The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Marc Alan Fishman: Nerd Rage Begone

wonder-woman-49-neal-adams-6764677Maybe it’s the fact my son Bennett has finally mastered the art of pooping, or that my second son is due in less than three weeks, but I’m getting soft, my friends. To be clear, I still get migraines whenever I pull my attention towards the pending nominations of candidates from both parties. To be clear, I still shake my fist aggressively when Chicago drivers cut me off. To be clear, I still snark at things and get bent out of shape over tons of crazy Internet news. With that being said, a few of my friends on my social media feeds are seemingly raging hardcore over a litany of geek-related issues that just plain baffle me. Actually, strike that. It doesn’t baffle me so much as enrage me. I get the irony of it all, mind you. But I just can’t keep my snark in any longer over their bunched up panties.

And for the record, I don’t deny anyone the right to be snarky, angry, or anything else. I merely find these topics too silly to get an anger-boner over.

Issue 1: The Big Bang Theory

Recently this tweet elicited a resurgence of hatred over the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. If you’d like a detailed recounting of my feelings for the show, you’re welcome to do so. I penned that article in January of 2013. And here I am, basically three years later feeling absolutely no different.

For someone to feel the need to light the torches and mount the armies of nerditry in an effort to chase this windmill really must have nothing better to fret over. To mock the lowest-common-denominator joke mills that are most of the network half hour sitcoms in perpetuity is akin to scoffing at those who eat fast food. No one – and I assure you that includes the entirety of Big Bang‘s staff – actually feels like the show is somehow a Bat-Signal for nerds, geeks, and dweebs to uniformly celebrate as barrier-breaking television. It’s stupefying to believe I have more than a fair share of friends that feel a need to #nerdrage over the comings and goings of that show – in part because a few soccer moms said trivializing comments to their local comic shop owners.

A person who doesn’t know Bruce Wayne from Wayne Brady tells a store clerk he reminds them of  Sheldon Cooper is as bad as that store clerk implying the insulter shops at Lands End and drives a Buick Enclave. Both parties are in the wrong. And if you find yourself seething and foaming at the mouth because Big Bang had the audacity to make boobie joke about Saga? Go buy a tee shirt that says so from Hot Topic and blow that rage out yer’ hipster ass. Next time? Be glad Saga got mentioned to literally tens of millions of people instead of pitching a needless hissy over the sheer gal of it all.

Issue 2: Wonder Woman’s Ass and Leg Lifting Kiss

Wonder Woman #49’s Cover B Variant by Neal Adams depicts Superman and Wonder Woman embracing in a totally PG-13 kiss. Diana’s rear end is facing the camera. I assume this was done because the way the legendary Adams depicts the Amazonian Princess, had the camera angle been reversed, the entirety of the cover would be Superman’s cape, calves, and booties, with Wonder Woman’s feet in between, making a passionate kiss look more like a night at the Cosby residence.

Let me make this clear, in case the snark isn’t coming through. The cover that has caused several pals of mine to shake their fists to the heavens in womanly rage (and this includes dudes too) is a variant cover. Meaning the actual cover than the majority of comic collectors will preciously bag and board after reading cover to cover is not in fact this man-first, woman-hating, soul-destroying piece of dreck. This means that only those who covet artwork by Neal Adams, or are tender completests in the highest regard will actually need to seek the cover out from their local comic retailers to even get it.

To quantify any negative feelings over this drawing is simply a rage too far to me. Yes, Wonder Woman isn’t facing forward on her own cover of her own book. Because Neal Adams chose to draw it this way, and the editors said “cool.” Yes, Diana has her leg up as if to imply she’s not only enjoying the kiss, but she may even feign to a submissive role in Superman’s larger frame. But that’s the prerogative of Neal Adams to choose to make her that much smaller than the Big Blue Boy Scout. For the record, I’ve long held it in my mind that she was likely as tall as he was, but nowhere near as wide. But hey? Guess what? I’m not Neal Adams, and I wasn’t paid to draw the cover. A cover by any account isn’t being force fed to adolescent males with a call out balloon declaring “Superman gets what’s coming to him, baby!”

