Those of us who have enjoyed reading comics for most of our life have been blessed with a decade of comic book movies. By the end of next year, with the exception of a few DC headliners,  every major comic book character will have been turned into a major motion picture and licensing opportunity. We’re blessed… Except almost every one of those movies is cringe-inducing. (I’m 99 percent sure PTB doesn’t agree with this assessment, but bear with me.)

I’m not saying there aren’t nice moments in almost all of those films. I’m not saying I don’t line up to see most of them. It’s fantastic to see Superman stop a crashing airplane, but yet another Lex Luthor real estate scam? It’s moving to see the X-Men battle intolerance, but the wacky battle atop the Statue of Liberty to stop Magneto from turning everyone into a mutant? I digress… Comics don’t translate well into films largely because one of the major appeals of comic books is their serial nature. Three X-Men or Spider-Man films in a decade (1.5 watchable ones of each) cannot recreate that serial experience, but it’s been clear to me for years that a television series probably could. The problem is that the only example we’ve had to test this theory during last decade or so is Smallville…

At least until last night’s debut of The Walking Dead.

Read more of this article »

We don’t normally talk politics here on MLD, and this is no exception. Over the past few days it’s been impossible not to be exposed to campaign ads for tomorrow’s midterm election, and it’s pretty clear that attack ads are the only ads out there at this point. I usually try to stay informed, but this year I can’t make sense of any of it. From what I can tell, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is running for some office in Pennsylvania. I don’t like his chances. I don’t think Gordon Gekko has a shot either, despite his recent performance at the box office.

Read more of this article »