I was intrigued by the serendipity of having both Steve Rogers and Uncle Sam, the Big Two's respective "symbols of America," commenting on the current state of political discourse and unrest in this week's high-profile Fear Itself #1 and the criminally neglected Freedom Fighters #8.
SPOILERS BELOW THE FOLD…
Marvel just announced that Captain America and Bucky will continue the current Captain America numbering when Captain America relaunches with a #1, both appearing in July (this, of course, is similar to how Journey into Mystery continues the current Thor numbering when he gets new number #1). CA&B will be written by Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko with art by Chris Samnee, and will tell stories of the two heroes during World War II.
And everything is right with the world… very happy with Marvel right now.
Mark D. White
In the latest issue of Journal of the History of Economic Thought (33/1, March 2011), we find Steve Medema's History of Economic Society presidential address, titled "The Coase Theorem: Lessons for the Study of the Study of Economic Thought":
The Coase theorem has occupied a prominent place in economic discourse for the last half-century. The debate over the theorem and the uses to which it has been put are important moments in the history of modern economics, and the analysis of them by the historians of economics sheds light on certain of the tensions in contemporary historiography. This article discusses several aspects of the intellectual history of the Coase theorem, arguing that the study of this history illustrates the necessity of a pluralistic approach, and that attempts to write history from a singular historiographic perspective leave us with histories that are both misleading and incomplete.
Maybe not the most surprising post, but oh well… Rich Johnston called it a month ago, but Marvel confirms it through the New York Daily News this morning.
A good way to start a Monday, eh?
UPDATE (Monday, April 4): By Twitter, Ed Brubaker said "I'm afraid everyone will have to wait for tomorrow to find out what happens to the regular Cap book. An eternity, I know."
This week's mammoth 70th anniversary Captain America #616 is packed full of great stories and art, from Ed Brubaker's updating of Bucky's situation and Steve's continued dilemma about donning the stars and stripes once more (continued thematically from the terrific Captain America #615.1), to the surprise reprinting of commissions of Cap from two of my childhood favorites, Jim Aparo and Curt Swan, to an assortment of short stories from an wide range of creators and drawing on a variety of eras. (I'll admit the tears didn't come until the last story, by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel–see if you can guess where in the story I started to well up.)
See the extensive preview of the issue at Comic Book Resources if, for some reason, you haven't picked up the issue yet. (No, don't tell me, I don't want to know… there is no way you can explain…)
The most interesting story from a philosophical point of view would have be to Frank Tieri and Paul Azaceta's modern tale of Steve and Sharon discovering a very mysterious person lurking in the New York City art circles… SPOILERS and more after the fold.
Mark D. White
The new issue of Behavioral and Brian Sciences (34/2, 2011) focuses on the nature of the evolutionary advantages of reasoning; the target article, by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber, is titled "Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory":
Reasoning is generally seen as a means to improve knowledge and make better decisions. However, much evidence shows that reasoning often leads to epistemic distortions and poor decisions. This suggests that the function of reasoning should be rethought. Our hypothesis is that the function of reasoning is argumentative. It is to devise and evaluate arguments intended to persuade. Reasoning so conceived is adaptive given the exceptional dependence of humans on communication and their vulnerability to misinformation. A wide range of evidence in the psychology of reasoning and decision making can be reinterpreted and better explained in the light of this hypothesis. Poor performance in standard reasoning tasks is explained by the lack of argumentative context. When the same problems are placed in a proper argumentative setting, people turn out to be skilled arguers. Skilled arguers, however, are not after the truth but after arguments supporting their views. This explains the notorious confirmation bias. This bias is apparent not only when people are actually arguing, but also when they are reasoning proactively from the perspective of having to defend their opinions. Reasoning so motivated can distort evaluations and attitudes and allow erroneous beliefs to persist. Proactively used reasoning also favors decisions that are easy to justify but not necessarily better. In all these instances traditionally described as failures or flaws, reasoning does exactly what can be expected of an argumentative device: Look for arguments that support a given conclusion, and, ceteris paribus, favor conclusions for which arguments can be found.
As usual, many short comments follow, in what seems like a fascinating discussion.
UPDATE: I discuss the paper in a little depth at this post at Psychology Today.
This post, which I had intended to write since Daredevil: Reborn #3 came out last Wednesday, was inspired by recent comments on one of my posts on self-loathing at Psychology Today, and also serves as a companion piece to my post on Green Arrow from earlier this year.
I really doubt revelations of tortured self-loathing on the part of Matt Murdock will come as a surprise to anyone who's familiar with the character, whether or not they've read Daredevil: Reborn #3, but nonetheless, spoilery discussion below the fold…
Sorry–I've watched Enchanted a thousand times with my daughter, and dammit I like it. (I also liked Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Sunshine Cleaning, but those are harder to work into a title. And don't ask about Leap Year.)
Via the LA Times, Comics Culture's The Beat is reporting that Amy Adams will play Lois Lane in Zack Snyder's Superman reboot opposite Henry Cavill. That's it–back to your regular browsing…
(I'm not crazy about superhero films, something I'll try to discuss later, but inspired casting does lure me in, and this film has some great casting so far!)
A bit of good news from DC for once: Geoff Johns announced at Megacon and over Twitter (which was later confirmed by Newsarama… uh, based on his tweet) that he will relaunch an Aquaman series later this year:
Announced at Megacon: After BRIGHTEST DAY I'll be moving over to a new book – AQUAMAN #1 coming later this year!! 🙂
Aquaman was (literally) given a new lease on life in the past year's Brightest Day, and is one of the characters fans most hoped would continue on into a new series. I just hope Ivan Reis or Joe Prado is on pencils, as they did as much as Johns and Tomasi to bring a new, regal dignity to Arthur Curry. Let's have the rest of the Aqua-crew (Mera, Aquagirl, and the new Aqualad) is there too (and bring back Tempest, please!).
UPDATE: And I'm completely agreed with DC Women Kicking Ass regarding including Mera in a major way (including in the title if not her own book)–Johns shone that spotlight on her, so let's hope he keeps featuring her as prominently as she deserves.
UPDATE 2: Check out this interview with Geoff Johns on Newsarama about the new series, which follows Flashpoint.
Mark D. White 