After an inauspicious beginning under the auspices of Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin, the “Star Wars” Marvel comics run gets a bump up in quality with issues 11-15, written by Archie Goodwin with art by Carmine Infantino. The gang — or the “star hoppers,” in Marvel parlance — gets back together for a story that may or […]
The “Star Wars” Marvel comics run has the distinction of offering the very first Expanded Universe stories. After the six-issue movie adaptation, the next four issues (7-10) were the only new fiction from October 1977 through January 1978 (those are the on-sale dates, not the cover dates) aside from some short comic stories in Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine. Finally, in […]
Like director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” film, “Star Trek Into Darkness” gets all the Trek-isms correct. Everyone is still spot-on as alternate-universe versions of the iconic characters, Scottie and Chekov have thick accents, there are winks about red shirts, Bones says a variation on “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor …” and so forth.
“The Killing” (8 p.m. Central Sundays on AMC) returned for its third season — and second case — on Sunday looking as good as ever. With its run-down urbanity, misty woods, drizzly docks and messy dwellings, Veena Sud’s murder mystery series still makes the best use of Vancouver since “The X-Files.”
“Isard’s Revenge,” the eighth book in the “X-Wing” series (and Michael Stackpole’s last), came out in April 1999, one month before “The Phantom Menace.” Overshadowed by that film then and now, “Isard’s Revenge” didn’t have anything so epic as the backstory of Anakin Skywalker. Still, it did fill in a crucial gap in “Star Wars” lore […]
‘Firefly’ flashback (Books and comics review): Here’s a look at the “Firefly” tie-in fiction from 2005-13.
In a double dose of weak sauce, Entertainment Weekly’s writers recently chose “Friends’ “ Ross and Rachel as the greatest TV couple of all time, and readers responded by choosing some random couple from “Glee” (which, research reveals, is actually still on the air). Over at his blog, my buddy Seth Stringer upped the standards […]
“Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” turns 30 on Saturday, and it’s still looking good. So much so that George Lucas recently gave the nod to a sequel. But the J.J. Abrams-helmed “Episode VII” is still a couple years away, so in the meantime, let’s take a look at 30 reasons why “Jedi” […]
‘Firefly’ flashback (Movie review): A few years after its cancellation by Fox, “Firefly” got a second life on the big screen.
I suppose I’ll be the first person to say this, but: “The Mindy Project” is better than “New Girl.” It has been since about January, and Tuesday’s season finale was yet another indication that Mindy and the boys have surpassed Jess and the boys in the laugh category.