That's true, yep; however, I think there's something to be said of the fact that the larger LGBT community is probably more likely to be aware of the usage of the biohazard tattoo since the LGBT community as a community has dealt with the fallout of the AIDS epidemic. Indeed, one of the (to my mind) really important…

The biohazard tattoo (specifically as a tattoo) is used by some HIV+ gay men to indicate to others that they're HIV+. No, this isn't common knowledge, but if you're going to design a character around the central conceit that they have tattoo-based super powers, then a simple Google search couldn't hurt. This is why…

"Co-opted" strikes me as a pretty loaded way to put that—as is "bad thing"—but alright, sure.

Is it just me or do Ink's powers patently make no sense? I mean, I know the X-Books perennially set the bar for scientific plausibility pretty low, but his design in particular has always struck me as ardently stupid.

I saw this image and my first thought was, "Wow, even the superheroes are feeling Summer Event Burnout."

She was amazing on Hannibal. It's also fascinating casting given her history (or lack of it) with that franchise.

That was the happiest take-away for me, too.

Oh gods, I hate to be Negative Nancy, but this scene was actually film-breaking for me. I mean, I appreciate a genre-movie-by-stealth as much as the next person, but there's smart reveals and then there's literally pulling the roof off of the movie you thought you were watching. Julianne Moore is brilliant, but she…

I'm with you on this. I'm a huge X-Men fan, but I give zero fucks about truthfulness to the source material, especially since the film franchise hasn't exactly stayed that close to the comics—the closest they got to adapting an actual storyline in any sort of faithful way was X2, but even that was a far cry from God…

Actually, Blink was a mainline 616 character before showing up in AoA. She was introduced during the "Phalanx Covenant" crossover, and would have been a member of Generation X (she was held captive alongside the mutants who eventually became that team) except that she sacrificed herself so the others could live. She…

Well, they were well-written, serialized comics stories at a time when that didn't really happen. The Batman series from the 90's gets all the love because it was stylish, brilliant, and wonderfully voiced, but it also only ever did stand-alone stories (with the odd two-parter here and there). It did those…

On the positive side of things, the Japanese intro for the US X-Men animated series from the 90's is absolutely amazing, even considering the US opening set the bar pretty damn high. The other version isn't nearly as well animated, but has an amazing theme song ("CRY FOR THE MOOOON!").

Also, the show (and most of its characters) hate Laurel, so I feel like in no way does the show make you feel guilty about it. She's a miserable character with whom it's very hard to identify, and the show never lets you forget it. That being said, I also feel like this is a slow-burn arc for her, and it will be…

Oh gods, those things were my one and only true Drunk Food in college. It was the best life choice a (then-) wiry 20 year old could make, right after I discovered you could empty those bottles of pink Andre "champagne" into dark-colored Nalgene bottles for convenient travel effeverscene. #liberalartsschool

I'm really not sure how this qualifies as "bitching." I'm simply saying that the show ought to be judged based on the merits of its writing and actors, and not on the basis of whether or not characters get a certain "Job Class."

Well sure, but "Companion" implies a lot more in Doctor Who because of how characters marked (and marketed) as such function within the larger scope of its narrative structure.

I'm more interested in finding out if he's a well-written, compelling character in well-written, compelling storylines than in finding out if he's a "companion"(TM). Doctor Who is great and all, but sometimes it feels like its own mythos, jargon, fandom, and marketing overshadow what should actually matter, and…

Preach!

Yeah, I've been re-reading New X-Men for the umpteenth time, and the setup for the affair makes zero sense to me. It doesn't help that Morrison has to go through all manner of convolutions with a bad, earlier storyline ("CYCLOPALYPSE" is a thing someone wrote with zero irony) in order to make it work. But the…

I mean, it's the same basic principle as the final act for a lot of David Lynch films and I love those, so I'm not against movies being vague, self-obfuscating, and/or incoherent—it can be fun to put the pieces together for something like Primer, and clearly folks have put a lot of work into it. That's great.