FIVE ELEMENT

01

The Batman: 5 Elements Taken From The Comics (& 5 That Are Original For The Film)

While The Batman film showed a grittier version of the DC character, some things in the film appear original, while others were taken from the comics.

The trailer for The Batman was released at the first-ever DC FanDome and showcased a number of new elements concerning the Matt Reeves take on the character. The film looks like a dark and gritty reboot of the Dark Knight, following the character in the early stages of his career.

RELATED: Batman: 5 Marvel And DC Martial Artists He Can Defeat (& 5 He'd Lose To)

With a Gotham City that feels as hellish as the comics and a number of well-known villains updated for modern cinema, there's a number of interesting elements being brought into DC's latest iteration of the caped crusader. While many of the characters, story beats, and settings are taken from the comics, a few takes on this world are actually original for the film.

10 Taken From The Comics: Court Of Owls

The initial trailer may have a huge easter egg in it that many fans might have missed. A few eagle-eyed viewers have spotted what looks to be a white Court of Owls mask in the trailer, as the police are running up the stairs.

The Court of Owls is an underground organization that has influenced Gotham City since its creation. They are yet to be brought into the films, although they will be playing a part in the upcoming Gotham Knights game and seemingly The Batman as well.

9 Original To The Film: Take On The Riddler

The version of Riddler that appears in this trailer isn't quite what fans were expecting. While he sports the green colors of the character and wears those iconic glasses, he's also got quite the serial killer vibe.

RELATED: Batman: 5 Reasons DC Should Focus On Movies (& 5 Why TV Is The Best Choice)

The character isn't known for wearing a mask and this version of Edward Nygma may be obsessed with Riddles, but he is also clearly even creepier than what has been seen in the comics. It's an interesting direction to take this terrifying foe.

8 Taken From The Comics: Working With The Police

Usually, the cinematic versions of the dark knights see him at odds with the police department. It's very rare to see the GCPD and the Batman actually team up with one another, but it is commonplace in the comics.

In the trailer, though there's finally evidence that this film will be influenced by the source material. Jim Gordon actually lets Batman come into a crime scene and examine the clues, in order to carry on his chase of the Riddler.

7 Original To The Film: Penguin's Origins

The Penguin's origins have changed quite a bit over the years, but this film seems to have him at the very start of his career. It's said that the character actually hates being called the Penguin, although Cobblepot will likely settle into it eventually.

RELATED: Batman: 10 New Characters Introduced During Knightfall

This version of the Penguin is certainly going to be unique, as this stage of his career is usually rushed through in other adaptations and even the comics themselves, to get to the more villainous crime lord iteration of the character.

6 Taken From The Comics: Catwoman

Catwoman is a character that has been explored in great detail in the comics. Her origins are that of a cat burglar much like the trailer and her relationship with Batman is a complex one.

She can be seen facing off against the dark knight in the trailer, although fans of the series will know that eventually Selena Kyle and Bruce Wayne have an on and off-again relationship with one another. She very well could be the love interest of the movie.

5 Original To The Film: The Costumes

The costumes chosen for the film are both influenced by the comics but are also completely original. For instance, both Penguins' and Riddler's looks are very unique compared to anything that has been seen on the page previously.

RELATED: Batman: 5 Reasons Flashpoint Batman Is The Best Villainous Batman (& 5 Why It's The Batman Who Laughs)

Batman's costume is a mixture of original elements and some nods to the comics, while Catwoman's very basic suit is a nod to her early days, but also an updated version that tries to be original.

4 Taken From The Comics: Partnership With Alfred

Alfred's British tones can be heard throughout the trailer, demonstrating that the partnership between the butler and the billionaire will continue. It's a feature that has become a mainstay in the comics.

What's more, there's been plenty of examples where Alfred has demonstrated that he's a man of action and the Andy Serkis version of the character could very well end up in the field at some stage of the story.

3 Original To The Film: Batman's Place In The World

Batman is only just finding his place in the world in this first film, which will probably lead to a number of sequels. There's already a prequel TV show confirmed set in the GCPD which should help to flesh out Batman's role further.

However he decides to help the city, it's going to be a journey unique to the film. These elements have not lined up in the same way in the comics. His aggression levels, how the city views him as well as his relationship with authority will all be unique to this adaptation.

2 Taken From The Comics: Year 2

Year 2 is a story that has influenced this film a lot. It showcases Batman at the start of his career and demonstrates a lot of the trials and tribulations that he has to go through before he can become an iconic hero.

The film is clearly taking a lot of cues from this and while the villains may be different, there's a lot of tonal elements that are certainly similar, not to mention the fact that it appears the origin is being skipped over.

1 Original To The Film: The Batmobile

There's been a lot of strange designs for the Batmobile over the years, but very rarely does it just look like a car. This iteration of the vehicle though is just that, a suped-up car.

There are definitely dark knight elements throughout, including the color scheme, nifty gadgets, and bat logos, but the design itself feels really unique compared to the multiple versions that have been seen in the comics and on-screen before.

