Tag: awesome

atompunk:

Calling All Girls was intended for younger girls. It began publication in July 1941 after a teen column in Parents’ Magazine produced a positive interest from readers. It was the first magazine for girls. Contents consisted of comics, fashion advice, and short stories. It was originally published four times a year, but soon became published every month. This was because it was popular. By 1945 it was selling 500,000 copies of each issue. The average reader was aged 13. The magazine never appealed to older teens or fashion advertisers because of its emphasis on comics.

weretaire:

bucky who can’t quite seem to get over the fact he can pick up mjolnir even though it’s been a good three months since the first time he accidentally plucked it from the ground in avenger’s tower. the hammer itself always seems to be in the most random of places and bucky will walk over to it whenever the opportunity comes along and look around to make sure no one is watching before picking it up again as it expecting one day that he won’t be able to lift it again. except every time it comes off the ground without hesitation and he grins like an absolute idiot because it means more to him than it probably should just that mjolnir deems him worthy at all so that must mean there’s something good about him, right?

and of course tony eventually asks why thor leaves his hammer just sitting around the place and thor simply smiles and says, “because it helps where i cannot.”

and nobody knows exactly what he means by that

firstenchantervivienne:

There’s a post going around critiquing the idea that Natasha had any kind of control over her causeway fight with Bucky, that it “dehumanizes” her by not letting her have faults/get into trouble. Except it doesn’t, because she was not “terrified out of her mind.” 

We’ve seen what she looks like when she is that scared when she was up against the Hulk. Natasha facing the Hulk looks nothing like Natasha tangling with Bucky. You didn’t see her smiling at the Hulk when she was running from him, even those few times she managed to slip out of his reach successfully before he caught up with her. Furthermore, that was a very deliberately filmed reaction shot. The directors wanted that smile in there, to show her state of mind, and they made sure Scarlett would be able to concentrate on the perfect smile – she was literally given running shoes to wear for that one shot so she could focus on her acting and not worry about tripping in her high heeled boots.

I don’t know how anyone could miss the symbolism of Nat cracking his goggles and forcing him to remove them, giving us the first glimpse of the man behind the mask? She opened his eyes. Not only that, but she’d made him angry, the first sign of human emotion he displays in the movie – a rather emotional outburst of rage as he shoots down at her.

(under a cut because this got a bit longer)

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scienceyoucanlove:

Tony Hansberry II was a ninth-grader. The new sewing technique he has developed helps to to reduce the risk of complications and simplifies the hysterectomy procedure for less seasoned surgeons.

His goal is to attend medical school and become a neurosurgeon. For Tony, it all began in school. He attends Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts, a medical magnet school for middle and high schoolstudents. As part of its integrated medical curriculum, students receive medical instruction, but are also exposed to medical professionals who demonstrate advanced surgical techniques with specialized equipment. His lead medical teacher, Angela TenBroeck, told the Florida Times-Union that Hansberry is a typical student, but is way ahead of his classmates when it comes to surgical skills “I would put him up against a first year medical student. He is an outstanding young man,” she said.

During his summer break, Tony volunteered at the University of Florida’s Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research (CSESaR) at Shands Jacksonville Hospital. He was supervised by Dr. Brent Siebel, a urogynecologist, and Bruce Nappi, the administrative director. Together they worked with Tony exploring the mannequins and simulation equipment that physicians and nurses use in training. He became quite interested in invasive surgery and using laparoscopic instruments. As the story goes, one day an obstetrics and gynecology professor asked the group to help him figure out why no one was using a particular surgical device, called an endostitch for hysterectomy suturing procedures. This long medical device has clamps on the end, but Tony used the instrument in a new way allowing for vertical suturing, instead of the traditional horizontal method. After two days, Tony had perfected and tested his new technique. He soon developed a science fair project comparing the suturing times of the vertical endostitch closures vs the horizontal closures using a conventional needle driver instrument.

His results showed he was able to stitch three times faster using this new method. Use of this inventive technique may lead to shorter surgical times and improved patient treatment. 