I could go on. I could hand-pick several other ragers who need to calm down – like those who need to imply that the executives of Hollywood don’t understand our culture. Or the dorkus milorkuses who feel it necessary to pass judgment on a blogger declaring Chris Hemsworth went full geek in the next Ghostbusters movie because he’s wearing a vest and horned-rimmed glasses. The list goes on and on.

Simply put, when our nerdy culture can finally take the time to accept that those not-in-the-know mean us no harm when they simplify our loves… when we can stop over-analyzing every little detail to acknowledge our hobbies are still businesses in the business of making money… when we can stop feeling the need to throw stones through the glass houses that offer us shelter?

Well, that’ll be the day I feel no rage against the nerds who need to rage.

REVIEW: Spectre

spectre-bluray-cover-e1452356645395-2100334The Daniel Craig cycle of James Bond films has proven divisive to fans compared with his predecessors whom we either seemed to uniformly love or loathe. Of the four films he’s headlined, Spectre has proven the most unevenly received, most admiring its technical virtuosity and everyone else less certain about its story.

MGM Home Entertainment released Spectre as a combo set (Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD) and revisiting allows some perspective. Helmer Sam Mendes intended to tie together the dangling threads from the last three films – Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and the terrific Skyfall – while offering up a rousing caper which was intended as his personal swan song. Unfortunately, Christoph Waltz’s casting as Franz Oberhauser was as mysterious and frustrating to fans as Benedict Cumberbatch’s role on Star Trek Into Darkness. In both cases, the fans circumventing the marketing and deduced the true nature of the opponents, weakening the reveals when they finally arrived on screen.

Also deadening the film’s impact was the unfortunate bit of timing as the latest Mission: Impossible, Rogue Nation, offered up much the same plot: the government was convinced the agency’s usefulness was a thing of the past and our heroes were to be mothballed. However, a global threat, initially ignored then underestimated, reared its ugly head and only our hero could save the day. The differenced proved to be that director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise delivered a far more exciting adventure than did Mendes and Craig, whose film felt bloated and tired.

bond-vs-hinx-e1455916415453-5479710Not that Spectre is all bad. The opening in Mexico, during its Day of the Dead celebration, was as masterful a bit of filmmaking as you could ask for and reintroduced us to Craig’s Bond, still reeling from the loss of M (Judi Dench) in the last installment. He was on to Spectre, a background threat to the world, long before anyone else had a real sense of its scope. Back at MI6, though, a new bureaucrat, Max Denbigh, a/k/a “C” (Andrew Scott), was trying to retire the 00 division at a time when Bond was most needed. This entire thread felt unrealistic but did allow his supporting players – Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), and Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) – a chance to shine for a change. The new M (Ralph Fiennes) left the audience wondering where his true allegiance lie.

waltz-5920043Once Spectre was revealed as the threat, and Bond saw Oberhauser, it became a cat and mouse game. The first cat to chase Bond, proved to be the imposing and impressive Hinx (Dave Bautista) who lightened the film every time he appeared. And of course there’s a girl or two, notably Dr. Madeline Swann (Léa Seydoux), who morphs into a stereotypical damsel in distress who feels anachronistic.

Then it fell to Bond vs. Oberhauser and here screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade falter and give us an unbelievable connection between the two and an implausible motivation for Oberhauser that deadens the final third of the film.

In fact, the movie leaves many questions unanswered and therefore, after 148 minutes, you find yourself slightly bored and dissatisfied – which is no way to end a film, especially with a two-to-three year wait before the next installment.

The 1080p, AVC-encoded high definition transfer is as good as one could hope. This, along with the lossless DTS-HD MA 7.1 track, means the film certainly looks great on a home screen.

You can tell the studio lost some faith in the film as their special features feel particularly thin this time. We get Spectre: Bond’s Biggest Opening Sequence (20:12), which gives the first few minutes of the film it’s just due.  The six Video Blogs (9:09) were released during production and are collected here. Finally, you get a Gallery of production and behind-the-scenes images along with the film’s trailers.

