EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

"C'mon Batman pick me! I'll become your best Robin ever!" ROBIN in Spanish is PETIRROJO, a small-sized bird mostly found in North America and Europe. It is easily distinguishable because of its red-feathered breast and face. As we know, ROBIN is also the name of Batman's famous sidekick. So, the question is: why do we say in Spanish Batman y ROBIN and not Batman y PETIRROJO? Well, perhaps the answer is that for a hero's name, ROBIN just sounds better than PETIRROJO, even in Spanish. Also, it's easier to remember.  It is the same with Batman: it sounds better than Hombre Murciélago.

"When in Ecuador, I use Mjolnir to crush and then eat mighty crabs!" Why is Thor important to the English language? He is really important because it is with his name that they made up one of the days of the week and that is none other than Thursday which literally means Thor's Day (el Día de Thor). Thor is not an invention of Marvel, the company that publishes Spiderman and also The X-Men. What they did is to take a figure of Norse mythology and made it more accessible to the minds of the audiences of the present time.  In Norse mythology, Thor is indeed a god, the God of Thunder, a deity that the Vikings held in great esteem. When the Vikings invaded the North of Europe they also spread their culture and their beliefs and a reflection of that event is the names of some days in English. Thursday is Jueves in Spanish and thus here is another difference between English and Spanish since Jueves literally means the Day of  Jove (one of the many names the Greek god ...

Seeing the Transformers clash against titans such as Superman and wonder Woman is among any fanboys' greatest dreams, only in this case is a nother fanboy’s dream that, at least for now, will never come to be. Recently, Phil Jiménez, a professional comic artist revealed to the community that once he was approached by DC (the company that publishes Superman and Batman) and IDW (the company that publishes Transformers) to pencil a colossal encounter the likes of which will never get to see.   Why? The reasons might be many and among them a lack of agreement on how much each company would receive. All these are unimportant speculations by now. What perhaps matter now is to dream with what we missed: - The Decepticons’ new scheme to take over the world (the DC version of Earth that is) - The reveal that both the Batplane and Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane are actually Transformers in disguise. - The introduction of the newest member of the GL Corps, Optimus Prime! Amazing, ...

El Batman que aparece en “Silencio” no es el Batman unidimensional que protagonizó Adam West el siglo pasado. Este es un individuo mucho más complejo con una obsesión que es toda su motivación, una guerra continua en contra de los criminales que asolan su ciudad, una búsqueda eterna de la justicia para la cual no duda en usar sus recursos de millonario. Por ello mismo sus historias son mucho más interesantes pues tienen un componente sicológico del cual carecen las historias de otros héroes. Además esta trama es un buen punto para revisitar este personaje y de alguna manera descubrir su verdadera esencia y saber por qué Batman ocupa entre los superhéroes el lugar preferencial que siempre ha ocupado a más de que este es el año de Batman Rises , la película que completa la trilogía comenzada con Batman Begins y continuada por The Dark Knight . Aquí has diez razones para leer Silencio (Hush) 1. Es una buena historia: Si hay algo de lo que se puede preciar Batman es de las histori...

Green Lantern is gay, but not the Green Lantern most of us know. This is the original one, the one that appeared way back in the forties and his name is Alan Scott a multimillionaire that accidentally gained possession of the most powerful weapon in the universe: a ring that could emit unlimited quantities of green-colored energy that could also adopt any shape wished so by the ring bearer. The ring had two limitations: a. It could not affect anything made of wood. b. The bearer himself, since the ring responded to his will and imagination. In time a new version of Green Lantern was invented, some kind of space policeman who belonged to a Police force that patrolled the entire universe. His name was Hal Jordan and the movie made in 2011 featured him not Alan Scott. For a long while there was only Hal Jordan and others who served as his replacements in periods he was unable to serve as Lantern. Then the concept of multiple universes came along and it was revealed that Alan Scott w...

