Matt's lap. The two women fight, and in the struggle Jenny accidentally reveals her superhero identity to Hannah. Bedlam's trap is sprung, and the energy that gave Jenny her powers is drained back into the meteorite, incapacitating Jenny.

Professor Bedlam appears, but reveals that he has no intention of keeping his promise to retire from villainy and in fact plans to kill the helpless Jenny. While he and Matt fight, Jenny crawls to the charged meteorite attempting to regain her powers; Hannah intervenes just as Jenny grabs the meteorite, which explodes in a burst of power. Both Hannah and Jenny are catapulted off the roof, apparently to their deaths; however, Jenny appears within seconds, powers restored, threatening even more mayhem. Only the unexpected reappearance of Hannah -- also exposed to the meteorite's energies and now also possessing the same powers as G-Girl -- saves Matt. The second fight between Hannah and Jenny is a full-on super-brawl, destroying part of the neighbouring properties. Finally, Matt reasons with them both and they cease fighting. He tells Jenny that Professor Bedlam is her true love; Jenny agrees and she embraces her former nemesis.

The next morning, Matt and Hannah meet up with Professor Bedlam (now just "Barry") and Jenny. As cries for help are heard from afar, Jenny and Hannah take off to tackle the emergency. Matt and Barry are left holding their girlfriends' purses and leave to have a beer together.

The Incredibles


Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) have married and settled into relatively normal lives. Now known as Bob and Helen Parr, they have a house in the suburbs and are raising three kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dashiell ("Dash") (Spencer Fox) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). Violet and Dash each have superpowers like their parents, while it seems as if Jack-Jack is a normal baby without powers.

Bob is frustrated with the drudgery of his job as a claims adjuster for a corrupt insurance company called Insuricare and secretly helps deserving clients to find loopholes to get their payments. He dreams of returning back to his glory days of superheroism, going so far as to moonlight as a crimefighter by listening to a police scanner with his friend Lucius - another former super called Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). When Helen finds out, it causes an argument. Bob hates having to hide their gifts, and wants to return to the heroics of the old days, while Helen is concerned about keeping the family together and not having to start over again by going into hiding in a brand new location.

Eventually Mr. Huph (Wallace Shawn), Bob's miserly boss, suspects Bob is helping clients and reprimands him. During the lecture, Bob notices a person being mugged in the street. Mr. Huph stops Bob from going to the victim's aid, threatening to fire him, and the mugger escapes. Bob is furious, and when Huph smugly begins lecturing again, Bob grabs him by the neck and hurls him through several office walls. Huph is hospitalized and Bob is fired.

While Bob is trying to figure out how to tell Helen, Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), a mysterious agent, contacts him and offers highly-paid work: subduing a renegade robot, the Omnidroid 9000, on Nomanisan, an uncharted volcanic island. Bob takes the assignment, hiding both the loss of his job and the renewal of hero work from Helen. Bob defeats the Omnidroid from the inside, damaging his supersuit slightly from the battle, and becomes much happier. When he takes his suit to its designer, flamboyant Edna Mode (Brad Bird), for repair, she creates for him a brand-new suit; she is adamant about only one detail: "No capes!" She points out how several super heroes met untimely deaths because their capes were snagged on takeoff, sucked into jet turbines (Stratogale), snags on missile fins (Thunderhead), express elevator trouble (Meta-Man), sucked into vortexes (Splashdown) and snags on takeoff (Dynaguy) and many more. Unbeknownst to him, she also creates suits for his entire family.

Two months later, Mirage calls Bob with a new assignment. Helen overhears the call, but does not realize its full implications or content. When Bob returns to the island, he is ambushed and defeated by an improved version of the Omnidroid prototype robot. He is held captive there by Syndrome (Jason Lee), once a young fan named Buddy Pine. Buddy once wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick, but was harshly rejected "learning an important lesson: you can't count on anyone, especially your heroes". Embittered, he made a fortune in high-tech weapons technology. He then invented the Omnidroid, a robot designed to kill supers. Bob manages to escape from Syndrome and discovers that Syndrome has killed many of his superhero friends in the process of developing the Omnidroid, and is now planning on unleashing the robot into the city of Metroville where it will cause mass destruction, with only Syndrome able to stop it.

