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Show July 7, 2005 THE MAGNY TIMES, W EST From the Newsroom by Jaime Winston who's the winner? Growing up, most children have go through a collecting phase. Some collect bottle caps; some collect baseball cards. Those from my generation probably collected pogs. Some even collected comic books. I got my first comic book when was about seven It was put out by old. jears DC Comics It was called Static. Static was an n teenager named Virgil, who fought villains like much Superman or Batman did. One such villain was Tarmack (1 think that W'as his name). Tarmack was also an African- - American teenager. He could turn his body into tar, and mold it into shapes to hit people 1 played out more than ever now. Since came to theatres, there has been numerous films based on comic books and graphic novels; Sin City, Daredevil, The Punisher, and Hellboy are just a few examples. And now theres The Fantastic Four. Im sure it wont be only fans of the comic w ho will see this X-M- en InternReporter movie. Alba (Invisible Girl) fans will be seeing it; action movie fans will be seeing it, and fathers and mothers dragged to the theatres by their kids will be seeing it. The movie will, likely, bring a whole new fan base to the comic characters. And theres the merchandising, with toys and other name the items with with. Fantastic Four. The comic came comThere will, however, be those diehard comic fans who plete with crossed out cuss words and a cover that will point out every small p would put some thing that doesnt fit the book album covers to shame. But to a T. Those are the people Static was only the start. who have grow n up lov ing the Comic books have become Fantastic Four. They are the a phase I have yet to grow ones who, at age , tried to out of. stretch their bodies like Reed Years later, I happened to Richards, or even light thembe w'atching television. selves on fire to be like their I channels, Flipping through hero, the Human Torch. (I finally landed on Kids WB, dont know if that has really and, low and behold, a ever happened or nopt, but Static cartoon was on the you get my point.) air. This time they changed No matter how well the the title to Static Shock.' 'movie Is made, some people are going to have a problem Remembering my first comic book, Static 7, 1 was with it. These people are those in awe. pathetic fanboys who have Wow, they actually lost every girlfriend theyve made it a show! had because they wont shut That same scene is being up about why the Sub Mariner Jessica African-America- hip-ho- 1 1 . telepathy. Im not quite as hardcore as this, bit I can hear the naysayers now; "Dr. Doom That would never say that! fire wasnt convincing! You can totally tell that is CGI! The Thing is really supposed to be three inches taller! Are these people right? Well, for me its sort of yes and no. I think that stories like Superman, and Fantastic Four have been around a long time because they are great stories that be completely shouldn't Thats exactly the changed. reason why so many people beef with Joel have Shumakers Batman and Spider-ma- n, Robin movie. Since when did Batman have nipples on his suit? Why is Bane such a tool, while in he broke the comics Batman's back? The simple truth is that if something isnt broken, dont try to fix it. That isnt to say that nothing should be changed. How can you squeeze 30 years of history into a movie? Filmmakers should pick and choose the things that make the characters w ho they are, and base the movie two-ho- I didnt wake up this morn- ing wondering whether I had shrunk the income gap between me and Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. I have never wondered about that. But thats me. If I am to Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale, did a great job of doing this. Joe Chill, a character that is hardly mentioned in any Batman cartoon - or comic book, for that matter - is a big part of this new movie. Because he killed Why? Bruce Waynes parents - the whole reason Bruce became Batman. Key elements such as this should never be messed with. No w ay, no how. As for the people who say, Dr. Doom would never say that. Shut up! How do you people are more like me and dont give a dam. So why are those newspaper editors and reporters preoccupied with the matter? I suspect its because funda- Then again, maybe most mentally they dislike liberal market society. Of course, they wouldn't put it that way. They would say simply that the phenomenon known as the growing income gap is newsworthy. And why is it newsworthy? Because it says something" about our society. And what might that be? Most likely that untrammeled capitalism results in social injustice, which is why government cant stand on the sidelines but rather must engage in income redistribution. (As have anything we though untrammeled capiresembling talism. Would that it were so.) Now this is all nonsense. It is nonsense at many levels. As Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute has indefatigably shown, newspapers routinely torture income statistics from the IRS and Census Bureau to get preconceived results. Second class postage paid at Magna, Utah 84044 8980 West 2700 South Magna, Utah 84044 J. HOWARD STAHLE Publisher BONNIE STAHLE DARCIE PACKARD Graphic Layout Designer JASON HUNTER Graphic Designer DALE SIMONS Sports Columnist ANDREW WEEKS Editor ALICIA CICALESE Assistant Editor ANNA KARTASHOVA Staff Writer MARIE JESS Staff Writer TROY MILLER Staff Writer JAIME WINSTON CARLOS ESTRADA STEPHEN BOYCE Pressman Pressman Copyright, Magna TimesWest Valley News . All rights reserved. Reproduction, reuse, or transmittal of all matter herein is prohibited without prior written permission by the publisher or editor. The Magna Times and West