Panel Vision - No Man's Land

As you probably know Puerto Rico recently suffered devastation at the hands of Hurricane Maria.  It’s a natural disaster of incalculable scale made infinitely worse by the federal government's point-blank refusal to help Puerto Rico in the manner that would befit our so-called leaders.  If you’re at all able to give please consider donating to organizations like United for Puerto Rico, Americares, Convoy of Hope, Direct Relief, Catholic Relief Services, International Medical Corps, or Unicef.  The people of Puerto Rico are in desperate need of help and it’s painfully clear that it’s going to have to come from us because those in power are too cruel or incompetent to take action. 

This idea of being abandoned by our own government has been a running theme in 2017, especially with the way the natural world seems to be coming apart at the seams.  More and more, the organizations we once trusted with our basic safety and day-to-day concerns have turned on us with, at worst, a predatory maliciousness and at best a blind idiocy.  

In that power vacuum citizens have had to rely on one another to fight the battles we can’t as individuals, be that in the form of mass demonstrations and call-in over healthcare or the civilian fleet that went to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.  This blend of federal abandonment with the greater need for joint community action seemed fairly familiar to me because it’s also the core of my favorite Batman comic of all time- No Man’s Land. 

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. 

Gotham - Damned If You Do... Review

I give a very angry critique of the truly awful Gotham Season 2 Premiere, check it out over on Front Towards Gamer: http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/09/24/gotham-damned-if-you-do-review-tv/

Static Thoughts - 10 Criminals & Masterminds We May See in Gotham Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach 

Gotham is a Batman prequel show from Fox. The main character of the show is Jim Gordon, but the show has slowly broadened its horizons to encompass the entire Gotham underworld.  In addition, there’s been a developing subplot around a shady misconduct at the highest levels of Wayne Industries as well as a mysterious foreign interest that’s able to pull the mob’s strings.

Combine all this with the various unresolved plot threads involving secret surgery islands and land deals and you end up with a show filled to the brim with crime bosses and criminal masterminds. With the second season looming, I thought of 10 bosses and brains we might see in Gotham season 2.