Geekklesia

The TL:DR version - My Final Ranks: https://boxd.it/1JTjC It seems that a lot of the folks I follow have put together their list of the top Marvel Films. Now that Avengers: Infinity War is out, I thought it was probably time for me to at least take a stab at a list of my own. But with eighteen films to work with, it seemed to be a very overwhelming task.  So I decided to apply a very simple methodology to my ranks: First, I looked at the films releases by the "Phases" as ordered by Marvel: Original Release List: Phase One Iron Man (2008) The Incredible Hulk (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor (2011) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Marvel's The Avengers (2012) Phase Two Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Ant-Man (2015) Phase Three Captain America: Civil War (2016) Doctor Strange (2016) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...

A friend of mine loaned me his copy of Identity Crisis , and I finished it in one sitting. It is a heartbreaking story about the toll being a superhero can take on your personal life and the lives of those around you. Also, as a friend on Facebook pointed out to me, it was a very intimate story, as worlds were not at stake. It was personal, and yet, the tension was still high, because you cared about the characters enough to want to solve the mystery and resolve the titular "crisis." I have been a fan of Brad Meltzer, surprisingly enough not from his books, but from his History Channel television series, Brad Meltzer's Decoded and Brad Meltzer's Lost History . The latter program identified artifacts that had been lost, misplaced or plain stolen and asked for viewers to aid in their recovery. The first episode detailed the story of the "911 Flag" that was raised over Ground Zero.  Toward the end of that single season, it was reported that someone had come f...

Now that a few weeks have passed, and I have had the opportunity to see Captain America: Civil War twice, there are some thoughts that I believe are present. A number of bloggers and other critics have noted that neither Steve Rogers/Captain America nor Tony Stark/Iron Man are 100% correct in their views. Neither individuals nor institutions can be trusted to provide competent, reliable oversight for people with power. Personal responsibility: I find it interesting that in discussing the Sokovia Accords, which would limit the Avengers to act only when they had clearance from a UN panel, Steve Rogers claims to accept that in order to act he must be willing to live with the consequences. In other words, he sys he is willing to take responsibility for the results, good and bad, of his actions.   Speaking to Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, he says "This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a wa...

Now that season one of Supergirl is in the books, and the initial back and forth over the merits or crimes present in the film Batman v. Superman: the Dawn of Justice  has died down, I have an observation I wish to share: The best presentation of Superman on screen today is in Supergirl . There.  I said it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the near-mythical blur that pops up every so often to prove the Man of Steel exists in this universe, or exchanges text messages with his cousin is what many die-hard Superman fans have been clamoring for. Nope. The best Superman on screen is, in fact, Kara Zor-El, Supergirl herself. Why do I say these things? Well, it's only slightly based on my own readings of comics from the seventies, a small but eclectic collection of DC and Marvel titles that my aunt had at her house for her grandkids to read when I was very young.  I've also done some reading on various histories of the comics and even one specifi...

I have mentioned here and elsewhere that I am not fully a comic book geek.  My younger self was entertained by the small reading collection maintained at my aunt's house for her grandchildren (who were themselves closer to my own age than my cousins), but I never really maintained anything other than small collections of limited run series (like Ambush Bug and Car Warriors ).  Even today, I have more comic books than I have ever in my life owned, but will most likely be culling that down to a very small, non-negotiable pile of less than twenty or so in the next few months.  I have read my fair share of Superman, Batman and Justice League comics, and I faithfully watched the Superfriends cartoons on Saturday Mornings (I preferred the Wonder Twins to Wendy and her idiot brother). So it should come as no surprise that I consider myself "conversant, not fluent." A couple of years ago, I saw Man of Steel and didn't hate it. It didn't cause me anger when a young, un...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has proven to be an unstoppable force, regularly producing films and television programs that mine the depths of their catalog. These productions feature properties that bring larger-than-life characters from the four-color pages of comic books, thus introducing these characters to a whole new audience that would never otherwise sweet foot in a comic shop.  Since re-acquiring the Daredevil property from 20th Century Fox in 2012, Marvel has displayed a consistent ability to "get it right" when it comes to putting their properties on either the large or small screens.  A year after the rights reverted to Marvel, it was announced that they had entered into a deal with Netflix to produce a number of serious based on Marvel paperless, including Daredevil. Two weeks ago, the thirteen episode series Daredevil premiered on Netflix, marking a major departure from other Marvel productions. The series is dark and gritty in tone, seeking to emulat...

Last week I broke my ankle slipping on some ice. Since I wasn't going anywhere for a while, I decided to catch up on a movie I hasn't seen when it first came out, but one I had heard many good things about. That movie was M. Night Shyalaman's 2000 exploration of what makes a superhero or a supervillain, Unbreakable , starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. WARNING! The below synopsis and analysis contains spoilers! My initial thoughts were that in this film, every character is in some way broken. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is dealing with a personal sacrifice he made twelve years ago that has apparently limited his future. His grief over this loss leads to a restlessness that causes his relationships with his wife and son to be broken as well. Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), unlike David, is physically broken. He has a rare condition that leads to brittle bones, which means he is highly susceptible to injury. Although deeply embittered by his condition...

