Film Land - 8 Actors Who Should Play James Bond

Edited by Robert Beach 

At the time of writing, Daniel Craig has done everything outwardly possible to indicate his time as James Bond is at an end.  I say this because it’s Hollywood, and things have a tendency to be false from the start, so it’s still remotely possible Craig will have another film outing, just not terribly likely.  

With Craig now done with 007, ending on the spectacularly bad Spectre, the hunt is on for a new James Bond. As is ever the case with the recasting of one of pop culture’s most enduring fixtures, everyone is throwing out ideas. It seems every hat is ending up in the proverbial ring. As someone who writes about geekery and pop culture on the net, here are my top 8 choices for the next James Bond.

 

Thor: Ragnarok Casting Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach 

As phase 3 of Marvel dawns, several major questions have started to loom in on the horizon as the previous invulnerability of the MCU begins to crack with age. At this point, Marvel is doing a dance of engagement with its audience, flittering between the fleeting high of Age of Ultron and the genuinely infectious interest of Ant-Man. Captain America: Civil War seems to be the best example of this so far, caught between the fun of the actual story and hanging out with characters we like/ All is enjoyable but fleeting, and the excitement of new heroes like Spider-Man or Black Panther, which is much more persistent. 

It seems that Marvel is legitimately at their best when they’re both expanding the scope of their shared universe and are being incredibly weird and idiosyncratic while doing it. That blend of new horizons and unique characters has reared its head once more with the latest casting announcements for next year’s Thor: Ragnarok. True to form, they seem to have everyone genuinely excited for a Thor film. 

Static Thoughts - 10 Things To Expect from Syfy's Krypton

Edited by Robert Beach 

One of the big trends of the 2010s has been the rise of superheroes on TV. Honestly, it’s not that surprising. Superheroes are built from the ground up for syndicated storytelling, and the episodic format of television is a much better fit for that than the limited scale and structure of a film. We’ve had fun and exciting adventures like Supergirl, weird and wonderful adaptations like Flash, thoughtful exploration of the genre like Jessica Jones, and adventurous explorations like Legends of Tomorrow. Now, David Goyer and Syfy plan to add a new name to the roster of superhero television with a Superman prequel show following the Man of Steel’s grandfather Seyg-El entitled Krypton, following the same naming and focus convention of Fox’s Gotham.

Gotham is a show with a lot of problems, but the junky prequel set-up is a big one. David Goyer has managed to write 1 genuinely good superhero movie on his own, so a lot of folks are rightfully worried. However, I’m not quite as cynical (or possibly just more delusional), so I’ve compiled a list of 10 DC comics elements that could show up in Krypton that would make it an awesome experience; let us list them. 

X-Men: Apocalypse Post-Credits Scene Explained

Edited by Robert Beach 

X-Men: Apocalypse has topped the box office for Memorial Day weekend as our third big superhero team movie of the year and 4th comic book movie overall. Ideally, I’ll have a more in-depth review of the film later on, but as we wait on that, we can talk about is the post-credits scene.  Post-credits scenes (stingers) have become the staple of superhero movies nowadays. To the point audiences have been so trained to expect stingers, it’d be weird if a superhero film didn’t have one (that was a Batman v. Superman slam.) 

The entire idea of post-credits superhero teasers originates in the X-Men franchise, first popping up with X3: The Last Stand’s ending clip of Professor Xavier mind-warping into a comatose patient to escape death. Since then, we’ve had big reveals like Nick Fury in Iron Man, funny shoutouts like Howard the Duck in Guardians of the Galaxy, and direct sequel set-up like the Apocalypse teaser in Days of Future Past. What type of scene does X-Men: Apocalypse sport? And what does it mean for the X-Men films going forward?  Let’s find out. Spoilers ahead.

Cover Story - Top 13 Silver Age X-Men Covers

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It is X-Men time of year here at the Lido Shuffle, as ushered in by the release of their latest blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse.  As is tradition for these things I’ll be celebrating this new release in the only way I know how: a list of the best X-Men comic covers.  However, given that the X-Men have a truly titanic amount of covers in existence I’m going to pace myself by just taking on the first age of the X-Men.  These are the best X-Men covers from their first issue up until Giant Sized X-Men #1 in 1975, which introduced the more popular team of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and more.  

Despite being a lot less popular than the post-1975 stuff this era in the X-Men is still pretty impressive with a lot of unique and formative covers that have remained impressive touchstones in the language of superheroes.  The books low visibility gave the artists a freedom to experiment they might not have had in a bigger title and today, we honor that creativity in list format. 

