Gina Prince-Bythewood to Direct Silver Sable/Black Cat Film

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

As we move into the 2020s one of the significant emerging trends is the way that trends aren’t going away in any meaningful manner.  The decade is beginning to dwindle, and there’s no outward indication that audiences are going to lose interest in the broad multimedia franchises that have managed to stick- most pertinently superheroes.  Despite a thousand and one hit pieces about the impending death of the genre or superhero fatigue, the format has proved itself just too versatile to actually collapse in on itself.  However, just because a thing isn’t going away doesn’t mean it isn’t changing. 

As we begin to cap-off the defining multimedia stories of the 2010s the superhero genre is already evolving in new and different ways like Fox’s non-continuity approach to the X-Men or the CW’s functional TV Multiverse.  One of the biggest changes going forward is the beginnings of a demand for diversity with stuff like Black Panther, Luke Cage, Black Lightning, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman.  There’s a lot of reasons for this change, and I’ll end up getting into them more as we go, but this week it added another notch to its belt as Sony has tapped director Gina Prince-Bythewood to direct their planned Silver Sable/Black Cat movie as part of their Spider-Verse. 

Game of Thrones S7 Trailer Analysis

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

One of the curious things about the new age of perpetual media is the way franchises, and series persist well past their definitive moment in time.  The most obvious example of this is, of course, The Simpsons, a series that passed its moment of genuine relevance decades ago but has continued on as a part of the pop culture oxygen supply regardless.  That’s kind of the place where a lot of big name franchises have ended up in their final installments, like Harry Potter at the 8^th film or the last 2 Hobbit movies- they still made money but they didn’t set the trend or a significant impact and mainly existed so that all the confirmed fans could see how things ended. 

That feels like the best description of where Game of Thrones is at this moment in time, a series entering its final cycle well after its days of relevance have waned and basically just throwing all the fireworks on the screen to celebrate actually making it to the finish line.  There’s nothing overtly wrong with that approach, it’s a worthwhile goal, and I’m hard pressed to blame any series for just running out the clock after doing as much as Game of Thrones has.  There are, however, risks about getting too complacent and they shine through a little too clear in this first trailer for the penultimate season of Game of Thrones. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming Final Trailers Breakdown

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

With around a month left to go, Spider-Man: Homecoming is revving up to be a superhero film this year.  I’m not trying to denigrate the movie, in fact as we go through this breakdown I hope it shows I’m somewhat excited for the film, I’m just being honest about where it stands.  In many ways, 2017 has been kind of a hard year on Marvel Studios overall.  There are certainly successes, I don’t think anybody thought Agents of SHIELD would pull off a fourth season as well as it has and Thor: Ragnarok has smash hit written all over it.  But during a year when Marvel is facing down Wonder Woman, Logan, and Justice League none of their adaptations really seem to matter as much, and Homecoming is a pretty solid example of this. 

The film will be the second reboot of Spider-Man this decade and the fourth Spider-Man over the past 10 years.  There’s something in that to the fatigue of franchise management and repetition, especially with a character like Spider-Man who tends to revert to the same role of “teen hero” every time his film series reverts back to square one.  However, credit where it’s due that Homecoming looks very good, it just looks a bit like there might’ve been a more important movie lurking in the original script.  What am I talking about, let’s dive into this latest trailer, and I’ll tell you. 

Universal Announces Classic Monster Shared Universe

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

As a long time fan of shared universes and continuity, there’s a big part of me that wonder show this moment of popularity for those things will look once it’s passed into history.  Obviously, that’s assuming any trend can truly pass away anymore instead of simply going into extended hibernation, but by the same token, the young adult film boom of the mid-2010s seems to have thoroughly wound down, so I guess we’ll see.  

One thing seems fairly sure, most of the shared universes of the day will probably be looked back on with awkward disinterest or surprise, and none among them will garner such a response the same way I suspect the Universal Movie Monster-Verse will. 

In case you hadn’t heard, Universal has decided to revive the brands on their classic monster movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s to act as a new shared universe, which makes sense given the original films also acted as a shared universe.  These new films will be kicked off by this summer’s The Mummy and are being managed by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman- two of the biggest hacks working in Hollywood right now behind such atrocities as Transformers, Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the worst parts of the Star Trek reboot.  

