The Marvel Cinematic Universe

May 22, 2017 Evelyn Lewis Leave a comment

With the American release of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, on May 6th, now seems to be a good time to talk about future movies from Marvel, and about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

Currently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in Phase Three. Phase One consisted of introductory movies for the main Avengers characters (Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Iron Man 2) plus The Avengers. It was Phase One that started the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and first drew attention to it, with the release of Iron Man in 2008 and culminating in The Avengers in 2012.

Phase Two consisted largely of sequels to the Phase One movies, such as Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. These movies expanded on characters introduced in Phase One and tended to be rather darker and grittier than the “comic book” feel of their predecessors. Along with the sequels came two other movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, that introduced new characters and plotlines. Phase Two spanned from 2013 to 2015.

That brings us to Phase Three, which started last year, in 2016, with Captain America: Civil War, which functioned as a sequel to Age of Ultron. The other two Phase Three movies released thus far have been Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

There are seven movies planned for the future at the moment, which will continue the trend of some movies being sequels and others introducing new characters. Two of them (Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther) will serve to formally introduce characters who first appeared in Civil War, while four of them (Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Avengers 4) will be sequels. The last planned movie, Captain Marvel, will introduce an entirely new character.

Softball, Sports

Highland softball is the conference champions

May 22, 2017 bellaciccarelli Leave a comment

On Monday, May 8th, Highland Park varsity softball played in the conference championship game against Como High School to become the 2017 conference champs. Como High School has had a very good season, going 12-3 overall and 7-1 in conference. Como’s great season primarily came from senior pitcher, Kathryn Proper, who had 12 strikeouts against Highland that night.

Highland has had a great season going 10-5 overall and 7-1 in conference. Highland has a well balanced team with lots of fresh, and new talent. For Highland, we have returning pitcher, Jenna Cook (11), shortstop, Chloe Smith (10), third baseman, Bella Ciccarelli (10), and the captains, center fielder, Majeur Tucker (10), and catcher, Hanna Zavoral (12). The rest of the team is filled with excellent incoming freshman that are flexible and can play all positions, as well as many first year juniors that have made a great addition to Highland’s team.

During the Como vs. Highland season series, earlier in the season Como beat Highland 1-0, with the one run coming late in the game. But the second time around, in the more important game, Highland pulled through and took the win, 4-3.

The night was very exciting for both teams, as Como started the night off with hot bats but quickly cooled down as Highland began rallying. Cook had a double in the fourth inning to hit Molly Crandall (11) in making it 1-1.

Then in the 6th, Crandall had an inside the park homerun, bringing herself and Zavoral home, putting Highland up 3-2.

At the top of 7th Highland allowed Como to score 1, making it 3-3. Bottom of 7th Highland had two outs with a runner on second, and Cook up to bat. Cook ended the game with what should have been a sac infield fly, but due to miscommunication on Como’s side, the shortstop and 2nd basemen collided, dropping the ball, allowing Zavoral to score.

The game ended with Highland up 4-3.

This will be Highland’s 3rd consecutive year winning conference champs. Coming up, Highland plays Minneapolis South for the Twin Cities Meet on Friday, May 19th, at the U of M field. The Twin Cities Meet is where the two conference champs of Minneapolis and St. Paul play each other. After the Twin Cities Meet, Highland will play in sections, which is still undecided as to who, and when, they will play.