Panel Vision - X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

Edited by Robert Beach 

s I write this, X-Men: Apocalypse is set to underwhelm the world as the latest installment of the shockingly subpar X-Men franchise. While, simultaneously, CW’s excellent The Flash show has delved into the well of madness and disappointment that is time meddling and the Flashpoint event comic. Throw in the Captain America’s turn to Hydra and the ongoing launch of DC Rebirth and it all adds up to a swirling cocktail of public conversation towards retcons, reboots, time travel, event comics, the X-Men, and Apocalypse. My point is, there has never been a better time to dive into the well of madness that is X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. 

Top 12 Disney Infinity Characters We Didn't Get

Edited by Robert Beach 

By now, you may have heard that Disney Infinity, the thoroughly popular Disney video game franchise, is being discontinued. If you’ve never heard of it before, Disney Infinity was a bold experiment from the Mouse House to get in on the growing trend of toys integrated into video games. The concept (selling kids action figures that also act as playable characters in a video game) originated with Skylanders before Disney picked up on it, and now even Nintendo has gotten in on the act. 

Previously, when a Disney adventure like this failed, it was an indication of the companies plan to purchase a more successful iteration of the same concept; the way the failure of Disney’s boy brand action films prompted them to buy Marvel and Star Wars. While some have speculated this will happen again, that’s not today’s subject. Today, we mourn the Disney Infinity characters we’ll never get to see now that the line is discontinued. Let the requisitely somber top 12 list commence. 

Panel Vision - Dr. 13: Architecture & Mortality

Edited by Robert Beach 

Well, May is almost over. The thermometer is headed skyward, and blockbuster movies are hitting the multiplex. It all adds up to one thing: Summer is officially here. For comic nerds, the arrival of Summer is more or less synonymous with the arrival of event comics, the massive cross-universe stories smashing heroes together and reshaping  continuity as we know it for about 9 months till the next one.  

Obnoxious and overused as they are, event comics are basically just a force of nature in comics, which makes our relationship with them a little complicated. While endless retcons and shock deaths are certainly tedious staples of the event comic, fans have become so inundated with them we’ve come to appreciate the subtle differences between garbage event books like Fear Itself and the at least interesting ones like Secret Wars (2015). 

For DC, their event comic this year is called DC Rebirth, a universe-reshaping retcon comic that’s already been spoiled. However, I’m not here to discuss those spoilers, but rather a sister comic to DC Rebirth. The actual plot of DC Rebirth is all about what happens to heroes who’ve been rendered non-canon by the events of a reality-reshaping crisis, a concept that was also explored by one of the greatest comics of all time Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. 

Static Thoughts - The Flash Season 3, What's Next?

Edited by Robert Beach

The Flash season 2 has come to its conclusion and what a conclusion it was. As the title suggest, I’m going to be discussing what could happen in the immediate aftermath of The Flash’s major season 2 reveals and twists, so if you haven’t seen the finale yet, beware of spoilers ahead. 

At the end of the show, Barry foiled the villainous Zoom by managing to summon the time wraiths, the undead monsters that defend the timeline and the speed force that consumed Zoom and dragged him off to parts unknown. However, victory came at a high price as Zoom had killed Barry’s father Henry Allen, a loss compounded by the discovery that Zoom’s prisoner was the Henry Allen of Earth-3 AKA the real Jay Garrick.  

In the face of so much loss and flirting with the dangers of time travel once more, Barry chose to travel back in time and save his mom from being killed by the villainous Reverse Flash, causing catastrophic reverberations through the timeline. 

Static Thoughts - 8 Questions About Gotham Season 3

Edited by Robert Beach

Gotham has now completed its second season and was it ever mixed. The slow development of the superhero landscape has not been kind to Fox’s Batman prequel series. While other shows like Supergirl or The Flash have been able to dive head first into crazy superhero concepts, Gotham plodded along through the muck of its own timeline and the restriction of its central hero, Bruce Wayne, still being a 12 year old.  

This has led the show to attempt many bizarre solutions like bringing in a radically reimagined Order of St. Dumas to target young Bruce Wayne and, more recently, setting up Hugo Strange as the true architect of all Batman’s villains. Batman villains really have become the key to Gotham’s attempts at crafting a larger, multi-season story arc much in the same way Spider-Man villains were the crux of Sony’s now defunct Amazing Spider-Man series.  Monday night’s finale took this to all new heights and has left me with 8 major questions about where Gotham is going in season 3. 