Previously Universal had done a good job keeping this whole idea out of focus but as The Mummy nears and they start worrying about getting the hype machine going they’ve produce a big publicity spread to get people like me talking about it so, yeah; let’s talk about Universal’s Dark Universe.  

Tom Hardy Cast as Venom

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

The age of franchising and shared universe has been one of severe disappointment and frustration among all the good stuff.  As much as I love Marvel Studios, the CW shared superhero universe, or the emerging Kaiju-verse of Godzilla and King Kong those make up the occasional rarities.  For every one of them, it feels like we’re buried in terrible DCEU installments, ill-conceived horror universe, and yet more incompetent misfires from the people at Sony.  

There has truly been no one more knee-capped by the demand for cinematic universes than Sony, mainly because they only have 1 brand under their belt that could be turned into a bigger universe and now that brand is co-owned by Marvel and Disney. 

Obviously, I’m talking about Spider-Man- the franchise that started the modern superhero fixation at the turn of the millennium.  Sony still remembers those days when Spider-Man made them enough money to buy the Rock of Gibraltar and have been trying to recapture that moment ever since, without realizing it’s their corporate meddling that drove the brand into the ground from #3 onwards.  

However, now that Sony has to share the profits of its new Spider-Man film with the folks at Marvel Sony is trying to branch out with unofficial spin-offs.  So far these have all languished in development hell, but now they’ve finally started to get their act together with the first such project: Venom, starring Tom Hardy. 

Tom Holland Cast as Nathan Drake

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

We now return to the story of Sony Pictures, the little studio that fought North Korea and lost.   Despite a downward spiral for Sony, they’re expecting big returns from this summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, so big they’re already preparing their own solo Spidey spin-off about Venom that they won’t need to share the profits of.  However, that wasn’t quite enough for them as now they’ve decided to scoop up Homecoming star Tom Holland for a multi-picture deal as Nathan Drake, star of the Uncharted video games.  

It’s obvious Sony thinks Holland/Spider-Man is going to be a big deal and wants to lock him into a less financial co-dependent film franchise now before he gets priced out of their range.  At the same time, however, Sony’s in a bit of a pickle because they don’t have a lot of franchises at their disposal, which is why they’ve bent over backward to fit Holland into the awkward shape of Uncharted.

Static Thoughts - Who Shot Mr. Burns Retrospective

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

Tonight marks the return of Twin Peaks to our screens.  The original show and its question of “who killed Laura Palmer?” were some of the biggest TV mysteries of all time.  It’s approach to world building and blending high concept mysticism with potboiler mystery is still the gold standard all others strive for today.  Unfortunately, Twin Peaks is also one of those groundbreaking shows that’s already been dissected and explained to death, so instead I'm going to focus on one of its sister mysteries of TV, the Simpsons two-part episode “Who Shot Mister Burns?” 

Produced near the closing of the show’s so-called Golden Age, ‘Who Shot Mister Burns’ may be the largest the show ever loomed in the broad, pop-cultural eye and its approach to audience interaction and mystery has had almost as much impact on TV and movies as Twin Peaks or their shared predecessor Dallas.  I’m not at all kidding when I say ‘Who Shot Mr. Burns’ paved the way for modern cultural darlings like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and new classics of animation like Gravity Falls- let’s dive in. 

1st Black Lightning Trailer

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

So, CW’s 5^th superhero series, Black Lightning, finally has a trailer.  If you haven’t been following this latest entry into the CW shared universe, Black Lightning seems to be intended to fill the space that Legends of Tomorrow was initially built around.  

See, back before Legends of Tomorrow morphed into its own unique thing it was conceived of as a team-up for all the various heroes that had been introduced in The Flash and Arrow, including the title characters.  It was going to be a shortened mini-series running during the off-season breaks in the winter and summer. 

Obviously, that plan changed, most likely due to CW being unable to get Grant Gustin and Stephen Amell’s schedules to click together for that much filming, and Legends of Tomorrow became the weird superhero Star Trek TOS meets Doctor Who series it is today.  

