SPOILER Magazine Special Holiday Edition 2021

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INSIDE OUR y UNIVERSE x a l a

by G

Hello readers, both old and new! Welcome to our December Special Holiday Edition of SPO!LER magazine!

Inside these pages you’ll find some of the most amazing articles and interviews from the past couple of years. We’ve curated a perfect sample of all that SPO!LER has to offer.

You’ll notice the massive size of this issue, which was done to fit the most content possible as a taste of our magazine for those of you who are new to our universe.

Among the fabulous celebrities interviewed here are The Boys’ Jack Quaid, Cobra Kai’s Martin Kove, and Johnny Lawrence himself, William Zabka.

We’ve also provided clips from some of our biggest articles ever, including our massive 50-page “History of Marvel” piece from this past July and a retrospective glimpse at the Star Trek franchise from the March 2021 issue.

In addition, you’re going to find a few new articles sprinkled in, including one that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the iconic film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and another that offers a quick glimpse at the upcoming pop culture dominance of Spider-Man in 2022. We also have a trio of new celebrity interviews, featuring Garfield Wilson, Genevieve Kang, and Mark Ricci.

I hope your 2021 was much better than your 2020. And no matter what, we’ll always be here for you to provide a slight distraction from all the hustle and bustle (or even the sitting around at home) of your hectic lives.

Look out for our special mini issue spotlighting all of our winners from this year’s SPO!LER TV & Movie Awards. That should be coming out in a couple of weeks as we’re still tallying the votes.

Thank you, once again, for taking a peek into what we’ve been up to these past few years.

We hope you have a great Holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Have fun and stay safe!

Love You All…

Galaxy Galaxy EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @ComicConRadio Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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table of contents

FEATURES

12 star trek

A Vision of a Better Future

SPOILER MAGAZINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

the watch

78 Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory: 50th Anniversary

148 the history of marvel

134 Martin Kove

34 2022: the year of the spider men

124 WILLIAM Zabka

208 Garfield Wilson

202 Genevieve Kang

the base

292 Spoiler TV & Movie Awards

96 at the movies 38 Mark Ricci 46 Great Movies That Were Comics First 50 Jack Quaid 66 10 Collectibles hiding In Your Home 72 Sympathy for Kazaam: A Retrospective 84 25 Movies To Watch This Holiday Season 114 The Karate Kid And Cobra Kai Universe 218 Star Wars: Attack of the Fans 224 Chris DeMoulin 232 Batsh*t: A Look at Batman’s Mental State 236 Zack Snyder’s Justice League 256 Kid 90 and the Aching Sadness of Nostalgia

244 Comic Book Review

264 Covered in Dust: A History of VHS 278 Underrated ‘80s Movie Soundtracks (You May Have Never Listened To Before)

www.spoilermagazine.com | Follow us on Instagram: @SpoilerMedia

March 2020 |

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SPOILER MAGAZINE

BY vanessa bellew

It began, as all great things do, with an idea.

But its journey to becoming Star Trek shaped what the Federation and the 24th century would be as surely as the experiences of its beloved creator shaped the man behind the franchise; as surely as the franchise continues to shape our 21st century world and how we imagine our future.

The question is: What will we do with it?

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Star Trek/ViacomCBS

That idea was not Star Trek.

the idea the idea Gene Roddenberry didn’t always know he wanted to create the Starship Enterprise. He didn’t even always know he wanted to be a writer. In fact, he originally set out to follow in his father’s footsteps and majored in police science before the onset of World War II. He was a pilot—first in the Army Air Forces and then for Pan Am—then a police officer, then the speech writer for William Henry Parker III, the controversial anti-corruption Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department.

It was then he began to advise on the writing of a television program about a crusading District Attorney, the hilariously-named Mr. District Attorney, which eventually led him to write for the show under a pseudonym. By 1956, Roddenberry resigned from the LAPD and embarked on a career as a screenwriter.

Surely this is the moment, you might think, free for the first time of

his former martial identities, when our intrepid hero begins to write about aliens and spaceships and peace.

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how humans work.

No, Star Trek did not come to Gene Roddenberry at a dangerously high warp, straining its engines to the brink of physics, but rather in little thruster bursts: an ethical boundary drawn here, an actor found there.

Gene Roddenberry spent his early writing career on procedurals and Westerns. His time as a police officer and a pilot in the war perfectly suited him for the kind of John Wayne Americana fare that made up the majority of the network television landscape at the time. But however

much he fit into the demands of these hypermasculine genres, they never quite fit into his.

He began subversively. TV Westerns at the time were expected to end in a quickdraw shootout, but while lead writer on Have Gun, Will Travel, Roddenberry began submitting scripts in which the climax was solved without violence, or in which Paladin, the main character of the show, played no part in whatever violence occurred. As Gene once said in a 1991 interview with The Humanist, “I think we sanitize violence and escape any real feeling about what it really is.

Television violence has no agony in it—or anything else, for that matter.

People who are shot clutch their breast with a brave little smile and die…but off-camera. Violence is an ugly thing. When it is done, it should be done for the sake of the ugliness so that you are saying to the audience, ‘This is a terrible thing, even the hero is doing an ugly thing.’

There should be a comment on that

ugliness.”

By the late 1950s, with a few awards under his belt, that quiet progressive streak had grown like an unsupervised tribble nest. When asked to develop a show called Riverboat set in 1860s Mississippi that included not a single Black cast member, Roddenberry argued so much that he lost his job. Frustrated, he briefly considered moving to England, only to be offered more money and his first producing credit by an American company called Screen Gems, which also backed his first pilot.

It was during this time that he began collecting the puzzle pieces that would eventually fit together to make Star Trek. The main characters of Roddenberry’s first pilot were named Philip Pike, Edward Jellicoe, and James T. Irvine.

He was contacted by an actress newly arrived in Hollywood who wanted to meet with him, launching a friendship and eventual romance with the one-and-only Mother of Star Trek, Majel Barrett. His second pilot was about a lawyer, played by our very own DeForest Kelley.

He first entertained the idea of a show about a multiethnic crew on a ship—though it was an airship and

their mission took them around the world, not around the galaxy—in 1961 after seeing the movie Master of the World, but as the time wasn’t right for a science fiction show on TV (this writer thinks the time is always right), he instead created The Lieutenant in 1963, set on a Marine base. The cast and crew was littered with stars that would eventually shine in the Star Trek universe: Majel Barrett, Gene L. Coon, Joe D’Agosta, Gary Lockwood, D.C. Fontana, Leonard Nimoy, and Nichelle Nichols.

Nichols’ first television role was an episode of The Lieutenant in which Roddenberry openly portrayed interracial cooperation. Called “To Set It Right,” it featured a White soldier and a Black soldier finding common cause in their roles in the Marines. The Pentagon had been approving scripts for the show, but withdrew their support in the wake of the episode’s airing. The Lieutenant was canceled after its first season.

But Roddenberry was already dreaming up something entirely new.

That’s right, reader.

He took a few of his earlier ideas, Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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the evolution the evolution The fight to create Roddenberry’s ideal Star Trek began almost immediately. On one side were Roddenberry, Desilu Productions (including producers Herb Solow, Bob Justman, and, of course, Lucille Ball), his writers, the cast of the Enterprise’s intrepid crew, and history. On the other side were NBC, oppressive moral codes on what was allowed on television at the time, a strict bottom line, and an American television audience who had never

seen anything like Star Trek.

Though Roddenberry sold the show to Desilu Productions and then to NBC as a space Western—”a Wagon Train to the stars”—he privately discussed his vision as something closer to Jonathan Swift’s subversive adventure story Gulliver’s Travels.

The galaxy he intended to create was post-scarcity, post-sexism, post-racism, post-religion. Humanity would have achieved its fullest potential, having united centuries before upon First Contact with the Vulcan species. The reigning power in our sector of space, The United Federation of Planets, would be an intergalactic cooperative government modeled on the United Nations. Roddenberry’s crew, part of the peacekeeping and exploratory armada known as Starfleet, would not only be multiethnic; it would be multispecies.

The network was less than thrilled.

The mid-1960s were a turbulent time in the American political and social landscape. It was the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The infamously discarded first pilot, “The Cage,” went into production in November of 1964, caught in time between the hopeful highs

Star Trek/ViacomCBS

especially that one about the multiethnic crew on an airship, and set them in outer space.

He called it Star Trek.

Yes! you may be thinking, Finally, Roddenberry knows what he’s about!

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how humans work.

and violent lows of one of the most volatile years in United States history. In July of 1964, the Civil Rights Act ordered the integration of schools across the country, and a summer of brutal race riots began in Harlem and spread quickly to New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. By the end of 1964, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the midst of this, Roddenberry put a Black woman in a position of authority on the bridge of the Enterprise. From the second pilot onward, Nichelle Nichols played Lieutenant Uhura, an African-born, Swahili-speaking communications officer.

The ramifications of that choice are still being felt. The stories by now are the stuff of science fiction and television legend: Martin Luther King Jr. himself convincing Nichelle Nichols how important it was she stay on the show, a young Whoopi Goldberg running through the house

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yelling about a Black woman on TV who wasn’t playing a maid, and the first interracial kiss that almost wasn’t, saved from the cutting room floor by a wily Bill Shatner.

Things were far from perfect, of course. Uhura had to wear a revealing and impractical uniform (though at the time getting to wear a miniskirt on TV was a feminist victory) and occasionally made choices or said things that were tone-deaf to the realities of being Black and a woman, even in the 24th century. The character never got an episode of her own and had shockingly few lines, but Nichols’ portrayal is ever-present and alive in the background, reacting, opinionated; fully human.

In the US, the Civil Rights Movement was at its chaotic apex, the Vietnam War and the last American draft had been going for over a decade, and the Women’s Liberation Movement was just getting started. Meanwhile, the

world held its breath each time Russia and the United States found a new way to test each other in a Cold War that had launched nearly the moment World War II ended and would still be going by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation began.

American children regularly hid under their desks in drills to prepare for Russian nukes. On the island nation of Japan, reconstruction in the wake of World War II and the devastating effects of nuclear war was ongoing. It was an effort

spearheaded by the US, who had dropped the bombs, and whose own Japanese citizens were still struggling to recover from years of imprisonment at the hands of their neighbors and friends.

In Roddenberry’s future, humanity was beyond such things. Despite the network’s persistent protestations, Ensign Pavel Chekov, a Russian wunderkind, and Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, a Japanese American, took their positions on the bridge. Actor George Takei, who spent years of his childhood in an American internment camp for the crime of a shared ethnicity with one of America’s then-enemies, was cast as the swashbuckling Sulu.

With the global social and political temperature at such a fever pitch, a more cautious writer might have made a point to avoid controversial topics.

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how humans work.

Roddenberry built the perfect vessel to fly cloaked past the censors’ sensors. “[By creating] a new world with new rules,” according to his assistant Susan Sackett, Roddenberry said,

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promoted to executive officer and essentially given Number One’s logic-driven personality. Leonard Nimoy took that and ran with it, wrapping it up in a blanket of Tolkien obsession and cultural Judaism until he shaped the Vulcan race into what we know and love today.

Rounding out the series cast were three more White men from Earth—Captain Kirk, a Starfleet maverick from Ohio, Dr. “Bones” McCoy, a disgruntled divorcé from Georgia, and engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott from (you guessed it) Scotland—and two additional White women who appeared infrequently and rarely without controversy—the Spock-infatuated Nurse Chapel,

played by the previously-ousted Majel Barrett, and Yeoman Rand, whose sole purpose seemed to be having feelings for Captain Kirk.

This trope of making sure that nearly every recurring woman on the show had a romantic interest in one of the men continued through The Next Generation with Dr. Beverly Crusher and Counselor Troi, though with much more nuance and success.

With the cast set and a viable pilot in the can, Star Trek finally aired on NBC with “The Man Trap” on September 8, 1966. It ran for three seasons, finally getting canceled a mere month before man first landed on the moon. During the three years Star Trek/ViacomCBS

“I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles.

Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek: We were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network…If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send a censor down to the set to measure a woman’s cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn’t showing.”

Of course, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov were all later additions to Star Trek. Roddenberry’s first attempt included Majel Barrett as Number One, a no-nonsense woman who was the executive officer of the Enterprise, a sadly-doomed Captain Pike, and Mr. Spock as a much more human third-in-command.

When NBC rejected the pilot and recommissioned a different version (”Where No Man Has Gone Before”), they also demanded some changes.

It seemed the network executives didn’t think the world was ready for a woman in any kind of command, with the added insult of that historical cliché about how it was also this particular woman. “She was too logical,” said the men in charge, “too unlikeable.” But given that her character involved a secret romantic fantasy for her captain, the legacy of her impact on representation for women if she continued in the series would have been complicated.

Instead, the alien Spock was

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we saw of its five-year mission, the crew of the Enterprise encountered everything from a deep v-neck on Ricardo Montalban to infestations of furry lumps (not on Ricardo Montalban). They traveled through time, were split in twain, fell in love, fell in lust, went into heat (and what an “Amok Time” that was!), were captured and tortured and forced to fight and/or kiss. They caught strange diseases and encountered new species, fought injustice both within and without the Federation, and occasionally played fast and loose with the Prime Directive. Kirk developed quite a reputation for going where no (hu)man had gone before, if you know what I mean.

Sometimes the strange scenarios the Enterprise endured were allegories for all the things Roddenberry wanted to discuss with the American public. Sometimes they were frothy episodic romps through Soundstages 9 and 10.

Gene Roddenberry presided over his writers throughout all of it, making cuts and changing scripts with a near-papal authority.

His vision was firm and his edicts absolute, often to the fervent chagrin of his crew. Roddenberry was adamant in his design to show the full flower of human possibility.

Though there was sometimes violence—the producers and the audience always loved a good space battle or grappling match with a Gorn—Roddenberry was determined that his characters, when in their right minds, would reach for physical conflict only as a last resort. He wanted Star Trek to portray a humanity beyond war,

materialism, and prejudice, not as an impossibility or a final destination, but as a daily struggle to transcend our animal natures. This is reflected constantly in the choices each of the characters makes, in the ways they make amends after falling short and conducting themselves in a questionable manner, or in the ways their fellows choose to trust that anomalous behaviors come from a place of secret nobility or undiagnosed illness.

On Kirk’s Enterprise, there are arguments and squabbles over the best course of action, over the moral righteousness or precariousness of their options, over the very ways in which each character sees the universe. This is most notable in the trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, who respectively represent that mythological storytelling triumvirate of Id, Ego, and Super-Ego—the manifestations of the pursuit of pleasure, the practical demands of reality, and the conscience. Without one of the three, the character of the entire crew is unbalanced.

Without Bones, the relativistic morality is missing. Without Spock, the pragmatic maturity is gone.

Without Kirk, nobody’s having any fun. But the three of them can also not exist without discord between them. Many of the best moments in The Original Series come down to the sometimes reluctant friendships

they built over their years of service together, the respect for one another’s skills, souls, and opinions.

These things did not appear magically in the first episodes; they were earned one episode at a time by the writers, the actors, the audience, and the characters themselves. It is satisfying when Spock finally has a drink with Bones and Kirk because it took us so long and so much work to get there. We weep at his sacrifice in The Wrath of Khan because he so rarely has

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expressed his affection for Kirk, but in that moment because we have been on this journey with them from the beginning, we feel as though we too are losing something irreplaceable when Spock promises Kirk, “I have been—and always shall be—your friend.”

As Gene Roddenberry once said, “To do a science fiction series and have the characters come anywhere near human is an accomplishment.”

And, ah, gentle reader, that is how humans work.

The Original Series ended in 1969 after 79 episodes, despite an enthusiastic letter-writing campaign from the fandom, but it began running in syndication almost immediately. Its growing cult popularity led to the creation of Star Trek: The Animated Series, about that same Enterprise crew, which aired on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974. With every year that passed, more and more people discovered Star Trek in syndication, finally leading Paramount (formerly Desilu) to attempt a new series. It was called Star Trek: Phase II and included a mixture of returning characters from Kirk’s Enterprise and new characters to replace Kirk and Spock, whose actors were too expensive or no longer interested. After the Paramount television division folded, the project was repurposed by the head of Paramount Pictures into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The cast of The Original Series would go on to make a total of six motion pictures from 1979 to 1991. Shatner would make a seventh with the cast of The Next Generation and, much later, Nimoy would appear in the J.J. Abrams movie reboot.

In the nearly-20 years that passed between the last live-action episode of The Original Series and the official conception of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the world—and the United States especially—had gone through a drastic transformation.

After the hippies and rock and roll, after integration and assassinations, after “Tricky” Dick Nixon and secondwave feminism, the Space Race and

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Vietnam and recession, the late 1980s were a strangely conservative but ultimately hopeful time. Thanks in no small part to The Original Series, Americans had come to accept a certain amount of diversity in their lives and on their TV screens.

No television show to come after it had been quite so progressive or inclusive, but the very existence of Nichelle Nichols and George Takei in living rooms across the country altered the fabric of society. In fact, Nichelle Nichols would go on to work with NASA to help recruit young women into STEM fields.

The Western world that existed when The Next Generation was born was slightly less oppressive of women—they could more easily get divorced, apply for credit cards in their own names, serve on juries, and obtain legal abortions, for instance.

There were government structures in place for people of color experiencing prejudice, even if they didn’t always work in actuality. It was finally legal for interracial couples to be married. Harvey Milk had become the first openly gay politician elected to office in California. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Justice, and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman Justice, were appointed to the Supreme Court.

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. In the wake of Vietnam, many Americans no longer trusted their government, but they had seen how powerful the people could be when they rose up as one for a just cause. The Civil Rights Act, and its ban of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, had been in place

Star Trek/ViacomCBS

for decades. There were young adults who could not remember a time before such a thing was the law of the land. The arc of the moral universe was long, but it seemed mostly to bend toward justice.

But Harvey Milk had been assassinated after only eleven months in office. The AIDS pandemic was raging through marginalized communities, decimating a generation of artists and creatives. The Reagan administration was reluctant, even negligent, in addressing the growing epidemic due mostly to a belief that it was a “gay plague.” The LGBTQIA community also experienced (and still does) a disproportionately high percentage of abuse, violence, and murder. Women and people of color were still fighting harassment and discrimination in all areas of their lives, but especially in the workplace, where pay disparity, a lack of upward mobility, and gender- and racially-motivated aggressions were commonplace. In communities of color, the ravages of CIA-seeded cocaine and heroin were compounded by a racist War on Drugs that focused not on rehabilitation but mass incarceration. The USSR was in its final throes and would collapse entirely during the run of The Next Generation. The Cold War was soon to end and the Gulf War was soon to begin.

The world had evolved and so had Gene Roddenberry.

Because, ah, gentle reader, that is how humans should work.

Roddenberry was the first to admit that his understanding of the world and his stances within it were in a constant state of questioning and growth, a phenomenon he called ‘The Education of Gene Roddenberry.’ He readily confessed by the end of his life that there were things he regretted about The Original Series, usually regarding choices made to appease the network and the censors.

By the time Paramount approached him about taking full creative control of a new Star Trek series, he had officially declared himself a secular humanist, a philosophy which posits that human beings are capable of making ethical and moral choices without the aid or judgment of religion. No one who had seen an episode of Star Trek was surprised.

In his 1991 interview in The Humanist, Roddenberry said, “[My political

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philosophy] would have to be similar to the philosophy of Star Trek because Star Trek is my statement to the world. Understand that Star Trek is more than just my political philosophy. It is my social philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview on life and the human condition. I have been able to comment on so many different facets of humanity because both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation have been so wideranging in the subjects they’ve covered.”

Though twenty years had elapsed in our timeline, a century had passed in the worlds of Star Trek between Kirk’s command of the USS Enterprise and her new captain, Jean-Luc Picard.

Roddenberry was in a different phase of his life—the last phase of it, as it turned out. He had matured and his vision for Star Trek had matured with him. He wanted even less violence in the second series.

He had learned there could be just as

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much drama from a high stakes trial as from a battle for life and death.

This new captain reflected those changes.

If Kirk was something of a space frontiersman, a Texas Ranger in the stars, Captain Picard—played by the classically trained Patrick Stewart—was an intergalactic Renaissance man (and the only non-American captain to lead a show so far). The Enterprise was still Starfleet’s flagship, the first and most essential cynosure of the Federation’s intentions, but its mission was focused less on the business of risk for its own sake and more on diplomacy. There were even families with children on board this new, harmonious version of the Enterprise. The Id, Ego, and Super-Ego of Kirk, Spock, and Bones existed entirely within the person of Picard, who Roddenberry described as “an explorer, philosopher, and diplomat.” Picard, in echo of Roddenberry, believed wholly in the power of humanity to transcend

its baser drives and in the personal responsibility of all beings to contribute to that transcendence.

If the thesis of The Original Series was a bold vision of what we could accomplish when we work together, The Next Generation posited that individual growth was the basis for species evolution, that humanity should be judged not on its worst moments, but on what we do now that we know better, and that it is on each of us to deliver.

As part of this more nuanced ideal, Roddenberry had decided with all his creative stubbornness that in the century between The Original Series and The Next Generation, human beings would have outgrown their interpersonal differences and quarrelsome tendencies. It was a noble construct, and one that required the series to become a melodrama in which all the conflict came from outside the ship and its crew.

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how humans work.

From 1986 to 1991, with Gene Roddenberry at the creative helm of Star Trek: The Next Generation, his writers—many of whom were young people who had grown up watching The Original Series—fought to do away with this ruling. Their reasoning was two-fold: Itwas detrimental to the quality of the show, but more importantly, it was unrealistic to think that even at their very best, humans wouldn’t struggle with themselves and with each other. How else could they grow and transcend if they were never forced to compromise with or question themselves or their friends and

Star Trek/ViacomCBS

fellows?

In many ways, it was this insistence on external conflict that arguably makes the first season of The Next Generation the weakest season of the show (the other parts involve the show finding its feet and a lot of terrible sexist and racist casting/writing choices). In other ways, however, the mandate allowed for some incredibly progressive portrayals of people with different abilities, genders, needs, and backgrounds cooperating seamlessly in a high-stress workplace and socializing in a large community.

Old lovers respected and supported each other for years through fleeting and sustained romantic pairings,

through heartbreaks and violations and family issues. Trauma and illness were usually treated with weight and care. The crew was overwhelmingly compassionate and considerate of one another’s shortcomings and unique difficulties. While on Kirk’s Enterprise, Bones might refer to Spock as a “green-blooded son of a bitch,” the vast majority of the crew of Picard’s Enterprise take the time to teach and understand one another, to cater their behaviors to better serve the unity of the whole.

“Star Trek,” Roddenberry once explained, “was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms.”

If The Original Series was tolerance, The Next Generation was to be a special delight.

This was often the case, but not always. Whereas Roddenberry once spent a good deal of his time during The Original Series fighting censorship, the network, and the

producers to cast and write what he wanted, for The Next Generation, he would be one of those producers. He would have no one to blame for the final decisions and discordant notes but himself.

The three highest-ranking officers on the new series, Picard included, were once again played

by Whitemen (sometimes painted green). The second-in-command, “Number One,” was Commander William Riker, a man with Kirk’s heart under a philosophe’s mentorship.

An Alaskan with an undiscriminating libido, Riker would ultimately value his time with Picard so much he would turn down command of his own ships to stay on the Enterprise. He would also grow a righteous beard. The next in line was Lieutenant Commander Data, a humanoid android and one of only three sentient synthetic beings in the known galaxy. Data, who did not experience emotions like his comrades, and his personal pursuit to better understand and emulate the humanity to which he aspired would ultimately be credited by a

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generation of neurodivergent fans with helping them come to terms with their own abilities and social differences. His bodily autonomy and personhood would be the subject of some of the best episodes in Star Trek canon.

There were two Black men on the bridge of the new Enterprise, though Michael Dorn was playing an alien and covered in Klingon prosthetics. His Lieutenant Worf was a war orphan, adopted and raised by Eastern European humans and with a similarly complicated relationship to his native culture that Spock, a half-human halfVulcan, had experienced in The Original Series. Though Worf began as a relief officer on the bridge, he would quickly be promoted to Chief Security Officer. Lieutenant Geordi La Forge, played by Roots actor and Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, was the helmsman and then the Chief Engineering Officer. From the United States of Africa—specifically Somalia—and named after quadriplegic fan George La Forge, Geordi was blind from birth and used a VISOR attached to his optical cortex to see the electromagnetic spectrum.

The three women who originally began on the bridge were also entirely played by White actors.

Although Lieutenant Tasha Yar, who was Chief Security Officer before Worf, was initially meant to be Latina and then Asian, Roddenberry’s final casting decision put the blonde Denise Crosby in

the role. A survivor from a colony planet with a collapsed government, Tasha was inspired by Vasquez from Aliens and could, according to concept, defeat most of the rest of the bridge officers in martial arts.

Her biggest claim to fame—and one of the biggest missteps in The Next Generation’s seven seasons— came in the second episode of the series, when she had sex with the “fully functional” Data to prove to audiences she was not a lesbian.

The character was killed off toward the end of the first season when

Denise Crosby, frustrated with her lack of development, left the show.

The remaining two women were Dr. Beverly Crusher and ship’s counselor Deanna Troi, and though they would eventually have their own stories and episodes, they were introduced in the pilot mostly as love interests of Picard and Riker, respectively.

Deanna Troi was a half-human halfBetazoid, making her an empath and sometimes-telepath, and was designed to be an object of sexual desire for the audience…and the producers. She would be mis- and under-used for the majority of the show’s run and repeatedly subjected to those tired sci-fi/fantasy tropes for women: rape (both physical and psychic) and mystical pregnancies.

Dr. Crusher, meanwhile, was the widow of Picard’s late best friend and mother of Gary Stu boy genius, Wesley Crusher (no offense to actor Wil Wheaton, who is lovely). She was played by Gates McFadden, who spent most of the first season behind the scenes fighting the writers about sexist content and a lack of development for the women characters, until one of the writers demanded she be fired. She was replaced during the second season with the underrated Dr. Katherine Pulaski, who was, like

Bones, prejudiced against one of her crewmates and suspicious of transporter technology. However, the change was met with extreme upset by fans, and a campaign spearheaded by Patrick Stewart himself eventually brought Gates McFadden and Beverly Crusher back by the third season. The writer she clashed with left the show.

And, of course, there was the eventual recurring character of Guinan as played by Whoopi Goldberg, who took quite a cut to her usual pay rates to be on the show that had once starred Nichelle Nichols.

The Next Generation pilot “Encounter at Far Point” aired on CBS and in syndication on September 28, 1987, mere months after the Challenger explosion. Over the next seven seasons and 178 episodes and four movies, it would become the most financially viable and popular of any series in the Star Trek franchise, as well as the most awarded. At its worst, the show fell back into ridiculous sexist and racial stereotypes and tropes, undervalued its women, made some of its men creeps without consequence, and missed some huge opportunities to be truly groundbreaking (e.g. the androgynous race in “The Outcast” could have been played by men, as Riker’s actor Jonathan Frakes hoped).

At its best, it would spend whole episodes exploring controversial topics like torture, imperialism, gender identity and sexuality, bodily autonomy, personhood, corruption and conspiracy in government,

capitalism, witch hunts, addiction, technology advancement, racial and cultural identities, post-war prejudice, gaslighting, the dichotomy between freedom fighters and terrorists, and religion, and anodyne topics like integrity, loyalty, what makes us human, mortality, family, regret, ambition, and the lingering effects of trauma…sometimes against Roddenberry’s express wishes. In between, it took us along on daring adventures, wooed us with romance, and delighted us with character-driven high jinks. The Next Generation, like The Original Series before it, changed the very landscape of television. It was, after all, one of the first shows to do a true season finale cliffhanger (”Mr. Worf—fire”), saw the beginnings of multi-episode and -season arcs, and, according to The Mary Sue, passed the Bechdel Test a progressive 44.9% of the time.

Gene Roddenberry’s health was already in decline in the late 1980s as he began work on The Next Generation. After years of regular drug and alcohol use, he developed cerebral vascular disease and encephalopathy. Though he remained at the creative helm of The Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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Next Generation, his final co-writing credit was in the first season, and, according to producer Rick Berman, his direct influence lessened each year. He had his first stroke in 1989, leaving him wheelchair-bound, and another in early October 1991. On October 24th, 1991, at the age of 70, Eugene Wesley Roddenberry died.

His wife, Majel Barrett, was by his side.

In 1985, Roddenberry became the first television writer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1992, he was one of the first humans to have their remains carried into orbit. Much of his legacy is still being written—literally, now that Star Trek is back on television—but the ways in which Gene Roddenberry changed our culture and how we tell stories has been undeniable for over half a century.

Now, you may be thinking, Star Trek’s evolution has ended. How can an idea continue to grow when its creator is dead?

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how ideas work.

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the legacy the legacy With Roddenberry gone, creative control of the franchise fell to Rick Berman and recently-promoted showrunner Michael Piller, who had only just managed to establish a stable writing staff on The Next Generation after two years of chaos.

The general consensus among critics and fans is that the third season was when the series finally started fulfilling its potential. It’s certainly the point at which the show began to produce consistently quality and frequently great episodes.

Does it mean something that this stabilization and increase in caliber occurred largely as Roddenberry was no longer able to contribute to and control the series? While that may be part of it, the truth is much more complex. The Next Generation would not exist in the way it did at its core without Roddenberry’s insistence on the nature of Star Trek and on the progress of the 24th century, but it wouldn’t become truly great until he relinquished control.

Roddenberry was needed to design and build the ship; those who came after him were needed to make that ship fly. But it couldn’t fly while he was keeping it docked.

There’s a special kind of modern phenomenon that seems to exist only in franchises like Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Harry Potter—the kinds of revolutionary creations with a clear heart, soul, and message that altered the trajectory of storytelling and defined a generation who grew up dreaming of those fictional worlds. The Originator has an Idea, often radical for its time, fights for that Idea, builds on that Idea, puts it into the world, changes everything… and over the course of life, grows beyond or away from the person they were when they first conceived of the Idea. When the Originator is next put in charge of that Idea, after decades of the Idea germinating out in the world and the world itself shifting, the Originator is surrounded by the now-grown children whose imaginations were built by the Idea, whose worldviews were structured around the essence of the Idea.

The children are now the age the Originator was when the Idea was new, they know the Idea with a zeal that can only come from adolescent obsession, but most importantly, they know their world and their time with a freshness and understanding that only the young can have. The ideal is a collaboration, with both the Originator and the generation they helped shape, listening to one another to create a version of the Idea that is radical and relevant while

Star Trek/ViacomCBS

still retaining that heart, soul, and message that changed the world in the first place.

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how Ideas work.

Roddenberry’s infamous attitude— and not necessarily an incorrect one—during the first two series was, “’Who knows what Star Trek is?’ I do!” But often it is the audience, the reader, the viewer who groks the true breadth and depth of a work of art, its meaning, its impact, when the artist knows only their intention.

Who knew what Star Trek was?

Michael Piller must have known some of it because he ran The Next Generation through its most critically and commercially zoetic period. Ronald D. Moore, a kid who slipped a spec script to one of Roddenberry’s assistants on a tour of The Next Generation’s set and ended up becoming one of the most influential showrunners in modern television, must have known quite a bit of it. Moore’s long-time writing partner, Brannon Braga, who started as an intern on The Next Generation and eventually showran Voyager and co-created Enterprise, probably knew a good amount. Did Rick Berman, who would successfully produce all seven seasons of The Next Generation as well as create and produce Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the tragic early-2000s run of Enterprise, know what Star Trek was?

Critics and Trekkies have been debating that question for the last twenty years.

Berman himself told The Chicago Sun-Times in 1994, “I don’t believe the 24th century is going to be like Gene Roddenberry believed it to be, that people will be free from poverty and greed. But if you’re going to

write and produce for Star Trek, you’ve got to buy into that.”

It’s that exact opinion that led Berman to create Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Michael Piller in 1993, when The Next Generation was still on the air. It would be the first series in no way overseen by Gene Roddenberry, the first series to take place on a space station rather than a ship, and the first series with a Black captain as the lead. Commander (and then Captain) Benjamin Sisko was unlike any Starfleet lead we’d been asked to invest in before; he was widowed in the Borg assault while Picard was assimilated, a single father to a teenage son, and a Black American man from New Orleans who would present the most succinct version of the show’s revolutionary thesis in the second season: “Do you know what the trouble is?

The trouble is Earth—on Earth there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise.

It’s easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise.

Out there in the demilitarized zone all the problems haven’t been

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solved yet. Out there, there are no saints, just people—angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not.”

Deep Space Nine would boldly go where no Star Trek had gone before.

It would delve deep into religion, into the privilege of a Federation with a decidedly Western mentality, into who gets to be righteous, when, and why. It would take place at the edge of Federation space in the immediate aftermath of a long and traumatic Cardassian occupation of the Bajorans, whose whole way of life was now centered around fighting the Cardassians at any cost. The station on which the majority of the action takes place and the officers and civilians who reside there create a sort of chunky intergalactic cultural stew (or a wriggling intergalactic cultural gagh?), where each group is struggling to be heard, to receive justice or revenge, to survive or thrive. It is as though Starfleet has been given control of Mos Eisley, with barely enough authority to keep the cantina lights on.

The crew was the most diverse of any series yet. A Black man was in charge, a White Bajoran woman was second-in-command, a White “joined” Trill woman was Chief Science Officer, and though Dr. Julian Bashir never specifically notes his ethnic background, Alexander Siddig, his actor, is of North African descent. The remaining recurring characters were Sisko’s son, a young Black man, a family of ruthlessly capitalistic Ferengis, a pair of deliciously enigmatic Cardassians,

a shapeshifting head of station security, and, from the Enterprise-D, Lieutenant Worf and Chief Miles O’Brien.

Over its seven seasons and 179 episodes, Deep Space Nine took a deeply nuanced view of life when that final frontier is an actual frontier, of the complicated nature of conflict, prejudice, trauma, and war, and ultimately of what it takes to make good people do bad things. By the end of the show’s run in 1999, every sentient power in the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants of the Milky Way were decimated, their morals twisted, and their citizens forever changed.

It was one of the first television shows to commit to seasonspanning story arcs, effectively altering once again how we tell our stories. It passed the Bechdel Test 57.8% of the time, and, among other things, included one of the first same-sex kisses in TV history.

In 1995, following the release of the first The Next Generation movie (also starring William Shatner) and with Deep Space Nine in full swing, Berman, Piller, and final showrunner of The Next Generation, Jeri Taylor, co-created Voyager, a new Star Trek series about a science vessel and a renegade Maquis ship whose crews team up after being transported more than 70,000 lightyears from Federation space to a quadrant of the galaxy no known species had ever explored. The initial trip kills a good portion of both crews, damages the ships, and leaves them all a 75-year journey from charted space. Like Deep Space Nine, its thesis was based on the complexities of human behavior when those who have always known

justice and plenty are faced with true adversity. What happens to the paragons of Starfleet when they’re stranded far away from their families, their homes, and their resources, and surrounded by rebels, criminals, and the unknown?

The show was meant to be a return to an earlier kind of Star Trek, in which the crew didn’t get along and the conflict came just as much from within the ship as outside it.

The crew was a mixture of Starfleet officers, Starfleet-officers-turnedfreedom fighters, and aliens from the new species being encountered in the Delta Quadrant. Captain Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew, was the first woman captain to lead a show, and a straight-forward scientist trying to gain control in an impossible situation. The rest of the crew was diverse in theory, though often ethnic identities were handled clumsily and reinforced stereotypes more than offering any kind of true representation. While there is much that is commendable and worthwhile (including a staggering 86.9% Bechdel Test passage rate) in the seven seasons and 172 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, it didn’t take long for the thesis and premise to be forgotten in favor of sexier, less challenging storylines.

But at least, you might be thinking, Star Trek was trying to push boundaries and create something new, even if they sometimes didn’t succeed!

But, ah, gentle reader, that is not always how Star Trek works.

The last of the Star Trek series Rick Berman produced was Enterprise, a prequel set a century before The Original Series, when there was not even yet a United Federation of Planets. The captain and most of the crew were White men, with the exception of a White Vulcan

woman in a skin-tight catsuit as executive officer, a Black human man as helmsman, and a Japanese woman as communications officer.

Even the aliens on the crew were played by White people. In many ways, Enterprise felt like a huge step backward. It was a show without a thesis. It had a soft rock theme song, threw its highest ranking woman into a much sexier pon farr than Spock ever endured, and was generally panned by critics and fans alike. The pilot aired just weeks after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the aftermath would eventually influence a major plotline on the show. Despite the science fiction community’s great love for Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer, the show was such a flop that it effectively killed the two-decade-long run of the second coming of Star Trek. It ran for four seasons and 98 episodes.

Since then, though there have been fun, high-budget movies helmed largely by J.J. Abrams and featuring the rebooted and updated characters from The Original Series,

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Star Trek/ViacomCBS

over a decade passed before anyone was allowed to blow the dust off the bridge consoles and create something new.

As always, the world has changed in the interim. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Western world went into a panicked lockdown that is still going to this day. We are in our 20th year of a series of protracted conflicts in the Middle East, which, though scaled down considerably in 2020, show no signs of truly ending.

Social media and the internet have transformed the way we interact with one another, smart phones have become a pivotal fixture of our day-to-day lives, and there is no longer such a thing as privacy from the government or corporations.

A foreign power hacked American elections. The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal, but also that corporations were people. We experienced the worst recession since The Great Depression. The United States elected its first Black President for two terms and a woman was the Presidential nominee for one of the two major political parties for the

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first time in the country’s history.

There is a Black, South Asian woman as Vice President for the first time.

An insurrection allegedly incited by a sitting President led to the only time in our 244 years that a President has ever been impeached twice. It’s only the fourth impeachment of a President in all our years as a nation.

Voyager 1 became the first humanmade object to ever leave our solar system. We have successfully landed four rovers on Mars. The world is facing an unprecedented climate crisis. Instead of hiding under their desks from nuclear bombs, children now hide under their desks from active shooters. The world rose up in protest against the militarization

of police and the constant violence against Black bodies.

Oh, and we’re entering our second year of a global pandemic that has killed nearly 2.4 million people, resulted in mass unemployment, and, at least in the United States, threw nearly 8 million citizens into poverty while billionaires made over $1 trillion in wealth.

We could use the hope of Roddenberry’s vision now, perhaps more than ever.

Star Trek: Discovery debuted on CBS All Access on September 19, 2017 after a rocky development.

The brainchild of Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller, it takes place a decade before the events of The Original Series. The show involves the recasting of several key characters from the crew of that original USS Enterprise, including Captain Pike and Number One from “The Cage,” a young Spock, and Spock’s parents Amanda and Sarek. It follows the exploits of mutineer Michael Burnham, who is the first Black woman to lead a Star Trek series.

2020 was meant to be a banner year for Star Trek. Discovery began its third season. CBS All Access periodically dropped what they call Short Treks, mini-episodes that provide additional materials to their other series. Star Trek: Picard, which is not a prequel and follows the last adventures of an aging Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, premiered in January and is already renewed for a second season. The first animated series since 1974, Lower Decks, has a two-season order. There is already a joint commission for a children’s animated series between

CBS and Nickelodeon, called Star Trek: Prodigy. A series about Section 31 will star Michelle Yeoh’s mirror universe version of Philippa Georgiou and will be the first Star Trek led by an Asian woman. There is a similar series based around Christopher Pike as portrayed by Anson Mount, named Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

There has not been this much consistent Trek activity since 1995.

There has never been this much consistent Trek activity.

But what does that mean? What boundaries are we seeking to push in the year 2021? Discovery has already had its fair share of controversy because of the diversity of its cast and characters, including the first openly gay couple in Star Trek TV canon and the first nonbinary actors in the show’s history. Now it seems they’ve abandoned the timeline altogether and launched into the year 3188, unmooring it almost entirely from the rest of the Star Trek universe. There are themes to explore in this extremely removed future, but what Star Trek needs now is not more distance from our current struggles, but more willingness to face them. As for the

other shows? Lower Decks sets no real canon. Star Trek: Picard showed us a galaxy after the Romulan star went supernova, as depicted in the first J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie.

But there was never mention of the catastrophic Dominion War depicted in Deep Space Nine, something Alex Kurtzman insisted showrunner Michael Chabon ignore for some reason, and while it was truly wonderful to see so many beloved characters back on screen, there were no boundaries pushed, no dark spaces truly explored, no historical firsts achieved.

Star Trek can do more.

Star Trek was made to do more.

We need Star Trek to do more.

It is a vessel designed to consider the darkest, most painful parts of ourselves, of our world, to explore the ills and injustices of our present society with the objective distance of a Vulcan scientist, the empathic heart of a naked Betazoid, and the stubborn daring of a human being.

In the 1960s when Gene Roddenberry was creating the first series, 2021 seemed so far in the future that he set a terrifying eugenics war in the 1990s and a

complete breakdown of our major superpowers by the mid-21st century. He placed First Contact with the Vulcans, when Zefram Cochrane tests out the warp drive, in the 2060s, 100 years from when Star Trek was born. That’s only 39 years from now.

How can we take Star Trek into our vision for the 21st century? How can the vision of Star Trek lead us into a brighter future?

Television these days is vastly different than it was in the early 2000s. We’re living in the golden age of streaming services and narrative risk. Shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones have changed the way we experience things on the small screen as surely as Star Trek ever did.

Star Trek must keep up, one assumes, with the times. Star Trek must continue to evolve.

The new style of Trek is exciting and cinematic with twists and turns and neverending action. The two current live-action series are piloted by their plots with the characters and dialogue strapped in for the ride.

The writers and the characters are more cynical, the tone is grittier, the humans are more flawed, dependent on vice, more reminiscent of our present than Roddenberry’s future— but these choices seem to lack a deeper meaning or the drive to genuinely explore these complicated facets of human behavior. That’s not to say that Star Trek must return completely to the ponderous and episodic fare of its earlier incarnations, but if Discovery and Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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Picard have thesis statements, they have yet to reveal them.

None of this is inherently bad or wrong.

Certainly both series are grappling with traditional Star Trek themes in their own ways. It’s just different, as The Next Generation was different to The Original Series, as Deep Space Nine was different to The Next Generation.

But as we enter this brilliant new age of Star Trek saturation, of Star Trek possibility, how can we adapt the breakneck pace of modern television with the room to think and breathe that has so long been the backbone and the spirit of the franchise in order to create something entirely new, radical, and relevant? How do we satiate a television audience used to drugs, cursing, and nudity without sacrificing the humanist optimism that is the beating heart of Star Trek? Each cultural and moral taboo we consider now, each ethical dilemma the crew of a Starfleet ship faces in 2021 is a chance for a kid watching at home to see themselves on TV for the first time, to consider the world from a unique perspective, to remember that they are not alone, to remind us all that we can do better.

The year is 2021. Everything is divided, scary, and uncertain. The future is in doubt.

This is exactly what Star Trek was made to do.

Star Trek has always been more than a sci-fi TV show.

Why not boldly go where no Trek has gone before? Not for novelty or for ratings but with purpose and intention. Not for fan service but for public service.

For Roddenberry. For the next generation. For ourselves.

Because, ah, gentle reader, that is how Star Trek should work.

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Spider-Man/Marvel/Disney/Sony

BY TOM TORMEY

it’s hard to imagine a time in which superhero movies didn’t dominate the box office; a time in which we would go years (sometimes decades) without seeing our most beloved heroes in the theaters. It wasn’t that long ago that the notion of the Spectacular Spider-Man getting a big screen adaptation was the stuff of a fanboy’s wild imagination. 2002 gave us Peter Parker’s first major motion picture outing and now, twenty years later, we’re getting several incarnations of the wall-crawler on screens both big and small. 2022 will undoubtedly be the year of the Spider!

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It all starts with one of the most highly anticipated films since the dawn of cinema: Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel Studio’s third entry in their very own Spidey series, following two separate series (five installments in total) from Sony.

Opening on December 17, No Way Home is already setting records for pre-sales, surpassing Avengers: Endgame, which itself had set global records for pre-sales back in 2019.

Tom Holland’s potential final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the titular hero will undoubtedly continue its box office domination well into 2022 before the webslinger’s rights revert solely to Sony for their eponymous Sony SpiderMan Universe. The hype surrounding this movie, driven largely by social media, will likely push No Way

Home’s box office receipts into uncharted and unprecedented territory. And yet, it will just be the beginning of the Spectacular One’s dominance.

The recently announced SpiderMan: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) will see its theatrical release in the final quarter of 2022 after years of anticipation and speculation. The first film, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, set a new standard for animation and storytelling, and brought the concept of multiverses to the masses (outside of comic book fans). With a stellar cast that includes returning favorites like Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, and Oscar Isaac, and the introduction of several variations of the web-slinger, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is already shaping up to the have the same kind of hype and intrigue that’s surrounding No Way Home.

Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel character. I’ve enjoyed every cinematic outing the wall-crawler has made in the last two decades (some more than others—sorry SpiderMan 3), but none have surpassed Into the Spider-Verse in terms of style, storytelling, and character development. The best part is they did all that without actually including the version of Peter Parker from the main Marvel continuity.

Spider-Man’s global dominance in 2022 isn’t solely limited to the movie screen. The Amazing One will dominate your Disney+ account as well, with a new animated series serving as a prequel to Peter Parker’s time in the MCU, titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year. Little is known about the series as it’s still in preproduction, and no voice cast or episode run was announced when news of the show broke this past November on Disney Plus Day, but we can hope it will debut in the later portion of 2022. But if Freshman Year doesn’t make it to the streaming service in time, it will join Sony’s highly anticipated Spider-Man 2 video game for PlayStation 4 and 5 in 2023, continuing Spider-Man’s media dominance for another year!

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Mark Ricci has always been a man of opportunity.

Crossing off bucket list items as early as 12-years-old, the YouTube personality has done everything from competing on TV game shows to starring in his own stand-up comedy special (Mark Ricci: The Teenage Special) to playing Peter Parker in his fan-made Spider-Man movies.

Now with over 100 million views on his Spidey videos alone, Movie

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Man Mark, as his followers know him, recognizes that the journey getting here wasn’t easy. After all, he’s been at this for nearly a decade.

Now preparing for the release of the final entry in his five-film saga, entitled Final Swing, Mark is already looking ahead to the next chapter in his career, which includes producing two features based on his own original stories. At only 21 years of age, the multihyphenate admits that his life consists of a series of phases; of milestones, but it’s also that search for the next big thing that keeps him going.

Mark Ricci/David Leyes/Getty Images/(cover image):LAPALME

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

interview interview

mark ricci

laughs. You don’t wanna end the joke right away. But there were some pleasant surprises for sure.

SPOILER: How old were you when you did your special with Amazon?

MARK RICCI: I was 19. But it wasn’t by accident. It was a very conscious decision to reach out and try to achieve it. When I woke up on my 19th birthday I thought, “Oh my gosh, there are no teenagers who have ever had a full hour-long stand-up special.” So within that whole year, I was working every day, doing sets, preparing for that moment. And I narrowly made it before I turned 20—it was like, three days before. There was that relief for a little bit, but then the time went by and [I wanted] to get it out there. It was a long journey, but well worth it.

SPOILER: Were you nervous the first time on stage?

MARK RICCI: Oh yeah, I was nervous. I had never done a full hour all at once—I had only done close to an hour. The nerves were gone by the second show and I got a lot of the better clips and I sort of merged the two together to the show that you see. There’s always nerves, but you just down a Red Bull and you do it.

SPOILER: Was there a lot of planning with your set?

MARK RICCI: I was having so much fun that even the order [of jokes] I had planned went out the window for one show—whatever came out, came out. But at the end of the day, it was about 75% prepared. And based on reactions, I would add a little adlib. You wanna milk that sucker ‘til it’s dry if you’re getting

SPOILER: Are you going to continue to pursue stand-up, or are you moving on to the next big thing?

MARK RICCI: Stand-up is something that fell into my lap that I love, so I definitely want to go back to it and achieve the next big thing in that area. But, my life is kinda weird. It’s a series of phases almost. It’s all within the entertainment umbrella.

One milestone I set out to achieve, and then the next and the next.

Right now, I got the Spider-Man stuff and I’m even writing a couple of screenplays so that’s where my focus is lying, and YouTube of course. But I’ve got these original movie ideas that I wanna do; I want to fund it, produce, cast myself, and hopefully assemble an all-star cast.

It’s gonna be a huge process, and one that’s already underway right now.

We’re not thinking of those as YouTube projects. We want them to be done on a much larger scale with a larger budget. I can’t say too much, but I can say that Jamie Kennedy, I’ve been talking to him a lot, and we want to work together in the future. He’s been mentoring me a little bit.

SPOILER: How did Movie Man Mark come about?

MARK RICCI: That had been going on far longer than I had even dreamt about doing standup. I was twelve when I came up with that name. It was around the time when I had my first TV show gig. Over time it really stuck.

The name was originally longer.

It was “Mega Movie Man Mark,” because at the time there were a lot of people going by “Movie Man” on YouTube, so I thought maybe it was kinda cliché. But then [people got confused] and couldn’t remember the name. I figured I had established enough of an

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MARK RICCI audience for myself that the videos can speak for themselves, and I can go by a much cleaner name. In 2016, I shortened it to that, and it’s been “Movie Man Mark” ever since.

YouTube has been a journey. I originally started with just doing movie reviews. I just loved movies and when I would watch a movie I needed to talk about it. When I was younger, not a lot of my friends were huge movie buffs like me. I have a lot of friends now who are, but that happens when you get older and you find people with common interests.

But at the time, I was talking to a wall and needed an outlet. And then when I got serious about acting, I was like, “Maybe it’s not the best idea to be ranting and roasting people’s films when I might be working with that person someday.” So I put an end to that and started doing skits and vlogs. And then Spider-Man came up.

SPOILER: What was your first experience on TV? MARK RICCI: My first three gigs were all game shows, but the first one [Skatoony] I kinda look at as a bit of an acting experience, because I was on the show competing with cartoon characters. It was a blast.

The way that came about was I was in a summer drama program and they would send out auditions. So I didn’t even have an agent. And then I did another game show, Splatalot, which was literally just a rip-off of Wipeout. And then after that was the game show with my dad—a Japanese inspired game show [Japanizi].

I went back to the set of Splatalot years later when it became abandoned because it fit in with what I was doing on YouTube, where I was exploring abandoned locations.

We were trespassing [laughs], but it was an idea too good not to do. So I did the video and it did really well.

And then the producers reached out to me, and I was like, “Oh no.” But then I opened the message and they were like, “We’re actually going to be demolishing the set and we’re gonna make a web series out of it. We’d love for you to host the show and you can

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help us demolish it.”

SPOILER: Do you feel like today you have to do more to get people’s attention than when you first started?

MARK RICCI: Absolutely. The second you slow down or don’t put the same amount of energy into a video, the viewer is just gonna click off and go to something else. So I’m lucky that that [energy] comes naturally to me anyway. But there are some days where I’m like, “This is a drag.” But you do it because you know people are waiting for your content. And I think back to when people couldn’t give less of a crap. This is something far greater than it ever was, so you have to remember that and appreciate it.

SPOILER: Was it nerve wracking making a Spider-Man movie? SpiderMan fans are so diehard.

MARK RICCI: Well, I knew I had an understanding of the character, because Spider-Man is my favorite

superhero. I was always a huge fan, so I kinda knew I could do it well.

I wasn’t too nervous about that.

Whenever I would get a negative comment, I would say, “Okay, I’ll take that into consideration. I’ll make my next performance more like the character.” It took a while. There are two sides of the character: the Peter Parker side—a lot of people see Peter Parker as the Tobey Maguire version, where he’s nerdy, he’s not really outgoing—and Spider-Man is his escape. When I first started, the two personas were kind of similar. And then I realized, “What would I like to

Mark Ricci/Amazon/Six Side Studios/Marvel/Disney/MWPR

mark ricci

see as a fan?” As time goes on, if you watch the movies, I wouldn’t say the character does a complete 180, but he kind of becomes more true to the comics and what people love about Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Spider-Man is one of those characters that you get attached to at a very young age and it never detaches. You love Barney and Blue’s Clues, but then you kinda forget about it. But Spider-Man is so accessible to anyone of all ages, and I think that’s why it’s so popular.

If we know that another fan film coming out is doing a character that we’re considering, we’ll just scrap the idea. That’s why I was so excited to do Kraven the Hunter. At the time, I didn’t realize that there were a couple of fan films that used him.

But I just love that character, I think he’s so cool.

Swing. It’s the final chapter of our saga. We’ve made it very important to always take that next step with each film, in terms of the quality, the script, every department. We’ve really taken our time with this one.

Our ultimate goal is to blow people away. If you think you’ve seen the best of what we can do, you have not.

SPOILER: How do you cast these movies?

MARK RICCI: At first, just for convenience purposes, we go, “Do we know any actors who can do this role?” Luckily, the Toronto acting

community, most people have been very willing and open to doing it.

