SUPERHEROS: EMBLEM OF OUR SOCIETY

Superheroes are a great topic nowadays. You can see them on movies, comics, and any kind of gadget.

Superheroes were included for the first time in comics during the great depression and the world war II in the USA. They were mostly used for creating some kind of patriotism and make people believe that the war was a good cause.

Superman no.26

Captain America No.1

They got a lot of success but after the end of the World War II they were forgotten.

Superheroes have gone politics during the 70s and social issues because the society became more rude and guys with no interest in sports or girl not interested in makeup and girly stuff but shy and interested in comics were called ‘nerds’.

So superheroes comics became an escape from the shaming of being a nerd. In fact most of the main characters in comics are normal people who became superheroes just being good and saving people. Being an outsider, be proud of what you love doing became the goal of a generation instead of fitting in the society.

Nowadays superheroes are all over the media, Marvel and DC spend tons of dollars to create movies with superheroes, but something has changed.

Suicide Squad 2016

To understand the big changing I will take the ‘Suicide Squad’ movie as an example. The movie is about bad guys, the worst of the worst, and they are chosen for making a suicide mission to save the world. Obviously the big difference is that for the first time is a hype being supporting about bad guys and not the good ones. In fact the good one (mostly the Politicians) are judged during the whole movie as manipulating people who just care about their own business. Another big difference from the older comics is love, even if it is described in a different way from the suicide squad comic, the love between Harley Quinn and the Joker is supported from a lot of spectator. Their relationship is not a healthy one, basically inspired at the Stockholm syndrome. So why do a lot of people support this? Maybe because being bad, hating everyone and having a part in crime is the new recipe for a perfect life nowadays. People are bored, looking for new adventure and movies reflect our thoughts and beliefs.

We started to be supportive on the antagonist of the story even in stories where the good character should be the loved one. At the beginning of this year came out in theatre ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and it was basically about choosing of being supportive about the whole society or going against the law to save the one we love. So it was the opposite of the topics written during the 70s that were all about being patriotic and doing everything for our own nation.

Comics now are back in their golden days and maybe soon they will be not so popular but as every kind of fashion they will come back. Maybe we use comics every time we would love to have someone to save us because reality sucks, and we feel useless in society or disappointed about that.

N.B This article was written last year but I want to share it with you because I think It is actual as it was last year.

As usual comment down below if you agree/disagree with me.

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Gig review: Imagine dragons

On the 4 of July I had the pleasure to attend my first imagine dragons’ gig in the magnificent venue of Lucca.

As usual my concert didn’t start at 9:30 pm as the ticket told but so much earlier!

I queued for basically 8 hours because It is what you usually do in Italy when you are really interest in a show. I have been waiting for four years to attend a imagine dragons concert and damn if the waiting was reward!

The set list was a mash up between the 3 albums of the band, but a large amount of time was dedicated at the last one probably for promoting it.

The imagine dragons last album called ‘Evolve’ has a new sound which is more pop. While I was queuing I have been talking with the other fans and  I had the feeling that basically anyone missed the indie/pop sound from the earlier works.

This fact didn’t affect that much in the enjoyable of the gig at all.

As any festival, the scenography was not that sophisticated but everything was focused on the music itself.

The band performed a set list which was not that long but they did the same thing basically all around the world.

Set list:

Thunder
Gold
It’s Time
Whatever It Takes
Hear Me
Demons
Walking the Wire
Shots
Amsterdam
I’m So Sorry
I Don’t Know Why
On Top of the World
Believer
Radioactive

Dan Reynolds with the italian flag

The Lucca concert was the second date they did in Italy this year. The first date in Verona was sold out as soon as the tickets came out.

The love that the Italian fans was so huge that the band announced that they will come back soon.

Lucca has a special place in Dan Reynolds heart because his girlfriend came from there and as he said that the crowd went crazy.

The band will perform in Czech Republic, Switzerland and all around the world. You can find the upcoming dates here: https://www.imaginedragonsmusic.com/tour

If you ever attend an imagine dragons let me know if you enjoyed it or you planning to buy tickets for the next show!

Lots of love!

Jess

N.B Check my instagram profile (xjessicamaglione) for videos and photos from the show.

Blankets, Craig Thompson

Title: Blankets

Author: Craig Thompson

Editor: Top shelf production

Year: 2003

Genre: graphic novel

Here this is the link for a Spotify playlist to listen to while you are reading the novel.

Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been in love?

This book deals with those questions in a different way. It is about everything that a teenager or a young adult has to face, still there is a constant fact in the main character’s journey which is religion.

Religion is discussed in the novel in a critic way. Craig, the main character, was born in a strict catholic family and religion was always present in his life (school, after school, family).

As Craig grows, everything became uncertain and he tries to understand why love can not be respectful with his religion. So we see him falling in love with a girl but not enjoying his relationship at the fullest because everyone around him make him choose between being a good catholic and a normal relationship.

As I said before is not everything about the love story but are discussed huge topics too, such as autism. In fact, Craig’s girlfriend has to take care of her sister which is effected by this disease. Another big problem which is shown in the novel is being poor, something that Craig and his be loved brother have to face since their childhood.

This novel may be so pure and realistic at the same time because it’s in someway an autobiography of the author himself who has experience loss and confusion during his life.

I have never been a huge fan of graphic novels in general but everyone has basically told be to give this book a chance not only for the story but for the sketches too. Beautiful drawings with a minimalism style that can describe eroticism scene and mental breakdown in a unique way.

Finally I hope you liked my review and you get the chance to read this graphic novel.

Let me know if you like the book and you agree or disagree with me.

Lots of love

JESS

SKAM: THE NORWEGIAN PHENOMENON

RELEASE: 2015- Continuing                    COUNTRY: Norway

GENRE: Drama                                             LANGUAGE: Norwegian

CREATED BY: Julie Anderm                       N. OF SEASON: 3 (33 episodes)

 

Skam is a TV serie produced in Norway from 2015.

As the name show suggests [Skam=shame] tells the story about a group of teens dealing with the typical problem from adolescence and their first experiences.

This serie, which now is on season three, is reaching a lot of success around the world for its new way of telling stories and being completely sincere about teens’ problems.

Another thing that makes this series so interesting is that for the first time we have the chance of getting to know another culture which is not American or British.

We get to know Norwegian culture and how it is effected by globalisation. In fact one of the main characters is a Muslim girl whose is not stereotyped at all (it happened only once before in Skins’ serie).

So one big skam’s goal is to understand cultures and religion that seems so different from ours and put a spot on political and social problem such as homophobia. Homophobia is barely saw in the show, in fact when one of the group confesses that he is gay everyone do not take it as a big revelation and treat him as an equal even when they talk about sex. This is unusual because writers usually described the gay guy, especially when he is a teenager, stereotyped and emarginated.

One thing that I really liked about the show was the costume’s job. You can is it clearly during season 3 how the couple at first have their own style but when the relationship grows stronger both of them get dressed very alike to, in some kind of way, highlights their harmony and love.

The third season is the one who got the biggest success not only for the main character of the season but for dealing with more serious problems such as mental diseases, for example bipolar disorder.

So the second big goal for the show to reach is to make people believe that the person affected with mental disease is still a person and feel emotions even if he is ill.

Someone describes this show as the most ‘modern’ show on air thanked the used of the socials. In fact, producers have actually created characters’ profiles on social and they are always updated. This marketing strategy has been adopted as well in the the vampire diaries serie on the last episodes.

In conclusion, I hope you find this review interesting and you will give a chance to this show.

Lots of love

Jess