The concept of “crossover” is a very strange and relatively modern one. I imagine that, in ye olde dayes of yore, a storyteller who wanted to have Heracles meet Gilgamesh didn’t have to create a time-vortex omniversal space/time breach to do so (or in the case of Angela’s recent Marvel Universe debut, a ten-issue plotless boondoggle) she probably just said “Okay, this one time? Two guys totes met, y’all…” Audiences and storytelling tropes have gotten more sophisticated over the centuries (for better and for worse) and as a result, today’s readers want explanations to rationalize why Spider-Man wouldn’t participate…
Browsing: Question Of The Day
When it comes to comic-book story-telling, there are a number of repeated themes and familiar plot-points that seem to recur and recur. The old “Misunderstand, Fight, Team-Up” chestnut gets a pretty regular workout, but close on its metaphorical heels is the moment where a new character shows how strong/clever/awesome he or she is by taking out the established bad@$$. This trope is sometimes referred to as ‘The Worf Effect’, after the security chief of the Starship Enterprise, whose primary duties seemed to consist entirely of this. When used effectively, this kind of moment can be a breathtaking shock-and-awe intro, but…
Though they’ve always been good for periodic Batman and Spider-Man epics or Indy comic adaptations ala ‘Men In Black’, lately Hollywood has found once again that superheroes sell. The upside is increased visibility for characters like Superman, long considered box-office (you should excuse the expression) Kryptonite, the downside comes when Hollywood group-think forces everyone into the same angsty, violent mold. One thing we haven’t so far seen is a breakout hit featuring a female hero, what with Wonder Woman trapped in development hell and very few others with a high enough profile to warrant risking eleventy-skrabillion dollars on (at least…
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly FIFTY years since The Monkees burst onto the scene, fully formed, as if out of the skull of Zeus himself. In that time, the manufactured nature of the group has become the norm, their focus on creating a musical “brand” has become the pathway to success, and the music video phenomenon they pioneered spawned first a network and then an entire programming genre. (Ironically, said network is not so much with the music any longer, but progress, as always, marches on.) Putting images to music wasn’t a new idea, even in 1966,…
Man, I hate it when a simple miscalculation causes things to go wrong. Like when you mis-enter the time for a particular recurring column, causing it to want to post in the dead of night, and don’t notice until after you’ve had Mongolian barbecue, for suspiciously specific example. Either way, according to the great prophet Ford Prefect, “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so,” and he’s never been more right. In the history of time-travel, there have been any number of moments that seemed paradoxical, and only Bill & Ted (“Remember a trashcan! Remember a trashcan!”) seemed to fully appreciate…
The ladies at my office are apparently very excited for ‘Monsters University,’ the sequel to Pixar’s ‘Monsters Inc.’, though I’m not entirely sure why. Not that I’m not up for more Billy Crystal and John Goodman (I’m actually thinking about casting them as Stephen and I in a Major Spoilers biopic, assuming Zac Efron and John Leguizamo are available to play the other half of the MSP team) but I hadn’t considered the movie to be widely known or beloved. If I had to pick a movie that screamed sequel, I’d have picked ‘The Incredibles’ or perhaps ‘Goof Troop II:…
Having now read the promised shocking reveal at the end of the (sort of) time-spanning events of Age Of Ultron, I’m impressed with how well Marvel editorial played the hype machine, to the point where the acquisition of a minor supporting character from a 20 year-old-issue of Spawn is the biggest news in comics. Still, having TOLD US what was going to happen, the surprise is somewhat mooted, while the full ramifications of Wolverine’s careless impulsiveness are probably yet to be felt. I do believe that the promises that this will be talked about for years were sincere, but I…
This week’s Major Spoilers Podcast, aside from incoherence on my part, focuses on several instances of strange visitors from outer space, notably ROM: Spaceknight and some movie about that one red-caped guy from DC Comics who totally ripped off ROM by also crashing to Earth from space. When you think about it, there are an awful lot of human-looking aliens in the various imaginary universes, and a great many of them are indistinguishable from humans in any meaningful way, going so far in some cases as to be capable of cross-species reproduction. While we all know why this happens (limited…
While putting together yesterday’s ‘Man Of Steel’-inspired Retro Review, I found myself thinking about how many different nicknames Superman actually has: Big Blue, The Man of Steel, The Metropolis Marvel, The Man of Tomorrow, The Last Son of Krypton, The Dark Knight’s Much Much Cooler Friend. It seems that, as in wrestling, the more popular and long-lasting a character, the more forms of address he or she accumulates, and the acquisition of the “Hawkguy” moniker was one of the exciting signs that the latest edition of Clint Barton’s adventures would be sticking around, because, let’s be honest: “The Battlin’ Bowman”…
Being that it’s Father’s Day, I’ve been ruminating about the job of “Dad.” In the annals of pop culture, there have been fathers who set themselves apart from the pack: Reed Richards, fighting first Annihilus and then Doctor Octopus for the welfare of his soon-to-be born children. Thomas Wayne, stepping forward to protect his family at the cost of his own life. Even that weird round-headed dad from ‘Family Circus’ who lets his children run about the city unsupervised and let’s them get away with murder so long as there’s a good punchline at the end. (Hey, nobody said that…
With all the talk about video games this week, I’ve been thinking about the video games of my life, from those heady early-80s days playing Defender and Gorf at the local Boogaarts grocery store through my current use of my PS3 as little more than a media server. Once upon a time, my roommate actually worked in a video arcade, which allowed us an occasion or two to play Mortal Kombat 2 after closing, and introduced me to the mysterious ninja known as Noob Saibot. As a side-character, he actually seemed considerably cooler than the likes of Sub-Zero or Jax,…
Yesterday’s discussion of musicals and musical theatre left me with philosophical thoughts in my head, along with the echoing strains of Christian and Satine’s love theme (though, to be honest, that’s been stuck there since we recorded ‘Zach On Film’ Tuesday night.) As earworms go, though, it’s better than the week and a half I spent with the Bonanza theme Shawshanking its way through my gray matter. Themes seem to be a dying breed these days, as more and more shows give up on the opening in favor of more advertising space or something, but they still have the power…
Before the gremlins ate our discussion of ‘Singin’ In The Rain,’ it contained a lovely discussion of movie musicals and the tools of their peculiar trade. Luckily for you, THIS week’s Zach On Film is chockful of more musical goodness, which got my wheels turning about the heightened reality of musical theatre. Many a bad comedian has commented on how unlikely the choreography and harmonies are, but that observation completely misses the point that a musical isn’t meant to be realistic. (Having these discussions with comic fans, who are often of the rather ridiculous notion that Batman is realistic, is…
This weekend at the shop (Gatekeeper Hobbies, Huntoon & Gage, Topeka! Ask me about our blow-out Dennis The Menace sale!), Chris The Counter Guy bought a rather enormous batch of comics featuring a copy of Son Of Satan #1, a book that I immediately filed under “No Way They’d Get Away With That Today.” The batch also features a copy of Tod Holton, Super Green Beret #2, a couple of Howard The Duck comics, and some mixed schadenfreude/nostalgia for a time when the stories might have seemed goofy, but not every character was a nearly-interchangable bad@$$ ninja and/or armored powerhouse. …