title: Monica Bellucci

text: Monica Bellucci began modelling at age 13 by posing for a local photo enthusiast. In 1988, Bellucci left the Faculty of Law at the University of Perugia, and moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, where she signed with Elite Model Management with the aid of model agent Piero Piazzi. By 1989, she was becoming prominent as a fashion model in Paris and across the Atlantic, in New York City. She posed for Dolce & Gabbana and French "Elle", among others. In that year, Bellucci made the transition to acting and began taking acting classes. The February 2001 "Esquire"'s feature on Desire featured Bellucci on the cover and in an article on the five senses.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2003, she was featured in "Maxim". "Men's Health" also named her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 21. AskMen named her the number one most desirable woman in 2002. According to two national newspapers, she is considered an Italian sex symbol.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2004, while pregnant with her daughter Deva, Bellucci posed nude for the Italian "Vanity Fair" in protest against an Italian law that restricts the provision of fertility treatment to heterosexual couples and excludes single women or same-sex couples, restricts surrogacy and research using human embryos, forbids sperm and egg donation, and limits the number of embryos created with in-vitro techniques to three. She posed pregnant and semi-nude again for the magazine's April 2010 issue. From 2006 to 2010 Bellucci was the face of a range of Dior products.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2012, she became the new face of Dolce & Gabbana. She is managed by Elite+ in New York City. Bellucci is signed to D'management Group in Milan and also to Storm Management in London. Bellucci also posed for "GQ Italia" in February 2016.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: Bellucci walked the runway for the Spring 2019 Milan Fashion Week for Dolce and Gabbana. Joining her included Isabella Rossellini, Eva Herzigová and Helena Christensen, continuing the influx of 90s supermodels returning to the spotlight of fashion.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: Bellucci's film career began in the early 1990s. She played some minor roles in "La Riffa" (1991) and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). In 1996, she was nominated for a César Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Lisa in "The Apartment" and strengthened her position as an actress. She became known and popular with worldwide audiences, following her roles in "Malèna" (2000), "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (2001) and "Irréversible" (2002).


title: Monica Bellucci

text: She has since played in many films from Europe and Hollywood like "Tears of the Sun" (2003), "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003), "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), "The Brothers Grimm" (2005), "Le Deuxième souffle" (2007), "Shoot 'Em Up" (2007), "Don't Look Back" (2009) and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (2010).


title: Monica Bellucci

text: She also voiced Kaileena in the video game "" and the French voice of Cappy for the French version of the 2005 animated film "Robots". She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic "Sonia", originally planned for release in 2007, but it has been shelved. Bellucci dubbed her own voice for the French and Italian releases of the film "Shoot 'Em Up" (2007).


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2011, Bellucci was ranked fourth in "Los Angeles Times Magazine"s list of the 50 most beautiful women in film.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: At 50, she became the oldest Bond girl ever in the James Bond film franchise, playing Lucia Sciarra in "Spectre" (2015). Three years later, she appeared in the Australian film "Nekrotronic".


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2021 she was honoured with Stella Della Mole Award for Artistic Innovation at 39th Torino Film Festival considering her lifetime achievements.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: At the age of 20, Bellucci married Italian photographer Claudio Carlos Basso; they divorced after six months.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: She met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of their 1996 film "The Apartment". They married on 2 August 1999 in Monaco. Bellucci and Cassel have two daughters, Deva (born 12 September 2004) and Léonie (born 21 May 2010). Their daughters were born in Rome. Bellucci and Cassel acted together in nine films from 1996 to 2006. The couple announced their separation on 26 August 2013 and later divorced. At the end of 2014, Bellucci said she was still enamoured of Cassel; both have remained close ever since.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: After her divorce, Bellucci was in a relationship with French sculptor and former model Nicolas Lefebvre, who was then 37 years old. They made it official in early March 2019 during a Chanel show at the "Grand Palais" in Paris. She announced the end of their relationship in early July 2019.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: Bellucci lived with Cassel and their daughters in Italy, France, Brazil, and England. Then, in 2015, she decided to settle in Paris. Bellucci says, "Paris is part of my history", but she nevertheless considers herself "completely Italian. Everything in me is Italian." She has houses in Lisbon and Rome. During the coronavirus lockdowns, Bellucci and Cassel lived in two nearby houses on the Basque coast (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) so that the latter could see his daughters and thus continue to share parental duties.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: Bellucci is fluent in Italian, French, and English. Deva became Dolce & Gabbana's muse at the age of 15 and, later, their runway model. Her daughters' native language is Italian; Deva spoke five languages at the age of 16.


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In the documentary movie "The Big Question", about the film "The Passion of the Christ", Bellucci stated: "I am an agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings."


title: Monica Bellucci

text: In 2009, Bellucci signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."


title: Ratan Tata

text: Ratan Naval Tata, GBE (born 28 December 1937) is an Indian industrialist and former chairman of Tata Sons. He was also the chairman of the Tata Group from 1990 to 2012, serving also as interim chairman from October 2016 through February 2017. He continues to head its charitable trusts. In 2008, he received the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour in India, after receiving the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in 2000.


title: Ratan Tata

text: He is the son of Naval Tata, who was adopted by Ratanji Tata, son of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group. He graduated from the Cornell University College of Architecture with a bachelor's degree in architecture, and the Harvard Business School through a management course he completed in 1975. He joined Tata in 1961, where he worked on the shop floor of Tata Steel. He later succeeded J. R. D. Tata's as chairman of Tata Sons upon the latter's retirement in 1991. Under his tenure the Tata Group acquired Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover, and Corus, in an attempt to turn Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business. Tata is also one of the largest philanthropists in the world, having donated around 60-65% of his income to charity.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Ratan Tata was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, during the British Raj, on 28 December 1937. He is the son of Naval Tata, who was born in Surat and later adopted into the Tata family, and Sooni Tata, the niece of Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata. Tata's biological grandfather, Hormusji Tata, was a member of the Tata family by blood. In 1948, when Tata was 10, his parents when separated, and he was subsequently raised and adopted by Navajbai Tata, his grandmother and widow of Ratanji Tata. He has a younger brother Jimmy Tata and a half-brother, Noel Tata, from Naval Tata's second marriage with Simone Tata, with whom he was raised. His first language is Gujarati.


title: Ratan Tata

text: He studied at the Campion School, Mumbai till the 8th class. After which, he studied at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and the Riverdale Country School in New York City, which he graduated from in 1955. After graduating from high school, Tata enrolled in Cornell University, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1959. In 1975, he attended the seven-week Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School, an institution which he has since endowed.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In the 1970s, Tata was given a managerial position in the Tata group. He achieved initial success by turning the subsidiary National Radio and Electronics (NELCO) around, only to see it collapse during an economic slowdown. In 1991, J. R. D. Tata stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons, naming him his successor. Initially, Tata faced stiff resistance from the heads of various subsidiaries, who had a large amount of operational freedom under the senior Tata's tenure. In response, Tata implemented a number of policies designed to consolidate power, including the implementation of a retirement age, having subsidiaries report directly to the group office, and requiring subsidiaries to contribute their profit to building the Tata group brand. Tata prioritised innovation and delegated many responsibilities to younger talent. Under his leadership, overlapping operations between subsidiaries were streamlined into company-wide operations, with the group exiting unrelated businesses to take on globalisation.


title: Ratan Tata

text: During the 21 years Tata led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit over 50 times. When he took over the company, sales overwhelmingly comprised commodity sales, but at the end of his tenure, the majority of sales came from brands. He had Tata Tea acquire Tetley, Tata Motors acquire Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel acquire Corus. These acquisitions repositioned Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business, with over 65% of revenues coming from operations and sales internationally.