Back at home, Helen notices that Bob's old super suit has recently been repaired. She visits Edna and learns that he has resumed superhero work. With a call to Insuracare she also realizes that Bob is no longer employed. Edna has also created super suits for Helen and the children, and advises her to take control of the situation.

Helen activates the homing device Edna built into Bob’s super suit, which reveals his location to both her and Syndrome (who recaptures him). She heads for the island in a jet plane, on which Violet and Dash have stowed away, after leaving Jack-Jack at home with a babysitter. Syndrome, meanwhile, tortures Bob for information and launches a missile attack against Helen's airplane. Helen and the kids manage to escape unharmed, and swim to the island, though everyone on the island believes they are killed. Bob grabs Mirage and threatens to kill her unless Syndrome frees him; Syndrome calls this bluff, and Bob releases her unharmed, remaining Syndrome's prisoner.

While Helen infiltrates Syndrome’s base, the new and improved Omnidroid 10000 is launched on a rocket towards its target, Metroville. In Syndrome’s base, a grateful Mirage secretly frees Bob just before Helen arrives. The two superheroes rush to find their children, who are fighting off Syndrome’s henchmen. A battle ensues, wherein the family cooperates to defeat their attackers. However, Syndrome arrives and captures the Incredibles using his zero-point energy fields. Syndrome then explains his plan: to save Metroville from his own Omnidroid and thereby become a hero. He then leaves the Incredibles in an energy prison. Violet’s force fields allow them to escape, however. With Mirage’s help they depart for the mainland after Syndrome.

In Metroville, Syndrome attempts to stop the Omnidroid's destructive rampage, but the robot figures out the nature of his remote control and knocks him unconscious. The Incredibles and Frozone fight the robot. Together, they are able to get the Omnidroid to disable itself. The town applauds them for their achievements; the possibility of superheroes coming out of hiding is mentioned and for the government to "let the politicians figure it out". Syndrome wakes up to find that the Incredibles have stolen his glory.

The Incredibles return home to find that Syndrome is kidnapping Jack-Jack. As Syndrome attempts to fly up to his jet using his rocket boots, Jack-Jack suddenly reveals his super powers by transforming into fire, metal, and then an imp-like monster. Syndrome drops Jack-Jack, who is caught by Helen, and attempts to flee. Bob hurls the family car into the jet; Syndrome is knocked into the turbine and is killed when his cape is caught in the engine and pulls him in -- just as Edna might have warned him. Violet then protects the family from the raining flames and debris as the jet explodes, much to the amazement of their young neighbor, who responds with the words "That was totally WICKED!!".

Three months later, the family is much happier; even Bob is content with their civilian life. Dash is running in a track meet; he carefully controls his use of super-speed and finishes in second place. Violet, who formerly felt alienated to the point of using her hair to hide her face, is found with her hair pulled back and successfully asking her friend Tony for a date to the movies, with Tony getting nervous instead of Violet. As they walk out of the sports complex, a new villain, The Underminer (John Ratzenberger), rises from the ground and declares "war on peace and happiness.”

Shark Boy and Lava Girl


Sometimes the most amazing superheroes are the ones inside your dreams. So discovers ten-year-old Max, an outcast little boy who has become lost in his own fantasy world in an attempt to escape the everyday worries of dealing with parents (David Arquette and Kristin Davis), school bullies and no-fun summer vacations. But when Max realizes the cool characters, high-flying adventures and incredible secret powers that dwell in his imagination might be far more real than anyone is willing to believe, his whole world changes.

In Max dream's, ridiculed by his classmates, conjures up his perfect dreamworld...the Planet Drool. But his dream is more powerful than even he suspects, and his favourite dream super-heroes, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, materialise on Earth. They need help from Max. All is not well in Max's dreamworld. An alien intelligence is interfering and darkness threatens his beloved Planet Drool. Is it true, as Sharkboy and Lavagirl say, that only Max, the powerful dreamer, can stop it? Max takes off on a wild and dangerous journey to the fantastic Planet Drool with Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Green Arrow

The Green Arrow character was first introduced in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941. The same issue introduced Aquaman. Justin Hartley should be happy, since a good part of his 2006 employment came from that same 10 cent comic book.

