There is a general distrust of the Time Lords, though, which would leave open some room for the later incarnations being unhappy about the actions of a "Second and a Half Doctor" (see my comment below) who was forced to do the Time Lords' dirty work after his trial. The involvement of the Time Lords might also help…

Technically, we also didn't see the regeneration from Two to Three, and there's a whole "Season 6B" theory that he went on additional adventures on behalf of the Time Lords between "The War Games" and "Spearhead from Space." So, it's possible that John Hurt is a "Second and a Half Doctor"—perhaps one who did the Time…

Interestingly, the literature suggests gay men were not as a group all that interested in ass play before the AIDS epidemic; oral sex was often instead the big show. But, the external rhetoric of the AIDS epidemic—both internal and external to the gay community—portrayed anal sex as this super risky thing that you…

This ish is awesome. Some the recent ones leading up to it, not so much. I feel like this run has been mostly good, but the whole brain lesion thing went on about four months too long. It might read better in trade, though, where it wouldn't seem like a year of your life waiting for some movement on the brain…

I'm enjoying her Batgirl, but wonder if she's really the person to be writing it. She claims it's supposed to be a younger take on Babs, but all the PTSD about her injury and the very villains don't really make it feel that way. It's the kind of book I'd love to give my daughter, if it weren't so damn R-rated (on…

To add to what others have said, I'm pretty sure you would be ridiculously confused by just about everything in Sandman: Overture if you hadn't read at least a good portion of the original run. There are cameos by several characters from the original series that wouldn't make sense, plus some repeated references to…

The fact that Sandman focused so much on the "small" characters is one of the things that I really loved it. I also love how most of them are connected in little ways. You might not recognize this new character, but give it a few minutes and you'll discover how she's connected to what came before. And, it even all…

It's not so much "won't die" as we know the status quo at the beginning of the earlier work. In the case of "Better Call Saul" (as mentioned by @avclub-e95a45d0b1f5afdf0ab9cde82b4b1d06:disqus), that means you know that Saul cannot change in any significant way before the end of the show, as it would contradict what…

That shot of her at the issue—downcast, very pregnant, hair in her face, with her legs splayed out on the floor, where she says "You take my child over my dead body, you spooky bastard…" is so awesome. And I want to say there's another version of it in The Kindly Ones, but I don't quite remember.

Though, of course, you run into the vicious cycle of increase prices driving away more business, meaning you have to increase prices more to make the same profit… I've recently started buying single issues again for the first time in about 15+ years (though, I am buying digital copies through Comixology rather than…

I enjoyed 1602 as a sort of "What If"/"Elseworlds" sort of thing, in which I think it did a very solid job. But, it wasn't exactly revelatory—it did not change the way I fundamentally thought about any of the characters, about the Marvel universe as a whole, or about the real universe—and I think that is part of the…

@Drinking_with_Skeletons:disqus - My experience reading digital comics (both through the Comixology, Marvel Unlimited, and Comic Zeal apps) on my iPad mini has been mostly great. Occasionally I wish I had a larger screen, but zooming usually fixes the issue. It's now my preferred way of reading comics by far, except…

You can't stay in here all day dreaming about heroin and Ziggy Pop…

Hells to the yeah on Sandman Mystery Theatre.  I'd be all over that shit.  The only thing is I suspect it would be tough to get Wesley Dodds just right—they would be tempted to go with someone more traditionally masculine, play up his time in Asia the wrong ways, etc.  But I'd almost certainly still watch it,…

@avclub-285910f5ff9f9eddf129c46fc2bc5982:disqus Yeah, he didn't, which is why the decision to have her be dead in the last series finale was so unsatisfying.  It was like Moffat just sort of ran out of steam with her arc, but still wanted to use her.  Hopefully we'll get at least one last real episode with her before…

@avclub-1343022fc4003e2cf16f0368302d86e8:disqus I smell spin-off!  River Song: The Toddler Years.

Yeah, basically the stuff people do to distance themselves from a show to avoid being typecast (e.g., not constantly remind everyone around them that they were on that show) versus the expectations of fans in the era of internet and the major conventions.  I think her big mistake was not being a little more open about…

I don't remember having problems with the art in Angel: After the Fall (at least from the "what the hell is going on?" perspective), whereas I do have the problem a lot in other modern comics.  To this day, I have no idea what happened near the end of House of M when Magneto and Quicksilver fight.  The pictures might…

I think a lot of the SMG hate is just the inevitable side effect of her trying to not get typecast in the immediate post-Buffy years, so she did stuff things that effectively downplayed the role.  So, some fans took offense—what, Buffy wasn't good enough for you?—but, most people were pretty reasonable about it.…

Plus, there's the whole thing with Romana having decided to look like someone she had met before when she regenerated, so it wouldn't be unprecedented.