title: Ratan Tata

text: He also conceptualised and spearheaded the development of the Tata Nano car, which helped put cars at a price-point within reach of the average Indian consumer. Tata Motors has sinced rolled out the first batch of Tigor Electric Vehicles from its Sanand Plant in Gujarat, which Tata has described as "fast-forward[ing] India's electric dream."


title: Ratan Tata

text: Upon turning 75, Ratan Tata resigned his executive powers in the Tata group on 28 December 2012. An ensuing leadership crisis over his succession drew intense media scrutiny. The board of directors and legal division of the company refused to appoint his successor, Cyrus Mistry, a relative of Tata and the son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which was the largest individual shareholder of the Tata group. On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of Tata Sons, and Ratan Tata was made interim chairman. A selection committee, which included Tata as a member, was formed to find a successor. On 12 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons, a role he assumed in February 2017. In February 2017, Mistry was removed as a director for Tata Sons. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal later found in December 2019 that the removal of Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons was illegal, and ordered that he be reinstated. On appeal, India's Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of Cyrus Mistry.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata has also invested in multiple companies with his own wealth. He has invested in Snapdeal – one of India's leading e-commerce websites. In January 2016, he invested in Teabox, an online premium Indian Tea seller, and CashKaro.com, a discount coupons and cash-back website. He has made small investments in both early and late stage companies in India, such as INR 0.95 Cr in Ola Cabs. In April 2015, it was reported that Tata had acquired a stake in Chinese smartphone startup Xiaomi. In 2016, he invested in Nestaway an online real-estate portal that later acquired Zenify to start the online real-estate and pet-care portal, Dogspot. Tata also launched India's companionship startup for senior citizens, Goodfellows, in a bid to encourage intergenerational friendships."


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata is a supporter of education, medicine and rural development, and considered a leading philanthropist in India. Tata supported University of New South Wales Faculty of Engineering to develop capacitive deionization to provide improved water for challenged areas.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata Hall at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), opened in November 2018, houses facilities for the biological and physical sciences and is the home of the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society. The Tata Institute for Genetics and Society is a bi-national institution that coordinates research between UC San Diego and research operations in India to assist in societal and infrastructure development in the area of combating vector-borne diseases. Tata Hall is named in recognition of a generous $70 million gift from Tata Trusts.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata Education and Development Trust, a philanthropic affiliate of Tata Group, endowed a $28  million Tata Scholarship Fund that will allow Cornell University to provide financial aid to undergraduate students from India. The scholarship fund will support approximately 20 scholars at any given time and will ensure that the very best Indian students have access to Cornell, regardless of their financial circumstances. The scholarship will be awarded annually; recipients will receive the scholarship for the duration of their undergraduate study at Cornell.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In 2010, Tata Group companies and Tata charities donated $50 million for the construction of an executive center at Harvard Business School (HBS). The executive center has been named Tata Hall, after Ratan Tata (AMP '75), chairman "emeritus" of Tata Sons. The total construction costs have been estimated at $100 million. Tata Hall is located in the northeast corner of the HBS campus, and is devoted to the Harvard Business School's mid-career Executive Education program. It is seven stories tall, and about 155,000 gross square feet. It houses approximately 180 bedrooms, in addition to academic and multi-purpose spaces.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has given the largest ever donation by a company to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for a facility to research cognitive systems and autonomous vehicles. TCS donated $35 million for this grand 48,000 square-foot building that is called TCS Hall.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In 2014, Tata Group endowed the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and formed the Tata Center for Technology and Design (TCTD) to develop design and engineering principles suited to the needs of people and communities with limited resources. They gave ₹950 million to the institute which was the largest ever donation received in its history.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata Trusts under the Chairmanship of Ratan Tata provided a grant of ₹750 million to the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science to study mechanisms underlying the cause of Alzheimer's disease and to evolve methods for its early diagnosis and treatment. This grant was to be spread over 5 years starting in 2014.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata Group, under the leadership of Ratan Tata formed the MIT Tata Center of Technology and Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to address the challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Ratan Tata was the interim chairman of Tata Sons. He continues to head the main two Tata trusts Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts and Sir Ratan Tata Trust and their allied trusts, with a combined stake of 66% in Tata Sons, Tata group's holding company.


title: Ratan Tata

text: He has served in various capacities in organizations in India and abroad. He is a member of Prime Minister's 'Council on Trade and Industry' and the 'National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council'. He is on the jury panel of Pritzker Architecture Prize – considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes.


title: Ratan Tata

text: He is a director on the boards of Alcoa Inc., Mondelez International and Board of Governors of the East–West Center. He is also a member of the board of trustees of University of Southern California, Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors, X Prize and Cornell University. He is a member on the board of International Advisory Council at Bocconi University


title: Ratan Tata

text: He is also a member of the Harvard Business School India Advisory Board (IAB) since 2006 and previously a member of the Harvard Business School Asia-Pacific Advisory Board (APAB) 2001–2006.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In 2013, he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In February 2015, Ratan took an advisory role at Kalari Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Vani Kola.


title: Ratan Tata

text: In October 2016, Tata Sons removed Cyrus Mistry as its chairman, nearly 4 years after he took over the reins of the over $100 billion conglomerate, Ratan Tata made a comeback, taking over the company's interim boss for 4 months. On 12 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons, a role he assumed in February 2017.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Ratan Tata received the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2008, the third and second highest civilian honours awarded by the Government of India. In 2021 he received the highest civilian award of Assam 'Assam Baibhav' for his exceptional contribution towards furthering cancer care in Assam.


title: Ratan Tata

text: Tata has never married and has no children. In 2011, Ratan Tata stated, "I came close to getting married four times and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another."


title: Ratan Tata

text: "Mega Icons" (2018-2020), an Indian documentary television series on National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Ratan Tata's contributions. He has also appeared on "Rendevouz with Simi Garewal", an informal chat show hosted by Indian actress Simi Garewal.


title: Queer

text: Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , "queer" came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer activists, such as the members of Queer Nation, began to reclaim the word as a deliberately provocative and politically radical alternative to the more assimilationist branches of the LGBT community.


title: Queer

text: In the 21st century, "queer" became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non-normative sexual and/or gender identities and politics. Academic disciplines such as queer theory and queer studies share a general opposition to binarism, normativity, and a perceived lack of intersectionality, some of them only tangentially connected to the LGBT movement. Queer arts, queer cultural groups, and queer political groups are examples of modern expressions of queer identities.


title: Queer

text: Critics of the use of the term include members of the LGBT community who associate the term more with its colloquial, derogatory usage, those who wish to dissociate themselves from queer radicalism, and those who see it as amorphous and trendy. "Queer" is sometimes expanded to include any non-normative sexuality, including cisgender queer heterosexuality, although some LGBTQ people view this use of the term as appropriation.


title: Queer

text: Entering the English language in the century, "queer" originally meant "strange", "odd", "peculiar", or "eccentric". It might refer to something suspicious or "not quite right", or to a person with mild derangement or who exhibits socially inappropriate behaviour. The Northern English expression "there's nowt so queer as folk", meaning "there is nothing as strange as people", employs this meaning. Related meanings of "queer" include a feeling of unwellness or something that is questionable or suspicious. In the 1922 comic monologue "My Word, You Do Look Queer", the word is taken to mean "unwell". The expression "in Queer Street" is used in the United Kingdom for someone in financial trouble. Over time, "queer" acquired a number of meanings related to sexuality and gender, from narrowly meaning "gay or lesbian" to referring to those who are "not heterosexual" to referring to those who are either not heterosexual or not cisgender (those who are LGBT+).


title: Queer

text: By the late 19th century, "queer" was beginning to gain a connotation of sexual deviance, used to refer to feminine men or men who were thought to have engaged in same-sex relationships. An early recorded usage of the word in this sense was in an 1894 letter by John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.


