Superman's origin is reimagined in The Man of Steel #1 (July 1986), written and drawn by John Byrne.
We are joined by John over at the Bagged and Bored Cast once again, this time for the announcement of the nominees for The Facilitators of the Indomitable Order of the Zone of Ruthaz. You can, of course, vote right here on the website up until we announce the winner live on the show Wednesday, January 19th starting at 8 p.m. CST, and the newest inductee will be announced on Issue #40.
But first, we go back a little ways and put Superman on the Casting Couch, with a take on who we think should be cast in the new Zack Snyder film. Then, in our Characterization segment, we take a look at doing something like Inception in a role-playing game atmosphere. Finally, we all give some Confessions when it comes to the 2010 Warner Bros. film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Then, the nominees for The Facilitators of the Indomitable Order of the Zone of Ruthaz are announced. This time around, we go back to basics with actors Kurt Russell, Jackie Chan, and Liam Neeson, and add a little feminine touch with actress Meryl Streep. All would be fine additions to the Order, but listen to the show to find out our specifics!
About Superman
Superman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon.Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc. (later DC Comics) in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games. With the success of his adventures, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book. The character’s appearance is distinctive and iconic: a blue, red and yellow costume, complete with cape, with a stylized “S” shield on his chest. This shield is now typically used across media to symbolize the character.
The original story of Superman relates that he was born Kal-El on the planet Krypton, before being rocketed to Earth as an infant by his scientist father Jor-El, moments before Krypton’s destruction. Discovered and adopted by a Kansas farmer and his wife, the child is raised as Clark Kent and imbued with a strong moral compass. Very early he started to display superhuman abilities, which upon reaching maturity he resolved to use for the benefit of humanity.
While sometimes referred to less than flatteringly as “the big blue Boy Scout” by some of his fellow superheroes, Superman has also been referred to as “The Man of Steel“, “The Man of Tomorrow“, and “The Last Son of Krypton” over the years. As Clark Kent, Superman lives among humans as a “mild-mannered reporter” for the Metropolis newspaper Daily Planet (Daily Star in the earliest stories). There he works alongside reporter Lois Lane, with whom he is romantically linked. This relationship has been consummated by marriage on numerous occasions across various media, and this union is now firmly established within mainstream comics’ continuity.
DC Comics slowly expanded the character’s supporting cast, powers, and trappings throughout the years. Superman’s backstory was altered to allow for adventures as Superboy, and other survivors of Krypton were created, including Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog. In addition, Superman has been licensed and adapted into a variety of media, from radio to television and film, perhaps most notably portrayed by Christopher Reeve in both Richard Donner‘s Superman: The Movie in 1978, and the sequel Superman II in 1981, which garnered critical praise and became Warner Bros.‘s most successful feature films of their time. However, the next two sequels, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, did not perform as well at the box office. The motion picture Superman Returns was released in 2006, which although relatively unsuccessful within the United States, returned a performance at the international box office which exceeded expectations.[10] In the seven decades since Superman’s debut, the character has been revamped and updated several times.
A significant overhaul occurred in 1986, when John Byrne revamped and “retconned” the character, reducing Superman’s powers and erasing several characters from the canon, in a move that attracted media attention. Press coverage was again garnered by DC Comics in the 1990s with The Death of Superman, a storyline which saw the character killed (and later restored to life).
Superman has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the character’s impact and role in the United States and the rest of the world. Umberto Eco discussed the mythic qualities of the character in the early 1960s, and Larry Niven has pondered the implications of a sexual relationship the character might enjoy with Lois Lane. The character’s ownership has often been the subject of dispute, with Siegel and Shuster twice suing for the return of legal ownership. The copyright is again currently in dispute, with changes in copyright law allowing Siegel’s wife and daughter to claim a share of the copyright, a move DC parent company Warner Bros. disputes.
About Inception
Inception is a 2010 American science fiction thriller film written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. DiCaprio plays Dominic Cobb, a specialized spy or corporate espionage thief. His work consists of secretly extracting valuable commercial information from the unconscious mind of his targets while they are asleep and dreaming. Unable to visit his children, Cobb is offered a chance to regain his old life in exchange for one last, almost impossibly difficult, task: performinginception, the planting of a commercially damaging idea into the mind of his client’s competitor.
Development began roughly nine years before Inception was released. In 2001, Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about dream-stealers, presenting the idea to Warner Bros. The story was originally written as a horror film, inspired by concepts of lucid dreaming and dream incubation. The film also taps into psychological phenomena like false memories and the introspection illusion.
Feeling he needed to have more experience with large-scale films, Nolan opted to work on Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. He spent six months polishing up the script for Inception before Warner Bros. purchased it in February 2009. Filming spanned six countries and four continents, beginning in Tokyo on June 19, 2009 and finishing in Canada in late November of the same year. Composer Hans Zimmer scored the film, using parts of Edith Piaf‘s song Non, je ne regrette rien.
Inception was officially budgeted at $160 million, a cost that was split between Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Nolan’s reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film’s $100 million in advertising expenditure. Inception premiered in London on July 8, 2010 and was released in both conventional andIMAX theaters on July 14, 2010. Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over $21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of $62.7 million.
About Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a 2010/2011 two-part epic fantasy film directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The film is produced by Rowling along with David Heyman and David Barron. The two parts form the seventh and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series, with the story following Harry Potter on a quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort‘s secret to immortality – the Horcruxes. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The film also features Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.
Principal photography for both parts was completed on 12 June 2010. Part 1 was released in IMAX formats on 19 November 2010, and Part 2 will be released in 3D, along with 2D formats, in IMAX on 15 July 2011. The film will also be released with D-BOX motion code in select cinemas.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever. It sold 15 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release, including more than 11 million in the U.S. and U.K. alone. The previous record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The novel has also been translated into numerous languages, including Ukrainian, Swedish, Polishand Hindi.
Several awards were given to the novel, including the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and it was listed as a “Best Book for Young Adults” by the American Library Association. Reception to the book was generally positive, although some reviewers found the characters to be repetitive or unchanging. The second part of a two-part filmbased on the novel is in the works to be released in July 2011, with part one having been released on November 11, 2010 in London.
About the Bagged & Bored Cast
Bagged and Bored was started by Chris as a comic and pop-culture blog, seeking to share his love with as many people as possible he contacted his two best friends Paul and John to help spread the word. Soon realizing that they had a lot more to say than a simple website would allow, the Bagged and Bored Crew took their thoughts and audibly recorded them making them available on iTunes as the Bagged and Bored Cast for more people to experience.
About the Facilitators of the Indomitable Order of the Zone of Ruthaz
The Order of Ruthaz is a place for those actors, filmmakers, writers, artists, and other geek icons who have made such a legend of themselves so that they may be forever immortalized in history as BLANK “Fucking” BLANK.
Enter the Zone of Ruthaz to see who has attained previous honors in the Zone.
