In recent years many comics have tried, seriously and facetiously, to address the impact of superheroes on world events. Others attempt to explain why the heroes didn’t affect events; Earth-2’s Hitler found a mystic artifact that kept the JSA at bay.
But what about the broader culture? How would the characters and conventions associated with superheroes affect the cultural world?
y42 writes, Rumour has it that Topher Grace, better known as Eric, the lovable teenager from That 70’s Show, will play the ridiculously large and muscular villain Venom in Spider man 3. The good news is: New Line will not be making a Spider-man-free stand alone Venom movie.
Terry Gilliam has crafted a bizarre, baroque film (does he make any other kind?) around the stories collected and popularized by the Brothers Grimm.
Our summer Sunday film reviews wind down with Movies on Drugs.
Naked Lunch isn’t SF but, chances are, you’ll find it in the SF/Fantasy section of your local video store, and it is fantasy of a sort. Based on William S. Burroughs’ memorable experimental novel (available at Amazon.com or
Amazon.ca), the film depicts the writing of that novel, adding some order to the chaos of the non-linear book. The viewer enters Burroughs’ mind, during a time when he was addicted to heroin. Drugs aside: if you can stomach it, this film may be the best ever made about the creative process.
“Few movies are specifically tailored for appeal to those on controlled substances….”
–Andrew Borntregger, Badmovies.org.“A bunch of people got really fucked up on drugs and made a movie.”
—Some Guy at a Party, the 1980s.“I’m from Connecticut. I kill with my cunt.”
–Margaret, Liquid Sky
Our second summer Sunday feature, an 80s cult film, has found faint new life on DVD. No film about alien contact has ever played quite like this before or since. Warning: content may be unsuited to all kinds of people. I dispense entirely with spoiler/censorship tags in the main body of the review.
Charles Stross created a fascinating future in Singularity Sky. His second foray into that universe is entertaining, but it lacks the inventiveness and originality of its predecessor.
This we did not expect.
–Man in Gray
Charlie Jade comes to a bizarre and ambiguous conclusion.
James Marsters, Buffy‘s Spike, reportedly will appear in six eps of Smallville as Brainiac. So, will this be the classic green look, the far cooler Terminator skeleton look, or an entirely different version of the character?
A rogue technician is the key to preventing Vexcor from opening the link.
Continue reading →
I haven’t had time to do reviews of the nominated novels this year, though I reviewed Iron Council back in September, and I’m hoping to review Charles Stross’s Iron Dawn before the end of August. Meanwhile, you can find the entire list of nominees here and the winners, posted at the link below.
In addition, my thoughts on the nominated short stories follow, along with links to each.