You may have heard about this new movie, one that brings back the Star-Spangled Avenger, and introduces one of his longest-serving supporting cast-members to the cinematic Marvel U, but are you familiar with the story as it unfolded in the comics? Your Major Spoilers review of Captain America #117 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.
There are a few unavoidable things in the universe: Death, taxes, Stephen loving Batman, and the fact that, if you bring up “reality television”, someone will go off on a tirade. To be fair, I share much of the scorn aimed at the genre, but (thanks to my wife loving the competition shows), have found a few interesting moments in episodes of ‘Face/Off’, ‘Survivor’ and even ‘Project Runway.’ This week’s Marvel superheroes challenge on ‘Under The Gunn’ was an interesting one to me, as it put the various fashionistas squarely in my comic book wheelhouse, and managed to match superheroes…
As is my wont on a Friday night, I decompressed by channel-surfing after the family went to bed, giving my ridiculous brain time to stop spinning like Diana Prince in a crisis. This time, I happened upon a screening of ‘Zombieland’ (albeit edited for television, which is a bit of a bummer), giving me a chance to vicariously live the life of a young, single man in a world where Emma Stone has no other romantical options to choose from. As friends for the end of the world go, you could certainly do worse, unless you happened to end up…
Sometimes, no matter how upbeat you try to be, the day crushes your spirit under a bulldozer blade of annoyance, taking your good mood and smashing it to the pavement to build a carpark. Yesterday was one of those days, filled with minor irritations and a couple of Murtaugh-level “I’m-Too-Old-For-This-Stuff” fits of rage, leaving me feeling like Mick Foley after the original ‘Hell In A Cell’ match. (Google it. It’s brutal.) Nonetheless, your humble MS-QOTD tries to stay as positive as possible, so today will be better no matter how many people insist on incessantly using the phrase “You People”,…
As followers of the Major Spoilers Podcast will tell you, your humble MS-QOTD is still a bit broken up over the events of the final episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ earlier in the week. As finales go, it went far above and beyond the usual scope of “Everybody gets new job and hugs it out” into a higher level of wrapping it up, and the response from the fans has been, to say the least, mixed. Many internet wags have already dubbed it “The ‘Lost’ of sitcoms”, while others have begun compiling their Top 10 Worst Finales list,…
Thanks to the magic of the MSP trade paperback review, I have become a fan of Adam Warren’s energetic pin-up/superhero epic magnum opus, Empowered, but sometimes find the wait between trades interminably long. Luckily, Adam’s one step ahead of me, as your Major Spoilers review of Empowered Special #6: Internal Medicine awaits!
Recently, it came to my attention that Leonard Nimoy, now 83 years old, is having health issues due to having smoked earlier in life, leaving me shocked at how much the potential loss of the man behind Spock affected me. The last decade or so has been rough for my pop culture heroes, with George Carlin, Douglas Adams and Dave Cockrum all leaving us far too soon for my tastes. Not so long ago, the passing of Davy Jones upset me greatly, and the knowledge that the rest of the Monkees are in all their 70s occasionally catches me by…
We all know the feeling of being up against a deadline and frantically trying to come up with something, ANYTHING to fill the particular bill we are working towards… This has led to some awkward moments in my life (including my Master’s thesis), but for Bob Kanigher, it just meant a chance to create some of the most beloved characters of comics’ Silver Age and to make comic book history… again. Your Major Spoilers review of Showcase #37 awaits!
While I’m not a big theatre guy, I was entertained (and perhaps confused) to find that classic Troma monster/superhero flick ‘The Toxic Avenger’ has been given the musical treatment. Sure, Toxie is uniquely suited to busting through genre/media bounds (as you might recall, he even had a kiddie cartoon back in the day), but the knowledge that someone composed a song entitled “Who Will Save New Jersey?” in order to make the adventures of a man in a rubber mask sufficiently operatic soothes my worries about the nature of the universe. (Absurdity, after all, is a driving force of reality.) …
Yesterday’s inquiry regarding the Marvel Universe was limited to that world for two important reasons: Superman and Batman. It seems to be very difficult for anyone to separate the cult of personality around the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel from their actual effectiveness as super-dupers, and their historical importance can overpower any team they’re on. (See Brad Meltzer’s 2006 JLA revamp.) Besides, under DC’s current editorial direction, it seems every book will eventually become a title featuring one or both of them anyway. Even so, your humble MS-QOTD doesn’t like to play favorites, and there are any number…
At any given point, if I was pressed to tell you who my favorite superhuman of all time was, you might get one of half a dozen answers, but if you ask me my favorite super-team, there’s only two responses: The Legion and The Defenders. With membership including the most physically powerful creature on Earth, the king of Atlantis, the universe’s top sorcerer, a herald of Galactus, a goddess, a living gargoyle and a host of equally notable types (including Marvel’s first try at Batman, the irascible Nighthawk, who will always be a step up from Moon Knight in my…
The Sentinel of the Spaceways is back with a new #1, but is it for everybody? Your Major Spoilers review of Silver Surfer #1 awaits!
The mantle of the Ghost Rider has changed hands again, and with it comes a whole new status quo for the flame-headed… cyclist? Let’s not get TOO hasty in our assumptions, because your Major Spoilers review of the All-New Ghost Rider #1 awaits!
The story of Ferris Bueller is one of the great cautionary tales of the 1980s, a reminder that even the most mundane of days can be made into something memorable if you just put in the effort, torture a poor school principal and falsify your identity as Sausage King of Chicago. Though I’m more likely to end up being a Cameron (or, to be honest, these days I’m within a few degrees of Ed Rooney), the question of what I want to do with a day where I could do anything I want. I suppose taking a nap, going to…