Part 2: The Super-Hero’s American Exceptionalism

Editor: This is the second part of a two-part series. You can read part one here.

The 1970s showed the once-invincible comic book super-heroes to be losers, in attitude and sales. Watergate had disillusioned the super-patriot Captain America with a storyline implying Nixon was the head of a terrorist group. The Captain trashes his outfit and becomes Nomad, The Man without a Country. My 11-year-old mind thought this was ridiculous, as Cap was originally a Depression-era 98-pound weakling until given a Super Soldier serum to bulk up and fight Nazis. It was unlikely that one of the “Greatest Generation” would bail on his country so readily. Even then I realized that this development merely mirrored a hippie writer’s attitude more than staying true to a character’s origins. 

Super-heroes became bleaker and even homicidal in the 1980s. The Punisher, a murderous vigilante, has become a top Marvel character. The Dark Knight Returns, a re-imagining of Batman, introduced an elderly caped crusader fighting the corrupt U.S. government represented by a stoogish Superman. Watchmen was set in a dystopic alternate reality where Nixon is still president and the super-group is made up of, among other miscreants, a rapist and mass murderer. It was a transmutation of established super-heroes from the 60s with Steve Ditko’s Objectivist hero The Question recast as the psychotic Rorschach.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: America, American Exceptionalism, batman, Captain America, Comic
Posted Nov 11th 2009 at 2:05 pm in Art, Featured Story, Politics | 259362143 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mtodd/2009/11/11/part-2-the-super-heros-american-exceptionalism-by-mort-todd/Part+2%3A+The+Super-Hero%E2%80%99s+American+Exceptionalism2009-11-11+22%3A05%3A40Mort+Todd

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Many thanks to all for making my new book “Hollywood on the Potomac” a success.  In the first week, it is already hitting Non-Fiction Bestseller lists in bookstores.  It’s available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders and many major independents in Los Angeles and Hollywood.  It features over 200 photos and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players.

Here’s an excerpt:

Chapter Five, Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Somehow late night talk shows became a logical first step for politicians to reach voters. Somehow rock stars became a political voice of the disenfranchised. Somewhere along the way, American politics and pop culture personalities began to blend. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Arsenio, Bob Geldof, Bono, clinton
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 8:35 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story | 2189428 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/09/14/exclusive-excerpt-hollywood-on-the-potomac-personalities-politics-and-powerbrokers/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Personalities%2C+Politics+and+Powerbrokers2009-09-14+15%3A35%3A58Jason+Killian+Meath

Return of ‘Mad Men’

Sunday, August 16th, begins the third season of the exceptional AMC original series, “Mad Men.” The show is about a private Madison Avenue (hence the “Mad” in “Mad Men”) advertising firm, set in the early 60s. This show somehow touches all my subterranean hot buttons. “Mad Men’s” second season ended in the year 1962, at the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the firm is about to be acquired by a London based agency. The second season’s finale was a perfectly coordinated display of the several character centered subplots, each reaching a critical turning point simultaneously.  My tendency to see politics in everything is thwarted by this show, even as it is easily parodied politically, given current “mores and folkways.” But I’ll give it a shot.

The show has an uncanny ability to convince the audience it is watching people as they were then, with no intrusion of modern sensibilities and judgments. The show’s appearance is a gauzy impressionism, which helps create a nostalgic effect. There seems to be less dialogue than most shows. Characters are developed as much through facial reactions to events as with dialogue and plot lines. When watching the show, it feels like 1962, as I nostalgically remember it, even though I never heard of Madison Avenue until years later. Plot lines are about getting and losing clients, and they can be amusing. But plots are primarily designed to create interest in each character. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 1960s, JFK, mad men, Nixon
Posted Aug 15th 2009 at 6:22 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 205030108 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mrulle/2009/08/15/return-of-mad-men/Return+of+%27Mad+Men%272009-08-15+13%3A22%3A40Michael+S.+Rulle+Jr.

My Secret Life as a Conservative Republican

I’m tired of hiding it. Everybody knows anyway. So it’s time to come clean, just like the Klan hoods I’ve got spinning in the dryer as we speak. It’s time for the Neanderthal knuckle-dragging, open mouth-breathing, racist, sexist, Klan and Timothy McVeigh-loving Montana militia member gun nut conservative Republican religious zealot in me to be set free. Repression is a bitch, and so am I.

I go to bed full of hate and wake up the same.  I hate blacks, Hispanics, gays, women, abortion doctors, liberals, Lefties, Democrats, you name ‘em, I hate ‘em if they’re not like me. I especially hate President Obama for being black. Just ask Janeane Garofalo, although being a Stalinist Socialist doesn’t help Obama’s cause any with me. Fact is, Obama could be a GOP Michael Steele Uncle Tom, and I’d still hate him even more than liberals hate Steele. Skin color trumps all. Thank God I was born the right color, or I’d probably kill myself. Wait, the hoods are dry! Be right back. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "teabagging", 9/11, abortion, Adolf Hitler, AIPAC
Posted Jul 15th 2009 at 2:36 pm in Politics | 182706188 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/07/15/my-secret-life-as-a-conservative-republican/My+Secret+Life+as+a+Conservative+Republican2009-07-15+21%3A36%3A48John+T.+Simpson

Daily Gut: Novelty Acts

So within days of the death of the great Jack Kemp, the living embodiment of Montgomery Burns, Arlen Specter, found a way to blame his death on Republican policies. He claimed that “if we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer…Jack Kemp would be alive today.”

To which, I can only add as a side note to the Democratic Party: “Enjoy, he`s all yours.”

