Superhero

When Marvel comics announced plans to introduce a half-black, half-Latino Spider-Man recently, the company found itself being thrust into the role of super-villain. The idea of Miles Morales supplanting Peter Parker did not sit well with the, let's say, traditionalists. Superheroes, after all, have always been white - well, possibly green or blue, but never brown. Actually, there is a long tradition of comic-book superheroes from around the world - dating from the 1940s to the present day. One look at Venezuela's Martin Valiente or Israel's Adiri Atchelet will tell you...

"The Avengers" is taking a page out of Superman's comic book — flying faster than a speeding bullet to the billion-dollar mark at the box office. The superhero blockbuster took in $103.2 million to lead for a second-straight weekend, raising its domestic total to $373.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. With $95.4 million more overseas, "The Avengers" lifted its international receipts to $628.9 million and a worldwide haul of just over $1 billion, only 19 days after it began rolling out in some markets.

**½ CHRONICLE Directed by: Josh Trank Written by: Trank and Max Landis Starring: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 84 minutes Rated: PG-13 (intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content, teen drinking) Thirteen years after "The Blair Witch Project" kicked it off, the found-footage genre is finally expanding its boundaries beyond ghost stories ("Paranormal Activity")

ON WGBH High School Quiz Show 6 p.m. WGBH (Channel 2) Hamilton-Wenham vs. Rockport in the semifinals. RADIO HIGHLIGHTS Only a Game 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. WBUR-FM (90.9) Synapses fire mightily at the Memory Championships. Acoustic Sunrise 8 a.m. WUMB-FM (91.9) Host Naomi Arenberg features the best acoustic music. Radio Lab 2 p.m. WGBH-FM (89.7) Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. A Celtic Sojourn 3 p.m. WGBH-FM (89.7)

Sudbury-bred superhero Chris Evans got all dressed up to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. In other Evans news, the Jimmy Fund crew told us yesterday that the local actor has filmed a PSA on the organization’s behalf that can be seen at Showcase Cinemas. Evans’s blockbuster “Captain America’’ hits movie theaters July 22.

Chris Evans could feel the power of "The Avengers" from the moment he stepped on set. Reprising his role as Captain America, the 30-year-old actor joins Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the long-awaited Marvel superhero romp, in theaters May 4. Just seeing his co-stars in their costumes was exciting, Evans said — especially on...

NEW YORK — Comic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new superhero — a Muslim boy in a wheelchair with superpowers. The new superhero is the brainchild of a group of disabled young Americans and Syrians who were brought together last month in Damascus by the Open Hands Initiative, a nonprofit organization founded by US philanthropist and businessman Jay T. Snyder. The superhero’s appearance hasn’t been finalized, but an early sketch shows a Muslim boy who lost his legs in a landmine accident and later...

Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Oh, for Pete's sake, it's Hancock. And he's drunk. Again. Yes, Los Angeles's unreliable superhero is passed out on a city bench one minute and zooming intoxicated over the freeway to stop Uzi-toting gang-bangers the next. Before he almost kills them, he makes a blithe racist remark. It's like "Lethal Weapon" all over again, with one man doing the job of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The idea of a sloshed, misanthropic superhero is a good one. The idea of putting him in a comedy is even better.

Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Oh, for Pete's sake, it's Hancock. And he's drunk. Again. Yes, Los Angeles's unreliable superhero is passed out on a city bench one minute and zooming intoxicated over the freeway to stop Uzi-toting gang-bangers the next. Before he almost kills them, he makes a blithe racist remark. It's like "Lethal Weapon" all over again, with one man doing the job of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The idea of a sloshed, misanthropic superhero is a good one. The idea of putting him in a comedy is even better.

Officials in Seattle have decided not to press charges against a self-proclaimed superhero who was accused of assaulting several people with pepper spray. Ben Fodor, who wears a black mask with yellow stripes and a bulging muscle bodysuit and calls himself Phoenix Jones, was arrested Oct. 9. He says he was coming to the aid of people involved in a brawl outside a downtown Seattle night club. City Attorney Pete Holmes said Wednesday that his office can't locate two of the people who were pepper sprayed, so it would be difficult to convince a...