Static Thoughts - 12 Things They Need in Supergirl Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach

Supergirl season 2 has now been officially confirmed, with one significant twist: it will be on CW instead of CBS. At this point, that shake-up makes a lot of sense. Supergirl was a big hit show that never quite had the ratings to sustain its budget with CBS, so farming it out to CW’s legion of superhero shows make a lot of sense. It remains to be seen if Supergirl will in some way immigrate to the main universe of CW shows or if it’ll take place on Earth-4, separate from the adventures of Arrow, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. However, as we wait for that answer, let’s all climb aboard the Supergirl Season 2 hype train with a list of all the stuff they should include in the next, installment of the girl of steel. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Preacher Covers

So, AMC’s Preacher show premieres tomorrow.  It’s a pretty big deal, the first major comic adaptation by AMC after their phenomenally successful adaptation of Walking Dead.  Additionally, it represents the first time Seth Rogen has thrown his considerable weight behind a television series, no less an adaptation of one of the goriest and edgiest comic books to come out of DC Comics mature reader’s imprint Vertigo. 

Finally, this is the 2^nd time someone has attempted to adapt a Verigo Comic to the small screen after the abysmal failure of last year’s Constantine, making this a second shot at success for the vast amount of properties at Vertigo.  Given all that, and that it’s another comic book show for me to leach hash tags off of, of course I’m going to celebrate it and what better to do that then with a look at the comics the show is based on.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on Preacher’s 12 best covers.

Cover Story - Top 12 Rip Hunter Covers

You know, I’m really going to have to figure out some way to thank CW because I’ve managed to wring so many articles out of Legends of Tomorrow it’s ridiculous.  That’s one of the glorious things about a show with as many superheroes with rich and vibrant heroes as Legends of Tomorrow, though it certainly helps having a lot of avenues to discuss the various heroes on the series.  For now it’s time to look at covers once more, this time zeroing in on the leader of the Legends: Rip Hunter. 

Originally created in 1959, Rip Hunter enjoyed a fairly successful solo run in the early ‘60s before fading into obscurity till the 2010s when he popped up in the massively successful 52 comic.  Since then, Rip has been elevated to a constant of the DCU and the comic book equivalent of Doctor Who, that is until Silver Surfer replaced him in that category but that’s a story for another article.  For now, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on Rip Hunter, Time Master.

Panel Vision - Iron Man Armor Guide

So, Civil War was a big hit, a monster hit if we’re being blatantly honest with each other.  Given that I’m going to be writing post-Civil War articles for a while now and this is one of them.  As all the trailers and posters probably gave away Iron Man is a big part of the film so it’s about time I actually started talking about him on this blog.  What’s always been weird about Iron Man as a hero is that he was never all that popular prior to 2008.  Oh, he was around but he was a lot like Green Lantern, a C-list hero that came out consistently without ever being a “must read” comic. 

The only thing that kept Iron Man in the nerd consciousness was the awesome multitude of armor designs his character generated.  As such, this Comics Rainbow isn’t going to be about periods in Tony Stark’s life and history as a character but rather the different designs of his armor.  The only limit is that the armors have to be something of continuous substance rather than one-offs or cult favorites so don’t expect any stealth suits or arctic exploration mechs.  With that said, let’s get the full spectrum on the armors of Iron Man. 

Cover Story - Top 10 Silver Age Captain America Covers

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This Friday marks the premiere of Captain America: Civil War.  It’s a major event, the first Marvel film of 2016 and the launch of their 3^rd phase that will climax in the epic Infinity War two-parter.  What’s more, this is the first big, multi-hero Marvel film after Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was good but received a less than stellar reception from fans and at the box office, losing out to Jurassic World and Star Wars: Force Awakens in the year end wrap up.  There’s a lot riding on this but at the same time, Captain America has emerged to be the superhero of the 2010s, embodying the ideal of the superhero within the cultural zeitgeist in a way few others have. 

Chris Evans’ Captain America is right up there with Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Michael Keaton Batman, and Toby McGuire’s Spider-Man as the living symbol and ambassador of this whole genre.  Given that wait and circumstance, let’s celebrate this turn of events with another dive into the shallow end to get the Cover Story on the top 10 Silver Age Captain America covers.

Panel Vision - Captain America: Civil War Review

Edited by Robert Beach

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately in the endless build-up to Captain America: Civil War is how much Captain America has become the embodying ideal of the superhero. This happens sometimes when a specific superhero property explodes into the popular consciousness, transforming its title character from well-known hero to universally recognized heroic ideal. Superman in 1978, Batman in 1989, Spider-Man in 2002, and now Captain America, they all stand as the best example of the superhero in their moment in time. 

The hows and whys of that phenomenon vary from character to character, but the essential unifying factor is each of these characters embodied some necessary conflict or fantasy that spoke innately to the concerns and ideas of their time. In the case of Captain America, I think what’s elevated him to nationalistic ideal and ambassador of an entire genre to the masses is his sense of loyalty, his commitment to ideals and to people. The quiet genius of Captain America: Civil War is it takes Cap’s great strength and turns into the fracture that shatters the entire Marvel status quo. 

