DC's New 52

Today DC Comics makes history by becoming the first major comic book publisher to offer its entire line for downloading online on the same day and date as its paper books hit the shelves. And to mark a collection of 52 #1 issues, the DC Universe is also getting a reboot. How the "New" DC is going to fare with fans and new readers is anyone's guess, but the fact that DC (and Marvel, movie-wise) made comics stay relevant during the Digital Revolution is a super-heroic feat.

Toronto night & day

via da-storyof-life

Love is a losing game

Very cool homage that George paid to Amy this week in Prague. (Start watching at 1 minute).

Steve Jobs

A 2-minute recap of Apple's mastermind Steve Jobs' life and times.

Duct tape Tron

Wait And See

Great concept for Holy Ghost!'s new video.

Toronto stuff

Video with very cool images of yesterday's thunderstorm in Toronto.

The city serves as background for this version of Moby's new song Be The One.


And Ripley's is building an aquarium at the base of the CN Tower!

Powerful

Forbes magazine names Dilma as the third most powerful woman in the world (behind Hillary in second place and German chancellor Angela Merkel). Michelle Obama is # 8 and Lady Gaga # 11.

Only in Brazil

How cool is this promotion for Green Lantern in Brazil?

Only in Brazil

In Ourinhos, a city in the state of São Paulo, a newborn had one of his hands amputated after going to the hospital for intestinal surgery. The mix-up is still a mystery.

New Wonder Woman

Before

Only in Brazil

Leave it to Harper to make capoeira seem lifeless and dull.

Architecture elsewhere

Meanwhile, Apple unveils the design for its new Apple Campus in California, designed by Foster and Partners. The four-storied circular building will work as office, research facilities and generating plant that will serve as the campus' primary source of electricity.

Zaha Hadid takes literalism to new heights at the Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow, Scotland. 

And Fernando Romero releases 3 of his museum designs.

Rio's facelift

Rio unveils urbanism projects for the next 10 years. A questionable futuristic slant?

Stoplight in Tijuana

The Smiths comic book

Morrissey has been hero to a legion of fans already, so nothing more suiting than transforming The Smith's highly narrative songs into comics. A US publisher is creating an anthology of comic-book stories titled Unite and Take Over, based on songs by Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

Leisure space travel

Vacationing in space is closer than you think. A trip on the Bloon, a zero-emissions craft designed for commercial near-space flight, flies out of Barcelona for approximately $160,000 USD per person and lets you see Earth from the stratosphere.

And this is what a hotel room in space looks like. The privately owned Commercial Space Station designed with Russian technologies, is planned to include a hotel pod for leisure stays ($165,000 USD for a five-day stay, not to mention $826,000 USD for the voyage to get there).

And soon we'll be able to see real space in 3D and feel like we're walking along with astronauts on alien surfaces, thanks to a 3D camera introduced this week by the ISS, the Erasmus Recording Binocular.

The race of superheroes

The new Black-Hispanic Spider-Man seems to have all comicdom in a frenzy and heated debate about diversity, racism, and comic book continuity. The fact is that changing the race/gender of a character for a while is nothing new (see below), creating an “ethnic” version of a popular character is a gimmick being used for decades, and these things are not the same as creating new multicultural characters that are strong on their own and not a stand-in. Still, it should help sell some more books. And if anybody should do it, Brian Michael Bendis is the man for the task, him being the ultimate Spider-Man guy for the past 10 years.

Meanwhile the ugly and embarrassing battle between Marvel Comics and the late comics master Jack Kirby rages on, with Marvel temporarily winning the tug of war over who has the rights over Kirby’s creations: the artist himself or the company who paid him to do it. The fate of characters like Spider-Man hilmself, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Thor, The X-Men, The Avengers, Ant-Man, Nick Fury and The Rawhide Kid hang on the line.

And while the Spider-Man musical continues to be enmeshed in controversy over its future, leave it to Bono to upstage the superhero.

My new favorite picture

New Superman

Meanwhile over at DC, they made available the first look at Henry Cavill as the new Superman in the film from director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen). Is his costume made of bubble wrap? And what's with the slicked-back hair? Not so super.

Grace Jones and Canada Dry

She can be creepy even drinking soda.

Captain America

Yes, Captain America is probably one of the dullest heroes in the Marvel pantheon. But he’s also one of the most iconic. Writers are constantly struggling to keep Steve Rogers relevant despite his one-note patriotic raison d’être. Bearing all this in mind, Captain America, the movie, hits all the right spots and if the result is a little dull, it's not the movie's fault, but its own star-spangled super soldier.

Hugo Weaving wavers in his Red Skull performance (not very menacing despite the kick-ass wardrobe) but Tommy Lee Jones is perfect casting as Colonel Chester Phillips. And there are great touches such as a visit to the New York World's Fair of 1943, a non-corny depiction of Caps' relationship with sidekick Bucky, and the great retrofit of putting Iron Man’s father, Howard Stark, as the government’s tech guy who helps create Captain America. And, like X-Men: First Class, this period piece is rooted in real-life events, this time the Nazi occupation of Norway and World War II theatre.

Say what you will about the Summer of Superhero Blockbusters, but Marvel comes out with a respectable group of movies that pave the way nicely for next summer’s Avengers movie. On their own, Captain America, Thor and the first Iron Man movies are entertaining and competent and even the Hulk failed attempts had their moments. Bravo to Marvel for turning more of its characters into marquee names.