But sometimes we do pull from friends and family as long as they have that ability. In the past, we’ve just grabbed someone who looked like the character, but the standards are getting higher and higher, so we have to actually make sure they have some experience acting.

We’ve had some funny surprises.

My great uncle plays J. Jonah Jameson—he’s played it for about five years now—and he’s amazing! We always get comments about how he steals the movie and he’s hilarious.

I don’t think he’s ever had much acting experience, but he’s perfect.

Those days take the longest because we’re just cracking up on set. He has these little improvs, and he’s a bit of a conspiracy theorist as well, so it works perfectly with Jameson. He’ll be like, “There’s no ice age!” He was asking me if he could include his conspiracies about the pandemic, and I was like, “No, no.” [laughs] People watch this for entertainment, not to be reminded about everything else.

SPOILER: I know some people think that fan films are easy, but how hard is it to make one?

MARK RICCI: It is quite easy to start, and I advise people if they have an interest in it to try it, you don’t need much to start. But if you want it to be good, oh my gosh, it requires a lot of work. It’s not easy and you

SPOILER: Would you ever want to play Spider-Man for Marvel?

MARK RICCI: No. Not interested.

They’ve called already, but I go, “Ay, I can’t do this. I’m doing the YouTube version!” [laughs] No, of course, that’s the dream. But they have so much going on already, so I’m not holding my breath. If that were to happen, I think it would happen after the next one. It’s called Final Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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MARK RICCI have to invest a lot of time into it.

It’s very consuming too. Whenever I’m doing Spider-Man, my YouTube channel kinda takes a back seat.

There’s a lot of elements to it too.

If you want it to be well written and find great locations and great actors, and costumes, it all takes a lot of time. It’s a big thing. But I always find it very creatively fulfilling, because even though it’s not an original property that we came up with, we put our own stamp on it.

And people love to see what we’re going to do with it because they’ve followed us over the years. Now we’re at the point where we almost don’t wanna know what’s going on with the Hollywood ones. Obviously, we’re still fans, but we try not to be inspired by that. We try to set our own path.

SPOILER: How many views do you have on all of these films combined?

MARK RICCI: I think it’s over 100 million views in total now. It’s always more gratifying to get that first million because it takes the longest.

But if you’re lucky enough, your second million comes kind of quickly and it just snowballs. But that first million is special. It’s something every YouTuber dreams of.

SPOILER: When is the next one coming out?

MARK RICCI: It’s coming out at the end of the year. We don’t have an exact release date yet.

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SPOILER: What advice would you give to someone out there trying to do what you’re doing?

MARK RICCI: I would say, if you’re not seeing the results once you take that step and actually do it, just know that anyone who’s done it before—anyone you look up to—they’ve experienced that same thing. And it’s all about trial and error. Not everything you think is going to work is going to work.

But you try again and adjust your confidence strategy a little bit. And one of those times, all the elements are gonna come into play. There could be a number of reasons why something does or doesn’t work, but don’t let that completely alter your motivation to do it.

If you’re doing a fan film, the most important thing is making sure it’s well written, well acted, and especially well edited. If you’re not familiar with the editing programs, get familiar, because the pacing of a movie is so important. If you film

an entire sequence of scenes and put them together, but don’t watch them back to see what the pacing is, then you’re not doing your job.

There are gonna be some things that need to be cut or adjusted so that people have the ultimate viewing experience. Follow that three-act structure with your screenplay, and then later you can worry about the costumes and effects and all that. But at the beginning, it’s important just to find your footing with the basics of filmmaking.

We’ve had times where the actor becomes unavailable and we have to scramble at the last minute because we have a shoot coming up, but you just gotta roll with the punches at the end of the day. Especially if you’re not paying people, they’re not always gonna be available. People have busy lives. Luckily, we’ve never recast a role in this current saga. We’ve found ways to work around it through rewriting.

mark ricci SPOILER: Do you feel that social media and YouTube has changed the world for young filmmakers?

MARK RICCI: 100%. Just being able to have financial freedom and not working a normal 9 to 5. I’ve done all that. But without YouTube, I wouldn’t be able to stand on my own two feet and do what I want to do. When I wake up, I have a certain mission and it aligns with what I want to do. You just gotta keep working and pay your dues—[most people] aren’t gonna be able to skip that stage. But being able to be your own content creator and not having to wait for someone else to say yes—you gotta just do it yourself, and people will recognize your dedication and commitment.

And it makes you better in the process, so that you’re more prepared for that next opportunity.

Mark Ricci/David Leyes/IMDb/Vents Magazine

SPOILER: Do fans and cosplayers ever reach out to you to be in your movies?

MARK RICCI: Yeah, a lot. Most of the time it’s kinda unrealistic because they’re not around where we film or they’re way younger. Like, we have little kids going, “Can I be Doctor Octopus??” Back in the day, maybe it didn’t matter, but now it has to be age appropriate. Most of the time it’s kids who ask, but if they’re around Toronto, yeah, we’d be down to throw them in there in a small role.

But hey, I was that kid too! I was messaging people too, way in over my head, sending letters to casting directors when I had virtually no experience.

SPOILER: Have you ever experienced anything paranormal on set?

MARK RICCI: Yes. We’ve had paintings move. We actually went to one of the most haunted hotels in the country, in California. We had a full camera battery and went up to an urn that had ashes inside, and as we were walking up to it, the camera just shut down. The battery was completely drained. We just ran out, we didn’t know what to do.

I went into this as such a naysayer, but after that, I was like, “Maybe I’m wrong.”

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BY TOM TORM

men in black

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones ruled the summer box office in 1997 and the whole world was singing along to the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince’s electric tie-in song. Men in Black was an enormous success that spawned two direct sequels, an animated TV series, and a soft cinematic reboot starring Thor: Ragnarok’s Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. What you might not know is that MiB is based on a 1990 comic series published by the now-defunct Aircel Comics, which in turn was purchased by Malibu Comics, which in turn was purchased

by Marvel Comics. Similar to Dark Horse Comics’ The Mask going from page to celluloid, the tone of the original Men in Black comics was lightened for its big screen debut.

The film franchise introduced the concept of a neutralizer that erased the memories of countless civilians who learned of the Men in Black and their alien-eliminating agenda, whereas in the comic series, the MiB harshly killed them! The Men in Black films solely focus on policing extraterrestrial threats, while the comics tackle all things paranormal, from zombies to werewolves and beyond. Will we see the MiB return to the comics or eventually make their way into the Marvel 616? Maybe they already have and we were neutralized into forgetting!

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a history of violence Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, and Ed Harris star in A History of Violence, the 2005 cinematic adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel of the same name, published by Paradox Press/ Vertigo Comics (imprints of DC Comics) and created by John Wagner and Vincent Locke. Like thousands of adaptations before it (and after), the David Cronenberg-directed film takes certain liberties that deviate from the source material. The movie is a celebrated work that received two Academy Award nominations.

The graphic novel is difficult to find despite the film’s success and praise, but it’s definitely not something you want to miss. A History of Violence also holds a unique place in history as the final movie to be released on VHS by a major studio!

Another Paradox Press adaption, the 2002 Tom Hanks-led Road to Perdition is based on the 1998 graphic novel of the same name.

By his own admission, writer Max Collins stated that Perdition is “an unabashed homage” to the classic Lone Wolf and Cub manga. With Hanks as the Irish Hitman Michael Sullivan and a pre-Superman and Lois Tyler Hoechlin as Michael Sullivan Jr., the film garnered great reviews for its plot and acting, which comes as no surprise considering the ensemble cast that also includes Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, and Stanley Tucci. Collins created a sequel series, taking place in the 1970s rather than the Great Depression, titled Return to Perdition. Will we ever see a sequel to the film as well? With Hoechlin now a grown man and established actor, now would be the best time to start filming!

Men in Black:Sony/A History of Violence:New Line Cinema/Road to Perdition:DreamWorks/ Big Hero 6:Disney/The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:20th Century Studios

road to perdition

big hero 6 Big Hero 6 has a special place on this list as it’s the only one that is animated. The Disney hit began its life as a 1998 Marvel Comics series called Sunfire and the Big Hero Six. The team largely consisted of mutants and Baymax, a hydropowered robotic synthformer programmed to serve as Hiro’s personal bodyguard, implanted with the memories of Hiro’s deceased father. The 2014 cinematic adaptation marks the first time Disney would use a Marvel property for an animated feature film— although you’d never know it. The movie does little to tie into its source material and the two brands did little to celebrate the connection, perhaps

because of the darker tone of the original team or the drastic change in characterization from page to screen.

If you take the time to stick around for the movie’s post-credits scene, you’ll be treated with an appearance by an animated Stan Lee, voiced by the man himself, cementing the Marvel/Disney connection.

the league of extraordinary gentlemen

Do you want to see a movie that was such a nightmare to produce that it essentially made the legendary Scottish actor Sean Connery retire from acting? Then you need to (you might regret it) check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the 2003 cinematic adaptation of the 1999 Alan Moore graphic novel of the same name, which in turn is an adaptation of the 1960 British comedy, The League of Gentlemen, which itself is based on the 1958 novel of the same name (got all that?). The film version was lackluster at best in both its critical reception and box office draw. Most blame the failure of the project on its departure from the source material. Connery characterized the production as nightmarish, citing constant clashes with director Stephen Norrington. Will we ever see another film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

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Jack Quaid/Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP

SPOILER MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW: GALAXY INTRO: ETHAN BREHM

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WireImage/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images/ Alamy/DFree/Shutterstock.com/IMDb

The kind of real you can’t hide, no matter how hard you try. Growing up around Hollywood, Jack has such a great finger on the pulse of pop culture, but even more so on humanity. The actor has made a bang in the fandom world with his starring role on Amazon Prime’s The Boys, based on the comic book series, bringing that ultra-affable and down-to-earth personality to the character of Hughie.

The Boys is a show about superheroes, but with a twist: They’re all corrupt. Hughie, who

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doesn’t have any powers himself, joins a vigilante team of fellow mortals that fights back against the “supes.” Jack can sell you on the premise much better than we can. The show has one of the best opening sequences we’ve seen in a long time, which instantly drags you into this crazy world.

What surprised us most is how similar Jack’s sense of humor is to Hughie’s. But what makes it more admirable is how he doesn’t ever seem to know he’s that funny. His keen comedic instincts and quick

Jack Quaid/Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP/The Boys/Amazon/ Sony/Dynamite Entertainment/Steve Granitz

Q

Jack Quaid is such a real dude

wit are absolutely natural, fitting in with the wry tone of The Boys. He also gifts us with impressions of his parents, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.

Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd who is just as bummed as we are about the lack of in-person Comic Cons this year. A comic book fan, himself, he’s itching to play a character with actual superpowers. Personally, we wouldn’t mind if Marvel chose to cast him as Reed Richards in their planned upcoming Fantastic Four project.

We get to talking about his brand new show, Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated comedy which takes place circa Next Generation (the series is named after a TNG episode of the same name), and try to snag a few plot points for season 2 of The Boys. We got some nice teases.

He fills us in on his love for Back to the Future and Jaws, how Billy Joel made his way into a pivotal scene in The Boys, and what it’s like being raised by two megastars. This guy is so easy to talk to, which helped make this interview so much fun. We’re excited to help you get to know a little more about Jack Quaid.

spoiler

The Boys is an amazing series. Amazon knocked it out of the park. What’s your experience like on that show?

JACK QUAID

Oh man! It’s just been one of the greatest creative experiences of my life.

First of all, I grew up as just a huge nerd. I’ve always been a huge superhero fan.

Growing up, they came out with the volumes where they collect all the earlier issues. Like an omnibus.

And I just wanted to be a part of a [superhero] project, and the fact that this thing came along, which is so subversive and

K

so cool and so not what you would traditionally expect from a superhero project, it just blew my mind. When I found out I got the part, I think I was happy for about 6 months straight. It just kept me going. The project has been so amazing to work on. The entire cast are incredibly talented and incredibly nice people.

We’ve just formed this little family shooting in Toronto.

Season two was like coming back to summer camp to see all your old friends again. I think it’s better than season one.

Obviously, I’m the most biased person ever, but I think we’ve gotten even deeper with the characters.

You find out what makes them tick. We still have those crazy moments that people—their jaws are gonna be on the floor.

I guarantee you for this season your jaw is gonna hit the Earth’s core. It’s so insane.

with you, but I’m glad you saw it [laughs]. And I think you know what I’m talking about.

spoiler

Yes, they told me they’d cut my fingers off if I said anything.

JACK QUAID

That’s how we run things!

People are losin’ fingers!

spoiler

A lot of people are intrigued with you, both off and on screen, which is very rare these days. Every now and then when I hear you talk, your dad’s voice comes across. I’m the biggest fan of your dad,

and of course I love your mom as well. I know it’s cheesy, but how was it like growing up in a household with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan?

JACK QUAID

It’s really weird because, to me, as a kid, I didn’t really think anything of it.

I think it was only until I got a little bit older where I started to realize like, “Okay, my situation is slightly different than the norm.” Because when I was a very, very, very little kid, what they did was just like any other job to me.

And then once I got to around 4-years-old, I was like, “Oh, they like, do this thing and everyone sees

spoiler

I was able to see a screener for part of season two, it’s fabulous. Season one rocked, but season two kicks butt and I was like, “Ugh! Now I gotta wait to watch the rest.”

JACK QUAID

Yeah, I’m so excited. I can’t discuss anything specific

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spoiler

I always tell people, regardless of who your mom and dad are, you still have to grind in Hollywood. It’s not easy.

You still have to be good at what you do. Do you think having them as your parents opened doors? them do it.” Everybody knows that they do this occupation. So, to me, it wasn’t that much different than growing up anywhere else, but later I was like, “It very much was.” But it was great! I really can’t complain about anything.

My parents are good at what they do and were able to put food on the table. But in terms of my dad’s voice, I feel like, if I just kinda go a little bit deeper, I feel like I can kinda do, like, “Ah! Hey everybody!” I can kinda do a Dennis Quaid, but my mom’s voice is slightly different. My impression of my mom is her going to my friend Marty’s art show and being really impressed by everything. It’s just like, “Marty!

Oh my God!” I don’t know if that’s good, but that’s my impression of her. I love them both and it was great growing up with them.

JACK QUAID

It probably has opened doors for me and I don’t even realize it has. I’m not gonna try to pretend that any kind of privilege doesn’t exist. However, what I’ve experienced has mostly been people assuming I’m going to be a prick when I enter a room because I am a son of famous people. I remember I was going into this audition once and the casting director was like, “Oh, that was actually, like, really good!” And I was like, “Oh! Thank you!” She was like, “I thought you’d come in here and expect it all to be handed to you and just be a jerk.” And I was like, “No, no, I work hard and I want this, but okay.” I was like, “Uh, I’m not a jerk,” but I don’t wanna hafta say that, because that just seems like a jerky thing to say.

spoiler

I can tell when someone is a really cool person. You just come across as this very cool dude and that’s why the world is loving you.

JACK QUAID

Thank you! That means a lot.

spoiler

You’ve been on some pretty cool film projects. Are there any celebrities that you’ve worked with that you got starstruck with?

JACK QUAID

The Rock on Rampage. I remember when I first saw him—and this doesn’t happen to me a lot, but when it does it’s very real—but seeing him in real life was like, “You’re watching a screen right now.” Because I was just so used to him being on a movie screen or on my TV, and I had never actually met him in real life. So it was just this weird, “Is this real? Or am I watching a movie that I’m in right now?” It was just very strange.

I remember being super awkward around him initially because I didn’t know what to say [laughs]. I dunno, I was just completely and utterly starstruck.

Creedence Clearwater Revival/Craft Recordings/The Boys/Amazon/ Sony/Dynamite Entertainment/Instagram

with my parents.” Which is so odd. So that was kind of my first crash course in that. And then I just got very good at knowing who was genuinely my friend. I call it my BS detector.

spoiler

So you learned early on, “My house is not normal. My mom is America’s sweetheart and my dad is the coolest dude in the universe.” Did your friends start bringing it up? Or was it your friends’ parents?

It was interesting. The one odd part is, sometimes I would have my friends in my class try to be friends with me because of who my parents were. And it was just like, “Wait, this is weird. You don’t really like me for me. You’re sixyears-old and trying to get in good

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Jack Quaid/Lars Niki/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly/Comic Con/Harrison Hill/USA Today/Maarten de Boer/Sharp Magazine

JACK QUAID

JACK QUAID

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spoiler

Is he as big in person?

JACK QUAID

He’s huge! I’m tall, but I don’t have the discipline and the muscles that he does. And I think he’s also taller than me too. But it was like watching Superman walk into the room.

Like, the real life Superman that everyone told you doesn’t exist, but actually does exist, walk into the room. That was the feeling seeing him for the first time.

And also, on The Boys, Simon Pegg plays my dad, which is insane. He is genuinely my hero.

I think he’s such a great actor.

I love the fact that he’s written

most of the movies that have kinda brought him to where he is now. He’s a guy who does it all and couldn’t be a nicer, more affable, kinder guy. He’s the absolute best. I know that’s no surprise. But that’s another one where I was like, “Oh, this is just awesome!”

spoiler

He’s just one of those people where you just want to hug him.

JACK QUAID

And I did! Constantly. I didn’t want to bother him, but I did want to hug him a lot.

spoiler

You think he wants to hug you back?

Yeah. What got me into acting was actually, I did a play in middle school. The thing is, with my parents as actors, it was like proof that it was possible. Like, seeing them do their job and be good at it and be successful. It was never a case of my parents being like, “Why would you go into acting? That doesn’t seem practical.” They can’t say that because they’re doing it themselves. The proof that it could be done was there. But I think I got my first laugh on stage when I was like, 13, and I was like, “Oh man, this is great!” And also I formed relationships with other kids and became kind of a theater nerd, and a lot of the friendships I made on that play when I was 13 are still friends of mine today. The community, the joy of doing it was amazing.

spoiler

Would you ever do a movie with your parents?

JACK QUAID

Yes, I absolutely would do a movie with my parents. I think it just has to be the right project, but I’m not closed off to that idea at all.

In fact, I did kinda work with my mom already.

She directed a small independent movie that I was in a few years ago called Ithaca. And I was actually an extra in The Alamo, which had my dad in it. So I kinda worked with them in the past, but if something great comes up in the future, I wouldn’t be opposed to it at all.

JACK QUAID

Yeah, maybe. I dunno if he was thinking, “The son of Dennis Quaid is hugging me! What a day!” But he was just the best. It was a dream come true getting to work with him.

spoiler

I’m not gonna ask you how you got into acting, but—

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spoiler

Would you ever do a reboot of any of your dad’s movies?

Oh man, I’m gonna say no. Only because I think, obviously he nailed them, and that always gets into dicey territory a little bit when the son plays the dad’s former role.

It’s worked in some instances. Like O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son, is such an incredible actor. Him playing his dad in Straight Outta Compton, it was just great. I always thought a movie my dad did that was really good was Enemy Mine with Louis Gossett Jr. I think it’s a really good movie and today could be a really good remake, but I would probably stay out of the remake. But I think they should remake it, period.

spoiler

Right now it’s all about The Boys.

Season one is amazing, it gave people the true side of how superheroes might act in real life, because they can’t be perfect all the time. When you got on set for the first time, what were your feelings?

JACK QUAID

I think the first scene I ever shot was the scene between Butcher

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and Hughie in the pilot when Butcher is trying to convince Hughie to go into the Seven tower.

I mean, I was so nervous. Just because it was my first day and this was a big project and I didn’t wanna screw anything up. I didn’t wanna be fired and recast within the first week [laughs]. So I remember we were doing the scene—and this is what clued me in that this project was gonna be awesome—I’m doing the scene and I was encouraged by our amazing pilot director, Dan Trachtenberg, who did 10 Cloverfield Lane, he said, “Just go ahead and improvise anytime you want. If it doesn’t work, whatever, but if it works, we’ll use it.” So I improvised this thing about how Hughie’s favorite musician is James Taylor, so it means he shouldn’t be good at infiltrating a tower.

And [showrunner] Eric Kripke came out and was like, “That was great! Make that a list. Make it James Taylor, Simon & Garfukel, Billy Joel.” And something about Billy Joel stuck. And it became Hughie’s favorite musician, and we put him on Hughie’s t-shirts, and

Jack Quaid/The Boys/Amazon/Sony/Dynamite Entertainment/Plus One/ RLJE Films/Today/NBC/Gage Skidmore/Jenna Greene/Instagram

JACK QUAID

D the next day we shot the scene where Robin died, and originally the line before she died was, “We can’t keep waking up in your childhood bedroom staring up at a Led Zeppelin poster.” That was changed to Billy Joel. I mean, Billy Joel just became this huge part of Hughie’s character all based on this improvised thing that Eric and I worked out. So the fact that Eric is so collaborative with all of his actors, especially during that time when we were all figuring out who our characters were and what made them tick, I will forever take my hat off to that. He is so incredibly good at what he does and I think the show benefits greatly from his supervision and his writing. So I’m just giving a big ol’ shout out to Eric for being awesome. And Dan as well.

spoiler

I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but Seth Rogen is involved as one of the executive producers.

What was it like meeting him and working with him?

JACK QUAID

a lot of the stuff that he does and is so good at that as well.

And he and Evan Goldberg, his writing partner, were in the room, and I’m a huge fan of his as well.

[Seth] actually read for Butcher in my audition, which was one of the more surreal moments of my life. Like, Seth Rogen’s voice doing hardcore Cockney slang. It was just so surreal and weird, but it was incredible. So I jumped at the chance to work with him, and the fact that I’m still working on a project with him is so incredibly cool.

spoiler

You work with a cool cast and crew on The Boys. Which one of your co-stars really fits the character they’re playing?

their roles, and I would say that for The Boys too. What’s interesting is, we’re all pretty similar to our characters. I mean, obviously for the superheroes, they’re not evil. But I think Laz Alonso is kind of the perfect Mother’s Milk, because he has a tendency to be a little bit OCD like Mother’s Milk. He carries around wet wipes and hand sanitizer. I don’t even know if the OCD came from, “Hey, Laz, do you want your character to have the same particular ticks that you do?” or some cosmic meeting between the two.

But that would probably be the best pairing for me. He’s absolutely perfect.

One of the most rewarding parts of the show, for me, is actually Hughie and MM’s relationship, which I think we get into a little bit more in season two. I just think it’s really fascinating because Marvin, his real name, is who Hughie wanted Butcher to be. Butcher is a guy who gets things done, albeit in a crazy way, but he actually fights for what he believes in. Mother’s Milk does the same thing, but he does it in a more logical way that actually thinks about the human cost of what he’s doing.

And exploring that relationship with Laz was really great.

spoiler

Hearing you talk about The Boys with such passion tells me that this show means a lot to you.

JACK QUAID

Absolutely. It’s like my family. A lot of

JACK QUAID

In terms of looks, all of the superhero actors look perfect for

That was another being-superstarstruck moment. I actually met him during my audition, which was so nerve-racking because, like Simon Pegg, I’m in awe of that dude. He’s so funny and such a great performer, but also writes

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Let’s get a little into Hughie’s character for those who haven’t seen it yet. Who is he and what is he doing with these superheroes?

JACK QUAID

As I kinda spoiled earlier, Hughie Campbell is just a mild-mannered dude who works in an electronics store and exists in a world where superheroes are real and are fighting crime. Everybody loves them. They’re kind of the equivalent to our most famous actors and biggest sports superstars combined. And one day, [Hughie] is closing up shop and his lovely girlfriend, Robin, comes in and they start walking down the street and he asks him to move in with her. And he’s very excited about it. He’s a guy who would just be happy living out his days with this girl. Not really amounting to much, but as long as he’s with her, he’s okay. And all of a sudden, she steps one step into the road and a speedster superhero, akin to The Flash, runs through her accidentally and basically atomizes her into a cloud of blood right before his eyes. He’s left there holding her severed hands. The superhero rushes off and all of a sudden Hughie is in this world where he is so caught up with revenge. He gets recruited by this mysterious figure named Billy Butcher, who is a guy who takes down superheroes and, as he puts

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it, “spanks the bastards when they get out of line.” So it’s a show about revenge. A show about absolute power corrupting absolutely. And it’s so friggin’ insane.

spoiler

That scene is so crazy. That’s a reaction that would actually happen if this were real life.

JACK QUAID

It was an insane day. That was my second day on set. I always mention that scene, because when I was originally trying to elevator pitch the show to my friends, it was hard to pitch because there are so many elements happening. But if I just describe that one scene, they got it immediately. They were like, “Oh! Okay! Superheroes are bad. There’s collateral damage and it’s about the people trying to take them down.” You just kind of understand based on that one scene.

spoiler

Do you think if superheroes actually existed there would be people trying to take them down?

JACK QUAID

Absolutely! Just that scene with Robin, I’m like, “Yeah, of course if The Flash actually existed he would run into somebody… like, eventually he would have to make that mistake.” There are so many people walking around on the street. And I think there’s a reason why, in some iterations of The Flash, you just see nobody on the street when he’s running around. I think that whether or not their intentions are good, superheroes are still human and they’re gonna make human mistakes like that. And there are also people who, if you give them power, they become very, very corrupt. And that’s the case with the character of Homelander, who’s the most powerful being on earth. So why would he care what we, mere

Jack Quaid/Tommy Garcia/Glamour Magazine/Instagram

things wrapped up in one. You spend so much time with people that you get so attached. I feel very lucky to have this thing that’s been coming out over the past two years that I’m just so proud of and I get to share with such incredible people.

Not only that, but everybody’s friends with people in my life and groups are getting crossed.

My girlfriend is friends with everybody in the cast. It’s just cool. It’s become my whole thing.

mortals, think, and what we consider to be moral and good? I feel like a lot of superheroes we know from comic books, it’s kind of assumed that they have good intentions and are good people, and then they get powers.

But this is saying, “Okay, you don’t necessarily have to be somebody who’s a good person to have powers.” There are gonna be people who are straight-up evil. There are gonna be people who are indifferent and use their powers for their own selfish means. There’s more of a grey area and I think this show is a pretty accurate version of what it would actually be like if superheroes existed in our world. Another thing Eric said about the show, which is really interesting, is that it’s a show about masks. It’s a show about people showing different sides of themselves to different people. With the supes, they have a public persona, and then they have who they are on the inside that they don’t really show. I think the only two characters who we can see don’t have a mask, or don’t wear them initially, are Hughie and Starlight.

Starlight eventually learns to put something on. She grapples with that. Like, “Should I be doing this?” And Hughie, there’s no way he can put on a mask. He just kind of has to be himself the whole time. So it’s an interesting show, especially when you view it through that lens. Everybody has a side that they show the world, and has a side that they keep to themselves.

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You and your crew are vigilantes with no powers, but you guys are ballsy dudes. What do you think a person like Hughie is thinking?

JACK QUAID

The whole thing with The Boys is they have to outsmart [the supes]. Sometimes they do that via blackmail. Sometimes they’re trying to really research the heroes and find out what their weaknesses are. We have a hero named Translucent in episode 2 of season 1 who comes to a bitter end. I don’t wanna spoil too much, but we figure out exactly how to take him down. It’s bloody, for sure. But we kinda have to outsmart him and figure out a way around his powers in order to kill him. We basically have to think and plan and be willing to fight dirty.

spoiler

There are a lot of cliffhangers about The Boys and The Seven and Vought.

What can you share without sharing to much.

JACK QUAID

I think the one that most people are super excited for is what’s the deal with Becca and Homelander’s son.

What’s going on with that? What is this house? I’m not gonna say anything about it, but we get into it for sure. We’re not gonna leave you in the dark. Something I’ve always wondered about is what’s gonna happen with Hughie and Starlight now. She basically broke up with him, and rightfully so. I think Hughie feels super bad about lying to her for that entire season, but she basically lets him go. I dunno. Is there still a

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romantic thing? Are they just done?

Are they gonna ever see each other again? We answer those questions too. So, I dunno. I think I just spoiled a lot of the end of season one for anyone who hasn’t watched it [laughs]. There’s definitely a lot of lingering questions from season one, but I think we address all of them.

spoiler

A lot of times with these secretive shows, the showrunners might not tell the actors too much ahead of time. Is that true?

JACK QUAID

I knew about some stuff that would happen with my character, but I really didn’t know about a lot of the cliffhangers until I read the first script. And I’m like you guys. I’m like, “Oh my God! What?!” every time I read one of them. [The showrunners] know everything and every time I’m in an interview setting with Eric, I feel so much more comfortable because he can say what he thinks is appropriate and I can just chill and not have to answer those questions [laughs].

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Jack Quaid/Plus One/RLJE Films/Getty Images/Michael Buckner/David Needleman/ Instagram/Lars Nicki/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly/Comic Con

spoiler

D spoiler

Things are going very well for you with the show and the movie projects you have coming up. Does it get nerve-racking sometimes?

JACK QUAID

This is basically my therapy, where I’m always like, “Oh man, when’s the other shoe gonna drop?” I just feel incredibly lucky to be on these shows, but also just in general, I feel lucky to do what I do. So I always fear that someone’s gonna pop out and be like, “It was all a lie!”

But I think every time I feel that, I just reflect on how I feel genuinely blessed and lucky to be a part of projects that, not only are fun to work on, but I genuinely love and would watch even if I wasn’t involved.

spoiler

Do you feel like you don’t go to as many auditions anymore?

JACK QUAID

It’s weird. I had a few auditions over Zoom, which has been really interesting. It’s like doing a scene that you would normally do with another person in a room, but just over a computer. It’s just so odd. But definitely possible. Oh, actually, there’s another thing I have at Comic Con this year. I have a cartoon called Star Trek: Lower Decks. I’ve been doing some lines that we missed, basically from my closet—we’ve kind of converted that into a little voiceover studio. So I’m still acting, but there’s an itch that’s not getting scratched. And I know a lot of other performers who feel the same way right now. But mostly I’ve just been playing Fortnite with Jesse T. Usher, who plays A-Train (on The Boys), so it’s been great!

spoiler

What can you tell us about Lower Decks?

JACK QUAID

It’s an animated Star Trek show.

A comedy that focuses on, not the bridge crew or the captains or the first officers, it focuses on the ensigns who are on the lower decks of the ship. And they’re the ones who basically have to do all the dirty work. They have to repair the ship when it’s broken. They have to fix the food replicators. They have to take out the trash, basically, in the holodeck. And it’s great! I really love the show because it’s set in the Star Trek world, and it’s a comedy, but in no way is the show making fun of Star Trek or people who like Star Trek. It’s a show that hopefully audiences can laugh along with.

Occasionally there will be a weird aspect of Star Trek that we touch

on and I hope that fans can go, “Oh! I recognize that as being an odd thing in that universe,” and laugh along with us.

Mike McMahan is the showrunner. He was a writer on Rick and Morty and he co-created Solar Opposites with Justin Roiland. And he’s the ultimate Star Trek nerd and taught me so much about that universe. I was a big Star Wars fan, and now I feel like Star Trek and Star Wars are kinda tied for my affection. He told me all the best episodes to watch of The Next Generation. Our show is actually set in that era. Before the events of Star Trek: Picard, but I think after or during the TNG era. To be a part of this universe is such an honor and such a responsibility because this show has been such an institution for so long.

And the fact that I get to play around in that sandbox is really a dream come true—even if my character is a lowly

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Q ensign who is not that high in rank.

Much like Hughie on The Boys, where I’m on a superhero show and don’t get superpowers, I’m on a Star Trek show and I’m not on the bridge. But I’m having a blast!

spoiler

Between live-action or animation, which do you prefer more?

JACK QUAID

I love both so much, but if I had to choose I’d choose live-action just because you get to interact with a whole crew full of people and you’re just in the trenches with people. I love being on set, it’s such a great experience.

Animation is super fun and super great, but you’re only in there for like a day or so. You don’t really get to meet everybody involved in the project. And one of the things I love most about acting is the sense of community that you build. And you make friends, sometimes for life. So if I had to choose, I’d choose live-action, but animation does hold a special place in my heart just because I grew up on cartoons. And just being a cartoon, period, has been such a dream.

spoiler

You said you’re into comics. If you could be a superhero in a DC or Marvel movie, who would it be?

JACK QUAID

That’s the one thing about being on The Boys: I’m in a superhero show but I don’t have any superhero powers [laughs], which is like, “Ughhh!” I know I’ve been tagged on Instagram as The Flash. I would love that. He would be really great. The other one though, because I’m lanky and I read the Fantastic Four comic books when I was a kid, would be Mister Fantastic. I feel like I could be a stretchy superhero.

And I mean, Spider-Man has always been my favorite and I think I could be at least a good Peter Parker in that sense, but I’m not trying to take anyone’s job. Everybody who’s playing these superheroes now are perfect for the roles, so maybe there’s something that will come along that I’ve never heard of that will be perfect. Much like

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The Boys. I didn’t realize it was based on the comics, but there it was. Stuff comes along, and I would absolutely not be opposed to playing a superhero.

spoiler

You sound like a fan and you think like a fan, which is why you’re always gonna give them the best version of yourself in everything you do.

JACK QUAID

Totally, thank you! it’s weird because I feel like if I wasn’t on [The Boys], I’d be at Comic Con just as a fan. I’ve been to San Diego Comic Con a few times before I was on The Boys and it’s just cool to be in a group of people who are just all into the same stuff you are. I’ve been to New York Comic Con as a fan, too. And I went to Dragon Con last year with Karl Urban, and that was one of the best times I ever had. Atlanta was incredible. The Atlanta nerds at Dragon Con are just incredible and amazing. I miss that too.

spoiler

How did it feel going to your first Comic Con as a celebrity?

JACK QUAID

It’s really odd. Because in my head, I’m like, “Why are you waiting to meet me?” But I think just talking to everyone was incredible because you just get to know the fans face-to-face, which is such an incredible experience that I’ve never really had on any other project. Just getting to talk to people who are fans of the show one-on-one.

And sometimes I’ve had really deep discussions about, like, anxiety, or people would tell me stuff and I was very happy to listen and get to know them a little bit. Especially at Dragon Con. Everyone was just so cool.

I know this sounds cheesy, but I felt like after they left my table I genuinely made a friend of some kind. It’s been really interesting. I did a convention in Valencia, Spain right before everything shut down. And even there, I felt the same.

These conventions have such a positive and incredible vibe to them. You can’t help but leave feeling very refreshed and very connected to everyone, to humanity, in an interesting way. I know that’s from a very narrow, comic book convention lens, but it’s very nice and I miss conventions during this time for sure.

spoiler

Do you believe in ghosts?

Jack Quaid/Plus One/RLJE Films/Michael Buckner/The Boys/Amazon/ Sony/Dynamite Entertainment/Jenna Greene/David Needleman

JACK QUAID

Yes. There has to be. I’m in my apartment right now and I think there’s a ghost in here.

I swear to God, there’s like a certain energy from one part of the apartment. I don’t think it’s bad. I don’t think it’s negative.

There was one point where my girlfriend went out of town to visit her family and I was watching her cat at my place, and there was one room of my apartment that it would just go into and just start meowing out of nowhere. And things that I’ve never seen this cat do before. I dunno. I also grew up going to this place in Montana a lot, and there was kind of a cabin there owned by this dude, Warren

Oates—he was like a Western movie actor. And everyone who ever stayed in that cabin would hear footsteps or had a sense that somebody was there.

There’s gotta be something because I think as you live a life, you kinda leave behind energy.

And at some place it can be so strong that it can carry over, even after you die. That’s what I think. And I might be wrong.

Call me crazy, but I’m into it.

spoiler

Have you ever experienced anything paranormal on set?

JACK QUAID

I personally haven’t while filming, but I know there was

an area—and I don’t wanna give away too much about season 2—but there was basically a hospital or old asylum somewhere in Ontario that other members of the cast—not me—shot at. And everyone came away from it being like, “Okay, it’s haunted. There’s something there.” People were just kind of experiencing a presence while on set.

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spoiler

What’s the one movie you remember seeing as a kid that’s affected you today?

JACK QUAID

spoiler

and it would be like, $1 million back then. Where would you go?

JACK QUAID

spoiler

If you had a time machine, would you go to the future or the past?

Oh my God, I think I would have to go to the past and warn someone about something. Just to like, maybe make sure the present’s a little bit better. That’s what I think I would do. Also I’m a huge fan of Back to the Future and going back to any time period in the past just seems fascinating. Also, I would bring $100

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I would go back in time to some big historic situation that I kind of think didn’t really happen and try to see if it was real or not.

JACK QUAID

You know, I’d see if aliens really did crash in Roswell. That’s what I would do, for sure.

I mentioned one of them a second ago. Back to the Future, I think, was the movie I watched at every sleepover for a very long time. It’s just such a fun, incredible—funny, but also heartfelt, and it has a sci-fi element to it. Actually, I remember when I first started talking about the role of Hughie with Dan Trachtenberg—in the first episode, we mention Marty McFly. Marty’s a little cooler than Hughie is, but he has that kinda vibe to him. We were trying to bring that into the character. The other movie I watch at least once a year is Jaws. I don’t know what it is about that movie.

The characters are great. I like the story about how it was made and how difficult it was to make the animatronic shark work in salt water, so they had to film around it, which is why you don’t see the shark for the first 75% of the movie. I just think that’s so interesting that it was such a stressful shoot for everybody, but if that movie hadn’t gotten made, or if they failed to make it the way that they did, we wouldn’t get all the other great Spielberg movies and all that stuff. So much came down to Jaws. It changed everything. The summer blockbuster was formed out of that and it was such a grind to make it. So I just find that movie endlessly fascinating.

spoiler

What is the most memorable or exciting thing you’ve seen onset?

JACK QUAID

I can’t give it away. There’s something that happens in episode 3 of season 2 of The Boys that’s just the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my entire career. And I just think nothing’s ever gonna top that. You’ll know it when you see it, but it’s just the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

You’ll know it soon enough and you will not be able to forget it.

spoiler

If there’s one message you can pass to your fans, what would that be?

JACK QUAID

Jack Quaid/Sharp Magazine/Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images/Michael Buckner

“Thank you. Fans of The Boys, thank you so much for coming on this journey with us. We are continually in awe of you guys.

You guys have the cosplay, the fan art. Just the love from all of you, it’s felt and it’s deeply appreciated.

We just genuinely could not do this show without you guys, so thank you so much. And also, thank you for hanging in there and being patient with us and allowing us to finish the show, edit it, and get it to be the best possible quality for you guys. And just thanks for being fans.”

Jack stars in Star Trek: Lower Decks, which premiered August 6 on CBS All Access. The Boys season 2 premieres September 4 on Amazon Prime.

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Money’s super tight around the holidays

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10. tools

If you’re the type of person who’s always in the garage or doing yard work, then you know which tools you never use. If you’re not that type of person, then you might have hundreds of dollars worth of handy tools wasting space.

Go through what you have and take advantage of the internet.

Anything you find is likely being sold on eBay at any given moment.

9. COMIC BOOKS

This is a special type of art that got the “nerdy” stigma early on. But the more time passes, the cooler comic books have become in pop culture. Whether they’re hot commodities like Iron Man, or noname comics (because you never know who the next Iron Man is gonna be), the right book in mint or near-mint condition can sell for anywhere between 3 and 7 figures.

Barbie/Mattel, Inc./Metal Gear Solid/Konami/Sam Howzit/Comic Books/danni4keeps/Getty Images

And in 2020, even more so than usual. Any little bit helps, and if working overtime isn’t a option (or you’d rather spend your time with family) now’s the perfect time to rummage through the attic, search the basement, clean the garage—whatever you’re working with, just be resourceful. For those of you hoarding collectibles, waiting for their value to mature, now’s a great time to cash them in. However, some of you are sitting on a gold mine and don’t even realize it. Whatever the case may be, here’s hoping this list can help you score some extra holiday cash.

Star Wars/George Lucas/Disney/DC/Jim Lee/ Marvel/Stan Lee/MLB/Topps/NBA/NFL/NHL

M By robert napolitano

8. BARBIES

A 4. STAR WARS

Since its release over 60 years ago, the name “Barbie” has become synonymous with dolls.

Little did people know at the time, but with each passing year these dolls have gained value, and every once in a while somebody turns a 20-yearold Barbie doll into a small fortune.

Disney has given us more sequels than we can stomach in recent years, keeping the enthusiasm behind Star Wars at the forefront of society’s mind. However, old and rare collectibles are always better. Anything you find pertaining to the original trilogy is where the big bucks are at the moment. So hang on to the toys from the new movies so that years from now you’re not lamenting what you should’ve hung on to.

7. FURNITURE Most of the time they’re hefty and a real pain in the butt to move, but people are always looking for furniture. Vintage and foreign are usually good signs, and of course condition is a huge factor, but you’d be surprised what a unique looking chair or table can really sell for on eBay, Mercari, or even Craigslist.

5. POKÉMON CARDS 6. ACTION FIGURES There are tons of different kinds of action figures out there, but the most popular ones often go handin-hand with the movies that are popular. However, rarer franchises are sought after as well. Also, complete sets might get you money quicker, and new-in-the-box figures will make you a little more dough—and if you have both, you just might be in luck!

“Gotta catch ‘em all” might be the greatest marketing slogan ever used for kids’ toys. There are around 900 different species, with over 9,000 cards to collect in the English sets and around 7,000 in the Japanese sets at the time of this printing, so catching them all is a tall task for even the most diehard Pokémon fanatic.

While most commons can sell for a couple quarters to a few bucks, the rare ones (look for the first edition badge) can go for as high as 6 figures.

3. Sports Cards

For years now people have known the potential value in a Michael Jordan basketball card, or a limited edition Ken Griffey Jr. baseball card.

As society becomes more and more virtual, something as traditional as a sports card can now be worth thousands and thousands of dollars. Cards are appreciating in a way only art can. It can be overwhelming dealing with, in some cases, thousands upon thousands of pieces, but thankfully the internet makes it easy for you to check the worth of any cards you find lying around.

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Coca-Cola/NBA/MLB/NFL

2. COCA-COLA The random Coca-Cola merchandise you can come across is insane, and these days almost anything attached to the brand is considered a collectible. Unique is great, but vintage is most important in terms of value.

For example, a prototype glass Coke bottle sold on eBay for around $250,000 in 2011.

1. SPORTS MEMORABILIA This expands far past sports cards.

These are jerseys, balls, figurines, magazines, autographs, and much more. If you have anything Michael Jordan from the ‘80s or ‘90s, it could be worth a small fortune.

If it was ever in the hands of the athlete, himself, it could be worth a big fortune. A signed picture?

A game-used jersey? If you can prove it’s the real McCoy, you can make good money on it.

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SPOILER MAGAZINE

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BY ethan brehm

if you were a kid in the ‘90s, kazaam was just another movie.

Today, it’s “that movie”; infamous for how much critics hated it; the poster child for marketing over moviemaking. The 1996 children’s film was obviously not much more than a vehicle for its star, Shaquille O’Neal. But back then, every kid watched Kazaam, imagining they had their own genie who could grant them wishes and make sweet rap videos with them. We were unaware of the genre clichés that it was simply copying and pasting for our enjoyment. We only saw it as a fun ride with some cool hip hop tunes.

12-year-old Max (Francis Capra) is on the run from a group of bullies when he winds up in an old abandoned building. Hiding under a pile of cardboard, he discovers a broken boom box that releases a genie named Kazaam (Shaq). Kazaam can grant wishes, but only material things like junk food and cars.

Max is always getting into trouble

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and currently having problems in school, likely due to his turbulent home life, where his mother (Ally Walker) just got engaged to her boyfriend, Travis (John Costelloe). Max’s parents broke up when he was 2 and he doesn’t know his father. Though after tracking him down, it turns out he’s a big time talent agent who specializes in pirated music.

The details are fuzzy and fairly inconsequential from here on out, but you can probably guess the remainder of the film has to do with Max’s decision of what his three wishes are going to be.

Never able to hang onto its story, we’re given several different plots at once, all competing for the same screen time. The setup is quick, but then director Paul Michael Glasser doesn’t know what he wants to do with the rest of the story. But the film never seems to be in a rush.

Scenes continuously drag because of uninteresting banter.

Kazaam: Disney/Touchstone Pictures

SPOILER MAGAZINE

The plot often has stipulations that set events in motion, yet there’s never any importance behind them.

One example is how Max refuses to make his final wishes so that Kazaam will stick around longer and protect him from his bullies, but this payoff never even happens. His bullies never become part of the plot in any substantial way. It’s a throwaway line in order to justify why the movie isn’t over in 10 minutes, with the writers, Christian Ford and Roger Soffer, never holding themselves accountable for why this detail exists in the first place.

The duo toys with some interesting themes about materialism and fame, but never develops the characters properly for this to hit home effectively.

Though in an odd way, the film’s sloppiness sort of works in its favor in that it keeps us guessing where the plot can possibly go next.

Since it technically doesn’t adhere to one clear or concise formula, making up its own ludicrous rules as it goes along, there’s a sort of unpredictability that almost works.

As a kid, it totally works.

Stylistically, the folks behind the sets are geniuses. Max’s room and clubhouse make any 12-year-old salivate with envy. Our hero has a knack for building cool contraptions in his sick underground clubhouse which could only exist in the ‘90s. But still, these are just more examples of style versus substance.

Although, viewing the movie with a nostalgic mindset that’s abandoned hope of all expectations of story quality, I’ll take it!

The movie’s soundtrack is deceptively stacked as we’re teased with some really great background music, featuring some heavy-hitters like Usher, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Backstreet Boys, but also some under-the-radar ‘90s acts such as Shyheim, Subway, and Smart Guy alum Jason Weaver. Due to missteps in editing, we never get to hang onto any of these songs for long enough.

However, we are graced with musical treasures like “We Ain’t Men, We Genie” for nearly 2 minutes.

Kazaam could have simply been a kids’ genie movie adorned with stylistic trimmings, but no. Kazaam

had to star Shaq. The former NBA player-turned-actor is extremely charismatic, but Shaq, himself, can’t act.

He can be silly, but he can’t deliver dialogue. The only thing saving him is how distracted the audience is by how rapidly he moves his eyebrows up and down when he talks. His chemistry with Capra is fairly good, but unfortunately their relationship in the film is never built up enough for this to mean anything.

Held back by atrocious performances (there’s a reason you’ve never seen any of the

main cast in anything else) and a script that lacks any sort of clarity, Kazaam is actually not nearly as bad as its reputation.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not good. However, this infamous monstrosity just might be great in its own ridiculous way. Shaq may have made the film notorious, but he’s also probably the only reason why anyone’s still talking about it today. Everything about this movie feels like it shouldn’t work, but as nostalgia porn and guilty-pleasure entertainment, Kazaam hits the spot.

But back then, every kid watched Kazaam, imagining they had their own genie who could grant them wishes and make sweet rap videos with them.

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Jambi from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie Barbara Eden plays the title character in this ‘60s sitcom which helped popularize the genie trope.

The series follows United States astronaut Tony Nelson after he discovers a genie in a bottle while being stranded on a deserted island.

After bringing her home, Jeannie constantly wreaks havoc in Tony’s life by using her magic at all the wrong times. Hilarity ensues.

“Wish? Did somebody say wish?”

The floating blue head inside a jewel-encrusted box from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was portrayed by John Paragon throughout the show’s run. Once per episode, Jambi would grant Pee-Wee a wish, which would range from food-related desires to making a tree grow faster to helping decide what to wish for (thus using his one wish in the process). The genie was an excellent level head (pun intended) to Pee-Wee’s manchild.

Genie from Aladdin (1992) No, and I mean absolutely no, list of genies would ever be complete without Robin Williams’ iconic portrayal of Aladdin’s blue confidant. Despite coming to blows with Disney over merchandising, the comedian has since become synonymous with the word “genie.” I mean, just type in “genie” on Google Images and see how he dominates the search results.

genies throughout movie history: genies throughout movie history: Tales of genies have been around since the early days of motion pictures. Here are a few that have stood out over the years.

The Brass Bottle (1964)

1001 Arabian Nights (1959) The Palace of the Arabian Nights (1905)

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The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

The Thief of Baghdad (1978)

I Dream of Jeannie/NBC/Universal/Pee-wee’s Playhouse/Paul Reubens/Pee-wee Pictures/CBS/Aladdin/Disney/ Once Upon a Time/Disney/ABC/Game Genie/Codemasters/Galoob Toys/The Thief of Bagdad

our favorite genies: our favorite genies:

United Artists/The 7th Voyage of Sinbad/Columbia/1001 Arabian Nights/Columbia/The Brass Bottle/Universal/The Thief of Baghdad/NBC/The Outing/Moviestore Entertainment/DuckTales/Disney/Bernard and the Genie/BBC/Kazaam/Disney/Touchstone/Wishmaster/Lionsgate

Genie of Agrabah from Once Upon a Time

Game Genie

Giancarlo Esposito plays a Disneyesque genie with one of the more intriguing backstories you’ll come across. Discovered by Snow White’s father, the genie becomes his master but quickly falls in love with the Evil Queen (Snow White’s stepmother) and eventually winds up trapped inside of her magic mirror. The TV series always presents classic fairytales with a unique spin, with this particular storyline being one of its best.

Yes, this is literally just a cartridge that allows you to cheat in video games, but if you had one of these in the ‘90s, it was like you had an actual magic lamp. Marketed as a “video game enhancer,” Game Genie modified popular games to make them easier to beat or to simply give players a different experience, leading to a somewhat groundbreaking lawsuit by Nintendo for violation of copyright law, of which Nintendo lost.

Kazaam (1996) The Outing (1987)

Disney’s Live-Action Aladdin (2019)

Bernard and the Genie (1991)

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990)

Disney’s Aladdin (1992)

Wishmaster (1997)

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it was no secret that author roald dahl despised the 1971 film adaptation of his novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Dahl, who wrote an early draft of the screenplay and was ultimately credited as the sole writer for marketing purposes (David Seltzer made major rewrites but went uncredited), essentially disowned the project, refusing for any more cinematic iterations to be made of the book, as well as its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, as long as he was alive.

The movie itself, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, though a modest commercial success upon its theatrical release, earned millions of fans during its subsequent airings on television and has since become

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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory/Paramount Pictures/Roald Dahl

BY ETHAN BREHM

one of the most beloved movies in history. Now celebrating the 50th anniversary of its theatrical release, we look back at the one-of-a-kind production and honor its brilliance.

Unbridled chaos ensues once elusive candy maker, Willy Wonka, puts on a worldwide competition where five lucky winners will get a chance to step foot inside the closed gates of his famed chocolate factory, while also taking home a lifetime supply of chocolate (contract pending). Five golden tickets are sent out across the globe and literally everyone is buying up chocolate by the caseload.

Most people will notice that Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory does

something unique in that it almost symmetrically divides itself into two parts—two films, in a sense—but each perfectly complimentary of the other.

The first half plays out as our hero, Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), a poor kid who lives with his mother and four grandparents, hopes and dreams of getting one of the five golden tickets himself. As his classmates are purchasing dozens, if not hundreds of Wonka bars, Charlie’s family has only managed to scrape together enough money to buy him two. But after finding some coins in the street, he buys two more—the latter of which contains the fifth and final golden ticket.

Outside of Charlie’s story, this first half is filled with nonsequitur vignettes, all surrounding Wonkamania: a woman who must pay her husband’s kidnappers with a case of chocolate, or a scientist who invents a computer that will calculate where all five golden tickets can be found. Director Mel Stuart includes

these segments to smooth out the transitions between the main plot and the handful of news bulletins informing us about the tickets and/ or going on-location to meet with the other four winners. The first 45 minutes shows us a relatively grounded version of reality, but then Stuart transports us, along with Charlie, into a dreamland—the type that blends both the nightmarishly scary and the magically surreal.

By the halfway point, we meet Wonka himself, played by the iconic Gene Wilder, who takes us into his enchanting factory of sweets.

Mercurial, disingenuous, patronizing, and a dab sadistic with randomlyscattered smirks, Wilder gives one of the greatest performances of all time and encapsulates every side of the titular candyman who’s so grounded in reason, and yet a believer in the implausible and absurd—still somehow making more sense than anybody else. From the moment we first see him limping with a cane, followed by a showman’s somersault,

we must prepare ourselves for the unpredictable with Wonka, who never reveals his tell (Wilder himself said he would only play the part if he were allowed to do the cane bit).

Even after the film is over, there are some mysteries that remain splendidly unsolved: Did Wonka handpick his five winners? Likely

And yet our hero, having realized that with all the hullabaloo going on he had forgotten to actually stop and enjoy the chocolate itself, buys two bars with money he finds on the ground.

naughtiness that leads to their demise. But not Charlie. Even when Charlie messes up, it’s Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) who tempts him into breaking the rules—not Charlie himself.

But then this begs the question: “What if he did pick Charlie?” After all, the winning bar that Charlie purchases was not actually picked out by the young boy, but by the owner of the local candy shop— perhaps in cahoots with Wonka, as the store and chocolate factory are in the very same town. It’s interesting to note that Wonka also seems objectively tempered and almost ambivalent when he first meets Charlie, compared to his enthusiasm when getting introduced to the others and their parents. Wonka later admits that this was all just a test, but for whom? Everyone or just Charlie?