First of all, let me say that it is great to be back. I have been on hiatus while I transitioned from an administrative role in my church in Mississippi to a pastoral role in a local church in Virginia. The transition has taken longer than I anticipated, but I have a number of notes for posts in the hopper that need a bit of work, but this is one I was able to finish.  Hopefully , it will be of help to someone. In the film,  Fools Gold , a character refuses to let himself be called the sidekick. In fact, his line is "I don't think of myself that way. I am the lead character in my own story." This quote reveals an underlying truth in nearly everyone's life: everyone is the hero/star of their own story.   In the live-action version of the superhero satire  The Tick , Arthur bristles  at the notion that he's the Tick's "sidekick." He prefers to be known as his 'partner.' He cannot accept that he might have second billing to someone els...

Note : last night I live blogged the premiere . Now that I've slept on it , I've put together a little more coherent review . Be Warned - there ARE mild spoilers . Okay, so its a day later. I've read some initial responses to the premiere, ranging from "it was awesome," to "it was underwhelming.". I'm falling along the awesome side of the continuum, though not necessarily saying it was perfect. Strong, yes. Perfect, no. What I liked : I loved the way the events of THE AVENGERS were tied in to the opening, establishing a world where superheroes and aliens are now revealed in full. I enjoyed the way Agent Coulson was shown to have somehow survived. Stepping out of the shadows and making a quip about a "bulb out" was perfect. The writing was fun, especially the dialogue. Joss Whedon has a golden ear for the spoken word. The message about character, responsibility and who you are trumping what you have gave me a lo...

Tonight, I'll be live-blogging the premiere! Nice cameos of the Avengers! A hero is a guy running into (or climbing up) a burning building when everyone else is running out... Special guest star Colbie Smulders No wonder this guy gets recruited by Level 7 "We stand between the world and a much weirder world" And there he is! "When you get shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini you can tell it your way." What is the Rising Tide? Ron Glass! He can never know what?  My wife is afraid he might be a LMD.... "With great power comes...a ton of weird crap" That IS a nice bus! And there's Lola! So Skye is "The Rising Tide?" Centipede? Love the drones checking out the lab! Great truth drug! But a hero doesn't kill....(not even Super- oh, wait) So, this centipede device is messing with his moral compass? I'm not liking this origin story. Extremis. Huh. So they're coupling this with IRON MAN 3?  And Extremis is a reverse ...

Note : this post will contain major spoilers from THE MAN OF STEEL film . If you haven't seen it yet , feel free to watch it and come back . I'll wait . In the film, Kal-El (not yet called Superman) calls attention to the fact the symbol that looks like a big red "S" to American earthlings is actually the symbol for his family on Krypton, and that it also stands for hope there as well. Throughout the film it seems as if writer David Foyer and director Zack Snyder are going to reinforce this theme: several times in the course of the film (presumably due to the upbringing of his adoptive earth parent's the Kents) he is seen finding a way to save lives.  Indeed, this has been a major refrain of most reviewers that I've heard that it is this stubborn refusal to end a life that marks Superman as an iconic comic book hero. So what happened in the third act? Why was Superman not able to save both the family in the Metropolis train stat...

" OMG Casting Ben Affleck as Batman just set us back another 10 years in our efforts to cure cancer, end poverty and bring peace to the Middle East. OH WAIT IT'S ONLY A MOVIE" - Berin Kinsman, from his Facebook Page (used with permission) Why do we in the geek/nerd community get so bent out of shape abut things like the recent announcement that Ben Affleck has been cast as the new Batman in Zack Snyder's upcoming Batman/Superman film?  People have been bringing up disastrous Affleck films like Gigli , Daredevil and Armageddon . Others have defended the choice citing his recent directorial triumphs like last year's Argo , which won him an Oscar for Best Director. Me? I'm willing to give Ben a chance, although I must admit he was not my first choice. But the question remains: why the vitriol here, when other things are so terribly wrong with the world? To begin, I'm not sure that individuals in the geek/nerd community were not outraged by the...

I tell people that when it comes to comics, "I am conversant, but not fluent." What I mean by that is that I am familiar with most of the mainstream superheros (and a few lower tier ones), but I don't regularly follow them on a monthly basis. I remember as a child visiting my aunt and her family. In their home were dozens of comics, featuring characters from both DC and Marvel, and I read them all for years.  I discovered Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the Avengers, and many others for the first time this way. From this humble introduction, I watched the Super Friends as a Saturday morning cartoon and the Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman as live action network TV shows. As I grew older, I supplemented my awareness of comic book heroes by buying certain books (Spider-Man was always a favorite), or picking up used copies of others.  As a science fiction fan, I enjoyed Marvel's serialization of the original Star Wars film, even though they lost me in the following sto...

I am the wild blue yonder. The front line in a never-ending battle between good and not-so-good. Together with my stalwart sidekick, Arthur, and the magnanimous help of some other folks I know, we form the yin to villany's malevolent yang. Destiny has chosen us. Wicked men, you face The Tick. Just the other day, I recently watched the entire series run (minus one episode) of the live-action version of The Tick, starring Patrick Warburton.  I was not familiar with the character, and had never seen either the original comic, the animated series or this version.  My initial reaction was unprintable; not because it contained bad language, but because I couldn’t find the words. In short, it is a funny, silly take on the superhero genre.  I loved the absolutely blithe innocence that the title character has. He has only one drive and that is to fight crime, wherever he finds it. Along with his trusty sidekick partner, Arthur. Arthur, whose moth-inspired costume gets him confu...