Hulk is one of the strongest Marvel superheroes (perhaps the strongest) and yet he cannot lift Thor´s hammer (called Mjolnir) because the hammer is magical in nature. Odin, Thor´s father, enchanted the hammer so only someone who is "worthy" can use it and thus possess the power of Thor. This worthiness issue has never been disclosed completely. Perhaps being worthy in this context indicates that a person has to be a noble and magnificent warrior since it was a warrior-god who enchanted the hammer in the first place. Hulk does not really qualify since he is driven by anger and not a sense of justice. This also means that other people besides Thor can lift Mjolnir and that exclusive list includes Captain America, Odin himself, and amazingly also Wonder Woman and Superman from DC comics, Marvel's eternal rival. True, during a collaboration of both companies the superheroes of these two universes became allies to fight against an all-powerful enemy and in one of the final i...

It’s a bit complicate. If we mean The Avengers of the “standard” Marvel universe then the answer is no. The original Avengers were comprised by the same characters of the movie minus Hawkeye and Black Widow who would become members later on (in fact, Captain America was not one of the original Avengers either since he was retrieved from his frozen prison by The Avengers and not Nick Fury). Also Giant man and The Wasp were in the original team, but they do not appear in the movie.  If we mean a parallel universe called “The Ultimate universe” the answer is closer to a yes (still a no). There is an infinite number of universes coexisting with the “standard” Marvel universe which means infinite versions of the same superheroes and therefore a myriad of versions of The Avengers. At the time Marvel wanted to offer a fresh, more modern take on its superheroes without eliminating the current versions and created “The Ultimate” line, a universe with updated versions of the heroes we ...

I have always wondered why the most powerful being in the DC universe is not a bit more popular. The Spectre is basically an angel, the Wrath of God, one that could easily kill millions if he deemed it was necessary to carry on God´s will. The truth is that in a media such as comic books The Spectre is not that great visually speaking and it's a bit hard to relate to. Besides, it has a terrible flaw: it needs a human host in order to be effective otherwise it will eventually lose focus and cannot "function" properly. In the past The Spectre has used his power to decimate innocent people because he was fooled into believing that was right. A human host makes a difference in what decisions The Spectre makes. This character is also a bit polemic for  its inclination to  bring justice "a lá Batman", that is with one individual at a time. It is said tht one day he froze a man and then destroyed his body with an axe. Not very heroic, but then again that´s him and w...

One writer that keeps fascinating me with his mindboggling ideas is Grant Morrison whose main work can be found in the comic world. He has written stories for the X-men, the Justice League and more recently Batman though some of his best work can be found in titles that are not precisely considered "mainstream". I have read several of his works and the one that keeps coming to my mind is a Batman graphic novel that was illustrated by groundbreaking artist, Dave Mc Kean, (that itself guarantees that reading this novel is a visual experience). The story is not only about Batman, but the past of the house that came to be Arkham Asylum  and its original inhabitant and founder of the asylum, Dr. Arkham. Morrison tells the story in two different times, past and present, with events that are closely connected. In the past story, Dr. Arkham is a benevolent and devoted psychiatrist who goes insane after one of his patients brutally (emphasis in brutally) rapes and murders the doctor...

One of the expressions of art that goes unnoticed, or better said unappreciated, is the art of comic book drawing. It requires talent, commitment, intuition, an eye for detail, love for the characters you're drawing and the capacity to translate stories into images. It’s not an easy job and even those who are good at drawing more often than not find that drawing comic book characters is too arduous and also too tedious. There are of course, those who don’t care about those little things because they are truly gifted artists. Among those we have Eduardo Barreto, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Todd Mac Farlane, George Pérez, Dave Gibbons and many others; but perhaps there is one that stands out especially for his capacity to draw superheroes in action and that one is Jim Lee. Here is a sample of his work to show his great talent. Just look at his rendition of Wonder Woman: no longer does she look like a chick in a swimsuit, instead she seems what she’s meant to be, an Amazon warrior...