Banner In The Wind

     American culture can easily be defined by television. We are children of the television age.  As TV programming evolved, so did we. Television filled a need of community and national mythology.      Early TV was filled with programming celebrating the myth of the "wild west". Viewers ate up the illusion that the West was won by clean cut, morally up right, and socially conscious white men. Women were always secondary to the story, little more than set decorations. If they ever dared speak their minds, it was usually in defense of their man's position.      African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians were absent unless the story line required a subservient character or an exotic villain. You NEVER saw a homosexual. Any efiminate males were always comic characters (Joe Besser, Jerry Lewis, and Bob Denver's portrayal of "Gilligan").      TV was also filled with programming praising the lives of upper middl...

 We are truly in the "Golden Age" of super hero films.  Since 1978, when Christopher Reeve donned the blue tights of Superman, there has been a continuing renaissance of superhero films and tv shows. A film series is born, rebooted, then reimagined. By doing so, the franchise remains fresh and relevant.  The biggest films have been from the ongoing DC/Marvel rivalry, DC has churned out numerous "Batman", "Superman", and "Wonder Woman" films, while Marvel has had success with the "X Men", "Avengers", and "Spider-Man" franchises.  This supremacy has been challenged by other hero films and tv shows such as "Hancock" (Columbia Pictures, 2008), "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (20th Century Fox, 2003), "Mystery Men" (Universal Pictures, 1999),  and "The Incredibles" (Walt Disney Pictures, 2004). Super heroes go all the way back to the old "Popeye" short cartoons. Ye...