Found on http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/

through 

Neurons want food

How fandom reinterpreted Captain America’s politics for the 21st century.

copperbadge:

wintercyan:

hellotailor:

In the 2011 Captain America movie, Steve Rogers’ first mission after getting his supersoldier powers is to go on a propaganda tour.

Rather than saving kittens from trees or battling supervillains (or fighting the Nazis, which is what he actually signed up to do), Steve ends up as a USO performer, touring with a team of chorus girls.

Each night, they perform a song called “Star Spangled Man,” during which Captain America punches a Hitler lookalike on the nose and implores the audience to buy war bonds. The whole thing is a perfect parody of 1940s sepia-toned Norman Rockwell patriotism, and Captain America—or rather Steve Rogers, behind the mask—grows to hate it. He wanted to do his duty back when he was an undernourished, asthmatic artist, but now he’s a muscle-bound Adonis, it turns out his main job is to sell comics and appear in propaganda movies.

Captain America: The First Avenger follows a pretty typical superhero storyline: an underdog character gains superpowers, battles adversity while trying to do the right thing, suffers a loss, and finally defeats the bad guy. Of course, the movie ends with Cap crashing his plane into the ocean and waking up in 21st-century New York , but the lack of a happy ending is the only major departure from the traditional superhero narrative.

The interesting part is how Captain America’s fandom chooses to interpret him not just as a character, but as a symbol.

“Star Spangled Man” is a perfect example. In the movie, it’s a cheesy musical number that’s used to illustrate Steve Rogers’ growing frustration with being a “performing monkey” rather than a real soldier, but fans remixed it to have a more nuanced meaning. Ryan Sanura recorded a haunting acoustic cover of the song, inspired by a fanfic by author and Marvel fan Sam Starbuck, in which Steve Rogers comes across a modern-day interpretation of the song. “It’s not an anthem to raise money for a war or get enlistment numbers up,” Steve realizes. “It’s a cry out for help. Who’ll rise and fall, give their all for America?” In the 21st century, the answer is no longer clear.

[READ MORE]

An article on Steve Rogers as Marvel’s most politically engaged superhero, written pre-CA:TWS; it’s fascinating to consider those of the article’s predictions which came true in the movie (and the aspects of the movie which the article didn’t manage to predict), the speculations on the fandom’s interactions with and influence on the source material, and the description of the fandom’s ongoing mission to redeem Marvel’s villains.

I was also happy to see a reference to copperbadge, whose works in the Captain America fandom I’ve come to greatly appreciate (and whose original fiction novel Trace I enjoyed reading recently – go check it out, guys, it’s free!).

Oh, and do yourselves a favour – don’t forget to check out the music tracks embedded in the article for ultimate feels.

I thought I had reblogged this but according to my drafts NOT SO MUCH.
 D:

Oh, hey look, it’s a fandom-positive article about how fans and their transformative works can expand and enhance themes in a canon and give them broader, greater meaning to their audience. Also namedrops Sam, so it’s pretty much awesome.

How fandom reinterpreted Captain America’s politics for the 21st century.

Another time, Jack took a call. A voice on the other end said, ‘There are three of us down here in the lobby. We want to see the guy who does this disgusting comic book and show him what real Nazis would do to his Captain America’. To the horror of others in the office, Kirby rolled up his sleeves and headed downstairs. The callers, however, were gone by the time he arrived.

Mark Evanier, Kirby: King of Comics (via nerdhapley)

It’s Jack Kirby’s birthday, so here’s that story of him being bad ass all of the time.

(via nerdhapley)

True fact: during WWII Kirby was assigned as a scout due to his art skills, meaning that he went in alone and unarmed, ahead of Allied attacks so that he could draw enemy fortifications.

Once he was ambushed by three Nazi soldiers, all of them with guns. He killed all three with a knife he stole from one of them.

Dude was verifiably grade-A stone-cold badass.

(via froborr)

And that’s why Jack Kirby was the King.

(via aerialsquid)