Every actor here is perfect for

not, as he probably would have chosen better candidates (other than Charlie). However, it is safe to say that he studied them very carefully.

As we see, he’s less concerned with showing the rooms where he actually makes his chocolate than he is in curating his factory tour so that each stop will properly bait its bratty victims according to their individual vices. Each kid’s fate is foreshadowed by his or her very specific idiosyncrasies, and it’s their Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory/Paramount Pictures/Roald Dahl

his or her role, nailing whatever’s required to bring these cartoonish characterizations to life, whether it’s Paris Themmen as the brash and annoying Mike Teevee or Julie Dawn Cole as the quintessential spoiled brat Veruca Salt, so much so that her name has become synonymous with the word. And then there’s Peter Ostrum as the earnest and meek Charlie Bucket, who’s thoughtful and kind, but never made to be saintly.

He has his flaws too, and that’s the kind of careful detail that echoes throughout the rest of the film.

There’s also the music by songwriting duo Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley (arranged by Walter Scharf), who write one iconic number after the next. There are six melodies in total—six perfect melodies—each different, yet congruous; every single note catchy and wonderful, whether it be in the verse or the chorus; all of which feel like pop standards we’ve been hearing and singing for decades longer than they’ve been around for. Each of the classic and beautifully-whimsical melodies flows perfectly within the rest of the film’s atmosphere, from the set design to the costumes to all these quirky concepts in general. It’s all on the same page.

Each singing character only gets one song. Wonka’s “Pure Imagination” has become an anthem for dreamers, just as The Muppet Movie’s “Rainbow Connection” would do eight years later. Veruca’s “I Want it Now!” is the unsung hero of the film—a marvel in both songwriting and choreography—ending with

its demanding diva ominously plummeting down a garbage chute just as the tune hits its climax, never to be seen or heard from again. What a bold way to end a musical number.

Stuart’s experience in documentary filmmaking helped him perfect the episodic, yet unified plot, which features a lean storyboard and a series of virtually flawless takes, balancing both the natural and

exaggerated cadences of the actors.

And just like a great documentary, the themes and motifs are locked in from start to finish, despite two very separate halves.

There is a scene towards the end of the first half that essentially summarizes the film. It’s right before Charlie gets his golden ticket, when everyone in the world thinks the contest is over thanks to a

FILMS BASED ON ROALD DAHL BOOKS

Willy Wonka & the Danny, the Champion of the World Chocolate Factory (1989) (1971)

The BFG (1989)

The Witches (1990)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Matilda (1996)

counterfeit fifth ticket. And yet our hero, having realized that with all the hullabaloo going on he had forgotten to actually stop and enjoy the chocolate itself, buys two bars with money he finds on the ground. In fact, the whole world has forgotten— obvious by the crowded candy shop at the beginning of the film, prior to the contest, juxtaposed with the empty one that Charlie steps foot inside after the chaos has died down.

During the height of Wonkamania, the streets are flooded with uneaten Wonka bars, ripped open only to check for a golden ticket. But after

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

it’s all over, without the excitement of the competition, the people of the world can no longer just appreciate the magic of something as heavenly as chocolate like they once did. The two bars that Charlie purchases, the latter of which ends up being the real fifth ticket, were bought simply because an underprivileged boy wanted to enjoy a luxury with no pressure of it being anything more.

Roald Dahl said he hated the film because of the shift in focus from Charlie to Willy Wonka. Although, I think he might be wrong. Mel Stuart always made sure that this was Charlie’s story, not Wonka’s.

Just because Wilder’s candyman is more eccentric than our protagonist doesn’t mean the story’s focus has shifted. After all, it’s not anyone’s fault that Gene Wilder is such a

The BFG (2016)

The Witches (2020)

strong personality that he makes an incredibly memorable character.

Perhaps if Dahl had allowed for the adaptation of the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, then he would’ve gotten his wish.

This film is very much about Charlie and his journey to seeing the forest for the trees, getting “everything he ever wanted”— earning it because of his pure heart, and not for anything else. He and Wonka require one another for this movie to work Just like the chocolatier himself, Charlie is a sort of misguided dreamer, innocently hoping in a world filled with cynicism and selfishness, needing only a kindred spirit, regardless of their exterior differences, to make it all possible.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a fable about an honest child whose dream comes true simply because he wanted it more than anyone else. And now, 50 years later, the sweetness of the tale still resonates in the hearts of anyone who’s longed for their own world of pure imagination.

Matilda (2022)

Wonka (2023)

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The Polar Express/Warner Bros./Castle Rock Entertainment/Peanuts/Charles M. Schulz/CBS/Lee Mendelson Company/Sony/ CAA-GBG/Why Him?/20th Century Studios/Elf/New Line Cinema/How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Universal/Dr. Seuss

BY ROBERT NAPOLITANO

THE SUMMER HEAT IS GONE, HALLOWEEN HAS PASSED, and once again the holiday season is upon us. This year, sadly, it might be hard to get into the holiday spirit, but few things help the way a good family classic can. A lot of us ran out of TV and movies to watch after these last 6 or 7 months, but I doubt any of us were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas back in August. The coolest (and probably uncoolest) part about most Christmas movies is that they’re only really enjoyable this time of year. Along with these 25 I added a few honorable mentions that weren’t theatrical releases. Even though these TV specials could supplant any of the other films on this list to get you into the spirit of the holiday.

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HONORABLE MENTIONs A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) If you ever attended elementary school ever, there’s no way you haven’t seen A Charlie Brown Christmas at least once.

These days, teachers likely don’t play the VHS tape on the last day before Christmas break like they used to, but this holiday classic has graced airwaves each year since the ‘60s. If you have a youngster at home, it’s your job to keep the tradition alive.

Frosty the Snowman (1969) When I watch these Rankin/Bass specials I find it interesting that, despite coming out over 50 years ago, they’re still just as good now as I’m sure they were back then. This is a story about a group of kids who build a snowman named Frosty. When they place a magical top hat on his head, he comes to life. The special is the epitome of what Christmas magic is all about.

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Frosty the Snowman/NBCUniversal/Rankin-Bass/The Year Without Santa Claus/ABC/Rankin-Bass/Miracle on 34th Street/Michael DeCristofaro/20th Century Studios/Krampus/Legendary Pictures/Universal/Dutch/20th Century Studios/Jingle All the Way/20th Century Studios

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THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004)

KRAMPUS (2015) I figured I’d start my list off with a horror film since there are so few good ones for this time of year.

I don’t consider Krampus to be a classic by any stretch, but if Christmas horror is your thing, then this is a good one to check out. Based on European folklore, Krampus is a horned beast that punishes naughty children on Christmas. Let a naughty kid watch this movie and I bet they’ll be a little bit nicer next year.

The duo who gave us Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis) bring us one of the best animated Christmas movies of all time. Hanks stars as not only the young boy protagonist, but also the boy’s father, the narrator, the train conductor, a hobo, a Scrooge puppet, and even Santa Claus, himself. That’s quite a lot of roles, but Hanks proves to be the perfect man for the job.

The film is a coming-of-age story about self discovery, but best of all, it’s a movie that can be enjoyed by kids AND their parents.

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The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) The title sounds like a kid’s worst nightmare. Rankin/Bass’ 1974 TV special introduced us to the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser, and made some of us wonder if it’s really possible for Santa to be sick on Christmas. This movie’s themes of giving and generosity will always remain relevant.

With so many changes as far as how we view content nowadays, I hope millennials do their best to keep these specials a tradition for the next generation to grow up on.

22 DUTCH (1991) This is probably one of the more unexpected entries on the list.

Starring the man I’ll forever know as Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill), Dutch follows a working class man who offers to drive down to Atlanta to pick up his girlfriend’s bratty 13-year-old son (Ethan Embry) from school in order to bring him home for the holidays. As the man and the boy’s relationship goes from bickering and pranks to genuine bonding, the chemistry between the characters develops and feels real. The movie thrives off of O’Neill’s blue-collar Al Bundy-like demeanor and the relatable dynamic between its two leads.

JINGLE ALL THE WAY (1996) As many of you may remember, back in the ‘90s, well before everybody over the age of 8 had the internet at their fingertips at all times, people actually had to physically go to the store to buy gifts. Looking back, we may long for the more personal experience, but at the time it was nothing but stressful, especially when the items were hot. Few people are more aggressive and physical than last-minute Christmas shoppers.

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a dad who learns this lesson the hard way while trying to win back his son’s affection by trying to get him the ever-popular Turbo Man action figure he wants for Christmas.

This movie exemplifies a very ‘90s conflict and is guaranteed to remind you why you love Amazon so much.

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M MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947)

It seems like the younger the person is, the less likely they are to go back and watch old movies.

I get it, sometimes even the most iconic classics can feel dated, but they’re still classics for a reason.

Today, Christmas movies are a dime a dozen, but back in the day, that wasn’t really the case. Miracle on 34th Street holds up just as good as any movie you can find from the ‘40s. It follows Kris Kringle, an old man who claims to be Santa Claus.

Once beloved by many, people begin questioning his mental health.

The name “Kris Kringle” stuck so well that it has since become interchangeable with Santa Claus.

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A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983)

This movie has become so popular that TNT and TBS have been airing a 24-hour marathon of it every Christmas since 1997. Each year it’s the easiest movie to find. Everyone remembers a toy on their wishlist as a kid that they begged their parents for incessantly. For little Ralphie, that toy is a Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle BB gun. He’d give anything for it, and the more he hears, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid,” the more he wants it. A sleeper hit upon its original release, A Christmas Story has accumulated a rabid cult following over the years due to its nostalgic themes and often dark humor.

TRADING PLACES (1983)

Lifestyles don’t get more opposite than those portrayed by Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in this holiday classic.

Critics have called this the movie that brought back the screwball comedies of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Already known for his SNL tenure and hilarious comedy specials, this film helped turn Murphy into one of the biggest and most bankable box office stars of the ‘80s.

The ultimate story about nature versus nurture, Aykroyd’s character, because of a bet between the brothers who own the brokerage firm he works for, trades places with Murphy’s—a broke street hustler willing to do whatever it takes to make a quick buck.

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FOUR CHRISTMASES (2008)

If you love Christmas, then four of them sounds great...in theory. That is, until you have four separate families—all crazy in their own way—to make happy.

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon’s characters are the perfect married couple, but this Christmas they have to do the impossible. Even the craziest of families can muster up a way to enjoy each other’s company this time of year.

Everybody believes their family is nuts, which makes this so relatable. Having a big family is a blessing no matter how crazy they might be, especially around the holidays, and this movie is a good reminder of that.

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JUST FRIENDS (2005) This is one of those movies that can really be watched any time of year if you’re into rom-coms. However, the snow, the caroling, and the decorations make it that much better to watch come December.

Long before Ryan Reynolds ever graced us with his iconic role as Deadpool, he still had that same dry humor and undeniable charm.

In Just Friends, he plays a guy who used to be the fat kid in high school. He got friend-zoned by the girl of his dreams (Amy Smart), and now, ten years later, he reluctantly returns to his home town as a certified dime piece: a thin and handsome LA hotshot on the outside, yet the same lovestruck fat kid on the inside. As far as Christmas rom-coms go, this one ranks towards the top.

WHY HIM? (2016) Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend you waited until the holidays to introduce to your family? If not, it’s very possible you might someday.

And if they’re anything like James Franco’s character in Why Him?, I’d recommend not waiting so long. Franco plays a rich, lovable, but over-thetop oddball. He’s very easy to like, unless, of course, he’s dating your daughter. Bryan Cranston plays the perfect straight-man/protective father. Franco’s desire to be liked by his girlfriend’s dad and Cranston’s refusal to give his approval is what really brings out the funny.

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BAD SANTA (2003)

Miracle on 34th Street/20th Century Studios/A Christmas Story/MGM/Bad Santa/Sony/Dimension Films/Trading Places/Paramount/Four Christmases/Warner Bros./Why Him?/20th Century Studios

Just Friends/New Line Cinema/The Nightmare Before Christmas/Disney/Tim Burton

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You’d be hard-pressed to find an actor as born for a part as Billy Bob Thornton is as Willie T. Soke, a mall Santa by day, a thief by night, and a 24/7 sex-addicted alcoholic. As you can imagine, Bad Santa is very raunchy for a Christmas movie, but with Thornton as the lead we wouldn’t want it any other way. The funniest parts come when Willie meets a dimwitted little chubby boy named Thurman Merman. Thurman’s the nice, innocent type of kid who can’t help but attract bullies. When Willie finds out Thurman’s parental situation is a bit shaky, he develops a soft spot for the kid that you can clearly tell is out of character for him. As far as black comedies go, this is a very hard one to top.

14 THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993) Few people do Christmas quite like Tim Burton, and this movie is a prime example of that. Its unique goth style has helped keep it relevant throughout the years.

Few movie characters have been tattooed on people’s bodies as often as the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington, and his love interest, Sally. Although the film’s style is very much Halloween (the town they live in is even called Halloween Town), but with the Christmas subject matter, this is a great one to watch either time of year.

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NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989)

This is the third in the original trilogy of National Lampoon’s Vacation series starring Chevy Chase.

Another family holiday classic, this comedy has more of a slapstick style of humor than the rest on this list. Chase is one of the best comedic actors of all time, never more evident than in his portrayal of the cynical every-dad Clark Griswold. This one focuses a lot less on the vacation aspect than the previous installments, but still the perfect way to end the trilogy. You don’t have to watch the first two films to laugh at and enjoy this one.

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ADAM SANDLER’S EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS (2002) Almost every entry on this list is Christmas related. This one, however, is Adam Sandler’s gifts\ to the Jews.

The film, the title of which comes from perhaps Sandler’s most famous SNL bit, “The Chanukah Song,” is an animated comedy/musical about an alcoholic troublemaker in desperate need of some holiday spirit. Not only does the comedian voice several characters, including the lead, he also co-writes and produces the film, which includes a hilarious soundtrack to go with it.

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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation/Warner Bros./Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights/Happy Madison/Sony/Columbia/Scrooged/Paramount/Batman Returns

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BATMAN RETURNS (1992)

SCROOGED (1988) The story has been retold at least dozens of times, but Bill Murray’s version of Ebenezer Scrooge is without a doubt the best of the bunch. In a spin on the Charles Dicken’s classic, A Christmas Carol, Murray’s Frank Cross is a cold, arrogant, and extremely successful TV executive who plans to stage a live production of A Christmas Carol all the while living out a variation of the story in his own real life. This modern take on the 1843 novella would end up being a big box office success, in large part thanks to its lead actor. Don’t get me wrong, the writing and directing are very good, but what Murray is able to bring to his character is the difference between a good movie and a holiday classic.

Since we at SPO!LER love our superheroes, it’s only right this movie makes the list. Another one of Burton’s fringe Christmas films, Batman Returns is given a unique environment for a superhero movie as the director uses the holiday as a backdrop for the story. If you like superhero movies anyway, this one does a great job of incorporating the holiday spirit, even if it does so with a dark outlook. It also has a star-studded cast surrounding Michael Keaton in the title role, with actors like Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny Devito, and Christopher Walken all holding down strong supporting roles.

THE NIGHT BEFORE (2015) While most great holiday movies focus on family, The Night Before focuses on friends, and how over time you’re bound to grow apart.

That doesn’t mean you have to lose touch or can’t hang out. Of course you can. But a spouse, some kids, and a career make it much harder to do so. That’s just life, and that’s what’s so relatable about this movie. What’s funny about it, aside from its kickass trio of leads (Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie), is that these three grown men spend the night acting like high schoolers just trying to party, smoke weed, and do drugs. It’s everything you’d want and expect out of a Seth Rogen comedy, only this time it all goes down on Christmas Eve.

08 GO (1999) Loaded with familiar faces, this is one of those movies that you can instantly tell is from the ‘90s. Its use of crime and dark humor, and the way it’s told from multiple points of view is very Tarantino-esque.

It’s much more fun if you don’t know the plot ahead of time, but just imagine the troubled, post-high school youth of the late-’90s, a Christmas Eve rave, and an excessive amount of drug use. Topped off with an ecstasy dealer in a Santa hat, played by Timothy Olyphant, this is a fun movie to watch any time of year, but if you haven’t seen it before, there’s no better time than now.

DC/Warner Bros./The Night Before/Columbia/Sony/Go/Columbia/Edward Scissorhands/20th Cenury Studios/Tim Burton/Gremlins/Warner Bros.

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EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)

This is Tim Burton’s 3rd film on this list, and without a doubt the weirdest of the bunch, which really says something.

Some people might consider “weird” an insult, but I’m using it here as a total complement. I love weird, I love Johnny Depp, and I love Edward Scissorhands, which blends fantasy, suburban America, and a dash of Frankenstein. You have to watch the film to get a real feel for its Christmas themes, but the fact that it’s one of Depp’s most iconic roles is reason enough to go watch it.

GREMLINS (1984)

More black comedy than horror, I’d still rank Gremlins as the creepiest movie on the list (all due respect to Tim Burton). A young man is given a mysterious little creature known as a mogwai as a Christmas present from his dad. There are three rules to caring for a mogwai: no sunlight, no water, and no feeding it after midnight. By the time these rules are all broken, there’s a pack of “gremlins” running around town destroying the neighborhood on Christmas Even like a bunch of savages.

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die hard (1988)

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THE SANTA CLAUSE (1994) If you haven’t seen The Santa Clause in a while, it’s easy to forget that *SPOILER ALERT* Tim Allen kills Santa. It was an accident and it wasn’t bloody or graphic, buuut ...Santa still got killed ...in a Disney movie. It’s pretty hilarious, really.

There’s also a lot of body shaming for today’s standards as Allen’s character eventually and inadvertently turns into Santa Claus himself. I think it’s all in good fun, but apparently there are some people on the internet who disagree. Regardless, I definitely recommend putting this one on your “must watch” list.

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For years people have debated whether or not Die Hard is considered a Christmas movie. While I can see both sides of the argument, the events in the film all go down on Christmas Eve, in the middle of a Christmas party no less, so I’d say it fits the criteria. 32 years and about 37 sequels later (no, really!), John McClane is still one of the most well-known action heroes of all time. It takes a special kind of badass to walk on broken glass barefoot while carrying an automatic weapon and hunting down terrorists.

Lucky for the franchise, Bruce Willis is the perfect man for the job.

Die Hard/20th Century Studios/Disney/The Santa Clause/Disney/Buena Vista/How the Grinch Stole Christmas/ Universal/Dr. Seuss/Elf/New Line Cinema/Home Alone/Hughes Entertainment/20th Century Studios

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) Originally a book, then a cartoon TV special from 1966, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was finally made into a live-action film in 2000 when Jim Carrey and director Ron Howard teamed up to give us this instant classic, which is still new enough that its popularity hasn’t waned. Even with a box office duo like this, it seems like a big gamble, but, as we’ve seen, an even bigger payoff.

Carrey’s balance of comedic genius and unhinged goofiness is why it’s hard to imagine anybody else in the role.

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elf (2003)

Will Ferrell has delivered some classic characters over the last 20 years, but few, if any, have hit quite like Buddy the Elf in this hilarious Christmas movie for all ages. Buddy’s a grown man who thinks he’s an elf, so obviously it’s pretty damn goofy. And if you like goofy, this will be sure to make your sides hurt. The part when Buddy accuses a man of being one of Santa’s little helpers is one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen in my life. Even if the silly humor isn’t your thing, this one’s so good that you should just give it a watch, for Christmas’ sake!

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HOME ALONE 1 & 2 (1990, 1992) I can’t say everybody would have these films at #1, but if you were born in the ‘80s or ‘90s, there’s no way at least one of the Home Alone movies doesn’t crack your top 3. The two films are so good I grouped them together, since you really can’t have one without the other.

Written by the late John Hughes—a man who has written more classic movies than you can count on two hands—Home Alone stars Macaulay Culkin in easily the most iconic role of his career, a crafty little kid named Kevin McCallister who is accidentally left at home as his family goes away on vacation. Then there’s Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern who are absolutely hysterical as the two clumsy burglars that try to invade Kevin’s house when they think no one is there.

There are so many iconic scenes between these two movies that you literally lose count.

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atm

the harder they fall DIRECTED BY: Jeymes Samuel / CAST: Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Idris Elba

Don’t let the Jay-Z-ladened soundtrack fool you. Jeymes Samuel’s feature-length debut The Harder They Fall might invent a brand new story, but as the opening text reads, “These. People. Existed.,” referring to the ensemble of real-life historical Black figures represented in the film. Experts now estimate that between 20 to 25% of cowboys in the American West during the 19th century were Black, and so Samuel’s story about two feuding Black outlaw gangs and the lawmen who aid them is no modernized subversion. Of course, the movie has its expected modern touches thrown in, but usually they serve the plot or its aesthetic.

We open as a 10-year-old boy, Nat Love, watches his parents brutally murdered by local outlaw Rufus Buck (Idris Elba). Some years later, this boy has become an outlaw of his own, played by Jonathan Majors, set out to exact his revenge on the man who scarred him for life. Instead of

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robbing banks and trains, Love and his gang simply steal from the other criminals. But in the eyes of the law, which in this film is played by the affable Delroy Lindo, it’s all the same.

Nevertheless, Lindo’s Marshal Bass Reeves takes somewhat of a liking to Love and, after hearing of Buck’s release from prison, wants to see the ruthless killer behind bars once again—or better yet, dead.

Reeves and Love join forces, along with Love’s gang, which consists of his sharpshooter Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi), quickdraw Jim Beckwourth

(RJ Cyler), Love’s formerly-estranged former lover Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz), who now owns and operates a chain of successful saloons, and her confidant Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler), against Buck and his, featuring the likes of his own quickdraw Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield) and roughneck lover Trudy Smith (Regina King)—all real personages from the American West, but other than Buck, Smith, and Cherokee Bill, none of them were actual outlaws.

Rather than take on a revisionist story or attempt to evolve the genre, Samuel sticks with a more traditional premise that he infuses with killer tension and a crisp lens.

The characters live in Black towns— distinguished from White towns by their colorful, freshly-painted buildings—and so the story almost entirely concerns their matters with other Black people. White folks also exist in this world, but almost exclusively as hoity-toity

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Rather than take on a revisionist story or attempt to evolve the genre, Samuel sticks with a more traditional premise that he infuses with killer tension and a crisp lens. racist snobs, lampooned as such for comedy.

The Harder They Fall is perhaps, at times, too focused on its story, but Samuel’s dynamic worldbuilding is some of the best you’ll find in modern depictions of the Old West, anachronistic reggae fusion and all. Tonally more along the lines of a Quentin Tarantino neo-Western with snappy dialogue and tongue-incheek banter built into a screenplay

by Samuel and Boaz Yakin, this movie still always feels fresh. The director opts out of the teal and orange coloring of concurrent period pieces, proving that perhaps that trendy tint is not only unnecessary, but a hindrance for us to get a tangible feel for the era. With the help of cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. (The Master, Jojo Rabbit), Samuel complements his anamorphic widescreen ratio (2.39:1) and makes the most of his depth-of-field and rack focuses to obtain a vividly immersive response from the audience that, paired with the evocative set design, toys with expressionistic aesthetics.

As the high-stakes chess match between Love and Buck comes to fruition, we experience a rewarding climax featuring some of the best gunplay since Django Unchained, with a mix of smooth choreographed sequences and messy, naturalistic free-for-alls, even if it all goes on for a tad bit too long.

Majors has a daunting screen presence and is undeniably

convincing as our admirable hero.

His counterpoint in the picture is Elba, who brings an unwarranted humanity to Rufus Buck—cold, yet pensive. The actors share only two scenes together, but both instances are immensely gripping and weighty, reminiscent of the pair of providential meetings between Jack Nicholson and John Huston in 1974’s Chinatown.

Love is a kind and generous outlaw, only living this life of crime because of a personal vendetta; a mere reverberation of someone else’s evildoings. Whereas Buck, presumably motivated by more toxic and insidious trauma early in his life, is a cruel and unscrupulous killer.

Samuel crafts his themes ingeniously. Prior to coming full circle with these fateful ideas directly, he’s able to hint at the influence of a father on a young boy and how that affects who he will become. The result is a climax not just of plot, but of motifs.

Hall is another standout as the impervious Trudy, employing a uniquely complex accent that the

actress is able to lock in for the duration. Her own dueling matchups with Beetz are both enlightening and wickedly fun to watch.

Toeing that line between fun, angry, and thought-provoking, the film doesn’t just hit all three marks, but allows them to complement one another. One of the prettiest looking Westerns in several years, The Harder They Fall might be one of the best recent examples of how the genre can still survive without its format needing to be challenged.

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DIRECTED BY: Matthias Schweighöfer / CAST: Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee With Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays Ludwig Dieter, the eccentric safecracker from this year’s Army of the Dead, filmmaker Zack Snyder knew he had something special on his hands. As a relatively unknown actor in America, Schweighöfer is one of the few standouts in the ensemble cast and could very easily carry his own film with his charm alone. As fate would have it, the comedic relief side-character turns out to be a formidable leading man in the standalone prequel, Army of Thieves.

He’s the reason why even when the jokes don’t always land, we still have a smile on our faces.

It turns out “Ludwig Dieter” is just an alias. Prior to changing his

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name when moving to the United States some years earlier, Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert practices safecracking as a hobby in his home country of Germany. That is, until one of his instructional YouTube videos is discovered by master thief Gwendoline Starr (Nathalie Emmanuel), who invites him to the safecracking-equivalent of a cage match, in which he beats out the reigning champ.

Gwendolyn discovers that Sebastian is one of the leading experts in the esoteric story of legendary locksmith Hans Wagner and his “Ring Cycle” of four purportedly uncrackable safes, all inspired by composer Richard Wagner’s four-opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. Three of the safes have been hidden at three separate European banks, but the fourth safe— the one in which Wagner entombed himself to die—is missing.

Sebastian meets the rest of Gwendolyn’s team—a hacker (Ruby

O. Fee), a getaway driver (Guz Khan), and a macho action hero (Stuart Martin)—in a stylish introduction sequence that ensures we know everyone involved is ultracool.

Everyone except Sebastian, whose fish-out-of-water role supplies both the humor and the conflict.

Schweighöfer not only stars in Army of Thieves but leads the way behind the camera as well.

Safecracking is key to any good heist, but also not terribly exciting.

Fortunately, the director ensures that we see all the beautiful and elaborate intricacies of the three safes’ interiors as Sebastian attempts to unlock them—from easiest to hardest. And while the first heist focuses on just Sebastian and the safe, the last two are given some energy by crosscutting them with simultaneous events happening elsewhere.

The increase in difficulty of the three safes is also paralleled with Sebastian’s unlocking of his own assertiveness. Schweighöfer is not

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only a naturally charismatic lead, but he gets some added sympathy through his skilled acting chops.

Believable as the pathetic loner, he also has hints of self-confidence early on that make his evolution feel fluid.

Conversely, Gwendolyn sees her own impenetrable wall open up as she allows herself to become more vulnerable as she falls for Sebastian.

Emmanuel and Schweighofer’s chemistry is surprisingly palpable.

The dark and rainy European setting, elevated with beautiful establishing shots by cinematographer Bernhard Jasper, gives us the sense of an earlier time period. And if it weren’t for the computer hacking, YouTube channel, and a throwaway reference to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (and a loose connection to the apocalyptic Army of the Dead), it could very well have been. Schweighöfer keeps the modern technology to a minimum while bringing out the timeless essence of his story.

The dark and rainy European setting, elevated with beautiful establishing shots by cinematographer Bernhard Jasper, gives US THE SENSE OF AN EARLIER TIME PERIOD. If Army of the Dead crumbles under its own ambition, Army of Thieves lands a direct hit. Schweighöfer, utilizing a script from the returning Shay Hatten, remains focused on his premise, refraining from heavy subplots—for better or worse— but does a great job proving to us he doesn’t need one, with kinetic storytelling and a dynamic A-plot filled with deep symbolism surrounding the safes, the mythology

they keep, and how they mirror/ portend the events in this film.

There is a tangential strand about the detective who’s chasing after the criminals, but we never get more than we absolutely need, and it always adds an additional layer to the heists themselves by providing the viewer with a quasi-surrogate. Not only does Jonathan Cohen as Delacroix deliver some of the funniest lines of dialogue as the bumbling (and misleadingly incompetent) Interpol agent, but he balances the film’s tension in a way that none of the direct foils are capable of.

While Sebastian and Gwendoline are both very intriguing characters, their three cohorts are essentially flat—mere chess pieces put in place to either stir up the pot or move forward the plot. Likewise, the poorly written jokes make for unrealistic dialogue, suffering from Abundant Straight Man Complex, as though the writers thought that deadpan reactions to Sebastian’s quirks were the only ways to get laughs. The film throws in some heist genre parody as well, which also probably plays much better on paper.

Luckily, charm and humor are two different things. Army of Thieves is funniest (and funnest) when it’s not trying to be, through the overzealous enthusiasm of its lead and his saltof-the-earth interpretation of this sleek, Ocean’s Eleven-type world into which he’s been immersed. With the inclusion of a few heartbreaking and emotional moments, Schweighöfer keeps his movie relatable while making it feel appropriately epic in scope (even more so than its doomand-gloom predecessor), keeping a lean narrative that doesn’t overreach its grasp or make us want to look at our watches, despite the 129-minute runtime.

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the elephant man (1980) A biopic so audacious you forget that it’s based on the life of a real person, The Elephant Man, David Lynch’s sophomore effort, features simple overhead shots of cobblestone streets in 19th-century London that establish atmosphere in a way that most movies’ elaborate set pieces can’t. Following a young man named John Merrick (John Hurt) who was born with a severe deformity that’s earned him the pejorative nickname “the elephant man,” the Best Picture nominee draws the thin, yet distinct line between gawking with earnest curiosity and doing so to ridicule.

The former, regardless of initial intent, can eventually yield kindness just from cracking open that door, allowing change to take place because of it.

Laughed at by some as a sideshow attraction and feared by others as a monster, John is eventually taken in by Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins), who at first wants to examine him for scientific purposes, but soon becomes very close friends with the patient, helping him find confidence to be himself and actually live life. This has a contagious effect on everyone else, eventually leading to many people of high society wanting to get to know John and accepting him despite his appearance. The movie also touches on the power celebrity has on influencing society, the arbitrary means by which we define that celebrity, and how the oddity of John Merrick is not dissimilar to that of an aristocratic elite.

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the electrical life of louis wain DIRECTED BY: Will Sharpe / CAST: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough

It’s as though Benedict Cumberbatch was made to star in period biopics, to the point where he almost seems out of place in movies set in modern day. The London-born actor has had his fair share of projects that require him to dress and act like he’s from earlier eras, but it always seems so effortless because he looks like he’s from another time to begin with.

Cumberbatch’s latest pair of films have given into those leanings. With the 1920s-era Western The Power of the Dog, he’s already earned some

Oscar buzz for how he’s stretched our expectations of his range as an actor, but in the whimsical Victorian piece, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, the role almost feels too easy for him.

Set in late-19th-century England, Cumberbatch plays underachieving Renaissance man Louis Wain, who is the sole breadwinner for his mother and five sisters following his father’s death. His main gig is as an artist for a local magazine, where he’s commissioned to draw pictures of animals and scenery from various events. He doesn’t take his craft too seriously though, and has much more of an interest in science and music, among other things.

However, it’s sketching that he’s best at and so it’s sketching that pays the bills.

He marries his family’s governess, Emily (Clarie Foy), much to the chagrin of his sisters because of how her lower class goes against the standards at that time. Nevertheless,

The Elephant Man/Paramount/The Electrical Life of Louis Wain/Amazon

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cathedral, of which the belltower is all he is able to see. It all sparks comparisons to Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. This, of course, is an alternate take to the 1831 novel, as John’s caretaker is much gentler and kinder than the pernicious Claude Frollo is to the deformed Quasimodo, although both men exploit their subjects in their own ways. However, Dr. Treves is still ultimately driven to do good, even if that good is dormant and subconscious at first—and under the pretense of selfish gain.

Hopkins is spectacular, effortlessly switching between both relaxed colloquialisms and a proper professional lilt depending on his environment. His co-star is equally as brilliant. Underneath all that makeup, you can still feel Hurt’s energy and, even more importantly, his soul.

He’s able to evolve a character who requires choices that are big, yet selective. Every decision he and Hopkins make is spot-on.

“My life is full because I know that I’m loved.” For the climax, Treves fulfills a goal of John’s by taking him to see a stage play of Puss in Boots. It’s here where John is finally able to be the spectator himself; no longer the spectacle as he watches an anthropomorphized animal on stage who’s dressed like a man—the opposite of him, a man who had been degraded to the lowly status of an animal. After the finale, John’s famous actress friend comes out and dedicates the performance to him, earning John a standing ovation from the crowd. Finally, he is cheered for his resilient spirit rather than laughed at for his involuntary deformity. It’s these touches from Lynch that make this film arguably his best ever; the director’s purest piece of cinema.

Endlessly touching and thoughtprovoking, The Elephant Man is just as much an advocate for empathy and charity, especially when it’s difficult, as it is a victory of the human spirit by a horrifically deformed man who just desperately wants to be like everyone else—a dream which is found, in its own way, from the compassion of others. And lo, Treves doesn’t just change John’s life, but John changes his—a strong case for the incalculable value of life no matter what the circumstance.

the two move to a countryside home away from the judgement and pressures of city life. It’s there that they discover a small kitten in their backyard, who they take in as a pet and name Peter. Louis begins drawing pictures of Peter as a way to help his wife cope with her recent diagnosis of breast cancer.

With this news, paired with the fact that his magazine job is now in jeopardy due to the growing accessibility of photography, which is quickly replacing illustrations, Louis suddenly finds his blissful world crashing down around him. Emily suggests he submit his cat pictures to his boss (Toby Jones), which are surprisingly accepted as a novelty to fill up the empty Christmas pages. The images, featuring an anthropomorphized Peter doing human things such as playing golf or sitting at a dinner table, are a huge hit, so much so that Louis is

eventually able to change society’s perspective on the “ridiculous” animals that had previously been deemed by most as unworthy of domestication.

In our modern world, it’s impossible to think any differently, but prior to Wain’s artistry, having cats as pets was considered preposterous.

Where most movies such as this meditate on the personal connection art has with the observer, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain captures the effect it has on the creator as well.

The most engaging part of the film is the first half, which turns this historical biopic into a romantic comedy of the most unexpected degree, with inspired and authentic moments of humor tethered to an honest emotional core, despite the sociopathic tendencies of our lead. One of my favorite directorial moments of the year comes when Emily (not an artist) attempts to paint a picture of herself. When Louis sneaks a peak, we see his subjective vantage point as though we (i.e., the camera) are his character. Upon catching a glimpse of her sad artistic progress, we can’t help but laugh ourselves, even though we don’t see Louis do so. And it’s not until Emily admonishes him for his flippant reaction that we realize we’ve been tricked by our filmmaker, who has cleverly fused our own perception with that of the protagonist.

Unfortunately, the narrative takes a bit of a dip following a tragedy in the second act, not because the story becomes less interesting after that, but because too much time (half the movie) is spent on the back nine of Wain’s life. Director and co-writer Will Sharpe (along with Simon Stephenson) abandons the comedic elements for a much more somber tone, which may match that of its protagonist but also partially betrays any of the viewers who had attached themselves because of it. Sharpe does his best to make

However, Louis found the connection between cats and humans, exposing their vulnerabilities as well as their hesitations. As Emily puts it, “They’re silly and cuddly and lonely; frightened and brave, like us.” There were definitely feline advocates in 19thcentury London, but like a lot of great art, Wain’s portraits gave awareness and wider exposure to parts of culture that were niche and hidden.

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these later scenes interesting with abstract flourishes that he only ever toys with early on. But the picture eventually becomes less focused on story development than it does on characters’ reactions to plot details, paired here with the cerebral intake of themes, for better or worse.

Wain was alleged to have schizophrenia later in life, something that has become disputed by historians. And while the film never takes definitive sides in this debate, despite evolving into kaleidoscopic imagery for much of the last third, Sharpe concerns himself less with giving his own opinion and more with the ways in which the artist was able to make human connections throughout his life.

The title refers to Wain’s description of the energy he continues to feel in everything he experiences in life; it’s around him when he spends time with his wife and their cat, or when he sees people interact with one another in the street. Little does he know, this “electricity” is commonly known as “love” to others.

Sharpe and his cinematographer Erik Wilson do a brilliant job crafting this gradual ethereality, exemplified in a scene of clever camera work

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that imitates the rocking of a ship—a symbol of a near-drowning experience Louis faced as a child—or later when he places his character in these impressionist landscape portraits, in which the audience is not entirely sure what is real and what isn’t.

Where most movies such as this meditate on the personal connection art has with the observer, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain captures the effect it has on the creator as well. The film beautifully exhibits a man who may not have wanted to be an artist to begin with, but because his talent kept him financially afloat, he settled into the role and incidentally became inspired, ultimately unlocking his true creativity through emotional trauma

and indescribable pain. In a strange way, Louis battled his loneliness with his illustrations because of the impact they had on others. At times all it takes is somebody who can see the world differently. Louis Wain didn’t just find the beauty in what was there, but in what wasn’t. And his biggest revelation may have been that he was always an artist, even if he had previously written it off as merely a fortunate skill.

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red notice

DIRECTED BY: Rawson Marshall Thurber / CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot Amidst the mid-fall deluge of summer blockbusters making their way to streaming platforms, Netflix has released their very own big budget action flick, Red Notice, starring a triumvirate of stars that seem to just randomly show up in movies like this, good or bad, every year or so (although, for one of them, those movies typically come in the form of DC comic book adaptations). As generic and bland as the trailer (and the poster) would have you assume it is, there’s a lot of personality in Red Notice, a film that also happens to bring the most out of its three leads, whose own individual genericism may get transcended here as well.

We open with a sequence featuring Dwayne Johnson, as FBI agent John Hartley, chasing down notorious art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in Rome after he steals one of the three legendary golden eggs that Marc Antony gave his lover, Cleopatra, two thousand

years ago. Booth eventually gets caught in another country where he’s shipped off to a maximumsecurity prison and the egg back to the museum—that is, before it’s intercepted by Booth’s rival thief, known only as “The Bishop” (Gal Gadot), who switches the egg with a fake and intentionally frames the law-abiding Hartley in the process.

Interpol agent Inspector Das (Ritu Arya), who apparently can’t figure out that the Bishop’s motives to frame Hartley are incredibly strong, doesn’t believe Hartley’s story and sends him to the same prison as Booth. Together, the two former adversaries team up to escape their fortress so they can get to the other two eggs before the Bishop. Booth wants the bragging rights and the money, of course, but Hartley just wants to clear his name and take down the Bishop in the process.

There’s a lot riding on coincidence in Red Notice, written and directed

by Rawson Marshall Thurber, in order

for it to work, becoming even trickier with the unveiling of a WTF twist in the final act. The revelation, while clean and (mostly) plausible, opens up a few plot holes in the process.

But more importantly, it undoes a lot of the emotional stakes cultivated over the course of the movie, ultimately sacrificing heart for its pitch-room hook.

Pulling inspiration from various movies, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Fugitive, Rush Hour, Wild

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Things, and the entire Fast & Furious franchise—with unfortunate green screen effects similar to the Will Ferrell disaster Land of the Lost—Red Notice may get under the skin of certain viewers, especially those looking for a slightly fresher premise than, “Three household names play cat-and-mouse while hunting for ancient treasures.” But there’s a definite appeal to the popcorn action which features a great deal of spunk and humor. And despite any umbrella pretenses, the ride to the finish line is still a lot of fun.

Red Notice would be an otherwise scenic tour of exotic destinations if these locales weren’t obscured so much by the mere question of a green (or blue) screen. Even something as simple as the interior of a boxcar train or a sandy beach gets interchanged with shots of actors in front of what’s essentially a three-dimensional photograph. I’ve been seeing this in a lot of movies made during the pandemic, and I would like it to stop.

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three of these actors. But this time, there’s more to it. There’s an identity established with the cleverly staged fight choreography, the string of heists of different varieties, and the controlled humor that’s seamlessly integrated into everything else, never once disrupting the tonal balance. Thurber is a filmmaker who knows how to bottle up a tone and sprinkle it amongst his smooth narrative flow, no matter what the studio wants to do on the marketing side.

There are several Fast & Furious wannabes that will only ever hope to be turned into a successful franchise, but this is one of the few I think could actually pull it off, simply because it has the colossal personality and hubris to do so— and that’s something you can only really get with actors who have it built into their DNA. Despite all the unrealistically well-timed entrances and sleek costuming, both of which are only emblematic of the film’s refusal to betray the coolness of any of its stars, Red Notice ultimately prospers because of the same charms that made them cool to begin with.

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There’s a definite appeal to the popcorn action which features a great deal of spunk and humor. And despite any umbrella pretenses, the ride to the finish line is still a lot of fun.

Both Reynolds and Johnson have always been very good at having authentic rapport no matter who their co-stars have been over the years. And despite already showing brief glimpses with one another in Hobbs & Shaw, the pair makes a good comedic duo here. Reynolds is such a believable scoundrel and is given quite the arc over the course of the movie. And although Johnson’s eyebrows are far more animated than any straight man in history (or leading man, for that matter), he bounces off of Reynolds’ flippant quips and occasional adlibs without needing to outshine him in that regard.

Gadot is not featured as much as the marketing would have you think, but she creates a necessary counterweight and tension—as irritating as her character is at times—for the other two in order to drive their urgency throughout the occasionally imaginative (aka convenient) plot.

The director’s knack for generational comedies, such as Dodgeball and We’re the Millers, shines through amidst the same kind of sanitized gloss that has pervaded past movies from all

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Red Notice:Netflix/Love Hard:Netflix/The Evil Dead:New Line Cinema:Sam Raimi

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the evil dead (1981)

love hard

DIRECTED BY: Hernan Jimenez / CAST: Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, Darren Barnet Thanks to the Hallmark Christmas fodder that’s become some sort of self-embracing staple of the holiday season each year, yuletide romantic comedies of any kind have been stigmatized even more than they already were before. With dozens released annually, these made-for-TV movies have become a cautionary tale for what happens when quality control takes a backseat to sheer volume. Yet it’s clear why these films still come out at such a high clip: People watch them. For some, they’re guilty pleasures to be viewed ironically, perhaps with a couple drinks and plenty of company. For others, they’re quixotic escapes to places seemingly far better than here. But no matter who you are, there’s no denying that these cloying and overly expository tales are nothing close to reality.

While not produced by Hallmark in any facet, Hernán Jiménez’s own take on the Christmas romcom still checks all the same boxes at

first glance. Love Hard follows a dating columnist, Natalie Bauer (Nina Dobrev), who continues to get disappointed by the men she meets, whose unvarnished, reallife personas don’t match up with their much more impressive profiles on various dating apps. The story gets quickly propelled once its protagonist finally finds the perfect guy after broadening her location range to include matches outside of her own zip code in Los Angeles.

That’s when she meets Josh, an attractive, deep, down-to-earth dreamboat who lives in New York.

Though she hasn’t met him in person, he sends her personalized photographs to prove that it’s really him on the other end. These first 15 minutes are borderline unwatchable as Natalie and Josh have these long talks on the phone where they playfully argue about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie and joke with one another in a way that would only be humorous if you’re

It’s been 40 years since Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead first premiered in a single Detroit theater in 1981 and continued to make the rounds of its grassroots release. But it has since become a paradigm for cult cinema and continues to influence the horror genre to this day. Never exactly reinventing the wheel, Raimi’s innate filmmaking vision and subversion of tones made the film one of a kind back then, still managing to surprise new audiences today.

Contrasting absolutely brilliant artsy shots with low-brow schlock and grainy pickup footage, Raimi revolutionizes the way filmmakers explore their sets and hold their scares. Still unlike most horror movies you’ll ever see, The Evil Dead is proof that during that era, comedy was inescapable in the genre—inherently embedded into even the most overtly serious premises. Never quite sure of the writer-director’s intent, we can’t help but chortle at least a few times during this raucous, yet dark spiral into chaos. With his use of certain comedic conventions that come off as more instinctual than they do self-aware, Raimi seems to embrace his own love of comedy just as much as he does his admiration for horror, inadvertently using zooms and angles that have traditionally been used throughout cinema to elicit laughs from an audience—not scares. Even his callbacks are playful.

Starring in the film about five

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college kids who plan a weekend getaway at an old cabin, Bruce Campbell plays Ash Williams, the incidental Final Boy who almost seems to get arbitrarily chosen to be the one who wards off evil spirits and is built into a hero throughout the second act. Campbell was never great at delivering lines, which served him well for some of his later roles, laced more with self-parody, but his natural gift as a facial actor helps drive the last half of this film, which is just as much about one man’s paranoia as it is a tortuous display of him getting splooshed in the face with gratuitous pools of blood.

However, Ash isn’t the only one suffering from relentless abuse.

The audience is very much going through it with him.

If it weren’t for Raimi’s unforgiving editing, The Evil Dead would have been little more than an exhibition of a protagonist getting abused.

Extending the grueling tussles between characters and the ugly creatures who are trying to take their souls, the director not only makes both the audio and visuals as unpleasant as possible, but also drags out these gross-out scenes for far too long (eventually a trope in horror-comedy) as though he’s simply curious what happens to an audience once they get past the point of uncomfortable and unsettled.

Perhaps less realized than its 1987 sequel, The Evil Dead is nearly as influential. Surprising us with how good it looks, constantly making us forget that this isn’t something put together or funded by a studio, the film manages to both embrace and transcend its low budget conceit simply by having pure genius behind the camera.

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already happy about the fact that you’re talking to someone attractive.

I’m not saying these conversations aren’t realistic. I’m just saying they’re simply not something I’d want to be a fly on the wall for, even if they were happening in real life.

However, it’s as though Love Hard is intentionally deceiving us with this first act; tricking the audience into thinking that it is, in fact, just another Christmas love story akin to its Hallmark compatriots. Personally, I was getting ready to switch to something else entirely. But once Natalie lands in Lake Placid, New York to surprise Josh in person, it’s as though she’s been reassigned to a different, much more competent movie altogether. The cringe-worthy banter early on doesn’t match the good instincts on display throughout the rest of the film, nor does the phony veneered gloss match the aesthetic warmth employed once our protagonist leaves California.

And so, the dreadful first 15 minutes are likely by design.

To achieve this quasi-sendup of made-for-TV C-movies, Love Hard convinces us that it’s still “another one of them.” Showcasing a down-on-herluck and, for all intents and purposes, generic heroine, and reducing its sexual mindset for a broader, more PG audience, this love story seems like it fits the mold on the surface. Yet, once you settle in, you’ll realize not only did the boilerplate first act justify itself, but that this is a film willing to take a few risks.

After only a couple of weeks, Natalie and Josh seem to be falling hard for one another. But when Natalie shows up at his house unexpectedly, her hunky, modellooking boyfriend turns out to be a less-attractive, nerdy, 30-year-old (aspiring) candle maker who still lives with his parents.

Apparently, because his actual dating profile wasn’t getting any hits, Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) used the photos of his childhood friend, Tag (Darren Barnet), instead of his own.

After changing his picture, he reports 85 messages within the first hour.

But what’s more absurd is that the face of the guy Natalie was crushing on (Tag) still lives in Lake Placid. And so, Natalie makes a deal with Josh that if he can help Tag fall in love with her, then she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend for Christmas so that his family won’t see him as a loser.

Once it gets rolling, Love Hard is far more than a guilty pleasure, providing an interesting premise and a few surprises along the way.

Love Hard:Netflix/The Evil Dead:New Line Cinema/Sam Raimi

It has all the aesthetic trimmings of a comfort Christmas movie set in a small, snowy village, but with the addition of actual subtext and a refreshing restraint from spelling out every emotion felt by these characters. Jiménez, along with screenwriters Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, rightfully judges Josh for his catfishing, but also sympathizes with him and shows the inherent flaws in society (let alone in a town where everyone knows everyone) that have helped make him this way. The film confronts the importance of looks weighed against personality, and how they each play into the aspirations of love vs. the idea of love.

These themes wouldn’t come across the same way had it not been for an emotionally honest and authentic performance by Yang.

The actor fully buys into what’s happening with Josh as if he himself believes that his character’s fate is, in fact, always still up in the air. It helps that, despite setting itself up to be a cliché romcom filled with these characters who fit into archetypal slots, nearly each one is layered and lived-in, reaching far past any implied limitations put upon them.

While Josh is actually the more complex study, Natalie is an adequate leading lady in her own right. She might be the flattest character of them all, but that’s necessary to allow the others around her to evolve and grow. Dobrev lacks comedic conviction, but she’s good for this role, which asks more of her in an emotional capacity than a humorous one. We believe her self-reflection and compassion despite her making her own share of mistakes as well.

Although she lambasts Josh for hiding behind a face, she hides behind a personality in order to get Tag to fall for her. While the overall dialogue could have used some touch-ups, we should credit Jiménez and the writers for making Natalie and Tag’s chemistry feel unsettling without resorting to cheap

It has all the aesthetic trimmings of a comfort Christmas movie set in a small, snowy village, but with the addition of actual subtext and a refreshing restraint from spelling out every emotion felt by these characters.

(but not too many) incredibly sweet moments that render moot the squirm-inducing clichés early on. Reminiscent of Matt Spicer’s 2017 masterpiece, Ingrid Goes West, about the two-way street of deception, Love Hard establishes more of a personal connection between the audience and its characters. It takes chances that might rub people the wrong way.

After all, the premise is about a girl who befriends her online con artist and then spends Christmas sleeping in the same room as him. Somehow Jiménez makes it work. And this is also the kind of ballsy move that separates this film from the pack of holiday movies that favor sappiness for brains. Whether or not it matters to you that Josh had been a “nonmalicious” catfish, the movie isn’t wrong in informing us that he’s still just as worthy of love as our protagonist.

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awkwardness or turning Tag into an unlikable guy. A lesser film wouldn’t have figured out any alternative ways to get the job done.

If you can endure the awful first act, you’ll get rewarded with a Christmas story that features a clever, engaging plot and some Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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A Man Named Scott:Amazon/Finch:Apple, Inc./Old Henry:Shout!

Studios/No Time to Die:MGM:United Artists

AT THE MOVIES

a man named scott DIRECTED BY: Robert Alexander / CAST: Kid Cudi, Shia LaBeouf, Kanye West

It’s always a little odd when a documentary is made with little hindsight behind it. A lot has happened in the world—music or otherwise—since Kid Cudi’s 2007 underground hit “Day ’n’ Nite” made waves on Myspace and various hiphop blogs, but there’s no denying the innovative rapper/singer still has a lot of life ahead of him. It may be a mutual signifier of the lack of longevity in the rap world, but director Robert Alexander’s A Man Named Scott—a take on Cudi’s 2008 mixtape A Kid Named Cudi (his real name is Scott Mescudi)— offers a look at all the rapper has accomplished in little more than a decade, closing a chapter in his life and almost refusing to look ahead to what’s next.

Released barely 5 years following his publicized stint in rehab for suicidal urges, the film shines light on how Cudi changed both the industry and the craft of hip-hop with his singsong cadences and

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introspective lyrics. The rapper once said, half-jokingly, in an interview with Arsenio Hall that if he had followed the normal braggadocio approach that had riddled the genre since before the Notorious B.I.G. rapped about sipping champagne when he’s thirsty, then “there would be no Drake.”

Picking up where Tupac Shakur left off in the ‘90s, Cudi showed the world with his 2009 debut album Man on the Moon that he was more than just another rapper. He was a prophet of sorts and offered catharsis for others with similar issues with confidence and selfworth. Blending his rap influences with the more vulnerable mindset of rock bands like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins, the artist bent the rules of his realm by allowing outside influences to not only infiltrate the sound of his music, but the content.

In the documentary, Cudi is well aware of the ripple effect his

open book approach has had on mainstream hip-hop, even if he could hardly be considered mainstream himself. Born from the nascent days of internet fame, Cudi parlayed that buzz into a record deal under Kanye West’s GOOD Music, but constantly refused to kowtow to the heads at the parent label who wanted his songs to have more commercial viability. Nevertheless, his influence on the genre can still be heard today, whether you like it or not, with the

likes of Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert, and, yes, Drake. “We single handedly infected the industry with that s--- in 2009, [which] sent a ripple effect through the whole entire industry... so, you’re welcome,” Cudi cheekily admits with a smirk to the camera, broken by a burst into laughter.

Admittedly, rap music has been in a precarious place the past ten years or so, and the film offers clarification

Occasionally, the film even appears to stray from Cudi himself to become a portrait of art and the value of pushing boundaries, using its subject as a simple paradigm of expression. for anyone frustrated by the lack of MCs as we used to know them.

But besides the audial divisiveness of modern-day mumblerap, Cudi’s impact was twofold. Referring to what he contributed on a substancelevel, he explicates, “I feel like the rap game needed more of that. Now it’s like you can’t even get a [record] deal unless you sing and talk about your emotions.”

