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It’s the ultimate sci-fi love story. A man tells the woman he’s seeing that he’s from the future. Not only that, but the whole reason he came back in time is to be with her. He saw a picture or a glimpse of a woman from years ago and fell so in love with her that he gave up his life in the future and traveled back in time just to win her heart. Variations on this theme have been done in movies ranging from Terminator to the highly underrated Happy Accidents. It’s also the plot of the short film Future Boyfriend which had its west coast premiere recently at Dances With Films—only with a slightly different twist on things.
We live in a world inundated with books and movies focusing on dystopias: The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fifth Wave, The Maze Runner, etc. It’s easy to believe that the economic crises and international political upheavals starting in the late 1990s created a market for stories about corrupt governments and damaged societies, but the genre has much deeper roots. Logan’s Run, based on the 1967 novel of the same name, debuted in theaters on June 23, 1976, and given there’s hardly a dystopian novel or film without my name written all over it, I’m shocked I hadn’t seen it until now.
With Star Trek Beyond only a month away and news of next year’s television series trickling out every now and then, Star Trek is in the pop culture zeitgeist more than it has been in years. Since 2009’s Star Trek established the alternate timeline versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew, IDW has been chronicling their ongoing adventures between the films. Manifest Destiny, the latest miniseries featuring this version of the crew, distills everything that’s fun about this take on the seminal sci-fi franchise into a single package full of phasers, Klingons, and Doctor McCoy being cantankerous.
The Blacklist #10 (The Arsonist: Part Five) wraps up the case against The Arsonist in an issue rife with suspense and excitement. Raymond “Red” Reddington and Elizabeth Keen have been investigating the dangerous Cabal organization. They discover the new threat of The Arsonist, Ethan Donovan, who is after one of the Cabal’s scientists, Dr. Isak Vogel, in a mission of revenge.
With the 30th and final issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 10 rapidly approaching, it feels quite satisfying, as a fan, to state that writer Christos Gage and artist Rebekah Isaacs are firing on all cylinders as we head into the big finale. If the just-released Buffy: Season 10 #28 is any sign, the creative team behind Dark Horse Comics’ canon continuation are clearly destined for these roles. (I’m sure there’s a prophecy somewhere in the Pergamum Codex.)
The Detail is what happens if a Telltale-style adventure game had a love child with a comic book and a police procedural. It’s a magnificent video game series that’s simple in its artistic depiction, but more than makes up for it with an incredible score, complex characters, and an abundance of charm.
What if god was one of us?
Welcome to Elan, but not the one you know from the Riyria Chronicles. Not yet, at least, as this new series is set 3,000 years prior to the world as it stands in those volumes. The Rhune are ordinary humans with technology befitting the cusp of the Bronze Age and the life expectancy to go with it. The Fhrey are godlike to them, having a life span that crosses millennia and with one sect harboring a magic that can quite literally reshape the world. This is the world that Michael J. Sullivan transports us to in Age of Myth, and the great care that he has taken in his world building is evident from the first chapter. All the creatures in it have an order, one which has been set by the Fhrey and not challenged for a very long time. Ripe with history and wonders that inspire the imagination, it’s the perfect setting for storytelling in the vein of the greats of the genre.
Being in charge sucks.
Skottie Young told us that Gertrude's journey was meant to be a 48-page limited run, but he never expected the popularity that it's received (which is silly, because it's SO good). This issue is basically him writing himself out of the corner of the ending he had originally come up with (which was lovely and fun and oh-so perfect for the tone of what he had created), but according to him, it would not make for much fun going forward.
Man, comic book storylines sure make a difference when they’re released every week rather than every month (like most ongoing storylines tend to do). It’s been almost a month since I first started reading the latest miniseries from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything, but let me just say that if you haven’t read any of the TMNT miniseries before, this one is a must!
I'm having a conundrum. A "Continuum Conundrum," if you will. And yes, this conundrum involves the greatest time-traveling duo to ever live--well, in our imaginations at least. Naturally, I'm talking about Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown!