Sudbury's own "Captain America," Chris Evans, has started making rounds to promote his latest superhero blockbuster, "The Avengers," which comes out Friday. He appeared Monday on "Good Morning America" with costar Chris Hemsworth (a.k.a. Thor) and posed for a nice photo with Lara Spencer of "GMA. " Evans (center) was raised in Sudbury but actually resides in Boston now. According to a recent interview in Details magazine, he lives in "an expansive but not overly tricked-out bachelor-pad-ish loft in a semi-industrial nowheresville part of Boston, hard by Chinatown, near an area sometimes called the...

The werewolf and vampire battles of "Twilight," Jason Bourne's super-agent skirmishes and the sword swinging of "Conan the Barbarian" were all just warm-ups for stunt master Jonathan Eusebio, who choreographed the superhero fight scenes in "The Avengers" with the passion of a lifelong comic book fan. "I grew up as a fanboy," said Eusebio, 38. "I grew up reading comics, collecting comics, so for me it's a dream job. And to be part of something new,...

You better know how to wisecrack if you're going to save the world, Joss Whedon-style. Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," its spinoff "Angel" and other witty TV ensembles such as "Firefly" and "Dollhouse," applies his own superpower — playful dialogue and group camaraderie — as writer and director of the superhero mash-up "The Avengers. " The film is filled with clever interplay among its garishly costumed cast, which includes Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain...

I am about to confess to an opinion so heretical, at such cross-purposes with the prevailing popular culture, that it may get my critic's card revoked. Superheroes are dumb. Not just some superheroes — all of them. The entire concept of grown men and women fighting evil while wearing highly technical pajamas fills me with boredom and thoughts of the laundry I'd rather be doing. I realize this renders me un-American and out of step with everything that is holy and profitable in the ruling zeitgeist.

Chris Evans could feel the power of "The Avengers" from the moment he stepped on set. Reprising his role as Captain America, the 30-year-old actor joins Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the long-awaited Marvel superhero romp, in theaters May 4. Just seeing his co-stars in their costumes was exciting, Evans said — especially on...

Thirteen years after "The Blair Witch Project" kicked it off, the found-footage genre is finally expanding its boundaries beyond ghost stories ("Paranormal Activity"), monsters ("Cloverfield"), and demons ("The Devil Inside"). That's right, "Chronicle" is a found-footage superhero movie. Can a shaky-cam musical be far behind? How about a YouTube-ready biblical epic? ("Moses! Turn off the camera, already!") "Chronicle" will never be mistaken for an artistic breakthrough, but it has a solid gimmick and pieces of it are brilliant.

The new film adaptation of “The Green Hornet’’ raises a few intriguing questions. What if a superhero didn’t just pretend to be a loud, obnoxious creep as part of his secret identity but really was a loud, obnoxious creep? What if his sidekick turned out to have all the talent? And what would happen if the slaphappy French filmmaker Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’’ “Be Kind Rewind’’) tackled a big-money action extravaganza? We have our answers.

As you might expect, "Iron Man" is an elemental affair. The ear for dialogue is tin. The directing contains lead. The gases released are mostly sulfuric (although a few of them turn out to be noble). And it all mixes to form that complex compound whose formula we know by heart: the superhero blockbuster. I liked "Iron Man," but the I-know-it-by-heart part makes it somewhat resistible. It's entertainment out of a jar. Even though the movie makes an admirable bid for political topicality by retrofitting the struggles of its Marvel Comics hero for our current wars, and even though the fantastic Robert...

**½ CHRONICLE Directed by: Josh Trank Written by: Trank and Max Landis Starring: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 84 minutes Rated: PG-13 (intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content, teen drinking) Thirteen years after "The Blair Witch Project" kicked it off, the found-footage genre is finally expanding its boundaries beyond ghost stories ("Paranormal Activity")

Officials in Seattle have decided not to press charges against a self-proclaimed superhero who was accused of assaulting several people with pepper spray. Ben Fodor, who wears a black mask with yellow stripes and a bulging muscle bodysuit and calls himself Phoenix Jones, was arrested Oct. 9. He says he was coming to the aid of people involved in a brawl outside a downtown Seattle night club. City Attorney Pete Holmes said Wednesday that his office can't locate two of the people who were pepper sprayed, so it would be difficult to convince a jury...