NEXT: 10 Unanswered Questions About Batman Begins

Next 10 Things You Didn't Know About Toxin From The Marvel Comics

About The Author George Chrysostomou (274 Articles Published)

Politics graduate, freelance writer and all around film geek. If George isn't lecturing someone on the history of the MCU, he's probably ranting about the political consequences of Putin's latest horse riding trip.

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02

Element Solutions Inc. (ESI): Hedge Fund Interest Inching Up

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey have plowed through 823 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds' and investors' portfolio positions as of June 30th, when the S&P 500 Index was trading around the 3100 level. Since the end of March, investors decided to bet on the economic recovery and a stock market rebound. S&P 500 Index returned more than 50% since its bottom. In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds thought Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) was a good investment heading into the third quarter and how the stock traded in comparison to the top hedge fund picks.

Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world's most elite money managers lately. Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) was in 37 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistics is 40. Our calculations also showed that ESI isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Hedge funds' reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn't keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds' small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 58 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.

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Peter Rathjens of Arrowstreet Capital

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost precious metals prices. So, we are checking out this junior gold mining stock. Legal marijuana is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like “the Starbucks of cannabis” to identify the next tenbagger. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind we're going to view the new hedge fund action regarding Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI).

Heading into the third quarter of 2020, a total of 37 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 6% from the first quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ESI over the last 20 quarters. So, let's check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

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Is ESI A Good Stock To Buy?

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The largest stake in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) was held by Gates Capital Management, which reported holding $105.8 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Glenview Capital with a $34.7 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included MIC Capital Partners, Arrowstreet Capital, and Scoggin. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position MIC Capital Partners allocated the biggest weight to Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI), around 13.94% of its 13F portfolio. Scoggin is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 6.7 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ESI.

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls' herd. Albar Capital, managed by Javier Velazquez, established the most valuable position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI). Albar Capital had $11.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mark Coe's Intrinsic Edge Capital also made a $8.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ESI positions are  Renaissance Technologies, David Harding's Winton Capital Management, and Benjamin A. Smith's Laurion Capital Management.

Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI). We will take a look at 21Vianet Group Inc (NASDAQ:VNET), Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSE:EQX), Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:TPTX), Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN), Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE:MIC), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), and AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB). This group of stocks' market valuations match ESI's market valuation.

[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position VNET,19,266431,4 EQX,14,122841,7 TPTX,30,524757,11 AMRN,32,477249,-7 MIC,38,564202,8 ITRI,13,300874,-6 AB,7,23909,0 Average,21.9,325752,2.4 [/table]

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $326 million. That figure was $412 million in ESI's case. Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE:MIC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ESI is 83.1. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we'd rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 33% in 2020 through the end of August and beat the market by 23.2 percentage points. Unfortunately ESI wasn't nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ESI were disappointed as the stock returned -0.9% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.

Get real-time email alerts: Follow Element Solutions Inc (NYSE:ESI)

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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03

‘Food Wars!’ Season 5, Episode 11 Live Stream Details, Spoilers: Soma Takes On Asahi

KEY POINTS

After Asahi presents his dish for the battle round, it is Soma's turn

Soma is serving a diner dish comprising elements of the Five Grand Cuisines

"Food Wars!" Season 5, Episode 11 airs Friday

Soma and Asahi’s cooking battle continues in "Food Wars!" Season 5, Episode 11. After Asahi cooks a dish comprising elements from the five cuisines of the world, it is Soma’s turn to present his dish.

This article contains spoilers

The official synopsis for "Food Wars!" Season 5, Episode 11 teases Soma’s dish. The new episode is titled "The Taste of Failure." The spoilers suggest Soma is set to cook up a diner dish for the current round against Asahi. It remains to be seen if his dish can stand against his opponent’s.

In the previous episode, Asahi and Soma win several rounds in the BLUE tournament and end up against each other for a cooking battle. The Bookmaster announces the theme of the competition and turns it is one of the toughest themes in the history of BLUE.

There are cuisines known as the Five Grand Cuisines of the World. There are numerous theories about them but, Chinese, French, Indian, Italian and Turkish cooking styles are considered the most impactful.

For the challenge, Soma and Asahi get 180 minutes to cook a dish combining the Five Grand Cuisines and they can use any ingredient they like. The task is to come up with the ultimate cuisine.

Meanwhile, the participants from Totsuki Academy are shocked at how difficult the task is. One of the chefs notes how he managed to combine the three best soups at the BLUE Preliminaries, but it is almost impossible to combine all five of the grand cuisines.  

"Food Wars!" Season 5, Episode 10 showcases Asahi in action as he uses his Crossed Knives and other techniques to cook the ultimate dish. He is confident about beating Soma.

Interestingly, Soma’s diner-style cooking for this round shows how he's going to apply his mother’s teachings into practice. The new episode will also give a glimpse of Soma’s backstory and how he trained under her mother at their diner. The episode also reveals why Asahi, who is Joichiro’s pupil, hates Soma.

"Food Wars!" Season 5, Episode 11 is scheduled to broadcast Friday. Fans can watch the episode via live streaming on Crunchyroll.

Cosplayer_of_Soma_Yukihira_at_Otakon_20150726 Photo: peyj_turner/Flickr/creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/