title: Queer

text: "Queer" was used in mainstream society by the 20th century, along with "fairy" and "faggot", as a pejorative term to refer to men who were perceived as flamboyant. This was, as historian George Chauncey notes, "the predominant image of "all" queers within the straight mind".


title: Queer

text: Starting in the underground gay bar scene in the 1950s, then moving more into the open in the 1960s and 1970s, the homophile identity was gradually displaced by a more radicalized "gay" identity. At that time "gay" was generally an umbrella term including lesbians, as well as gay-identified bisexuals and transsexuals; gender-nonconformity, which had always been an indicator of gayness, also became more open during this time. During the endonymic shifts from "invert" to "homophile" to "gay", "queer" was usually pejoratively applied to men who were believed to engage in receptive or passive anal or oral sex with other men as well as those who exhibited non-normative gender expressions.


title: Queer

text: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "queer", "fairy", "trade", and "gay" signified distinct social categories within the gay male subculture. In his book "Gay New York", Chauncey noted that "queer" was used as a within-community identity term by men who were stereotypically masculine. Many queer-identified men at the time were, according to Chauncey, "repelled by the style of the "fairy" and his loss of manly status, and almost all were careful to distinguish themselves from such men", especially because the dominant straight culture did not acknowledge such distinctions. "Trade" referred to straight men who would engage in same-sex activity; Chauncey describes trade as "the 'normal men' [queers] claimed to be."


title: Queer

text: In contrast to the terms used within the subculture, medical practitioners and police officers tended to use medicalized or pathological terms like "invert", "pervert", "degenerate", and "homosexual".


title: Queer

text: None of the terms, whether inside or outside of the subculture, equated to the general concept of a homosexual identity, which only emerged with the ascension of a binary (heterosexual/homosexual) understanding of sexual orientation in the 1930s and 1940s. As this binary became embedded into the social fabric, "queer" began to decline as an acceptable identity in the subculture.


title: Queer

text: Similar to the earlier use of "queer", "gay" was adopted by many U.S. assimilationist men in the mid-20th century as a means of asserting their normative status and rejecting any associations with effeminacy. The idea that "queer" was a pejorative term became more prevalent among younger gay men following World War II. As the gay identity became more widely adopted in the community, some men who preferred to identify as "gay" began chastising older men who still referred to themselves as "queer" by the late 1940s:


title: Queer

text: In calling themselves gay, a new generation of men insisted on the right to name themselves, to claim their status as men, and to reject the "effeminate" styles of the older generation. [...] Younger men found it easier to forget the origins of gay in the campy banter of the very queens whom they wished to reject.In other parts of the world, particularly England, "queer" continued to be the dominant term used by the community well into the mid-twentieth century, as noted by historical sociologist Jeffrey Weeks:By the 1950s and 1960s to say "I am queer" was to tell of who and what you were, and how you positioned yourself in relation to the dominant, "normal" society. … It signaled the general perception of same-sex desire as something eccentric, strange, abnormal, and perverse.


title: Queer

text: Beginning in the late 1980s, the label "queer" began to be reclaimed from its pejorative use as a neutral or positive self-identifier by LGBT people. An early example of this usage by the LGBT community was by an organisation called Queer Nation, which was formed in March 1990 and circulated an anonymous flier at the New York Gay Pride Parade in June 1990 titled "Queers Read This". The flier included a passage explaining their adoption of the label queer:


title: Queer

text: Queer people, particularly queer people of color, began to reclaim "queer" in response to a perceived shift in the gay community toward liberal conservatism, catalyzed by Andrew Sullivan's 1989 piece in "The New Republic", titled "Here Comes the Groom: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage". The queer movement rejected causes viewed as assimilationist, such as marriage, military inclusion and adoption. This radical stance and rejection of U.S. imperialism continued the tradition of earlier lesbian and gay anti-war activism, and solidarity with a variety of leftist movements, such as seen in the positions taken at the first two National Marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987, the radical direct action of groups like ACT UP, and the historical importance of events like the Stonewall riots. The radical queer groups following in this tradition of LGBT activism contrasted firmly with, "the holy trinity of marriage, military service and adoption [which had] become the central preoccupation of a gay movement centered more on obtaining straight privilege than challenging power." Commentators noted that it was exactly these "revolting queers" (who were now being pushed aside) who had made it safe for the assimilationists to now have the option of assimilation.


title: Queer

text: The term may be capitalized when referring to an identity or community, rather than as an objective fact describing a person's desires, in a construction similar to the capitalized use of Deaf. The 'Q' in extended versions of the LGBT acronym, such as "LGBTQIA+", is most often considered an abbreviation of queer. It can also stand for questioning.


title: Queer

text: Reclamation and use of the term "queer" is controversial; several people and organizations, both LGBT and non-LGBT, object to some or all uses of the word for various reasons. Some LGBT people dislike the use of "queer" as an umbrella term because they associate it with political radicalism; they say that deliberate use of the epithet "queer" by political radicals has, in their view, played a role in dividing the LGBT community by political opinion, class, gender, age, and other factors. The controversy about the word also marks a social and political divide in the LGBT community between those (including civil-rights activists) who perceive themselves as "normal" and who wish to be seen as ordinary members of society and those who see themselves as separate, confrontational and not part of the ordinary social order.


title: Queer

text: Other LGBT people disapprove of reclaiming or using "queer" because they consider it offensive, derisive or self-deprecating because use by heterosexuals as a pejorative continues to this day, and some LGBT people avoid "queer" because they perceive it as faddish slang, or alternatively as academic jargon.


title: Queer

text: Scholars and activists have proposed different ways in which queer identities apply or do not apply to intersex people. Sociologist Morgan Holmes and bioethicists Morgan Carpenter and Katrina Karkazis have documenting a heteronormativity in medical rationales for the surgical normalization of infants and children born with atypical sex development, and Holmes and Carpenter have described intersex bodies as "queer bodies". In "What Can Queer Theory Do for Intersex?" Iain Morland contrasts queer "hedonic activism" with an experience of insensate post-surgical intersex bodies to claim that "queerness is characterized by the sensory interrelation of pleasure and shame".


title: Queer

text: Such tactic [of reclaiming labels] was obviously influenced by queer identity politics of the 1980s and 90s that were embodied by such groups as Queer Nation and Lesbian Avengers. But unfortunately, intersex activists quickly discovered that the intersex movement could not succeed under this model. For one thing, there were far fewer intersex people compared to the large and visible presence of LGBT people in most urban centers. For another, activists soon realized that most intersex individuals were not interested in building intersex communities or culture; what they sought were professional psychological support to live ordinary lives as ordinary men and women and not the adoption of new, misleading identity. ... To make it worse, the word "intersex" began to attract individuals who are not necessarily intersex, but feel that they might be, because they are queer or trans. ... Fortunately, the intersex movement did not rely solely on queer identity model for its strategies.


title: Queer

text: "Queer" is sometimes expanded to include any non-normative sexuality, including (cisgender) "queer heterosexuality". This has been criticized by some LGBTQ people, who argue that "queer" can only be reclaimed by those it has been used to oppress: "A straight person identifying as queer can feel like choosing to appropriate the good bits, the cultural and political cachet, the clothes and the sound of gay culture, without ... the internalized homophobia of lived gay experience." Many queer people believe that “you don’t have to identify as queer if you’re on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, but you do have to be on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum to identify as queer.”


title: Queer

text: In academia, the term "queer" and the related verb "queering" broadly indicate the study of literature, discourse, academic fields, and other social and cultural areas from a non-heteronormative perspective. It often means studying a subject against the grain from the perspective of gender studies.


title: Queer

text: Queer studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on LGBT people and cultures. Originally centered on LGBT history and literary theory, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in biology, sociology, anthropology, history of science, philosophy, psychology, sexology, political science, ethics, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of queer people. Organizations such as the Irish Queer Archive attempt to collect and preserve history related to queer studies.