Box Office Democracy: Deadpool

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Deadpool is a good superhero movie that people are going to convince themselves was an excellent superhero movie. It’s got a couple good action beats, it feels like a cohesive part of a larger universe without being overly constrained, it has a serviceable (and age appropriate) love story, and it’s clever… but not quite as clever as it thinks it is. You can wink at the camera and tell me that you know that you’re doing all of the usual genre clichés, but that doesn’t make the clichés any less boring. I wanted Deadpool to be a movie that broke the mold, but instead it just spends a lot of time telling you it’s better than the mold and not showing you.

Ryan Reynolds is kind of a fiat movie star; he’s handsome and famous but if you look at his credits it doesn’t seem like an impressive career. I have very few distinct memories of Ryan Reynolds performances but I do remember leaving Green Lantern and thinking, “This movie was kinda bad but it wasn’t Ryan Reynolds’s fault.” These are not the kind of ringing endorsements that careers are built on, but Reynolds feels like the perfect choice to play Wade Wilson. He’s funny and charming and the self-deprecation feels a little more real because he isn’t an A-list actor in his own right. The only other actor I could even imagine playing this part with the same zeal is James Franco, and that’s an objectively worse choice (although think of all the Spider-Man 3 jokes we could have gotten). Everything that doesn’t work about Deadpool is saved by Reynolds’s overwhelming performance, and all the things that work are pushed to even greater heights.

The rest of the cast fine but there are precious few standouts among them. I’m fond of Morena Baccarin but this part, even as the female lead, is small and gives her very little room to show anything. Gina Carano is the most imposing woman working in film this side of Gwendoline Christie and she looks like a million bucks in this, her second consecutive feature film that’s barely asked her to talk. T.J. Miller plays a comic relief character in a movie full of comic relief characters, and while he hits every punchline I never wished he was on screen more often. Ed Skrein might do the movie the biggest disservice as the main villain Ajax, as he’s just so unbelievably boring that while I want Deadpool to get his revenge I wish he could do it without having to hear another generic British bad guy deliver generic bad guy dialogue. Brianna Hildebrand seems like she could be a breakout star if she’s given enough chances to play Negasonic Teenage Warhead, although she’s certainly not in the next X-Men movie, would likely feel shoehorned in to any sequels in this franchise, and might simply never get another chance.

So I’m generally fond of the acting in Deadpool, and the action is a solid B+ (even if three of the top five moments were given away for free in the trailer) but where it fails to deliver for me is in the story. This is the same origin story then damsel in distress formula I’ve seen a thousand times. I was tempted to use hyperbole and say a million but I’m confident it has actually been at least a thousand times by this point. Deadpool loves to show how it knows that it’s a movie and how familiar it is with all these tropes but it isn’t brave enough to actually break out of them in any way. I’m sick of origin stories and telling me I’m going to see one doesn’t make it better. I’m slightly less sick of hostage girlfriends but only because a lot of movies don’t bother to develop enough characters to have compelling alternative hostages. It’s also disappointing that for all the snark they have about the genre that they direct none of it at the sexualized violence the genre is often bogged down in and even contributes some for itself. Deadpool is going to get credit for being clever and subversive and it’s only doing those things at a four out of ten and for it to feel real I need them to aim much higher.

I’m happy that Deadpool exists and I enjoyed watching it (when I wasn’t groaning at the idea of watching another person get experimented on until they develop super powers) but it isn’t there yet, and I hope the praise it’s getting doesn’t make it sit on its laurels. There’s a spark of great potential here and I’m instantly more excited for Deadpool 2 than I am for any superhero movie that isn’t Civil War because it could actually be something unique and clever. Deadpool is a great first step but I need them to keep going.

 

Molly Jackson: Highlights from Toy Fair

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Wow, Toy Fair was an amazing time. Over four days, I saw my wallet cry in pain over how many things I wanted. Have you ever seen a wallet cry? It’s just devastating. But forget the feelings of an inanimate piece of fabric. Let’s talk about some of my highlights from my four days of awesome!

