Tag Archive: Superheroes


PowAvengers 2 comes out this weekend. Well, Thursday, in many places . . . which means you might wind up with a lot of geeks missing work on Friday. Me? Ha! I get paid for this stuff!

Well, no, I actually don’t. This blog is a 100% free resource, and I can’t get paid for reviewing Age of Ultron. I can, however, potentially get paid for talking about superheroes in general. (Mind you, I can neither confirm nor deny any involvement in the development of a multi-author shared-world superhero setting. Hush, now. I don’t know how these rumors get started.)

Superheroes have, arguably, been around as long as science fiction or fantasy, at least as separate genres with somewhat dedicated followings. They’ve always seemed a bit separate, however, because they use what I call the fourth medium of print: visual art. (The other three are prose, poetry, and script.) Superheroes have rarely done well outside of comic books, in large part because the visuals have dominated the storytelling so completely that it’s difficult to have the same effect in pure prose. It’s only been recently that film technology has advanced to the point that the big screen can live up to the promise of hand-drawn art.

That, however, is a stylistic difference that more people are accepting these days, and it is entirely because of indie publishing.  Continue reading

Daredevil Now Live

11958118In case you hadn’t already marked your calendar, the new Netflix original Daredevil TV show is now live.

Yes, I’ll be reviewing it, but not for a little while unless I wind up reviewing chunks rather than the whole thirteen-episode season. (Yes, Netflix released them all at once. What did you expect? It’s Netflix. Binge-watching is encouraged.) While I’m down with particularly severe fibromyalgia symptoms for the third day in a row, which would make for a perfect time to binge-watch, I’m scheduled to watch it with someone else after work tonight. We probably won’t finish it this weekend.

But for those of you who are still sticking around and not clicking that oh-so-shiny link, let’s talk Daredevil for a bit.  Continue reading

Agent Carter, Season 1

Agent CarterThis weekend, I got caught up with Agent Carter. Aside from — actually, in spite of — the occasionally overbearing exploration of sexism, this is truly an excellent series, and a great example of how to use mild alternate history, superhero, and spy thriller tropes.

Spoilers after the break. Continue reading

If two highly-educated men are able to spend the time from midnight to 2am on a chat program dissecting a TV show, you know one of three things.

  1. It’s one of the best shows ever.
  2. It’s one of the worst shows ever.
  3. It’s a show with so much misused potential that those currently in charge should shut up and let someone else fix it.

Considering the show we were talking about is Agents of SHIELD, it should be obvious we’re talking about Option Three.

WARNING. Spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and “Turn, Turn, Turn” from here on out. Continue reading

Captain’s Orders

This is my spoiler-free review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you’ve seen the movie, you know why I picked that title. (The packed theater erupted into cheers at that particular Moment of Awesome.)

Captain America 2 sets out to raise the stakes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a tall order, and easily screwed up. The movie doesn’t screw it up. It succeeds, and it does so beautifully. Continue reading

Agents of SHIELD has been very disappointing. My high hopes for the show haven’t crashed so much as just petered out due to boredom. I nearly dropped out of it before Elizabeth said it was getting better, and I caught up on Hulu only to find myself meh’d again.  However, there might be a little hope for the show. (Spoilers follow.) Continue reading

I’m not a DC Comics fan. I like Batman, but usually the rest of the universe seems . . . stilted. Yes, I enjoyed many of the animated series while I was growing up (and even more after I decided being grown-up is a bit overrated), but I just can’t get into the mythology and worldbuilding. Too many fictionalized yet supposedly “realistic” locations, too much space between “gritty” and “heroic,” too much “hey, that sounds good, let’s go with that — who’s going to think about it too deeply?” Continue reading

Agents of SHIELD

At the risk of guys in black suits coming for me, I’ll tell you what I know about Agents of Shield.

Light spoilers ahead. If you want to know about the show without getting the plot of the first episode completely ruined, this is for you.

Continue reading

No, this isn’t a post about DC’s latest attempt to be hip. I’m not much of a DC fan, whether we’re talking about the comics company or the city I practically live in, and I wasn’t much interested in their comics continuity even before they tried to revamp it.

My friend Ben Hatke (who draws Space Girls for a living), however, is a DC Comics fan. A while back, he redesigned some of his favorite heroes for fun and practice, and recently his Supergirl wound up on Project Rooftop, a website full of people who do this sort of thing for fun and practice. Actually, he gave you not just one but two different Supergirls, and explains what he’d do if he had the chance to restart his own DC continuity. Go check it out.

And then go buy his books, particularly if you know any little Space Kids of your own.

Quick Hit: Man of Steel

I went and saw Man of Steel today. Better than expected. Best treatment of Superman’s origin I’ve seen, which is a pretty low bar to cross to begin with. Best portrayal of Lois Lane I’ve encountered live, animated, or in print, which is a higher bar. (Perfect blend of helpless human and capable female.)

I’m not a Superman fan. By far. I just don’t like him. I don’t like his character, I don’t like his powers, I almost never like his stories. (In fact, the only good ones I’ve seen have Batman in them.)

It is, however, not a good Superman film. That climax . . . no. Sorry, no.

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