If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m big into synecdoches. There’s a lot of situations where one little aspect of a piece of media is indicative of a broader philosophy, and when you look at the big picture thinking about this philosophy, you can see how it all works together.
Comics like to explain things. In cases of suspension of disbelief, it’s necessary to give some kind of an explanation as to how a character like Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound; in cases of character motivations via backstories like why Batman decided to dress like a bat and fight crime, this is a…
What are the strong points of Supergirl and Flash? There’s several things they do well, but in particular being the bright, optimistic shows should be one of them. The last season for both shows... was not quite that. This last year gave us some good stuff, some bad stuff, and some frustrating stuff. So let’s take…
It’s that time of year again, where all the shows have finished and we can look back and see what they did right, what they did wrong, and how they can improve going forwards. I’m currently writing year end reviews of all the CW DC shows, and first on the docket is Arrow. Arrow gave us a surprising year; the first…
Darkseid is coming to the Justice League movies, sooner or later. We really are in a golden age of superheroes in live action, at the moment, but as we get more and more movies and shows to enjoy, we start to see certain flaws in the genre. One particular flaw that’s becoming increasingly apparent? Boring…
Live action adaptations of superheroes have come a long ways; what special effects are capable of rendering, what stories and mythologies studios are willing to explore, there’s been a lot of improvements over time. But it still feels like adaptations continue to make huge missteps. For every Avengers, there’s a …
With Kong: Skull Island opening this last weekend, we’re inching our way ever closer to a larger shared universe of kaiju. Next on the docket, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, starring a truly impressive list of Japanese all-stars, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. But have you stopped to recognize just how…
If you had to use one moment, one scene, one page even, to sum up Superman, I think it would be hard to find a better one that the scene with Regan on the ledge in All-Star Superman.
A while back I posted an article about Harley Quinn, exploring in part how her relationship with the Joker has been portrayed over time and the pros and cons of Quinn’s evolution as a character. What I didn’t talk about at the time was a major player in Quinn’s characterization: Poison Ivy.
If you’ve been on the internet long enough, and in particular around fan fiction circles, no doubt you’ve stumbled upon the oddly prevalent Coffee Shop Alternative Universe fan fiction. From Stargate: Atlantis to Christopher Nolan’s Inception, BBC’s Sherlock to Naruto, everybody has a Coffee Shop AU; it has become an…
Obviously, Mario is and always will be Nintendo’s mascot. But sometimes, when Nintendo does things differently for a period of time, another character can come along and represent the company to a surprisingly perfect degree. And right now, I believe that character is the Wii Fit Trainer.
A part of this might just be me. I’m no fan of “will they, won’t they” style storytelling for a multitude of reasons, some of which are purely aesthetic choices. But sometimes, too strong a devotion to this style of storytelling can start to have a negative impact on the quality of a work. I think the CW DC shows…
Writers have always had a difficult time balancing the two desired aspects of Superman: as Superman, he needs to be super strong, invulnerable, and basically capable of accomplishing anything, but as a modern, balanced character he also needs to be vulnerable and flawed. Pushing too far in the ‘perfect’ direction can…
I work retail, and the other day a kid came into my store with a Green Lantern figure in his hand. I noticed it and mentioned it, I recognized it was John Stewart, and I had a pleasant conversation with the kid’s mom who thought John Stewart was the best Lantern.
Not all Pokemon are created equal. With over 720 of these little guys, some of them are obviously more useful in competitive battling than others. But that doesn’t stop the remaining, less useful Pokemon from trying. Take for instance my favorite Pokemon, Shedinja, a little ghost/bug type that’s a gimmicky, all or…
So the Suicide Squad movie billed itself as starring Deadshot and Harley Quinn and Joker (misleading as that was) and a whole bunch of villains, the belief seemingly being that the characters people were interested in were all the bad guys of the DC Universe. Maybe I’m weird, but I read the John Ostrander, Kim Yale…
At this point we’ve all heard the rumors that Zendaya is maybe Mary-Jane in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming, and already there’s both praise and resistance to the unconfirmed casting choice. Part of the reason is it brings up the age old question; when translating a visual medium like comic books, how important is…
Harley Quinn is something of a runaway success. For a character who initially appeared as a background, one off minion, she managed to grow to be a major player in the complicated relationships of Batman and the Joker. But when a character represents a completely unhealthy, abusive, dysfunctional relationship, how do…
Superman isn’t the only major character that I feel like DC struggles with, Wonder Woman, the Amazon Princess herself, seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to consistency of character and themes.
I had a discussion a while back with some friends about ideas for superhero stories that weren’t just about superhero action; one of the responses was a show about the Daily Planet staff done in the vein of NBC’s Parks and Rec. Immediately, I thought the idea was perfect, and not just because I think Rashida Jones…