title: Queer

text: Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies. Applications of queer theory include queer theology and queer pedagogy. Queer theorists, including Rod Ferguson, Jasbir Puar, Lisa Duggan, and Chong-suk Han, critique the mainstream gay political movement as allied with neoliberal and imperialistic agendas, including gay tourism, gay and trans military inclusion, and state- and church-sanctioned marriages for monogamous gay couples. Puar, a queer theorist of color, coined the term "homonationalism", which refers to the rise of American exceptionalism, nationalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy within the gay community catalyzed in response to the September 11 attacks. Many studies have acknowledged the problems that lie within the traditional theory and process of social studies, and so choose to utilise a queer theoretical approach instead. One such study was conducted in Melbourne in 2016 by Roffee and Waling. By using queer and feminist theories and approaches the researchers were better equipped to cater for the needs, and be accommodating for the vulnerabilities, of the LGBTIQ participants of the study. In this case, it was a specifically post-modern queer theory that enabled the researchers to approach the study with a fair perspective, acknowledging all the varieties of narratives and experiences within the LGBTIQ community.


title: Queer

text: Several LGBT social movements around the world use the identifier "queer", such as the Queer Cyprus Association in Cyprus and the Queer Youth Network in the United Kingdom. In India, pride parades include Queer Azaadi Mumbai and the Delhi Queer Pride Parade. The use of "queer" and "Q" is also widespread in Australia, including national counselling and support service Qlife and "QNews".


title: Queer

text: Other social movements exist as offshoots of queer culture or combinations of queer identity with other views. Adherents of queer nationalism support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs. Queercore (originally "homocore") is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk expressed in a do-it-yourself style through zines, music, writing, art and film.


title: Queer

text: The term queer migration is used to describe the movement of LGBTQ people around the world often to escape discrimination or ill treatment due to their orientation or gender expression. Organizations such as the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees and Rainbow Railroad attempt to assist individuals in such relocations.


title: Queer

text: The label "queer" is often applied to art movements, particularly cinema. New Queer Cinema was a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. Modern queer film festivals include the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and Mardi Gras Film Festival (run by Queer Screen) in Australia, the Mumbai Queer Film Festival in India, the Asian Queer Film Festival in Japan, and Queersicht in Switzerland. Chinese film director Cui Zi'en titled his 2008 documentary about homosexuality in China "Queer China", which premiered at the 2009 Beijing Queer Film Festival after previous attempts to hold a queer film festival were shut down by the government.


title: Queer

text: Multidisciplinary queer arts festivals include the Outburst Queer Arts Festival Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Queer Arts Festival in Canada, and the National Queer Arts Festival in the United States.


title: Queer

text: Television shows that use "queer" in their titles include the UK series "Queer as Folk" and its American-Canadian remake of the same name, "Queer Eye", and the cartoon "Queer Duck".


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Early in her career, she portrayed Mary Shelley in Ken Russell's "Gothic" (1986) and Patty Hearst in the eponymous 1988 biopic film directed by Paul Schrader and later received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of "Anna Christie". She also appeared in "The Handmaid's Tale" (1990), "Nell" (1994), "The Parent Trap" (1998), "Maid in Manhattan" (2002), and "The White Countess" (2005).


title: Natasha Richardson

text: For her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of "Cabaret," she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson died in New York City, on 18 March 2009, from an epidural hematoma after a skiing accident in Quebec, Canada.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Natasha Jane Richardson was born and raised in Marylebone, London on May 11, 1963, a member of the Redgrave family, known as a theatrical and film acting dynasty. She was the daughter of director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Joely Richardson, half-sister of Carlo Gabriel Nero and Katharine Grimond Hess, niece of actress Lynn Redgrave and actor Corin Redgrave, and cousin of Jemma Redgrave.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson's parents divorced in 1967. The following year, she made her film debut at the age of four in an uncredited role in "The Charge of the Light Brigade", directed by her father.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson was educated in London at two independent schools, the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington and St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson began her career in regional theatre at Leeds Playhouse, and in 1984 at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent's Park, when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Ralph Fiennes and Richard E. Grant. Her first professional work in London's West End was in a revival of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" in 1985. This production also featured her mother, Vanessa Redgrave. Soon afterward she starred in a London stage production of "High Society", adapted from the Cole Porter film. She made her Broadway debut in 1993, in the title role of "Anna Christie", which is where she met future husband Liam Neeson. In 1998, she played the role of Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes' revival of "Cabaret" on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The following year, she returned to Broadway in "Closer", for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, and in 2005 she appeared again with the Roundabout, this time as Blanche DuBois in the revival of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire", opposite John C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski. In January 2009, two months before her death, Richardson played the role of Desirée in a concert production of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music", with her mother Vanessa Redgrave who played Mme. Armfeldt. At the time of Richardson's death, the pair were preparing to co-star in a Broadway revival of the musical.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: In 1984, Richardson made her first credited screen appearance as an art tutor in the James Scott-directed "Every Picture Tells A Story", based on the early life of the painter William Scott. She later starred as Mary Shelley in the 1986 film "Gothic", a fictionalised account of the author's creation of "Frankenstein". The following year she starred with Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth in "A Month in the Country", directed by Pat O'Connor. Director Paul Schrader signed her for the title role in "Patty Hearst", his 1988 docudrama about the heiress and her kidnapping. Her performances with Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway in "The Handmaid's Tale" and Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett and Helen Mirren in "The Comfort of Strangers" (directed by Schrader) won her the 1990 "Evening Standard" British Film Award for Best Actress. In 1991, she appeared in "The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish" with Bob Hoskins. He later credited her with giving him the best kiss of his life during the film. "She got hold of me and kissed me like I've never been kissed before. I was gobsmacked".


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson was named Best Actress at the 1994 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for "Widows' Peak" and that same year appeared in "Nell" with Jodie Foster and future husband Liam Neeson. She appeared in the Disney film remake "The Parent Trap" in 1998 alongside Dennis Quaid, as Elizabeth James, divorced mother of Lindsay Lohan. Additional film credits include "Blow Dry" (2001), "Chelsea Walls" (2001), "Waking Up in Reno" (2002), "Maid in Manhattan" (2002), "Asylum" (2005), which won her a second "Evening Standard" Award for Best Actress, "The White Countess" (2005), and "Evening" (2007). Her last screen appearance was as headmistress of a girls' school in the 2008 comedy "Wild Child". During the last week of January 2009, she recorded her offscreen role of the wife of climber George Mallory, who disappeared while climbing Mount Everest during a 1924 expedition, in the 2010 documentary film "The Wildest Dream", for which Liam Neeson provided narration. Director Anthony Geffen described listening to the film since her death as "harrowing".


