{"id":18905,"date":"2012-05-30T16:26:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T21:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=18905"},"modified":"2012-05-30T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T22:11:23","slug":"marvel-bullpen-assembles-to-help-mom-and-her-hearing-impaired-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/05\/30\/marvel-bullpen-assembles-to-help-mom-and-her-hearing-impaired-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Bullpen assembles to help mom and her hearing-impaired son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marvel Bullpen assembles to help mom and her hearing-impaired son<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: to see the picture of Blue Ear – deaf character based on comic, see link below.<\/em><\/p>\n

When a 4-year-old from New Hampshire didn\u2019t want to wear his hearing
\naid, Hawkeye came to the rescue \u2014 with a lot of help from the Marvel
\nBullpen.<\/p>\n

As we reported yesterday, Christina D\u2019Allesandro\u2019s son Anthony Smith
\ndidn\u2019t want to wear his \u201cblue ear\u201d hearing aid because he said
\nsuperheroes didn\u2019t wear them. So she sent a blind email to Marvel,
\nhoping that maybe that wasn\u2019t true and they could point one who did.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristina sent her touching letter in to the mheroes@marvel.com
\naddress, a general \u2018fan mail\u2019 account which is shared by a group of us
\nin editorial,\u201d Marvel Editor Bill Rosemann told Robot 6. \u201cShe didn\u2019t
\nknow a specific person to write to here at Marvel, and even figured it
\nmight get caught in our spam filters, but she sent it in anyway,
\nbecause that\u2019s the kind of great parent Christina is. And it was her
\ninspiring effort to help her son that touched so many of us here. As a
\nfellow parent of a toddler, I can understand where she\u2019s coming from,
\nso I forwarded the email around the rest of Editorial, asking what we
\ncould do to help, and like when Cap yells, \u2018Avengers Assemble,\u2019 the
\ngang leapt into action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemann said the mail account gets a lot of traffic, the majority of
\nwhich are messages from fans about specific issues or stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must admit that we get our fair share of negative letters, often
\ninsulting a creator\u2019s efforts. On the other hand, occasionally we will
\nreceive a personal letter, telling us how Marvel\u2019s characters and
\ncreators inspired someone to help others or overcome real world
\nstruggles,\u201d Rosemann said. \u201cThose are the types of letters that express
\nthe true heart of what Marvel is all about \u2026 and in this case, when
\nChristina made the simple request to help her child \u2026 well, how could
\nwe not act? After all, didn\u2019t Stan Lee teach us something about great
\npower and great responsibility?\u201d<\/p>\n

And yes, Anthony, there is a superhero with a hearing impairment \u2014 or
\nat least there was in the 1980s. Rosemann said Executive Editor Tom
\nBrevoort pointed out that Hawkeye suffered from hearing loss when he
\nwas the leader of the Avengers\u2019 West Coast branch (although continuity
\nbuffs will remember that Franklin Richards healed Hawkeye after the
\nevents in Heroes Reborn).<\/p>\n

\u201cTom Brevoort brought up Hawkeye\u2019s loss of hearing back in the \u201880s,
\nwhich spurred me to send a shot of the West Coast Avengers #1 cover to
\nChristina, suggesting that she tell Anthony that not only do
\nsuperheroes definitely wear hearing aids, but that he could be an
\nhonorary Avenger if he wore his,\u201d Rosemann said. \u201cLauren Sankovitch
\npassed the email to Nelson Ribeiro in Collected Editions, who then
\ndelivered his full-color Mighty Marvel Masterpiece spotlighting the
\nbrave Blue Ear. Finally, Tom Brennan reached out to Manny Mederos in
\nthe Bullpen, who then drew his awesome team-up shot of Hawkeye and Blue
\nEar. So just as every one of our comics can only reach readers through
\nthe action of many hands, this too was truly a team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coming of \u2026 Blue Ear!<\/p>\n

Ribeiro, who works in Marvel\u2019s Trades and Special Projects Department
\nas an assistant editor, said the name of Anthony\u2019s device inspired him
\nto create the new hero, Blue Ear.<\/p>\n

