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Reviews
Descender #13: Telsa
Descender #13 is ostensibly about Captain Telsa, the red-haired, firey Captain from the UGC, sent to retrieve TIM-21 and the codex he carries in his electronic DNA that may hold the key to understanding the… [more]
Manifest Destiny #21: Leadership
One of the many challenges that the historical Lewis and Clark expedition had to surmount was simple hunger. They weren’t as badly off as some, and fared far better than some of the more northern… [more]
The Purge: Election Year and a Reflection of Society
The Purge film dynasty has created a huge following of watchers and viewers because of its presentation of a society where all manner of sin, debauchery, and impulse is disregarded for one government-sanctioned night of… [more]
Finding Dory: A Textbook Family Movie
I occasionally cry when I watch movies. That’s not unusual; lots of people cry during movies. What I find interesting is the fact that I have never cried during a movie with an MPAA rating… [more]
Black Road #4: A Walk in the Snow
It’s too easy for us today to slip into a simplistic stereotype of the “dark ages”, or the early medieval period. Barbarians roaming across the countryside, committing unspeakable acts of carnage and pillage, and scared… [more]
When Reach Exceeds Grasp: Fant4stic
We’ve all heard terrible things about this film. Last fall, I decided to investigate further and see if it was the train wreck everyone was claiming. There appears to be plenty of blame to go… [more]
Star Trek Beyond Expectations
A five year mission may sound easy, but the first thing we’re shown in Star Trek Beyond is how long five years can really be when one has to spend it cooped up with 400… [more]
Negative Space Gets a TPB Release This Week
Negative Space, by Ryan K Lindsay and illustrated by Owen Gieni, is one of the more astute and creative explorations of depression ever committed to the page, and this week it’s available from Dark Horse… [more]
Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life: Reading Comics to Live
While reading Last Night, A Superhero a Saved My Life (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2016), I was struck by how emotionally invested I became in these tales of lives saved and redeemed by comic… [more]
Plutona #5: Kid Logic
The finale of Plutona’s five issue run is understandably dark, but then again, that’s basically the only place this remarkable series could go. The most interesting parts of this book have always been the relationships… [more]
Shattered Empire Fills in Some Intriguing Star Wars Gaps
One of the great things about a mythical universe such as the one created by Star Wars is that there’s plenty of room to tell many different stories, so long as they connect neatly with… [more]
Orange is the New Black Season 4: Non-Spoiler Review
Orange is the New Black was always an interesting, innovative show, both in its subject matter and even its mode of distribution (Netflix). But last season, the narrative became unfocused, the hole at the centre… [more]
Manifest Destiny #20: Big Feet and Bigger Eyes
“Captain Clark killed a curious animal… [one] never yet known in the United States.” That’s a quote from a member of the actual Corps of Discovery, and in that case it was the antelope, which… [more]
Descender #12: Brothers
One of Descender’s strongest themes has always been the notion of robots having souls — sometimes souls more pure and more sensitive than the flesh and blood humans that surround them. Our central robot character,… [more]
Invisible Republic #10: New Wrinkles
Invisible Republic is only just now in its tenth issue, but it feels as if there have been many more than that. The complexity of the world, and the subtlety with which Gabriel Hardman and… [more]
Paper Girls #6: The Horror of Adulting
Warning: If you haven’t read the first five issues of Paper Girls, this discussion will spoil a few things. On the other hand, if you have read those issues but not the latest, don’t worry.… [more]
The Goddamned #4: You Don’t Mess With Noah
The Goddamned is one of two major comics that have recently offered us a reimagined version of the Biblical character Noah. The other book — Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which was also made into a big… [more]
Equals Film Review
Science-fiction movies have long had a history of flirting with the concept of a “utopia.” However, the recurring problem of any utopia is that they are often always a “dystopia” in disguise. Is life truly… [more]
Manifest Destiny #19: Teamwork
When undertaking a task as dangerous as the exploration of unknown lands, teamwork is an absolute necessity. Other writers (such as Stephen Ambrose) have noted that it was this capacity for group unity, strong leadership… [more]
Black Road #2: A Little Kindness
It should come as no surprise that Black Road has the narrative structure of the “journey”. (The word “road” is right there in the title, after all.) While we were introduced to the characters and… [more]
Southern Bastards #14: “Homecoming” Ends
As we reach the end of the “Homecoming” story arc in Southern Bastards, it becomes fairly clear what this particular storyline has always been about. Not football, or even race, necessarily, but the rather the… [more]
Batman V Superman and the Lack of Emotion
SPOILERS AHEAD… I wasn’t moved. There I was, watching my three all-time favorite superheroes together on the big screen for the first time and I wasn’t moved. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were there, in… [more]
Ken Burns’ Jackie Robinson: A Timely and Snappy Portrait of a Legendary Life
Longtime fans of Ken Burns know that the legendary documentary filmmaker can produce works of great beauty and power, but sometimes falls prey to sentimentality and repetitive, unsubtle narratives. Luckily, his new film Jackie Robinson… [more]
Black Road #1: The Viking Comic You’ve Been Waiting For
Vikings have a special place in the European imagination, to put it mildly. A crazy blend of the wild west with the notion of the Fantasy Hero archetype set to a Heavy Metal soundtrack, the… [more]
The Fix Is Wonderful, Outrageous Fun
When I was in Grade 12, our laid back physics and astronomy teacher once asked our class, “What do you want to do when you leave here?” One bravely honest soul replied, “I don’t want… [more]