Author: Matthew Peterson

Or – “SWEEET CHRISTMAS!” The Marvel Universe is a strange and occasionally terrible place.  At any moment, a building could collapse because of rogue Hulks, or your entire neighborhood could get utterly annihilated by alien space bugs.  Even back in the day, before the X-Men outnumbered the combined population of every town I lived in before the age of 17, it was a difficult place to live, where a random prison guard with a grudge could change your life forever (and that’s AFTER you were betrayed by your oldest friend and your first love murdered before your eyes.)  Not everyone…

Or – “I Thought This Was The Last Issue…” As the New 52 soldiers on, many of the books in the first wave have gone away, changed beyond recognition, or had more creators’ hands in them than the cast of The Muppet Show.  Savage Hawkman has yet to really thrill me, will this issue be the one that turns the tide?  Your Major Spoilers review awaits!

A recent conversation with Critical Hit’s Adriana led me to the shameful revelation that I’ve never actually sat down and watched any of the various incarnations of Sailor Moon, a show that she informed me is destined to be “my favorite show I’ve never watched.”  As a conscientious upper-midcard nerd, I try to keep aware of the things that preoccupy our people (in case there’s an uprising, I want to be able to speak the code-phrases that keep me from being executed by the new nerd leadership, be they Otaku, Brony or Magigeek.)  More importantly, Sailor Moon has all the…

Or – “What’s The Deal With Medusa?” In the first five issues of this book, the makeshift Fantastic Four team has taken over the Future Foundation, crossed swords with the Mole Man, discovered the original team to be dead (or, at least, so says a maimed and aged Johnny Storm) and decided to take on Doctor Doom.  Also, one of their members is acting shady as heck, and the cover this month has foreboding written all over it.  What’s next?  Your Major Spoilers review awaits!

All morning long, I’ve had this nagging feeling in the back of my head, reminding me that I’ve forgotten something.  After several long nights (recording Critical Hit, recording the M.S.P., and a certain project I’ve been desperately researching the last 45 years of comics for) I decided to take the Widget to get sushi and ribs this morning.  As I returned home with a full stomach and a parcel from Hong Kong, it suddenly hit me: I.  FORGOT.  THE. QOTD! Luckily for Faithful Spoilerites, though, I think quick on my feet, and live by the words of the late Severn…

A recent podcast featured a brief discussion about collectors of original art, during which I opined that I didn’t personally feel a need to collect original pencils or uncolored art.  I can certainly understand wanting to own a physical piece handled and created by the likes of Neal Adams or Dave Cockrum, but I’d much rather spend that money on the finished product.  My boss at the store (Gatekeeper Hobbies, Huntoon & Gage, Topeka!  Ask us about our CGC graded Strange Sports Stories #1!) on the other hand, has an extensive collection of pages from the early days of the…

Or – “AN-THO-LO-GEE!  AN-THO-LO-GEE!  YOU BORDER ON… THE… AD-RI… ATIC!” The day of the monthly anthology may be done, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still places where comic publishers can deliver short story goodness to their readers.  We’re going old-school, with the legendary Time Warp, and your Major Spoilers review awaits!

Or – “Take It From Me, Parents Just Don’t Understand.” Young Avengers has been kind of an oddball title, but in a very good way, as Gillen & McKelvie have delivered quirky, character-driven teenage action that is nonetheless firmly set in the Marvel Universe.  Now that they’ve been able to escape Teddy’s nefarious mom, only to leap straight into the clutches of Loki’s insidious father.  Are the Young Avengers doomed before they’ve even fully assembled?  Your Major Spoilers review awaits!

Nothing makes one feel older than watching TV Land, the cable equivalent of the oldies station, and seeing shows that you watched in their first run.  So it was for me, recently, with the episode of ‘Friends’ featuring Ross and Rachel discovering which celebrities are on their “No Strings Attached” list.  Though I have never seen the appeal in Isabella Rosellini (she looks eerily like Dave Foley, for one thing) I can get behind the theoretical idea/game at the heart of the episode.  But, since we are a pop culture website, if the Faithful Spoilerites were to play, we’d probably…

Around the turn of the century (a phrase that I dearly love to say), I found myself engaged in “e-fedding,” a collective writing process where wrestling fans would create shared narratives of their own self-created wrestlers.  Thanks to the revolutionary computing power of the N64 (SIXTY-FOUR BITS OF IMAGE-MAKING POWER!) we could even trade the specific builds and movesets of our guys back and forth over the nascent intarwebz, all the better to simulate character combat and “prove” that our guys were the best.  And, of course, EVERYONE wanted to run the character with the unbeaten streak, an unstoppable force…

In my travels about comics fandom, one of the most common complaints seems to be about how humorless and grim they’ve become.  Murderous psychopaths and slavering lunatics are everywhere (and that’s just the fanbase!)  This weekend, I was disturbed to read a story wherein a beloved character of my youth was crushed to death and his corpse eaten by scavengers during the course of the story.  While this development was effective in conveying the hopelessness of the heroes’ dilemma, in the long run I suspect the death will long overshadow the story itself, much as the rumors of John Stewart’s…

Or – “Buddy Baker Overdrive!” Younger comics readers are always a hoot.  Recently, I was privy to a conversation between two 20-ish readers about how stupid it is that they put Animal Man back in a costume in his New 52 incarnation, because “Vertigo guys don’t have costumes.”  Laying aside that Animal Man’s original duds are both iconic and goofy, it’s a good example of how you can’t get used to the status quo of comics, because it will change. Ironically, there was also a grain of wisdom in the conversation, as well, because, in his first appearance, Animal Man…

Or – “What To Do After The End Of The World…” Last issue, the legendary Legion team of Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz was reunited, as the entirety of the known universe blew up in the faces of our heroes. Technology no longer works, the team is scattered, isolated (and in one case killed and eaten) while our heroes try to figure out the whos and whys of the disaster that has befallen the U.P.  The creative team promised last time that it would get worse, and now we’re about to see how bad it gets. Your Major Spoilers review…

During a recent evening of television, the Widget and I took in an episode of Transformers, during which she asked me which ones were the Democrats and which the Aristocats.  This was quite possibly the funniest thing I had heard all day (and, it should be noted, that this was a day during which I burped while using voice text and laughed for half an hour as my Android dutifully spelled out “burp” in my tweet.)  These sort of malapropisms have been the bread and butter of many public figures from Yogi Berry (who famously remarked that “I really didn’t…