Still, superhero shows are solid business for CW and they’ve been eager to find something new to fill that slot, hence why they’re also still experimenting with animated shows online like Vixen and The Ray.  Black Lightning is slotted to be their new answer as to what will air during the mid-season breaks, the story of a retired superhero dad putting the mask back on to battle his old enemy anew and now it finally has a trailer. 

Star Trek Discovery Trailer Breakdown

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

As I write this, it’s been a little over 10 years since Star Trek disappeared from our TV screens.  In that time, the franchise and the cultural landscape it inhabits have undergone a serious change.  The franchise got reinvented as a slick action vehicle 2009, which is only now starting to find a genuine identity in the likes of Star Trek Beyond.  Meanwhile, the TV landscape has been completely transformed by material like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Supergirl, Mad Men, American Horror Story, and countless others. 

Outside the realms of TV, technology is quickly advancing on the heels of Star Trek through VR and 3D printers, while also growing into directions the shows couldn’t have imagined such as social media or streaming video.  Meanwhile, on the political scale, the world is gripped by the tendrils of xenophobia and fascism as the gap between wealthy and poor grows ever wider.  Suffice it to say, it’s a different world now than it was 10 years ago and one that needs a different Star Trek and, this fall, CBS is going to give it to us with Star Trek Discovery. 

Extended Toy Box - Aliens (1992-1998)

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

It’s become something of a cliché now to point out how, when it premiered, Star Wars changed everything, but it really did.  The ramifications of Star Wars as a film and, more importantly here, a multimedia phenomenon are still being felt today.  One of the biggest changes brought about Star Wars was a complete revamp to the way toys are created and sold.  Before this moment toys tended to exist as unique entities.  There were a handful of tie-in toys but for the most part toy “franchises” stayed confined to the medium of toys.  With the advent of Star Wars, suddenly franchised toys were big business, and Reagan’s deregulation of the FCC’s rules about advertising led to even more through TV shows built as ads for the toys. 

This was the first time something called ‘structured play’ entered the realm of American toy production, where the idea was that toys weren’t just for the imagination, but they were coming with a prebaked story and universe that informed them.  As such, when toy companies in the ‘80s and ‘90s wanted to keep selling new action figures from Terminator or Predator after the original film ended they needed to come up with new stories to base the new toys around.  

This series of events led to a ton of various toy lines at the time acting as the first expanded universe for the various franchise, the first place officially licensed new stories emerged even if it was just in the form of commercials or on the back of the packaging.  In this series, Extended Toy Box, I’m going to take a closer look at these franchises as well as occasionally touching on toys in general.  With all that said, let’s look at one of the best examples of this with Aliens.

Panel Vision - Aliens: Genocide

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

So, the Alien franchise has, in classic form, given birth to a new monster in Alien: Covenant.  To celebrate the 6^th film in the Aliens franchise and the series’ seeming new lease on life in the 2010s I thought I’d look back at its most populated media frontier: comic books.  Yes, there were a metric ton of Alien comics published in the wake of Alien 3, which at the time seemed like the end of the franchise forever as “reboots” didn’t really seem like a thing yet back in 1992.  The main force behind the slew of Aliens branded books was Dark Horse, one of the B-list publishers now after clawing their way up from the C-list thanks to being the folks behind Hellboy. 

They’ve always made their bread and butter in adaptations and tie-in comics, and they milked the Alien franchise for everything it was worth, to the point they’re still putting out comics in this franchise now.  Seriously, there are 6 omnibuses worth of Alien comic material, which makes it all the more tragic that they’re so bad.  I dug through all of them in preparation for this review and found exactly two mini-series worth your time.  There was the enjoyably weird Aliens: Stronghold, which I’ll probably get to someday, and today’s focus, the unequivocal best of the bunch- Aliens: Genocide.  

Panel Vision - 8 Possibilities for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is now a pretty unequivocal hit, more or less proving that it wasn’t a fluke and Marvel is Jim Henson levels of good at making us empathize with incredibly goofy cartoons like Groot and Rocket.  With a sequel already announced by Marvel, it’s already time for sites like mine to start wildly speculating about what we might see.  