I attended the Manhattan show with my [IGH] site partner, Andrea and we noticed a friendlier tone than past years. Company representatives remembered us from previous years, which meant that it was more like greeting old friends. So, on top of a great experience of hanging out with some cool people, we also got some tidbits that we can’t share. What was really great, especially at the geekier booths, was that companies started asking for our opinions. There were more than one booth were people pulled out their notebook or phone and started quizzing us for ideas! Hopefully we inspired some great toys to come out.

As you might have guessed, I was on a Star Trek hunt. I scoured the floors for 50th Anniversary items. I was a little disappointed that many locations told me that new products were coming but not available for the show. Many places made a point to tell me that they would be unveiling around August for the major Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. However, I was pleased that some of my favorite toy companies were already showing a few pieces to excite and delight me.

Quantum Mechanix, who has done Star Trek pieces for a number of years, unveiled some amazing Kirk and Spock figures. They also said that Dr. McCoy is on the way. Mezco Toyz also showed off their Star Trek additions to their One:12 Collective line, which includes Kirk, Spock, and Sulu. They also mentioned that female characters are on their way to the One:12 line so that means Uhura! And my favorite piece, the ST: TNG Phaser was being shown by Diamond Select Toys. I really want to own that. They were also showing TNG figures, like Deanna Troi and the Borg Queen.

The top of the list was still Wood Expressions Multi-level Chess set, modeled after the TOS chess set. It is smaller than the one on the show, and while it is playable (even comes with Star Trek game rules!), would also make a fantastic display piece.

You may remember a couple weeks ago, when I was talking about my excitement about the changing tide of gender representation in toys. That has definitely held true. A few years ago, when I would ask about female characters, there was always a hesitation by toy makers. Now, companies seemed eager to talk about the female toys added to their line, or the gender-neutral nature of their toys.

Both companies that I mentioned in that last piece, Mattel and IAmElemental, were eager to speak with me about their role in the toy industry. I spoke with the creator of IAmElemental, Julie Kerwin, who radiated energy and excitement to see other companies following her charge to bring girls and women into toys. I also had a chance to speak with a number of reps from Mattel, who all seemed excited by the changes in Barbie and the introduction of the DC Superhero Girls line. Now, when going through their booth, I got to hear things like “Girls want to explore space” and “Girls like to shoot things too!” I know that there are still steps to be made, and battles to be fought. But this year, with even more companies like these, it felt like a cosmic shift in how the industry feels about girls.

So, I’ve barely scratched the surface of everything I saw and loved and wanted to steal. It was an amazing time! The toy industry is bright this year, and I can’t wait to see how everything develops.

Martha Thomases: Comic Books, Toys and Little Girls

e-z-bake-oven-7509571As a rule, I don’t look to celebrities for advice or insight about anything except celebrity. Actors know acting, musicians know music, authors know how to write, but these talents don’t mean they know politics or finance or relationships. There are exceptions (e. g. George Clooney is smart about Darfur, Martin Sheen knows his pacifism), but, in general, I seek my expertise from experts.

So I was more than a bit surprised when Ryan Reynolds said something smart about marketing. His new movie, Deadpool (which I haven’t seen yet but I will, I promise) set a record by earning $135 million on its opening weekend, the highest ever for an R-rated film.

It earned that much money by attracting both men and women to theaters. Cue the proponents of the conventional wisdom, who insist that women don’t like superheroes. As Reynolds said, “It’s sort of like… well, no. Women love fucking superhero movies! Clearly they go to these movies. It’s sort of funny that the studios are sometimes the last to know that.”

Ryan Reynolds, at least, gets it. Maybe he’s interested in the movie business and not just movie acting, so he pays attention. Maybe he wants to have a career with some longevity, so he pays attention to his audience as well as his opportunities. Maybe having a daughter has shown him how unique each human personality will be.