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 miniseries "Ellis Island". That same year she made her British television debut in an episode of the BBC series "Oxbridge Blues". The following year she appeared as Violet Hunter with Jeremy Brett and David Burke in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in the episode entitled "The Copper Beeches". She starred with Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh in a 1987 BBC adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play "Ghosts"; with Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe in a 1993 BBC adaptation of "Suddenly, Last Summer" by Tennessee Williams; as Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1993 television movie "Zelda"; and "Haven" (2001) on CBS and "The Mastersons of Manhattan" (2007) on NBC.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: Richardson's first marriage was to filmmaker Robert Fox, whom she had met in 1985, during the making of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull"; they were married from 1990 to 1992. She married actor Liam Neeson in the summer of 1994 at the home they shared in Millbrook, New York; she had become a naturalised American citizen. Richardson had two sons with Neeson: Micheál (born 1995) and Daniel (born 1996).


title: Natasha Richardson

text: She helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father Tony Richardson had died of AIDS-related causes in 1991. She was also actively involved in AmfAR, becoming a board member in 2006 and participating in many other AIDS charities, including Bailey House, God's Love We Deliver, Mothers' Voices, AIDS Crisis Trust and National AIDS Trust, for which she was an ambassador. She received amfAR's Award of Courage in November 2000.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: An avid smoker, although she had reportedly quit smoking, Richardson was an outspoken critic of the ban on smoking in New York City restaurants.


title: Natasha Richardson

text: On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, about from Montreal. At first, she refused any medical help but complained of a severe headache about two hours after the accident. She was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died two days later from an epidural hematoma. Richardson's family issued a statement on the day of her death: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love, and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."


title: Natasha Richardson

text: On 19 March 2009, theatre lights were dimmed on Broadway in Manhattan and in the West End of London as a mark of respect for Richardson. The following day, a private viewing was held at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan. On 22 March 2009, a private funeral was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church near Millbrook, New York, close to the family's upstate home. Richardson was buried near her maternal grandmother Rachel Kempson in the churchyard. Richardson's aunt, Lynn Redgrave, was buried in the same churchyard on 8 May 2010, near Richardson and Kempson.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, "Magazine Management/Atlas Comics" in 1951 and its predecessor, "Marvel Mystery Comics", the "Marvel Comics" title/name/brand was first used in June 1961.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel was started in 1939 by Martin Goodman as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics. The Marvel era began in June 1961 with the launch of "The Fantastic Four" and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. The Marvel brand, which had been used over the years and decades, was solidified as the company's primary brand.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Wolverine, and Captain Marvel, as well as popular superhero teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Its stable of well-known supervillains includes the likes of Doctor Doom, Magneto,


title: Marvel Comics

text: Ultron, Thanos, Green Goblin, Galactus, Loki, and Kingpin. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places; many major characters are based in New York City. Additionally, Marvel has published several licensed properties from other companies. This includes "Star Wars" comics twice from 1977 to 1986 and again since 2015.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman created the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman (Martin's brother) officially listed as publisher.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Timely's first publication, "Marvel Comics" #1 (cover dated Oct. 1939), included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero the Human Torch, and the first appearances of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features. The issue was a great success; it and a second printing the following month sold a combined nearly 900,000 copies. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. The company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in "Captain America Comics" #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc., beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941.


title: Marvel Comics

text: While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these three characters, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, and the Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper", as well as a line of children's talking animal comics featuring characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Goodman hired his wife's 16-year-old cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber—by then writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee"—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least "Marvel Mystery Comics" #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics' covers, such as "All Surprise Comics" #12 (Winter 1946–47), were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.


title: Marvel Comics

text: The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, featuring horror, Westerns, humor, talking animal, men's adventure-drama, giant monster, crime, and war comics, and later adding jungle books, romance titles, espionage, and even medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951 even though another company, Kable News, continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues. This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and movies—Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time—and even other comic books, particularly the EC horror line. Atlas also published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo's "Homer the Happy Ghost" (similar to "Casper the Friendly Ghost") and "Homer Hooper" (à la Archie Andrews). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously), the Sub-Mariner (drawn and most stories written by Bill Everett), and Captain America (writer Stan Lee, artist John Romita Sr.). Atlas did not achieve any breakout hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply, and at a passable quality.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1957 Goodman switched distributors to the American News Company — which shortly afterward lost a Justice Department lawsuit and discontinued its business. Atlas was left without distribution and was forced to turn to Independent News, the distribution arm of its biggest rival, National (DC) Comics, which imposed draconian restrictions on Goodman's company. As then-Atlas editor Stan Lee recalled in a 1988 interview, "[We had been] turning out 40, 50, 60 books a month, maybe more, and ... suddenly we went ... to either eight or 12 books a month, which was all Independent News Distributors would accept from us."


title: Marvel Comics

text: The first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand were the science-fiction anthology "Journey into Mystery" #69 and the teen-humor title "Patsy Walker" #95 (both cover dated June 1961), which each displayed an "MC" box on its cover. Then, in the wake of DC Comics' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with the Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and other members of the team the Justice League of America, Marvel followed suit.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1961, writer-editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to older readers than the predominantly child audiences of the medium, thus ushering what Marvel later called the Marvel Age of Comics. Modern Marvel's first superhero team, the titular stars of "The Fantastic Four" #1 (Nov. 1961), broke convention with other comic book archetypes of the time by squabbling, holding grudges both deep and petty, and eschewing anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. Subsequently, Marvel comics developed a reputation for focusing on characterization and adult issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality which the new generation of older readers appreciated. This applied to "The Amazing Spider-Man" title in particular, which turned out to be Marvel's most successful book. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something with which many readers could identify.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Stan Lee and freelance artist and eventual co-plotter Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age. Eschewing such comic book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach, the series represented a change that proved to be a great success.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel often presented flawed superheroes, freaks, and misfits—unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters such as the Hulk and the Thing. This naturalistic approach even extended into topical politics. Comics historian Mike Benton also noted:


title: Marvel Comics

text: All these elements struck a chord with the older readers, including college-aged adults. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in "Esquire" magazine's list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan. In 2009, writer Geoff Boucher reflected that,


title: Marvel Comics

text: Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby's artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times—or was it Lee's bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time?


title: Marvel Comics

text: In addition to Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and the Silver Surfer, and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, Loki, the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus, all existing in a shared reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirror real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, "Not Brand Echh" (a play on Marvel's dubbing of other companies as "Brand Echh", à la the then-common phrase "Brand X").


title: Marvel Comics

text: Originally, the company's publications were branded by a minuscule "Mc" on the upper right-hand corner of the covers. However, artist/writer Steve Ditko put a larger masthead picture of the title character of "The Amazing Spider-Man" on the upper left-hand corner on issue #2 that included the series' issue number and price. Lee appreciated the value of this visual motif and adapted it for the company's entire publishing line. This branding pattern, being typically either a full-body picture of the characters' solo titles or a collection of the main characters' faces in ensemble titles, would become standard for Marvel for decades.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1968, while selling 50 million comic books a year, company founder Goodman revised the constraining distribution arrangement with Independent News he had reached under duress during the Atlas years, allowing him now to release as many titles as demand warranted. Late that year, he sold Marvel Comics and its parent company, Magazine Management, to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation, though he remained as publisher. In 1969, Goodman finally ended his distribution deal with Independent by signing with Curtis Circulation Company.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #96–98 (May–July 1971), without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president for a brief time. During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas, as editor-in-chief. Thomas added "Stan Lee Presents" to the opening page of each comic book.


title: Marvel Comics

text: A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror ("The Tomb of Dracula"), martial arts ("Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu"), sword-and-sorcery ("Conan the Barbarian" in 1970, "Red Sonja"), satire ("Howard the Duck") and science fiction ("", "Killraven" in "Amazing Adventures", "Battlestar Galactica", "Star Trek", and, late in the decade, the long-running "Star Wars" series). Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as "Howard the Duck" fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact the first specialty comic book stores resold them at a later date. But by the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution—selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel ventured into audio in 1975 with a radio series and a record, both had Stan Lee as narrator. The radio series was Fantastic Four. The record was "Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero" concept album for music fans.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics. In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in different countries, including the UK, created a superhero specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in the UK, and later appeared in American comics. During this time, Marvel and the Iowa-based Register and Tribune Syndicate launched a number of syndicated comic strips — "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Howard the Duck", "Conan the Barbarian", and "The Incredible Hulk". None of the strips lasted past 1982, except for "The Amazing Spider-Man", which is still being published.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the "Uncanny X-Men" and Frank Miller's run on "Daredevil" became critical and commercial successes. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with "Contest of Champions" and "Secret Wars"; and in 1986 launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1986, Marvel's parent, Marvel Entertainment Group, was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman in 1989. In 1991 Perelman took MEG public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel earned a great deal of money with their 1980s children's comics imprint Star Comics and they earned a great deal more money and worldwide success during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future ("Spider-Man 2099", etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. In 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International. These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. The 1990s saw the rise of variant covers, cover enhancements, swimsuit issues, and company-wide crossovers that affected the overall continuity of the Marvel Universe.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel suffered a blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists — Todd McFarlane (known for his work on ""), Jim Lee ("X-Men"), Rob Liefeld ("X-Force"), Marc Silvestri ("Wolverine"), Erik Larsen ("The Amazing Spider-Man"), Jim Valentino ("Guardians of the Galaxy"), and Whilce Portacio ("Uncanny X-Men") — left to form Image Comics in a deal brokered by Malibu Comics' owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Three years later, on November 3, 1994, Rosenberg sold Malibu to Marvel. In purchasing Malibu, Marvel now owned the leading standard for computer coloring of comic books that had been developed by Rosenberg, and also integrated the Ultraverse line of comics and the Genesis Universe into Marvel's multiverse.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. Then, by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996 MEG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel—giving the company its own section of its comics catalog "Previews".


