shortboxed Posts
June 9 / / Guides

SDCC Guide: Nerd HQ

San Diego Comic-Con is not only one of the most coveted conventions to attend but it also has spawned several worthy off-sites that an attendee can check out with or without a badge. One of them has been making waves for the past 4 years called Nerd HQ. This heavyweight off-site is organized by geek favorite and dare I day, heartthrob, Zachary Levi of NBC’s Chuck, Disney’s Tangled, and the upcoming television revival of Heroes called Heroes: Reborn. What makes this off-site a heavy hitter is that money raised at this event, specifically for the special guest panel tickets, are donated to a worthy cause, Operation Smile. And this year is estimated to be the largest it has ever been, so why not check it out when you’re at the Big Show?

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Let’s go through the rundown before we chat about some tips and tricks that I can offer. This year’s 4-day event is being held during SDCC and located at a much bigger venue than in year’s past at The New Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego. And the event is entirely free to attend.

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June 1 / / Graphic Novels

Recommended Reading: Secret Service Review

A while back, I wrote a review about Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service which he adapted from Mark Millar and Dave Gibbon’s six issue comic called Secret Service. My recommendation was a glowing one and today I’m revisiting my review to discuss the source material. Unfortutely, it took me some time after I posted my review to get a hold of this comic, but I finally was able to read this on a single train ride home. Let’s begin.

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May 21 / / Industry

Death in Comics, Part 2

In my previous post about death in comics, we discussed the role of civilian deaths and how writers use it to propel their stories forward. In this post, I wanted to touch on a few superhero deaths that rocked the comic world. There were many to choose from and as iconic as Superman’s death at the hands of Doomsday, but after doing research, I noticed an intriguing pattern; that dead superheroes don’t stay dead for long! For this discussion, I wanted to focus on those superhero deaths that made an impact to their respective stories but also spent some time in the grave (so to speak).

We begin with a bold move by Brian Michael Bendis in the pages of Ultimate Spider-man with the “Death of Spider-man”. In the Ultimate universe, Bendis kills off Peter Parker! Crazy right? But that’s not where the story ends. Oh no! Bendis introduces us to Miles Morales, a half black, half hispanic teen who was bitten by a genetically-altered spider that gives him superhero powers. Sounds familiar, right? Miles actually witnesses Peter’s death and feels so guilty that he didn’t use his powers to save Peter, that he takes up the mantle of Spider-man.

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May 15 / / Interview

David Precht on Zombies, Philosophy, and Pushing the Envelope

May 14 / / Industry

Death in Comics, Part 1

In my Retcon post, I touched on the idea of using a death to propel a story forward. I wanted to expand on this by discussing three deaths that happened in our beloved comic pages that were both surprising and pivotal in comics. As an added wrinkle, these three deaths weren’t super heroes but were impactful nonetheless in the story lines of the super heroes we know and love.

The first death actually made the news when it happened, calling for comic book writers to be more responsible because kids were reading these stories. All this uprising for a fictional character! That character was Gwen Stacy, the love of Peter Parker’s life. What was so surprising about this death was how it occurred. She was taken by Green Goblin and as she fell from the bridge, Spider-man catches her, making us believe he saved her. But due to physics and gravity, the impact of Peter catching her from her fall actually caused her death. Because Peter had super strength, his body could withstand a lot more than normal humans.

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May 4 / / Image

Recommended Reading: Black Science Vol 1 & 2 Review

Black Science is an epic science fiction adventure, spanning multiple parallel dimensions with the most unique creatures and landscapes seen in comics today. Written by Rick Remender, with pencils by Matteo Scalera, colors by Dean White and letters by Rus Wooten, this is a gorgeous and action-packed book that will delight any sci-fi fan.

In the distant future, Grant McCay, leader of the Anarchist League of Scientists, unlocks “black science,” which allows him and his team of Dimensionauts to hop back and forth across dimensions, or so that’s the plan. Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, otherwise we’d have a very boring story. The “pillar,” which is the tool that allows them to hop between dimensions, has been sabotaged and now the team has to deal with unpredictable jumps between dimensions – they have no idea when they will jump, where they will end up, or what types of worlds and creatures they’ll run into. You can already imagine how many things can go wrong and how many unexpected turns things could take if you’re at the whim of random dimension-jumps.

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May 2 / / Movies

Avengers: Age of Ultron Non-Spoiler Review

Today, Marvel fanboys (and fangirls) were given another chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Joss Whedon’s 2nd Avengers installment that brings back our favorites from the 1st Avengers movie. I took a long lunch with my work team to watch this movie, which I’ll refer to as Avengers 2 from this point forward, in IMAX 3D glory. And my one word impression of it is: WOW!

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April 27 / / Industry

Recommended Discussion: Retcon

Retroactive Continuity, or Retcon, for short is a term that is all together too common in the comic book world. It basically means that there’s an alteration to an established fact within continuity, and comic book writers use this strategy to add, remove, and of course, alter stories.

With all the stories being written and new creative teams taking the reins for various properties, there always a chance things will get retconned. As a reader, it’s something that I don’t personally enjoy but I understand where publishers and writers are coming from. It sort of reminiscent of the music industry where nothing is original anymore. But with so many talented creatives entering the comic book industry, new stories are being thought up with fresh perspectives such as Scott Snyder’s addition to the Batman canon with his Court of Owls story arc or Francis Manapul’s work on The Flash.

But retcon examples litter the stories we read.  A prime example when a writer added something that wasn’t already established within continuity is what Brian Wood began on IDW’s Star Wars before Kieron Gillan picked up the mantle when it moved over to Marvel. Wood started to write stories that involved all our favorite Star Wars characters from the point after the Battle of Yavin, right after Episode 1: A New Hope.

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