And, yes, the studios are the last to know. The only people who might also be just as ignorant are the Big Two comic book publishers and toy manufacturers.

Why is it so important to so many of our popular culture institutions to divide our entertainment choices into those for men or for women? The assumption that boys won’t like things that girls like, an assumption that ruled my childhood, has been demonstrated to be (generally) false. Girls will play with Legos that are not pink. Boys will play with E-Z Bake Ovens.

Neither will get cooties.

I think they are afraid that gender is contagious. One of my favorite writers, Nora Ephron, described this mind-set decades ago, in her hilarious essay “A Few Words About Breasts.” To quote:

“In grammar school, in the fifth and sixth grades, we were all tyrannized by a rigid set of rules that supposedly determined whether we were boys or girls… We learned that the way you sat, crossed your legs, held a cigarette, and looked at your nails-the way you did these things instinctively was absolute proof of your sex… I thought that just one slip, just one incorrect cross of my legs or flick of an imaginary cigarette ash would turn me from whatever I was into the other thing; that would be all it took, really. Even though I was outwardly a girl and had many of the trappings generally associated with girldom – a girl’s name, for example, and dresses, my own telephone, an autograph book – I spent the early years of my adolescence absolutely certain that I might at any point gum it up.”

We know, of course, that’s not how gender identity works, of course (the essay is from 1972, referencing events that took place several decades earlier). And yet it seems as if movie companies, comic book publishers and toy companies would rather leave money on the table than adjust their views about gender roles.

It’s enough to make a person question capitalism.

McCall’s Jumps Into Cosplay!

  • News
  • February 18, 2016

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The McCall Pattern Company today announced the release of three new sewing patterns intended to help cosplayers and costume makers bring their own imaginative looks to life more easily and expertly than ever before.

“Cosplayers who make their own costumes are incredibly resourceful stitchers and stylists, possibly the most resourceful,” said Kathleen Wiktor, Director of Retail and Consumer Promotions for the McCall Pattern Company. “These deeply engaged superfans could never be satisfied with an “off the shelf” look.  Though inspired by their favorite characters, they want their costumes to reflect as much personal style as possible. That’s what we set out to help them achieve with ‘Cosplay by McCall’s.’”

CosplayLogo_BlackStackedRegThe brand, launched by the company online last fall, came about after more than a year of conversations with cosplayers who sew.  “We set up a modest display at a comic convention in New York and were overwhelmed by fans eager to tell us how they’d been using our McCall’s, Butterick and Kwik Sew patterns for years in creating and crafting their own costumes,” said Janet Wolf, VP Marketing.   “So we invited them to sit down with us and discuss the best ways we could be of help to them today.

Each new pattern offers step-by-step instructions for creating a central component of any number of looks and ensembles.  Be it an airborne avenger from a distant galaxy or an angelic herald from an alternate universe, imagination literally takes wing with FLIGHT.  Fans looking to pay tribute to a favorite hero of anime or rogue adventuress will find inspiration in TRENCHED.  And for those for whom winter can’t come soon enough, CLOAK X has got them covered.

“Cosplayers we spoke with also told us that they like to reuse patterns for different cosplays,” said Wiktor. “So we printed these patterns and their guidesheets on brighter, more durable paper.” The outer envelopes are also larger, glossier and of a heavier paper stock, designed with more room for additional information, sewing tips, line drawings and photo references.

Priced from $17.95 to $19.95, each pattern is available exclusively online at www.CosplayByMcCalls.com. Once at the site, visitors also have access to The Vault Collection, a continually expanding selection of designs, silhouettes and accessories reissued especially for creative cosplayers.  They’ll also find ideas and suggestions posted by McCall’s own team of cosplayers and members of the broader cosplay community.

“The growth in cosplay participation, diversity and creativity around the world is truly phenomenal,” added Wolf.  “For as long as fans desire to essentially transform into their favorite characters, ‘Cosplay by McCall’s’ will be there to help them with ideas, inspiration and ingenuity.”

