Unpopular Opinion: Evil Corporations Are Stupid Tropes
Evil corporations in modern media are more ubiquitous than CGI. If there’s a corporation in a movie or series, you can bet it’s evil. It will cut corners or have illegal experimentation or create zombie plagues. It’s a given. The only quasi-exceptions I can recall are from Iron Man and Batman. The rest are all […]
Brand Loyalty in Fandom
(Originally posted on June 13, 2018) Brand loyalty isn’t a mindset found solely in fandom, but it does seem very strong there. What do I mean when I say “brand loyalty”? Essentially it’s fans of some particular franchise–Star Wars, for instance–who will defend anything Star Wars no matter the quality. What causes this phenomenon? I […]
Unpopular Opinion: I Like Ang Lee’s Hulk
(Originally posted on January 24, 2018) Director Ang Lee‘s Hulk (2003) movie is generally looked at by Marvel fans as a failure. Scorn and disdain towards it seems to be the norm. This was long before the whole “shared universe” materialized and the MCU has developed a case of amnesia about this film. There are […]
Television that Needs More Love: The Middleman
(Originally posted on December 21, 2016) You may be asking yourself: “What the hell is The Middleman and why should I care?” A fair question. Obliviousness to the series is forgivable. The series appeared in 2008 and disappeared after a mere 12 episodes. Until a friend showed up one evening wearing a “Jolly Fats Wehawkin […]
Adam Warlock and the Magus (Forgotten Gems)
(Originally posted on November 30, 2016) Adam Warlock was a Marvel Comics character who first turned up in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1967. Cobbled together by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and originally called ‘Him’, Warlock appeared sporadically for several years. Roy Thomas later turned him into a kind of superhero messiah, inspired […]
Moments of Coolness #2: Uncanny X-Men #108–Wolverine punched into orbit
(Originally posted on April 3, 2013) Okay, this pivotal moment in my childhood was in 1977. For those geeks out there, you’ll remember this was the year Star Wars hit the screen–and all the titanic cultural baggage that followed. I was deep in comic books at the time, although I found it difficult to keep up […]