title: Marvel Comics

text: To help Marvel expand its storytelling during the early to mid-1990s, they began to experiment with their series, including Saturday-morning cartoons and various comic collaborations to explore new genres. In 1992, they released the "" which was aired on Fox Kids, they later released a Spider-Man: The Animated Series on the network as well. In 1993, Marvel teamed up with Thomas Nelson to create Christian media genre comics, including a Christian superhero named The Illuminator, they made adaptions of Christian novels too, including "In His Steps", "The Screwtape Letters", and "The Pilgrim's Progress". In 1996, Marvel had some of its titles participate in "Heroes Reborn", a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and outsource them to the studios of two of the former Marvel artists turned Image Comics founders, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The relaunched titles, which saw the characters transported to a parallel universe with a history distinct from the mainstream Marvel Universe, were a solid success amidst a generally struggling industry.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises. With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place just outside Marvel continuity with better production quality. The imprint was helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada; it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Daredevil, the Inhumans, and Black Panther.


title: Marvel Comics

text: With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. The first title from this era to not have the code was "X-Force" #119 (October 2001). Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX (an explicit-content line) and Marvel Adventures (developed for child audiences). The company also created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Some of the company's properties were adapted into successful film franchises, such as the "Men in Black" movie series (which was based on a Malibu book), starting in 1997, the "Blade" movie series, starting in 1998, the "X-Men" movie series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series, "Spider-Man", beginning in 2002.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" title was canceled in 1993 after 275 issues, while the "Savage Sword of Conan" magazine had lasted 235 issues. Marvel published additional titles including miniseries until 2000 for a total of 650 issues. Conan was picked up by Dark Horse Comics three years later.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera "The Guiding Light", titled "She's a Marvel", featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper (played by Beth Ehlers) as a superheroine named the Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, "A New Light", that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In late 2007 the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee. At the December 2007 the New York Anime Fest, the company announcement that Del Rey Manga would published two original English language Marvel manga books featuring the X-Men and Wolverine to hit the stands in spring 2009.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot "Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special" #1 and a variety of other special issues.


title: Marvel Comics

text: On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for a cash and stock deal worth approximately $4 billion, which if necessary would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned. As of 2008, Marvel and its major competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market.


title: Marvel Comics

text: As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstore distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services. Marvel moved its office to the Sports Illustrated Building in October 2010.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide, in March 2011. Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing "Disney/Pixar Presents" magazine that May.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventures imprint in March 2012, and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block. Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics, a line of digital comics, Marvel AR, a software application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers and Marvel NOW!, a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams. Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including "Uncanny Avengers" and "All-New X-Men".


title: Marvel Comics

text: In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a "Once Upon a Time" graphic novel was announced for publication in September. With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint "Disney Kingdoms" imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries. On January 3, 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, "Star Wars" comics would once again be published by Marvel.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Following the events of the company-wide crossover "Secret Wars" in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch branding, which began that September. Books released as part of that initiative featured lenticular variant covers that required comic book stores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about requiring retailers to purchase an excess of copies featuring the regular cover, which they would not be able to sell in order to acquire the more sought-after variant. Marvel responded to these complaints by rescinding these ordering requirements on newer series, but maintained it on more long-running titles like "Invincible Iron Man." As a result, MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic book stores boycotted these variant covers. Despite the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Logan", "" and "" in theaters, none of those characters' titles featured in the top 10 sales and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" comic book series was cancelled. Conan Properties International announced on January 12, 2018, that Conan would return to Marvel in early 2019.


title: Marvel Comics

text: On March 1, 2019, Serial Box, a digital book platform, announced a partnership with Marvel, in which they would publish new and original stories tied to a number of Marvel's popular franchises.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to May 2020, Marvel and its distributor Diamond Comic Distributors stopped producing and releasing new comic books.


title: Marvel Comics

text: On March 25, 2021, Marvel Comics announced that they planned to shift their direct market distribution for monthly comics and graphic novels from Diamond Comic Distributors to Penguin Random House. The change was scheduled to start on October 1, 2021, in a multi-year partnership. The arrangement would still allow stores the option to order comics from Diamond, but Diamond would be acting as a wholesaler rather than distributor.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel's chief editor originally held the title of "editor". This head editor's title later became "editor-in-chief". Joe Simon was the company's first true chief-editor, with publisher Martin Goodman, who had served as titular editor only and outsourced editorial operations.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 1994 Marvel briefly abolished the position of editor-in-chief, replacing Tom DeFalco with five group editors-in-chief. As Carl Potts described the 1990s editorial arrangement:


title: Marvel Comics

text: Originally called associate editor when Marvel's chief editor just carried the title of editor, the title of the second-highest editorial position became executive editor under the chief editor title of editor-in-chief. The title of associate editor later was revived under the editor-in-chief as an editorial position in charge of few titles under the direction of an editor and without an assistant editor.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In 2017, Marvel held a 38.30% share of the comics market, compared to its competitor DC Comics' 33.93%. By comparison, the companies respectively held 33.50% and 30.33% shares in 2013, and 40.81% and 29.94% shares in 2008.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to many other media. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and its sister company, Marvel Studios, while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel material.


title: Marvel Comics

text: In June 1993, Marvel issued its collectable caps for milk caps game under the Hero Caps brand. In 2014, the Japanese TV series was launched together with a collectible game called Bachicombat, a game similar to the milk caps game, by Bandai.


title: Marvel Comics

text: The RPG industry brought the development of the collectible card game (CCG) in the early 1990s which there were soon Marvel characters were featured in CCG of their own starting in 1995 with Fleer's OverPower (1995–1999). Later collectible card game were:


title: Marvel Comics

text: TSR published the pen-and-paper role-playing game Marvel Super Heroes in 1984. TSR then released in 1998 the "Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game" which used a different system, the card-based SAGA system, than their first game. In 2003 Marvel Publishing published its own role-playing game, the "Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game", that used a diceless stone pool system. In August 2011 Margaret Weis Productions announced it was developing a tabletop role-playing game based on the Marvel universe, set for release in February 2012 using its house Cortex Plus RPG system.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Video games based on Marvel characters go back to 1984 and the Atari game, "Spider-Man". Since then several dozen video games have been released and all have been produces by outside licensees. In 2014, "" was released that brought Marvel characters to the existing Disney sandbox video game.


