Author: 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.

The creator of Noble Causes and Dynamo 5 is back with another look at the human factor in superhero actions.  The Front Line is ready to take on a new member, but his intentions may not be entirely pure…  Your Major Spoilers review of Secret Identities #1 awaits!

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February 19th was the Lunar New Year, ushering in (depending on whom you ask) The Year Of The Sheep or The Year Of The Goat.  I’m always fascinated by the various cosmological theories created to understand the universe, and the Chinese Zodiac is one of the earliest I encountered, being printed on the placemats at the only Chinese restaurant in my home town.  Since my wife was born in 1967, I’ve encountered the different translation before (she loves sheep but hates goats, so she has strong opinions about which should be more correct), but wondered if it’s a matter of…

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It’s team-up time, but Ms. Marvel is not ready for her latest crossover partner… But neither, it seems, is Loki ready for her.  Your Major Spoilers review of Ms. Marvel #12 awaits!

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I’ve heard a lot of cool story hooks in my time, but “horror on the high seas” is one of the more compelling in recent memory…  How far would you go to save your own life?  Your Major Spoilers review of Plunder #1 awaits!

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President’s Day was Monday, sparking a debate between Jason “Jawiin” Inman and myself about who is the superior fictional commander-in-chief.  His choice for best fictional president, Josiah “Jed” Bartlett, PhD, is known for his strong speaking skills, excellent foreign policy, compassion and his love of trivia.  My choice for best fictional president, James Norcross, led his country through the turbulent 1960s, refurbished the White House with modern technology and also HAS COSMIC TRANSFORMATIONAL ELEMENTAL SUPER-POWERS AND THE ABILITY TO FLY.  Either way, since we found ourselves at an impasse, I felt it behooves us to bring this discussion to the…

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Jimmie Robinson brought us the madness of Bomb Queen and the cleverness of Five Weapons, but this time he’s going solo on a different kind of tale…  Your Major Spoilers review of The Empty #1 awaits!

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During a recent recording session (I think it was the Major Spoilers Podcast, but we’ve had a pretty heavy recording schedule of late), we got to talking about Andrew Garfield and how some folks feel bad for him for no longer being the chosen Spider-Man. My response was that he gets to go home to America’s Sweetheart, so I’m sure he won’t be broken up about it for long. The concept of “America’s Sweetheart” is a nebulous and ultimately meaningless title, but one thing is for sure: You know we aren’t getting through today’s discussion without the name “Ashley Williams”…

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Like any comic nerd, I have opinions.  George Perez is amazing, The Wasp is the greatest Avengers leader in history, not enough people appreciate the beauty of the black-and-white ‘Deadly Hands Of Kung-Fu’ title from the 1970s.  But it’s not all beer and Skittles, even in my head, and sometimes I worry that I’m too hard on the comics of the 1990s, and so today I’m going to re-examine one as a grown-up, and see if younger me was overly critical.  Your Major Spoilers (Retro) Review of Spider-Man #1 awaits!

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If you’re feeling the pressure to make some sort of awesome holiday romantical gesture for your significant other today, remind yourself that it could be worse: My wife’s birthday is February 12th.  Still, I don’t hate the holiday the way some people have grown to, though I don’t always like the overwhelming consumerism attached to it, and I do enjoy a well-done romance tale.  For all its flaws, the marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane on their 90s television show was fun, and I always loved the banter between Katar Hol and Shayera during the Silver Age adventures of…

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This week’s episode of Flash gave us our first full-scale look at Firestorm as the combined Ronnie Raymond/Professor Stein entity, and I found it to be an interesting take on the character. With Victor Garber on board, Martin Stein is a massively relatable character, and the end of the episode is almost certainly NOT the end of the story for Firestorm. Since Flash himself spun off of the successful ‘Arrow’ program, it gives me pause to wonder if Garber and company could carry off their own CW drama, which leads us to today’s atomic-powered query… The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always,…

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If you’ve been following the Major Spoilers crew on social media (and, seriously, you should, we’re fun), you’ve probably run into my occasional treatises about the gray areas that exist around the edges of superherodom. My latest deliberation has been on the nature of Nick Fury, army sergeant and head of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’s the type of guy who would ride a rocket cycle, shirtless, through a brick wall to get to a climactic gun battle with his evil brother, but IS HE A SUPERHERO? I say “No,” but with the caveat that Nicholas is one of the most impressive examples…

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If you’ve been on the internet for that last 36 hours or so, you’ve probably already heard the news that Sony and Marvel Studios have come to an agreement that (theoretically) seems to be designed to allow Spider-Man to make his MCU shared universe debut.  It’s exciting to a lot of people to know that another of our favorite comic characters is able to join the big ol’ billion-dollar movie series, but it does raise questions about recasting, about introducing the new character, and about what his presence could mean for upcoming Marvel movies.  As always, Major Spoilers is here…

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It’s always tough when things from your youth change inexplicably.  Spider-Man stops being married, Superman starts snapping necks, nobody remembers how to pronounce Constantine…  Sometimes it’s about the creators, sometimes it’s about the fans, other times, it’s the external forces of law and intellectual property that alter the fabric of the pop culture that we all love…  Welcome to Ten Things!

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