Four-Color Critiques #4: Love and Death
May 16Who is the greatest Marvel character?
(That’s a rhetorical question.)
Sorta depends on how you define “greatest.” Is it the character with the most appearances in print, or the best stories told about him/her? Is it the one who’s made the deepest penetration into the popular culture at large? Is it the character with the coolest powers, or the most interesting personality, or the strongest supporting cast?
For me, the greatest Marvel character is the one who best epitomizes exactly what the Marvel style of storytelling and characterization is all about. That character is Thanos.
That’s right–Thanos.
Play-Doh for everyone!
May 14
I’ll tell you a little secret – I love packaging. Even shipping boxes, like these Play-Doh cartons, that have a certain amount of design… I just love it. Just the thought of a box, or maybe thousands of boxes of mint toys and products and my brain is happy.
Play-Doh, Cincinnati
Originally uploaded by bayswater97.
No Need for Speed
May 14I’ve done this before and you probably have, too. When someone professes to dislike a piece of entertainment that you happen to enjoy quite muchly, you come up for some excuse specific to the disliker that explains their dislike. For example, I’ve heard that I do not like The Phantom Menace not because it’s shitty, but because it’s “a kids’ movie.” Similarly, when a friend and I professed our general hatred for Into the Wild, we were told by various people that we did not enjoy it because 1) we’re too young! and 2) we’re girls and 3) we hate camping.
I’m having kind of a similar thing with Speed Racer. A lot of folks in the geekscape have come out heavily for this movie, rallying against the mean ol’ critics who didn’t get it.
Dudes, dudettes, fellow geekly brothers and sisters, I’m sorry, but Speed Racer was SO FUCKING BORING.
And here are a few rationales folks might offer for me not liking it.
A Smidge of Shat for Matt
May 12I ran across this while channel surfing on the weekend – if you can sit through the Country, there is a Shatner reward. Also a smidge of Jason Alexander.
Also, Bill was on the Adam Corolla show – grab the podcast file while you can.
Just for you, Matt!
I ♥ Joel McHale
May 12No, really. He’s my hero.
I remember seeing the old Talk Soup show years back, but hadn’t seen it since it morphed into The Soup. And the hilarious cynicism of McHale just sells it. Plus, as the show says, he watches all the crap so I don’t have to! Or, his staff of writers does, but his Eddie Izzard pantomiming just nails it. Plus, their nerdy post-commercial pie chart this week made me the happys.