 

The Point Radio: THE X-FILES – A Future Is Out There

The special “event series” of the X-FILES winds up in just a few days after giving Fox a huge ratings boost in 2016. So what happens now? We talk to creator Chris Carter and star David Duchovny about the possibility of a future for the series and just how they got it back on the air in the first place. Plus from a bunch of guys who clowned around all through high school to a TV show that just hit it’s 5th season. What is the real secret origin of the IMPRACTICAL JOKERS? They reveal how it all worked out.

Follow us here on Instagram or on Twitter here.

Tweeks Try On McCalls Cosplay

This week McCall’s introduced three new patterns in their Cosplay by McCall’s series. Did you even know they had a series for Cosplayers? Well, they do. It’s been around since last fall – and it was developed after talking to actual cosplayers about their needs, wants, etc. Yaya Han even has her own line. Priced from $17.95 to $19.95 (with some really great sales going on now for much much less), the patterns can be reused for different cosplays and seem pretty easy with their step by step instructions and larger outer envelopes full of additional info, sewing tips, line drawings and photo references. There’s also a blog with more ideas on the cosplay.mccall.com site.

The new patterns are Flight, Trenched & Cloak X and in this episode, we give some suggestions of what we’d make with them, plus what patterns we love from the other cosplay collections on the site. There’s so many cool patterns. that we could totally costume ourselves for all of our fandoms from Supernatural to Avengers, from Jane Austen to Hamilton, from Disney Princesses to Anime cats! Only problems is the actual sewing part…which actually doesn’t look like it would be impossible….when we figure out our sewing machine.

So, hopefully, a talented seamstress out there will make one of our suggestions and let us know how it works out. Or maybe a very kind and talented seamstress will make us something to wear at the next con.

Dennis O’Neil: Deadpool and the Fat Fury

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Deadpool? Who the heck is Deadpool? What the heck is a Deadpool?

That’s Deadpool? Looks like he’s wearing a costume that Spider-Man gave to the Salvation Army. Superhero, huh? With his own movie. It made how much? A hundred and thirty-five million dollars opening weekend? American money?

Yeah, I didn’t see Deadpool coming either. Oh sure, I caught some of the television commercials, but nothing on the screen made me want to plunk down the price of admission. I thought that maybe I’d watch it on cable, maybe some night after Marifran’s crashed. Or maybe we’d watch it together. Some time. Maybe.

Deadpool is not exactly a household name, like Superman or Spider-Man. Despite a connection with the über-popular X-Men, I doubt that Deadpool has penetrated the public consciousness – or at least he hadn’t, before all those TV ads.

Now? Bet the mortgage money that a sequel is already heading our way.

Savants-to-come may extract meaning – or Meaning – from the Deadpoolian success. I won’t even try. Instead, I’ll content myself with observing that, obviously, the Great Superhero Surge has not waned. And if the showbiz folk can extract a Deadpool from the yellowing pages of ageing funnybooks and transform him into profit, mightn’t there be other forgotten/obscure/abandoned characters waiting for similar transformation?

Here’s a thought: why not take these almost-anonymous characters half way back to their birthplaces – those yellowing pages – and reinvent them as animated cartoons? Not the kind of paperdollish creations that used to inhabit the Saturday morniing wasteland. No, give them the same prime time treatment that was once given to The Flintstones and is currently accorded The Simpsons and The Family Guy. And while, yes, I’m proposing that these new shows feature superheroes, I wrote nothing about human superheroes. With a nod to Ralph Bakshi’s version of Mighty Mouse, let’s resurrect funny animals and, as is done with the Simpsons and Family Guy, give them not-so-funny themes.

Hoppy The Marvel Bunny, anyone?

Another idea? Sure. Four words: Herbie The Fat Fury. And who might he be? Herbie – last name Popnecker – was a tubby, lollypop loving kid who had secret superpowers. These he used to fight evil, which is, after all, what superheroes do, even if they’re not terribly imposing superheroes. Herbie lived on the newsstands, in various titles published by the American Comics Group, from 1958 to 1964. Then, poof. Gone!

