Category: Media

  • Rest in Peace, Stan Lee

    Rest in Peace, Stan Lee

    I think most of us know that Stan Lee’s legacy at Marvel for comics is fraught.  Who truly created what, who deserves credit.  That’s covered elsewhere, like the obituary/profile linked above.  I’d like to talk about Stan’s place in my life, as a budding geek who wasn’t sure of his place in the world. Millenials, for…

  • Movie Review – Venom

    Movie Review – Venom

    I actually saw Venom not long after it came out, and I’m a bit amused at how well it’s done.  It is a deeply weird movie. At times feels like half of it is missing.  Why does the symbiote decide to “help” Eddie Brock save the Earth?  It must not matter, because they don’t tell…

  • Book Review – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Book Review – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Foundryside is the latest book from Robert Jackson Bennett, who previously wrote the “Divine Cities” trilogy.  I mostly knew him from the shenanigans he, Sam Sykes, Chuck Wendig and others get up to on Twitter.  Checking out new authors that way hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Sancia is a thief, who operates out of Foundryside,…

  • Movie Review – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

    Movie Review – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

    The first Jurassic Park is a classic. Plenty of tension, action, humor.  When we have fond memories of this franchise, that’s the movie we’re all thinking of.  As you move forward, they decline rapidly in quality.  Most of the good feelings you have for The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 are due to Jeff Goldblum…

  • Movie Review – Black Panther

    Movie Review – Black Panther

    Not to spoil too much, at it’s core Black Panther is also filled with family drama, but also powerful political statements.  From the drop this movie has something to say to you about the inequality that drives our modern world.

  • Comic Book Review – Crosswind Vol. 1

    Comic Book Review – Crosswind Vol. 1

    Crosswind is an Image series written by Gail Simone, drawn by Cat Staggs, with letters from Simon Bowland.  The blurb at Image’s site describes it as “Goodfellas meets Freaky Friday” and it’s an apt description.  What happens if a Chicago hitman and a suburban housewife switch bodies?  Under Gail’s pen, you get vulgar, action-filled fun.…

  • Comic Book Review – Black Bolt Vol. 1, Hard Time

    Comic Book Review – Black Bolt Vol. 1, Hard Time

    Volume 1 of Black Bolt’s solo series, subtitled Hard Time, is out.  Writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Christian Ward fulfilled the promise of the first issue (which I looked at previously) and more.  Ward says a lot about who gets put in prison and why, while not ignoring the kickass fights and teleporting dogs we…

  • Book Review – Artemis by Andy Weir

    Book Review – Artemis by Andy Weir

    Artemis, by Andy Weir, starts out as a bit of a heist book.  Set in the first city on the Moon, Artemis follows Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara as she navigates her life as a porter, her sideline as a smuggler of contraband, and her disapproving father.  One of Jazz’s smuggling clients offers her a sabotage job…

  • Book Review – Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines

    Terminal Alliance (Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse), by Jim C. Hines, takes a futuristic zombie-esque apocalypse and wonders – what happens if someone comes along and fixes it?  Humanity was turned into mindless, shambling monsters, but the Krakau (a squidlike alien race) decides to help fix us.  Eh, more or less. The story follows a human…

  • Book Review – The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

    Book Review – The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

    The First Law Trilogy is another series I’m late to, but I enjoyed The Blade Itself quite a bit!  This is not my first Joe Abercrombie, having checked out Half a King previously.  Abercrombie’s books tend to the ‘grimdark’ side of epic fantasy, and this is no exception. The cast of characters Much like A…

  • How The Inhumans Should’ve Started

    How The Inhumans Should’ve Started

    The first three episodes of The Inhumans have aired (the fourth is tonight), and they are…not great.  I’m no pessimist, and I’ll probably keep watching, but I have a LOT of thoughts on what went wrong, and how it could’ve been fixed. Why Inhumans couldn’t be a movie I actually agree with Marvel that The…

  • Pilot Season – The Gifted

    Pilot Season – The Gifted

    The Gifted is a new X-Men-adjacent show on Fox, which I will explain momentarily, and it’s pretty awesome.  It’s almost too bad for Marvel that The Inhumans release around the same time, because it’s not even a contest as to which is better. “Adjacent” The first question with most comic book adaptations nowadays is what…