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Reviews
Nameless #4: The Logic of a Nightmare
After four issues, I can safely say that I’m still not really sure what’s going on in Nameless. Just as I get, or at least seem to get, a handle on the proceedings, reality shifts… [more]
The Lost World: Jurassic Park: A Retro Review
Believe it or not, I come here not to bury The Lost World, but to praise it. Jurassic Park hit theaters in June of ’93 and the rapturous reception it received at the box office… [more]
Jurassic Park: A Retro Review
When director Steven Spielberg’s dinos-on-the-rampage blockbuster Jurassic Park first hit the screen in summer of 1993, twenty-two years ago now (I’ll let you process that number for a second, and let the reality of how… [more]
Love and Mercy: The Powerful Story of Brian Wilson
There are many scenes in Bill Pohland’s new film Love and Mercy of Brian Wilson simply listening. That wouldn’t be an especially unusual choice for a film about a great composer, but the twist here… [more]
Play to Win: Nonplayer #2
Some ten years ago I was heavily addicted to the much-missed MMO City of Heroes. My friend Mike and I would ‘meet’ most evenings in Paragon City, chat as we blitzed through missions and even… [more]
Mad Max: Fury Road is the Best Movie of the Year
“I never thought I’d do anything so shiny.” It might seem hyperbolic to claim Mad Max: Fury Road as the best movie of the year already, but I promise you it’s not. The chances of… [more]
Community Season Six: “Wedding Videography”
This season of Community has been utilizing very minor characters a lot more than ever before. The show has always had a cast of glorified extras that would pop into scenes when a random student… [more]
Validation: A Creative and Moving Webcomic
“Validation” is one of the more gentle, heartfelt and affecting webcomics out there. (As a side note: there are quite a few webcomics! At some point, they’ll constitute a major part of the comics world,… [more]
The Flash Season 1 Episode 23 Review
In the penultimate installment of its first season The Flash suddenly seemed to skip ahead of the script. In an episode that wasn’t initially focused on a direct conflict between Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne,… [more]
Invisible Republic #3: Fighting for History
By coincidence, for an unrelated project, I’ve been reading Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle lately, and I can’t help seeing many similarities with Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko’s Invisible Republic, as… [more]
Community Season Six: “Modern Espionage”
Last season Community decided to return to one of its better concept episodes – Dungeons and Dragons. The results were mixed, feeling like a slightly fruitless attempt at recapturing the glory days. When I heard… [more]
Movies You Should Watch: Decalogue One
The 10 films are not philosophical abstractions but personal stories that involve us immediately; I hardly stirred during some of them. After seeing the series, Stanley Kubrick observed that Kieslowski and Piesiewicz “have the very… [more]
My So-Called Secret Identity Volume 1 Print Edition Review
The past couple of weeks have not been a good time for female fans of comics. Between GamerGate trying to set up a booth at a Calgary Con, Michelle MacLaren’s rapid exit from Wonder Woman,… [more]
Arrow Season 3 Episode 23 Review
Arrow’s third season finale is, for the most part, what one might expect out of a season finale from the show. It’s big, nearly apocalyptic, and features more than a few fights and heartfelt speeches.… [more]
Community Season Six: “Basic RV Repair and Palmistry”
Well what do you know! It may have taken ten episodes but “Basic RV Repair and Palmistry” might just be the best episode of Community in a long time. Or at least in ten episodes.… [more]
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: A Retro Review
After Mad Max 2’s ecstatic reception by both critics and paying audiences, a third entry in the series took on the air of inevitability. It was a question of when, not if. Mind you, that… [more]
Thomas Alsop: Beautiful New York Gothic
Thomas Alsop, now available in a gorgeous TPB from Boom! studios, is an example of that rich collection of fiction and art that tries to bring the ancient past to America. That impulse seems like… [more]
Mad Max 2: A Retro Review
“I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land.” So begins the opening narration setting the status quo of Mad Max 2 (known to many folks stateside as The Road Warrior). Nearly thirty-five… [more]
You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive: On the Last Season of Justified
You have to watch Justified now; it’s no longer optional. I’ve recommended this series before, but any recommendation for an ongoing show comes with that big glowing asterix. How many hordes would’ve recommended Lost during… [more]
Diametric Futures and Alternate Realities Adequately Executed: Lou Iovino’s The Last West
I’ve never read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. (Most people who don’t like it haven’t either.) But I am aware of Objectivism, the tenet that Rand preaches without abandon, and I refuse to live in… [more]
Mad Max: A Retro Review
By the time Mad Max arrived on the scene in 1979, the cupboard of post-apocalyptic cinema was already pretty well stocked. From The Time Machine to the Planet of the Apes cycle to A Boy… [more]
Chrononauts #3: Early Review!
Chrononauts continues to be exuberant, good-hearted fun, and as we head into the last act of this four-issue arc, Quinn and Reilly are starting to encounter consequences to their extremely irresponsible (though fun) actions. Mark… [more]
Arrow Season 3 Episode 22 Review
“This Is Your Sword” pretty quickly goes back on the biggest development of last week’s episode. It turns out that Oliver hasn’t actually been indoctrinated by the League of Assassins and has merely been playing… [more]
The Flash Season 1 Episode 21 Review
Iris finally knows that Barry is The Flash. It’s a plot development that’s been a long time coming, particularly because it actually happened once already before getting wiped out by Barry’s jump through time, and… [more]