Between presenting past footage as source material played on a cathode ray TV or as a clip on a computer screen, Alexander keeps the newly produced interviews in a controlled environment. Whether they’re held in various living rooms or ambiguously industrial spaces, the director locks in his look with lighting and palette in the way the best expository documentaries do.

Favoring a more organic unveiling of information, Alexander focuses less on Cudi’s big life events and more on stream-of-conscious sermons. He recruits an ensemble of big names who could be considered bellwethers in their own right, including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Shia LaBeouf, Jaden Smith, ASAP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, and Timothée Chalamet, among others, who all, more often than not, speak in declamatory ramblings that contribute to the scrapbook aesthetic the director is going for with his horizontal split screens and non-linear narrative. It’s only LaBeouf’s personal account with Cudi that offers any sort of grounded dimension to the pontifications.

The others independently struggle to find words to paint a clearer picture of intangible sentiments regarding individuality and freedom of expression as they contribute to this near-hagiography of Kid Cudi—a uniformity that would have otherwise gone against the very individuality that’s being preached ad nauseam if it didn’t simultaneously make a good case for the mutual connection gained through art. Fortunately, the pairing of these more high-profile celebrities with the people behind the scenes—producers and engineers who helped formulate the musician’s sound—allows the film to ultimately

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consolidate into something deeper.

Covering the importance of reciprocal collaboration and expanding your horizons, and how those two things aren’t mutually exclusive, A Man Named Scott has a tendency of overreaching its grasp with its prismatic themes.

Occasionally, the film even appears to stray from Cudi himself to become a portrait of art and the value of pushing boundaries, using its subject as a simple paradigm of expression.

In his case, success may have very well been the enemy of authenticity, but he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who ultimately allowed him to be himself when it mattered. Most people aren’t so lucky to have that level of support, but many were able to do so vicariously through him.

A Man Named Scott is very much for the rapper’s many rabid fans who simply want to listen to contemporaries wax poetic about the very artist who “saved their lives”—a phrase repeated dozens of times, despite the importance behind those words. But the film also shows outsiders why Kid Cudi was so important to the genre, and why he should be respected and appreciated (and thanked).

Other Notable Releases finch

no time to die

athe last duel

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Concept by Galaxy Written by Ethan Brehm

optioned a small news article about a young boy who earned a black belt in karate in order to deal with neighborhood bullies. Weintraub knew instantly he had a marketable story on his hands.

After signing on director John G. Avildsen, who helmed 1976’s Rocky, the task was fairly simple: make a movie like Rocky. And that’s exactly what they did. Stallone even jokes with screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen that he ripped off his story. However, there’s more to it than that.

Informed by his own upbringing and martial arts background, Kamen wrote what he knew. Much like the kid in the news story, Kamen learned karate after getting beat up by a group of bullies at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. He had a militant instructor like The Karate Kid’s antagonist, John Kreese, and a spiritual sensei like Kreese’s counterpoint, Mr. Miyagi. The film was semiautobiographical for Kamen.

While not as culture-altering as its progenitor, The Karate Kid was Rocky for an entire generation of kids who grew up in the ‘80s, if not bigger. Number five on the list of top-grossing films of 1984, a year that some people argue is one of the best in cinema history (just go look at the four films above it), The Karate Kid eventually spawned three sequels, a remake, and a TV series.

Netflix’s Cobra Kai catches up with protagonist Daniel LaRusso, his rival Johnny Lawrence, and the rest of the characters 34 years after the events of the original film.

Becoming a huge hit, the series, now three seasons in, with a fourth premiering this December, has struck a definite chord with fans of the franchise who found solace in the morals and lessons of the iconic movie.

Originally on YouTube Red, the series was acquired by Netflix following its second season, with the numbers skyrocketing and Cobra Kai becoming one of the streaming platform’s biggest shows ever.

With a format like television, with evolving narratives and longer character arcs, these stories have found a natural fit for this medium. The characters have aged and dynamics have evolved, but the themes are still just as relatable, molded to fit more within sprawling modern sensibilities with nuanced characters and complex storylines. There’s no telling what’s in store next for Daniel, Johnny, and company, but you can bet this series will be around for a long time.

Season 4 is set for release this December and season 5 has already been ordered.

Daniel LaRusso

(portrayed by Ralph Macchio) Moving to California from the east coast, Daniel is bullied by aggressive karate star Johnny Lawrence after befriending his girlfriend, Ali Mills. With his father dying when Daniel was a young boy, the teenager finds guidance at the hands of Mr. Miyagi and the art of karate. Facing off against Johnny in rival dojo Cobra Kai, Daniel defeats the twotime reigning champion, earning his respect. A few months later, Daniel accompanies Miyagi, who’s visiting Japan to say goodbye to his dying father. There, our protagonist faces off against Chozen Toguchi, the nephew of Miyagi’s former best friend, Sato Toguchi, whose family terrorizes locals in town. With Sato and Miyagi making amends, Chozen challenges Daniel to a fight, which Daniel wins.

When Daniel and Miyagi return to America, they face a new challenge. Terry Silver, friend of Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese, helps Kreese get his revenge on Daniel by trying to corrupt and weaken him. But our protagonist eventually beats Silver’s star student, Mike Barnes, who had been previously undefeated.

Mr. Miyagi

(portrayed by Pat Morita) Born in Okinawa, Japan, Mr. Miyagi chose to emigrate to the United States so he wouldn’t have to face his best friend in a fight to the death. Some time later, his wife and newborn son died in a concentration camp, leaving a void in his life for decades. Upon saving Daniel from a group of bullies, he reluctantly takes him in as his student, teaching him the art of karate using his unconventional methods.

Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Cobra Kai/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

In the EARLY ‘80s, producer jerry weintraub

Karate Kid

John Kreese Johnny Lawrence (portrayed by William Zabka)

Former two-time champion of the All Valley Under-18 Karate Championship for the Cobra Kai dojo under sensei John Kreese, Johnny has a bone to pick with the new kid, Daniel, after he becomes romantically involved with his ex-girlfriend. Johnny eventually loses to him in the tournament, gaining respect for his former rival. Breaking ties with Kreese after his teacher publicly berates him for losing, Johnny resigns from Cobra Kai.

(portrayed by Martin Kove)

Sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, the Vietnam War veteran instructs his students to have no mercy towards their opponents. Teaching dirty fighting tricks and dishonorable methods, Kreese eventually reveals his true colors to his star student, Johnny Lawrence, who eventually abandons Cobra Kai. Getting beaten in a fight by a passive Mr. Miyagi, Kreese becomes destitute, losing his dojo after all of his students leave.

He attempts revenge on Daniel and Miyagi with the help of friend Terry Silver, but eventually he, along with Cobra Kai, gets banned from the sport.

Ali Mills

(portrayed by Elisabeth Shue) The former love interest of Johnny, Ali gets into a relationship with Daniel, which is the catalyst for Johnny’s animosity towards his rival. Daniel and Ali break up soon after he defeats Johnny, but Johnny never gets over his former girlfriend. Down-to-earth, intelligent, and tough, Ali eventually becomes a pediatric surgeon years later and is accidentally contacted

by Johnny after a night of drinking.

Lucille LaRusso (portrayed by Randee Heller)

Strong and independent, Daniel’s mother, Lucille is a single mother who worries about her son’s personal struggles and supports his passion for karate, as well as his relationship with Mr. Miyagi.

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Kara

(portrayed by Rob Garrison) A friend of Johnny and the jocular, sarcastic member of Cobra Kai, Tommy is defeated by Daniel in the All Valley Under-18 tournament.

Along with Johnny, he also leaves the dojo after getting hit by John Kreese.

Dutch Bobby Brown

(portrayed by Ron Thomas) The second-strongest Cobra Kai fighter, Bobby is in Johnny’s crew, but usually knows when to draw the line. Despite being one of the more compassionate members of the group, Bobby acquiescently injures Danny’s knee during the tournament, per Kreese’s command, which gets him disqualified. Instantly remorseful, Bobby quits Cobra Kai immediately afterwards.

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(portrayed by Chad McQueen) Dutch is Johnny’s righthand man and the most aggressive and brutal of the Cobra Kai gang, finding pleasure in being ruthless.

He is eventually defeated

by Daniel in the All Valley tournament.

Chozen Toguchi (portrayed by Yuji Okumoto)

Once in Japan, Daniel must face his new competitor, Chozen, who’s more skilled and more vicious than Johnny Lawrence in karate.

The nephew of Miyagi’s ex-best friend, Chozen runs a corrupt grocery store, which Daniel exposes, thus furthering his hatred for our protagonist. When they have their fight, Chozen has Daniel close to death.

However, Daniel finds his strength and ultimately defeats him.

Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Cobra Kai/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

Tommy

ate

Kid

Mike Barnes (portrayed by Sean Kanan)

Terry Silver

(portrayed by Thomas Ian Griffith)

Sato Toguchi

(portrayed by Danny Kamekona) A highly respected karate master living in Japan, Mr. Miyagi’s former best friend, Sato, once challenged him to a fight, from which Miyagi fled, sending him to America. Sato was arranged to be married to a girl named Yukie, but she and Miyagi had fallen in love instead.

Years later, upon Miyagi’s return to Okinawa, Sato still wants his revenge.

However, he ends up owing Miyagi his life after being saved from a typhoon. With their friendship restored, Sato cuts ties with Chozen, realizing that he does not want to be consumed by anger anymore.

Kumiko

(portrayed by Tamlyn Tomita) Daniel’s love interest in Okinawa, Kumiko is the niece of Miyagi’s former lover. Chozen, who also takes a liking to her, takes Kumiko hostage in order to force Daniel to fight him. After Daniel wins, she remains in Japan when he returns to America.

Co-founder of Cobra Kai along with Kreese, Silver made his riches by illegally dumping toxic waste into the environment. He helps his friend and former comrade get his revenge on Daniel and Miyagi by infiltrating their lives and convincing them that Kreese is dead.

After Miyagi refuses to train Daniel to fight the undefeated Mike Barnes, Silver takes him in as a student, but fills his head with Kreese’s “no mercy” philosophy. Eventually Silver, along with Kreese and Cobra Kai, are banned from the sport.

Mike Barnes is the most skilled competitor Daniel has ever faced. He’s hired

by Terry Silver to goad Daniel into competing in the All Valley Under-18 Karate tournament, where he hopes to humiliate him and get revenge for Cobra Kai. Barnes engages in unsportsmanlike behavior and ultimately leads to Cobra Kai getting banned from the tournament.

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Johnny Lawrence

Danny LaRusso

(portrayed by Ralph Macchio) Over 30 years later, Daniel now lives the high life, running his own chain of successful car dealerships.

Miyagi’s death deeply affects Daniel’s life and his relationship with his family.

After hearing that his rival dojo Cobra Kai is returning, he decides to return to karate to carry on the legacy of Miyagi’s philosophies, eventually taking in the son of his former nemesis, Johnny Lawrence, as his senior student. However, after a fight at the high school, Daniel’s reputation gets tarnished and he decides to temporarily dismantle the dojo.

After his mother’s death, Johnny becomes estranged from his son, Robby. The down-on-his-luck former fighter gets fired from his job as a handyman and decides to reopen the Cobra Kai dojo in an attempt to infuse it with more honor than his old sensei John Kreese had in the past. Once Kreese takes over the dojo, Johnny eventually opens up a new dojo called Eagle Fang, full of former Cobra Kai students who were expelled

by Kreese. He also tries to revitalize his romance with Ali Mills.

Lucille LaRusso (portrayed by Randee Heller)

Having a troubled relationship with Daniel’s wife, Amanda, early on, Lucille eventually reconciles with her. Always able to give her son perspective, Lucille helps guide him through his rivalry with Cobra Kai and his marriage troubles.

John Kreese

(portrayed by Martin Kove) Years later, Kreese returns to Cobra Kai and tries to make amends with his former student. All seems to be well and good until both Johnny and Daniel uncover some secrets that Kreese has been hiding, with the sensei eventually seizing the dojo from Johnny.

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Amanda LaRusso (portrayed by

Courtney Henggeler) Daniel’s wife and co-owner of the auto dealership, Amanda is a motivator for a lot of Daniel’s reconciliations in his adult life, encouraging him to drop his animosity towards Johnny and take back his protege, Robby.

While supportive of Daniel’s return to karate early on, she eventually puts her foot down once things get out of hand, making her husband give up all activities related to karate and taking down Cobra Kai.

Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Cobra Kai/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

(portrayed by William Zabka)

Samantha LaRusso (portrayed by Mary Mouser)

The rich and popular 16-year-old has an up and down relationship with her father, Daniel. Caught in a love triangle with Miguel and Robby, Samantha is the spark of a lot of conflict between the two fighters.

But with Robby now in jail, she and Miguel start getting more serious.

Robby Keene

(portrayed by Tanner Buchanan) Robby, Johnny’s estranged son, drops out of high school after getting in trouble for drugs, which leads him down a path of other various crimes. He comes to work for Daniel at the car dealership, eventually falling under his tutelage where he flourishes as a fighter.

Furious when he finds out who his father is, Daniel banishes Robby at first, but then takes him back in and invites him to move into his home, where the teenager forms a relationship with Daniel’s daughter, the former girlfriend of Robby’s rival, Miguel Diaz. Robby accidentally cripples Miguel in the school fight, sending him on the run and eventually leading to his incarceration.

Miguel Diaz

(portrayed by Xolo Maridueña) Johnny’s first student at the new Cobra Kai dojo, Miguel is a misguided and bullied teenager with low self-esteem who eventually finds solace in karate. A violent altercation with Robby and Samantha sends him down a path of ruthless and dishonorable values, earning the disapproval of his teacher and eventually landing him with lifethreatening injuries after Robby kicks him off of the second story during a brawl, thus paralyzing him. Johnny attempts to reconcile with Miguel and brings him back into his new dojo.

Demetri

(portrayed by Gianni Decenzo)

Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz

(portrayed by Jacob Bertrand) Eli is a bullied teenager who gains confidence through Cobra Kai’s philosophies, flipping the script on his life, but takes the “no mercy” mindset to an extreme level at times. Disqualified from a tournament for dishonorable fighting, which only makes him even more aggressive, Hawk is reprimanded by his sensei Johnny, but forms an admiration for John Kreese, forming his own antagonistic gang set on destroying Daniel’s dojo.

Once best friends, Demetri and Hawk’s relationship crumbles after the former joins Daniel’s rival dojo.

Struggling with confidence, Demetri continues to be torn between reconciling with his best friend and finding guidance in a way that best suits him. Eventually gaining that confidence, he begins dating the antagonistic popular girl Yasmine.

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Raymond (aka “STINGRAY”)

Kyler

(portrayed by Joe Seo) Kyler used to date Samatha.

One night, while having dinner at her house, the wealthy teenager is questioned by Daniel about bruises on his body.

After hearingthat Kyler was attacked by Johnny Lawrence, who was trying to protect Miguel from the bully, Daniel figures out that Cobra Kai has reopened.

After Samantha realizes Kyler’s predatory nature, she dumps him.

Tory Nichols (portrayed by Peyton List)

Aisha Robinson (portrayed by Nichole Brown)

Originally rejected from joining Cobra Kai because she’s a female, Aisha eventually becomes the first woman fighter for the dojo.

The bullied teenager is best friends with Samantha, a relationship that becomes strained once the rivalry between the two dojos comes into full force and Aisha becomes closer with Sam’s rival, Tory. Possibly disapproving with John Kreese’s actions, Aisha doesn’t show up to Cobra Kai on the day of his takeover.

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Growing up in a povertous household, Tory learned the “no mercy” philosophy herself at a young age after finding out that the world, as well, shows those same attitudes at times. Becoming Miguel’s love interest after he breaks up with Samantha, the teen engages in a tumultuous rivalry with her boyfriend’s former lover. Things get more complicated when Tory and Aisha become friends after she joins Cobra Kai. Ultimately the young fighter sides with John Kreese during his takeover.

The overweight former hardware store employee joins Cobra Kai as the oldest student, flipping the script and rebranding himself as “Stingray.” Adopting John Kreese’s teachings, he applies for a job as a security guard at West Valley High School, eventually using a brawl breakup as an excuse to restrain several members of Miyagi-Do from fighting.

Turning against Johnny during the coup by Kreese, Stingray proves to be an unpredictable asset for the sensei.

Anthony LaRusso

(portrayed by Griffin Santopietro) Daniel’s 11-year-old son, overtaken by entitlement and laziness, refuses to learn karate, instead spends all day, every day playing video games.

Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Cobra Kai/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

(portrayed by Paul Walter Hauser)

Moon

(portrayed by Hannah Kepple) This neo-hippie and former girlfriend of Hawk constantly tries to unite the two rival dojos, but breaks up with her boyfriend after his attack on Demetri.

Shawn Payne

(portrayed by Okea Eme-Akwari)

Yasmine Carmen Diaz

(portrayed by Vanessa Rubio) Miguel’s mother fled to America from Ecuador when she was pregnant with him. Hesitant to let her son fight due to her opposition to violence, Carmen still attends the All Valley tournament. She and Johnny develop a romantic relationship, but she breaks up with him after Miguel gets put on life support following his fight with Robby.

(portrayed by Annalisa Cochrane) The leader of the antagonistic clique of popular girls at the high school, which also includes Sam and Moon, Yasmine is a bully of the less fortunate students. She eventually cuts ties with both Sam and Moon, later falling for Demetri.

A fellow juvenile detainee, Shawn soon targets Robby and attempts to make his life a living hell, eventually leading to a brawl between the two of them. When neither is willing to rat out the other, a mutual respect is established between them.

Terry Silver

(portrayed by Thomas Ian Griffith) Terry Silver is called on by his Cobra Kai co-founder, John Kreese, to help him take on Johnny and Daniel who have joined forces to train their students for the All Valley tournament.

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SPOILER MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

William Zabka/YouTube/Getty/IMDb/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

After speaking with Billy Zabka, it’s

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hard to get too excited when Ralph Macchio crane-kicks him in the head at the end of 1984’s The Karate Kid. Billy’s character Johnny Lawrence is the antagonist in the generationdefining film, but the actor who plays him is one of the nicest, most down-to-earth dudes on the planet.

No matter where you stand on the “Johnny isn’t really the villain” argument, fans of the original series have been undoubtedly enjoying his redemptive arc in the hit TV series Cobra Kai, now readying for its fourth season. The show, which serves as a sequel over 30 years later, has a shift in focus to Johnny’s point of view, giving the character the sympathy that many fans have long felt he deserved.

The actor sits down to chat with Galaxy about this particular perception of his character, which has really gained steam in recent years, and reflects on his prolific career, including a 2004 Oscar nomination for his own short film Most. He tells us how he fell in love with the industry, dating all the way back to his time going to set with his father, who was an assistant director for TV and film. He also shines light on the late Pat Morita’s impact on Cobra Kai and his friendship with the actor, lamenting how he never got to enjoy meeting fans at conventions since his passing in 2005 was still a few years prior to the Comic Con boom.

Billy has never let the fame of Karate Kid affect his mindset in this business, mostly because he’s a true creative who finds sincere joy in just being able to create his art, whether behind the camera or in front. “If no one ever saw Karate Kid it would have still been one of the best times of my life,” offers the actor, who admits that even though Johnny has always been a shadow that’s followed in his peripheral, he’s always been able to find a separation between his personal life and his work, of which the goal should very well be to have a lasting impact on culture: “That’s what it’s all about.”

interview interview

SPOILER: What have you been up to lately?

WILLIAM ZABKA: Well, we wrapped season 4, coming out sometime this December. Trailers will be dropping soon. [I’ve been] staying in my training, staying in shape, keeping my karate up, and riding this wave, man. And we just got a really great exciting Emmy nomination for the show for Best Comedy, so we’re doin’ some promotions for that and just doing some press and radio, talking to you guys. I went to a couple of Comic Cons in the last couple weekends which was great, having been locked down for so long, to get out and meet some of the people. So many great kids and families and all generations of people who really are fans of Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. It’s mind-blowing to see the excitement

william zabka and keep this party going with the fans, because it really is a two-way street.

We did this panel at the last show, I think it was at Planet Comicon in Kansas City, and Marty Kove, who plays Sensei Kreese, and I left our table and they brought us back to the panel room in the convention center. [We had] no idea how many people would be out there. I figured it wouldn’t be too many just because the Comic Cons are still slowly ramping up, but we had thousands of people in the audience—a couple thousand at least. And it’s a relationship. It’s really awesome. And we all feel that way—Ralph [Macchio] feels that way, all the cast. So we’re having the time of our life, man. And in my down time I try to spend time with my family and do my dad duties and my husband duties, and then prepare for what’s coming next and the balls are flying at me. There’s the short answer [laughs]. So the nutshell version is, “Nothing much.”

on these kids’ faces—all the little kids in karate outfits, all the little new black belts, all the young adults that are finding strength in the Cobra Kai dojo. I’m constantly signing the backs of shirts and initiating people into Cobra Kai. It’s been a really great experience with the show, and all of Karate Kid, from the time I started back in the original film and now with Cobra Kai being fresh and relevant, and with people binge watching it especially over this last year which was pretty much locked down, and to be able to serve something up just around the world on Netflix now—people just embracing the show, embracing the characters and finding some inspiration and solace in entertainment and comedy—all that’s awesome, man. And hopefully we’re around for a little bit longer

SPOILER: Let’s go to The Karate Kid real quick. You play a teenager who’s the most popular kid in school, and then all of a sudden this wimpy kid comes from another town and starts macking on your girl. And you respond. What did people expect you to do? You stood your ground and defended your honor, and yet everyone portrayed you as the bad guy. I don’t think you did anything wrong.

WILLIAM ZABKA: Listen, that’s a nice way to look at the story. One thing I loved about playing Johnny and the reason why I was able to play Johnny was the very ending where he hands him the trophy and says, “You’re alright, LaRusso,” and the moment before that when Kreese says, “Sweep the leg,” and Johnny has this check, [when he realizes] he doesn’t trust his mentor anymore.

So Johnny, if he was on his own he probably wouldn’t have taken it this far. He did kick him down the hill off a motorcycle—that wasn’t really called for. He’s a champion black belt unleashing weapons on somebody who’s defenseless. So Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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that makes him the villain. He is the villain in that sense. But the real villain is the thinking and the world view of the karate he was taught, which is really reflective of when Miyagi says, “There’s no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher.’’ So here’s Johnny who’s, in a sense, a victim of Kreese because he had a really bad teacher. If he had a Miyagi, he would have been a different kind of person.

What I love about the end of Karate Kid and the beginning of Karate Kid Part II, was when Kreese tells Johnny he’s a loser and proceeds to choke him out and Johnny drops to the floor, it’s Miyagi who comes in to save the day.

So the goodness and the right way of doing martial arts is you learn it, not to be aggressive, but as a defensive art.

So there’s a lot of lessons and layers in there. Viewing Johnny as a human being, that’s how I processed it. So from my point of view, it was exactly as you described—it was a kid stealing his girlfriend, and at the end he wakes up and realizes his teaching was wrong.

This is how you know Johnny’s the villain: Back when that movie played in the movie theater, when that crane kick happened for the very first time, you’d never seen 300 people jump to their feet at the same time. Nobody was out there practicing getting their head kicked back [like Johnny]—they were all doing crane kicks in the parking lot. They were happy to see Johnny go down [laughs]. But what a great movie, right? What great storytelling, which is all great fertilizer for what we’re doing now with Cobra Kai. SPOILER: Were people bugging you back then when the movie came out?

WILLIAM ZABKA: It was a slow burn for me. In those days, you had movies like Top Gun that were overnight blockbusters. Karate Kid was released in small theaters, limited theaters, but word of mouth made that movie spread.

And it ended up in the theaters for like six months. It was a few people looking at me at first, and then slowly it became more, and then all of a sudden my life started changing in terms of becoming exposed.

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SPOILER: Is that what got you into martial arts?

WILLIAM ZABKA: I was trained

by Pat Johnson. I was a wrestler, so I was limber and in shape—but to take somebody from scratch and make them convincing as a black belt in a movie, I was on a fast track. So I’m a second green belt, but my training is mostly for film.

And it was that movie and other karate movies as well.

But after Karate Kid, it became such a part of who I was that I continued training with Pat Johnson privately and then into Roger Lacombe’s karate studio in Thousand Oaks, part of Chuck Norris’ system. In recent days, I’ve been training with Simon Reed, who’s another master.

I was very much a marked man in karate. When I was testing for my green belt, I had a couple black belts I had to spar with—they were all going after my head trying to knockout Johnny Lawrence.

I’m like, “Come on, dude! I’m just an actor!” [laughs] SPOILER: Almost four decades later, you are this nostalgic dude. Everyone loves you. You’re in your 50s still doing this.

WILLIAM ZABKA: It’s fun to put on the Johnny Lawrence skin and give him some depth and humanity. I’ve had so many men come up to me and go, “Man, you’re me right now; you’re fighting through it.” That was my one contingency on doing Cobra Kai when I met with the three creators: Josh

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William Zabka/Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

william zabka

SPOILER: Your dad was one of the directors on The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era. Did you ever meet Johnny and did any of that inspire you to want to get into show business?

WILLIAM ZABKA: My dad was the associate director and my mom was Johnny Carson’s brother’s assistant, so my parents met on that show. But I don’t think he was still working on that when I was a kid. But my dad was an Emmy Award winning staff director for a soap opera called The Doctors and did lots of different television stuff in New York. So when I was a kid, I lived in Long Island, and my dad would get me on the train with him when I was five-years-old

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William Zabka/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

[Heald], Jon [Hurwitz], and Hayden [Schlossberg]—the three amigos who took me out to lunch and pitched it to me. My main concern was that [Johnny] was gonna take a proverbial crane kick to the face by the end of the series. He’s gotta have a redemptive arc, layers, depth, humanity. And they really assured me of that, and they’re writing amazing material. This is a different Johnny Lawrence in a sense. The first time we met him he was 18-years-old with that life experience. Now, 35 years later, with all the life that’s happened from then to now, there’s a whole new bag of experiences to draw from—in real life and as an actor being in the film business for so long. It’s awesome and I really appreciate the embrace I’m getting from the fans.

When I turn into Johnny Lawrence, Billy Zabka just kinda vanishes for a few months. And it takes maybe a month or two for me to come back and feel like myself again [laughs].

I really am living this character and putting my heart out there. It’s a vulnerable thing to do, but to know that it’s resonating with fans and inspiring or entertaining somebody, or making them feel like they can better themselves—that we’re a work in progress—that’s what Johnny Lawrence represents, and I think that’s why people are responding to it.

and take me to NBC in the city. I got to walk around the sets, I got to see the control rooms. I was fascinated even back then by it, to walk onto the soundstage, and walk into what you think is a hospital room, and open up the door and it’s just a bunch of sticks holding it up and you see all the props everywhere and all the cameras. It was just something I grew up with.

And I never met Johnny Carson, but I met many other people because we moved to California when I was 10 and my father ended

up working on tons of shows, such as The Love Boat and this and that. Then he worked with Clint Eastwood for a long time. He worked on Midnight Run and Chuck Norris’ Forced Vengeance. So I was around all that and I think, just by osmosis, it was something that was very natural for me to want to do.

So after high school I went to film school. I wanted to be a filmmaker.

I always dreamed of being an actor, but if I really wanted to be an actor I think I would have gone to Juilliard or some acting school. Meanwhile, I

was auditioning and got The Karate Kid. So I pulled out of film school and then the roles started coming in. And then I realized I was learning more on set actually doing it than I could ever learn in school. And now I’m producing and acting on [Cobra Kai].

I’m just as happy doing [either]. If I’m behind the camera I don’t have to worry about getting in the makeup trailer. I love to create. I love to be the conductor and not just the guitar sometimes.

SPOILER: So you like being in front of the camera and behind the camera equally?

WILLIAM ZABKA: Equally. I produced a short film that I wrote and we shot in Europe that was nominated for an Oscar back in 2004, and that may have been the most fulfilled I’ve ever been as an artist. It gathered every part of me together. I was actually supposed to be in the movie, but I realized that I didn’t want to put myself on my own canvas. I just felt like I’d be violating some law.

My father used to say, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” If no one ever saw Karate Kid it would have still been one of the best times of my life; one of the highlights of my life.

SPOILER: Did you ever find yourself trying to separate yourself from Johnny Lawrence in the eyes of fans?

WILLIAM ZABKA: I’m sure a little bit.

I really didn’t pay much attention to that. Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid is always gonna be and always has been in my peripheral. It’s been a shadow that’s gotten bigger because it went from the theaters to VHS to DVD and now online, so it’s always been played constantly. I didn’t really care too much to change anyone’s mind or opinion. That’s my art. I put that out there and if they’re talking about that, that’s great! They are two separate things. I have my private life and I know where that is, and then I have my art which is projected out and hopefully people are talking about that. If people are stirred by

my work that had a chance to get out there for enough people to see that it made some sort of cultural impact, then that’s what it’s all about.

SPOILER: Beyond cultural impact...

WILLIAM ZABKA: [laughs] Well yeah, that’s right. It’s interesting how it’s come full circle and I’m getting to do some of the best work of my career where I started, and that’s a super sweet spot; that doesn’t happen. And it’s a very rare thing to take a known villain in a film and turn him into an antihero. It takes the right people, the right creative team, and a magical time, and they all have to come together. And it has. Ralph and I talk about this all the time, how lightning struck twice. And that goes back to John Avildsen, director of Karate Kid, and how he cast us all— he picked the chemistry, and now it’s just as potent as ever. The director is like an artist, they pick colors.

When Ralph and I stepped on the set for the first time [for Cobra Kai] and did our first scene when he walks in the dojo and says, “I heard you picked on some kids,” and I say, “What kids?” [laughs]—that was the first time that Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso were together again after all these years. And we didn’t know how that was gonna go.

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william zabka characters again. And as soon as they said “cut” on that scene, there was sort of this silent reverence and we felt, ”Wow, there’s something here again.”

SPOILER: Do people on set ever bring up Pat Morita?

WILLIAM ZABKA: Yeah, he’s with us. He’s constantly talked about. I think Daniel mentions Miyagi, I don’t know how many dozens of times, throughout the first season. Listen, if there’s no Pat Morita and Mr. Miyagi then there’s no Cobra Kai, let alone Karate Kid. He was the Yoda. His spirit is in the show: his philosophies, his thinking, his comedy even. I miss Pat. Pat was a dear friend, we talked all the time. On Karate Kid he kind of adopted me as his nephew.

He called me BZ and I would call him Uncle Pat. He was so funny and endearing. He was so great, I wish he were here because they would have found a way to make Miyagi so relevant and so cool and hip today.

It’s really a shame. And the Comic Con world kind of blew up after he passed, sadly, so he didn’t get the chance to enjoy that as we do. The kids would’ve loved him, the fans would’ve loved him, and he would’ve fed on it. But we do our best to honor him and pay tribute to him and to the character. It’s a big part of this show and in all of our consciousness.

And the writers, this studio, network, everybody—we have a lot of reverence for Mr. Pat Morita.

SPOILER: Have you noticed a difference in this show between the first season, which was on YouTube, to now being on Netflix?

WILLIAM ZABKA: It’s interesting.

The first three seasons were all produced by YouTube, even season three which was exclusively released on Netflix. But nothing’s changed except we’re on a bigger stage. It’s the same formula, it’s the same team, the same actors. So as far as the production and the quality goes, it’s the same. Netflix took a bold risk and released seasons 1 and 2 first, even though we were likely going to make people unhappy who were

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waiting for season 3. But that didn’t happen. It was like all the people who had watched it on YouTube were finally able to get their parents to watch it or their friends to watch it. So I think they enjoyed it being released on Netflix so that everyone got to catch up to speed. And then they dropped season 3 and that was our big explosion.

SPOILER: Season 3 brought everybody back!

WILLIAM ZABKA: Yeah, and season 4, which we just finished, goes even deeper and wider and on and on, and it’s great!

SPOILER: Any juicy tidbits from season 4 that you can share that won’t get you into trouble?

WILLIAM ZABKA: [laughs] No, there’s nothing I can share that won’t get me into trouble. But keep your eyes peeled for the trailers and teasers. The first one revealed that Terry Silver’s

back. We know at the end of season 3 that Danny and Johnny are teaming up, so we have that to look forward to, and a gauntlet thrown down by Kreese.

So the stakes are high. It’s an exciting season. It’s big, it’s deep, it’s unexpected.

These writers keep you on your toes. People are always trying to figure out what’s coming next, but there’s really no way to do that.

Even as the actor playing the character, I think I know what’s coming, but then I get the pages and I’m constantly thrown off balance and surprised in a good way. It’s great storytelling and it’s a lot of fun. It’s gonna be a brand new fresh Cobra Kai. It’s marching on.

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William Zabka/Sony Pictures Television/YouTube Originals/Netflix

SPOILER MAGAZINE

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from his role as Sensei John Kreese, but the New York native has had a long, illustrious career that’s spanned nearly five decades. With an early role in The Last House On the Left, and later on in the popular procedural drama Cagney and Lacey, Martin eventually became a household name and icon for anyone who grew up in the ‘80s, starring in the aforementioned Karate Kid in 1984 and then Rambo: First Blood Part II the following year.

Born in Brooklyn, Martin dons a filmography that consists of over 200 credits in both TV and film.

His prominent features and intimidating glare earned him some early antagonistic roles in action flicks. With his first bit of notoriety in 1975’s Death Race 2000 and later that same year from White Line Fever, Kove got a big break and made a turn as the honest detective Victor Isbecki in Cagney and Lacey, showing us all that he can easily play both sides.

The actor’s ability to play both good guy and bad guy throughout his career has not only been so profitable to Kove himself, but has infused his performance of Sensei Kreese, making him the quintessential ‘80s antagonist. Nowadays when villains are written to have much more depth,

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GabboT/Albert L. Ortega/WireImage/Bryan David Hall/Alamy/ Rambo/First Blood/StudioCanal/Manfred Baumann

Fans of The Karate Kid undoubtedly know Martin Kove

Kreese translates perfectly, as he was constructed ahead of his time. And the nuance of the Karate Kid reunion series, Cobra Kai, has been justified by the quality of the films it’s based on.

Martin has had such a resurgence in recent years with his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and his return as Kreese on Netflix’s Cobra Kai—first with a surprise appearance in the finale of season 1, which turned out to be just the beginning. Kove not only became a regular in season 2, but a significant pillar of the series as a whole.

His presence takes the show to another level. After all, he basically is Cobra Kai. Now with its third season coming out on in January, Martin analyzes the unbelievable popularity of the show and why the property still resonates with people all these years later. Cobra Kai didn’t invent the ‘80s/’90s

Martin Kove(Previous Spread)/Martin Kove/Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/ Sony/Cobra Kai/Netflix/YouTube/Getty/IMDb/AlamyViral Panda

Interview by Galaxy Intro by Ethan Brehm

reunion series, but definitely set a trend for HOW to bring back a franchise.

The actor also reflects on his own career and how much he’s grown as an actor and as a person. He admits that he didn’t always have the discipline for the job, but has learned an immense amount of tenacity and integrity over the years with his craft. In his personal life, he explains how he’s learned a lot from his character John Kreese, for better or worse. Once willing to channel all of his traits at full force, he’s now become master over his alter ego and found a way to mine only for the good parts off screen.

Martin is still inspiring us, even during these times of isolation. Early in quarantine, Kove issued what he refers to as the Cobra Kai Challenge, which is quite simple, but so important. He urges us to be as creative and as productive as possible while we’re alone and utilize this time the best we can, so that when this is all over, we can all go out and apply our growth and just take life by the horns. And the world will be even better for it.

As he says, “Fans love to hate John Kreese and hate to love John Kreese,” but Martin Kove is a different story. The incredibly charming and humble man who plays the nuanced antagonist just might be what we need during these times. Evoking nostalgia for the past and providing a silver lining for the present, the world could always use some more Martin Kove in their life.

SPOILER

John, there are debates out there, so let’s hear it from you. Was The Karate Kid one of your biggest movies at the time? Or was it Rambo II?

MARTIN KOVE

Well, I did them back to back. And I was doing a TV show called Cagney and Lacey. That was really a big, classy show. I was doing that for about six years. And then I was able to go off and do different projects.

One of the interesting projects I did was an action picture called Steele Justice that I starred in. That was fun because it was my first romantic lead. Yet, it was an action picture.

It was very enjoyable to do. But I would say Karate Kid made so much noise. We never knew it would be as successful as it was. And Rambo, I remember reading Rambo in my dressing room on the set of Cagney

and Lacey, and it was 85 pages of nothing but mayhem [laughs]. And I realized this movie would make equal to Karate Kid, which at that time had grossed around 100 million. This was 1984, and I said, “Wow, this is really interesting. What a follow up.

I better do it.” And it holds up today.

I think they’re both memorable for different reasons to society, to kids, to people of that age, to adults today.

They have different meanings but they both hold up and it’s really my pleasure to be a part of them.

SPOILER

After The Karate Kid, did everyone look at you like you were this martial arts master?

MARTIN KOVE

My introduction to karate was, we were going to do a movie called Lion of Ireland, which was a book written by Morgan Llywelyn about the Vikings, about Brian Boru, who unified all the tribes in Ireland to fight the Vikings in about 1080. It was a fascinating book and we were all

training and I was to be the Viking adversary. We were working out with Shihan Tak Kubota and his dojo.

Shihan Tak Kubota trained the police academy. He’s been in a multitude of movies from The Killer Elite to The Mechanic to anything. He’s a brilliant shihan. He’s a wonderful sensei. I was working with him and we were using plywood axes because my character was an axeman. The style was right out of Conan. It was the first time that people would start doing movies, instead of wielding an axe or a sword like in the old Viking picture from 1958 with Kirk Douglas, we were going to do a style of Taekwondo.

It was all going to be Kendo moves and it was very rich and very much involved with learning the foundation of karate. So I had to work out every other day. And then unfortunately the tax laws changed in England and they lost the movie. They couldn’t make the movie. A month later I had the audition for this film called The Karate Kid. I didn’t know what to expect. To me it was just another heavy. That character was so well structured by Robert Mark Kamen, the writer. I think the star of that movie was the writer. I really do. I believe we all would not be in the position we’re in—Ralph [Macchio] or Billy [Zabka] or myself—if it had not been so articulately and meticulously written. Like Cobra Kai, our show is so terrific because the writing is so good. Our show is about us 30 years later, but if the writing wasn’t on the money, it wouldn’t work and Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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Since the last time we spoke, your Instagram page has exploded beyond belief.

MARTIN KOVE

You know, there’s a lot to write about, and my son assists me with that. During COVID-19, it was a little depressing because I had a Western and two other movies postponed and it’s been tough. But yet, the silver lining of all this is you get to spend more time with family. We waited with bated breath to see how Netflix would handle it. We knew they would

do a good job because they promote very well. And I think Netflix is just terrific. Not only is the show such a big hit, but the way they handle us and the promotion and the publicity, and giving the care to the actors, and making sure that when you want to run with the ball you can do it—they give you freedom. It’s just been a very pleasant experience. Just terrific. I’ve been very happy. It works for us that everybody’s home now so they can watch the show, but I think it would do very well even if people were going to their jobs and coming home and watching Netflix.

SPOILER

Cobra Kai is a massive hit. I was on board with it instantly back when it first released on YouTube Red. And now it’s on Netflix and has become one of their biggest shows ever.

People absolutely love it. What do you think attributes to that success?

MARTIN KOVE

Nostalgia works now for a couple of reasons. One, times are hard and people want to feel good, so it’s hard to feel good about a vampire show. But you watch Cobra Kai and you remember exactly what you

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were feeling like in the ‘80s, but as an adult. And then as an adolescent, there are so many references to the problems that our younger stars are having on the show, and they’re all identifiable. And it’s all gray. Nothing is white hat/black hat. So the writers are writing that way and it’s quite identifiable for people nowadays.

Everybody’s tastes are far more sophisticated than they were when I grew up. It was different. I’m a big Westerns buff, and if you make a Western now you gotta have it really gray and interesting because people’s tastes have changed. The same thing goes for shows that were hugely popular back in the ‘80s. You do them now, you gotta approach it differently. And I think the writers on Cobra Kai have approached it masterfully.

Martin Kove/Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Sony/Cobra Kai/Netflix

SPOILER

YouTube/Getty/IMDb/Alamy/Manfred Baumann/Rambo/First Blood/StudioCanal

M people wouldn’t love Cobra Kai. So to answer your question, I became the sensei and the person to look up to and all, but not until later on did I really start studying and going to the dojo and working out. You get to do a lot of black belt moves in movies, even though you haven’t studied as much as you should have as a black belt. And I have honorary black belts and regular black belts from different styles. But the honor of it all is the discipline, and the people you meet and the devotion they have to karate, and the devotion they have to Taekwondo and Shotokan. And I’m a black belt in Okinawa-te. And it’s just fascinating to be considered that.

But God knows, there are so many people out there who are further down the line who could make Sensei Kreese just crawl [laughs]. But it’s great. The respect I get is enormous and I don’t take it for granted at all.

I’m quite humbled about it. People out there just love to hate John Kreese and hate to love John Kreese.

SPOILER

I recently saw this picture on your IG, you have a pose with your hand up, like you’re playing air guitar or something.

MARTIN KOVE

SPOILER

Your career spans decades, and you have so many amazing projects under your belt, but The Karate Kid just had this explosive popularity.

I know you said last time that you took the project on a whim and you weren’t sure it was going to be any good. And now here you are decades later still involved in these stories.

Isn’t that mind-boggling?

MARTIN KOVE

Let me tell you, it’s amazing that any movie ever gets released in the theaters. It’s just amazing that a film gets made from the inception of the writer. I had an exact example of that. It was a movie called VFW that I did last year in Dallas. And the cast was brilliant. It was Stephen Lang, William Sadler, guys who have done so many things. And then you have Fred Williamson and David Patrick Kelly. And it was all about this bar, this VFW, where all these characters are alcoholics, and were great comrades during Vietnam, but now they’re in the twilight of their lives.

But it was very violent. It made The Wild Bunch look like Disney. And I just said, “Do I really wanna do this?”

And my son said, “Dad, you gotta do it.” My son Jesse is a wonderful actor and is like my mini manager. He said, “The casting’s great. It’ll be a good movie.” And everybody loved this

picture and it did so well, because of the cast; because of the camaraderie that happened with all of us. The camaraderie that was generated by veterans as actors—all of us. It was the director’s third movie, and between the four leads, we had 500 films between us. And we knew what we were doing. We did lots of improvisation. And Dallas [Sonnier], who is a terrific producer who did Bone Tomahawk and Dragged Across Concrete—and I’m trying to do a Western with him. And to answer your question, there’s a lot of things you don’t think will work out. We thought Karate Kid was just another Bruce Lee-type movie, in a sense, from the title. And I couldn’t have told you that 35 years later we’d be saying, “No mercy,” “Sweep the leg,” “Wax on, wax off.” You say, “The force be with you.” You say, “Play it again, Sam.” You say, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” But you don’t think that an action-karate movie, 35 years later, we’re still saying [these things]. But it meant so much to so many people over these 35 years and still holds up!

Originally, we sat down and worked with a photographer just to do some fun stuff for some t-shirts—some silly stuff. If it was up to me, I would do photo sessions on a horseback with six shooters and a Winchester, but it doesn’t work with Cobra Kai. It works with Yellowstone—I wish I was on Yellowstone. But we were just playing and we did it all at the house. All of it is just what John Kreese would do in the enjoyment of life when he wasn’t in the dojo trying to make everything perfect. It was stuff that would go on the t-shirts. I’m thinking of doing my own line of clothing, but I want a new slant. That commercial I did for QuickBooks, which was really interesting, where I play John Kreese—they handled it so well. They gave him enough of an edge there where it didn’t seem like you were doing something silly because you were getting a paycheck. There’s just a lot of people interested in these characters, and they’re fun. You just kinda go with it. And sometimes people still wear the same old t-shirts from back in the day. When I was with The Last House On the Left cast and we were doing Chiller Theatre— an autograph show in New York—I had never gone to an autograph show before. This was about 10 years after Karate Kid was released. There, again, all these people showed up on my end of the table with “No Mercy”

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MARTIN KOVE

shirts, spewing the lines from the movie, and I just couldn’t believe the popularity of it. It was the first time I saw the popularity of it. I sold all of these pictures, but I was still just a new guy on the block. But I realized the potential of this movie, and it was brilliant. What people adhere to when it’s meaningful emotionally is quite surprising.

SPOILER

So many people want a Sensei Kreese shirt. Have you ever thought of making a Sensei Kreese apparel line?

MARTIN KOVE

We’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but just haven’t done too much about it [laughs]. You gotta pick artwork, and it’s hard for me to make a decision about this stuff because I wanna do it tastefully. And yet my true love is going out there and, “Make it a Western!” So doing a t-shirt, you gotta lay it on someone who knows what they’re doing. And it’s gotta be lucrative. I’ve had several offers, but I’ve never found one that’s blown me away where the artwork is great. That’s what those silly little guitar pictures came from.

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It’s all real. In other words, it’s never just blank. It all has to do with the moment, I think, as an actor. There’s so many movies I did because I liked the character, and I probably should not have done the movie because the movie was, say, a fair script.

But you’re arrogant enough to think that you can improve the movie by your performance. I don’t think that anymore. The most fun for anything now—and I wish I’d paid attention to this more when I was starting out—is you have to do your backstory. You have to pay more attention to where this character came from. What was it like for him as a kid? What was his relationship for him with his parents?

And can jot these ideas down, and then you don’t refer to them a lot.

You just kind of read them every once in a while. I do. When you see these moments when I’m holding my lapel—I took all those moves from my instructor Pat Johnson, who was great. He taught all of us.

He taught Pat Morita, he taught Ralph, myself, all separately. And you just encompass the character.

You just go into that character when you do that homework and you do

SPOILER

Everyone’s probably bugging you about season 3. Are you getting tons of messages about it?

MARTIN KOVE

I don’t mind it. I went out the other day. There was a movie shooting right outside of my house. I went outside and went up to this prop truck and said, “Do you have a rake?” [laughs] and he said, “Yeah, I got a rake.” I said, “Can I borrow it for

Sony/Manfred Baumann/Rick Krusky/Rambo/First Blood/StudioCanal

You have this incredible stare, when you’re looking at the camera.

What’s going on in your mind at that moment?

Martin Kove/Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Sony/Cobra Kai/Netflix/YouTube/Getty/ IMDb/Alamy/Steve Dietl/Mirit/Once Upon a Time In Hollywood/Quentin Tarantino

SPOILER

the backstories. So even the simple stance in the front of the class, telling them to forward punch, you really have a reason why you’re there and what you’re trying to communicate with them. Because these writers write me pontifications—these giant speeches all the time—and I’m standing in front of the class and I’m delivering them, but I’d love to be doing something vulnerable.

They love writing for me on the dark side. So you have to have an inner life going. It’s never just holding the lapel. But these writers—Hayden Schlossberg would not let me hold the lapel in any other scene other than the end of season 2, episode 10—that’s the only place in all the episodes. Every time I wanted to do it in the dojo he said, “No, we’re saving that.” Because he loved that body language. So you make every moment as real as you can for you.

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a minute? I have a grandson and I bought a little pool and I want to level the ground.” And just somehow I never bought a rake. I brought the rake back about 15 minutes later and the guy said, “Will you sign my broom?” I said, “Sign your broom?”

He says, “Yeah, I got a broom and I really want you to sign it.” So I signed his broom and he said, “Will you write, ‘No Mercy’ on it?” I said [laughs], “Okay.” I had never signed a broom before. He watched the show on YouTube and he said, “I love the show and you are the iconic character.” And it was just charming. You get all these kinds of feelings now, especially since people have great feelings about the show because it’s nostalgic. We all need to feel good now in this COVID situation. We all need to latch on to great memories and feelings we had.

And we remember what we feel like when we see some of the outtakes, some of the flashbacks from the movie. It’s good memories and good timing. And people ask about season 3 constantly. You know, we finished

season 3. It’s been in the can for a long time. It’ll air after the first of the year, and it’s such a rich season.

There are so many surprises. It makes season 2 look like Bambi. It’s very exciting that people appreciate it and look forward to it. And it’s not that far. It’ll be sometime early 2021. And then people will go, “When’s season 4??” Because season 3 encompasses a lot of wonderful elements in all the characters.

SPOILER

Do you think if Cobra Kai had been released on Netflix first it would have been as big?

MARTIN KOVE

Netflix is just set up so well for a show like this. The publicity department is just so rich. Not only do they watch you and make sure the show gets represented so well, but they really play an important part in what you’re doing individually as an actor. I’ve done four or five TV series and the network always only paid attention to the show. They never really did anything to the actor. Even if the actor stood out, it was all about the show. With Netflix, it’s about everything. It’s about getting it out there, keeping it secret, representing the actors well, making sure you

run all of your PR through them and letting them look at it—but not in a way where they need to control it in a negative way—it’s just that they have an ultimate plan. And the plan for season 3 is enormous—bigger than 1 and 2. And the pictures they use, the artwork, it’s so superior to anything we’ve had before. That picture of Billy and me in front, where I’m looking at him and he’s in profile, it’s on that opening page of Netflix.

I watched it just to look at all the promos, just to see the presentation.

And it was done very well. It’s set up well. If it had not gone to Netflix…

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study us and make sure that what goes on works. It’s all gray. You can’t write white hats and black hats anymore. To answer your question, you have to play it by how the chess game falls. There’s no winner, there’s no loser. It’s just a matter of being patient. And it’s hard, especially in COVID-19, to be patient and wait for the success, because we’re not all out there functioning. And the silver lining is we are learning to be patient; we’re learning to be a family more; we’re learning to cultivate our scripts because we have time to sit on our ass. I think we all have to make the best of what’s going on, and Cobra Kai has been a great recipient of that time, where people can watch the show—several times—and learn all about it. And then, BOOM! When season 3 comes out, they’ll appreciate everything a lot more.

SPOILER

Do you think if Pat Morita was still with us Cobra Kai would’ve been even greater?

MARTIN KOVE

That’s a very difficult question. I think Ralph has somewhere to go with the absence of Miyagi. And the

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entanglement between Cobra Kai and Miyagi, initially being represented by Billy against Ralph—that competition, that rivalry—I think is clear without Pat Morita. The rivalry I would have had would present itself differently. I think the adjustment was masterful.

I think [Pat] would have loved the show if he was around. I’m sure he is watching from up there. He would’ve loved the show because all the values of Miyagi-Do are out there, especially in season 3. They’re really out there.

And they’ve never violated what Pat Morita would’ve done if he was alive.

Ralph carries it on religiously. Johnny is a misfit and gets caught between John Kreese and trying to make sure that his students have a fair shake and are not dominated by what the “no mercy” concept is from his point

Martin Kove/Karate Kid/Columbia Pictures/Sony/Cobra Kai/Netflix/YouTube/Getty/IMDb/ Alamy/Manfred Baumann/Jarod Harris/Rick Krusky/Rambo/First Blood/StudioCanal

Netflix had 193 million viewers.

YouTube had 20 [million]. YouTube left the writers alone to write their little masterpieces, so that was really appreciative. But maybe things would have been different if we had started out on Netflix. Who knows?

The essence of the show might have changed. I’ve been part of those kinds of shows too. I couldn’t do Karate Kid III so they had to rewrite the part, putting in a character called Terry Silver, because I got a TV series called Hard Time On Planet Earth.

And they had to revamp everything and ultimately the movie didn’t do as well as it should have. You can’t disenfranchise the villain. You can’t disenfranchise Darth Vader from Star Wars. And here, they disenfranchised me only because of the rewrites.

There’s a structure that’s in every screenplay and creates the characters so richly so that the audience loves them, and the star of all three of our movies is Robert Kamen. He wrote all of that. The star of our TV series is not Billy or Ralph or the kids or me, it’s the three writers: Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz and Josh Heald. They’re the guys. They

of view. I loved Johnny Lawrence as my own son. He’s like my stepson; my godson. But I love Cobra Kai more—the integrity of Cobra Kai—so Johnny violated that, and he just got lost for a little while. But I’ll bring him back. He’ll thank me for taking over the dojo. And with Pat Morita there, it might have been a different dynamic.

It would’ve been, you know, siding going a little more towards Pat’s side, and Pat and Ralph together. There would’ve been an imbalance I think.

I don’t know if it would’ve been any better, because they just wrote such good stuff as it is.

SPOILER

Johnny Lawrence is kinda the good guy now. Everyone, including myself, is rooting for him to succeed. Do you feel like that’s the popular consensus?

MARTIN KOVE

You have to understand that people somehow always root for the underdog. Johnny’s a misfit. He changes all the time. He doesn’t know which end is up. He’s kind of a

lost soul because he comes from an environment where I was the father figure and then I violated that by breaking the trophy and disappearing for 30 years. And then I came back and tried to be the father figure again and that didn’t work out because I was trying to keep the integrity of Cobra Kai, certainly in his absence.

We always root for the underdog.