Green Arrow's original costume was a bit of a Robin Hood motif. He had a sidekick dressed in red named Speedy, and the character had many gadgets. He had an Arrowcave and an Arrowplane, was a millionaire, and more or less was "Batman with a bow and arrow." He even could be summoned by an Arrow-signal.

The Green Arrow was one of the few characters from comics' Golden Age who had an uninterrupted run that went through to the Silver Age. Although he did not have his own comic book, he appeared in More Fun and then Adventure Comics for several decades. In fact, Green Arrow was one of only five DC Comics characters to not enter comics limbo between the Golden and Silver Ages. (Those other characters? Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman).

It was toward the end of this run that Green Arrow became one of the earliest members of the Justice League of America, joining the team in the book's fourth issue.
The Neal Adams redesign is the most familiar and enduring version of the character, and this is the version seen on Superfriends and Justice League Unlimited.

In GL/GA, Oliver Queen no longer had his fortune, and he became a streetwise crusader for the working class and the underprivileged. This laid-back Green Arrow butted heads with the much more conservative Green Lantern, and the two took a "road trip" for several issues. This storyline also featured a 2-parter where the Green Arrow learned that his sidekick, Speedy, had become addicted to drugs.

After the acclaimed GL/GA run, Oliver Queen's alter ego began appearing again in back-up stories, most notably in Detective Comics. He also had an on-and-off relationship with Dinah Lance, the Black Canary, a fellow Justice Leaguer. In the early 1980's he was featured in his own comic book mini-series.

In the latter part of the decade writer/artist Mike Grell reinvented the Green Arrow yet again, Dark Knight-style, in a miniseries titled The Longbow Hunters. This "new take" was popular and led to a new, ongoing Green Arrow series written by Grell.

After Mike Grell's take on the character, writer Chuck Dixon took over and the book became a little more mainstream. This era in Oliver Queen's life was short-lived, as he died in a plane explosion in issue #101. Oliver Queen's recently-discovered son, Connor Hawke, took over the book for a few years following that, and it wasn't until a few years later that famed director Kevin Smith revived the Green Arrow character and series.

Now, Oliver Queen is very much alive and in post-One Year Later DC continuity, he is the mayor of Star City.

Oliver Queen's origins on Smallville are not yet known. We know he's good with a bow and arrow. He went to private school with Lex Luthor in his younger days. His family was rich, and his parents are deceased. Oliver inherited a fortune, and successfully runs the Queen family companies.

Ollie first puts on the costume in the Smallville episode "Arrow." The week before, in "Wither," we saw him in something similar to the Neal Adams design. Since then we've seen him fight crime and forge a romance with Lois Lane. In "Justice," Ollie heads out to save the world with his new band of allies.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Dare Devil


A lawyer blinded by radioactive waste fights crime as an acrobatic martial arts superhero using his other senses, which have been enhanced to superhuman proportions.

He dwells in a world of eternal night, but the blackness is filled with sounds and scents, tastes and textures that most cannot perceive. Although attorney Matt Murdock is blind, his other four senses function with superhuman sharpness. By day Murdock represents the downtrodden. At night he is Daredevil, a masked vigilante stalking the dark streets of the city and a relentless avenger of justice. For Daredevil, justice is blind; for the guilty, there's hell to pay. Unlike other Marvel characters experiencing radiological accidents that drastically altered their appearance or biological makeup, a freak accident gives Daredevil his signature radar sense, but does not alter him in any other significant ways. Following the tragic mishap, Matt embarks on a training regimen to build his body, mind, and senses. He learns that he can see by the vibrations made by sound - he can even hear a man's heart beating - and he possesses extraordinary senses of touch and smell. Spurred on by his father's murder, Matt devotes his life to justice. After earning a law degree he stays close to his Hells Kitchen roots. With his longtime friend Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson, he opens the storefront law office Murdock & Nelson. Matt works as a lawyer, but the vigilance he shows during the day turns to vigilantism at night. When criminals beat the system, Matt becomes Daredevil to bring street-style justice to Hell's Kitchen. This dichotomy of good vs. evil - justice vs. vigilantism - defines the moral struggle Matt faces every day.

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