If you’re looking for a good flick to watch in the middle of the night with the lights out, you could do a lot worse than “Mama,” which is now available for rent from Redbox. Directed by Andres Muschietti, based on his own short from 2008, it starts by showing the disturbing way in which two girls […]
“X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar” (1999) is a standalone story with none of the continuity concerns of the previous eight books, and it was the last novel of the Bantam Books contract (although one collection, “Tales from the New Republic,” would follow). Perhaps for these reasons, Aaron Allston writes what I think is the best of the […]
Although I’m not religious, I can see the appeal of Bible study — scouring a massive, sometimes contradictory text in order to better understand it. This is because I’m a “Star Wars” Expanded Universe fan. After reading Marvel’s “Star Wars” No. 35, where Darth Vader discovers that a kid named Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death […]
The previews before my screening of “This Is the End” included “Grown-Ups 2,” and I’m glad I saw it, otherwise I would’ve assumed Adam Sandler and friends would be making a funny movie to make up for the original dud; now I know otherwise. While that one can be avoided, “This Is the End” should be on […]
It’s a shame that the “Star Wars” Marvel comics are dismissed out of hand by some continuity gurus, because Archie Goodwin — the first long-term writer for the series — clearly cared about continuity. Issues 31-38, written between the announcement of the film’s name (“When the moment is right, the Empire will strike back!,” a villain not-coincidentally […]
Before May 1999, we heard a lot about how the prequel era was off-limits to Expanded Universe writers since George Lucas was saving it for himself. Nonetheless, a few stories from this era slipped through the cracks. The very first one was Marvel issue 24, “Silent Drifting,” which hit newsstands in March 1979.
TV review: Rob Thomas introduces an iconic teen detective for the new millennium.
“The Wheel” arc, issues 18-23 of the “Star Wars” Marvel comics run marks the first time the series truly feels like “Star Wars.” Writer Archie Goodwin and artist Carmine Infantino invent the Wheel, a gambling paradise that the Empire leaves alone in exchange for the considerable tax revenue.
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 […]