Valley News are published each Thursday Subscription S25 per year S30 per year out of state Postmaster: Send change of address to: fth believe the New York Times and other major newspapers, lots of people are obsessed with the difference between their incomes and the incomes of richer people. USPS 325 - 580 Advertising Manager ur on them. Who caires about For Reporterlntern Magna Times 8980 W. 2700 So. Magna, UT 84044 6 (801) 5 or FAX (801) 250-565- 250-568- magwest xmission.com The Magna Times is a bonified newspaper w example, ft triliute to In our- - has those little wings on his feet, and how Magneto's helmet blocks out Xaviers Comics vs. movies: 3 ALLEY NEWS, KEARNS POST Reynolds know he wouldn't say that? Since when are you Stan Lee ? How do you know that the movie isnt on a parallel plane? That seems to happen in comics a lot. The point Im trying to make is this: filmmakers, please change what you need to for your movie, but also please keep the characters that we grew up with like they are in the comics, and that includes their histor- passion, covenant and commitment still exist in the person of Andrew Weeks, editor of the Magna Times. It is my honor, privilege and pleasure to know and be associated w ith men and women of character like Andy Weeks. And) s vision, ideals, and passion for the future of Magna are an inspiration to me. Thank you, Andy, for your labor of love that is journalism. You serve our belov ed Magna w ell. God bless you. society, we are surrounded by skepticism, criticism, and a lack of respect for the conservative traditional values that hue shaped our great nation. We are adrift in a sea of tolerance of all things except tradition, while characteristics like integrity, vision, passion, covenant and commitment seem to be lost to abandonment. As w e celebrate our blessed nation's 229th year of freedom from tyranny, take heiul my fellow Americans. There is a light in the darkness; all is not lost. Respect, integrity, vision. post-mode- integrity rn Sincerely, Mel Palfreyman Magna, Utah yI am one fan who is excited to see comic books turned into movies, and know I am not the only one. It brings to life the people youve read in the comics. But instead of the bubbles coming out of their mouths with words in them, now they speak real voices in surround sound and a kick-as- s soundtrack. Comic book movies are something very much to look forward to. Not only do e favorite they show characters in a new light, but they attract new fans. I don't think I ever would have picked up a Spider-ma- n comic book hadnt 1 seen the Fox Kids television show. The same thing is probably happening to kids the world over who pick up Batman and Fantastic Four comics, this because they from lS WATERY jrwwiyiriwi OF !.' BoYRS m j Iik. A3g 1 f: old-tim- saw the movie. But all of this still leaves one question: Which is better, the books or the films? For me, it will always be the books. Seeing a movie NVOMDteRS op "Today could never compare to actually holding the story in my hands, and getting lost in the pages of stunning artwork. The true winner in all of this, however, are the fans. It will always be the fans. Nuff said. v V a 1 imeome gap? people, young and old, and explained recently that using income-ta- x information to measure income makes the rich look comparatively richer than they are because the bulk of the miJdle classs capital gains are in IRAs and 401 (k)s - they dont show up on tax returns. Hes also shown that the charge that the middle class is shrinking is true, but not in the way the newspapers (and the socialist think tanks) would have us believe. In fact, more people are rising out of the middle class than are falling out of it. The lower class is shrinking too. But those truths rarely get mentioned. If you were to take these reports seriously, youd think everyone in this society, with the exception of the few at the top, has been stagnating or getting poorer for decades." They are told this repeatedly, even as we watch multitudes of ed high-- , low-inco- walking down the street with cell phones and MP3 players. Something doesnt add up. In fact, we live in an increasingly wealthy society, which would be far wealthier were the government not taxing people so much and consuming so many resources. As Dallas Fed economist W. Michael Cox and reporter Richard Aim document (in Myths of Rich and Poor), virtually everything has been getting cheaper for years. They measure living st;mdards by how many hours the average manufacturing employee must work to buy various things and comparing this to the past. Today it costs us minutes and hours of work to afford what once took months and years. This is consistent with our everyday experience. It is true that our society has a wide range of incomes, although even poor people (a relative term) have cable color television, microwaves, washers and dryers, and cars. I don't ry know whether the income is growing, but why gap should anyone care? It is perfectly consistent for the gap to grow even as the lowest-incom- e people get richer. Don,t confuse comparative with absolute position. I could be richer this year than last and still have lost ground to Bill Gates. Only someone consumed with envy would worry. In a free society, there will be and should be differences in income. Thats because some people are better at serving consumers than others - more innovative, more ambitious, more energetic, more intelligent. Why should they be denied their just rewards for making our lives better? And whom would we hurt most if we deny them? Mainly ourselves. Sheldon Rickman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation ( www.fff. org ), author of Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare Stale, and editor of The Freeman magazine. |