NOC Week in Review #9: 8/29-9/4/2026

This was one of those weeks where it felt like half the site was living at a press junket. Between Lanterns gearing up for its origin-heavy third episode and Forgotten Island‘s Filipino pride tour ahead of its September 25 release, our team was everywhere — and it made for some of the best coverage we’ve run in a while.

Mike sat in on a special panel for Lanterns‘ third episode, where writer Vanessa Baden Kelly and stars Jasmine Cephas Jones and J. Alphonse Nicholson spoke about grounding John Stewart’s origin story in something that actually feels relevant today. Nikita followed up with her own conversation with Nicholson and Cephas Jones, digging into what it means to raise a Black son who grows up to become a superhero — and how the show lets its heroes actually survive systemic racism instead of just gesturing at it.

Speaking of representation done right, Mike was also on the ground for Forgotten Island‘s press celebration, calling DreamWorks’ first film rooted in Filipino culture and mythology a triumph after hearing from directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and stars Liza Soberano and Manny Jacinto. Ahead of the film’s September 25 release, Michael backs that up with his own review, praising how specifically Filipino the film is — folklore, food, and music included — while still landing themes anyone can relate to.

That same spirit of representation carries over into animation’s history, too — Victoria wrote about Don Hahn’s Huz: Drawn to Life, a Disney+ documentary on longtime animator Ron Husband and what it meant to be one of the only Black artists in the room at Disney Animation.

On the recap side, I caught up with Dark Matter star Alice Braga about season 2’s uncharted territory now that there’s no more Blake Crouch novel to adapt, and kept the recap series rolling with episode 2, pairing the episode with Pearl Jam’s “React, Respond.” It’s amazing how much the season is dovetailing with the album.

Over in the theatre world, Edward checked out Play On Shakespeare’s modern verse translation of Pericles at Boston Court Pasadena — a mighty, delightful cast wrapped around what he calls a bit of a head-scratcher of an adaptation.

Nikita also broke down the newest Street Fighter trailer, which zeroes in on Ryu and Ken’s storyline as the cast kicks off its world tour in Japan, with stops across Tokyo including Sensō-ji Temple.

And finally, Shelf Conscious is officially back from the dead! I sat down with YouTube creator and toy customizer Ibrahim Moustafa to talk about carving out his own lane in a comics industry that didn’t have room for him, one custom Batmobile at a time.

That’s it for this week. Between capes, cartoons, and custom action figures, representation showed up everywhere we looked. See you next Friday.

— Keith

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here. Want to support the NOC directly? Buy our merch.