It’s a little-known fact that, before uniting ALL their heroes for the ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’, DC editorial did a metaphorical dry-run by uniting all the heroes who had ever starred in their Showcase anthology series. Given the time-frames involved (the dawn of man through the far-flung future), things might have gotten just a bit complicated… Your Major Spoilers (Retro) Review of Showcase #100 awaits!
Author: Matthew Peterson
Matthew Peterson
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.
Here at Stately Spoiler Manor, Eastern Annex, our holiday morning gift-giving is complete, with a few major hits, no disappointing gifts (except for maybe my annual package of underwear, which happens every year because my wife is a meanie-pants) and a mermaid tail. (That is not a joke.) All in all, we’ve had a lovely holiday season, and one that has raised a question with The Widget: Because of Doctor Who, I occasionally say “Happy Christmas” instead of “Merry Christmas”, one of many ways that Peter Davison has secretly influenced my behavior in public, leading the child to ask what…
One of the best parts of comics history is trying to figure out which stories are “imaginary stories” (in that they didn’t happen in the character’s continuity) and which are just imaginary stories. The fact that Superman has actually met Santa Claus himself half a dozen times is probably not canon anymore, but in my head the story where Santa Claus is a member of the Morrison Justice League absolutely has to be. It is a moral imperative. Heck, I’m even tolerant of Tim Allen playing the jolly ol’ elf, and I haven’t enjoyed anything Tim Allen has done since…
Maybe I’m weird, maybe my years in small-market TV stations have warped me, but I occasionally like to watch afternoon talk shows. It’s a harmless way to kill an hour, and once in a while, you get great ideas. Remember when Oprah would gift everyone in the studio audience with expensive stuff so people could get on her level (while supplies last)? If I were rich and famous, that’s the kinda thing I’d want for my talk show, handing out ‘Howard The Duck’ omnibuses and ‘Firefly’ box sets, leading to today’s effusive query… The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is…
Their numbers may be diminished, but their heroism is not… Your Major Spoilers review of Justice League United #16 awaits!
Sakhmet takes center stage, but what makes her so different from the rest of the pantheon? Your Major Spoilers review of The Wicked + The Divine #17 awaits!
Spawned from the Earth itself as a planetary defense mechanism, Kevin Connor has become Starbrand. Now, with his partner, the enigmatic cosmic being called Nightmask, Kevin faces his most difficult challenge yet: College! Your Major Spoilers review of Starbrand And Nightmask #1 awaits!
He’s a man who loves peace so much, he’s willing to fight for it. It’s a bit of a paradox… Your Major Spoilers (Retro) Review of The Peacemaker #1 awaits!
As a fan of Val Kilmer ever since the movie ‘Top Secret’, I find myself irritated when his Batman is nay-sayed and underrated by fans of the movie Bat-franchise. Granted, the last few years, everything that’s not Christopher Nolan has been handwaved away as not cool anymore, but it would still have been interesting to see Val grappling with the events of ‘Batman Begins,’ or even squaring off with Jack Nicholson in the Tim Burton nightmare that was the ’89 movie. With his charming Bruce Wayne playing against a scene-chewing Jim Carrey and a sadly wasted Tommy Lee Jones, Kilmer…
With the debut of BB-8, R2-D2’s place at the top of the cutest droid competition has finally been challenged, something we haven’t seen since Old B.O.B. ceased functioning on the hull of the Cygnus right before the ship went into the collapsar. Even in universe, it’s hard to think of anyone as universally adorbs as R2 (maybe that mouse-droid that Chewbacca scared that one time), but everybody has their favorites. Heck, when I was a kid, my action figures included the silver Death Star Droid and R5-D4 as stand-ins, with that one weird boxy droid having to be Chewbacca, which…
Here’s the thing about the 80s: They don’t let go of you. It’s not that Gen Xers aren’t able to move on from things like G.I. Joe, Max Headroom and Joe Isuzu, it’s just that it was the last decade during which you could like terrible things without having to feign irony or explain that you don’t mean the remake… That’s probably too harsh, in retrospect. But, in any case, I still haven’t forgiven Andie, the main character of ‘Pretty In Pink’ for her utterly bone-headed decision to go with pretty boy preppy Blain instead of lovable goofball Ducky. Yes,…
They are the world’s greatest superheroes, oddly reminiscent of that team from The Other Guys. Now, the Squadron gets even more complex… (Fair warning: Large Spoiler Ahead.) Your Major Spoilers review of Squadron Supreme #1 awaits!
When you’re a fan of superheroes, you become aware of certain patterns in costume coloration. Superman, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman all rock the red and royal blue, while every single movie hero has variations of black, at least until the Avengers. Iron Man’s red-and-gold coloration makes it clear that he’s the modern-day knight, even when the gold is replaced with silver, and fans of Super Sentai known the rules: Red for leader; Blue for thinker/lancer; Pink for gentle; Green for clown. Those rules aren’t always hard and fast, (as the Green Ranger/DragonRanger seen above will attest) but they recur enough…
Here at Major Spoilers, we try to walk as fine a line as possible on the subject of revealing important plot points. My personal working theory is not to reveal spoilery bits of the current season of a TV show or the current issue of a comic book, but movies (like, say, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’) are more complicated. Those who have seen the movie are already reviewing it, making a complex task for those who wish to avoid spoilers on plots or characters, but the film is not yet inwide release. It can be a tough call as…