Fall TV Preview: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D the fall's guaranteed hit?

The new fall television season rolls on tonight, with perhaps the most anticipated show of the year, ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.  It is a continuation of the popular Marvel movie franchise and picks up where last summers The Avengers left off.  So, what's this all about?  Will it be the surefire hit that ABC is banking on?  Hit the jump for more information.

Sleepy Hollow Recap: Four Headless Horsemen of the Apcoalypse

Sleepy Hollow, Episode 1: "Pilot"

Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the most well known pieces of American literature.  Most people are aware of the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.  Besides the book, I am most familiar with the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp-Christina Ricci film.  I'm pretty surprised that this is the first time that an iteration of the classic has come to television.  If you watched Fox at all this summer I'm sure you saw multiple previews for the show.  I have to say, I was a little trepidatious.  It looked a little cheesy.  I knew it comes from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the co-creators of one of my all-time favorite shows, Fringe.  So, I tuned in last Monday, with (kind of) an open mind.  What did I think?  Hit the jump.

Fall TV Preview: Sleepy Hollow

FOX offically kicks off the 2013/2014 television season tonight with the ninth season premiere of Bones, followed by the premiere of the new supernatural drama, Sleepy Hollow.

We're all familiar with the story of the town of Sleepy Hollow and how it was terrorized by a Headless Horseman.  This show looks to re-tell the story using a modern twist by sending 18th century soldier, Ichabod Crane, to the future where he teams up with African-American sheriff, Abbie Mills, to stop the Horseman, who came to the future with him.  Whew.

This could be seriously convoluted.  There is the time travel aspect which is always confusing.  You have to suspend disbelief that a sheriff would believe some crazy dude in Colonial clothes and then would team up with him.  It's like the supernatural equivalent of the procedurals where the police bring in some civilian who can do their jobs better than they can.  Even though this show has the potential to be a giant train wreck, I have faith in it.  A lot of that faith comes from the fact that is written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.  They have been behind some of my favorite shows like Alias and Fringe, the best sci-fi show of the past 5 years.

After the jump you can check out the trailer for Sleepy Hollow.

Movie Review: Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3

The first Iron Man film was a surprise success.  Outside of comic book circles, Tony Stark's armored alter ego was a relative unknown so it came as a bit of a shock when newly launched Marvel Studios decided to make him their first big tentpole release.  The general public didn't know it at the time, but the studio had an ace up it's sleeve named Robert Downey, Jr.  Marvel was looking for it's first big hit and RDJR was looking for a comeback.  They each found what they were looking for.  RDJR was Tony Stark.  He embodied every aspect of the character.  The snarky, self-involved playboy who deep down had an actual heart.  When I watched the first film, it was like Tony Stark had stepped off the comics page and right onto the big screen.  I can't think of a more perfect casting for any comic book film, before or since.  

The first Iron Man sequel carried the weight of great expectations.  Since, the first film had been a global box office success, the second film was expected to exceed it in every way.  It was supposed to be bigger, better, and make more money.  It was almost impossible for Iron Man 2 to not buckle under the weight of those expectations.

The second film was more than just a sequel to the first.  It was a set up film, of sorts.  It introduced the Black Widow, the Avengers Intitiative and what people could expect in this shared Marvel movie universe.  The movie was so jampacked and working so hard to service all these different masters that it sort of lost sight of what made the first movie so great.

Iron Man 3 comes on the heels of Marvel's The Avengers, a massively successful film that shattered box office records and sits on number 3 on the list of the most successful movies of all time.  It is also the launch of Phase 2, the next era of Marvel movies.  So, how did Iron Man 3 fare?  Hit the jump to get my take.

Things That Suck: JH Williams III Leaves Batwoman

JH Williams III Leaving Batwoman

Announces via Twitter that Issue #24 Will Be His Last

This really sucks.  This week, J.H. Williams III announced via Twitter that he would be leaving Batwoman, a character he has been involved with since she had her first solo adventures in Detective Comics in 2009.  Williams cited a DC editorial mandate forbidding him from marrying the title character to her police detective girlfriend.  Williams was quick to point out that DC wasn't against gay marriage, just marriage in general.  Apparently, since they re-launched their entire line with the "new 52" two years ago, marriage between characters has been a no-go, which raises the question, why approve the engagement storyline in the first place?

