// Category Archive for: Comics

Today In Pop Culture: The Incredible Hulk Crushes It On TV

By Less Lee Moore

Although actor Mark Ruffalo is the one many now associate with The Incredible Hulk, thanks to the Avengers series of movies directed by JJ Abrams, it’s not the first time the green rage monster has appeared onscreen.

Eric Bana portrayed Dr. Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk in Ang Lee’s much-derided 2003 Hulk movie (remember the Hulked-out poodles?). When that film didn’t thrill audiences like they hoped, Marvel tried again, this time in 2008 with Edward Norton as the titular character and Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) behind the camera. Although both films doubled their budget in ticket sales, and received about the same amount of critical acclaim, the latter film was much more popular with audiences, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes.

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Marvel Comics Makes Greater Strides Towards Gender Inclusion

By Laury Scarbro

On March 3, Marvel Games launched its “Women of Power” event. This includes 25 new comic covers for some of Marvel’s more popular characters, as well as merchandise celebrating those characters, and will extend into various gaming platforms.

I really see no downside to their plan here. I suspect this is, at least in part, in recognition of the ever-growing female audience in the previously male-dominated worlds of gaming, comics, and all things geek related. It could be said that females, girls and women alike, are more openly taking an interest in these sorts of things than ever before, but the truth of the matter is, we’ve always been here. We might not have been so outward about it, but we’ve been here.

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Movie Review: Deadpool

By Laury Scarbro

The short-short version of the synopsis: Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, is a former Special Forces operative who turns mercenary for hire in his civilian life. He meets a girl, they eventually fall in love, and then tragedy strikes. He undergoes an experimental procedure that turns him into a hideous version of his former self, requiring him to wear a suit to hide his appearance. Then he sets out to get revenge on those responsible. And that’s when the real fun starts.

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TV Review: Lucha Underground S2 E03, “The Hunt Is On”

By Sachin Hingoo

I was a little miffed that Dario Cueto had so little involvement in last week’s episode of Lucha Underground, because a week without El Jefe is like a summer day without sunshine. Fortunately, a familiar face popped up during last Sunday’s Important Televised Sporting Event (featuring Beyoncé).

I’m surprised that he didn’t reveal that the 2017 Prius can only be won in a battle royal.

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Today in Pop Culture: Holy Debut, Batman!

By Jeffery X Martin

He is vengeance. He is the night. He is the darkest of all the superheroes, borne of family tragedy, driven by vengeance and personal demons he cannot exorcise. He faces psychotic enemies and triumphs through sheer force of will.

He is, of course, the Batman.

But the Bat wasn’t always the tortured soul, hiding in the shadows. He was, at one point, a goofball.

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Best Of 2015: Carol Borden, The Cultural Gutter

List-making, especially lists of the best things, is not really my strong point. I can’t get past the fact that I haven’t read or seen everything. And then I have no idea how to rank things that seem so different. So when Popshifter asked me to participate again in the Best of 2015 lists, I decided to go rogue and offer my own idiosyncratic list of bests in comics and film this year.

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Fave Comics Of 2015: Sean Jordan (a.k.a. Wordburglar)

Photo © Peter Chapman

2015 was another amazing year for comics. To prove it, I’ve got a long-box brimming with floppy-covered gold sitting underneath a shelf of glossily coated gems. Thanks to my skilled comic book sorting methods, finding the comics I loved this year was easy. Selecting my absolute favourites? Well that’s tougher than giving Xemnu the Living Titan a lice inspection.

But I shall proceed!

Here then, in no particular order, for your reading pleasure (and potential debate) are ten of my personal favourite funnybooks from 2015*.
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Today in Pop Culture: Lots Of Stuff!

By Jeffery X Martin

It’s the end of the year and as we look back through pop culture history, this is a big day! Lots of things happened, and it’s hard to pick just one. Therefore, I’m not going to. Why do hard things? Ugh. So here’s a quick list of interesting things that happened on December 31st!

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Graphic Novel Review: Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

By Jeffery X Martin

I’m just going to tell you flat-out, in the spirit of full disclosure, that Hunter S. Thompson is one of my favorite writers of all time. Hero status. When I first caught wind of this project, turning one of Thompson’s books into a comic book, I got The Fear. I was more than doubtful. I had some dread.

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Comic Review: Jim Shepherd: Negotiate Nothing

By Tyler Hodg

To many, the name of musician Jim Shepherd isn’t significant. Aside from signing with Rick Rubin’s American label just two years prior to his death, he spent the majority of his career underground, recording his and others’ music to no quantifiable success.

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