A great debate recently popped up at my office: Who deserves credit for the success of “Star Wars?” Well, George Lucas, of course, because he created it. Plain and simple, right? Not necessarily, because he was far from alone in making “Star Wars” great. Strictly speaking, he couldn’t have made that first movie on his own, because […]
Don’t get me wrong; I adore the Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson newspaper strips that were repackaged as the “Classic Star Wars” comics. But I wonder if we never quite saw how good a Goodwin story could be. In the Marvel comics, he was hamstrung by the fact that he didn’t know what was going to happen in “The […]
First episode impressions (TV review): “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” brings the MCU to the small screen.
“The Goldbergs” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays on ABC) starts with a montage of 1980s images like “ALF,” “The Karate Kid” and a Rubik’s Cube as the J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” plays and Patton Oswalt narrates about his love of “E.T., Mr. T and MTV.” But if you’re settling in for a half-hour of humorous, wistful reminders […]
Dark Horse’s new series simply titled “Star Wars” got a lot of hype earlier this year, but it’s just the latest in a long line of stories to capture (or attempt to capture) the feel of that classic time period between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” The early Marvel comics (Issues 7-38, primarily by Archie […]
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (7:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays on Fox) has an all-crazy all-the-time vibe that makes it a nice companion to the similarly off-the-wall “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project” in Fox’s Tuesday comedy lineup. Although it’s from “Parks and Recreation” creators Dan Goor and Michael Schur, there’s no similar sense of civic earnestness with “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” […]
I tried to be an apologist for some aspects of the first two books of Kevin J. Anderson’s “Jedi Academy Trilogy,” but that becomes harder to do with “Champions of the Force” (1994). As the plot ratchets up to a showdown between the Rebel-controlled Maw Installation, Dalla’s last Star Destroyer, a Death Star prototype helmed by yet another incompetent […]
Well, that came upon us in a hurry. Perhaps because there aren’t any major new shows to get excited about, the Fall 2013 TV season snuck up on me rather quickly this year. But while this is the thinnest lineup of new network shows (and returning shows for that matter, after last season’s cancellation spree) […]
Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have carved out a niche by making movies in familiar genres but with a fresh perspective. “(500) Days of Summer” (2009) was a romance movie with two rare traits: It captured the heartbreak from the guy’s perspective, and it didn’t end with the couple living happily ever after. […]
The “X-Wing Rogue Squadron” comic series closes out its run by delving into one of the most popular EU characters, Baron Soontir Fel, who was introduced in the previous arc, “In the Empire’s Service.” The Imperial-turned-Rebel fighter ace serves as a springboard for discussions about defecting from the Empire to the Rebellion. Because he is Wedge’s brother-in-law, he also […]