You know the romance we all had with American gangsters? I did enough research and played enough

gangsters. They were the vermin of society. These people, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, they had no sense of humanity when it came to killing someone. Like the Vikings—I used to love the Vikings—and they just pillaged and raped and did all this.

But we really thought they were cool because they were great warriors and all that. But it isn’t cool. The public does like the darker characters, and they do it here with the villainy if the villainy is done with taste. Some of the greatest characters—Klaus Maria Brandauer in the Bond movie—I loved him—and Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds—wonderful.

The smoother the bad guy, the more interesting. And Billy and I, we really cook on film. Two people with such a history. People love to watch the history. And Ralph does a terrific job.

When I’ve had scenes with Ralph, it was just rich because we don’t get a chance to act much with one another. So Ralph’s gotta pick his ass up and get in there with us. And he does. But there’s such a history from the movies that you do root for Billy because he’s caught in the confusion of the John Kreese world and the Miyagi-Do world, which is a kind and decent world. It’s the offensive sport

that John Kreese represents, and Miyagi represented the defensive art.

And Johnny’s caught up in that. So it is normal to appreciate Johnny the most and, I think, the relationship between Johnny and my character is rich.

SPOILER

When everyone saw you in the series for the first time, they went nuts! I think they love you because you have this particular old school personality.

Do you think so?

MARTIN KOVE

Well I think I said it in that diner scene. It’s interesting because I have this conflict within my personal life, we have to stop giving trophies to people who participate. We’ve got to only give trophies to people who win—1st or 2nd place. And I think of that a lot. Because kids who don’t have the prowess to come in 1st and 2nd, whether it’s karate or little league, they really try hard. I personally, as Martin Kove, have a conflict there. But John Kreese has no conflict. He states it very well in that diner that society is soft and we don’t need to give trophies to kids just because they participate and their head’s not into it. “If their head’s into it, they’re champions. There’s no pain in this dojo. There’s no defeat in this dojo.” And that’s what he feels.

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SPOILER

Isn’t it exciting to know that your grandkids will one day watch you as Sensei Kreese in The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai?

MARTIN KOVE

My son, he lives up in Monterey and is an educator, he has a 5-year-old, so

she’s learning about Cobra Kai now.

My grandson with my daughter, he’s three—he’s very precious, he reminds me of what Paul Newman would’ve looked like at three—so he doesn’t really know. My son, who’s 30, really knows the value of it. He’s done several movies, we’ve done movies together. Did a wonderful picture called D-Day with Weston Cage, his good friend from high school—Nic’s kid. And it’s all about D-Day, 1944,

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right before D-Day happened, the real life event that happened in Pointe du Hoc. But he understands the value of it, and he understands the value of the business.

I always feel like people say, “What’s your break?” But I don’t feel like I had the break. I haven’t done a Raiders of the Lost Ark yet. I haven’t done The Searchers. I haven’t done my vehicle yet. And one day, maybe I will. But it’s all a school of hard knocks. If you don’t spend the time to work it out and do the work in class... These kids say, “Should I go do theater? What should I do?” And I always say, “Go do theater. Do as much theater as you can, because when you get called to do a movie or a TV show, it’s what you learned in theater that’s gonna make the difference.” I don’t get the chance to do a play as often as I like, but it’s hard work. They have me a year older than I am on IMDb, but you look at this stuff and you function a little slower because you savor the integrity and the grace that God has allowed you to be this lucky—even down the line at my age. I’ve seen all this game in the ‘80s. I was in Rambo,

Karate Kid, Cagney and Lacey, Wyatt Earp, Steele Justice—all this stuff. And it goes as fast as it comes. So you have to really enjoy it for what it is, because it’s a tough game out there.

Cobra Kai—I hope it runs forever, but you have to be realistic about it. It’s in the writing, and then everything else comes. You have good writers, boom, you have a good show. It’s just the way it is.

SPOILER

Can you share one amazing experience from The Karate Kid or Cobra Kai?

MARTIN KOVE

The beginning of Karate Kid II was written as the ending of the first Karate Kid. We were waiting to do my big fight scene with Miyagi at that van. And we waited outside for three hours. And finally [producer] Jerry Weintraub and [director] John Avildsen decided that they would cut the scene in the tournament. And I said, “Great!” Three years later, in the same parking lot, we were starting that scene—and I practiced a lot with [stunt coordinator] Pat Johnson, who was incredible—he ran with Chuck Norris and was his partner in the ‘60s and ‘70s. So we do the scene and it’s a lunge punch over Miyagi’s right shoulder through the van, break the window… But the window never breaks. I hit the window in all the

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just too reliant on cell phones and computers. Interpersonal activities are at a minimum, and that’s got to change in society, I believe, or else we’re gonna get lost. Personal attention is just imperative, whether you’re an actor or whatever. You need to have attention and instruction from someone on a personal level, and then you can maintain “Mercy is for the weak.” The weak don’t get it. If you don’t seek it out then you don’t get it. If you’re not tenacious in whatever your plan is for life, no one’s gonna give it to you anymore.

Competition is too hip. There’s too many really hip people who are knowledgeable about so much for you to just luck into something. That might’ve happened in the ‘50s, but that’s not gonna happen now. You have to do the work. You don’t do the work, you’re not gonna get what you really want.

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because it was the next day. That was dangerous because I could have really severed veins, but you get into the adrenaline of a movie and you just do what you gotta do.

SPOILER

Were you a little upset when the glass didn’t break?

MARTIN KOVE

rehearsals. It’s supposed to shatter.

Never shattered. The charge in the window didn’t go off. It wasn’t done properly. So finally I say to myself, “Oh boy, this is gonna be a problem.”

And of course the show must go on, so you can’t cut the scene. It was a very important scene. So I did not lunge, I just snapped the punch.

The special effects fella swore it was gonna work this time, and I believed him. And then, boom, I snap the punch, it doesn’t work. I go right through the window—shards of glass sticking in my hand. I break the window—not the gunpowder charge. And I have to pull out, and we bandage me up and put new skin on and we did the scene again. And still, he swore it would break, but it didn’t break. I met the window with my fist and it didn’t break it this time because I held back a bit. I turn to John Avildsen and I said, “John, this isn’t the hand of the Terminator. This isn’t Arnold’s hand. This is the real hand of Martin Kove.” So he looked around at everybody and said, “Alright, we’ll use the one we just got. That’s a wrap.” So whenever you watch that movie, going in is real big-time smashing glass. And the next day we shot the other part, pulling out and the remainder of the scene. But it was real, and I always try to look at that and see, “Can you tell?” There’s blood all over, but it’s fake blood

I was a little upset. But he tried everything. He was feeling so bad himself, because this was a special effects man who was experienced.

Over the course of the movie they bought me hanging bags to work out and sent them to my house.

They were very generous, it was a good department. I couldn’t get angry at them. I was just somewhat disgusted. The director, this guy was really just ashamed. He was suffering enough. He didn’t have to catch the wrath of John Kreese.

SPOILER

Are people intimidated when they first meet you because of the sensei persona?

MARTIN KOVE

I have really changed a lot because that character comes up; that arrogance comes up when someone says “no” to me. In the past, I’ve had six breakups with my lady, and I’ve only recently put it together. And the only reason we have ever broken up in the past is because that character comes up when someone says, “Sorry, can’t do it,” or they violate you or people come up short. And it isn’t Martin Kove, but all of a sudden John Kreese comes up. I don’t get physical

with anybody, but the intensity of the look… You know when you really want ice cream—you have a passion for ice cream—and you go to the little ice cream shop and you knock on the window and they say they’re closed?

This whole thing comes over me and I wanna do a spinning crescent kick right through the glass. Because John Kreese, that sense of, “You can’t violate me”—and it’s John Kreese, it isn’t Martin Kove—it comes up because the character’s celebrated.

The character’s been around a long time, and somewhere in my past I’ve clicked in to some sort of repulsion, some sort of, “Oh God, someone’s saying ‘no’ to me,” and somewhere in the back of my upbringing it’s triggered by John Kreese. Those emotions get triggered. So to answer your question, yeah he comes up.

But doesn’t come up much anymore because I’m really in control of it.

There’s not a lot of integrity [behind it] when it comes up. It’s an integrity exercise when the camera’s rolling.

Life’s tough enough, you don’t wanna beat up everybody with your eyes and emotionally. You don’t need to do it.

SPOILER

Any final words for the fans out there?

MARTIN KOVE

“You’re all going to be so pleasantly surprised and excited about season three. And the presentation by Netflix is gonna be awesome. And the writing is awesome. If you truly enjoyed one and two, not only should your expectations be escalated by what I have to say, but you will truly feel so much part of Cobra Kai when you see season three. You will have the need to just go to the dojo and work out.”

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ver since the release of Iron Man back in 2008, Marvel has dominated the film industry.

While not nearly the first comic book to be adapted into a hit movie, Iron Man quickly grew into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has since become the most successful film franchise of all time, with 24 installments and counting.

It’s not just the popularity of the superheroes or the quality of the movies themselves that have allowed the MCU to have such lasting power—surely those facets have existed in cinema since 1978’s Superman: The Movie—but much like Superman, the Marvel films have never been afraid to take risks and push the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling. And for the first time, bringing comic books to life wasn’t just being done on an isolated level, but on a macro one.

Creating an expansive universe that, over the years, has slowly added to its cast of characters, culminating but not ending with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Marvel

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had a vision for something greater than just one movie—although they well understood the value of making each installment stand alone on its own merit. Even with Endgame and the preceding Infinity War, the studio was able to subvert our expectations of blockbuster entertainment, surprising audiences and giving us a whole lot to talk about, even beyond the water cooler. In an age when the line between film and TV is becoming thinner and thinner, Marvel has developed their characters’ arcs much similarly to a television series with multiple seasons of investment: characters change, stories evolve, “episodes” have different directors, writers.

If you’re a fan of the MCU, you’re in it for the long haul. Although, fans of Marvel Comics are used to this sort of thing. The Cinematic Universe—and thus the “Superhero Age of Film”—began in 2008, but of course the company’s history dates back almost 70 years earlier.

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eginning in 1933, American comic books largely consisted of compiled comic strips from the Sunday newspaper, but without the newspaper section attached.

These were an instant hit on newsstands, but nowhere near as successful as what was to come.

In 1938, Detective Comics, Inc. launched a new anthology series titled Action Comics. Its very first issue featured a character named Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Debates are held as to whether or not Superman was the first superhero—and certainly other fictional heroes already existed—but the Man of Steel was undeniably the catalyst for the superhero and comic book craze that followed, thus launching what would later be referred to as “The Golden Age of Comic Books.”

Planning to capitalize off of the emerging popularity of superhero comic books, pulp magazine writer Martin Goodman decided to launch his own comic book division called Timely Publications, a potential umbrella brand for all of the comic entities he would soon publish.

Having no content of his own, Goodman contracted the creatives at the comic book packager Funnies, Inc. to supply the contents for his very first issue in 1939, Marvel Comics #1 (later Marvel Mystery Comics). The book featured Funnies’ own superhero,

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Namor the Sub-Mariner, from their failed promotional movie theater giveaway that was never published, as well as two new creations: the Human Torch and the Angel.

The Sub-Mariner, created by Bill Everett, was an anti-hero who possessed super-strength, the power of flight, and aquatic abilities. The Human Torch, created by Carl Burgos, prior to being repurposed in the ‘60s as a member of the Fantastic Four, was a sentient android created in a lab with the ability to control flames. The Angel, created by Paul Gustavson, was a powerless, mask-less detective who insisted on wearing a superhero costume regardless. The Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch would become two of Timely’s “big three” characters during the Golden Age. However, there would soon be one character in particular who would easily become their biggest hit of the era and a sign of the publisher’s lasting ubiquity throughout comic book history.

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arvel Comics #1 was so popular that Goodman issued a second printing and eventually launched the official label Timely Comics, Inc., hiring on a few employees: Funnies’ own Joe Simon as editor, artists Syd Shores and Jack Kirby, and a 16-year-old editorial assistant named Stan Lee. Simon and Kirby would soon create Steve Rogers, also known as the super-soldier Captain America, who would debut in his own titular comic in December 1940. The patrioticthemed hero was topical and, as World War II pressed onward, the character would come to symbolize hope and freedom, taking down Nazis and the Axis Powers. That first issue sold around a million copies and was a rabid hit. Timely Comics was now a mainstay.

The Human Torch quickly got his own series later that year, taking over Red Raven Comics starting with issue #2. The following year, the SubMariner then got his own solo series, which included a backup feature starring the Angel.

During these nascent years for Timely, other heroes popped up, such as the Thin Man, a stretching superhero created by Klaus Nordling, Blazing Skull, a wartime freedom fighter with a flaming mask and the power to make himself invisible, Destroyer, one of Lee’s first creations and another wartime hero with super-soldier serum abilities, Jack Frost, a precursor to X-Men’s Iceman, Whizzer, created by Al Avison and possessing the power of super-speed that was obtained by the infusion of mongoose blood, Black Marvel, an expert marksman, Blue Diamond, a hero with diamond-embedded skin and nighinvulnerability, and Simon and Kirby’s own Vision, an alien cop who would inspire the Avengers character over 25 years later.

In 1941, Simon and Kirby would leave Timely for salary reasons and join Detective Comics (later DC), and Goodman would promote his 18-year-old assistant, Lee, to interim editor. The next few years

saw a slew of mostly-forgettable characters. Perhaps the most notable would be Miss America, debuting in 1943’s Mystery Comics #49. Created by Otto Binder and Al Gabriele, Miss America possessed the typical Superman powers, and in 1944 starred in her very own series, becoming the third female hero to do so, following DC’s Wonder Woman and Fiction House’s Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

The very first screen adaptation of a Marvel property and the first live-action appearance of any Marvel character in any medium (and the last for 30 years) occurred in 1944 with Republic Pictures’ 15part serial film Captain America.

The serial is very loosely based on the comic book, as this version of Cap is a District Attorney named Grant Gardner and his iconic shield is replaced with a revolver. The film’s release came less than a year after the commercially successful Batman serial, but still a few years before Superman’s theatrical debut.

However, it would be the last appearance of any kind for a Marvel character for over two decades. After all, superheroes—yes, superheroes— were on their way out.

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fter the War ended in 1945, the comic book industry took a hit and people didn’t seem to be as interested in reading about inspirational superheroes.

Many of the readers in the past had been soldiers away at war, who, upon returning to civilian life, were spending time with their families and finding careers. The exploding popularity of television would also be a key factor in the drought in readership over the next decade and a half.

In an attempt to appeal to female readers, comic book companies began to make more female superheroes. Timely’s batch included Blonde Phantom, a masked beauty who fights crime in evening dresses and high heels, Namora, the Atlantean cousin of Sub-Mariner, Venus, originally the goddess from Greek mythology, and Sun Girl, an expert in judo and jiu-jitsu. All four of them were fairly popular at the time, and all but Sun Girl made it out of the ‘40s, with only Namora sticking around any longer than that, as she returned during SubMariner’s run in the ‘70s. Blonde Phantom did, however, make a comeback as a series regular in SheHulk over 40 years later.

1946 saw the first appearance of a Marvel superteam in the form of the All-Winners Squad, which included Captain America, his sidekick Bucky, the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, his sidekick Toro, Miss America, and Whizzer. The squad only made two appearances, All Winners Comics #19 and #21, and didn’t spark a whole lot of interest upon initial release but found new fans when rereleased in the late ‘60s, serving as a precursor to the Avengers some years later.

As for the current time, nothing Timely did could generate more readers. Sub-Mariner and Human Torch were both canceled in 1949, with Captain America following suit in 1950, and just like that the Golden Age was over for Timely Comics.

In 1951, Goodman continued to

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publish comics in other genres, but began using the logo for his own newsstand-distribution brand, Atlas News Company, for his releases.

While competitors held onto their superhero properties, Atlas let them most of them go. Over the next ten years, Atlas Comics virtually ceased all superhero releases, with several failed revival attempts, opting instead for safer trends such as romance, Western, teen humor, and, most of all, horror along the lines of Entertaining Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.

After all, nobody loved to flood the market with what was trendy like Goodman. However, in the wake of public concern by parents and teachers of horror comics being the cause of juvenile delinquency, the Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed as an alternative to a government-instituted regulation.

The CCA banned all violence, gore, and sexuality. Submission for CCA approval was voluntary, but most shops and newsstands would refuse to carry anything without it. This led to an immediate decimation of the horror genre and yet another blow to the comic book industry, but luckily opened up a door for superheroes to eventually make their return. DC got the ball rolling right away. But for Atlas, however, the road getting there took a few more years.

Marvel Comics/Marvel Database/seeklogo

By 1957, the Silver Age of Comics had already begun, but Marvel hadn’t quiet arrived there yet.

Goodman, who had now ceased distribution through his own company, handed over distribution to Independent News, owned

by National Periodical Publications (also known as DC), in a move that would then restrict his distribution and, thus, potential sales.

The tides finally began to change in 1958 when Jack Kirby, who had split with partner Joe Simon, needed work and returned to Atlas Comics for a 12year span that would help re-popularize the comic book industry moving forward. Beginning with the first issue of the new sci-fi anthology series Strange Worlds, Kirby’s brand of unique and absurd artistry breathed new life into the genre which had become formulaic by that point. Atlas released several other anthology series at the time, including Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, and Amazing Adventures. It was around this time that Lee’s collaboration with legendary artist Steve Ditko was born. Although the comics that came out over the next couple of years would be released under the Atlas label, collectors still refer to this period as “Pre-Superhero Marvel.”

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eginning in 1961, the company began displaying “MC” on their covers with Journey into Mystery #69 and Patsy Walker #95. That same year Lee had the idea to introduce a new batch of superheroes that would appeal to older audiences rather than the predominantly child audience that cultivated in the wake of strict CCA guidelines. In November of 1961, Lee and Kirby’s creation, The Fantastic Four, made its debut, and with it a brand-new superteam that would go on to subvert the typical superhero conventions. Our four heroes consisted of Mister Fantastic, with the ability to stretch his body incredibly far, Invisible Woman,

self-explanatory, The Thing, a rocklike human who possessed super strength, and a new version of the Human Torch, a flying hero who could engulf himself in flames. Its titular characters argued, got angry, and embraced the celebrity status of their personas rather than hiding behind masks. Another important feature was that their stories were set in the real world.

It was there that the Marvel ethos was truly born, and established what separated them from the likes of DC—and really everyone else for that matter. Where DC’s characters were more mythological, idealistic exemplars of goodness and truth, Marvel’s were flawed and broken— even the villains were sympathetic at times. They grew and changed as people, holding onto that change from issue to issue, as opposed to the sitcom “reset” button that occurred in the serialized comics of their contemporaries. Marvel comics often dealt with more adult issues, and so therefore adult readers could relate. And so Marvel was able to

connect to readers without being sordid or violent. They found the authenticity and reality underneath the surface. If DC had defined what it meant to be a superhero, Marvel made it okay for them to be human. This era (from 1961 to 1978), known by fans as the “Marvel Age of Comics,” would produce most of Marvel’s most famous and longlasting characters, not only changing the landscape for the medium and the industry moving forward, but still informing the pop culture age we’re currently living in today.

The Fantastic Four was a surprise hit. Marvel started receiving fan mail, and with issue #3 the cover would read the slogan, “The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!!” changed the following issue to “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” which stuck around for decades. Lee had been planning on leaving the comic book industry for good prior to debuting his latest series, but the success of Fantastic Four convinced him to stay.

The series was decisive in determining the direction Marvel would then take with their heroes, and they would go on to influence an entirely new generation of creatives.

With Fantastic Four, Lee and Kirby would invent a type of storytelling that would expand long narratives over the course of months, rather than wrapping them up in several issues or less. Throughout the years, the series would also introduce other ideas and characters that would become Marvel mainstays.

The MCU may not have been the first to establish a shared universe in film, although it certainly put the idea on a whole new level, much like Marvel Comics began doing in 1961 with its new line of titles that would build a fictional world out of events from different properties and crossing over characters between series. Over the next couple of years, Marvel would set the wheels in motion for what would eventually culminate in their own superteam series, The Avengers, with the first issue released in September 1963.

1962 was a huge year for Marvel as they introduced a plethora of iconic properties. Hank Pym made his debut in the science fiction anthology comic Tales to Astonish #27 in January of that year, in a one-shot story about a scientist who shrinks himself down to the size of an ant. It sold well and Lee

thought it would be fun to make the character into a superhero named Ant-Man, officially debuting later that year as such. Popularity for Ant-Man as a solo series never really caught on, but the character would later become a founding member of the superteam the Avengers and a mainstay in the series.

The Incredible Hulk #1, which came out in May of 1962, follows Bruce Banner, a doctor who becomes exposed to gamma radiation which turns him into a large muscular creature. Lee originally wanted the character to be grey, but due to printing problems he ended up looking more green, a trait that stuck. However the series was canceled after only six issues, with

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Two years later with Fantastic Four Annual #2, we eventually uncover his backstory to becoming a super-villain.

With The Fantastic Four flying off the shelves, Marvel quickly wanted to find their next big hit. Lee had the idea to blend the superhero genre with the teen comics popular at the time. Supposedly inspired by a spider crawling on a wall, he had the idea for Spider-Man, a teenager named Peter Parker with superpowers that he gets from being bitten by a radioactive spider.

He pitched the idea to Goodman, who continuously rejected it, until finally agreeing to test the character out in issue #15 of the Amazing Fantasy anthology series in August 1962, since the series was going to be canceled anyway. Despite his steady collaboration with Kirby up until then, Lee disliked the artist’s proposed design for Spider-Man, and so he approached Ditko instead, who had the idea of covering the superhero’s face entirely. Lee loved

his vision for the character, and so they began a partnership that would last for the next several years.

Lo and behold, the comic was a success, and over the years this first issue has become Marvel’s most valuable release ever for collectors.

Spider-Man soon starred in his own solo series, The Amazing Spider-Man beginning in March of 1963, which would quickly go on to be a massive hit. The hero was representative

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the title character immediately guest-starring in issues of The Fantastic Four, and later, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers, where he would also become a founding member. It wasn’t long until Marvel realized that the character had found its audience retroactively, especially among college students. A year and a half later, the Hulk became a main feature in the anthology series Tales to Astonish.

Marvel’s Golden Age hero Namor the Sub-Mariner would also make his return in The Fantastic Four #4 as the superteam discovers him living as a homeless man in Manhattan and must help him restore his memory.

Once he does, he discovers that his underwater kingdom of Atlantis has been destroyed, thus turning him into a vengeful antihero once again. Over the years he would have short-lived allies with certain Marvel villains and make guest appearances in other series, much to the delight of fans. However, due to publication restrictions, Sub-Mariner wasn’t able to get his own solo revival until 1968.

The Fantastic Four #5 would be the first to feature the team’s most frequent adversary Doctor Doom, a wealthy genius inventor famous for his various doomsday machines.

of what teenagers were going through at the time, and unlike the stereotypical superheroes who would find respite in their “human” alter-egos, Peter Parker was a struggling teen who found comfort in his secret crime-fighting persona— being a teenager was the hard part.

Going along with the trend of most characters of the time, Marvel’s version of the mythological Thor would debut in yet another sci-fi anthology series desperately in need of a boost, Journey into Mystery, the same month as Spidey, in issue #83. Thor wasn’t the first comic book incarnation of the Norse god— heck, he wasn’t even the first to be designed by Kirby—but Lee felt that a modern spin on the mythology would be pretty interesting. Thor’s adversary and adopted brother Loki was introduced two issues later. Thor would also go on to be a founding member of the Avengers, and Journey into Mystery would be renamed Thor by 1966.

If 1962 was big, 1963 was even bigger. Marvel dropped the initials “MC” and began putting “Marvel” in the upper left-hand corner of each comic. The Marvel Age was well underway. Over the next five years, Lee and Kirby’s approach would take comic books beyond mere fad, and establish them as a permanent

media much like television or film had become. And despite down periods, we would eventually see that comics would always prevail.

That year saw the debut of one of Marvel’s most intriguing heroes, Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, created by Lee with artists Don Heck and Kirby. The idea was simple enough: a businessman superhero, a billionaire, a playboy—not dissimilar to Batman’s Bruce Wayne. But where Wayne was merely pretending to have vices, Stark would actually be

a highly flawed individual. Where Wayne had a definitive moral compass, Stark would be a selfserving hedonist. And as Wayne was highly trained even without his super suit, Stark was just a billionaire playboy, albeit with a magnetic chest plate as a heart regulator. However, it was Stark’s backstory that made him unique.

A weapons manufacturer for the US military who gets captured by enemy forces in Vietnam, Stark is now forced to make weapons for the other team. However, due to an injury from a booby trap, he has a piece of shrapnel lodged in his chest, moving towards his heart.

While imprisoned, he and fellow prisoner Ho Yinsen develop the magnetic plate that would become a permanent fixture in Stark’s body. In

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the meantime, both men also create a powered suit of armor, which serves as Stark’s means of escape.

The hero first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, featuring a bulky grey version of the super suit, which was soon redesigned by Ditko to the iconic red and yellow one we know him to have today. Iron Man was a huge success, most notably among female readers, receiving more fan mail from women than any other superhero Marvel had ever published. He became a main fixture in the Avengers series, where he was one of the founding members.

Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos came about from a bet Lee had with Goodman that he could make a comic book sell even if the title was bad. And so the series, revolving around an elite special unit of non-superheroes led by Nick Fury (sans eyepatch) that fights enemies in World War II, made its debut in May 1963 and lasted into the ‘80s. That year also saw the expansion of Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish to include Pym’s newfound superhero identity in the 12-foot-tall Giant-Man, as well as his socialite laboratory assistant girlfriend Janet van Dyne, who would become the Wasp, another founding member of the Avengers and the one responsible for dubbing them with the name.

July of that year Doctor Strange, created by Lee and Ditko, debuted in the anthology series Strange Tales in issue #110. The stories would revolve around magic and mysticism rather than scientific superpowers, which found an audience among the older college students. Prior to the psychedelia that would become more established later in the decade, the stories would take place in surrealistic settings and highly abstract realms. Doctor Strange was unlike any character that had been released up to that point.

With the success of The Fantastic

Four, Lee was tasked with creating yet another standalone superhero team. Since he didn’t want to come up with origins stories for each character, he decided to make it so that they’re all born with their powers: They’re mutants. He then figured it would only make sense that a world of mutants would need some sort of school where they could hone their abilities. And in September of 1963, X-Men #1 was released. In a world where people can be born with superhuman skills, the spectrum of goodness would vary depending on the individual’s

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moral code and upbringing. Marvel was the perfect brand for the job.

Although it quickly grew with each issue, the original roster included Angel (different from Marvel’s hero from 1939), gifted with super strong wings that enable him to fly, Beast, a hairy, blue, ape-like human with high intelligence, Cyclops, who can emit powerful red beams from his eyes, Iceman, who can control ice and freeze objects at will, Marvel Girl (later Phoenix), gifted with telekinesis, and Professor Xavier, who is, of course, their wheelchair-bound teacher and a mutant himself. Their villains, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led

by Magneto, are mutants just like them, but see non-mutants as the true enemy. The series touched upon themes of prejudice and racism as it pertained to mutants. Issue #4 saw the debut of two reluctant

adversaries, twin mutants Scarlet Witch, an ostensible sorceress with the ability to alter reality, and super-speedster Quicksilver. They would both eventually become superheroes and members of the Avengers. Despite a core fanbase, audiences failed to catch on and X-Men eventually ceased production after only 66 issues. It wasn’t until later revivals that the series grew in popularity. And boy did they.

September 1963 would also see the debut of The Avengers #1, which featured Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, AntMan, and the Wasp, but the roster would continue to change, often issue to issue. It was also around this time that Marvel decided to revive the character of Captain America, but first they decided to test him out in an 18-page Human Torch story from Strange Tales #114. By

the end of the story, it’s revealed that this particular Captain America is really just an impostor, and explained in the final panel that this issue is merely a test run to see how well fans would respond to the superhero’s return. They responded well and the real Captain America was officially reintroduced in The Avengers #4, released March 1964, with a storyline surrounding his body being preserved in a frozen block of ice.

Debuting in April 1964 was another character who would eventually find even bigger popularity in the decades that followed. Created by Lee, Kirby, and Bill Everett, Daredevil first appeared in his own Daredevil #1, an issue that not only introduced the character but served as an origins story as well. Matt Murdock becomes the titular hero after saving a blind man from an oncoming truck, thus becoming blind himself by the very radioactive substance that gives him his powers, heightening the rest of his senses. Over the years, Daredevil has had quite the following—almost cult-like—but it wasn’t until writer-artist Frank Miller’s debut on the series 15 years later that not only elevated Daredevil’s popularity but also gave rise to one of the most important and

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Nick Fury stories, eventually taking over full writing responsibilities.

Steranko became a highly influential figure in the world of comics with his work on the series, innovating ideas of photocollages and panel-less drawings, much similar to concert posters from that era, turning the Nick Fury feature into one of the most groundbreaking titles of that period, influential even to this day.

Marvel Comics/Marvel Database

influential creative figures in comic book history.

That same month, Black Widow, born Natasha Romanova, would make her own debut in the “Iron Man” feature from Tales of Suspense #52 as an antagonist who’s highly skilled in martial arts. The Russian spy would soon recruit expert archer and reluctant criminal Hawkeye as an ally five issues later. Eventually both would become heroes and join the Avengers. Black Widow would go on to star in her own 8-story series as part of the anthology comic Amazing Adventures beginning in 1970 and co-star in Daredevil for several years that same decade. Hawkeye would later star in Solo Avengers (later Avengers Spotlight) alongside a rotating cast of co-stars from 1987 to 1991.

1965 saw the debut of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a re-imagining of Nick Fury, now as its director and with his signature eyepatch, in a 12-page feature in Strange Tales #135.

Certain characters from the Howling Commandos also made their return as agents of the secret organization, which featured Tony Stark as head of the Special Weaponry division.

By Strange Tales #151, writer-artist Jim Steranko began his work on the

By this point, Lee, Kirby, and Ditko would have already developed what would be known as the “Marvel Method” of collaboration. Due to Kirby and Ditko’s evocative artistry and knack for story, and Lee’s busy schedule, Marvel devised a new system during this time, where the artist would work from the writer’s story synopsis or plot, rather than a full script. The writer would then fill in the dialogue later on. This method became widespread in the comic book industry and would give the artists greater freedom for visualization when structuring a panel, especially with talented pencillers like Kirby and Ditko. In the decades that followed, many series were written and drawn by the same person, who would have full creative control, much like Steranko in the ‘60s with Nick Fury.

Around this time the Fantastic Four series began another small wave of introducing new characters and species that would contribute to the expansive lore of the Marvel Universe. Issue #45 (December 1965) debuted the mysterious prehistoric earthlings, the Inhumans, with the alien race of the Kree following in issue #65, establishing a long-time rival with the Skrulls, another alien race, who had first been introduced way back in issue #2.

A major addition to the Marvel Universe that came from the Marvel Method was the Silver Surfer, who Kirby added on his own, even though the character hadn’t been discussed in the plot outline by Lee. Instead, the artist included a small detail of a silver man on a surfboard, who they would eventually develop into an important role for their story.

In March of 1966, Silver Surfer would get introduced and play an integral part in Fantastic Four #48 through 50, which would become known by fans as “The Galactus Trilogy.” It featured the antagonist Galactus, a god-like cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his own existence, created as a breakaway from the traditional super-villain conventions with a mystique that transcends archetypes of good and evil in comics—a deity that feeds off of humans’ energy in order to survive.

Alongside Galactus was his herald, the Silver Surfer, an alien humanoid with silver skin and a surfboard—a decision that came about simply because Kirby was tired of drawing spaceships—that he uses to travel throughout the universe at hyper speed, who would eventually save humanity. It was a storyline unlike anything we had seen in any medium at that time. Over the years the Galactus Trilogy has been viewed as one of Marvel’s crowning achievements of the Silver Age. The Silver Surfer instantly became a favorite of fans and even Lee

himself, who asked other writers at the time not to include the hero in their stories.

Two issues later Fantastic Four #52 debuted yet another character in the team’s eventual-ally, Black Panther, the first mainstream Black superhero with actual superpowers.

Black Panther is T’Challa, the king of the highly-advanced African nation of Wakanda, who possesses powers given to him through the mystical herbs found on Wakanda as well as his suit, which is made of the elusive mineral vibranium, unique only to his country. Beginning in 1968, Black Panther left Wakanda to join the Avengers in the US, starting with The Avengers #52.

By now Marvel couldn’t be stopped. In 1966 their sales finally passed those of DC for the first time ever, and would become the highestselling publisher every year since.

Their rival publisher was struggling to keep up with their own comics and was even trying to copy Marvel’s unique style. But at this point, the reach of comics was starting to transcend the medium itself for the first time in any substantial way.

DC had just launched their own live-action Batman series, which was extraordinarily popular, but Marvel’s stories had much more breadth, so animation served them better. Grantray-Lawrence Animation produced the very first television show based on a Marvel property with The Marvel Super Heroes, which consisted of 195 short anthology segments, each starring one of five Marvel stars: Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, or Sub-Mariner, one for every weekday. The series lasted only a few months, but would give a broader exposure to non-comic book readers and be foretelling of what was to come in the decades ahead.

Marvel would try TV again a year later. Hanna-Barbera produced a short-lived Fantastic Four animated series for their ABC Saturday morning block in 1967 that would only last for 20 episodes with mixed review. The episodes, aimed at younger audiences, failed to capture the sprawling scope of the comic books and didn’t gel with the extremely limited animation that Hanna-Barbera was known for. That same year, ABC aired the SpiderMan animated series, which was much more successful and lasted until 1970. The show featured the now-iconic theme song and has earned cult-status over the years for its low budget and oft-awkward animation.

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Finally in 1968, Marvel Comics was no longer under DC’s distribution, which allowed them to release more comics on a much quicker timeline, doubling their titles during a short period now known as the “Marvel Explosion.” The three anthology series that Marvel was currently running, which had now become “split books” (two different superhero stories in one), each shot off into two separate titles—six in total. Strange Tales was renamed Doctor Strange, with his former book-mate Nick Fury getting his own series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Steranko at the creative helm for the first few issues. Tales of Suspense became Captain America, with Iron Man now getting his own long-lasting solo series (both titles ran until 1996). And finally The Incredible Hulk took over Tales to Astonish completely, becoming his second solo series (this time lasting until 1999), with Sub-Mariner— Marvel’s oldest superhero—starring in his own series a month later for

the first time since the mid-‘50s.

This all happened in 1968.

That year Silver Surfer also saw his first solo series debut, which, while short-lived (18 issues), is considered one of Lee’s most thoughtful and introspective works ever. Among the more notable 1968 debuts is Captain

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Marvel. The trademark on Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel name had run out, and so Marvel Comics quickly trademarked it themselves, giving their own version of the character his own title that year as well. The series flopped despite several attempts at revamping it over the next decade, at times just to keep the trademark active, which forced DC, who had bought the rights to the actual Fawcett character—not the series’ title—to use the name Shazam! instead.

Future editor-in-chief Roy Thomas

was a huge fan of Golden Age Marvel and wanted to create a character inspired by the ones from the ‘40s. He had been a writer on the Avengers series and wanted his new hero to be modeled after the original Vision from back in the day.

As Lee didn’t want the character to be an alien, Thomas had the idea to make him a highly intelligent robot capable of emotion. The new Vision, a creation of the recently debuted villain Ultron (Avengers #54), would debut in Avengers #57 in August 1968 as a weapon to destroy the Avengers. However, Vision immediately turns on his creator and joins the Avengers himself. Later issues would involve a romance between Vision and Scarlet Witch, as well as cement Vision’s connection to the Golden Age, as it’s revealed that he was built from the body of the original android Human Torch.

1969 saw the first appearance of Falcon in Captain America #117, the first Black superhero to star in a mainstream comic series. The Harlem native soon partnered up with Captain America, and starting with #134 the series was retitled Captain America and the Falcon for almost every issue until 1978. Falcon joined the Avengers on and off until eventually becoming a prominent member years later, and even took on the role of Captain America in 2014 in the series All-New Captain America.

Also in 1969, the intergalactic team, Guardians of the Galaxy, created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 with the initial roster combining both genetically engineered humans and alien species, featuring Captain Charlie-27, Martinex T’Naga, Vance Astro, and Yondu Udonta. The history of the Guardians is a bit messy. Despite a popular debut, the team wouldn’t make another appearance for five years. And then in 1976, Guardians of the Galaxy were given their own series with Marvel Presents, which had the heroes leaving Earth to fight their battles in space. However, the concept didn’t catch on with readers and it only lasted 10 issues in total. Guardians of the Galaxy got tossed around a lot throughout the rest of the ‘70s, becoming completely absent in the ‘80s.

We wouldn’t see the likes of StarLord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket until 2008 when a new team was created from the foundation laid by the Annihilation: Conquest crossover.

As the 1960s came to a close, Marvel’s output was higher than ever, even though its sales were not.

Needless to say, double the comics meant double the scripts and art.

Due to the faster production, things such as continuity suffered, and issues felt less like big events than they did routine. Historians would later attribute this very factor as the catalyst for Marvel’s decline in the next decade.

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hroughout the ‘70s, Marvel churned out much fewer new characters, relying more on new releases from older iconic properties. By this time, a lot was changing in the comic book world, especially at Marvel. In 1970, Kirby left the company acrimoniously to join the rival DC, his final issue being Fantastic Four #102. Ditko had already left in 1967. Lee debuted his final character for a decade with 1969’s Prowler, and in 1972 he would stop writing for the comic books altogether to take over the publisher role after Goodman’s departure.

His last issues were The Amazing

Spider-Man #110 and Fantastic Four #125. With three dominant forces virtually out of the creative process, the productivity was spread among a larger cast of writers and artists, and thus the aesthetic was much less congruous, although there was arguably more variety.

The demarcation of when the Silver Age ended and the Bronze Age began is largely debated, but some historians mark Kirby’s departure as a definite turning point. The Silver Age is arguably the most important era in comic book history, not by launching a new set of tropes and archetypes, per se, but through sheer innovation in character and storytelling, honing the medium into something that can be looked at beyond cheesy entertainment—it was highly-creative art. And it was all

thanks to the rise of Marvel.

Before he stopped physically making comic books indefinitely, Lee would write one of his most important arcs yet. In 1971, the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare commissioned Marvel to write a comic book story about the dangers of drugs. And so Lee came out with The Amazing Spider-Man #96 through 98, which details one of Peter Parker’s friends who develops an addiction. The CCA refused to give their stamp of approval, despite the anti-drug stance. While most of the time this verdict would lead to rewrites, Lee refused and Marvel released the three issues anyway.

The books sold very well, and Lee’s bold move ultimately led to the CCA reforming its guidelines to include negative depictions of drugs. That year the Code also loosened its grip on more supernatural horror elements found in classic literature, such as vampires, werewolves, and ghouls. This would start another new trend of “monster heroes.”

The ‘70s saw a lessened focus on superhero titles, experimenting with a variety of other genres in the process. DC had canceled almost

Marvel Comics/Marvel Database/Amazon/Chasing Amazing

all of its superheroes with the exception of Superman and Batman, and Marvel canceled several of their less popular series as well, including Doctor Strange (1969), The X-Men (1970), The Silver Surfer (1970), Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1971), Sub-Mariner (1974), and Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (only reprints starting in 1974)—as opposed to the ‘60s, where only one superhero comic was canceled: The Incredible Hulk.

This era would, however, see the creation of some characters who would go on to earn large cult followings. In September 1970, Avengers #80 featured Marvel’s very first Native American hero in Red Wolf, a title first given to William Talltrees, and then Johnny Wakely for his own nine-issue solo series starting in 1972, which is set in the Old West.

Lee and Thomas also noticed a number of letters to the editor requesting that they purchase the rights to some of the old pulp magazine properties. And so they did, most notably Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian—now with his first appearance in comic book form.

Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, who wrote the series, remained faithful to the original and thus sparked a new interest in the swordcarrying warrior, igniting a trend of comic book adaptations for several of Howard’s other characters like Red Sonya (renamed Red Sonja), King Kull (by DC), and Solomon Kane, as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan

(by DC) and John Carter. Conan’s success lasted into the ‘80s, leading to a pair of films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, both co-written by Thomas himself.

In 1971, Marvel began a new magazine imprint, Curtis Magazines (later Marvel Magazine Group), which would publish black-and-white adult-oriented titles that would not fall under the purview of the CCA. Among its most notable was the more graphic Conan series, 1974’s Savage Sword of Conan, which became one of Marvel’s most indemand titles of the decade, and permitted more violence under the magazine pretense than it could as a comic book.

Following the updated CCA guidelines of 1971, Marvel wouldn’t revert back to the horror offerings that were popular in the ‘50s, but would instead introduce new

superheroes—monster heroes— that would display only tinges (and sometimes more) of the genre.

Thomas conceived a new character that would fit right into this mold.

In the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man not to be written by Lee, Thomas and penciller Gil Kane debuted Morbius, who develops vampire-like abilities after trying to find a cure for his fatal blood disease.

The character was given a sympathyfilled two-issue arc as an adversary for Spidey, and later starred in Vampire Tales for Curtis Magazines, written by Don McGregor, which lasted 11 issues. In 1992, Morbius was revived again for Morbius, the Living Vampire, which would go on to run for three years.

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female readership and released a trio of new titles, each with female writers and/or artists behind them: Jean Thomas and Win Mortimer’s Night Nurse (1972-1973), following three nurses who help injured superheroes, Carole Seuling and George Tuska’s Shanna the She-Devil (1972-1973), starring an Olympictrained jungle adventurer in Africa, and Roy Thomas and Wally Wood’s The Claws of the Cat (1972-1973), with several different female artists and writers assigned to the fourissue series which starred the Cat,

a crime fighter who acquires catlike superpowers, later revamped as Tigra, making appearances throughout the next several years in Avengers comics and getting her own solo miniseries in 2002.

There was, however, one particular female heroine who caught on in a big way. Inspired by another of Howard’s pulp characters, Red Sonja was an entirely new take on the writer’s swashbuckling warrior woman. Marvel’s version, again created by Thomas and WindsorSmith, was featured in the same

Marvel Comics/Marvel Database/Amazon

In 1972, Marvel’s latest try-out title, Marvel Spotlight, debuted another new monster hero, created

by Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Mike Ploog: Ghost Rider (no connection to Marvel’s 1967 Western comic), a vengeance-filled, motorcycle-riding superhero with a flaming skull. The seven-issue run was a success and the character eventually got his own series in 1973 which lasted ten years.

Ghost Rider was one of a slew of less sci-fi-based horror titles as a result of the revamped CCA rules, including 1972’s The Tomb of Dracula and 1974’s Man-Thing.

Besides capitalizing on the new gates opened for monster heroes, Marvel also focused the next few years on diversifying its content.

Born out of the popularity of the blaxploitation genre came Luke Cage, not only the first Black superhero to be the title character of a comic series, but one of the rare characters to debut in his own solo series as well. Created by a team consisting of Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Roy Thomas, and John Romita Sr., Luke Cage, Hero for Hire debuted in June 1972. Set in New York, Cage, a wrongfullyconvicted prisoner, acquires superhuman strength during an experimental procedure and, once freed, becomes a contract hero later known as Power Man. Due to the waning popularity of blaxploitation by the late ‘70s, Luke Cage was partnered with martial arts hero Iron Fist from 1978 until the series’ cancellation in 1986.

Around this time Lee had the idea to try, once again, to gain a larger

universe as Conan, debuting in Conan the Barbarian #23 (1973). Red Sonja eventually got her own solo story in 1975, with her popularity leading to a 1985 movie of the same name.

In 1973, Marvel proofreader Don McGregor proposed, in a meeting about reprinting Atlas Comics’ old Jungle Action title, that the stories set in Africa should actually feature Black characters rather than only White ones. He was then put in charge of expanding the series to new issues, which would star Black Panther. And so the superhero was given his first solo comic. With his new task, McGregor also pioneered the idea of a self-contained story over multiple issues, starting with his “Panther’s Rage” arc in issues #6 through 18, which would later be considered by critics as Marvel’s prototype for graphic novels.

After failed attempts to adapt the TV show Kung Fu into comic book form, Marvel acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer’s pulp magazine character Dr. Fu Manchu and developed their own character who would exist in the same universe. He was named Shang-Chi and debuted in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973, with the title eventually changing to The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu by issue #17. While not explicitly having any superpowers, Shang-Chi is proficient in an array of wushu styles and has even defeats several superpowered villains. Because of Bruce

Lee, martial arts were very popular in America starting in the ‘70s, which helped the series run for #125 issues until 1983.

Another character born from the kung fu craze was Iron Fist. Inspired by the Hong Kong martial arts film King Boxer (1972), Thomas gave the character his first feature in the tryout series Marvel Premiere issue #15 (1974) with an 11-issue arc until eventually giving him his own series, which ran for 15 issues from 1975 to 1977. After cancellation, Iron Fist teamed up with Luke Cage in a title that would eventually become renamed Power Man and Iron Fist.

One of the more unexpected characters to find popularity from the new wave of horrorinspired comics was Blade, a vampire hunter who’s immune to vampire bites due to his unique blood composition. The character was first featured in The Tomb of Dracula #10 and became a regular starting in 1973, his popularity eclipsing that of the more prominent supporting characters. During

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Age hadn’t yet expired, there’s one moment in particular that would be the nail in its coffin. As though comics during this time weren’t already getting darker in the realm of the stories themselves, there would be nothing to cement that fact more than the events that took place in a 1973 arc of The Amazing SpiderMan (#121 and 122). Peter Parker’s longtime girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, gets murdered by the Green Goblin in a storyline that perfectly symbolized, if not propelled, the grimness that permeated that era of comics, where anything goes and no character is untouchable.

If this wasn’t the beginning of the Bronze Age for the industry as a whole, it was definitely so for Marvel.

It proved that the publisher, once

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those years, Blade seemed to be a perennial featured character in several of Marvel’s monster hero series, including Ghost Rider, Morbius, and Nightstalkers, in which he starred, seeing a peak in the ‘90s with several solo series and miniseries.

Marvel then diversified in an… unusual way. That year also saw the debut of one of their more peculiar heroes, Howard the Duck, a mordant, non-superpowered, cigar-smoking, anthropomorphic waterfowl who bares a close resemblance to Disney’s Donald Duck and is skilled in the martial art of Quak-Fu. Howard the Duck, created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik, was first featured in Adventure into Fear #19 in December 1973, and was supposed to merely be a throwaway parody of the “funny animal” comics that riddled the ‘50s. However, fans took a liking to the character and he eventually got his own title in 1976, which lasted 31 issues, until being revived again in the ‘80s to coincide with 1986’s notorious Howard the Duck movie.

The demarcation of the Bronze Age has been something that’s often been disputed among fans and historians, but if the Silver

again, wasn’t afraid to take risks.

They did so in 1961 by subverting conventions in The Fantastic Four, and here they did so again over a decade later, ushering in a new mindset for what was possible in comics. The medium was no longer a safe escape. Bad things really could happen, irreversibly, bringing closer the bond between the page and reality—another foretelling of what would be to come in the decades that followed.

In a moment of irony, PBS aired Spidey Super Stories, a 5-minute segment during The Electric Company television program, starting the very next year, featuring an actor in a Spider-Man costume who speaks in word balloons. It aired until 1974 and was the first live-action appearance of any Marvel

entity since the Captain America serial 30 years earlier.

That year Marvel debuted one of their first true antiheroes when Gerry Conway took inspiration from the popular book series The Executioner by Don Pendleton, about a vengeful serial killer of criminals.

He approached Lee with the idea of a character named “Assassin.” Lee thought the name had too much negativity, and then recalled an older throwaway character he’d created years ago named “Punisher” and proposed that name instead. The name stuck and Conway drew up a concept design for his new character, with a small image of a skull on the breast of his shirt. Romita took the rough drawing and enlarged the skull to take up most of Punisher’s torso.

First featured in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, Punisher, an exMarine vigilante who’s proficient in numerous forms of martial arts, was initially an antagonist for Spider-Man, but would team up with him in later appearances. Punisher has enjoyed quite the following throughout the years and helped popularize a wave of dark, vengeful antiheroes. It would take twelve years before he would finally get his own miniseries, with various solo titles and independent films released over the next few decades.

Then came what would end up being Marvel’s most popular antihero ever, and one of the most iconic heroes overall. Sometime in 1974, Roy Thomas gave writer Len Wein the task of coming up with a character named “Wolverine.” He had two stipulations: that he have the fierce temper of a wolverine animal and that he be from Canada.

Romita came up with the design for the new character, who would have retractable claws and be a superhuman agent for the Canadian government. Wolverine debuted that year as a cameo in The Incredible Hulk #180, with a full appearance in the following issue. After his arc in Hulk, Wolverine would become recruited to the X-Men in Giant-

Size X-Men #1 (1975), which also contained the first new appearance of the superteam in five years, becoming the transitional issue for their revamp.

X-Men #94, released a few months later, would feature the “All-New, All-Different X-Men,” which included Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus, among others. New writer Chris Claremont took over the series by the second issue and, together with artist Dave Cockrum, transformed the backseat franchise into the industry’s top seller by the start of the ‘80s. Claremont gave the series a strong voice and vision, and X-Men suddenly felt like its own universe within the Marvel Universe. A couple of Claremont’s most notable contributions were expanding the team to members outside of the US and transforming Marvel Girl/Jean Grey into Phoenix with “The Dark Phoenix Saga” (with artist John Byrne), which ultimately spanned four years, giving the mutant virtually limitless powers and a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde dichotomy that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Now the X-Men have to band together to stop one of their own. The story ends with Jean committing suicide to stop herself from becoming the Dark Phoenix once again in an arc that rivaled Lee and Kirby’s “Galactus Trilogy” in both invention and daringness. Claremont

would stay on board for 16 years and his newly-rebranded X-Men would quickly become a flagship for Marvel, along with The Amazing Spider-Man, over the next two decades.

There was, however, a certain clawed individual who wasn’t happy.

Wolverine continued to become overshadowed by his fellow stars, and Claremont was on the verge of writing the character out of the series altogether. However, artist John Byrne, who had just taken over on the project for Cockrum in 1977, was a fan of Wolverine and was determined for him to stay.

The fellow Canadian Byrne gave the

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saga that spanned across three different series, all of which got canceled rather quickly without Kirby’s envisioned story getting completed. Fans saw The Eternals as being thematically similar to the “Fourth World” titles, and it too got canceled after only a year and a half. While the plotline was concluded in a 1980 issue of Thor, the Eternals themselves would only make sporadic appearances over the years.

In a gesture of goodwill, 1976 saw the first intercompany superhero crossover between Marvel

and DC with Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century. In the non-canonical story, both heroes must work together to save the planet from the collaborative domination efforts of their respective nemeses, Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus. To make matters even more perplexing, New York City and Metropolis also coexist with absolutely no explanation for why the two characters had never met prior to this scenario. The two companies would eventually crossover heroes several more times, each met with the same amount of bewilderment from most fans.

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character his new look, modeled after actor Paul D’Amato from the film Slap Shot. In 1979, he created the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight in order to expand on Wolverine’s complicated backstory.

The character quickly became a fan favorite and got his own four-part miniseries in 1982, along with a long-running solo series that began in 1988.

And wouldn’t you know it, over the years, Wolverine has become one of the most beloved comic book characters of all time.

Despite being able to capitalize on old favorites and find new followings with a few of their recent characters, the state of the comic book world, and Marvel, was in dire straits.

The revitalization of the film industry during the ‘70s saw less interest in comic books yet again.

Issue prices seemed to be increasing each year to make up for tighter margins. Waiting for directto-consumer trends to catch on, the newsstand distribution network saw a decline as retailers made more money selling the pricier and more popular magazines than comic books, and suddenly the industry was on the verge of disappearing.

In 1975, Marvel held its very first comic convention, Marvelcon, where Lee announced the return of Jack Kirby to the company, much to the surprise of the audience.

Kirby’s first creation upon his arrival was 1976’s The Eternals. While at DC, the artist created a line of related titles collectively called “Jack Kirby’s Fourth World,” an ambitious space

With the company ripe for something new to shake things up, some big strides were made in 1977 as Marvel began looking beyond the comic book page into other mediums. Lee and Romita brought The Amazing SpiderMan to newspapers as a daily comic strip, which still runs today, followed by Conan the Barbarian, Howard the Duck, and The Incredible Hulk, which do not.

In the world of DC, the Wonder Woman TV series had become highly successful, and the technology was moving forward in a way that could more “realistically” bring these comic book concepts to life. The 1977 TV movie Spider-Man would be CBS’s highest rated production of the year and serve as the pilot to a live-action TV series that would air a few months later. CBS quickly duplicated the formula with The Incredible Hulk TV movie that same year and

its subsequent series, the latter of which would become hugely popular around the world and last 5 seasons, plus several TV movies, and turn star Lou Ferrigno into a household name.

