I’m moving to Marvel.

To be honest, this was kind of a hard move.  Though I’ve enjoyed both worlds, I’ve always been more of a DC fan than Marvel.  Many of your decisions lately have really been pushing me away as a reader though.  From the relaunch that I’ve mostly been against from the start, to apparently not even having your own facts straight, to other downright stupid decisions (more Liefeld, really?).  Keeping Didio in such a position of power feels like fail too, and despite this relaunch supposedly being an effort to diversify your world and reader base, well that seems to be far from the case.

This isn’t something out of the blue for me, either.  I’ve been pondering this since nearly the start of the new 52, but I admit I wanted to give it a shot.  For that matter, I’ll admit that at least for now I won’t be able to fully drop DC from my pull list.  Note DC, I am not sticking with these comics because of you.  I’ll be sticking with them due to the downright amazing job the writer has been doing with the comics.  So for anyone who may be interested in the few comics I’ll still pick up from DC, it’s as follows:

Batman: Scott Snyder has been doing an amazing job.  Issue 5 really hooked me in as this being a comic that would really be a shame for me to drop.  So as long as Snyder, Capullo, and Glapion continue the great work I will continue with this series.

Superboy: Lobdell’s only book that really has been hitting it for me, and personally one of the strongest titles in the 52.

Batman & Robin:  To be honest, this one will probably drop off my list soon.  Its been alright, but I’ve been growing tired of Damian just being a screw up to Bruce, and the odd writing in the last couple of issues (most notably, Bruce telling Damian the story of his past while Damian is NO WHERE near him to hear it).

This is not to say I haven’t enjoyed other comics.  Hurwitz’s Penguin has been pretty amazing, but that just ended.  Similarly, I’ve found Brandon’s Men of War to be purely amazing, but that recently got cancelled, and for that matter Brandon’s run on it is over so I’ll be dropping that title too.  A real downer for me as Brandon’s Men of War was my favorite comic out there.

I’ve already picked up some Marvel titles too, just to make sure I actually would enjoy those more than the DC ones.  Wolverine and the X-Men has been one of the funnest comic books I’ve read in a long time, and so far I feel Generation Hope has a lot going for it as well, to name a couple.  Either way DC, its been fun and you have me for at least two titles still, maybe three, but yeah.  I’m moving to Marvel.

For comic reviews, check out read/RANT

Reading the eleventh edition of Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk.  Just a small section of it really (pages 145-151).  Maybe I’m just being too emotional about this, and really should let myself calm down before I write about this… If I should be writing about this at all.  At this moment though, these pages really have ticked me off.

As a warning, this is most likely going to be a rather crude post.  As stated, I’m somewhat letting my emotions guide me on this one, while this really should not be a topic to let my emotions take center stage while addressing.

The gist of these pages is there are a lot of “gifted” students out there.  As the text states, the state of Wisconsin views gifted students as students “who give evidence of high performance capabilities in intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic areas and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided in a regular school program in order to fully develop such capabilities.”  Gifted students aren’t limited by their race, economic status, religious beliefs, etc.  They seem to be spread evenly all about.  Many of them (according to a 2005 study by Berk – as stated again in the text) are prone to depression, boredom, frustration, and isolation.  They will more often be concerned with music (often classical), social issues, computer, the arts, science, etc.  More so, their language skills are generally well developed and are also prone to ridicule.  Much of the time, their friends will tend to be older than they are.

So why have I grown a bit upset at this?  Well it isn’t really that only 10-15% of the time do teachers recognize that a student is gifted.  Recognizing them can be hard, and especially in the later grades many gifted students (for various reasons – usually boredom with the material or to not stand out) will purposely not do well in their classes.  Part of what is upsetting is the story they give about a girl named Latoya (probably not the student’s real name).  In the first grade she was reading around a fifth grade level – and her teacher noticed it.  Problem was, the school after finding out she was gifted in reading did nothing.  It does not state why, just that they never did.  Come fifth grade she was reading barely above her peers, and her teacher then never knew she was gifted.  And things like this tend to happen a fair deal.  I could really prattle on about other stories, but I won’t as this is getting wordy enough.

What can be done?  Well there are schools out there set for “gifted” students already but it is not enough.  Many high schools and even some middle schools will have programs for gifted students.  Or at least AP (advanced placement) or similar classes that will help those students.  But as stated, those often come around at the high school level and sometimes middle school.  The system really needs to start in the early grades,  first or second really.  Like with most things, the sooner something is noticed, the better.  This would really require a general new look at how the school system is set up out there in terms of instruction and possibly how teachers are trained as it may require the teacher at times to work with that student directly in their class.  Ways to improve that 10-15% recognition will also need to be researched and implemented if this is to be improved.  Of course, schools are rather underfunded at this moment too, and at least right now that would probably be the biggest hurdle to jump over as changing the approach of how public schools do things will take time and money.

Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

So Lebeau’s recent list of Top 10 Best Super Hero Movies made me start thinking about not just my favorite movies, but my favorite actors/actresses as superheroes.

Like Lebeau’s list, this is a list of superhero actors, not comic book characters brought to the screen.  I am also not including voice actors in this, or characters that aren’t really considered a hero.  So no Kevin Conroy as Batman or characters like Deadpool or Magneto who in my opinion both had some really good actors playing them.  With that in mind…

10. Chris Evans – Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Fantastic Four 1/2, 2005 & 2007)
By no means was I a fan of the first movie, and I admit to only seeing parts of the second.  Still, this list isn’t about great movies.  Simply, actors who did a great job playing a superhero, and Chris Evans was probably the highlight of the movies for me in how he portrayed Johnny.  Well, that is excluding the parts of Alba wearing nearly nothing at all…

9. Brandon Routh – Clark Kent/Superman (Superman Returns, 2006)
I know many who are not a fan of this movie (or even the fact that he isn’t Christopher Reeve), but personally I think he did a great job as the character.  Especially when you look at the fact that he was portraying the continuation of the character off of Reeve’s version, and so was tasked to keeping both personas rather true to that we see in Superman: The Movie and Superman II.

8. Tobey Maguire – Peter Parker/Spiderman (Spiderman 1-3, 2002-2007)
Tobey has a really nerdy look to him.  He isn’t an intimidating presence at all, but he is a great actor.  Precisely why he made such a good choice for the Spiderman movies.  Its almost like he was typecasted for the role.

7. Justin Hartley – Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Smallville, 2006-2011)
The only superhero from a TV show that’s getting a spot on here, and that matter for a supporting role.  Either way, the series had some frequent ups and downs I think in terms of story quality, but I always thought Hartley did a great job playing Green Arrow on this series as he aided the show’s star in various ways.  He played the part well no matter what the writers had him doing, and because of that I thought he deserved a spot on here.

6. Chris Hemsworth – Thor (Thor, 2011)
I’m not huge on the character Thor, but Hemsworth (and the script) really pulled this one off for me.  Really though, what else can really be said besides that he WAS Thor?

5. Hugh Jackman – Logan/Wolverine (X-Men movies, 2000-2011)
First, yes I’m including his First Class cameo.  Either way, despite some outcry on the casting he really made the films.  Sure, he isn’t 5’3″ but he managed to otherwise nail our feral hero’s personality and rage almost perfectly on the big screen.  Even my friend who was outraged at his casting walked off from the movie pleased at his work.

4. Christian Bale – Bruce Wayne/Batman (Batman Begins/Dark Knight, 2005/2008)
There have been a lot of actors to play Batman over the years, and while his voice isn’t Keven Conroy’s, I’d say he is the best actor to have captured both playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne and Batman.  Possibly the only reason I didn’t put him in a better position was his voice in the costume (which was digitally altered in the second movie) could have been done a bit better – and was no match for Conroy.

3. Chris Evans – Steve Rogers/Captain America (Captain America, 2011)
I was iffy on having him take up two spots, but Evans is a good actor.  His portrayal as captain America was actually pretty short, but he did a great job both as the weak Brooklyn kid and our all-American hero.  I just hope he can carry that over to the upcoming Avengers movie when sharing screen time with RDJ and the others.  Speaking of RDJ…

2. Robert Downy Jr. – Tony Stark/Iron Man (Iron Man 1/2, 2008/2010)
He’s a great actor, and his portrayal of billionair stark is frankly amazing.  Thinking of the movie – especially the first one – not much really happened.  Especially not a lot of action.  Still, he completely sold the role, the movie, and really got me interested in the character Iron Man who I typically overlook.

1. Christopher Reeve – Clark Kent/Superman (Superman 1-4; 1978-1987)
For many of us when we think of Superman, our first thoughts go to this man, even despite the continued/slow decay of his Superman movies after the first.  His portrayal was great for both Superman and Clark Kent, while he really was the one to kick off superhero movies in the first place and make them big.

This was a tough list for me to make.  I swapped places of a few actors a couple times, and filling out that tenth spot was especially hard for me as there are a lot of good choices to have gone with.  I must admit too, I’m a bit sad at myself for not having a female actor listed anywhere here.  I didn’t feel safe putting in Lynda Carter as I never actually saw that old series.  Female heroes really have not gotten much attention over the years though, so here is hoping DC will eventually get a Wonder Woman movie going.