As we discussed at length during this week’s Major Spoilers Podcast, Marvel Studios and Netflix have entered into an agreement to deliver no fewer than FOUR live-action Marvel series, including Daredevil, Power Man and Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones. Though this news has me excited (and the box-office receipts for the Thor sequel seem promising), I found my hopes a bit diminished the next night as I watched the latest episode of ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.’ Though the series has a compelling lead in Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson, each successive episode feels more and more like a standard TV action/procedural,…
Browsing: Question Of The Day
Humans love an underdog tale. The plucky robot operators taking down the massive army of monsters, the crew of a single rickety ship opposing the entire galactic alliance, the one barefoot man taking down an international terrorist network; When an overmatched David pulls off an impossible win against his particular Goliath, a part of us cheers, regardless of whether it seems logical or not. I myself am a lifelong fan of legendary future hero Bouncing Boy, and one of my great personal inspirations is the man born Virgil Runnels, known to his legions of fans as ‘The American Dream’, Dusty…
These days, if you want to see unlikely character crossovers, all you have to do is navigate your way to Tumblr. When I was a wee child, it was a much different world, and I clearly remember the utter mind-blowing shock of seeing Superman and Spider-Man joining forces in that giant tabloid comic. It was a truly transcendent bit of nerdery for me, which led to many an idle wondering about additional character crossovers: Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers? Knight Rider and Airwolf? The Dukes Of Hazzard and Star Wars? Anything was possible in the far-off regions of your brain,…
Yesterday, there was a perfectly good and functional MS-QOTD that didn’t make it onto Major Spoilers due to a lack of signal for my cell phone. While I’m sure that lost question will make its way to the site in coming days (Watch the skies!) the lack of cell signal got me to thinking about the things we take for granted in life. Anyone who listens will know how much I love the movie ‘Real Genius’, what with 12% of my vocabulary originating in that film, to the point where I can’t imagine what I might talk like without having…
There are a lot of wild stories to be told in the world of TV, film, comics and what-the-whatever, and not all of them can be perfectly wrapped up like an episode of Scooby-Doo. Indeed, one of my favorite series of all time, ‘The Prisoner’, closes up its short run with an episode that delves into symbolism, analogy and trippy juxtaposition of images, music and performance, creating an avant-garde chunk of damn-near incomprehensible, yet still entertaining and compelling TV. While many fans lean on the utterly horrible “You are, Number 6” interpretation, I find that chestnut to be not only…
There are a few targets in comics that are always considered fair game for horrendous mockery: Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad. Aquaman talking to fish. The Clone Saga. But of all the easy pickings to be had in snarky put-downs, the arguable champion is the 1984 revamping of the Justice League as a full-time hero squad operating out of a bunker in Michigan. One of comics’ earliest (and, honestly, one of the least ham-handed) attempts at diversity, this Justice League featured founding members Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter, along with veterans Elongated Man and Zatanna, training several young heroes in…
As a child, I learned a quickly that names have power, growing up as I did with fey-folk, Norse Gods and rednecks who were mostly named Junior. I recall one rather spirited discussion where I repeatedly failed to convince a friend that Tom Wopat’s ‘Dukes Of Hazzard’ character wasn’t named ‘Duke Duke’, an argument that still irks me 30 years later. I have luckily mellowed somewhat in my old age (enough to appreciate Rodrigo calling Bruce Willis ‘Die-Hard,’ though NOT enough to stop correcting Stephen’s pronunciation of Kaneda) and have reached the point where the child and I have nicknamed…
The child and I have been casually watching the latest season of Power Rangers, in the hopes that the show will get super-awesome in time for the adaptation of the epic Gokaiger season in coming months. Sadly, even at nine years old, she finds the American version to be a little too childish for her, and worries about whether am American Gokai Silver can ever be as cute as her crush, Ikari Gai. At my advanced age, I’m pretty well-insulated against the empty feeling that comes when something you love gets altered into something merely mediocre, but the Widget hasn’t…
As we move into the Fall season here in the midwest (and, yes, I’m aware that the official start of Autumn is in September by most calendars, but I’ve always felt like it isn’t real until after Halloween), the trees are changing color and the hours of daylight are getting shorter and shorter. It’s probably my favorite time of year, not too warm, not too cold, just perfect for kicking back and reading with the windows open, all the while remembering that most Stephen King short stories start with such a tranquil scene. For some reason, my mind always associates…
Recently, my washing machine had some mechanical issues (muffler belts, blinker fluid, that sort of thing), requiring me to travel a few blocks to the local laundromat to take care of the piles of clothing taking over the house. In so doing, we discovered both that our king-size blankets and comforters are much easier to handle in the industrial washer, and that there’s a Time Pilot machine hidden in the scary darkened back corner. The Widget also discovered that she loved the game (as well as Burger Time and Donkey Kong Jr), and kept asking me why they don’t bring…
As a fan of Doctor Who since the early eighties, I’ve seen a lot of changes, both in the program (or programme, for those of a more continental bent) and in the fan base. The upcoming 50th anniversary show has brought with it not only the news of a new Doctor on the horizon, but the possibility of a missing incarnation as well. (I am aware of all the theories about John Hurt’s character, but am avoiding specifics in the interests of not repeating wild speculations by fellow Whovians as well as any possible spoilers.). These revelations mean that the…
As we near the climax of our annual Major Spoilers Halloween festivities, I’ve enjoyed a lot of entertaining discussion about fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and things that go bump and drag Katie down the stairs at night. Maybe it’s the fact that my child is insisting that we watch seasonally scary movies, or this week’s spooooky Top Five topic, but I’ve been ruminating on the topic of monsters (especially those that were once human.) I firmly believe that the scariest creatures are those that are recognizable as human-ish, making you wonder what horrific fate twisted them so terribly, which in…
One of the many joys of being part of Critical Hit (Major Spoilers’ live-play D&D podcast, which you should totally check out, I might add) is witnessing Rodrigo’s characters in action. It seems that even the most minor NPC has a fully fleshed out voice, back story, and most of all, a name so cool it’d make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. There is implicit terror in ‘The Thing That Shatters The Sky,’ and I can’t even consider the existence of ‘She Who Slumbers In Agony’ without getting a little twitch around the corner of…
Given the holiday season, the child has repeatedly asked if we can watch some scary movies together. Though she wasn’t quite up to ‘Ghostwatch’, we did manage to get through most of the Paranormal Activity series, after which she kept telling me how sad she felt for boyfriend Micah. Where my jaded adult sensibilities saw a jerkface who made everything worse, Widget saw a young man frightened by things he couldn’t control, who tried to fix a problem and [SPOILERS] got killed horribly for his efforts. It’s a valid read, and it does give more emotional heft to the end…