Since the New 52 launch, strict editorial guidelines and restrictions have caused a high turnover of creators who have been very vocal about their distaste for these guidelines and restrictions.  George Pérez, Rob Liefeld, and Gail Simone have all left their or threatened to leave their DC books because of the stranglehold that DC editorial seems to have on the creative process.

At Baltimore Comic Con, DC co- publisher, Dan DiDio, spoke out on the Batwoman marriage controversy.  "Heroes shouldn't have happy personal lives," DiDio said.  "They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests."  DiDio went on to address the Bat Family's personal lives specifically saying, "People in the Bat Family, their personal lives basically suck.  It's wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it's equally important that they set them aside.  That is our mandate, that is our edict and that is our stand."

This is sort of similar to the reasoning that Marvel gave when they decided to wish Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane out of existence.  It's also what television writers say when they are talking about bringing "will they/won't they" couples together.  That they become less interesting when they are together.  This just smacks of laziness to me.  I don't think it has anything to do with relatability.  If the team on the title are good at what they do, it shouldn't matter if the characters are married or single, they should still be able to churn out compelling, relatable super hero stories.

I was hoping this was going to turn out to be a Gail Simone situation.  A few months ago, there were rumors that Gail was leaving "Batgirl" and maybe DC altogether.  This turned out to be short lived as it was almost immediately confirmed that she would be remaining on the title.  Alas, it doesn't look like this will be the case with "Batwoman" since a new writer was announced at Baltimore.  A silver lining in this dark cloud is that the new writer is Marc Andreyko.  Marc has a strong track record writing three dimensional female characters, being co-creator of Kate Spencer aka Manhunter, and writing a critically acclaimed run on the series.  There has been no announcement on who will be taking over art duties.  They have huge shoes to fill.

What do you guys think of this news?  Were you as heartbroken as I was?  Do you prefer your super heroes attached or unattached?  Does it matter at all?  Let me know in the comments.

Fall TV Preview: Once Upon a Time and the Sophomore (Non) Slump

How Once Upon a Time Avoided the Sophomore Slump

The dreaded sophomore slump.  If you are making the second anything, it is always in the back of your mind.  It could be you second album, your second book, or in this case, the second season of a television show.  Many successful television shows have been hit with the dreaded sophomore slump.  It could be because the show runners get too ambitious.  They have become a massive hit and they have all this creative freedom, so they run with it and it all goes horribly wrong.  It has happened a thousand times.  It happened with Desperate Housewives, do you remember the kid chained up in the basement thing?  It happened with Heroes.  Some shows recover and some shows don't.  

ABC had two high profile shows enter into their sophomore seasons last year, Revenge and Once Upon a Time.  Revenge didn't fare so well.  You can read about that here.  (Yeah, I'm shamless.)  Once was able to successfully avoid the slump and deliver a second seson that built on and exceeded the promise shown in the first.  How'd they do it?  Hit the jump to find out.

Batfleck Backlash Begins

Here we go again.  We nerds and geeks are a passionate people.  We have strong opinions and we are not afraid to voice them.  It's seems our knee jerk reactions to most  things is negativity.  A casting announcement is made regarding our beloved characters and the first thing we want to do is tear them down to the ground.  It's especially bad if the person that is cast has burned us before.  That seems to be the issue with the recent news that multiple Academy Award winner, Ben Affleck, has been cast in the "Batman/Superman" sequel to "Man of Steel."

People are pissed.  They are pissed to a ridiculous level.  People have started a petition to stop him from playing Batman.  There are ridiculous tweets and memes flying around.  Like I said, this is not the first time that this has happened and it certainly won't be the last.  Everyone agrees that Heath Ledger's turn as The Joker in "The Dark Knight" is probably the best performance in a superhero movie ever, but it seems like people have selective memory.  The website, Newsarama, was quick to jog people's memories about the initial fan reaction to Ledger's casting.  We all know how that turned out, so who's to say that people won't be wrong about Affleck.  After the jump, here are some reasons why I'm betting on Ben Affleck.