While Spidey’s series lasted only a year, and Marvel found even less success with their failed 93-minute live-action Dr. Strange pilot, a pair of made-for-TV Captain America movies (also live-action), and yet another Fantastic Four cartoon that lasted only 13 episodes and replaced the Human Torch with a robot named Herbie, Hulk was a character whose powers could plausibly be limited for the television medium’s capabilities at that time. The success of the series, an entire year before the iconic and groundbreaking Superman movie, showed audiences that superheroes could be adapted in a way that could retain their essence while also making sense in a realworld setting.

Towards the end of the decade, Marvel began publishing comic books based on movie properties, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. But there was one in particular that helped turn Marvel Comics back around. Based on his work on the Conan the Barbarian comics, Roy Thomas was approached

by Lucasfilm to write a series based on an upcoming movie called Star Wars.

When Lee heard that Alec Guinness was going to star in the project, he gave the green light. Since movie tie-ins at the time weren’t a lucrative business, Marvel wasn’t expecting much. However, the series, debuting a month before the film in 1977, did so well (and so did the film itself, by the way) that it gave the company the extra money it needed during a time when the industry as a whole was struggling. According to future editorin-chief Jim Shooter, they would have gone bankrupt if it had not been for the Star Wars deal.

The series lasted 107 issues initially, with three annuals. And for two years straight, Star Wars was among the highest-selling titles in the entire industry.

By 1978, Jim Shooter took over as editor-in-chief, succeeding Archie Goodwin, a promotion that would soon start Marvel on the upward trend again. While known by some as a dictator around the office, Shooter’s hard-nosed approach was necessary to correct a lot of the bad habits that had cultivated in recent years, such as missed deadlines and the occasional complacency on the creative end.

The tides were changing yet again.

Kirby had created his final comic for

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industry that had never been seen before. He had the innovative idea of, rather than drawing heroes in tights, putting them in trench coats and classic cars. Early on he had a vision for creating crime comics that starred superheroes. By 1981, Daredevil was about to be canceled, until editor Denny O’Neil thought it would be smart to hand over the series to Miller entirely as both writer and penciller. From there, Miller revived Daredevil and sales began to skyrocket.

Also influenced by Japanese comics and culture, Miller debuted the ninja mercenary Elektra in 1981 for Daredevil #168, a character who would become the hero’s love interest and counterpoint. Miller introduced the martial arts aspect into the series and imbued it with much darker themes, focusing on expanding backstories, and quickly Daredevil became one of Marvel’s most popular titles. Elektra also popularized, if not spearheaded, the trope that is the blurry line between romantic interest and villain. Soon after, Miller’s work as co-writer (with Claremont) of the 1982 Wolverine mini-series confirmed the writer as an undisputable force in the industry, and a figure that would go on to change the aesthetic and tone of comics—and even their cinematic counterparts—over the next couple of decades with his work on various graphic novels.

By this point, X-Men was must-

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Marvel, a 1978 collaboration with Lee entitled The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, considered to be Marvel’s first true graphic novel, before leaving to pursue animation elsewhere. This time he never returned. In 1981 Lee had now moved to California, still with Marvel, to develop several TV and film projects as Vice President of Creative Affairs for the brand new animation studio, Marvel Productions Ltd., which, aside from a trio of short-lived Marvel cartoons (two Spider-Man and one Incredible Hulk), would eventually produce Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies, The Transformers, and Jem and the Holograms, among others.

That same year, Shooter gave X-Men heroine Dazzler, a discosinging mutant, her own series which would be the first specialty store exclusive. He eventually wrote a spec script for a live-action film that was set to star Bo Derek, but that never panned out.

The 1980s saw a rise in nostalgia for early Silver Age comics, and many of those who had grown up with them would now become involved on the creative side of the industry. Along with Claremont, another prodigy that came out of comic book fandom was a young artist named Frank Miller. It was Shooter who first hired on Miller and handed him over the penciling duties for the Daredevil series following Gene Colan’s departure. The artist brought a totally new style to the

read entertainment. Claremont and Byrne followed the ending of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” with another arc that was perhaps just as groundbreaking. The Uncanny X-Men (following a name change in 1978) #141 and 142 featured a two-part story called “Days of Future Past,” in which the team goes back in time to prevent a political assassination that would bring about a dystopian future. The events in those issues have since been revisited multiple times throughout the years. During their tenure together, Claremont and Byrne had a somewhat rocky relationship, yet still managed to not only save the X-Men but help save the comic book industry as a whole.

Following issue #143 in 1981, Byrne

left the series to work on Fantastic Four for a successful six-year run.

Prior to 1982, writers and artists across the industry were paid per page. However, Shooter initiated a new way for creators to earn royalties after a certain sales level was reached, as well as a piece of the pie for merchandise. He started the Epic Comics imprint, which would consist of creatorowned material. That year he also spearheaded Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, which would be the company’s first limited series and introduced the idea of a multititle crossover. This was followed by 1984’s 12-issue crossover series

Secret Wars, which was created as a backdoor launch for the new Mattel toy line.

Secret Wars is also the first appearance of Spider-Man’s ostensibly new black costume, which turns out to be a symbiote that eventually becomes Venom after bonding with journalist Eddie Brock, his first host and Spider-Man’s new villain.

In 1986, Universal Pictures optioned the film rights to Marvel’s Howard the Duck comics to be executive produced by none other than George Lucas. Lucas had wanted to make the film for some time, partnering up with his American Graffiti screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. It would be Marvel’s first feature film adaptation for one of their comics since the 1944 Captain America serial. Howard the Duck was a legendary disaster. The filmmakers took an entirely different direction with the property and the character.

Rather than making the film a witty and mordant comedy, it was dumbed down from its satirical angle and broadened for a wider

audience. Luckily, this would not be the last attempt at a Marvel film adaptation.

As for the comics, most of the rest of the Marvel fare of the era was charming and inspired, even if not as memorable as some of the heavyhitters: She-Hulk, Lee’s first created character since 1969’s Prowler, debuted in The Savage She-Hulk in 1980. A lawyer, Jennifer Walters, gets her powers from her cousin Bruce Banner, albeit a milder version.

Unlike Banner’s Hulk, who becomes an enraged maniac traditionally lacking in reason, Walters’ She-Hulk still retains her personality. SheHulk would temporarily replace the Thing in Fantastic Four in 1984 (also a result of the Secret Wars), while he got his own solo series for 22 issues. Her later solo series in 1989,

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of deliberate DC knock-offs who decide, in an alternate universe, that they would be the best suited individuals to rule Earth. Marvel’s foray into graphic novels by this point earned the writers and artists a sophistication from the public, as well as an outlet to create more involved and finite arcs if they so desired.

Throughout this era as well, Marvel mainstays continued to either evolve or keep hold. Fantastic Four was revitalized and given a second golden age thanks to Byrne (beginning in 1981 as writer and artist); The Incredible Hulk, with a string of creatives that included, in succession, Bill Mantlo (1980-1985), John Byrne (six issues), Al Milgrom (1986-1987), and Peter David (19871998), despite struggling at times,

became a sort of gonzo series frequently taken into fascinating and interesting new directions, even temporarily bringing back Grey Hulk for some time; Iron Man introduced several new characters, including his girlfriend Bethany Cabe and best friend Rhodey, who would later take up the Iron Man mantle, eventually becoming War Machine, and Tony Stark was given alcoholism; Thor, with Walt Simonson taking over writing and penciling duties in 1983 (until 1987), was as sturdy and reliable as ever. And through it all, Marvel continued to endure and would make it through yet another era.

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mostly written and drawn by Byrne, features a more satirical tone with the superhero self-aware that she’s a comic book character, even breaking the fourth wall to talk to the writer.

The New Mutants, debuting in their own graphic novel in 1982

by Claremont and Bob McLeod, and followed by the titular comic series in 1983, was the very first (of many) spin-off of X-Men, following a group of teenaged students at Professor Xavier’s school as they learn about their new powers. The series focuses on the interpersonal relationships of the characters just as much as it does the villains they fight. The first run lasted until 1991.

Power Pack, Marvel’s first team of pre-teen superheroes, debuted with their own 1984 series, created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman, starring four child siblings with superpowers. Aside from the usual bout with super-villains and evil aliens, Power Pack also covers more austere topics such as child abuse, bullying, and homelessness.

Squadron Supreme, a superteam first featured back in Avengers #85 in 1971, finally got a 12-part limited solo series by Mark Gruenwald in 1985. The story follows a group

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to those nostalgic collectors more so than kids—which created more room for new comics, and thus more and more independent publishers started popping up as there was now more space to sell their content.

Just as comic book sales were booming at the tail end of the ‘80s, Marvel Comics’ parent company, Marvel Entertainment Group, which was owned by New World Entertainment at the time, was soon bought by the Andrews Group under the control of corporate investor Ronald Perelman in a sale that would prove to be ominous. In 1991, Perelman went public with Marvel on the New York Stock Exchange.

The late ‘80s saw an increased awareness of comic books as collectors’ items. Certain classic

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f the time stamp on the Bronze Age is debatable, then the one for the subsequent Modern Age is even murkier. However, unlike the Silver and Bronze Ages, the Modern Age is marked by several key factors outside of just the stories themselves, with many of these elements taking place during this era, rather than at the beginning.

In 1987 Jim Shooter was fired as editor-in-chief, a role that was then given to Tom DeFalco. In the nine years of Shooter’s reign, he managed to turn the company—and the industry—around. He aggressively pursued the rapidly growing directto-consumer market, which had grown from 6% of Marvel’s total sales in 1979 to 70% in 1987. The accessibility and affordability of selling comics saw a boom of the mom-and-pop shops—now catering

comics, such as character debuts or first issues were selling for thousands of dollars regularly.

Collectors and even outsiders were swooping up boxes of old books and several copies of new ones—one to read and several to sell later. Every time a new series came out, there came the potential of it being worth money in the future. Suddenly comic books were an investment. By the ‘90s, the publishers were capitalizing on the trend as well during a period known as “The Spectacular Bubble.”

The prevalence of variant covers rose quickly and Marvel even released its own trading card line, Marvel Universe Cards.

Around this time, Marvel also started giving showcase titles to upand-coming creatives:

A fourth Spider-Man series was launched, simply titled Spider-Man (1990), to highlight its new star Todd McFarlane as writer, penciller, and inker. With this new title, Marvel had a new Spider-Man comic coming out each week.

That same year, DeFalco wanted to revive Guardians of the Galaxy and hired Jim Valentino to write a new storyline based on the pitch he submitted. Fans felt more ready for Guardians by that point, as it was a fun diversion from the dark and serious tone of the era, and the series lasted 62 issues.

Newcomer Rob Liefeld, who had been the artist on The New Mutants since 1989, debuting his own new character Cable and turning the low-performing series into a hit with his unconventional visuals and exaggerated character traits, took over the title with full creative control starting with issue #98 (1991). The series ended with #100 and the team was revamped with a

sequel series called X-Force, which sold four million copies upon its 1991 debut, breaking a record at the time, only to be broken again later that year.

Claremont’s glorious run with The Uncanny X-Men would come to an end in 1991, but the property stayed on top. The series was eventually given to Scott Lobdell as writer and artist, and Marvel naturally decided to come out with a second X-Men series, simply titled “X-Men,” with Claremont at the helm and his former Uncanny artist and co-writer Jim Lee alongside. Lee, no relation to Stan, was popular for the epic artwork and detailed aesthetic he brought to the franchise. And so the brand new X-Men #1 sold over 8 million copies in pre-sales alone, and to this day is the highest-selling comic book of all time.

However, due to the comic book Bubble, it’s hard to believe that 8 million people were actually reading X-Men #1, or if many/most of them were buying several issues each with the hopes that they would help pay for their kids’ college tuition.

Marvel, once again, capitalized on what was happening. Each issue of X-Force #1, X-Men #1, and even Spider-Man #1 was released with multiple variant covers or different trading cards inside. Some were sold already inside protective sleeves. You could make a case that their strategy for launching several new series in such a short period was itself an anticipation of the public’s response to the newfound collectability of comic books. But it wasn’t just Marvel, this was happening industry wide. And as most longtime collectors know, the more commonplace something is, the less likely it will be deemed valuable years later. The Golden Age comic books that were selling for thousands of dollars were doing

so because of their scarcity—not because there were 8 million copies floating around.

The Modern Age is also known as the “Dark Age of Comic Books” for the preponderance of dark, serious storylines, and the popularity of antiheroes and psychologicallygrey villains. The antiheroes who were cult hits in the ‘80s were now some of the most popular characters in comics. Wolverine, the Punisher, and Venom each starred in several of their own solo series, and even Ghost Rider was seeing a resurgence as well. In 1991 Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza debuted their latest antihero, Deadpool, in The New Mutants #98 as a supervillain. Eventually the disfigured mercenary with regenerative powers got his own miniseries in 1993, and starting with his 1997 solo series by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness, he developed into the mouthy and irreverent funnyman that we know him as today.

Marvel was hit hard when several of their popular stars left the company to found Image Comics in 1992 after being unable to secure the deals they wanted with either Marvel or DC. Among the artists were Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, and Todd McFarlane, along with Erik Larsen, who had replaced McFarlane on Spider-Man, Marc Silvestri, formerly of the Wolverine solo series, and Whilce Portacio, most notable for his work on The Uncanny X-Men and The Punisher. It was a tough blow and only the first in the perfect storm that was to follow.

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to finance a ridiculously huge expansion for Marvel Comics. He partnered with ToyBiz and allowed them exclusive rights to produce toys based on Marvel’s properties.

Perelman then brought in Avi Arad to become CEO of the new Marvel Films, taking over for Stan Lee, who at this point retired from Marvel operations and remained only as a figurehead for the company from then forward, appearing at big events, conventions, and in movie cameos throughout the years.

In 1993 (still the most profitable year in the history of the industry), however, things started going south in a big way. The comic book bubble burst. As most every collecting trend does, the popularity of comic books was going down. Collectors realized that the comics weren’t really worth much due to their huge print runs.

Those who joined in on the comic book bandwagon just for their apparent collectability lost interest.

Half of the retail shops nationwide went out of business over the next couple of years and the boom was officially over.

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To go along with the rising interest in action cartoons in recent years, Marvel decided to try their hand at animated television once again with the X-Men animated series on Fox Kids network in 1992, which became extremely popular. Along with DC’s Batman: The Animated series from the same year, X-Men remained faithful to its source material and exuded a maturity that hadn’t been present in animation at that time, helping to popularize and usher in a new wave of superhero cartoons throughout the ‘90s, which continued with three series in 1994: Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and SpiderMan, all finding success on the newly-expanding cable network.

Marvel also partnered with Konami to release the X-Men arcade game in 1992, which became one of the most played games that year around the world.

In 1994, writer Kurt Busiek and artist Alex Ross teamed up for the release of the four-issue comic Marvels, a limited series that was groundbreaking in bringing to readers a more candid portrayal of superheroes. The story didn’t follow a costumed individual, but an everyday news photographer by the name of Phil Sheldon who witnesses firsthand every big event in the Marvel Universe from 1939 to 1974. Ross’ photorealistic approach to the artwork was unlike anything readers had ever seen before and an important step moving forward.

Between 1992 and 1995, Perelman borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank in order

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(The Avengers, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man) had to be outsourced to Image Comics, who ended up rebooting the series. In late 1996 Marvel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which ousted Perelman and led to ToyBiz taking over in 1997, turning Marvel Entertainment Group into Marvel Enterprises and saving the company.

Marvel had already been selling movie rights to their characters since the late ‘70s, but it was at this time that the rest of Marvel’s major characters became optioned as part of their plan to get out of the red.

Throughout the crash, X-Men still did fairly well as Marvel utilized their most popular property as a way to increase sales during dire times.

The franchise was at its peak in the mid-‘90s, at one point with over a dozen different X-Men-related comics released each month. A slew of crossover events would permeate over each series, with the most notable being “The Age of Apocalypse” crossover in 1995, which temporarily replaced each X-Men title with The Amazing X-Men

for four months. Following Marvel’s bankruptcy in 1996, however, even X-Men was scaled back.

Despite casual fans and pseudocollectors temporarily becoming bitten by the comic book bug, true fans and nostalgics were continuing to regain interest in the series of their youths, and so the sales for trade paperbacks, or collected editions of old runs, actually rose despite the industry crash. New series, as well, were being saved from cancellation and immediately collected into a trade paperback once they were finished. As it turns out, real fans still just wanted to read these stories.

In 1998, Marvel hired on writer-artists Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti from the small independent company Event Comics to work on their new line “Marvel Knights” which would include Daredevil, Black Panther,

The Punisher, and Inhumans, giving Quesada and Palmiotti full creative control over the titles, which all became very popular.

That year Marvel Enterprises released their first theatrical film in over a decade with Blade, which, much like Howard the Duck, was another interesting choice for a company that hadn’t established many properties in the world of cinema. Blade starred Wesley Snipes and was a commercial success, leading to two sequels.

During a decade that saw the themed-restaurant craze, with the grand openings of Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood, Marvel thought they too would give it a go with their very own Marvel Mania Hollywood in Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. The restaurant was completely Marvel-themed, filled with their famous characters and even had action sound effects written on the ceiling. However, Marvel had yet to reestablish the kind of lasting impression that it would start to cultivate ten years later, and so Marvel Mania closed after only two years.

With Universal Studios Orlando opening its Islands of Adventure theme park in 1999, Marvel was able to nab one of the islands as its

own: Marvel Super Hero Island, a mini-amusement park dedicated to Marvel’s characters, which included rides such as the Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man simulator, all of which still stand today and are the reason why Walt Disney World in Orlando is prohibited from using any Marvel characters in their parks, despite the company acquiring Marvel Entertainment a decade later.

Another version of Marvel Super Hero Island opened in Universal Studios Japan in 2004.

As the decade, and the millennium, came to a close, the future seemed bright for Marvel despite all they had just gone through. There were new projects on the horizon—mostly taking their iconic characters off the comic book page and placing them in other, more profitable mediums.

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proved that not only was filmmaking technology finally allowing for bigger stories to be told, but that these stories could exist in the real world outside of a comic book (remember, DC comics take place in fictional locales). It was also this project where a young assistant named Kevin Feige was hired on as associate producer due to his extensive knowledge of the Marvel Universe.

Impressed with his work on X-Men, Arad soon hired Feige as second-incommand at Marvel Studios. From there, Columbia Pictures came out with another film based on a Marvel property, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, which had also been in some sort of development since the early ‘80s, even involving James Cameron as writer-director at one point, but was finally released in 2002. If X-Men established the realism of superheroes in the real world and got the ball rolling for fans’ tastebuds, then Spider-Man took both of those

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he year 2000 is still the worst year in terms of sales in comic book history. Around that time, due to the popularity and prevalence of collected editions, the industry started to revolve around the trade paperback, which encouraged sixissue writing blocks for individual issues so that they could be released together as such. In the years since, these trade paperbacks are largely used as source material for the film world, which is undeniably more profitable.

Marvel followed the success of Blade with the very first X-Men movie in 2000, despite being in development hell since 1984. Finally in 1993, Avi Arad had gotten the ball rolling on the project, setting up a deal with 20th Century Fox, and soon creating Marvel Studios in 1996.

X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer, starred then-unknown actor Hugh Jackman in the lead role of Wolverine and was a huge success.

DC had had their run of Batman and Superman films since the late ‘70s, but X-Men was truly the beginning of the superhero movie craze that still very much exists today. It

facets to a whole new level. Imbuing the project with a vast scope, yet comic book tone, Raimi clearly understood and appreciated the source material. Breaking all kinds of records upon its release, SpiderMan was an enormous success, leaving audiences awe-stricken as they watched Spidey swing through the air as they’d never seen any character do on screen before.

Raimi’s Spider-Man spawned two more blockbuster sequels (2004 and 2007).

In the following years, Marvel saw the release of several more theatrical movies based on their characters, including 2003’s Daredevil, Hulk, and X2 (sequel to X-Men), 2004’s The Punisher, a pair of Fantastic Four movies (2005 and 2007), the latter of which included the Silver Surfer, 2005’s Elektra, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, which includes the “Dark Phoenix Saga” as its storyline, and 2007’s Ghost Rider. This parade of releases would mirror the output that Marvel Studios would again churn out over the next decade and a half, although with a much more concise vision.

Prior to Feige being named president of Marvel Studios in 2007, he had an idea to establish a shared universe in the same vein as the one Lee and Kirby constructed with their comic books in the ‘60s. He realized that the film rights for the core members of the Avengers were owned by Marvel at that time, which allowed him the ability to move forward with his vision.

The rights for Iron Man in particular had returned to Marvel after numerous failed film projects

in the two decades prior. Their new Iron Man movie would be Marvel Studios’ first independent release.

They hired on Jon Favreau to direct, who then chose Robert Downey Jr. for the title role as he felt the actor’s rocky, and public, past made him very similar to the complicated Tony Stark.

Iron Man, released in 2008, would be the first in a new world of Marvel filmdom—a Cinematic Universe that would mimic that of comic books during the Silver Age. The movie was a big success and included a post-credits scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, which would first introduce the “Avengers Initiative.”

In 2009 Marvel Studios was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in a move that gave Marvel not only the reach, but the resources

to bring their ideas to fruition.

What followed was a string of titles, including The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, all setting up and building towards 2012’s iconic release, The Avengers. The Avengers would not be a culmination, however, but another steppingstone—the beginning in what was to come.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was well underway. Meanwhile 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures would continue to release new unrelated X-Men and SpiderMan movies, respectively. And throughout the decade, Marvel Studios would put out around 2 to 3 films per year, all part of their grand-scale and expansive universe, colloquially referred to as the MCU. They were now changing the industry of Hollywood as a whole in a still-thriving era known as the “Superhero Age of Film.”

2018 and 2019 saw the releases of the two-part arc, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, both cracking into the top 5 list of highest-grossing movies of all time.

Now 24 movies in, and counting, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not even close to being over. In fact, with 2021’s WandaVision, they’ve just now expanded the continuity into the television medium. In 2008, we couldn’t wait to see what would

come of this ambitious new venture, and now that it’s here, we can’t imagine our world without it.

For over a decade now, the film industry and pop culture as a whole have been dominated by Marvel’s superheroes, who continue to push the possibilities and conventions of their latest medium. Shared universes, a concept spearheaded

by Lee and Kirby in their comic books all those years ago, is now a mainstream idea in the film world, yet taking the same amount of meticulous planning and attention to detail. Marvel’s influence is apparent in each and every blockbuster franchise around them and has now permanently heightened our expectations for every other form of entertainment we consume. As of 2021, the movies of the MCU have altogether earned over $8.5 billion—twice that of Star Wars— becoming the highest grossing franchise ever, easily. Characters like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man, who were once almost exclusively known by a relativelysmall community of comic book fans, are now household names.

Comic books never died, they merely evolved.

Up until his death in 2019, Stan Lee continued to make his famous cameos in every film, surely never having imagined in all his years before that Marvel would become this big. After all, you reap what you sow, even if it takes decades.

In the 1950s, superheroes were all but dead and Lee was readying to leave the industry for good. But as it turns out, perhaps the world needed superheroes—and Marvel—just as much as they needed a world to save.

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her indelible screen presence is obvious. Featured on other shows such as Impulse and Jett, the British Columbia native undoubtedly found her breakout on the fantasy-horror series based on the IDW comic book.

Following her departure from Locke & Key in the second season, the actress now looks to the future for a potential role as, perhaps, the titular superhero on Silk, based on the character from the Spider-Man comics, and one of Marvel’s many upcoming shows that they have slated. Genevieve may play coy about whether or not she’s even auditioned for the part, which has yet to be announced, but she doesn’t hide her enthusiasm about playing a superhero in the near future.

With a career that already spans 15 years, the actress talks about the value of taking breaks in this industry, and how she began creating playlists for her characters to get into their heads.

Oh yeah, and she definitely believes in ghosts.

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Genevieve Kang:Rebecca Benoit

When you watch Genevieve Kang as Jackie Veda on Netflix’s Locke & Key,

interview interview

genevieve kang SPOILER: Where are you originally from?

GENEVIEVE KANG: I’m originally from a smaller city in Interior British Columbia called Kamloops. That’s where I grew up. Then right after high school, I moved to Toronto for university, and I ended up staying there for 13 years—throughout my entire 20s. And I just moved back to the west coast at the beginning of 2020.

SPOILER: Everyone thinks that you have to be in Los Angeles to get noticed, but there’s so much great talent from Canada.

GENEVIEVE KANG: I’ve been in the industry for 15 years, in and out, with many breaks along the way—which I highly recommend to anyone, because it is a tough industry. And that’s before I made the official move—the extended trip—down to LA.

SPOILER: What’s your experience been like on Locke & Key? GENEVIEVE KANG: It’s been great!

Locke & Key has had such an amazing reception by our audience.

Obviously there was already a huge following before the show with the graphic novels, but it’s been really exciting with season 2 coming out.

Everything in season 2 is bigger than season 1. Greater stakes, greater tension, more magic.

SPOILER: Is it different working for a show on Netflix versus a smaller platform?

GENEVIEVE KANG: Yes. When our show first came out, it premiered globally. That kind of reach and exposure is incomparable to a smaller platform. And since Netflix is such a major streaming service, so many eyes were on the show

before we even got there. It’s very different.

SPOILER: You have experience working on some Christmas movies [Hallmark’s Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe and Netflix’s Christmas with a View]. Are those fun to do?

GENEVIEVE KANG: It’s so funny because Christmas movies are often filmed in the spring or summer, so there’s fake snow on the ground and we’re wearing fur coats and scarves and hats, when it’s actually really warm outside. So that part of it’s not the most fun. Also, for the most part, the holiday movies I’ve been in are very good-hearted and feelgood.

It’s fun to do that every once in a while, just to have some lighter fare.

Just to know that you’re going to show up in people’s living rooms and make them feel all warm and fuzzy.

SPOILER: How was it dealing with COVID in Canada?

GENEVIEVE KANG: I consider myself pretty lucky, in that Locke & Key, right at the beginning of lockdown here in B.C., we got picked up for a second season. So that was a little bit of a security as an actor to know I had a job lined up.

But in terms of the industry, it was shifted, from writing to producing to casting, everyone was figuring out, “Do we move forward? Do we put a pause on this?” It felt like everyone was kind of scrambling, but at the same time it felt like things were still getting made. But it feels like now, the industry has sort of settled into a new normal, for now. [During the pandemic], it was a lot of reading scripts, getting opportunities, but then not knowing if a project is actually going to go through, or maybe it will, but not for a very long time. In the grander picture of things, it was a lesson for all of us, the uncertainty of the industry and how that unfolds into the uncertainty of life as we know it too. We don’t really know what the next chapter is going to present to us.

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GENEVIEVE KANG: As a young girl growing up in a smaller city in British Columbia, my dad’s Chinese and my mom’s Portuguese, and the community I grew up in was predominantly White. And every time I turned on the TV or popped in the VHS tape, I didn’t see myself represented on screen. I’m almost 33 and I still struggle to see myself represented on screen. And I think that’s a major issue. I want there to be more authentic representation of people of color and their stories— someone like me who’s mixed Asian. I think there’s been some movement of that in the past few years, and continues to be, but I also feel we have a very long way to go. I can see people getting lazy about it, like, “We’ve done our part,” and just putting their feet up and forgetting about it. So you can’t really back down.

As an actor, I definitely have a responsibility in what roles I take on. If the role I’m playing is mixed race, but it’s a stereotype, it’s my responsibility to say no.

SPOILER: What do you do to prepare for a role?

GENEVIEVE KANG: It really depends.

I don’t feel like I have one way of

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SPOILER: I know you’re a big advocate for Asian representation.

What would you like to see going forward?

approaching every character or every project. It really depends on the project or the character. One consistent practice I’ve adopted in the past few years is I like to make a playlist for every character. Music and sound make me feel like I’m embodying the character more.

For Jackie on Locke & Key, she’s a character who I felt very comfortable stepping into her shoes. I see a lot of myself in her and it was a pretty seamless transition into playing her.

Come second season, her journey had me doing a bit more research into certain topics, because she’s forgetting the magic—she’s losing her memory, so I did some research around that specifically, what it feels like to experience memory loss, just to have a foundation. But I’m not a method actor. At the end of the day, I choose to leave my character at work.

SPOILER: For those who don’t know, what is Locke & Key all about?

GENEVIEVE KANG: It’s based on the graphic novel by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez—a very popular series. It follows the story of the Locke kids. After the murder of their father, they move into his ancestral home where they discover that there are these magical keys hidden that give them special powers and abilities. And as they soon find out, there’s also an evil demon that’s after these keys, and all hell breaks loose [laughs].

SPOILER: Which actor do you connect with the most on set?

GENEVIEVE KANG: I worked mostly with Connor [Jessup], so I connected with him a lot. But otherwise, I also got pretty close with Petrice Jones who plays Scot, as well as Laysla [De Oliveira] who plays Dodge, and

Asha [Bromfield] who plays Zadie, we’ve become good friends as well.

But everyone on the cast is so lovely.

Otherwise, I get close to a lot of our crew people, like our hair and makeup team, they’re amazing; our on-set wardrobe, Andy [Gaskin], he’s amazing; Jeannette [Linton], she’s amazing. Obviously, the cast, if you’re working with each other, you get close. But us actors, we’re in touch with people taking care of us around us—that’s our crew all the time.

SPOILER: You guys just got picked up for season 3.

GENEVIEVE KANG: That is true, we got picked up earlier this year. Do you wanna know a spoiler?

SPOILER: Yes, please!

GENEVIEVE KANG: Well, it’s not actually a spoiler, but we’ve already filmed the third season. That’s public news, I can share that [laughs].

SPOILER: The PR people said yes— sometimes they listen in on these interviews.

GENEVIEVE KANG: [laughs] SPOILER: Do you believe in ghosts?

GENEVIEVE KANG: Yeah! I think they’re real. I had an experience last year in my current apartment, where I believe I saw two figures. It was more shadows—outlines. I consider myself spiritual, and so it was also

just an energetic feeling of their presence in this space.

SPOILER: Were you scared?

GENEVIEVE KANG: No, because I had recently processed some stuff personally and so they actually brought a calming presence for me.

It felt familiar, like they were beings that I knew. I’ve never spoken about this publicly.

SPOILER: Wow! We get to break the story first! If you could work on any show or movie right now, which would it be?

GENEVIEVE KANG: They’re doing a Marvel TV series about—the

character, she’s basically an Asian Spider-Woman named Silk, and I’d wanna do that. This is me pitching [laughs]. It’s one of my dreams to play a Marvel superhero, so that would be a good one for me, if they don’t cast the actress who played her in the film [Spider-Man: Homecoming].

SPOILER: You gonna go for that?

GENEVIEVE KANG: Maybe I already have [laughs].

SPOILER: What would you do if you get it?

GENEVIEVE KANG: Oh my God, the second I found out, I’d scream.

And then I would talk to my ghost friends [laughs]. I’d be pretty excited. I would definitely call my parents first. They’re the first people to find out big news like that. But I would definitely do a happy dance. Then I would start training and putting my all into it. I work with a trainer here in Vancouver, and we’re constantly talking about how I’m training to be a model superhero. So, a lot of my training is very dynamic, functional training to get me into shape so I can fly around and scale buildings.

SPOILER: Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?

GENEVIEVE KANG: “Thank you for watching Locke & Key. Thank you for supporting me in my fun little journey in this industry!”

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Ten years.

That’s how long of a break Garfield Wilson took from acting. Though, at the time, he had left that chapter of his life behind him for good. He had found a balance in his home life and built up his own personal training company during those years. But after one of his clients—an agent—pressured him to audition again, he landed a series regular role on J.J. Abrams’ Almost Human. From there, he’s amassed quite a résumé, leveling up his game with each job.

Most recently, he’s starred in the hit shows Snowpiercer and Schmigadoon!, films such as Come to Daddy and Coffee & Kareem, and the upcoming David Lowery-directed Peter Pan & Wendy.

Nowadays, there are few actors as busy as Garfield. But that’s how he wants it. Since 2019, the actor has been on 23 different projects—and that span includes a pandemic year, where he still found time to be on 5 separate shows or movies. His talent and range yield this high demand, but Garfield would tell you his work ethic and dedication to the craft has a lot to do with that as well.

He discusses with us what he learned during his sabbatical, how his lack of stress actually helped him get his first big gig, and how the pandemic has changed the audition process.

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SPOILER: What was it like being on Snowpiercer?

GARFIELD WILSON: The experience was amazing! When I auditioned for the role of Jackboot Kaffey, I didn’t know what the scope of the show was going to be. I was always a huge fan of the movie with Chris Evans and John Hurt, but I just didn’t know how they were going to string out the series. And it was such an intense journey: the set design, the costumes, the actors I got to work with—Daveed Diggs, Jennifer Connelly, just to name a few—and Aleks Paunovic, who’s a really, really good friend of mine—just being on set with those cats is unbelievable.

SPOILER: So, did your character get killed or is it believed that he escaped?

GARFIELD WILSON: The coolest thing about Snowpiercer, being on the show and then watching the episodes unfold with my family and friends, is that it’s not a show where you can say, “Okay, I’ve got a lock on this character. Or a lock on the plot.” It will always flip on you. So, when you think somebody is out of the picture, just hold on a second, you never know [laughs]. That’s the beauty of this show and that’s what keeps fans really enthralled.

SPOILER: It’s such a large show. Did you ever feel that enormity on set?

GARFIELD WILSON: I did. There are so many major characters, and those characters that you feel are just smaller pieces to a bigger picture [eventually] become integral characters, or they have some sort of evolution. Being on set, there are just so many moving parts. I just have to tip my hat and do the Wayne’s World “We are not worthy!” thing. It was not hard, as an actor, to put on the costumes, go on set, and just drop into that world and ground yourself emotionally in what you’re doing, because they just created this unbelievable world. And everybody who came on set brought their A-game all the time. It’s an absolute gift.

To be honest, my life is full. I’ve got three beautiful kids, I’ve got this beautiful fiancée, she’s got a little boy of

Garfield Wilson

her own, so I’ve got a large integrated family. And being on set takes a huge chunk of your time—you’re on set for 10, 12 hours at a time. And then there’s rehearsals, and there’s time by myself where I really lock in this script and understand where I want to take the character. To be on a show like Snowpiercer, which has gone through such an evolution—it’s such a huge success critically and as far as the fans that they have—that’s not without a lot of hard work and hurdles that they had to get over. And it’s a big deal to be on set and know that everyone is working together to meet those challenges. I’m a huge fan of Dave Diggs and Jennifer Connelly and everybody, so to see them [act] and know why they are the artists that they are, and then to meet them and have them be such wonderful human beings—it does not get any better than that. And it’s not always that way. But I’ve been very fortunate that, by and large, all of the major productions I’ve been on have been a dream and a gift.

SPOILER: You’re on so many projects each year. Does it ever get stressful or does it just add to the excitement of your life?

GARFIELD WILSON: It’s the latter. I’ve been incredibly blessed to be able to play a wide variety of characters that are very diverse and be on projects that are just so different from [each

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Garfield Wilson other]. It’s been incredibly exciting.

Whenever I get the call from my agent that I booked a role, I’m like, “Whoa.” [laughs] It’s amazing! I’m like, “I love you to death! Thank you for this great news!” Then the journey starts. It always feels like Christmas to me. It’s always exciting to meet your costars. 95% of the time, I’m working with people who I’m a fan of and admire. So being able to be on set and play with them in that way—collaborating—is unbelievable.

A paradigm shift for me as far as my journey as an actor and really exploring endless possibilities of where a scene or character can go would be Come to Daddy. That was an important moment in my career, creatively speaking, and checked off a lot of boxes in terms of the type of project I wanted to work on, and the actors I would want to work with—Elijah Wood. I remember when my kids were little, going through The Lord of the Rings saga and just being blown away by the world that was created and the performances, and then working with Elijah Wood—I mean, come on!

SPOILER: Do you ever get confused with all the scripts you have to memorize?

GARFIELD WILSON: I have to attribute that skillset to my acting coach Deb Podowsky, because her scene study class, for me personally and professionally, represents the industry. She throws you in the deep end all the time in terms of the number of scripts, plays that we’d have to work on, character development, our intent, listening—all of those different things, and then watching my classmates succeed or fail. And that 212 I

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learning process really built the infrastructure for what I do today. So I never actually get confused with scripts. I love reading those stories, especially those really smart stories like Come to Daddy or Snowpiercer, where there are so many moving parts and intricacies and surprise endings. Once I’m in with this script, I’m all in and can actually just put that script down and go on to the next one and be all in again.

SPOILER: Does success have more to do with talent or grind?

GARFIELD WILSON: My journey was not an overnight success. I’ve been doing this for a very long time.

I took, at one point, a 10 year break from acting and never thought that I would come back to this industry again, just because having kids and wanting to put a roof over their heads and food on the table is a high priority. And then coming back into this industry slowly and trying to understand the craft of acting, and then discovering my acting coach Deb Podowsky and taking her scene study class, I can tell you with 100% certainty that [it has more to do with grind]. Because in that class, I’ve

seen the most riveting performances by actors that I admire so much, who are not A-list actors. And then just laughing or crying by these performances that are so sublime in this small little class in downtown Vancouver, and then going on set and working with A-list actors and being riveted by their performances as well, and seeing that the process is the same. Talking with them is just the same as talking with my scene study classmates—just normal people, but the stars have aligned to put them in this situation. And I truly believe that the only thing you can control is the space that you occupy. I think the difference between making it and not making it is holding onto your truth, whatever that truth is. This industry can be really destabilizing. You can get caught up in being victim to your saboteurs—your insecurities or self-confidence—and you lose your path as far as what your truth is. And when you lose that path, you can’t actually fly as high as you should be flying in auditions or on set, and that stunts your growth.

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SPOILER: When you got back after 10 years, was it different?

GARFIELD WILSON: I had a different perspective because I had children and had a career as a personal trainer and owned my own successful corporation. I was actually training a client who would turn out to be

my agent, and I met her through other actors who I was training.

And during our personal training sessions, I actually landed a role in a docuseries—Canada’s version of The Biggest Loser called Village on a Diet. And the contract I was offered, I knew it wasn’t very good, so I asked if she could take a look at it. Then she said, “Send me your résumé and I’ll look at this contract for you.” So I sent her my résumé and she saw that I had a number of acting credits and said, “You’re an actor!” And I said, “Well, I was an actor. I don’t really do that anymore.” She asked if

she could send me to auditions and I basically said no to her for two years [laughs]. I had kind of just moved on.

And then one day, Natasha Trisko, who’s still my agent, during pilot season, sent me on an audition for a show. I had a break between 12 and 3 in the afternoon, and because I had nothing better to do, I went to this audition on a lark. And fortunately, I have this superpower where I can memorize lines very quickly. So I went to this audition and was more concerned with getting back to work with my clients than I was nailing this audition. So during that 10 year break, I had lost that desperation to being in the room and being what I thought they wanted me to be. So I did the audition and the casting director said, “That was very nice.

Can you do it again?” Then I left, and that turned into a series regular role on Almost Human on Fox, and that changed everything for me because that show was produced

by J.J. Abrams. And having that on my résumé made it so that I wasn’t only auditioning for Thug #2 or Paramedic #1. I was guest starring or co-starring. And I needed a skillset because I was getting nervous again. And that’s when I met Deb Podowsky.

SPOILER: What’s traveling like when you have a family?

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SPOILER: Coffee & Kareem, what a hilarious movie!

GARFIELD WILSON: Everybody’s hilarious [in that movie], but that kid [Terrence Little Gardenhigh] is something special. I remember that table-read with Ed Helms and Taraji P. Henson [laughs], and listening to that kid do those lines—everyone was cracking up. He was lit up at the tableread. And when I did my scene with him and Ed Helms, there were a couple times when I could not keep a straight face—he hit everything out of the park.

And the director and producers were just so amazing. That was an absolutely fun gig to do. What you see on screen is exactly how you would have imagined it to be behind the scenes. We had a blast! And watching it with my kids was awesome, because they were laughing out loud with tears in their eyes.

SPOILER: What’s that like, watching your movies with your kids?

GARFIELD WILSON: It’s absolutely surreal. We are a family that’s huge movie buffs. One of the fun things we do together is have these movie nights with the popcorn and our pajamas. I grew up that way and my children grew

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up that way, and then to be able to have a movie like that where I’m in it, it’s really insane.

SPOILER: Are they your biggest critics or your biggest fans?

GARFIELD WILSON: [laughs] I would say they’re my biggest fans. I’m not the coolest dad in the world. I have some really cringe-worthy dad jokes, and I pull them out all the time. They watch me on screen and I’m playing some of these cool cats, and then they look at me and go, “Yeah, that’s not you.” [laughs] SPOILER: Are you hard on yourself?

GARFIELD WILSON: I’m not immune to being extremely self-critical of my own work. But as I get older, I’m kinder to myself.

SPOILER: During the pandemic, the audition process changed. Was it hard to transition to doing taped auditions?

GARFIELD WILSON: It was. It was different in the sense of creating that space for self-tapes in my home. I’m extremely lucky that my 16-year-old son is also a working actor. So we set up a sort of studio in his room for his auditions, because he’s been acting for about four or five years now. And even before COVID, they would have [inperson] auditions that would conflict with his school schedule, and that was stressing him out. So, his mother and I just decided that this was way too stressful for him being in high school and having to worry about doing well in school and then going to an audition room out in Vancouver. If it’s within school hours, we’re just going to selftape, and if that’s not good enough then we just won’t go to the audition. And we got really good at that. Then going into COVID, it was an easy transition for me to just do self-tapes with him. Some actors that I know struggled with selftapes because they really loved going into the audition room. And I love going into the room as well, because there’s an advantage to that. If you have a good rapport with casting directors, they can have an insight as to what the directors and producers are looking for in this

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me, a vast majority of the projects are in the Vancouver or British Columbia area—Hollywood North. So many productions come up here, so I’m never really far away. That being said, early in my career I really struggled with worklife balance. I really struggled with being present when I was home and when I was with the kids. And I really tried to strike that balance so I could be the best father that I could be. Now I feel like I’ve gotten all my priorities in check.

No gig is more important than the time I spend with my kids or the vacation time I have with my family. I will never drop a vacation ever again to come back for an acting gig. I am unavailable.

Life is too short, and you only have a small window of time when your kids are small. And then all of a sudden— boom!—they’re teenagers and off doing their own thing. You really have to treasure that moment.

Garfield Wilson particular role—you could get some good feedback on the audition and you could do another take, which puts you in a better position to get that role.

One thing I don’t miss about going to auditions is being in the waiting rooms with other actors. I would see a lot of good friends of mine in the audition room, and there’s a really good respect for this space that other actors occupy. We’re there to ground ourselves as much as we can so we can go in the room and do our best work. But for me personally, there are always actors who are distracting or use distracting tactics in the audition room.

SPOILER: Do you still run your training business?

GARFIELD WILSON: I still do. I’ve had it for over 15 years. Throughout this journey and having this wonderful success as an actor, I’ve continued to train clients that I’ve had for well over 10 years.

SPOILER: If you had a choice right now to work on any TV series, which one would it be?

GARFIELD WILSON: I would love to work on anything that Viola Davis was working on. She’s amazing! But also I’ve been a big fan of Ozark, Billions, I just got into Shameless—those types of

shows that are very complex and make you feel like you’re a fly on the wall. I’m not into a lot of glitz and glamor, but I’m really into characters that represent real life and just put a mirror on society in a really intelligent way.

Epic tales like Game of

Thrones where there are so many moving parts and you can really ground yourself in the emotionality of those characters and that story— that’s the juice that I’m constantly in search of as an actor. It stretches you and puts you outside of your comfort zone.

SPOILER: If you could choose Marvel or DC, which one would you choose?

GARFIELD WILSON: Marvel! As a kid, I grew up being a Marvel fan. In junior high, a buddy of mine gave me a graphic novel of the X-Men, and the whole story about the difference between mutants and humans—there were really dark and graphic depictions of racism and characters holding picket signs saying, “No Mutants,” and those kinds of oppressive [themes] really hit home with me as a young Black

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Garfield Wilson kid. And I didn’t find those stories in DC comics. I’m a huge fan of Spider-Man. As a Black kid, I could be Spider-Man for Halloween. And Peter Parker dealt with real life. He had problems paying his bills, girl problems—it just felt real.

I was a fan of Batman comics.

And who wasn’t a fan, as a kid, of Superman? But as a teenager, I gravitated towards Marvel because they got heavy. DC characters were so fantastical. I could relate to Marvel characters. And they’ve knocked it out of the park with what they’ve done in film and television.

Now that we’re talking about it, I was so happy the Snyder Cut came out. My son and I watched it and were like, “Whoa! That was the story! It makes sense to me.” The first version of Justice League felt so far short of what expectations were in terms of the scope of the world and what we hoped for. But then the Snyder Cut came out and we were like, “Now we’re talkin’!” It was so gratifying to have that.

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SPOILER: What’s coming up for you that you can share?

GARFIELD WILSON: In July, I was involved in a Lorne Michaels project [Schmigadoon!] that he executive produced with Cecily Strong—she stars in it and developed it. It also stars Keegan-Michael Key, Alan Cumming, and was also written and produced by Cinco Paul who did Despicable Me. It’s on Apple TV. It’s a musical comedy and unlike anything else that’s out there right now. I’m super proud of it and super happy to be a part of it.

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BY MICHAEL BERNARDI

i am a star wars fan. as such, i can attest to

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It transforms them from fans into fanatics. Their zeal turns to zealotry.

More machine now than (wo)man, they are twisted and evil. Posting toxic commentary online, they eviscerate the films and filmmakers, disparage and dismiss thoughtful, good-faith discussion, and demean and dehumanize the actors with hateful, villainous rhetoric ranging from the racist and sexist to the obscene and violent.

Sadly, some zealots and fanatics are irredeemable. They are Emperors Palpatine. They embrace the dark side because they think it makes them powerful. The hate flows through them just...because. They hate that the main protagonist, Rey, is female. They hate that Finn is not white. They hate that Luke is world-weary and that he died. They hate that The Force Awakens is too similar. They hate that The Last Jedi is too different. They hate a second Death Star. They hate Ewoks. They hate Jar Jar Binks and Rose Tico,

but they also hate Ahmed Best and Kelly Marie Tran. Some of them laughed when they heard Ahmed say in an interview that he considered suicide in the wake of the reactions to his performance as Jar Jar in The Phantom Menace. More than a few were pleased when Kelly said she had no choice but to leave Twitter due to all of the harassment she received following her turn as Rose in The Last Jedi. I figure one or two

Star Wars/Disney/Lucasfilm

the fact that being a Star Wars fan is hard. It’s not as hard as being discriminated against, or experiencing inequality, or not having the “high ground.” Those things are objectively terrible. They lead to suffering. Being a Star Wars fan is hard because I love it. Star Wars brings me joy—and joy is terrifying.

Joy can turn to sorrow. Love can make you vulnerable. Sand gets everywhere.

There in the silent blackness of the screen, an ethereal blue sentence appears.

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....”

It hangs there for a moment. For a Star Wars fan, that moment is sacred. It holds so much imagination, excitement, anticipation, awe, and reverence for what is to come that we are forced to take a breath— to center ourselves—before the orchestra bursts to life and the star wars begin. We must live in the moment while being mindful of the future. That moment is the closest any of us will come to being a Jedi.

For some, however, that moment begins a journey to the dark side.

who have read this article now hate me for putting a “(wo)” before “man” in my earlier cutesy reference.

How do you help an Emperor Palpatine? How do you hold force lightening in your hand? Yoda only knows. Knows only Yoda? Knows Yoda only? One of those.

The rest of the noxious fanatics are Darths Vader. They are not deserving of sympathy—after all, regardless of the tragic nature of Vader’s fall, he was still a committed demonic murder-machine for almost 25 years—but there is still good in them.

It hasn’t been driven from them fully. They are, at least, deserving of empathy. Like Vader, they turned to the dark side because of love. In this case, their love of Star Wars. The same love as mine.

Love makes it tough to stay on the light side of the force. Anakin couldn’t manage it. He loved his mother but couldn’t save her when her situation was bad. He loved Padme and their unborn children (well, according to what they knew, “child”—apparently for all the technology in The Republic, pregnant Galactic Senators can’t get a sonogram to see if they’re having twins) so he chose a dark path to prevent a worse fate. Ben Solo embraced being Kylo Ren because he loved his Uncle Luke and was devastated by Luke’s momentary betrayal. Kylo’s disappointment in his

own internal struggle has led to an infatuated love for the Darth Vader version of his grandfather.

Even Luke barely made it through without turning. Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he did. A terrifying masked, mechanical man clad in all black with a Mufasa voice cuts off my hand, tells me he’s my dad, then, instead of apologizing, offers me work. Later on, I’m fighting him in front of his boss and he tells me my sister is his new favorite kid. And I’m supposed to resist the urge to kill him in spite of having the

power (the force) and the permission (Palpatine) to do otherwise?

These characters show us that when things are bad or disappointing, we are susceptible to the dark side. And the harsh truth is that Star Wars is fantastic at being bad or disappointing.

I still roll my eyes every time I watch the yellow scroll of Ep.I read, “Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.” The first line of the first episode is a convoluted mess that is almost impossible for kids under the age of 16 to understand (the kids Lucas has said his movies are technically meant for). Then we are introduced to the amazing Darth Maul, but he is underutilized and cut in half. Jar Jar Binks—enough said.

An uncomfortable, bordering on creepy, romance in Ep.II. Dialogue seemingly written by a middle school drama club. An uneven relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin through all three prequels (Anakin is like a brother, but Obi-Wan is like a father? Does the average of the two make them cousins who are roommates?). Yoda’s hand slips off a platform, so his fight with the Emperor is over because for some reason the Jedi Grand Master can’t jump back up. Anakin can’t just step off his droid onto the lava bank; rather, he has to risk his limbs by

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doing a sweet flip over Obi-Wan. Ewoks. The First Order had to do a huge (Death)Starkiller base. The Canto Bight scene is too long. I wish I saw The Last Jedi Luke do a ton of sick, powerful force stuff. I am bothered by all that and more.

The thing is, I’m an apologist for what I love. So are the Jedi. We are both capable of excusing even the gravest transgressions especially when there is a redemption or an overall positive outcome. Vader killed innocent children and terrorized the galaxy, but he throws ONE emperor down an open shaft and five minutes later he’s a smiling ghost in the good-guy lineup standing next to someone he murdered two movies ago. The politics of the opening crawl of The Phantom Menace are annoying, but it’s a smart, logical way to set up Palpatine’s path to forming the Empire. Darth Maul’s death is a letdown, but his mere creation is cool and other creative forces brought him back for other amazing, fulfilling character arcs.

Jar Jar Binks is grating, but he’s critical to Palpatine’s gaining of (emergency) power; therefore, his presence has purpose. Anakin and Padme’s romance storyline and its development aren’t great, but we can’t get to Vader without it. The dialogue is heinous, but I didn’t show up for the dialogue. Obi-Wan and Anakin could have a clearer, deeper relationship, yet I still feel the pain of their conflict. Maybe after Yoda’s fall his disadvantage to the Emperor was greater than I understood. Anakin on Mustafar simply lets the dark side amp him up the way he lets his skills amp him up to fight Dooku in Attack of the Clones. Both times it ends poorly for Anakin and his limbs.

The Ewoks are tedious, but they represent the life and connections of the force which is a factor that Palpatine couldn’t foresee through the dark side. It’s key to his defeat.

Starkiller is similar to the Death Star, but it isn’t the same. World-ending weapons may get destroyed, but they never stop being useful. Canto Bight goes on too long, but it helps to get Finn to commit himself to the Resistance. Luke’s characterization

was surprising, different, and real. He did his best, he was met with failure, he retreated to prevent him causing more harm. The movies are only ever a snapshot of the larger epic.

In that snapshot, we see Luke at his low point so he can use his power to make the greatest sacrifice in order to continue the greater story. I’m ok with that. It’s not all about him. It’s not all about any of us.

I’m sure many of the toxic members of Star Wars fandom wish that they could just wish their feelings away. You can’t. You can only manage them. Even if you’ve turned to the dark side, it’s never too late

to come back. It’s not impossible to change. Every fan has the capacity to love and hate Star Wars. Darth Vader exists in us all. Choose to be Anakin. And isn’t he the truest, most relatable choice? A little whiny, occasionally uncomfortable, with bad dialogue, a big heart, and the best intentions.

There will always be a light side and a dark side to loving Star Wars.

The movies themselves represent a struggle for balance. The Sith get their revenge, but the Jedi returns. The clones attack and the Empire strikes back. It begins with a phantom menace which is quelled by the arrival of a new hope, an awakening of the force, and the ultimate rise of Skywalker. Let us fans seek a similar balance.

We’ve spent a whole movie, a whole trilogy, an entire trilogy of trilogies, on a journey that has always begun with a deep breath as the quiet, blue words transported us away. Now we can hear the music starting to swell.

The final screen wipe is coming. John Williams’ last few notes lengthen like the starlight stretching out as we are thrust into hyperspace, back to our galaxy far, far away. May the force be with us. Always.