I think Herbie has possibilities. He could work as an animation property – again, let us remember Family Guy – or in live action. It might be difficult to find the right actor to play him, but hey! that’s why those folks out on the west coast get the big bucks. The only other snag I can foresee is the “fat fury” sobriquet. Some citizens might find it offensive. Well, okay, drop it if that seems prudent. Not much will be lost if you do.

And admit it: aren’t you just a wee bit weary of muscled people in tight costumes? Like Deadpool?

Mike Gold: Reality’s Slippery Slope

hostileman-300x264-8628641Seven random thoughts on a post-Valentine’s Day afternoon.

I’ve started to measure time in “DC Comics Reboots.” Usually about four years, give or take. In other words, if Abe Lincoln used that designation his most famous speech with have started “21 DC Comics Reboots ago…” Yes, I know DC insists it’s not a reboot, despite cancelling and replacing their entire superhero line with new versions of the same old thing. And I suppose Superman doesn’t have a Big Red S.

jughead-4-6433302O.K. Jughead is asexual – although I’d bet he won’t be in the CW teevee series. But I ask you this: did Kevin Keller out him by saying so in public at Riverdale High? Don’t get me wrong; that was a great scene and it feels as though the revelation was common knowledge. But, like Martha and Joe before me, I hadn’t thought about asexuals being a class of people subject to routine discrimination. It’s been a while since a mainstream comic book actually lit the flames of thought inside my fevered brainpan.

Deadpool was the Airplane! of superhero movies. Brianna Hildebrand’s scene where she halts the big battle sequence in order to finish texting was brilliant and Stan Lee’s cameo was the finest use of a nonagenarian comic book writer ever. However, I think Stefan Kapicic owes Paul Frees’ estate a check for his use of Boris Badenov’s voice, and at the end where Morena Baccarin worked things out (no spoiler alert), I kind of felt sorry for Detective Jim Gordon. Although, to be fair, Morena’s had a great deal of varied superhero work in recent years.

Idoctor-fate-6041453n last month’s issue of Doctor Fate – a wonderful and soon-to-be-cancelled New52 series – writer Paul Levitz deployed my favorite verse from the Koran. Yes, sports fans, I actually have a favorite verse from the Koran. Of course, Islam being an organized religion and therefore greatly disorganized, the verse is phrased in a variety of ways and its veracity has been questioned by some. But the line goes “Blessed is he who makes his companions laugh” and I think that’s a great sentiment. Nice job, Paul.

Riddle me this: How many Spider-Men does it take to fill the Marvel Universe? Answer: How many have you got? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more Spideys right now than Green Lanterns. So stop bitching about the inevitability of concurrent Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers Captains America. That’s only two. Thus far. Oh, wait. Isn’t there a teen-age girl from 2099 or from another, no-longer existent universe? O.K. Three.

Wonder WomanCounting up the number of secret origins devised for Wonder Woman over the past 75 years is akin to defining π to the last decimal point: you’re going to give up or die of old age before you complete your mission. I might have read them all, but I’ve probably read nearly all. And the current one that’s unfolding in Legend of Wonder Woman is, by far, the best thought-out and best realized of the bunch. Kudos to Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon on a thankless job – thankless because it’s not the origin in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie and, therefore, probably will be ignored. I hope not.

Now that Playboy magazine has dropped the tits’n’snatch, the relic from the beat generation has decided to off the cartoons as well. This surprises me only because its two most famous cartoonists, Gahan Wilson and Hugh Hefner, are still alive. Well, in ‘Ner’s case, that’s subject to debate. Nonetheless, it’s a shame that the magazine that regularly gave us the work of Jack Cole, Jules Feiffer, Shel Silverstein, Bobby London, Harvey Kurtzman and Willy Elder will not extend that welcome to a new generation of artists. I’m not sure what Playboy’s place in this world might be, but I’ve been asking that question for several decades now… as have a great, great many of former and current employees and contributors to the publication. It’s not the end of an era; that era ended the day Al Gore learned how to spell “Internet.”

 

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