Panel Vision - Human Defense Corp

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As I write this it’s Veterans Day, the day the US has set aside to honor the men, women, and non-binary individuals who’ve served in the nation’s armed forces.  It’s also kind of an odd holiday to try and make topical content around when you’re a comic reviewer as a lot of the military-oriented comic book content is from the ‘40s and ‘60s.  Previously I’ve looked at stuff like the incomparable Enemy Ace as well as the DC military heroes who served during World War 2 but this time around I wanted to dig into something a bit more modern.  

As such, I’ll be taking a look at a peculiar oddity offered by that bizarre time in comics that was the early 2000s.  It’s part of the great DC Comics tradition of sporadically reviving their military comics in hopes of recapturing their massive popularity of past decades, each attempt a unique and curiously compelling attempt in its own right and this one is a real doozy: The Human Defense Corps. 

Doctor Who News Update

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So, we have a new Doctor.  In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, well firstly congratulations on choosing such a fine place to try and wait this whole year out but secondly let me introduce you to Jodie Whittaker, the woman who be the Doctor.  If you’ve been under that rock for more than a year and have no idea what Doctor Who is let me just congratulate you on bravely clicking this link regardless of your own ignorance, have some knowledge.  

Doctor Who is a British sci-fi TV show from the ‘60s that persisted through into the late ‘80s before going on a 10-year hiatus and re-emerging in 2005.  Since then, the show has slowly increased in popularity, peaking around 2012-2013 during the show’s 50^th anniversary/height of the 2010s’ British Cultural Invasion.  

The premise of the show is about a time-traveling alien named the Doctor who meanders through time and space with some human companions having various adventures.  The show’s cleverest wrinkle has always been that the Doctor will, at times of extreme injury, regenerate into a new person, which is used as an excuse to swap lead actors.  Jodie Whittaker is the 13^th such actor to take up the role and first woman to play the character yet and she’s bringing some interesting changes to the show with her. 

Panel Vision - 7 Possibilities for Thor 4

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Well, this was unexpected.  I don’t mean that Thor: Ragnarok was good or successful, at this point a Marvel movie being pretty good and making money is extremely par for the course.  I mean just HOW good and HOW successful Thor: Ragnarok actually was, effectively bringing this franchise back from the edge almost.  The Thor films have had a very odd trajectory, back in 2011 Thor was a breath of fresh air, a “Shakespeare in Space” adventure movie that was easily the most family friendly of the Phase 1 Marvel films.  

Since then, however, Thor lost a lot of its potential when the 2^nd entry, The Dark World, suffered director problems and got creamed by Hunger Games: Catching Fire and then Guardians of the Galaxy became the new cosmic kid on the block & Ant-Man took over the family-friendly mantel.  

But now with Ragnarok Marvel’s finally got a Thor film with a renewed mass appeal that finally figures out how to use Chris Hemsworth right AND delivered on the large-scale action and mythos the character always promised.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Thor 4 doesn’t seem like such a crazy possibility, especially with how transient the mantle of Thor is.  So with that said here are 7 possibilities for Thor 4. 

WB/Amazon Consider Lord of the Rings Show

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As the decade dwindles, it’s becoming increasingly clear that WB is finding themselves more and more left by the wayside in the age of global franchising.  The hard truth of the matter is that times change and more in more having a popular series of films matters less than having a film series that can stick around as part of the pop culture atmosphere.  The peculiar alchemy of turning online interest into hype into engagement has become the order of the day and that is a game WB really doesn’t seem to know how to play.  That’s why, despite the twin success of The Conjuring film series and the Kaiju-verse, WB is still chasing a return of their older franchise stalwarts- Batman, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. 

We already saw their attempts at branding a Batman for the new decade in last year’s disastrous Batman v. Superman while their attempts at a Harry Potter prequel in Fantastic Beasts were met with a resounding “meh,” which was at least a better response than the loud cry of “BOO!” the Hobbit films engendered.  Now, WB looks to the world of streaming to reverse its fortunes as they’re reportedly inching towards a deal with Amazon for a Lord of the Rings streaming series.