Category: Commentary
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THOUGHT CLOUDS: Batman Earth One (comic book review)
(This review originally appeared on The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast.) BATMAN EARTH ONE Geoff Johns, writer; Gary Frank, artist Here’s what the critics have to say about Batman Earth One, by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank: “. . . new, breathtaking . . .” – Brad Meltzer, important writer guy “. . . the right…
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Episode 23 — “Sci-Fi Rip Offs”
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSBen, Steve, and Dr. Jayce are together again . . . and, fortunately for you, none of them sing the song from The Muppets Take Manhattan (although Ben has it stuck in his head as he types these words). The topic? Sci-fi rip offs. The three of them…
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Joe Kubert: The Legacy of a Legend
Joe Kubert passed away last Sunday. He was 85 years old, and had been active as late as this year creating art. What can be said about him that hasn’t been said already? I wasn’t into war comics much as a kid, but once I started recognizing artists, I realized that the only war comics…
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Geek Bible — Romans 8:35-39: Encouragement Beyond Time and Space…
“Geek Bible” is a series of posts exploring passages from the Bible that have special resonance for lovers of Christ who are also lovers of sci-fi and fantasy . . . As a young writer, I always liked to put Bible verses at the beginning of my stories. You know, to be extremely clever and…
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NEW POLL! What’s Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Trilogy?
In our last poll, Joker HANDILY took the top Batman villain spot. So the big question now that the Dark Knight has risen . . . what is the best sci-fi/fantasy trilogy of all time? There are some really bad trilogies out there, so for the purposes of this poll we included trilogies that are…
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Episode 22 — “The Dark Knight of the Soul”
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSHow could an episode about The Dark Knight Rises from a podcast about Christianity NOT use this as the title for their podcast. (Apologies to St. John of the Cross, of course.) So, it’s been a while coming, for a variety of reasons (scheduling being the main one),…
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Star Trek: Dr. Jayce’s Crew (REVISITED)
After watching every single episode of every single TREK series I decided to revisit this posting and revise anything that may have changed. See below with my new comments italicized. If you are a Trekkie or married to one than you have heard the age-old debate: Kirk or Picard. Today I will add upon that…
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Red Dwarf Season 10 Trailer!
I love Red Dwarf. I mean, how many other sci-fi comedies can you think of that actually explore Big Science Fiction Ideas while making fun of Big Science Fiction Ideas and telling heart felt stories (sometimes)? Now, moments of off color humor aside, and also putting aside the second to last season, and also putting…
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SCI-FI/FANTASY FOR KIDS: Phineas and Ferb!
In a previous podcast that Steve and I co-hosted back in the day, in an episode that is long since deleted and gone, I asked “What is there for the current generation that is as inspiring as Star Wars was for us?” Steve answered: “Phineas and Ferb.” Now, I had heard of this show. I…
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Superman Teaser!
One of the things that excited me when I saw The Dark Knight Rises was the teaser for Man of Steel they played. They have two versions, apparently shipped out randomly with The Dark Knight Rises. I was worried about Man of Steel when I learned Zack Snyder was directing. I have not seen Watchmen.…
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The Colorado Tragedy
I felt compelled to write down some thoughts about last night’s tragedy in Colorado at the showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I mean, I knew I was going to write about the movie today anyway, but the story has changed somewhat. I find myself unsettled by the events that occurred in that theater in…
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Marvel Movies Revealed!!!
Marvel Studios has revealed the titles of their upcoming movies . . . giving some insight to the plots, and, in some situations, revealing specifics about projects that have, until now, just been rumors. Released because of SDCC, Marvel has shown off some logo artwork that has gotten me pretty excited. Here’s some of our…
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Episode 21 — “Interview w/ Paul Asay, Author of God on the Streets of Gotham”
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSA special episode today, to kick off Batman week. We had Paul Asay, author of God on the Streets of Gotham, come and talk about his book, the Batman movies, his favorite villains, his hopes and fears about the new movie, and his opinion of other superheroes .…
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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind vol. 6 (Cool Comic Covers #18)
It’s Friday! That means another Cool Comic Covers, a weekly (sometimes more!) look back at some of the most interesting, intriguing, and engaging artwork in pop culture. This week we take a turn away from American comics and look at the cover to a manga series: I love Hayao Miyazaki. Almost anything he does becomes a…
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SCI-FI/FANTASY FOR KIDS: Zondervan’s Graphic Novels
A few years ago, I was privileged to be a part of an ambitious publishing plan. Zondervan’s children’s division, Zonderkidz, was going to publish six different graphic novel series. Each series was to be eight books long. Each book was to be 150 pages. A few weeks ago, the final volume of each series was…
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Yesterday’s Future: the Internet
I love looking at the future through the lens of the past. I love looking at old Popular Mechanics and their visions of the future, and at old science fiction movies and how they expected the future to turn out. 2001: A Space Oddyssey and Space: 1999 are just two examples. Even Star Trek made…
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Episode 20 — “Amazing Spider-Man . . . Or Not?”
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSBen and Steve got together this week to talk about Amazing Spider-Man. Is this big budget reboot spectacular? Just amazing? Or something much, much worse. What do YOU think? We’d love to hear your reactions to the movie or your reactions to our reactions. E-mail us at podcast@strangersandaliens.com…
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Spider-Man (Cool Comic Covers #17)
It’s Friday! That means another Cool Comic Covers, a weekly (sometimes more!) look back at some of the most interesting, intriguing, and engaging artwork in pop culture. This week, well, we did it for Avengers . . . how could we NOT do it for Spider-Man? And so, Strangers and Aliens’ favorite Spider-Man comic covers. There’s…
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SPIDER-MAN – Atari 2600 (Box Art Vs. Gameplay #2)
I didn’t expect to go to Spider-Man so quickly, but with the movie coming out this week, how could I not? Now, modern Spider-Man games bring that first person web slinging action to your TV screen much more realistically, but I don’t know how many hours I spent playing this little gem for the Atari…
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Why PROMETHEUS Could NOT Be the ALIEN Prequel You Wanted
You can read my review of Prometheus here. This post is not a review, but a response to one criticism I’ve been seeing about the movie. Vague spoilers, sort of, here. I know that a lot of people have been disappointed and/or confused about how Prometheus does or does not fit into the Alien franchise…