Film Land - 7 Star Wars Spin-Offs They Should Make

Edited by Robert Beach 

Happy Star Wars Day, presumptive audience! May the force be with us all. This Star Wars Day, however, feels decidedly special as it’s the first time in nearly a decade when celebrating Star Wars felt like a celebration of tomorrow, of looking forward, rather than a nostalgic look back at the triumphs of the past. A lot of that has to do with the massive success enjoyed by The Force Awakens last year and the gathering hype for this December’s Rogue One. 

For the first time in forever, Star Wars is back as a culture force in our society as a name that’s said with pride and an eye towards the future. With that in mind, this article is going to be about the future. I mentioned Rogue One a moment ago because it is a big deal. The first ever theatrical Star Wars spin-off film to be released, and it’s got me thinking about what other spin-offs they could make. Let's jump right in then. 

Independence Day: Resurgence 2nd Trailer Breakdown

Edited by Robert Beach 

One of the weird trends of the 2010s has been a, let us say, complicated relationship with the pop cultural touchstones of the 1990s. To be clear, I don’t think anyone really has complicated feelings about revisiting the actual content produced in the ‘90s.  Ask any given 20-something and they’ll undoubtedly talk your ear off about how amazing Animaniacs or Power Rangers was. Even today’s subject, Independence Day, still commands a tidal wave of affection from the ‘90s kids who grew up watching it on TNT. I know because I’m one of them. 

No, when I say complicated, I mean in terms of how much we’d like to actually recreate or continue the various elements of our collective misspent ‘90s youth. Sometimes attempts to perpetuate ‘90s mythos are met with love and success like the ongoing Pokemon phenomena or the massive success of Jurassic World, while other times the only response is disgust and derision like last year’s twin flops of Goosebumps and Terminator Genisys or the X-Files revival. This year seems set to make what could be the definitive statement on the question of audience reaction to ‘90s revivals with the upcoming sequel to Independence Day, which now has a new trailer. 

Analyzing Bill: The New Doctor Who Companion

Edited by Robert Beach

Well, it’s been a long time since we were here. For the new comers in the audience, Doctor Who is the story of a time-travelling alien named the Doctor and his human companion who have adventures throughout all of time and space. It started in the ‘60s and has persisted to the modern day, barring a decade-long hiatus throughout the ‘90s. Personally, I’ve got a strained relationship with the show at this point. More accurately, a strained relationship with show runner Steven Moffat.  

Moffat’s almost single-handedly responsible for the show’s American success and has penned plenty of great episodes, but he’s got a lot of flaws ranging from a constantly failing at diverse representation to his terribly executed finales that lack any sense of restraint or editing. In any event, the question of Moffat’s pros and cons has become a moot point now that he’s announced he’s leaving the show after Doctor Who’s next season, which will be in 2017 to build up some mystique for Moffat’s departure. However, the hype train is already building now with the premiere of Moffat’s final new companion Bill, played by Pearl Mackie. 

10 DC Characters Willem Dafoe Could Play in Justice League

Edited by Robert Beach 

We are a year and a few months away from WB/DC’s latest answer to the Avengers: 2017’s Justice League movie. Your level of excitement for that fact may vary based on whether or not you saw the slow-motion train wreck that was Batman v. Superman. Yes, in the wake of WB’s blockbuster debacle, attitudes seem to be shifting around the second biggest superhero team-up ever attempted as Justice League is looking less and less like an assemblage of Earth’s greatest heroes and simply another chance for Zack Snyder and the boneheads at WB and DC entertainment to get everything wrong.

It’s hard to argue against that particular philosophy given we’ve seen this guy’s god awful handiwork twice in a row now, but a year is still a long time with plenty of chances for things to improve.  Case in point, Justice League has now officially cast Oscar-winner Willem Dafoe in a mystery role. Dafoe has stated his role’s a hero, but anything is possible this early on. With that in mind, let’s make some guesses as to who the former Green Goblin might be playing. 

Iron Fist News Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach 

At time of writing, Marvel has successfully produced 3 Netflix original series with a 4^th ready to premiere this fall. Marvel’s Netflix output has been…mixed to say the least. Jessica Jones is one of the greatest iterations of the superhero genre ever produced while Daredevil season 1 featured a breakout performance from Vincent D’Onofrio as the Kingpin. Conversely, Daredevil season 2 has been met with a good amount of dislike owing to the plethora of unresolved plot threads, lack of a strong antagonist, and abysmal adaptation of Elektra.  

The second season did boast the incredible Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, who’s apparently getting his own Netflix show down the line. For the moment, the Marvel/Netflix saga isn’t in as strong a place as it was in 2015 when it first burst on the scene. That could all change this fall with Luke Cage, but only one name is dominating the Marvel/Netflix news cycle, and that is Iron Fist. And that’s not a good thing either.