Disney film notwithstanding, I'm not sure anyone considers Hugo's novel a fairy tale.

At the risk of being the guy who overlooks all the fun smutty stuff and zeroes in on a nitpicky bit of comics trivia: I have to point out that Captain Marvel Jr. was NOT a "National (DC)" character back in the 1940's. The Captain Marvel comics were originally published by Fawcett. DC didn't start publishing them…

To be fair, it's not just about religion. It's also about money.

What's the rush? The movie is still a year away. Why would anybody expect to know what it's about by now? Or who is playing who? Since when is it surprising that people aren't giving anything away about a movie that isn't even coming out until next spring?

Or, you know, he could be playing a completely new character. There's no rule that says he HAS to be playing some iconic character from the original show . . .

But did that scene really have all that much impact back then? Sure, everybody cites it as a ground-breaking moment now, but, as I understand it, it barely created any controversy at the time. NBC got a couple of letters, Star Trek got canceled later that season anyway, and, aside from that one moment, "Plato's…

With all due respect to BUFFY, XENA's "The Bitter Suite" kicked off the special musical episode thing a year or so earlier.

Well, the term "Men in Black" predates the comics and movies by decades. It's an urban legend long associated with Ufology. I believe it was originally coined by the late John Keel back in 1967.

You know, it would be funny if "Cupcake"'s real name turned out to be Finnegan.

Waiting for the inevitable Alien Surf Girls/Sharktopus crossover . . . .

Remember that his mother was Lara of the House of El. Lara El, get it? It's obviously a super-Oedipal complex!

Gidget Goes Galactic.

That's a great tag line.

With all due respect to The Twilight Zone, the fiendish ventriloquist dummy plot dates back to "The Dead of Night," a 1945 British anthology film.

We probably need to add some vintage Moorcock. The Final Programme? Behold the Man?

As opposed to every single classic horror movie poster showing the monster carrying a girl in a night dress. Or pretty much every single vampire story since the days of Bram Stoker or J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Sex and death have been holding hands in horror fiction since Day One.

If you didn't grow up obsessed with this stuff, it's just a a blur. It's easy to forget what life is like outside the fan/media bubble. I was talking to my brother-in-law last week and he had no idea who the Avengers were or that there was a new Batman movie coming out soon . . . .

I don't think they're afraid of the comic book connection. I think they just want to avoid any confusion with Green Lantern AND Green Hornet. And, yeah, that sounds silly to us geeks, but, trust me, the average person has trouble telling them apart. "That comic book guy, Green Something? Is he the one with the…

Seriously? That's NOT supposed to be Spawn?