Even though the film hasn’t been written yet there were some pretty much hints towards future storylines in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and James Gunn has said that he already has a sketched out idea for the third film and how it will allegedly set-up the new mega-story for Marvel Phase 4.  Additionally, the Guardians of the Galaxy may not have been major Marvel heroes throughout their career but they do have a fairly notable and bizarre history all their own worth digging into to figure out where things might be going next. 

Judge Dredd Show Coming to TV

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

It’s an odd time for British nerd exports.  America and the UK have always had an awkward relationship in terms of our nerdy cultural exchange, with a lot of Britain’s genre creations never making it to our shores.  This is mainly the result of “nerdy media” existing on the fringes of popular consumption for 50 years or so.  Certainly, things opened up a bit more thanks to the Internet, but even then, America has long held the premium on exporting nerd culture. 

As such, it’s taken a long time for British genre creations to ever make inroads to American audiences, but all that changed in the early 2010s.  I mainly point to 2012 and 2013, when James Bond and Doctor Who both enjoyed significant anniversaries and found mass popularity here in the states.  Since then, even as the popularity around those two has died down we’ve continued to import UK creations like Taboo or Sherlock. 

However, the one UK staple that has never truly found his way into American hearts is Judge Dredd.  Despite a Stallone film and a movie of his own in the 2012-2013 boom Judge Dredd just can’t find that sweet spot for American audiences like Bond, Sherlock, or The Doctor.  However, it looks like everyone’s favorite Justice will get a third chance to arrest our hearts with an upcoming TV show: Judge Dredd: Mega City One. 

Hellboy Reboot Announced

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

One of the strange things about the modern age of blockbusters is that despite ‘superhero’ being the biggest genre in the world heroes that don’t come from Marvel or DC just can’t manage to break through.  This rule has been in place pretty much from the dawn of the modern blockbuster/superhero romance in 1978, though there are a few notable exceptions.  

There was a time in the ‘90s when Savage Dragon and Spawn commanded genuine respect, the Witchblade/Darkness franchise has always flirted around the edges of relevance,  and even now the folks at Valiant Comics are committed to turning Bloodshot and Ninjak into multimedia success stories. 

Still, for every one of those examples, there are five or six superheroes that never break through or fail within their first year.  By in large, the public will just never care as much about the likes of Supreme, X-O Man of War, the Occultist, or Green Hornet.  However, we cling to exceptions to this rule that we’ve managed, like the continued viability of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Static Shock.  As such, it really shouldn’t come as this much of a surprise that Hellboy is getting rebooted. 

Panel Vision - Camelot 3000

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

Every culture has a handful of fundamental tales that are forever retold, decade-to-decade.  In the Western canon, one such tale is the story of King Arthur, a romantic fiction theoretically based on the deeds of a real man in the time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of organized, European civilization.   Every decade since the dawn of modern pop culture has had its own take on the Arthur myth- 1953’s straightforward adventure film Knights of the Round Table, 1967’s musical Camelot was so popular the mythology became intertwined with the Kennedy administration. 

1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail brought ‘70s cynicism and satire to the material while 1981’s Excalibur afforded the legend the scale and pageantry of a blockbuster epic.  In 1995 First Knight doubled down on a romantic vision of King Arthur, and in 2004 we got an ostensibly more realistic version of the story with King Arthur.  Now, on the eve of the 2010’s take on the classic legend, I thought I’d look back on my favorite retelling of the classic tale, a piece of high-concept weirdness from 1983 entitled Camelot 3000. 

Static Thoughts - In A Mirror Darkly

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

It seems these days that alternate realities and parallel universes are everywhere.  That’s actually kind of to be expected as nerdy media becomes more and more of a dominant genre.  Back in the day geek material struggled for mainstream relevance unless it stripped out as many of its big ideas as possible but these days people are making movies and shows out of Ant-Man and Dr. Strange.  As such, digging into more complicated ideas like the Multiverse, pocket universes, or altered continuity are becoming more and more widespread. 