title: Marvel Comics

text: As of the start of September 2015, films based on Marvel's properties represent the highest-grossing U.S. franchise, having grossed over $7.7 billion as part of a worldwide gross of over $18 billion. As of May 2019 the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has grossed over $22 billion.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel first licensed two prose novels to Bantam Books, who printed "The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker" by Otto Binder (1967) and "Captain America: The Great Gold Steal" by Ted White (1968). Various publishers took up the licenses from 1978 to 2002. Also, with the various licensed films being released beginning in 1997, various publishers put out movie novelizations. In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel "Mary Jane", starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press. However, Marvel moved back to licensing with Pocket Books from 2005 to 2008. With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched Marvel Press in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include series for popular characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Punisher, the Defenders, S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Deadpool, Legion, and others. Additionally, a handful of television movies, usually also pilots, based on Marvel Comics characters have been made.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel has licensed its characters for theme parks and attractions, including Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, which includes rides based on their iconic characters and costumed performers, as well as The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride cloned from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios Japan.


title: Marvel Comics

text: Years after Disney purchased Marvel in late 2009, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts plans on creating original Marvel attractions at their theme parks, with Hong Kong Disneyland becoming the first Disney theme park to feature a Marvel attraction. Due to the licensing agreement with Universal Studios, signed prior to Disney's purchase of Marvel, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort are barred from having Marvel characters in their parks. However, this only includes characters that Universal is currently using, other characters in their "families" (X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, etc.), and the villains associated with said characters. This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet and greets, merchandise, attractions and more with other Marvel characters not associated with the characters at Islands of Adventures, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from "Guardians of the Galaxy".


title: Marvel Comics

text: Marvel Worldwide with Disney announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first comic book title under their joint Disney Kingdoms imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries inspired by a never built Disneyland attraction Museum of the Weird. Marvel's Disney Kingdoms imprint has since released comic adaptations of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, The Haunted Mansion, two series on "Figment" based on Journey Into Imagination.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Halo (also known as Halo: The Series) is an American military science fiction television series developed by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane for the streaming service Paramount+, based on the video game franchise of the same name. Produced by Showtime Networks, 343 Industries, Amblin Television, One Big Picture, and Chapter Eleven, the series follows a 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of several advanced alien races determined to eradicate the human race.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Pablo Schreiber and Jen Taylor star as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and Cortana, with the latter reprising her role from the video game series, and are joined by Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, Danny Sapani, Bokeem Woodbine, and Natascha McElhone. Development for a television series began in 2013. Killen was hired in June 2018, and the series officially announced a nine-episode order for Paramount+. Filming began in Ontario, Canada in October 2019, although post-production for the first five episodes was affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming eventually resumed in Budapest, Hungary, in February 2021.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: "Halo" premiered on March 24, 2022, on Paramount+, with the series already renewed for a second season. A portion of the series was shown at SXSW on March 14, 2022. The first season was met with mixed reviews, with praise aimed towards its action scenes, cast, and visual effects but criticism for its derivative writing and alterations from the source material.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: "Halo" follows "an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. "Halo" will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future."


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill revealed that the series is a standalone story that takes place within its own "Silver Timeline" that is separate from and inspired by the core canon and lore of the transmedia franchise rather than a continuation, adaptation, prequel, or sequel, explaining that they wished to give the two "Halo" canons a chance to evolve individually to suit their media. This decision has been compared to how Marvel Studios has adapted the Marvel Comics into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The television series had gone through development hell with a planned release in 2015 that later changed to a 2019 release with Rupert Wyatt as director and executive producer, then a 2020 release; ultimately releasing in 2022 with Otto Bathurst replacing Wyatt in both roles.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: On May 21, 2013, Steven Spielberg was attached in executive producing a television series based on the video game franchise "Halo", distributed by Xbox Entertainment Studios, with Spielberg's company Amblin Television involved. As of August 2015, the series had still been in active development.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: On June 28, 2018, Showtime was given a 10-episode series order. Kyle Killen was set to be showrunner, writer and executive producer, while Rupert Wyatt was attached as director and executive producer. On August 12, it was announced that Master Chief would be the main lead of the series and that the series would tell a new story from the video games while respecting their canon at the same time. On December 3, Wyatt stepped down as director and EP due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Otto Bathurst in February 2019, when it was reported that Bathurst would be directing the pilot along with several other episodes. It was also revealed that the episode count had decreased from 10 episodes to 9. In March 2019, Steven Kane was added as co-showrunner alongside Killen. On February 24, 2021, the series was moved from Showtime to Paramount+. Showtime president Gary Levine said that the show was an outlier for the company's brand, and as a "big broad tentpole show" it was a better fit on Paramount's service. On June 25, 2021, it was reported that both Kane and Killen would be exiting as show runners following the completion of season one. Killen had left prior to the start of production, due to him feeling like he wasn't able to fulfill the duties of showrunner, with Kane taking the reins as lead show-runner until post production work had been completed. However, should the show get picked up for a second season, Kane would not return. In January 2022, it was revealed by executive producer Justin Falvey that the show has potential to last multiple seasons and that David Wiener was being eyed as the showrunner for a potential season two, with Kane staying on board as a consultant. On February 15, 2022, ahead of its premiere, Paramount+ renewed the series for a second season, with Wiener set as showrunner and executive producer.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: From April–August 2019, the cast for the series was announced, with Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief. He was joined by Yerin Ha, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac and Kate Kennedy. In November 2020, Jen Taylor replaced McElhone as Cortana. In September 2022, Joseph Morgan and Cristina Rodlo joined the cast, while Fiona O’Shaughnessy and Tylan Bailey were promoted to series regulars for the second season.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Principal photography commenced in October 2019. In 2019, the series spent over $40 million on production costs. The five filmed episodes were re-edited under the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, with production on the sixth episode and reshoots being planned in Ontario, Canada. Filming eventually resumed fully in Budapest, Hungary in February 2021. The total production of the series including the post-production is estimated to cost between $90–200 million for the first season. Filming for the second season began on September 15, 2022 in Iceland, with the additional country Hungary (Budapest) to be occurred filming later in that year.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The first trailer for the series debuted online during the 2022 AFC Championship Game, while also revealing the March release date.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The first two episodes premiered ahead of release on March 14 at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. The series then debuted on Paramount+ on March 24, 2022. The first episode set a record as Paramount+'s most-watched series premiere globally in its first 24 hours, though no exact viewership numbers were revealed. The first season overall was the second-most watched original series for Paramount+ as of June, 2022.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: In the United Kingdom, the first episode of the series premiered on Channel 5 on June 22, 2022 to promote the launch of the Paramount+ streaming service in that country.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The first season of "Halo" was released digitally on November 7, 2022, and on 4K UHD Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray, and DVD on November 15, 2022.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The first season currently holds an approval rating of 70% based on 70 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Halo" is too derivative of better science-fiction series to emerge a fully-formed elite, but glimmers of promise and faithfulness to the source material signal it's not out of the fight just yet." On Metacritic, the show has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Jesse Schedeen of IGN, rated the first season a 7/10, saying, "[it] is by no means a perfect adaptation of the beloved source material." However he later backed it up with, "This is an adaptation willing to take some risks, and those risks tend to pay off." Paul Tassi of "Forbes" had been vocal of the series. While he praised the first episode, he felt the series kept "getting worse every week." Tassi criticized Kwan Ha's disjointed side story, Master Chief/John being helmet-less for a majority of the series, the brief nudity involving Master Chief/John, finding the childhood flashbacks as uninteresting, the visual effects, and the sex scene between Master Chief/John and Makee. Tassi concluded by stating, "is the show actually good? No, no it is not." Gene Park from "The Washington Post" also criticized the writing behind Kwan Ha and described the sex scene as "rushed." He stated that the series "has its greatest successes in vignettes of exciting tense and well-acted, well-directed drama, but rarely ever earning those best moments within the context of all it’s trying to juggle." Todd Martens from "The Los Angeles Times" criticized the script for shifting from a character-driven narrative to a plot-driven one. Martens also felt that the series sacrificed some of the "silliness" from the games.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Master Chief has been described as acting out of character compared to his core canon counterpart, and Kwan Ha, an original character created for the Silver Timeline canon, has received negative reception due to her story being perceived as too "disjointed" and "divorced" from the main plotline of the series and the "Halo" universe.


