Thursday, December 14, 2017

Why the Disney/Fox Merger May Be Bad for the X-Men

So, Disney is buying 20th Century Fox! A lot of folks are really excited about the possibilities of having the X-Men in the MCU, Wolverine and the Thing in the Avengers, AvX, Galactus, and all of the other possible crossover potential. But I find myself apprehensive.


Friday, May 19, 2017

In Defense of Both the HydraCap Storyline and Its Detractors

The HydraCap story is one of the most divisive storylines in comics that I've ever seen, even spilling out into the regular press. After a long conversation with a friend who is a more casual Captain America fan, I'm getting a better view of where the divisions are happening and why. I do think it's partially on Spencer, but it's also because comics fans these days tend to be more fans of what they think characters are (which often includes cinematic versions, cartoon versions, and just wider pop culture symbolism versions) than fans of the past stories about characters. 

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Captain America, Character, and Fresh Takes

This post contains spoilers for a recent comic book which you have probably heard about if you have looked at the internet in the last day or two. Still, the rest of the article is after the cut for those of you returning from desert islands.


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

A Short History of the Comic Book Industry

A couple of years back, the company I work for was kicking around some ideas, and one of the things that came up was an idea that would eventually end up being Hero Analytics. Not everyone in the company was as familiar with comic books and the industry as I am, so I made up a little document to act as a primer on the history of the industry and its current state. This is that document, with a few edits. Please keep in mind that this was made in early 2013. I've updated it a little bit, but there are a few dated references in here. If you need to give someone a relatively short document that explains the history of the industry and why things are how they are, well, here you go.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Hollywood's Problem With Comic Book Movies

Doom is not pleased.
Welcome back to the internet's most sporadic comic book blog! I know I haven't written much on here this year, and I'll be honest that that's probably not going to change, but every once in a while I see something so phenomenally great or something so phenomenally dumb that it gets my brain whirring and I have to write something or blood's going to come shooting out of my nose. Today's post is brought to you by the announcement that in the new Fantastic Four film, Dr. Doom will not be named Dr. Doom, nor will he be a Latverian monarch nor even a businessman. He's a computer hacker that goes by the handle DOOM. Take a guess as to whether I regard this as phenomenally great or phenomenally dumb. Go ahead. Guess.

Here's the thing, I can understand how this came about. I can even sympathize with why it did. I mean, I can see the thought process of this change. I used to blame the suits at studios for things like this, but I'm rapidly beginning to understand that a lot of this kind of dumb can be laid at the feet of the creative types, and I think I've finally figured out why.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Why a Wonder Woman Movie is Trickier Than You Might Think

And we're back! Between work and the holidays, I haven't been able to blog, but now Marvel has confirmed development of a solo Black Widow movie. And, of course, everyone's response, including mine, is, "So what's the hold up on the Wonder Woman movie, DC?" DC has one of the most iconic female characters in any medium available to it, yet the property continues to sit in development hell: a TV pilot that went nowhere, a movie that had Joss Whedon attached and died in development, and plenty of other attempts that haven't even made it as far as getting a name attached to them. But the truth is, developing a Wonder Woman movie or TV series is a lot trickier than people want to admit.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Why Agents of SHIELD Isn't Working

We'll get back to our positivity-fest shortly, but I wanted to talk a little bit about Agents of SHIELD, and why it's not working. I know it has fans out there, but its viewership has steadily dropped since its admittedly wildly successful debut episode. I, personally, had expected to like the show a lot more than I have. However, it's not really working for me nearly as well as a TV show about SHIELD should be, and that is, I think, the whole reason it's not working: it's not a show about SHIELD, it's mostly just a generic genre show.