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

of Los Angeles Comic Con, speak about this massive undertaking each year in Downtown LA and you can tell that there’s nobody better suited for his job. The CEO has been helping build up the convention since 2012, during the show’s second annual event, and each and every year he and his team have continued to evolve LACC while maintaining its roots. Chris has been working in the trade show industry for around 20 years, and event planning for even longer, and knows what it takes to run one of these colossal events smoothly, but also totally grasps what fans want out of the experience, because he’s a fan himself.

The mantra over at LA Comic Con is, “for fans, by fans,” and Chris lives by that mission whole-heartedly. Growing up a collector of comic books and a Star Trek devotee, Chris never dreamed that he’d one day inherit and help grow the biggest convention in the pop culture mecca of the world. LACC represents Los Angeles, and vice versa. ”We want to reflect the eclecticism of LA in the show, because LA is a sort of smash-up of every cultural influence in the world,” remarks the CEO of the importance of maintaining that homegrown identity.

It’s what separates this convention from all the rest, fusing mainstream fandoms with the spirit and local culture of Los Angeles itself.

After a year without conventions across the globe, LA Comic Con is back and better than ever. Chris discusses their recent expansion to take over the entire Downtown Convention Center, which includes an additional hall specifically for anime and gaming. The show also features 800 vendors and exhibitors—their most ever—who are all thrilled to finally be able to sell in person

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interview interview SPOILER: How did LA Comic Con start?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: The show was founded by a sister and two brothers back in 2010. For the second year in a row, they couldn’t get tickets to a certain comic convention that’s south of here [laughs]. So, in their frustration they thought, “Heck, we’ll just throw our own show!” They reached out to friends and have a lot of connections within the community. And their first show was in November of 2011, called Comikaze. I was fortunate enough to get introduced to them the following year because I was in the trade show business and their largest investor was an old friend of mine.

SPOILER: What made you get into the convention business?

Chris DeMoulin:George Chinsee/(cover image): Chris DeMoulin:Footwear News

You listen to Chris DeMoulin, the head honcho

again. But with COVID still being at large in our world, LACC has taken the proper precautions while still widening its scope to decrease crowd density as well.

Chris talks, almost poetically, about his love for conventions. They’re not only his career, but a fervent passion.

“Trade shows are sorta magical, right?” he says, referring to the experience of taking an empty convention center and briefly turning it into a bustling metropolis packed with people of similar interests for only three days. It’s like a dream, and then you blink and it’s gone. Well, Los Angeles Comic Con is a city within a city; a fandom mecca in its own right.

But staying true to his credo, the CEO concerns himself less with attendance numbers than he does with what’s best for the fans: “I hope everyone who comes has a great experience, but whether it’s 100,000 or 160,000 people, it doesn’t matter. I just hope everyone who comes feels like they got to do what they wanted, has a smile on their face when they leave, and looks forward to coming back next year.”

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CHRIS DeMOULIN

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I moved to LA almost 30 years ago to work for Disney, where I worked in their licensing group. And I got very involved in entertainment. But I had little kids, so after about 10 years of working at Disney, I decided to spend some more time with them. I never thought about the trade show business, but as a person who worked for Disney, I went to trade shows all the time. Trade shows are sorta magical, right? Because you take over this giant convention center, it’s a million square feet of space and it’s empty, and you essentially build a city so that all the people who care about something come together for three days. Sometimes you’re creating a marketplace, sometimes you’re creating an experience for fans. And they come and there’s this explosion of “wow.” And literally 24 hours later, it’s gone and it’s back to being an empty box.

I ran trade shows in the apparel industry, one called MAGIC, I ran the Licensing Expo. And when I met the founders for Comikaze, I thought, “This is great! I work with all the studios, but what the studios do eventually gets represented in stuff for the fans.” Comic Con is the final resting place for all that work. It was a great opportunity, not just to work with the studios on the business side, but also be able to bring the fans together and see the results of all that hard work.

SPOILER: The guests this year are amazing! Were some of them scheduled for 2020 or did you start from scratch for this year?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: We’ve always been driven by the fact that this is a show for fans, by fans. And all of us who work on it are, ourselves, fans. And it’s a delightful responsibility to be able to think about who we would [want to see at the convention] as a fan. And we want to reflect the eclecticism of LA in the show, because LA is a sort of smash-up of every cultural influence in the world. So, we started building the talent base for the 2021 show when we were originally scheduled for September 2020. And now we’re finally getting to do the show. Zachary Levi

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CHRIS DeMOULIN has been planning to be with us for two years. Frank Miller for a year and a half. Tom Kenny for a year.

And some other people, like MingNa Wen, we just added in the last couple of months. So, it’s really been this sort of rolling process of trying to add new pieces to compliment who’s there. We try to cover all the bases of the fandoms because that’s what LA’s all about. And that was the impetus for us adding this whole extension into West Hall for anime and gaming and esports because that’s a big part of what’s growing in LA and in entertainment right now.

The show should always reflect what the fans love at any given time.

We’re also gonna have 800 vendors and exhibitors who haven’t been able to sell their stuff to fans in person in two years. That’s so exciting to us that they’re going to be able to see their fans again!

SPOILER: This year, LA Comic Con will feature a Nichelle Nichols Farewell event. What can we expect from that?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: The folks who have done a number of these—they did James Doohan’s farewell a few years ago—they came to us and said that they had been hoping last year to do a farewell event for Nichelle.

They had been working with her and her family, and Nichelle was 100% on board with what they were planning, but with COVID, they didn’t have a place to do it. And we said that we’re expanding to take over the whole Convention Center, because we wanted to do that anyway just to be able to space things out, and for people who aren’t entirely comfortable coming out in crowds yet—we figured if we were in a much bigger space, it would lower the crowd density. So, we said, “We’ll give you guys thirty-five or forty thousand square feet of space. Why don’t you just do it with us?”

Star Trek’s one of my fandoms. I’m a huge fan. We just thought it was a terrific opportunity to be part of a farewell for Nichelle and do it in a proper way. They have it really well thought out. They have 20 or 25

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cast members from every single TV show that there’s been, and some movies. And they have some really cool props. So, we said, “We’re happy to give you a home for it. Just bring it here.”

I think “honor” is the right word.

She’s had such an amazing career, and an impact on so many young women. For us to just be part of her last farewell, [it’s an honor]. And for her family and her team to really be part of planning it, that’s really important too.

SPOILER: I know Stan Lee is a big part of LA Comic Con’s lineage. What was his role before he passed [in 2018]?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: Stan met the founders and actually came to the very first show. And he sensed that they were really creating a fancentric convention. It was actually a licensing agreement with him. We were involved with Stan and Stan’s company. And the show became “Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo,” and

then eventually “Stan Lee’s Comic Con.” And so we worked with Stan and his team. We would bring in a prop museum. We would figure out what panels Stan would want to join on the Main Stage and how much signing he wanted to do, and we would facilitate that, and would build the rest of the show around that.

For me, as a kid I grew up a huge comic collector in the suburbs of Rochester, New York. So, 50 years before I ever met him, I already worshipped the talent that he brought together and what he accomplished with those stories—such an important part of my life. And to come full circle years later and be able to work with him was such a magical, amazing thing. He was an unbelievable human being—incredibly caring and creative.

He really was a force of nature. You met him and he did not disappoint.

For those couple of years that he was involved, we would bounce creative ideas off of him and he was always at the show all three days. He would call up his friends and ask them

Chris DeMoulin/Los Angeles Comic Con/Magic

CHRIS DeMOULIN

to do things. One of the panels I’ll never forget, in 2013 or 2014, Todd McFarlane came to interview Stan on the Main Stage. And we’ve always put our Main Stage right in the middle of the show floor, because I don’t like that thing that happens at a lot of the other Cons, where in order to see the really cool stuff, you have to leave the convention and go wait in line for three hours. So, when the panel started and Todd and Stan started talking to each other, almost every single person in the Convention Center—it’s a big building, it’s 350,000 square feet— they all turned around and made their way towards the Main Stage.

By the end, there were about 14,000 people watching them talk. And we have this picture from behind them on the stage: these two guys who are amazing creative forces interviewing each other, and then there’s thousands of fans in front of them listening and eating up every word. To me, that’s what the essence of LA Comic Con is all about, bringing creators together and then giving them the opportunity to talk about what they do in a way that the fans can experience firsthand.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite part of the convention?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: One of my personal favorites is when we bring on voice casts from animated TV

shows, because I have two kids— they’re 25 and 22 now—but when they were little, we spent hours and hours of wonderful time together watching animated shows. So, Tom Kenny’s a guest this year, and he came last time as well, and both my kids came because that’s SpongeBob. And we spent a lot of SpongeBob time together as a family [laughs]. Folks like him get a very warm reception.

Regularly, we’ll have about six or eight thousand people at a panel where we have a reunion of a voice cast.

I’m also really thrilled that we have Sideshow Collectibles coming to our show for the very first time.

They’re putting together a museumquality experience. And one of the things they’re going to have there is their life-size Grogu from The Mandalorian. And, of course, we have Giancarlo Esposito and MingNa Wen coming from the cast, so I’m hoping at some point we can get them over and have a photo op with Grogu.

And the other thing I’m really looking forward to is Gerard Way— I’m a big Umbrella Academy fan and he’s a brilliant creative—interviewing Frank Miller on the Main Stage. To me, that’s going to be the sort of next generation moment of that Todd McFarlane/Stan Lee interview.

As a fan, those are the three highlights that I’m looking forward to, but we also added this whole anime and gaming hall. So, we have a whole second Main Stage in the West Hall. And we’ve got over 40 voice actors coming in from some of the largest anime shows and video games out there—the whole casts are coming. In some instances, for the video games, we’re hoping to get some of the cast members into a pro-am competition where we load

the games on the Main Stage and they play against each other and do a little improv voice over of what’s going on on screen.

Also, a special thing Friday night, Laugh Factory is programming two hours of a comedy show on the Main Stage, so they’re going to bring in six or eight headliners and do a comedy show. I think it’ll be somewhat similar to what we did with Jack Black a couple years ago where he and Tenacious D took over the stage for an hour and a half and just entertained.

SPOILER: Any tips for attendees?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: If you have younger kids, Sunday’s a great day to come because we’re doing a kids costume contest. On Sunday, kids 6 and under are free. They can get up on the stage and repurpose their Halloween costumes one more time [laughs].

If you’re a hardcore shopper or collector, Friday’s always a good shopping night because it doesn’t tend to be as crowded, and so you really have an opportunity to go around and see all the show exclusives. You can spend a little more quality time with the artists and talk with them about why they do what they do and their inspiration.

SPOILER: What is your wish for this year?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: My wish for this year is that everyone comes and not only sees the things that they came to see, but they find something that reminds them of the shows that they loved as a kid that nobody else quite got. One of the things I love about this convention, and I think makes this convention different, is we try so hard to have such an eclectic mix of stuff. As a fan, we love the big stuff— we all love Avengers, we all love Star Wars—but we also have those little individual personal things that are so meaningful to us. And I hope people have the opportunity to have those moments as well. And that’s why we’ll have 120, 130 talent here,

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Los Angeles Comic Con/Getty Images

CHRIS DeMOULIN

because we want people to have that opportunity to have that moment of discovery, that moment of wonder where something just resonates, something that was so important to them as a kid that they’ve carried it into adulthood.

About 30% of our attendees bring their kids, and I love that. I love that this is one generation sharing their love of these stories and these characters with the next generation.

I’m not as focused about how many people come. I hope everyone who comes has a great experience, but whether it’s 100,000 or 160,000 people, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone who comes feels that joy of being together in a crowd of fellow fans again and feels good about the fact that we can finally get out and, with safety precautions, start to re-indulge in some of these wonderful activities with friends and like-minded folks out there. I just hope everyone who comes feels like they got to do what they wanted, has a smile on their face when they leave, and looks forward to coming back next year.

SPOILER: The website is also very easy to navigate. Was that something that you’ve worked hard on?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: Yeah, I think we’ve really tried to learn a lot about making the website easier to use.

One of my obsessions, having been a trade show person for ten years, running hundreds of shows with millions of people attending them, I think it’s super important that the organizer thinks through where all the possible bottlenecks are and solves for them before the first fan shows up. It’s just inexcusable to have to wait in line for an hour, hour and a half to get through something.

I know there are going to be 20,000 people who wanna come in the first three hours on Saturday morning, so we need to develop the capacity to get those people in. We have 36 different entrances people can use, so they’ll be spread out. 15,000 of our tickets were mailed in advance this year, so they already have their badges, they don’t need to go through the third badge check. As

a fan, your time is precious. You’re paying good money to come here.

And if you’re gonna be at the show for eight hours, you should be going around doing things you like for eight hours, not spending four or five of those hours in lines that don’t need to be there. We give as much attention to the logistics as we do to who the guests are that we should bring in.

SPOILER: If fans want to meet you during the weekend, where can they find you?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I’m everywhere.

If anyone really wants to say hello, they can ask any of the security people. We have a lot of people with “Ask Me” shirts on. They’ll get on their walkie talkie and call me, and I’ll come over and say hi. Look, we do this because we’re fans. It’s really a true story that three siblings got frustrated that the convention they used to go to, they couldn’t get in anymore. And so, they wanted to create a convention that’s 100% fan-focused. And we keep that as our mantra—it’s at the center of

everything we do. I always say, if there’s something you don’t like, tell me. If there’s something you love, tell your friends.

We have a new ticketing partner this year, called Tixr, so when people go to buy tickets, it’s through them.

And Tixr has a rewards program.

When you buy a ticket, you get a code. And if you give that code to your friend and they buy a ticket, then you get money back on your ticket. So, if you bring in 10 friends, your ticket will be free!

SPOILER: Where do you see the convention going in the future?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I think the convention should go where the fans want it to go. So this year, this expansion of talent and gaming and anime is an important expansion.

Because we’re not walking away from anything we’ve been doing.

All of the traditional Con stuff—the comics, the toys, the collectibles, the guests, the panels—we’re still doing all of that stuff, but we’re adding these other things because we’ve seen so much growth in fan

interest in those areas. And the stories cross over. Avengers isn’t just a big movie, it’s a big video game.

And you get terrific anime shows that become collectible lines and then they become video games.

We’re going to really expand that [in the future] and we’re going to make an announcement at the show about continued expansion we’re going to do in that area. So, you’ll see LA Comic Con always trying to make sure that we represent the full spectrum of entertainment that really represents Los Angeles.

We’ll be throughout the entire Convention Center, and I can see us [in the future] having activities over at LA Live, really spreading out over that whole part of Downtown LA, and all of Downtown LA becoming a celebration of pop culture fandom on our weekend every year. There’s a lot of people in this city and a lot of fans of different things. I mean, we’re doing a crossover effort with the LA Kings this year. That’s the thing about LA: There’s all these different fandoms and we all live side by side, and we gotta find ways to celebrate together.

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batman: caped crusader, world’s greatest detective,

and the only person we as a society have been cool with training child soldiers. He’s a multifaceted hero with endless stories diving into various parts of his damaged soul, but something I’ve noticed we don’t ever really talk about is the psychology of the guy. His mental health, in particular. Now, just to be clear, Batman is my absolute favorite of all superheroes and I am aware that he is beloved by millions, but holy hell does this guy need a God damn therapist. The dude has some serious deep-rooted mental and emotional issues and it’s a miracle he’s fighting for good instead of sitting on top of Gotham’s smoky rubble. He is who he is (and who we love) because of his mental state and what he became because of it, but I really think that trauma is something we should talk about more often.

Now, before I go any further, I want to say that if you’re looking for an in-depth and clinical look at Batman’s psychology, you should check out Dr. Robin S. Rosenberg’s book What’s the Matter with Batman (yes, that

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is a real book. And no, I didn’t read it because I’ve got a deadline, people.)

You can find some incredible excerpts online in which she makes some very compelling arguments.

However, if you’re looking for a nerdy, half-informed, comedic take on the whole thing, well then, I say, “Come on in, Bat-friends!”

Here’s something we all know: A young Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents being murdered. Worst of all (and this has never actually been confirmed) I’m pretty sure he just, like, sat with their bodies for a very long time. Now, I’m no psychologist, but that has got to f**k you up, right?

I mean, I, as an adult, feel shaken when I see someone yell at my coffeeshop barista for giving them the wrong drink, not to mention watching your parents being gunned down in an alleyway as a child! We know there was an emotional and mental void created within him that he filled by promising to stop all crime in Gotham, right? We know he then went off and spent his teenage and young adult life in the Himalayas

Batman/DC/Warner Bros.

BY MATTHEW McLACHLAN

and other impossible-to-reach places learning how to break a man’s wrist forty-seven ways and how to do that impossible disappearing thing that pisses everyone off. But we, as a collective fanbase, all know that something snapped inside Bruce Wayne that day, but we never really talk about that. We’re only ever focused on what came after.

Everyone overlooks how mentally torturous it would’ve been to train to the physical limits it would take to become Batman, not to mention the physical and mental drive it would take to maintain it as he got older! Some would say you’d have to be somewhat mentally unstable to push your body that hard for so long. Who says that? Why, the people who do it, of course! You ever watch any of those CrossFit documentaries on Netflix? These

athletes push themselves to such physical extremes that over the course of these documentaries, many of these athletes admit that you’d have to have something a little wrong with you to find the joy from this level of exertion. Uh. Yeah!

No sh*t! Flipping 700 pound tires in a 110-degree garage 100 times in a row isn’t exactly the portrait of sanity, people! Now, can you imagine doing that every God damn day as just a warmup so you can keep up the physical endurance to support 150-pound Bat-armor as you flip through the air while avoiding getting shot in the face?! Yeah, sounds insane doesn’t it?!

I think what no one ever addresses in the Batman comics and/or films that I think is tied directly to the psychological break within Bruce Wayne is that, if he really wanted to eradicate crime from the streets of Gotham, he could. He’s smart enough. This is the guy who figured out how to stop the entire Justice League and you’re telling me he can’t figure out how to clean up the city streets? Even Rudy Giuliani figured that out! I bet if any of Batman’s allies said to him, “Yo, Bruce, I crunched some numbers and found that if you donated X-amount of millions into education while using your political resources to push strict weapon laws and prison reform, you’d cut the Gotham crime rate in half in less than 10-15 years! While as Batman, if you punched these people in the mouth and sent them

off to Arkham or Blackgate while you did all that as Bruce Wayne, your job would be done, mah dude!

You could retire in no time!” But he wouldn’t do it. Because I don’t think he really wants to. I think that a part of his psychological break is that he craves the fight. He doesn’t really want to stop. He self-medicates on the process of stopping crime, not the actual stopping of it. If I were to be so bold, I would tie this to the reason why he doesn’t just kill the Joker. He needs him. He needs that

little piece of chaos in his life to keep him moving forward, to keep giving him that sense of purpose, to give him his medicine. And I don’t think Bruce Wayne would ever give that up. That’s a part of his break from reality. So, what do we do when the only real person who can eradicate all of crime in Gotham could actually be the reason it still exists after so many years in the vigilante game?

I don’t freakin’ know, I’m just a nerd who thought this article was a good idea and needed a good ending line.

Leave me alone.

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BY ETHAN BREHM

the influential French New Wave movement, renowned film critics such as André Bazin and François Truffaut proposed and advocated for a concept called “auteur theory” which suggests that the director is the most important creative figure to a film’s success, and when a director’s creative control over the production is great enough, then the finished product will be a reflection of his vision outright. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Jerry Lewis, who sought control of their movies, were among those who garnered praise for their authorship and realized vision. The French New Wave eventually inspired a New Wave in American cinema that gave rise to a whole new generation of filmmaking with more of a focus on director authorship rather than the more producer-driven one of the studio system of Hollywood’s Golden Age, which ultimately ended in the mid-’60s.

While auteurs definitely still exist and thrive in today’s climate (Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Edgar Wright, just to name a few), the rise of the Hollywood blockbuster since the mid-’70s has seen a greater increase in production, and therefore budgets. These days it seems like the larger a movie’s budget, the less creative control a director has (though not always). It kinda makes

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sense—the greater financial risk of a project means more micromanaging by the higher-ups.

Despite perhaps falling too much into action film conventions (even if he’s the one who invented some of those conventions), Zack Snyder would definitely tick a lot of the auteur boxes for those old French cineastes. The director is nothing short of an auteur in spirit, and even intent. His definite filmmaking style and unique vision has been apparent since he jumped on the feature film scene back in 2004 with his worthy remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Since then he’s shown,

in glimpses, what he can achieve when he’s given the full reins, never more noticeably than with 2006’s historical epic 300, perhaps Snyder’s magnum opus prior to his most recent release (and his first foray into the comic book universe). In 300, every visual nuance felt like nothing we had seen ever before.

The caricatured production design was visually stimulating, utilizing a limited tricolor palette of reds, browns, and silvers. He was able to create what I call a “snow globe movie” (where the entire film seems to take place inside a perfect little snow globe). The slow-motion

Justice League/HBO Max/Warner Bros./DC Comics

in the 1940s and ‘50s, just prior to the birth of

action sequences and lack of quickcuts helped turn the promising director into a marquee name. He had a distinct vision and we couldn’t wait to see what he would come out with next.

Snyder’s comic book and video game sensibilities haven’t always translated well to the big screen throughout the years. His 2013 movie Man of Steel, despite being a serviceable action flick, saw the intrinsically sparkly nature of Superman seeming to contradict the director’s love affair with all things bleak and depressing. But the filmmaker has also been met with a lot of contention and pushback from studios who haven’t always been on board with his desire to tell a fully expansive story—an experience, if you will—as with 2009’s Watchmen or 2016’s disastrous Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, or understood his darker and more angry approach to action, as in 2011’s Sucker Punch or 2017’s Justice League—a project where the studio, Warner Bros., was striving more for the idealized paradigm of Marvel’s Avengers.

Justice League, written by Chris Terrio, was the third piece to a planned five-part film arc, and if you were reading between the lines, you could tell that Snyder had a vision from the get go. However, extensive rewrites at the request of Warner Bros. and a rushed release date due to a rumored merger with AT&T were signs that the project was doomed from the start. And then the death of Snyder’s daughter, Autumn, forced the director into a new perspective.

He eventually stepped away from

“

The slow-motion action sequences and lack of quickcuts helped turn the promising director into a marquee name.

He had a distinct vision and we couldn’t wait to see what he would come out with next.

the project to be with his family. Joss Whedon (director of Avengers) took over directorial duties, which led to even more rewrites and eventual reshoots. The studio was hoping for a brighter tone with more levity. Oh yeah, and they had a strict 2-hour cap on the runtime.

How do you tell a story about trying to stop an evil tyrannical alien and his army of minions from conquering Earth and controlling the minds of its inhabitants in 2 hours or less, while also bringing together a particular unstoppable team of superheroes that has never been assembled before in live-action film history? Well, just look at the 2017 theatrical release of Justice League.

It clocks in at exactly 120 minutes (including end credits) and only tells half of the story (literally), and

is never nearly as epic as it should have been considering the pretense.

On the surface, the film introduces brand new characters hastily and haphazardly without giving them enough (or any) background, feeling like one giant montage as they get assembled together. On top of that, the lore behind the villains and their motives isn’t really explained either. Whedon “trims the fat” and largely relies on the audience’s blind acceptance of in-world truths and plot devices. Simply put, Justice League was a messy amalgamation of contrasting visions and studio meddling, and the audience could feel the lack of coherence.

The DC fandom wanted more. In fact, they deserved more. When news got out that Snyder dropped out of the project and changes were made, speculation arose about a hypothetical “Snyder Cut” of Justice League. It started with an online campaign. Fans created petitions and #ReleaseTheSnyderCut began circulating on social media before any knowledge of an alternate version was made clear. Judging from his history with his director’s cuts (Watchmen and Batman v Superman)—usually fairing better than their respective theatrical releases—it felt like the existence of a Snyder Cut was inevitable.

Finally in 2019, Snyder confirmed that his original cut did in fact exist and that the ball was now in Warner Bros.’ court. It was up to them if they Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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“

of a TV series on Netflix or Prime.

Four hours is basically the same as cramming 4 or 5 episodes in a row on a Saturday afternoon. Television, however, is different in how it develops a story and its characters.

In film, if we love or hate a character, we will know this by the time the film is over. In a series, on the other hand, our opinion about a character can potentially change from season to season, or even episode to episode.

Nevertheless, the extensive runtime of Zack Snyder’s Justice League is completely warranted.

The basic framework is the same between the two versions: After the death of Superman in the previous film, Batman and Wonder Woman need to assemble a team of heroes in order to prevent Steppenwolf and an evil alien empire from collecting the three Mother Boxes hidden on

Justice League/HBO Max/Warner Bros./DC Comics

wanted to release it. And so the fans stepped up their game, launching a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $20,000 for advertising during San Diego Comic Con to pressure Warner Bros. into releasing Snyder’s version, as well as another campaign that saw a pair of billboards in Times Square promoting the same cause.

Members of the cast and crew also showed their support of Snyder’s original vision, and so, in the true spirit of the world of fandom, plans were set into motion for a 2021 release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League aka The Snyder Cut on HBO Max. Snyder’s version is double the length of the theatrical release (4 hours, 2 minutes), giving the ambitious story the weight and attention it deserves. A film about saving the world from destruction is a tall task in cinema, and still one we’ve seen time and time again in comic book movies, yet never with a runtime this long. $70 million dollars were spent on special effects, music scoring, editing, and the filming of a few new scenes.

There aren’t many superhero films these days that are under 2 hours, and the ones that manage to do so feature much smaller stakes (Thor 1 and 2, both Ant-Man movies, and The Incredible Hulk come to mind).

A four-hour movie on television in today’s climate isn’t a huge issue for those who are able to binge hours

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Earth. However, the Snyder Cut opens up this plot and allows it the chance to breathe.

There are a lot of moving parts to the story, and the director breaks his film into eight chapters, including an intro and epilogue. There are actual backstories for the characters of Cyborg, The Flash, and Aquaman— three new heroes—adding an emotional weight to the conflict at hand and making these different subplots all feel connected, as well as the characters within them.

It’s logical to assume that any improvement on the original will be received with even slightly more open arms. Snyder could have just added more backstory and called it a day, and still this would have been better than what we got back in 2017. Nevertheless, the filmmaker fixes all the overt issues from the theatrical release, but also makes some changes we didn’t know we needed. Action sequences are improved upon for coherence, and expanded without becoming too drawn out. Snyder has always been an accomplished action director, so these changes are in good hands.

With his signature brand of violence, the PG-13 rating has been changed to an R-rating.

The comedy is still present, but

“

“

Snyder’s version is double the length of the theatrical release (4 hours, 2 minutes), giving the ambitious story the weight and attention it deserves

somehow feels less jarring here as the jokes flow a little more fluidly within the dialogue. In the studio’s original attempt to inject their theatrical cut with humor and charm, it actually made the finished product dull and lifeless. Here, Snyder imbues his movie with a personality that’s more rooted in plot invention and character rather than one-liners, yet still manages to be funnier.

There are some nice surprises in the story down the road with a climax that’s undeniably more deserved, and a triple-whammy ending, which I wouldn’t even think of spoiling. It’s also important to mention that everything that’s good in the theatrical version is preserved in this one, including the thrilling bank sequence with Wonder Woman (also given a nice plus-up here).

Director’s cuts can often feel overlong and self-indulgently thorough. Fortunately for Snyder, the theatrical version was anything but thorough. Here, the filmmaker could perhaps be accused of being extravagant, but never excessive.

The expansion adequately matches the ambitions of the project and somehow fits.

The new 4:3 aspect ratio—

something no superhero movie has ever done—harkens back to the Golden Age of Cinema’s standard “Academy Ratio” (1:37:1), allowing the at-home viewer to actually see more of the frame than if it were to play in a movie theater (which would have to trim the top and bottom to fit the picture onto the wider screen) since this is how Snyder shot the movie in the first place. The proportions, which favor verticality over breadth of landscape, actually make the heroes look bigger on screen and add an important touch of magnitude to the finished product.

It’s clear now that the director had a very precise vision for his movie— one that got thrown out in favor of more expected conventions. The Snyder Cut is not just a doubled version of an unfavorable film. No. The theatrical release of Justice League was flawed because Snyder’s original vision was taken into an entirely new direction. The Snyder Cut is that original vision. The film still abides by a standard threeact structure, with a thrilling and cinematic storyboarding that’s paced almost immaculately, never dragging or belaboring the point. Now with

an appropriate level of epicness, intense moments have more weight and we’re actually on the edge of our seat. This new four-hour movie is fun, lively, and truly exciting.

Yet the film isn’t without its flaws.

It occasionally falls into comic book tropes such as generic battle scenes, despite the improvements upon the ones from the theatrical release, or an overuse of dei ex machina. Also, the more balanced pacing creates confusing levels of urgency in the third act. However, there’s nothing from the theatrical release that was altered for the worse here, and we will undoubtedly take the bad with the great.

The Snyder Cut is very much journey- and mythos-driven, with things like character development taking somewhat of a backseat (compared to most Marvel films, which are insanely character-driven).

However, in a film like Justice League, it’s that very mythology that matters most, especially when introducing a few new heroes in the process.

We learn just enough about them to care, but not too much where they become the central focus or detract from the overarching story or the other heroes involved. In fact, it’s when there is focus on the charms of the characters—such as with Barry Allen/The Flash and his witticism—

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“

Much like 300, Snyder’s biggest goal with his own Justice League is building the lore, as though you were being told the tale through oral tradition perhaps.

“

where the film hits an incongruous bump.

Much like 300, Snyder’s biggest goal with his own Justice League is building the lore, as though you were being told the tale through oral tradition perhaps.

Bedtime stories often omit specific jokes or one-liners told by their heroes, rather focus on things like what those heroes did: breaking their own personal rules about running faster than the speed of light in order to save humanity, or going beyond reason to have faith in the success of their compatriots, thus letting them have the glory instead. These are the ideas that Snyder typically holds of greatest importance in his films, and one that massively succeeds here despite having almost none of the aesthetic or charismatic approach of a Marvel movie.

That’s not to say that changes weren’t made to develop the heroes involved. Even Superman (Henry Cavill) is given more depth here than he does in his previous two appearances in this canon. In the 2017 film, the focus was heavily placed on waking his character from the dead rather than assembling the team and storyboarding the rest of the plot. But here, his appearance feels like more than just a stunt and meshes better with its surroundings while simultaneously having more importance tacked onto it.

Ben Affleck is great in his “swan song” appearance as Bruce Wayne/Batman (Affleck is still taking part in a multiverse version of the Caped Crusader in 2022’s The Flash along with Michael Keaton). The actor might not be the biggest takeaway from the plot, but his character’s level-headedness grounds the film in a big way and Affleck finally gets a chance to really shine in the role. The least explored character is Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), but fortunately we have two other movies (and more coming) that adequately do so.

Perhaps most notably, we get exploration into the three new heroes involved. Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher), a former high school football star, suffered lifethreatening injuries and was saved by his scientist father who harnessed the powers of one of the three Mother Boxes to turn him into the greatest and quickest computer hacker/manipulator in the universe. Allen (Ezra Miller), who’s trying to pay his way through college by working dead-end job after dead-end job, hopes to exonerate his father who’s been wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his mother.

With his lightning-speed, we get a pretty awesome scene with him saving a girl from a car accident, as well as some other

Justice League/HBO Max/Warner Bros./DC Comics

character-building moments. Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is an apathetic fish-man who’s the rightful ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, however he rejects all ties with that world. He also declines Wayne’s offer to help in the cause to stop Steppenwolf. The Snyder Cut not only develops these three characters more, but gives them each a very important role in the team’s quest for victory.

2017’s theatrical version of Justice League was so void of charm and coherence that any changes made would have been welcomed no matter what, but Snyder crafts an absolute superhero epic. Reminiscent of some of the most iconic sagas in film history, not just in length but with its even storytelling and befitting bravado, The Snyder Cut isn’t just great—it’s one of the best comic book movies to come out during this current Golden Age of Superheroes. What was once considered just a pipe dream is now going to be looked at as a gamechanger moving forward in the genre in terms of scope and expectation. It’s definitely not Avengers, but we would never want it to be.

As far as the director is concerned, it’s undeniably the best effort of his

career, and validation of not only his vision, but his creative prowess. This is a very big win for Snyder and it makes audiences and fans lament what could have been of his final two planned films—but only if he were able to do it his way.

Fortunately the DC Extended Universe has been able to pump out a couple successes in the years since Justice League, proving that 2017’s Wonder Woman wasn’t just an outlier. Even if you’re not a fan of the 2020 film, Birds of Prey saw a stylish and concise vision. And 2018’s Aquaman, with James Wan at the helm, had been arguably the DCEU’s best endeavor yet prior to this latest release. However, with the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the future of the DCEU is bright. Even if they didn’t want to admit it, Warner Bros. seems to have realized that the answer may be in simply trusting their director—and buying more into auteur theory perhaps. With the vast contrast between Snyder’s version and the theatrical one, the world can also now see the importance of the artist’s role in the finished product.

Now if only we can get a filmed version of Colin Trevorrow’s Dual of the Fates…

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Writer: Mark Russell | Artist: Mike Deodato Jr. | Colorist: Lee Lougridge

what’s it about?

In the year of 2056, robots have replaced human beings in the workforce. An uneasy coexistence develops between the newly intelligent robots and the ten billion humans living on Earth. Every human family is assigned a robot upon whom they are completely reliant.

What could possibly go wrong? Meet the Walkers, a human family whose robot, Razorball, ominously spends his free time in the garage working on machines, which they’re pretty sure are designed to kill them. (from AWA Studios)

the good

200,000 humans were wiped out in minutes at the end of Not All Robots #1. The second issue of this thought-provoking and hysterical series focuses on the fallout from that horrific event as well as how both humans and robots deal with the idea that they will soon both be obsolete with the advent of the Mandroids. Mark Russell’s writing is compelling as he takes a situation that should be far-fetched and incoherent and makes it idiomatic; simple and relatable for all to enjoy.

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There’s a lot going on in issue 2, but Russell’s writing and Deodato’s art allow the reader to get lost in the dystopian world they have crafted.

the bad

While Not All Robots #2 is a mustget for a comic book/science fiction fan, especially if you enjoy Philip K. Dick stories, I wonder about the lifespan of a series of this nature. I am engaged and curious as to where this story is going but can’t help but wonder if this would’ve worked better as a limited series rather than a full-fledged, ongoing one. Readers are preparing for the inevitable conflict between humans and robots and who will side with whom, but then what? What happens after the conflict? This series, amazing as it is, seems better fit for a limited run.

SCORE

9.0/10

Not All Robots:AWA Studios

NOT ALL ROBOTS #2

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

NOT ALL ROBOTS #3 Writer: Mark Russell | Artist: Mike Deodato Jr. | Colorist: Lee Lougridge

what’s it about?

In the year of 2056, robots have replaced human beings in the workforce. An uneasy coexistence develops between the newly intelligent robots and the ten billion humans living on Earth. Every human family is assigned a robot upon whom they are completely reliant.

What could possibly go wrong? Meet the Walkers, a human family whose robot, Razorball, ominously spends his free time in the garage working on machines, which they’re pretty sure are designed to kill them. (from AWA Studios)

the good

Issue 3 introduces us to the larger world that our dystopian cast

occupies. Readers get a glimpse into the masterminds behind the mechanical madness, the Ruling Council, and Mandroids make their way into the homes of a lucky few who can afford them. The art and writing continue to impress, as does the story development. The dark humor blends perfectly with the characters and their view of their world.

the bad

While the art is spot on and the robot character design is brilliant, the human characters and their resemblance to actual, real-life people can often be a distraction.

The main human father figure bears more than a passing resemblance to Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

Perhaps it’s meant to clue us in to Ray’s status and frame of mind, but some panels look ripped right from the poster of the 1993 film. The head of Omni Robotics, Ted Fox, looks like an amalgamation of Ben Kingsley and Jeff Bezos. The writing in this issue allows me to get lost in the story, but the human character designs were there to rip me out of it.

SCORE

8.5/10

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Writer: Tom Taylor | Artist: Yasmine Putri | Colorist: Yasmine Putri

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

An entire medieval world will be forever changed when a spaceship crash-lands from a doomed planet.

Monarchs will die, kingdoms will rise, and what seemed the end of the world for many was only the beginning! Dark Knights of Steel is an epic high-fantasy story set in a DC Universe where nothing is what it seems.

From worldwide bestselling writer Tom Taylor (DCeased, Superman: Son of Kal-El) and acclaimed artist Yasmine Putri comes a generational tale of good and evil within a brandnew DCU! (from DC Comics)

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Full confession: I’m a sucker for a good reimagining. Dark Knights of Steel takes the heroes and villains of the DC Universe that we know and love (and hate) and presents them in a unique and interesting way. Putri’s art and eye for color are stupendous.

Redesigning decades-old costumes as if they occupied centuries-old cultures is no easy task, but this team makes it look effortless. Taylor has crafted a world that feels vastly different from the one we know but oddly familiar at the same time. I don’t usually let out a gasp when I’m reading comics, but here, I let out two of them back-to-back at the issue’s conclusion.

THE BAD

In all honesty, this is such a phenomenal book that finding flaws is difficult. Taylor and Putri continue to craft astonishing tales with beautiful visuals. I would love to hear more about the kingdoms outside of Jor-El’s, but something tells me that’s coming with future issues. I’m calling Dark Knights of Steel my book of the month.

SCORE

9.5/10

Dark Knights of Steel:DC Comics/The Human Target:DC Comics

DARK KNIGHTS OF STEEL #1

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

THE HUMAN TARGET #1 Writer: Tom King | Artist: Greg Smallwood | Colorist: Greg Smallwood

the good

what’s it about?

Christopher Chance has made a living out of being a human target—a man hired to disguise himself as his client to invite would-be assassins to attempt his murder. He’s had a remarkable career until his latest case protecting Lex Luthor when things go sideways. An assassination attempt Chance didn’t see coming leaves him vulnerable and left trying to solve his own murder as he has 12 days to discover just who in the DCU hated Luthor enough to want him dead. (from DC Comics)

Greg Smallwood’s art is reminiscent of a Nick Fury book ripped right out of the ‘70s, with colors and images that pop right off the page. If Andy Warhol and Jim Steranko had a baby that inherited their talents, Greg Smallwood would be it. I’ve always enjoyed The Human Target, as both a short-lived comic series and as a short-lived television series. It’s great to see Christopher Chance back and ever so prominent in the main DC Universe. He interacts with everyone from Lex Luthor to Doctor Mid-Nite, and Tom King has crafted a noir tale that is compelling for old and new fans of the character.

Normally, I bemoan the abundance of exposition writers often attach to convoluted storylines, but in this instance the exposition is necessary as this is the Human Target’s first return to comic pages in over 11 years. Heavy exposition is crucial in allowing readers to get a better idea of who Christopher Chance is and what he’s capable of. Despite all its faults, issue 1 is a great return for a fan favorite character. I’m anxious to see where this is going.

SCORE

8.5/10

the bad

I’ve never been too fond of nonlinear storytelling. King does a wonderful job, as you might expect, but hopping from point C to point A to point B is a daunting task for any writer and vexing for any reader. The issue’s final reveal concerning who’s responsible for Chance’s poisoning is presented in a shocking manner, but is ultimately betrayed by the issue’s main cover. Don’t get me wrong, the story and the mystery are engaging.

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Writer: Cullen Bunn, Joe Pruett, Jim Starlin, Frank Tieri | Artist: Joe Eisma, Nikkol Jelenic, Szymon Kudranski, Cliff Richards | Colorist: DC Alonso, Matt Herms, Szymon Kudranski

what’s it about?

Tales from the Crypt meets The Twilight Zone—four tales of horror, lost souls, and things that go bump in the night. A prestige format “One-Shock” featuring top creative talent, After Dark is a collection of tales you’ll want to read with the lights on! A disparate tale from a possible future; a chance encounter with a mythical Black-Eyed Kid; a children’s fable gone awry; and a gut-wrenching last meal at the local diner. (from AfterShock Comics)

THE GOOD

As with any anthology series, there will be some stories that stand out more than others.

“Dust to Dust” is a great tale about loss, devotion, and commitment, with equally amazing visuals. “Along Came a Spider,” a preview of sorts for a new series based on classic nursery rhymes launching later this year, is dark, twisted, and nightmare fuel for anyone with arachnophobia. “Inheritance” and “Black-Eyed Kids” are entertaining

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and nicely drawn as well. After Dark certainly starts strong and ends strong.

THE BAD

While the book is fun from start to finish, and creepy most of the time, it’s light on horror.

Jim Starlin’s contribution to the anthology series came in the form of the ultra-brief short story “Inheritance.” I was expecting a great deal from the man who gave us Thanos and some of Marvel’s best space books, but ultimately was disappointed by his cautionary contribution to the book. Prior to this anthology, I was unfamiliar with the “BlackEyed Kids” series and, although its entry here is presented as a standalone work, it’s clear that some level of understanding of the series is required to fully grasp what’s going on. As a whole, the book is enjoyable despite some of its weaker parts.

SCORE

8.0/10

After Dark:AfterShock Comics/The Death of Doctor Strange:Marvel

AFTER DARK

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

THE DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE #1 Writer: Jed MacKay | Artist: Lee Garbett | Colorist: Antonio Fabela

what’s it about?

Death comes for the Sorcerer Supreme! Doctor Stephen Strange is the world’s greatest neurosurgeon and Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. He defends our planet from the supernatural and interdimensional threats no other hero is equipped to handle. But what would happen if he unexpectedly died? Who would protect Earth and keep the mystical evils at bay? And most importantly…who killed Stephen Strange?! (from Marvel Comics)

the good

I must admit that I’m not the most avid reader of Doctor Strange books. I’m enjoying Strange Academy and have enjoyed many stories that featured the Sorcerer Supreme in them, but to say I’ve ever willfully purchased a Doctor Strange book would be a lie. This may be the end of Doctor Strange’s life, but it’s a great comic if you’re like me and not well-versed in the magical universe that Strange inhabits. The art and writing are top notch. I’ve maintained that

the hallmark of a great comic book is how welcoming it is to new and old readers alike. Jed MacKay is able to take decades of Strange history and present it in such a way that you don’t need to be a comic historian to understand it. It’s fun how the book touches on the old Strange speech patterns (Zounds!) in a way that seems cool and funny, in what could’ve easily been cheesy and out of touch. I’m definitely in for whatever happens next.

get a healthy gasp out of the readers.

Marvel has a soft spot lately for taking time-displaced heroes and placing them front and center in the Marvel 616, so I’m definitely curious to see how this story plays out.

the bad

It’s a shame that it’s taken me this long to get involved with a Doctor Strange book, because if they’re anything like this, I’ve truly missed out. MacKay wastes no time in taking our “old” Doctor Strange out just to introduce a new Doctor Strange in his place. There aren’t too many negative things to say about this book specifically, but rather the overdone concept of death in comics in general. The writer does a wonderful job subverting our expectations in the final few panels, but still manages to

SCORE

9.0/10

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Writer: Cavan Scott | Artist: Jose Luis & Jonas Trinidade | Colorist: Rex Lokus action-packed superhero story, this book is for you. Almost every page has an action sequence on it. The ending is cool as well, especially if you’re a Kite Man fan. Hell yeah! A fun book from start to finish.

THE BAD

what’s it about?

The Titans face their greatest challenge—their own powers!

Nightwing, Donna Troy, Superboy, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Red Hood kick off a thrilling new case that will lead one of their own to question not only their place on the team, but their very existence. (from DC Comics)

THE GOOD

Nostalgia is fun, and this book makes me nostalgic for the Titans of the ‘80s and ‘90s. The plot is straightforward and engaging. The characters are drawn perfectly. Red Hood’s inclusion adds a great deal of tension that Cavan Scott does a fantastic job with. If you enjoy an

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Although the dialogue written by Scott captures the feel of each of these characters, there is something that just feels off about it, especially in regards to Beast Boy, where he’s presented in his usual comedic fashion but turned up to 11. At one point, Red Hood asks if Beast Boy ever “turns it off.” In this book, he hits us with quip after quip ad nauseum. The most glaring aspect of this series is that it comes across as a tie-in (or cash-in) to the HBO Max Titans series. The core players here parallel the stars of the television show. Not to say that’s a bad thing, because it’s great to see them all in one book, but it is noticeable.

SCORE

8.0/10

Teen Titans:DC Comics/Alien:Marvel:20th Century Studios:Disney

TITANS UNITED #1

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

ALIEN #1 Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson | Artist: Salvador Larroca | Colorist: Guru-eFX

what’s it about?

Gabriel Cruz gave his life to WeylandYutani—in the case of an alien attack he barely survived, almost literally!

Recently retired, Cruz is trying to patch things up with his abandoned son with the help of his friend, a Bishopmodel android, but his re-entry into civilian life is not going smoothly, and his encounters with the deadly Xenomorph are far from over. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca team up to tell an all-new tale of the titan of horror and science fiction that has scared audiences for decades. No one is safe. No one is innocent. And no one can hear you scream. (from Marvel Comics)

THE GOOD

Were you nervous about Disney taking over the Alien franchise? Well, put your mind at ease, my friend. I’m no stranger to the Alien cinematic universe, but I’m not well versed in the Alien comics that Dark Horse gave us.

If this is the kind of book they were producing, I truly missed out. Phillip Kennedy Johnson does a fantastic job recreating the fear and dread I’ve come to expect from the Xenomorphs.

There’s enough here to give longtime

fans what they want (the inclusion of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the Bishop androids), but also so much more to appease new fans who may not be all that familiar with the franchise.

THE BAD

It’s hard to critique Johnson’s writing or find a better art duo than Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX. Every panel on every page is beautifully rendered.

There’s a good chance that if you’re picking up this book, you already know all about the Xenomorphs. The problem here, just like with many horror adaptations, is getting us to relate to and connect with the newly introduced protagonists—something I failed to do this time. To be fair, I’m not sure if that’s a criticism of the writing as it’s presented or my own personal bias when it comes to monster stories. While I wanted to see more of the aliens, it’s also understandable to not want to hinge an entire story on solely following a space insect with the inability to emote. The writing and art team does a stellar job expanding on the universe that the films created. I just had a hard time connecting with it on a personal level.

SCORE

8.5/10

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Writer: Tim Seally & Sarah Beattie | Artist: Mirka Andolfo | Colorist: Arif Prianto

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

What happens when an indomitable force meets an irritating object?

That’s what readers find out when Superman runs into Lobo. Think of it like a boy scout joining a biker gang.

What will be worse, the damage Lobo causes on his own or the chaos of trying to stop him? I smell a teamup, fanboys!

Numen is the most popular being in the universe, a god clogging all social channels. And he does not like competition. This means Superman and Lobo must go.

Further complicating things is Dr. Flik, a scientist determined to study the last sons of Krypton and Czarnia, respectively. What can she glean from the hero who lost everything as a baby and the bad, bad boy who made it all go away just for the heck of it? (from DC Comics)

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Tim Seally and Sarah Beattie know how to write Superman and Lobo for sure! Although this book isn’t perfect, it does perfectly capture the essence of its titular characters. It’s great to see DC reembracing Lobo as of late. For the last few years it seemed like they didn’t know what to do with him, but now I’m happy to say we’re seeing a lot more of the classic Main Man that old nerds like me have come to know and love.

The Superman that we get here seems ripped right from the pages of the Silver Age of comics—my favorite era. The plot, although often convoluted and heavy-handed in its critique of social media, is grand in scale and admirable in its execution.

The worlds that we see Lobo and Superman occupy throughout the issue are bright and vibrant.

Andolfo’s art and Prianto’s colors work wonderfully together. The art, with the exception of one early splash page of Superman, which seems somewhat “off,” is wonderful throughout the book.

THE BAD

I love a comic book that reflects

the time in which it is written.

Social commentary is an important element of comic books that is often overlooked. It was nice to see this issue, which easily could’ve survived as an extended fight scene, tackle issues like cancel culture and the ills of social media. However, even for an old cornball like me, the social commentary often felt forced and clumsy. I enjoyed the humor of the book but felt that it was a tad light on plot. I’m also a little confused as to why this was published under DC’s mature Black Label umbrella, because Lobo and others are consistently censored.

SCORE

8.0/10

Superman vs. Lobo:DC Comics/Chicken Devil:AfterShock Comics

SUPERMAN VS LOBO #1

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

CHICKEN DEVIL #1 Writer: Brian Buccellato | Artist: Hayden Sherman | Colorist: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou don’t know Mitchell Moss, but you may know someone just like him: hardworking, stressed out, and way in over his head. The panel layout, character designs, and lettering make an already-standout book even better. Chicken Devil #1 is full of humor and violence—a definite must-read.

what’s it about?

Mitchell Moss is about as regular as it gets. He’s married with two children, and co-owns a successful chain of Memphis Hot Chicken restaurants.

It’s not the life that screams hero/ vigilante...until he discovers that his business partner is in bed with the mob and owes them $2 million.

Unfortunately, Mitch is ill-equipped to be a badass. He’s just a guy who makes really good chicken. Can he protect his family from cold-blooded gangsters? Absolutely not. (from AfterShock Comics)

THE GOOD

The entire time I was reading this amazing book I kept thinking to myself, “This would make a great movie!” Not only is the writing wickedly clever and funny, but it’s engaging from page one. You

THE BAD

While the art, lettering, and panels are the real heroes of this book, sometimes, especially in high energy scenes, they are a bit chaotic and distracting. That’s entirely forgivable considering the unique design of this issue. The story itself is great and certainly interesting, but not unlike plot elements that we’ve already seen before. The story is Breaking Bad (a point that even writer Brian Buccellato makes in the book) mixed with a dumb-luck Hobo With a Shotgun. It’s a fun read and I’m looking forward to seeing where Mitchell Moss goes next.

SCORE

9.0/10

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SPOILER MAGAZINE

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BY ETHAN BREHM

THE WORD “NOSTALGIA” LITERALLY TRANSLATES

to “homesickness” in Greek. As recently as the 19th century (and as early as the 17th), nostalgia was considered a psychological disease, most commonly affecting soldiers at war in another country, with many of them discharged and, in some instances in the Russian army during a 1733 outbreak, buried alive.

These days, nostalgia is more of a blanket term for reminiscing about our past. What was once a niche and uncommon condition can now be seen everywhere we look, sprinkled all throughout our lives and fueling modern pop culture. Nostalgia can be triggered by things as small as an Instagram post about an old TV show or childrens’ toy, as mainstream as a song that employs an obvious ‘90s influence, or as personal as a photo album or home video

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from our own past. Perhaps it’s not that people today want to relive their past more than previous generations had, but that there are more outlets to alleviate some of these desires, albeit temporarily, and thus more of a culture forming around them. In many cases these longings can still definitely bring about a sort of depression and sadness, even though it seems like most people our age experience these feelings along with us. And so we realize that it’s that sharing of nostalgia that helps us to cope the most.

“Are our memories real or are they the stories we wanna tell ourselves?”

This is a main question that actress/ director Soleil Moon Frye poses, and the de facto proposition of her film Kid 90, a documentary that shows footage of her life during her

teen years, in the years following the wrapping of her popular sitcom Punky Brewster, in which she starred as the titular character.

In the ‘90s, Frye carried around a video camera everywhere she went, and now, over 20 years later, she’s unboxed the footage and started compiling a sort of time capsule of the era. Becoming famous at a young age, the actress surrounded herself with a small little community of other child actors in Los Angeles.

It was that group of kids where, at any time, any one of them would make it big. It consisted of Leonardo DiCaprio (who serves as executive producer on this film), David Arquette, Stephen Dorff, Brian Austin Green, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jenny Lewis, Mark Wahlberg, Jonathan Brandis, and many, many others.

She talks with some of them now in between showing footage from back then, wondering why they value their past so much even though a lot of it was riddled with tragedy. “It feels like we were losing a friend every week,” laments one star, referring to the alarming rate of suicides by young actors during that era—ironically a former side effect of nostalgia back when it was still considered a disorder.

Being a kid is tough, but being a kid actor is like having the burden of expectations of an adult, but without the maturity and confidence to deal with them. There’s pressure to keep a certain youthful image despite wanting and developmentally needing to make the mistakes that every kid makes. Even despite these stresses, it’s still nice when everyone loves you and knows who you are, but then there’s a loneliness that sets in once that’s all over.

Kid 90/Soleil Moon Frye/Hulu/Jurassic Park/Universal/Men in Black/Sony/Marvel/Batman/DC Comics/Power Rangers/Hasbro

Our memories are funny. As we grow into adulthood, we come to an inevitable point where we’re separated enough from our youth and adolescence, and able to think back and wish that we were there again. Life as an adult is tough, and as the deluge of stresses and responsibilities piles up, we have a tendency to wish that things were simpler again. However, time has an interesting way of putting these memories into order; getting rid of the bad and justifying the sad. It may speak more to how, as kids unable to process pain correctly, we found ways back then to wrap our heads around tragedy and make sense of certain realities.