title: Halo (TV series)

text: The sex scene between the Master Chief/John and Makee, another original character created for the Silver Timeline canon, in the eighth episode of the first season has received a polarized reaction from audiences and critics; discussions included whether the scene was "contrived and forced", whether the Master Chief had committed a war crime by having sex with a prisoner of war who was unable to properly provide her consent, and whether this was considered as atypical behaviour of the Master Chief in comparison to the core canon (this was the first time John has had sex in either the Halo core or Silver canons). Kiki Wolfkill, the studio head of transmedia at 343 Industries and an executive producer of the show, defended the addition of the scene, stating that while the creative team had "a lot of conversation leading up to whether to do that or not and...there’s a lot of different opinions and voices", that the scene was necessary in order to humanize John by providing him with "a human connection with someone" in order to end the season with him as "a fully defined character".


title: Halo (TV series)

text: Marcus Lehto, one of the co-creators of the , stated that the show is "not the "Halo" I made", but later stated that he "never said [he] didn't like it".


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Oliver Taylor Hawkins (February 17, 1972 – March 25, 2022) was an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, with whom he recorded eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band in 1997, he was a touring drummer for Sass Jordan and for Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer of the progressive experimental band Sylvia.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In 2004, Hawkins formed his own side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, in which he played drums and sang, releasing three studio albums between 2006 and 2019. He formed the supergroup NHC with Jane's Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney in 2020, where he also took on lead vocal and drumming duties.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as a member of Foo Fighters. He was voted "Best Rock Drummer" in 2005 by the British drumming magazine "Rhythm". He died at the age of 50 on March 25, 2022, in Bogotá, Colombia.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Oliver Taylor Hawkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 17, 1972. His family moved to Laguna Beach, California, in 1976, where Hawkins grew up. Hawkins was the youngest of three, with an older brother and sister, Jason and Heather. He graduated from Laguna Beach High School in 1990, where he had been friends with current Yes lead vocalist Jon Davison.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: From June 1995 until March 1997, Hawkins was Alanis Morissette's drummer on the tour supporting "Jagged Little Pill" and her Can't Not tour. He appeared in the videos for "You Oughta Know", "All I Really Want", and "You Learn". He also appeared on Morissette's VHS/DVD "Jagged Little Pill, Live" (1997).


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: After touring through the spring of 1996, Foo Fighters entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record their second album. Conflict during recording reportedly erupted between Dave Grohl and drummer William Goldsmith, eventually causing Goldsmith to leave the band. The band regrouped in Los Angeles and almost completely re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums. The album, "The Colour and the Shape", was released on May 20, 1997. Grohl called Hawkins, an acquaintance at the time, seeking his recommendations for a new drummer to join the band. Grohl was under the impression that Hawkins would not leave Morissette's touring band, given she was a bigger act than Foo Fighters at the time. To Grohl's surprise, however, Hawkins volunteered to join the band himself, explaining that he wanted to be a drummer in a rock band rather than for a solo act. The band announced Hawkins would be its new drummer on March 18, 1997. Hawkins first appeared with the Foo Fighters in the music video for the 1997 single "Monkey Wrench", although the song was recorded before he joined the band.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In addition to his drumming with the Foo Fighters, Hawkins also provided vocals, guitar, and piano to various recordings. He performed the lead vocal on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar". Two versions of the song were released, one as the B-side to "Learn to Fly" and another on the "" soundtrack album. He later sang lead vocals on "Cold Day in the Sun" from "In Your Honor," which was later released as a single, as well as a cover of Cream's "I Feel Free", which appeared as the B-side of "DOA" and on the EP "Five Songs and a Cover". Hawkins also sang lead vocals for the band's cover of Joe Walsh's "Life of Illusion". Later, he sang lead vocals for "Sunday Rain", a track on the Foo Fighters' 2017 album "Concrete and Gold". He sang lead vocals on some songs during Foo Fighters live shows, such as a cover of Queen's "Somebody To Love" on his last concert with the band. He also contributed to the band's songwriting, and was listed as a co-writer on every album since "There Is Nothing Left to Lose".


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins' final performance with the Foo Fighters before his death was at the Lollapalooza Argentina festival on March 20, 2022. Hawkins posthumously won three Grammys with the Foo Fighters on April 3, 2022.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In 2006, Hawkins released a self-titled LP with his side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders subsequently released two more studio albums: "Red Light Fever" in 2010, and "Get the Money" in 2019. He occasionally played with a Police cover band alternately called "The Cops" and "Fallout". At Live Earth in 2007, Hawkins was part of SOS Allstars with Roger Taylor of Queen and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins recorded the drum tracks for the Coheed and Cambria album "" as the band's regular drummer, Chris Pennie, could not record because of contractual reasons. Hawkins also toured with Coheed and Cambria shortly during the months of the album. Hawkins can also be heard drumming on Eric Avery's (formerly of Jane's Addiction) first solo effort, "Help Wanted" and on Kerry Ellis's album, "Wicked in Rock". Hawkins and Grohl split drumming duties on "Harmony & Dissidence", the third album by Foo Fighters bandmate Chris Shiflett's own side project, Jackson United.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins played on the track "Cyborg", from Queen guitarist Brian May's 1998 solo album, "Another World"; he also played drums at VH1's Rock Honors 2006 while Queen performed "We Will Rock You". He sang backing vocals on the Queen + Paul Rodgers single, "C-lebrity".


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins was commissioned to complete an unfinished recording of a song by Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson titled "Holy Man" by writing and singing new lyrics. The recording, which also featured contributions from Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, was issued as a single for Record Store Day in 2019.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins appeared on Slash's solo album "Slash", released in 2010, providing backing vocals on the track "Crucify the Dead", featuring Ozzy Osbourne.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In 2013, he made his acting debut in the role of Iggy Pop in the rock film "CBGB". Hawkins recorded the drums on Vasco Rossi's last song, "L'uomo più semplice". This song was released on January 21, 2013, in Italy.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In March 2014, Hawkins announced his new side project called The Birds of Satan. It features Hawkins's drum technician and bandmate from Chevy Metal, Wiley Hodgden on bass guitar and vocals as well as guitarist Mick Murphy also of Chevy Metal. The band's self-titled debut album was released in April 2014, with a release party at 'Rock n Roll Pizza' featuring the Foo Fighters guesting on some of the cover tracks.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In an interview with Radio X, Hawkins revealed that his initial idea with his solo projects was to duet with female singers.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Hawkins invited other stars to sing in the Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders album "Get the Money", such as LeAnn Rimes, who sang on one of his songs titled "C U In Hell". "Loudwire" named the album one of the 50 best rock efforts of 2019. Other musicians who appeared on his projects included Roger Taylor, Brian May, Dave Grohl, Nancy Wilson, Joe Walsh, Chrissie Hynde, and many more.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In October 2021 Elton John released "The Lockdown Sessions", which featured Hawkins playing drums on the song "E-Ticket".


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: In 2021, Hawkins and Jane's Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney formed a supergroup called NHC. Described by Hawkins as being "somewhere between Rush and the Faces", the band made its live debut in September 2021 at Eddie Vedder's Ohana festival, with Taylor's Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear on additional guitar. The band recorded an album in 2021, which is due for release in 2022.


title: Taylor Hawkins

text: Along with the other members of Foo Fighters, Hawkins starred as himself in the comedy horror film "Studio 666", released on February 25, 2022. He posthumously appears on select tracks on Ozzy Osbourne's 2022 album "Patient Number 9".