Which leads me to my next point: As a fan of Kemp, I`m always on the lookout for someone like him. On tv, I keep seeing Joe the Plumber, a pretty average guy who seems decent – except, you know, he doesn’t want the gays near his kids. Speaking of kids, there`s that Jonathan Krohn tyke on talk shows – reciting the conservative party line better than most dithering white haired weenies crawling the halls of the Capitol. He’s smart, but he weirds me out. Maybe because at 13 he’s already taller than me – or maybe because he just comes off as a novelty act, like a hairless cat reciting the alphabet (which is kinda cool). (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Arlen Specter, Cancer, Democratic Party, Jack Kemp, joe the plumber
Posted May 5th 2009 at 12:27 pm in Daily Gut | 1272262 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/05/05/daily-gut-novelty-acts/Daily+Gut%3A+Novelty+Acts2009-05-05+19%3A27%3A45Greg+Gutfeld

Review: Watchmen

In Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” there’s a scene which plays out on separate ferry boats where a group of hardened prisoners and a group of everyday citizens are told they must blow the other up in order to survive. The choice both sides make to sacrifice themselves is a rare (for Hollywood, at least) look at the worthy side of our human nature. Zack Snyder’s mostly successful adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel “Watchmen,” is a much harsher judge of humanity. In the “Watchmen” world both groups would have eagerly blown the others up and maybe done so with glee. This begs the question: at our very worst are we worth saving? This theme drives “Watchmen” along with an examination of how far one should go in order to save us – and burning a village to save a village doesn’t begin to cover it.

Because this theme is both timeless and universal, the story setting in a kind of alt-universe America, circa 1985, where Richard Nixon’s into his fifth term and the Cold War still rages, isn’t a disadvantage. In fact, by removing itself from our world this allows ideas to be explored outside of the purely political. If “Watchmen” has a political point I missed it, and while its dark view of humanity might be unfair it’s a necessary and compelling way to ask and answer the questions of human worth. “Watchmen’s” world may be nihilistic, but the ideas are not. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 300, Nixon, watchmen, Watchmen review, Zack Snyder
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 4:56 pm in Featured Story, Reviews | 74334117 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/03/06/review-watchmen/Review%3A+Watchmen2009-03-07+00%3A56%3A15John+Nolte

Watchmen: Lots to Like, Little to Love

I don’t judge movies by their source material, so I won’t judge “Watchmen” by the amazing graphic novel from which it comes. When we pay our 12 bucks to see a movie, nobody hands us a book to go along with it, so the moral contract between consumer and story-teller is that the story has to hold up on its own.

“Watchmen” works as a dark, post-modern, revisionist middle finger to the icons of our optimistic past. The plot isn’t its strong suit, the characters are what make “Watchmen” an impressive experience. Dr. Manhattan is a being who lost his unique electric field in a lab accident. He didn’t keep his hair, but he kept his blue penis, which is useful in revealing that he’s not Jewish. A Materialist god, Dr. Manhattan is losing his grasp on what it means to be human, even as he gains the ability to see life one molecule at a time. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 300, abortion, alan moore, bush, Carter
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 4:07 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics, Reviews | 7424242 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/03/06/watchmen-has-lots-to-like-little-to-love/Watchmen%3A+Lots+to+Like%2C+Little+to+Love2009-03-07+00%3A07%3A01Doug+TenNapel

Watch Out For ‘Watchmen’

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published Jan. 7th. It returns today for obvious reasons, but also for the benefit of new readers. The original post and comments can be found here.  

Last summer, Joss Whedon (yes, he’s my master now), caused a minor sensation with his Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. One of the reasons the musical comedy about a would-be super-villain’s miserable love life was so successful — other than Whedon’s pact with Satan whereby he traded his soul, his mint condition Giant Size X-Men # 1 and a lifetime supply of HoHos in exchange for mystical word-talent – was that Whedon was standing on the shoulders of Alan Moore, the author of the landmark comic book Watchmen. More than anyone else, Moore is credited with “deconstructing” the comic book super-hero, and he probably deserves that credit. Though like with all great artistic innovators, Moore had his influences in this regard. Every artist has in his background a mob of ghostly helpers bigger than the crowd of phone technicians in that Verizon commercial. For instance, Marvel Comics (where my first loyalties lie, for the record) had already broken considerable ground in humanizing its heroes long before Moore started writing. Peter Parker, after all, was a terrible dork. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: alan moore, cold war, JFK, Nixon, Reagan
Posted Mar 5th 2009 at 7:45 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7305845 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jgoldberg/2009/03/05/watch-out-for-%e2%80%98watchmen%e2%80%99/Watch+Out+For+%E2%80%98Watchmen%E2%80%992009-03-05+15%3A45%3A56Jonah+Goldberg

joining the party late…my thoughts so far…

Hugh Jackman’s opening number the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen on TV that didn’t involve Dr. Gene Scott.

I can’t imagine how anybody watching could have enjoyed that.  OK, maybe Rob Lowe.

Give Anne Hathaway credit:  her Nixon’s better than Frank Langella’s.

Hugh Jackman’s coming across like an Aussie version of Conan O’Brien and I don’t like it.

This just in:  Obama has just raised the marginal tax rate on slumdog millionaires.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: anne hathaway, Conan O'Brien, Dr. Gene Scott, Frank Langella, hugh jackman
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 at 7:01 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment | 59986No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/nrice/2009/02/22/joining-the-party-latemy-thoughts-so-far/joining+the+party+late...my+thoughts+so+far...2009-02-23+03%3A01%3A15Ned+Rice