Blue Ear<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was reading Anthony\u2019s story, the name for his device just kept
\nsticking out to me,\u201d Ribeiro said. \u201c\u2018Blue Ear.\u2019 It just sounded like a
\nsuperhero name. All that was missing was the \u2018The\u2019 in front of it. So I
\nwent home and drew out a few sketches of what \u2018The Blue Ear\u2019 would look
\nlike. From the story, I knew Anthony didn\u2019t want to wear his device, so
\nI wanted to make sure that The Blue Ear\u2019s listening device was very
\nprominent and very important to his ability as a super hero. And since
\nAnthony is a 4-year-old boy, I wanted the piece to be very bright and
\ncolorful like a Saturday-morning cartoon. I tried to write all the
\ncaptions in a way which would focus on how important it is for the Blue
\nEar to wear his device. Hopefully, Anthony would also realize how
\nimportant it is for him to wear it everyday as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mederos, who works as a production artist, wanted to team his version
\nof Blue Ear with Hawkeye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first heard about Anthony, I was really excited to be a part of
\nthis project and his story was very touching. For me super heroes are
\nmeant to inspire and bring the best out of people and that\u2019s what
\nAnthony did for me,\u201d Mederos told Robot 6. \u201cWe knew that at one point
\nin Marvel\u2019s history Hawkeye wore a hearing device, so we wanted to
\ninclude him in the piece. So as I was sketching out the characters, I
\nthought to myself, \u2018What better way for a child to connect with a hero
\nthan the hero be a child himself?\u2019 So The Blue Ear would be a young
\nsuperhero with extra hearing abilities, thanks to his mighty hearing
\naid device and helps all of those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work done by the team at Marvel inspired news stories in the
\nConcord Monitor and the local television station WMUR. Both artists
\nwere touched by Anthony\u2019s reaction to the artwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to see a local New Hampshire news channel that covered
\nAnthony\u2019s story and saw his reaction when his mom Christina showed him
\nthe Hawkeye and The Blue Ear piece I drew,\u201d Mederos said. \u201cSeeing him
\nfilled with joy made my day and helped reinforce that this medium
\nreally reaches out to all ages. Super heroes are great in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so happy to find out that Anthony liked the piece of artwork I
\ncreated for him. He was the person I was most worried about pleasing.
\nIf everyone at work liked it but he hated it, then I would\u2019ve felt like
\nI let him down,\u201d Ribeiro said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think my artwork has had as
\nmuch an impact on his life as he had on mine. He is a 4-year-old little
\nboy who has to deal with such a hardship every day, and his first
\nthought was he didn\u2019t want to wear his device because he wanted to be a
\nsuperhero. He wasn\u2019t even worried about his hearing condition, he just
\nthought superheroes didn\u2019t wear hearing devices. That to me is what
\nmakes Anthony amazing because now that he knows that, yes, there are
\nheroes who wear hearing devices, he doesn\u2019t see any other obstacles in
\nhis way of achieving his goal to be a hero. But being able to face his
\nsituation with such courage, already makes him a hero to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s story seems to hit right at the heart of what\u2019s made Marvel\u2019s
\nheroes stand out over the years, whether you\u2019re talking about medical
\nconditions like Daredevil\u2019s blindness or Iron Man\u2019s heart condition, or
\neven just the daily trials of Peter Parker. These are heroes who have
\nhad to overcome some sort of obstacle or physical limitation to become
\nwho they are, which can be inspiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very first issues that kicked off the Marvel Age of comics to
\nthe books that are heading off to stores this month, our creators
\nunderstand the power that our characters have to change readers\u2019
\nlives,\u201d Rosemann said. \u201cThe brilliant truth that our founding creators
\nunderstood was that giving our characters physical and psychological
\nchallenges not only made them unique from the \u2018square-jawed\u2019 heroes
\nthat came before, and not only instantly made them sympathetic and more
\nthree-dimensional, but it also gave them the ability to inspire our
\nreaders to overcome their own obstacles. The metaphor of the Marvel
\nheroes is the very real idea that all of us\u2013no matter our particular
\ntype of challenge\u2013can push back against adversity and use our abilities
\nto help the world around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

May 23, 2012 by JK Parkin<\/p>\n

Source:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/robot6.comicbookresources.com\/2012\/05\/marvel-bullpen-assembles-to-help-mom-and-her-hearing-impaired-son\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marvel Bullpen assembles to help mom and her hearing-impaired son Note: to see the picture of Blue Ear – deaf character based on comic, see link below. When a 4-year-old from New Hampshire didn\u2019t want to wear his hearing aid,…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[14029,14028,14018,14019,14027,9181,24,14025,14026,2750,14024,14020,14032,14015,14016,14030,14017,14021,14031,14022,14023],"class_list":["post-18905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-avengers-assemble","tag-bill-rosemann","tag-blue-ear","tag-character","tag-christina-dallesandro","tag-comics","tag-deaf","tag-franklin-richards","tag-hawkeye","tag-hearing-impaired","tag-heroes-reborn","tag-listening-device","tag-manny-mederos","tag-marvel","tag-marvel-age","tag-nelson-ribeiro","tag-new-hampshire","tag-superhero","tag-tom-brennan","tag-tom-brevoort","tag-west-coast-avengers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-4UV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22052,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2013\/03\/01\/hearing-impaired-boy-gets-every-kids-dream-becoming-a-superhero\/","url_meta":{"origin":18905,"position":0},"title":"Hearing-impaired boy gets every kid\u2019s dream: becoming a superhero","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"March 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Hearing-impaired boy gets every kid\u2019s dream: becoming a superhero February 25, 2013 By Kristina Sgueglia NEW YORK (CNN) \u2014 Five-year-old Anthony Smith didn\u2019t think superheroes wore hearing aids, until he became one. 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