Does this mean that only those who had ideal childhoods are overcome with nostalgia? Not at all. In fact, many of us were faced with some terrible obstacles as kids, whether it be divorce, abuse, depression, bullying, unrealistic expectations—all things out of our control. Yet most of us today long for the mindset we had back then regardless—the same sense of hope, perhaps—rather than the actual time travel. Now, if only we were able to see back then that “this too shall pass”—that life does in fact get better—if only we could have told ourselves that, then maybe those obstacles wouldn’t have felt so despairing. Maybe those among us who thought about ending it all because of them would still be around today.

We’re somehow all convinced that our teen years are our golden years, when in reality it only gets better when we start maturing and seeing other people and their issues.

Looking back, it may feel like times were better, but how much can we

Is nostalgia more about a longing for the actual past or a desire to obtain the same hopeful outlook and naive mindset that we had back then?

see only in our memory? It’s just a highlight reel. But what happens when you’re able to take off those rose-colored glasses and actually look back behind you? By unearthing her collection of old videos and recordings, Frye is able to do just that as she digs through her past and experiences, in a way, what things were actually like, undistorted.

Before home videos were ubiquitous like they are today, people weren’t constantly putting on an act whenever the cameras were rolling.

Chances are, nobody would ever really watch this footage again, and there would definitely be no chance of the entire world having access to it. Because of this, behavior and dialogue was much more candid and frank. Most of the people in Frye’s videos are very much acting like themselves—for better or worse.

Early on in the film Frye talks about having an amazing childhood and how she wanted to hold onto that youth while everyone around her was forcing her into adulthood—a big reason for her highly-publicized breast reduction—but then later on she says how she so desperately wanted to be mature. This really appears to be a contradiction at first, but the more we think about it, we realize that so is nostalgia.

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So is nostalgia more about a longing for the actual past or a desire to obtain the same hopeful outlook and naivety that we had back then?

It’s not necessarily a desire to change our current reality, but simply a romanticized obsession with life in a simpler form; merely to view the world through the eyes of your younger self. Like we’ve discussed, adolescence is not usually a piece of cake, unless we merely view it as an absence of the pressures of adulthood. Perhaps some of us just need to look to the past as a way to find comfort in where we’ve gotten to today.

Frye’s experiment is a thoughtprovoking one as it stands on its own, but the actress is also able to analyze what she’s learned from the experience and how she can apply it to her life today, even if that’s never really conclusive.

The director doesn’t always do a great job comparing her actual memories with what she sees in the footage—a major theoretical topic of discussion. She’s showing these videos to us in full view, yet at times it’s difficult to see them as more than simply presentational. As an audience, it’s interesting listening to her perspective as a teen and now seeing how it’s evolved, but we do wish there were more of a concrete purpose or structure to her themes.

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Yet still, Kid 90 operates as a time capsule of sorts, not averse to maintaining a natural narrative, but also never searching for one.

It doesn’t really have to. There’s a story at play, but the film isn’t really about that story as much as it is an experience of Frye’s memory compared to the reality that she actually lived through; a glimpse into the past, and one person’s perspective on that look back—her thoughts on how these events have impacted her approach to life now.

We don’t necessarily feel changed because of the shared experience, but we do feel like this experience is worth watching. The application for the audience comes naturally, even though it’s a lot of pensiveness and pontificating more than it is a story with a natural trajectory or conclusion.

I suppose this fits into Frye’s commentary about our brain’s tendencies to organize real events into these little narratives so we can better make sense of them. Life isn’t a cinematic story as much as we want it to be, and so the director—

We’re somehow all convinced that our teen years are our golden years, when in reality it only gets better when we start maturing and seeing other people and their issues.

Kid 90/Soleil Moon Frye/Hulu/Trey Trimble/Nintendo

whether intentionally or not—has made it so her film also doesn’t quite follow a standard three-act structure. However, if we’re putting these stories into a documentary presentation and applying form and purpose to them, then our mind’s narrative tendencies do become expectation.

The film is hardly ever able to find anything to ground itself in other than its themes of nostalgia— however huge and relatable those may be. Frye shares with us her actual past, but presents the footage in a way that occasionally feels disjointed and plotless, albeit linear.

The filmmaker looks at the past as a roadmap to where she’s gotten to in the present (and this is really her intended theme of the movie), but almost never shows us or talks about that place where she ends up. She reminisces with old friends about the good ol’ days and analyzes the amount of truth in their memories, but nothing ever feels resolved, or even almost so. Yet that may very well be the point. It’s rarely more than an exercise in nostalgia, albeit an interesting one at that.

Kid 90 is definitely cathartic for Frye, but the film only really soars when it’s able to connect to its viewers—many of whom lived through the turbulent and oftconfusing ‘90s—and makes us apply its ideas to our own past. It helps

that the audience likely recognizes many familiar faces along the way. If this were the same film but from the tapes of someone we’ve never met, the journey wouldn’t hold as much weight or relevance, or be nearly as enjoyable in its current execution.

Frye doesn’t usually name names, so oftentimes we’re piecing things together ourselves, which wouldn’t really work as well if we didn’t have a ‘90s pop culture frame of reference to begin with.

However, Kid 90 is also about the bittersweet transitions in life—the inevitable loss of innocence—and the chapters we go through and don’t even notice until years later looking back. The more thoughtprovoking, and at times fun, aspect of reminiscing is realizing how important certain people or events

watch kid 90, out now on hulu

were back then, and how we never fully appreciated them until later on.

On the other hand, the hard part about revisiting our past is realizing that perhaps life wasn’t as great back then as we remembered it being. But also there are things that were just that great. We look back at our own memories and there’s a beauty there.

No matter how bad our lives actually were, our minds always seem to focus on these glimmers of hope, played back in our heads over the oneiric sounds of The Cranberries or Oasis, unfolding with sensibilities of a conventional narrative rather than actual reality. And with conventional narrative usually comes a wrappedup denouement. Frye postulates that if actually going back means that we end up becoming disillusioned by what we perceived as a better time, then is it really worth going back in the first place? Are the lessons we learn in the process worth that disillusionment? Or are we better off with these things serving as mere memories? But one thing is for certain: Reminiscing is much more therapeutic when we have someone who we can talk about it with.

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(1973)

(1993)

(2011)

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American Graffiti

Stand By Me Dazed and Confused

The Sandlot

Now and Then

Hot Tub Time Machine

Midnight in Paris

Brigsby Bear

Jasper Mall

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(1986)

(1995)

(2017) (2010)

(2020)

American Graffiti/Universal/Stand By Me/Columbia Pictures/Dazed and Confused/Gramercy Pictures/The Sandlot/20th Century Studios/Disney/Now and Then/New Line Cinema/ Hot Tub Time Machine/MGM/Midnight in Paris/Woody Allen/Brigsby Bear/Sony Pictures Classics/Jasper Mall/Amazon/Bradford Thomason/Brett Whitcomb/

other movies about nostalgia

(1993)

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imagine it’s 1972 and you’ve just watched a movie in theaters and fell in love with it. You go back to watch it again once, maybe twice more, but after a few months that movie leaves theaters, leaving you with no hope of ever seeing it again unless it winds up on television a few years later— but even then, with commercials or, if the film is R-rated, with edits.

The Godfather, which was easily the biggest release of 1972, eventually aired on TV two and a half years after its theatrical debut, but the three-hour movie was split up into two parts across two nights.

However, with a movie like, say, Deliverance—the fourth highest grossing movie of 1972—there would be no such chance, unless perhaps you had a projector and a 35mm print of the film.

Needless to say, this system was neither fun for the average movie fan nor the aspiring filmmaker, many of whom would go back to watch the movie several times and take copious notes in order to apply, in the case of The Godfather, director Francis

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Ford Coppola’s techniques to his or her own craft. Not to mention, if you lived in a small rural town with one single-screen theater, your chances of seeing independent or foreign films was essentially nil. This was not a conducive way to propagate enthusiasm and inspiration for art. If a fan of Vincent van Gogh wanted to copy his style, they could simply find an image of his painting in any library or encyclopedia. They could study it for hours, revisit it, develop different interpretations on the subject, and even go back and challenge their previous notions. Cinema at that time did not have the same ubiquity

Sony/Timetoast/Panasonic/TDK

BY ETHAN BREHM

or means for analysis unless you studied it in an academic setting.

Home video was the inevitable— and necessary—next stage in the medium’s evolution.

The ability to be able to choose which theatrical movies to watch from the comfort of your own home, beginning in the late-’70s, was not one that was born out of luxury, but necessity. At that time movies were really only available in two ways: in a cinema or on broadcast television— neither of which allowed for any sort of dissection or obsession.

Your tastes had to be the same as the populace, otherwise you were limited in how much you could enjoy the movies you loved. And even if the movie you loved was popular enough to get a TV deal in a few years, you wouldn’t be able to pause or rewind it. The advent of video tapes and being able to watch and rewatch movies at home not only elevated our enthusiasm for cinema, but manually encouraged an obsession for film for the first time on this broad of a scope.

Home video technology was easily one of the most important innovations in the entertainment industry, and the biggest since the dawn of television. The popularity of the VHS tape not only allowed for home media recording, but also the ability to watch virtually any movie you wanted from your own recliner. Simply put, the line between VHS and Netflix is clean and direct.

Home media paved the way for streaming and being able to fit all of this media into your own schedule instead of the other way around.

However, the road traversed prior to

the introduction of VHS was a little bumpier.

Modern home video technology dates back as early as 1951 when Bing Crosby, of all people, inquired to his recording engineer about the capability to record television in a similar way that you would record audio: reel-to-reel. Crosby approached electronics company Ampex to see if they could develop such a device. However, following a string of unsuccessful attempts, it wasn’t until 1956 when the first commercially viable video tape recorder (VTR) was made available in the form of the Ampex VRX1000, the first of the company’s line of quadruplex video recorders.

The problem? It cost $50,000… in 1956. The cost of a blank tape? $300. Needless to say, success in functionality and success in practicality proved to be two separate things. Only television networks were really buying the devices, and so history pressed onward.

The efforts that followed were focused less on convenience and compactness for the consumer than they were pure efficiency. It wasn’t until 1971 when JVC, Sony, and Matsushita Electric (now known as Panasonic) came together to develop a unified standard for the Japanese consumer and released the U-matic where the dual reels were actually housed in a plastic cassette cartridge. Unfortunately for consumers, the machine cost around $1,400 and blank tapes about $30. Not to mention the maximum recording time of 20 minutes to an hour for most tapes.

Meanwhile in 1972, Philips released their N1500, which was the first Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) that consumers could actually afford and use, although it lacked reliability and the desired duration (a 60 minute maximum recording limit).

Fortunately Philips evolved the VCR as other video formats took hold.

The three companies behind the U-matic eventually ended their

collaboration, with JVC starting work on their Video Home System, or VHS, technology and Sony beginning development for what would become Betamax—the biggest competitor to VHS, or vice versa.

Betamax saw a release in both Japan and the United States in 1975, and was easily the most reliable format at that point.

In 1976, JVC released the VHS in Japan, and in the United States in 1977, and was an instant competitor to Betamax. Betamax boasted a better picture and sound quality, but the tapes ran for half the length of a VHS. Not to mention, the Betamax machines could cost up to three times more than a VCR, which had now adopted the VHS as its primary format. Sony thought that consumers would prefer quality over accessibility, but as we see in today’s world where DVDs consistently outsell the higher quality Blu-rays of the same title, as a whole we prefer convenience and saving money over quality. Also, as the home user wanted to record shows and sports games on their television, the eventual 4-hour runtime of a VHS was much more favorable over

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Charles Band/King Solomon’s Mines/The Cannon Group/Chopping Mall/Concorde Pictures/Song of the South/Disney/Killer Shark/Monogram Pictures/I Was a Teenage Werewolf/American International Pictures/Let It Be

the 2-hour limit of a Betamax tape.

VHS would eventually win the video formatting war halfway through the next decade as all but Sony had now abandoned Betamax production in favor of VHS, and the war officially ended when Sony finally ceded and released their first VHS recorder in 1988, even though the company still continued to make Betamax well into the new millennium.

Prior to the first licensed movie releases by distributors in the late-’70s, the underground home video circuit was burgeoning with film enthusiasts taking it upon themselves to sell and trade recorded rarities. The origins of the tape collector can be found here.

1977 saw the first releases of older movies on home video formats, thanks to Magnetic Video cofounder Andre Blay, who acquired the licensing from 20th Century Fox to release fifty of their films, such as The Sound of Music, Patton, and M*A*S*H, for the home consumer.

But with a price tag upwards of $72 per tape brand new, people were less inclined to actually purchase any of these films, and so the video rental market was born.

With the added streams of revenue, the film industry actually saw a mini boom during this period.

Movie fans still wanted to see films on the big screen (televisions were barely surpassing the 30” mark back then), much like they do today (in the years prior to the pandemic, the number of theater tickets sold in the US remained fairly steady, even in the growing prevalence of streaming in our modern age). VHS didn’t stifle the movie theater industry, but actually gave studios, both large and

small, a reliable source of income and happened to correlate with the rise of the multiplex. More movies available meant more enthusiasm for movies. It was a win-win.

In 1978, one independent horror filmmaker, Charles Band, inspired by Blay and seeing a hole in the market that still needed to be filled, took it upon himself to start his own label, at the time called M.E.D.A., which acquired the distribution rights for independent cult cinema, horror, and exploitation. Suddenly a whole slew of obscure movies were available to audiences who would have never seen them otherwise.

notable movies only available on vhs

Song of the South (1946)

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I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Let It Be (1970)

In 2013’s documentary Rewind This!, directed by Josh Johnson, Band explains, “The major studios caught on very slowly to video. And there were so many examples of independent films that were brand new to that audience, that were more desirable than the big studio films. So many times those little pictures would outperform—just in terms of video.”

As the horror industry was seeing its own boom, Band’s labels, and others of the sort, helped usher in a synonymity between VHS and the horror genre for many, which is even more intact today. And so the hordes of copycat Halloween and Friday the 13th slashers that were being produced—many of which were getting suffocatingly limited cinematic releases—were finding life in the home video format. And now teenagers who couldn’t get in to see these movies in theaters were able

Deadman’s Curve: The Jan and Dean Story (1978)

Godzilla 1985 (1984)

United Artists/Apple/Deadman’s Curve/CBS/Godzilla 1985/Toho/The Amazing Mr. Bickford/ Frank Zappa/Little Vegas/MacLand/Columbia Pictures/Meet the Applegates

The Amazing Mr. Bickford (1987)

Little Vegas (1990)

Meet the Applegates (1990)

Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme (1990)

I think, the greatest era of discovery,” laments film critic Drew McWeeney in a segment from Rewind This!

That’s not to say there weren’t tactics to get your attention. While provocative movie posters and cover art wasn’t a novel concept, it was also more essential than ever as a marketing technique when appealing to the home video consumer.

Outlandish, creepy, sensual, or just downright insane, the box art would often be the sole reason why a casual viewer would stumble upon and choose to rent a particular movie, and frequently be even better than the movie itself. Covers had a

Triton Pictures/Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme/Disney/Nightmare on the 13th Floor/USA Network/Muppet Classic Theater/Jim Henson Company

to view them at home.

In the documentary, Band compares the $100 million budget of Terminator 2 to the $400,000 one of his own Puppet Master: “It’s not an even playing field, but [at] the video store, they’re all on the same shelf; they’re all in the same-sized boxes.” Not only was home video changing the landscape of video absorption and accessibility, but now low-budget schlock was sharing the same space as the biggest Hollywood blockbusters or the latest Best Picture winners. For every Rambo and Raiders of the Lost Ark, there were a dozen cheap knockoffs that only ever saw the light of day in the video market. And with an easier outlet to release their movies, filmmakers were finding ways to make money using these alternative methods. It wasn’t just the major studios that were thriving during this era. Everyone was making money.

And so aspiring filmmakers saw the successes of Band’s Empire Pictures or their contemporary Troma Entertainment, whose films

were making millions of dollars in the home video market—NOT in movie theaters—and realized that with the right idea and the right people around them, they too might be as successful. This saw a deluge of oddities in the 1980s that rivaled nothing we’ll ever see again. The celebration of schlock was at an alltime high, which is a major factor for why tapeheads today vehemently prefer VHS to DVD or streaming.

Still today, many of these films have never been released in any other way.

During the rental era, selecting a movie to watch on a Friday night was never more democratic. Employees would suggest their favorites, sure, but you could peruse the shelves yourself and find something that piques your interest. The stores typically didn’t vet the tiles before purchasing them, so you could essentially select any movie without any political agendas or big corporate manipulation clouding or prohibiting their availability to you.

And since stores had to fill their shelves, they would often reach deep into the catalog to do so. “That was,

Nightmare on the 13th Floor (1990)

Muppet Classic Theater (1994)

way of ingraining themselves into our heads, decades later sparking a flourish of nostalgia just from looking at them. These VHS boxes were works of art in themselves, and today are another benefit over the generic-looking photoshop jobs of modern box art from DVDs. VHS tapes still look great on your shelf.

The 1980s saw an insane amount of popularity in the home video market, of which VHS was dominating. As distributors realized that consumers wanted to grow their own libraries instead of just renting the tapes, the prices dropped down to $19.95. And in 1982, the first home video camera was introduced, which made even easier the ability to create on a budget and on your own terms. This era turned into the

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closest thing in decades that we had to the Wild West in the film industry.

The rise of Blockbuster Video in the late-’80s and throughout the ‘90s marked the fall of the momand-pop video store. Blockbuster had a lot of options, but the more obscure titles became somewhat buried under the studio fodder.

They also had several copies of the more popular movies, as opposed to the smaller shops which had just one, maybe two. The lack of corporate involvement during the video rental days was seeming to disappear. Nevertheless, many people have fond memories of going to Blockbuster and discovering films they’d never heard of, and thus an entire new generation was born from the Tape Era. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. In 1997, Twister was the first movie released on the brand new DVD format, and by 2003 DVD sales surpassed that of VHS in the United States. And in 2006 A History of Violence was the last major release for the format.

A big advantage to DVD over its

predecessor is the obvious quality leap, as well as the access to special features. Although, as we’ve seen these days with many consumers abandoning physical media in favor of digital accessibility, the enthusiasm behind bonus content is waning—an irony that’s not lost on those advocates for VHS. While VHS tapes are more durable than DVDs, DVDs also don’t degrade over time like VHS. Every time you watch a movie on tape, it loses the already-inferior quality that’s there.

But many videophiles see those markings as part of the charm; there’s a cuteness to that lack of glossiness. Much like an old book, these tapes have a history, and to apply that subtext to watching a movie is to truly appreciate the shared experience of the medium and that of all who have watched that tape before you.

Blockbuster Video/Everything Is Terrible!/Jerry Maguire/Sony Pictures

Like with almost any kind of collection, VHS is directly connected to nostalgia and emotion. There’s a passionate enthusiasm behind the hobby that’s a common thread throughout any hobby—one that’s not necessarily tied to logic or reason. “There might be a more efficient way [to watch movies] that takes up less space than collecting a buncha tapes. But efficiency, in my estimation, has never equaled more fun,” says writer Zack Carlson in a segment from another documentary, Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector, directed

by Dan M. Kinem and Levi Peretic.

VHS and physical media will be alive for as long as the generations that are nostalgic about it are still here.

Today VHS has been commonly reduced to a punchline in some circles of ill-informed individuals, but the format dominated the home media market for over 20 years, which is insanely impressive in retrospect. “VHS had an unusually long life for a home video format,” McWeeny offers.

Vinyl records, which have enjoyed a major comeback over the last decade or so, don’t suffer the same mockery of VHS. However, despite what people think, much like VHS to DVD, the quality of vinyl is also technically inferior to that of its successor, the CD. Yet enthusiasts and collectors love those pops and crackles—the past lives that add appeal to the aesthetic. And unlike most vinyl, VHS tapes can be

acquired for a fraction of a dollar— you simply get more for your buck than you would purchasing movies on another format, digital rentals included.

Collecting VHS tapes today isn’t just about the futile chase of your past—although that might be a major factor—but of appreciating the lost gems of yesteryear. Essentially every movie that had survived into the ‘80s got a VHS release, and literally every movie that came out during the VHS heyday got a release as

well, including TV movies. On the other hand, there are thousands of films that have never made the jump to DVD or streaming (the latter of which has proven to be fickle and unreliable with their available options anyway), and likely never will as time pushes forward and forgets about them. Even some movies that have gotten a DVD release in the past are now out of print and hard to find, and easier/cheaper to come by on tape. The death of VHS could mean the death of all of those movies as well, and it’s weird to think that some of them could eventually be lost forever.

On a similar note, a lot of tape collecting is about the love of the strange and unusual. It’s about going to a thrift shop and passing on a copy of Titanic in favor of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. It’s about finding the strange and unusual in the mainstream. The artist collective Everything Is Terrible! has compiled a collection of over 15,000 Jerry Maguire tapes and even opened a pop-up video store art display back in 2017 displaying all of them on the shelves. Slashback Video, a similar exhibit that occurs annually in Burbank, CA, puts on display hundreds of horror films, mostly Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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passion for physical media done in a very physical way. There’s a sort of love that’s tied to the time it takes for someone to do something.

“The fact that people are collecting strictly through the internet is really sad, because it’s such an amazing experience when you walk into a store and you are truly spelunking.

You are an archaeologist of lowbrow culture,” says Carlson.

Another enthusiast and collector, Eric Fredrich propounds, “I like that aspect of difficulty. If it was simple, and I could just walk down to the store whenever I wanted and get it—there’s no challenge; there’s no appeal” (Adjust Your Tracking).

While most outsiders see physical media as obsolete, others, like those in this very niche community, like to find the Orwellian parallels in big corporations controlling our access to media. Ironically enough, several years ago, due to a licensing disagreement, the digital edition of George Orwell’s novel 1984 was removed from the Kindle libraries of people who had already purchased

the book.

Without physical media we are once again at the mercy of corporations who decide the availability of our favorite movies, shows, books, etc. It’s terrifying to imagine a world where I can’t just sit down and watch my favorite films without access to the internet, or simply if my subscribed streaming services decided to remove them for whatever reason. For real cinephiles, there is very much value to owning a physical copy of, at the very least, the movies we love the most. Otherwise, we’re just back at square one—except, of course, now we’re able to pause and rewind.

Josh Schafer/Lunchmeat VHS/Microwave Massacre/Muckler-Singer Productions/Midnight Video

from the ‘80s, in a retro style video store, celebrating the permeation of the genre during that era.

While there are a handful of actual-functioning video stores still alive where patrons can rent movies on tape, more and more are closing each year, with a few big losses during this pandemic. Austin’s Vulcan Video rewound its last tape a year ago, and its cross-town rival I Luv Videos closed its doors this past September, although its owner Conrad Bejarano, as well as locals and out-of-towners who make the pilgrimage, hopes that a rebirth is on the horizon. Alamo Drafthouse has opened up a free-of-charge video rental “store” called Video Vortex at their Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Brooklyn locations, with plans of doing the same at one of their Austin locations (powered by Vulcan Video’s inventory) once the pandemic goes away. Los Angeles’ own longtime establishment Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee closed its doors last May, but is looking for a new storefront once this all blows over.

If you’re in the Seattle area, you can still get a taste of the glory days at Scarecrow Video, which boasts nearly 15,000 VHS titles to rent, along with newer formats. Same goes for VisArt Video in Charlotte, North Carolina and Viva Video in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

Likewise, the company Lunchmeat VHS has been committed for over a decade to perpetuating enthusiasm for the format with their fanzine, hosting tape swaps, and even releasing new movies on VHS, among other things.

Ultimately, VHS collecting is

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interview interview

COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT Lunchmeat VHS’s own Josh Schafer provides us with the perspective of one of the most well-known collectors in the community. He details how he reignited his love for tapes nearly two decades ago, hypothesizes about the future of VHS, and tells us which tapes in his collection mean the most to him.

SPOILER: I love the term “Videovores.” Is that something you made up? What are the origins of that and what exactly does Videovores encompass?

JOSH SCHAFER: Oh, I’m glad to hear it! It’s fun, isn’t it? Yes, it was just something my brain spit out while writing one day, and liked it, and it stuck around. Or I should say “VHStuck!” I was and am a big fan of [the magazine] Famous Monsters, and that sort of cheesy wordplay, punny stuff, and quirky cultural language they used—it’s just always appealed to me. I thought it really

JOSH SCHAFER

created a sense of community in a way, and just made things more fun. It’s like any group of like-minded somebodies—you have a vernacular.

I just wanted to make up fun terms, and help expand the identity and culture of VHS enthusiasm.

I actually submitted it to Urban Dictionary in early 2012, and here’s the definition I gave it then: ”An individual who is intensely passionate about collecting, preserving, and most importantly watching the VHS video tape; a lover of VHS; an analog zealot” Really, I think it just means anyone who is enthusiastic about VHS tapes or is a VHS collector, but of a higher, more intense degree. The jury is out about whether it’s loved or not. It’s almost dead-even with up and down votes! You can’t please everyone, especially when concocting cultural neologisms.

time to kill, so I walked into this little news shop to grab a soda, a snack, peruse the comics, etc. On a bottom shelf, caked with dust, there was a row of VHS tapes. In that row, was the Midnight Video big box for Microwave Massacre. I remember picking it up and being like, “Oh, man, I remember this! Yo, this rules.”

I just remember falling in love with it at that moment, and thinking it was so cool. It was a dollar. And it was so rad. It gave me a kind of rush; this very distinct kind of excitement.

Anyway, that was the moment I kind of realized that VHS was one of the coolest things on the planet.

It’s very clear in my head. I visit that memory often.

SPOILER: Have you been collecting since you were young? Or did it resurge after a hiatus? If so, what got you into collecting again?

JOSH SCHAFER: I’ve always watched tapes. It’s how I grew up. I never stopped watching, or gathering VHS tapes. They always stayed viable in my media and movie consumption, and honestly, were integral in the expansion of my film exploration and knowledge. It definitely helped shape my tastes in a major way.

I think, if I had to pinpoint a time when I became a “collector” per se, it was when I was about 16 or 17. This was about 2002 or so. I was waiting for a friend at a stripmall. I had some

SPOILER: How many tapes are in your collection?

JOSH SCHAFER: I think I have about 3,000 in total. I had more, but after

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JOSH SCHAFER moving three times in two years, I had to cut back a little. VHS tapes are heavy, dude, and they take up A LOT of space in a moving truck.

I’d also like to take this space to say it’s really not about quantity, but quality. It’s really about having a collection that satisfies you, and not anyone else. Do as you please.

Collect films that inspire, educate, entertain you, and most of all make you happy. I just feel like some people judge a collection by size rather than substance. I’ve seen collections that are only about 100 tapes, but they’re amazing. The curation is charming, diverse, and powerful. I’ve seen larger collections that don’t have that vibe. But yeah, I have about 3,000 tapes.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite genre?

JOSH SCHAFER: Horror, Comedy, Sport, Action, Sci-Fi, Experimental, Art House. I love special interest tapes, too. The fact that special interest can encompass anything and everything, it makes it one of the most fascinating and fun types of tapes to collect and explore.

SPOILER: Do you have a favorite tape?

JOSH SCHAFER: The tapes from when I was a kid. The stuff I’ve had for years. There’s a sentimental attachment to those. Similarly, the stuff recorded by my mom and dad, and my Grandmom. Home movies, of my 3rd grade play, my first day

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of school, a BBQ my parents had in the ‘90s. Those are so special to me. Probably not the answer you thought [laughs]. But I love those tapes the most.

Also, I was able to grab some tapes from my hometown video store (RIP Video Vision) when they were closing down around 2007 or so. Being able to grab tapes that I grew up renting and were circulated through my community, and putting them on my shelf forever—it’s pretty special. I love those tapes.

I have some other pre-record favorites, but I think my big box copy of Video Violence is a top contender for the ultimate fave. I met the director Gary Cohen and writer Paul Kaye when I worked on the “Diehard Videovore Edition” of that film. Paul and Gary signed it, and when Gary signed it, we had just met in person for the first time, and he thought my name was Jason.

So he signed it, “To Jason.” I told him my name was Josh, and he was like, “Oh no! I am so sorry!” And he grabbed the tape back, scribbled out “Jason” and wrote, “Josh” [laughs].

So my big box of Video Violence is now covered in a mess of Sharpie

scribbles and their autographs. It’s a wonderful memory, and a prized possession.

SPOILER: Which tape is your rarest?

JOSH SCHAFER: I would say either my copy of America’s Deadliest Home Video or Slaughterville.

Both of those releases are hard to find. I later worked with ADHV and had it issued on disc for the first time, and re-issued on VHS. Those are both out of print now.

I’ll be doing another VHS run of

Josh Schafer/Lunchmeat VHS/Video Violence/Camp Video/America’s Deadliest Home Video/Randum Video

SPOILER: How do you organize your collection?

JOSH SCHAFER: Mostly by genre.

I kind of have everything set up in a way where I just know where it is. I have a pretty photographic memory, I think, so it’s rare I can’t locate something, but sometimes things slip around here or there and it takes me a minute to find something [laughs]. But, to answer your question more directly, it’s by genre, but it’s loose. I also keep all of my clamshells together, large then small, and then I have a section for all of the newly pressed VHS from the past 15 years or so. Then I have a section for all my Star Classics.

JOSH SCHAFER that film soon, too. I [also] have lots of independently produced special interest and shot-on-video productions, and who really knows how many of those were produced, you know?

Rarity has become a bit of a misnomer in the VHS world. I think people call a hyped-up or coveted tape “rare” when it’s actually not that rare, but more just sought after. Rare has become this sort of catch-all term for cool tapes, even if they’re comparably not that scarce. But those I mentioned are probably the tapes that I can confirm have less than a couple hundred copies out there.

SPOILER: Any recent discoveries?

JOSH SCHAFER: Some of my favorite recent watches will be reviewed in the upcoming issue of Lunchmeat Magazine, and those are Long Gone, Billy Badd, and a few others like Interface and Wonderguy that were reviewed by my co-editor Ted Gilbert.

I recently found this tape at a thrift store that was labeled, “Steve’s Dance Lesson - Sept. 1993.” I had to take that home. There was no way I was leaving it there. How could you pass up something like that? I guess that’s just the Videovore in me. But that tape, it starts out with a blip of an infomercial for a cassette tape of the song “Who Will Save America’’—I can’t remember if that’s the actual name of the song, but it’s something to that effect. The picture goes blank for a second, but the sound from the commercial continues, and it indeed shows two people having a dance lesson. But that song, which is sung by a standard, almost generic choir, is being played over the top of this dance lesson, which is a strange juxtaposition. Even weirder, the song continues, but the footage suddenly switches to close-ups of scrap metal, spent bullets from what seems to be old wars, and then super close-ups of gun parts, all while “Who Will Save America” [still] plays on top.

It’s this randomly pieced footage set to this low-rent song about America. It feels a bit bizarre. It’s

almost like inadvertent video art. I think it was just someone playing with their video camera and accidentally taping over their dance lesson with footage of their firearms collection. But, man, what a strange video concoction, huh? That’s the beauty of VHS: You never know what you’re going to find next.

SPOILER: Favorite box art?

JOSH SCHAFER: Personally, Microwave Massacre is a perfect cover for me. That Midnight Video release just embodies what a horror VHS should be. This is a tough question because there are SO MANY I love. But for the sake of brevity and gut-feelings, it’s Microwave Massacre. I also love the Star Classics’ illustrated covers.

SPOILER: Favorite distribution labels?

JOSH SCHAFER: Star Classics, hands down. I became fascinated with this label years ago, and I’ve collected about 320 releases from them since then. They did everything from black and white public domain stuff, to public domain cartoons, to horror, action, sci-fi, documentary, drama, comedy, exercise tapes and sports how-to. Pretty much everything.

They were a budget sell-through label that was just churning them out. They’re just like the exemplary budget tape label; there’s this distinct charm to their releases.

They’re super fun to collect. As I said, their illustrated covers are some of my favorites. I could do a whole interview just on my interest in Star Classics [laughs]. They’re definitely

my favorite label to collect.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite movie about VHS? JOSH SCHAFER: Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project is probably one of the most fascinating and unforgettable docs I’ve ever seen, and it involves this incredible VHS collection. It’s powerful stuff. Definitely seek that one out if you haven’t seen it.

SPOILER: Weirdest find or the most so-bad-it’s-good?

JOSH SCHAFER: In the ‘90s, Blockbuster did this thing called The Kidprint Identification Video, which was essentially just footage of your kid answering a bunch of questions.

Child abduction was rampant then, and Blockbuster offered this service for free inside their stores for a while.

It was basically so if your kid went missing, you could share this video with them for identification. I found one of those tapes, and it was pretty weird [laughs], but also fascinating looking back. I wrote about it on the site years ago, about 2015. It’s still there and has much more info on it, along with images.

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SPOILER: Do you have any movies with an absurd amount of duplicates?

I know some collectors like having multiples of a certain movie.

JOSH SCHAFER: [laughs] Meathooking! Or that’s what some Tapeheads call it. I don’t, really. I have four copies of The Pit, and three copies of Weekend at Bernie’s, but that’s because they’re all a little different. One time a friend of mine put like 10 to 12 copies of You’ve Got Mail in my mailbox, though—an epic Tapehead prank. VHShout out to Devon Tuttle for that one.

SPOILER: Which tape are you still on the lookout for—your holy grail?

JOSH SCHAFER: There is this one Star Classics that I’ve never seen, but believe exists. For a certain chunk of SC releases, they did a photo cover and an illustrated cover. Movies like Shark, Gallery of Horrors, Alien Dead, The Prowler, Punk Rock Movie, etc., they all had photo covers and illustrated counterparts. Revenge of the Zombie is in that grouping, and it would make sense for it to have an illustrated cover, but I’ve only ever seen the photo cover art.

It should theoretically exist, but I’ve never seen it. I’d love to find that one day. That would be a major rewindinclined rush.

SPOILER: If you could have a VHS version of a modern movie, which one would it be?

JOSH SCHAFER: Kid 90. That

should definitely be on VHS. It’s an incredible doc. I’d put it out if given the chance. That reminds me to write an email….

SPOILER: I know Lunchmeat released several modern movies on tape, but there aren’t many out there doing it that I could find. Do you think there’s a solid market out there for that if, say, large distribution companies wanted to start making them? Why do you think more labels aren’t releasing small batches on VHS? JOSH SCHAFER: There are a few others doing great rewind work for sure. I think it’s still a niche thing, but it’s expanding rapidly. VHS nostalgia is at a high level right now. It feels like a revival is starting to bloom.

To that point, I think the market is expanding for VHS. My releases do well, and they sell very quickly. I also don’t make that many in a run— anywhere from 50 to 250, depending on the title, so there’s a collectible aspect to it, too, for some people.

But I think the market is there, however relatively small. You just have to do the right titles. It has to be a good fit.

I’ve seen indie and underground filmmakers, experimental artists, rappers, death metal bands, and even major studios all use VHS as a platform, and it works. In smaller numbers, sure, but that’s what’s so cool about it. If it fits your art, your aesthetic, your story, or your

SPOILER: I love Adjust Your Tracking!

It’s crazy that the movie came out 8 years ago already! So much of the insight is still relevant in 2021. What was your involvement in that project and what was it like working on that?

JOSH SCHAFER: Hey, thanks! It is crazy! Time flies. I’m glad to hear you say that because I think it desperately needs an update! I’d love to do a “Part 2.” That’s really all [director] Dan Kinem, though. We’ve talked about it in passing, but I hope he does end up doing it. It would be incredible to look at everything nearly 10 years later and see how much everything has changed.

My involvement, as I recall, was really just securing some key interviews, providing contacts, that sort of thing. Kind of riffing on the structure, the message of the film,

Josh Schafer/Lunchmeat VHS/Adjust Your Tracking/VHShitfest/Romark Entertainment/Video Violence/Camp Video

vibe, putting your work on VHS just provides another platform, another way for people to connect with your output. And it gives the indie artist a product to sell, which you know isn’t necessarily the main reason to do it, but it always helps.

As far as making it into Target or Wal-Mart or something like that— that would be wild. I could see it happening. It would be a collectible before a piece of media for many, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Never say never, but they aren’t making VCRs anymore, and that’s a huge thing to consider.

We definitely need to think about preserving VCRs. Without them, how can we watch tapes?

JOSH SCHAFER I think there will always be people who champion physical media and appreciate it. There will always be some weirdos out there who still like to read paperback books or watch VHS tapes.

with Dan and Levi [Peretic] and Matt [Desiderio]. I was really just there to help the film reach more people I think, and support in every way I could. Book screenings, push the culture around it, etc. It felt very organic. My co-producer, Matt Desiderio, actually went on the road with them to film, so he was much more involved in that process than I was. I wasn’t able to get away from my day job at that time to travel for weeks at a time, but I wished I could have gone. I’m just happy to be involved with it and contribute to creating a vision into the culture at, what felt like, a special time.

SPOILER: You do so much for the VHS community and in perpetuating the culture. What keeps you wanting to collect and continue to build this awareness? What does VHS mean to you?

JOSH SCHAFER: I just love it. It makes me happy. And I want to share that with people. VHS is such a big part of who we are, and where we came from. It shaped a lot of us. It was a revolutionary piece of media,

and I want people to think about that, or at least not forget. VHS holds so much information about us: our art, our history, our fears, joys, failures, achievements, and all our in-betweens. It captured everything from a particular time period, through a broad, yet idiosyncratic lens. It’s just an indispensable part of our history, and if we pay attention to it, I think it can still teach us a lot, in many different ways.

SPOILER: Why do you like physical media? What’s the biggest benefit over streaming, if any?

JOSH SCHAFER: I like that it’s real, in your hands, and you interact with it.

And using physical media, searching it out, buying an object, giving it space in your life—it’s a far more tactile and memorable experience than sitting on the couch staring into a screen and scrolling. Physical media offers something that can only be defined by experiencing it. I just hope people don’t lose sight of that.

SPOILER: Have you learned anything through collecting? If so, what?

JOSH SCHAFER: That it’s not what you find, but what you take from it.

SPOILER: Do you think physical media will ever truly die?

JOSH SCHAFER: I think it’ll look really different in 20 years, but I don’t think it’ll ever die completely, no.

SPOILER: What would you want noncollectors to know, if anything?

JOSH SCHAFER: You don’t have to have a collection of VHS to enjoy them. You can have five, or two, or just one. Or just have a friend who has some. It really just matters that you don’t forget entirely, and that you give yourself the chance to slip that tape out, feed it to the VCR, and then watch a favorite in 4:3 with some rad snacks. VHS is for everybody. It always has been, always will be. You just have to embrace it. And have a VCR [laughs].

SPOILER: Any tips for new collectors?

JOSH SCHAFER: Always check the tape matches the box, watch out for moldy reels, and if you find a Star Classics release, hit me up to see if I have it!

SPOILER: Do you have any future plans at the moment in terms of your collection?

JOSH SCHAFER: Well, I do miss running a video store, so I’m thinking I should just take my collection and open up my own. That seems like a VHSmart idea, right?

SPOILER: What’s in the works for Lunchmeat VHS that you can tell us about?

JOSH SCHAFER: So much! A new issue of the magazine, other VHScentric offshoot publications, about 15 to 20 more VHS releases over the course of this coming year, totally VHStylin’ Tapehead apparel, rewindinclined goodies galore, and once everything is cool, totally awesome VHS-driven events and screenings.

We can’t wait to press play on it all.

Best thing to do is keep an eye on our site and social media. Be sure to hit us up. We love talking tapes and making new friends.

Find Josh at LUNCHMEATVHS.COM or on Instagram @LUNCHMEATVHS Holiday Special Edition 2021|

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Prior to the 1980s, most movies (with the exception of musicals, of course) had maybe a handful of original tunes backing the goings-on of their characters. But thanks to the popularity of soundtracks from certain ‘60s and ‘70s films, most notably American Graffiti, Easy Rider, The Graduate, and Saturday Night Fever, the following decade went all-in with underscoring their films, not just relying on traditional film scores—though many utilized both.

But what happened

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was, the compilations of pop songs were often becoming more notable than the composed scores, and rising out of that popularity we got some of the biggest soundtracks of all time.

A great soundtrack goes beyond just one or two songs—that would be too easy. The great ones manage to compile an assortment of recordings that eternally fit together to immerse us into movies we love.

If you grew up in the ‘80s, you undoubtedly wore out the mixes from your favorite John Hughes films, while baby boomers likely had the soundtrack from The Big Chill on repeat. Many of us can easily recall the songs from Dirty Dancing, Footloose, and Pretty in Pink, but what about the more forgotten-about soundtracks that affected their respective movies in the same way, but just failed to garner a certain cultural ubiquity? Soundtracks allow us to take home us a piece of our favorite films, and even let us live inside those worlds for a little while, which is why a good soundtrack is almost never mutually exclusive with a good movie. However, there can be some exceptions—and there are. Some of these albums are from well-known films, but simply seem to get forgotten about when the conversation of “greatest soundtracks” ever comes up, while others are from movies that have been shrouded with just as much obscurity as the songs themselves.

Florian Renner/Sony/TDK/Coca Cola/ Zapped!/Embassy Pictures

by ethan brehm

Below are some of the many that have flown under the radar over the years (in order of release)

Zapped!

Appealing to those who desire to relive their high school days from the ‘80s, the soundtrack backing Scott Baio’s teen comedy Zapped!, about a teen scientist who develops telekinesis, will undoubtedly appeal to fans with a taste for poppy power ballads and relentlessly cheerful pop-rock vocals of that era.

However, the album does so with a committed conviction that’s admirable.

Though none of these songs necessarily “hold up” by today’s standards, and they’re all performed by fairly obscure acts circa 1982, they’re still an adequate snapshot of what teen life was like during that decade, in both sound and content.

(1982)

The

Highlights Plain Jane - “Shoot the Moon”: “They teach us how to punctuate/But we just want to graduate” is one of literally a coupledozen on-the-nose lyrics from this song about the agonies of being in school.

Despite itself, the tune is catchy and finds the charm in its silliness.

The Keane Brothers “Tryin’ to Kill a Saturday Night”: The tight musicianship of this song by The Keane Brothers feels akin to something you’d hear in an Eddie Money hit, but the pop duo holds their own here and cranks out a solid recording with some killer harmonies sprinkled in.

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Night of the Comet (1984)

The

Highlights Revolver - “Unbelievable” Look this one up on Spotify if you can. It’s worthy of being added to at least a few of your playlists.

Chris Farren & Amy Holland “Learn to Love Again” If this soulfully cheesy love duet makes you want to dust off your old Michael McDonald records, just know that his wife is the female voice singing on the track and one of the only acts on this list that has her own Wikipedia page.

Revolver - “Tell Me Yourself” Man, I really wish this band didn’t have such a generic name so I could find more of their music. But their 2nd track (of three) on this album is Elvis Costello-esque by nature with its mix of dancehall influence and a jangly post-punk chorus.

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Night of the Comet/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc./Where the Boys Are ‘84/TriStar Pictures/Porky’s/20th Century Studios

Thom Eberhardt’s 1984 horror/ comedy/sci-fi movie about how a comet passing overhead has turned everyone on earth into zombies has become a cult favorite over the years, and its soundtrack has garnered a similar recognition. Consisting of largely unknown artists, the album refuses to conform to one specific style, much like the film itself. With a lot of great melodies, it’s tempting to research some of the talents on display here, but many of them frustratingly return no results on the Google machine.

The

Highlights

Toronto - “Girls Night Out” The only non-original track from the album is also one of the most memorable. This anthem sung by the Canadian rock group, who somehow blends the vocal stylings of Heart’s Ann Wilson and Rush’s Geddy Lee, doesn’t settle on just being a straightforward rock track, but evolves and builds as it goes, featuring a killer bridge as well.

Jude Cole - “Hot Nights” This road rocker wails as the girls drive down to Florida.

Shandi - “Seven Day Heaven” Mixing calypso steelpans with ‘80s synths, singer-songwriter Shandi’s theme plays over a couple of scenes and embodies the film’s tone perfectly. I can never get this one out of my head.

Porky’s Revenge!

Peter Beckett - “Jennie” The film’s finale features the typical unrealistic in-movie song about the main character, sung by her love interest who’s competing for her affection. But this time, the song is catchy and executed in a memorable way. It’s corny and silly and just the thing we need in this otherwise-unexciting picture.

Where the Boys Are ‘84 (1984)

The remake to the 1960 teen movie classic, Where the Boys Are ‘84 doesn’t quite have the same cultural impact and just may be the very definition of an unnecessary remake, but still has enough appeal that makes for a fairly enjoyable and harmless outing. A big part of that charm is due to a really catchy set of songs.

The spring break film, set in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has a soundtrack to match that wild energy. There’s a mix of original tunes and modern covers of old ‘50s songs, including Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-a-Lula” and Little Richard’s “Rip it Up,” the latter of which did not make the album.

The

(1985)

The third installment in this sex comedy trilogy isn’t necessarily leagues above the previous film(s), but what sets the juvenile farce apart from its predecessors is a rockin’ soundtrack, which can make or break even the worst movies in the world. While most films set the tone for their soundtrack, Porky’s Revenge! gets overshadowed by its music and remains watchable because of it. Somehow managing to get former Rockpile frontman Dave Edmunds to produce and assemble a collection of both original and cover tracks made specifically for this film by wellestablished rock legends, such as George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Robert Plant, and Willie Nelson, the studio lucked out with pairing their ridiculous romp with an absolute brilliant collection of songs, which undoes any disdain this movie has ever received.

Highlights Dave Edmunds - “High School Nights”: The opening track sets the bar high with an incredibly catchy original, while also establishing a tone that the rest of the songs manage to keep up with.

Jeff Beck - “Sleepwalk” Becks’ hypnotizing take on the already-mesmerizing classic by Santo & Johnny is executed with the guitar legend’s signature balance of distortion and warmth.

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The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

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Highlights The Cramps - “Surfin’ Dead” This sardonic earworm adequately sums up the quirky tone of the film, and makes for a killer addition to any Halloween playlist!

T.S.O.L. - “Nothin’ For You” If unfamiliar with the punk group T.S.O.L, you may think the raspy vocals are that of Alice Cooper (which would also be fitting), but that may be by design. This is one of the group’s more accessible tunes, perhaps unintentionally emitting a synth-pop influence, but also keeping with the macabre vibe of this film.

Roky Erickson - “Burn the Flames”: Perhaps nobody better than Erickson to contribute a song to this zombie film, the oft-imaginative and expressive songwriter’s original recording stands out amidst the raucous melodies of the rest of the album, but his 6-minute epic is not one you want to gloss over.

SSQ - “Tonight (We’ll Make Love Until We Die)”: Even though this tune strays away from the film’s punk sensibilities with a dance beat and a wailing electric guitar, its haunting production seems to fit in well amidst the dark tone of the others.

The Return of the Living Dead/Orion Pictures/TerrorVision/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc./Over the Top/Warner Bros.

Not only an underrated soundtrack, but an underrated film, The Return of the Living Dead is pretty important in the lineage of horror, as it gave us the lore that zombies like to eat brains and the first time the living dead were seen running.

The soundtrack itself features the likes of punk rock and death rock acts such as The Cramps, T.S.O.L, 45 Grave, and the Flesh Eaters, earning an underground reputation that fits in perfectly with the movie it represents, and, more importantly, one of the things that makes the film work so well, regardless of how you feel about the genre. A mix of originals and pre-existing songs, the film is perhaps the first one to fuse zombies and the punk scene together this effectively.

TerrorVision (1986)

While Richard Band, brother of the film’s producer Charles Band, provided the experimentally wacky (and spooky) musical score, the horror-comedy also features five songs (three vocal, two instrumental) from Los Angeles-based art rock group, The Fibonaccis. The songs range from hard rock to lounge jazz to space-age jazz (which blends the stylings of The B-52s and Esquivel) to space-age rock (which just straight up sounds like The B-52s—but maybe even weirder). There were hopes that the success of the film would bring attention to the band, but unfortunately TerrorVision didn’t really earn much success until it reached the home video market.

Nonetheless, the coinciding album is a fun one to say the least.

The

Highlights The Fibonaccis - “TerrorVision” Vocalist Magie Song sounds absolutely alien on this theme song with a brilliant delivery that aptly matches the intentional oddity of the movie.

The Fibonaccis - “Advice to a Mutant”: This cheeky lounge parody quotes a line from the classic 1927 musical Show Boat’s “Ol’ Man River,” and also has a lyric that goes, “There’s protoplasm on the floor/There’s so much more to you.” I mean, what else do you really need to know?

over the top (1987)

You want epic rock anthems? Sylvester Stallone movies are a great place to start.

Backing his 1987 film about arm wrestling and father-son relationships is a soundtrack that’s representative of what was

once all but a prerequisite for the actor to join any project. Featuring the likes of Kenny Loggins, Eddie Money, Sammy Hagar, and Asia, Over the Top keeps the guitar shrills constant and the arm pumping at a maximum.

The

Highlights Robin Zander - “In This Country” This song perfectly underscores the film’s emotional final moments as the credits begin to roll. I dare you not to get goosebumps.

Kenny Loggins - “Meet Me Half Way”: Move over Top Gun and Footloose, this de facto theme song

by Loggins is basically the objective high point of the album and the movie.

Asia - “Gypsy Soul” A fantastic road trip song with a driving beat and a deliciously assertive hook.

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(1988)

Overshadowed over time by Spike Lee’s 1986 debut She’s Gotta Have It and his 1989 masterpiece Do the Right Thing, the necessity of watching School Daze has seemed to be forgotten about. The film opened up the dialogue about taboo issues within Black American culture, having the awkward conversations most were too afraid to have. Lee lessens the blow and finds creative ways to air painful laundry by masking the discussion behind effective musical numbers and diegetic edits, rather than simply presenting over-expository dialogue. Many of these songs are performed by characters in the movie, whether in the context of the musical number or simply a band performing on stage.

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Highlights EU - “Da Butt” The soul-funk mashup earned the group One Hit Wonder status, but “Da Butt” is more than just a novelty song. It’s one that seems to unite the two feuding sides on campus in the movie—albeit briefly—while also posing the dilemma of needing a distraction from the issues to be the only thing that can bring us together.

Jigaboos and Wannabees Chorus - “Straight and Nappy” The first real musical number, taking us out of the setting of the film for a few minutes, blends classical jazz with traditional broadway razzledazzle, pairing the production with truly brilliant choreography.

This is not to detract from the deceivingly deep-rooted issues underneath the flashy presentation.

Keith John - “I Can Only Be Me” If you didn’t read the liner notes, you would swear this ballad was sung by Stevie Wonder, himself.

Wonder writes and produces the track, but it’s John who does his spot-on impersonation of the Motown legend.

School Daze/Columbia Pictures/Spike Lee/Road House/Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

School Daze

Road House (1989)

Bill & Ted’s excellent ADVENTURE (1989)

In a movie about two clueless The valley boys who are prophesied to write a song that will bring peace and harmony to the universe 700 years into Extreme - “Play With Me” the future, a killer soundtrack Serving as the background would make sense. Yet few refor the iconic mall scene, member/realize how near-perExtreme’s fast-fingered riffs fect this collection of songs acare most reminiscent of Van tually is. Almost entirely made Halen’s “Eruption”, but the up of original tracks by relatively melodic hook takes on a life obscure artists (sans Extreme), of its own, thankfully never this excellent soundtrack puts straying far from its progenitogether a cohesive assortment tor, to the delight of the film’s of hard rock tunes that, if we two title characters. didn’t know any better, we could assume were always destined Robbie Robb feat. Steve to be with one another. After Salas - “In Time” listening, we can’t imagine one A beautiful love ballad that I song not being included, and secretly used to simp to in high likewise if one were absent, it school. would throw off the flow of the whole album.

Power Tool - “Two Heads Are Better Than One” A fun rocker that serves as the pseudo-anthem to this adventure-comedy.

Highlights

When it comes to gritty southern blues, perhaps no other movie from the ‘80s (or any other decade for that matter) embodies the vibe better than the Patrick Swayze vehicle Road House. About a bouncer at a roadside bar, the film has its own house band, fronted by Jeff Healey, which plays several blues rock covers. The album omits three tracks by chicano rock band The Cruzados, but features mostly-originals, while managing to place us in the Double Deuce with Swayze, who contributes a couple songs, himself.

The

Highlights Bob Seger - “Blue Monday” Seger howls this rhythm and blues standard with a soulful delivery that meshes perfectly with the honky tonk orchestration.

The Jeff Healey Band - “When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky” It goes without saying that Healey’s haunting rendition of Bob Dylan’s 1985 song is better than the original, but you really need to listen to this one yourself.

Patrick Swayze - “Raising Heaven (In Hell Tonight)” What would an ‘80s movie be without a catchy reverb-filled pop-rock anthem? But also, how many can boast that said anthem is performed by the film’s star? You’d never guess this was Swayze singing, and despite its ‘80s cliches, we love it for its ‘80s cliches (yes, you read that correctly).

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