The Flash has really embraced this idea with the Multiverse and Flashpoint, Legends of Tomorrow had its own altered universe episode, Stranger Things was built on a dimensional foundation, and Agents of SHIELD has found serious success with an altered continuity story set in a world where the bad guys won called ‘Agents of Hydra.’  As I’m eager to capitalize on this trend I thought I’d look back at hands down my favorite altered reality story, coming to us from the most hated Star Trek series of them all Star Trek: Enterprise- this is ‘In A Mirror Darkly.’

Panel Vision - Top 8 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Easter Eggs

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

So, if the Box Office is anything to go by, you’ve now seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  I mean, if we're honest with each other that was probably always going to be the case- Marvel is the world’s cinematic guardian now, on the level of Pixar, what they make we watch and this was a sequel to one of their biggest cultural successes.  However, because this is a Marvel movie we all know the story doesn’t just end with the credits or even the after-credits scenes.  

Now comes the weeks of box office reporting and, most important, dissecting the film for Easter Eggs and hints about the broader Marvel cinematic universe story as part of generating hype for the next installment.  Let it never be said I won’t give the people what they want so, in that spirit, I’ve compiled my list of the top 8 Easter eggs from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, from surprise cameos to cheeky little references buried in the Marvel arcana on display.   

Filmland - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

It’s good, but then again you probably already knew that.  This is a Marvel movie, after all, they’ve ALL been good even the ones that aren’t very good like Iron Man 2 and Incredible Hulk.  Thankfully, the evolving experiment that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as the auteur career of director James Gunn give me plenty more to dig into with this sequel than just “is it an enjoyable film.”  The whole cast fits naturally and easily back into their roles, and the script manages to find a lot more stuff to do with them beyond the anarchic, rapid-fire comedy of the first film.  

The new/elevated characters like Yondu, Nebula, and Mantis all do a great job and are honestly some of the best parts of the movie, even outshining old favorites like Starlord and Groot at times.  Kurt Russell absolutely steals the show as Peter’s dad and is one of the best new additions to the MCU.  Finally, the more deliberate pacing and smaller, more intimate story-telling may eschew the high octane comedy and novelty of the original but never lose site of the cheeky and subversive spirit the first film had.  All that being said, let’s really get into this beast- spoilers to follow. 

Matrix Prequel About Young Morpheus in the Works

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

I think it’d be fair to say the 2010s haven’t been a kind decade to Warner Brothers Studios.  To be clear I’m not asking anyone to feel bad for the poor multi-million dollar corporation, it’s just a point of fact that the studio’s been struggling for blockbuster relevance for the last 6 years.  Back in the 2000s, they had big hits like The Matrix, The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter- it was their decade.  However, ever since the last Potter film in 2011 they slipped from the top and never fully made it back.  Dark Knight Rises was a joke when it came out and hasn’t aged well, and their other attempts at superhero cinema have been very much in the same boat. 

What’s more, their Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings prequels have done nothing to take back their market share of the fantasy genre.  Truly, between the Marvel superhero movies and the Disney fairy tale blockbusters, WB has been completely replaced in the two genres it once dominated.  Now, with the decade dwindling and their options limited, WB has elected to return to their first major hit of the 2010s with a prequel to The Matrix. 

Panel Vision - History of Hydra

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

There’s been a lot of chatter in the online comic circles lately about the fictional organization Hydra.  A lot of this has come out of Marvel’s big, 2017 comic event Secret Empire, a follow-up to Nick Spencer’s Captain America work where it was revealed Captain America was secretly a member of Hydra all along.  Admittedly, the real mechanics of Secret Empire are shaping up to be a lot more complicated than that, with one of the biggest issues of contention being the comics’ emphasis on separating Hydra from the Nazis within the fictional universe.  

This is a distinction made all the more complicated by the fact Marvel has been pushing “Hydra as Nazis” in the films since Captain America: First Avenger and even more so as part of the current Agents of SHIELD storyline about a simulated world ruled by Hydra.  With the comics and superhero fan communities abuzz over the topic of fictional fascists and what we’re allowed to feel about them, I figured it was well past time to do a deep dive into the actual history of Hydra.