I will never understand why so many fanboys are dead set against change. Sure, “nostalgia is a hell of a drug,” and all that, but Masters of the Universe: Revelation on Netflix is proof that change is the best thing that can happen to the stories we loved as children.
Continue reading “Kevin Smith’s Take on ‘Masters of the Universe’ is a ‘Revelation’”
With only a few more weeks until it finally debuts, Netflix has released the full trailer for Masters of the Universe: Revelation on YouTube.
Building on what we first saw in the teaser last month, the full trailer provides some more backstory and puts Teela — voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar — at the center of much of the action!
Continue reading “Full Trailer for ‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’ Brings the Magic Back”
The classic “Hero’s Journey” is probably one of the most common and cliche methods of storytelling in media. It’s everywhere, and pretty hard to avoid, as the foreword for Adora and the Distance demonstrates. From Star Wars to Back to the Future, the majority of tales out there feature the classic story of a (usually white male) protagonist going on an impossible journey in order to stop the forces of evil from ruining his life as he knows it.
Continue reading “‘Adora and the Distance’ is an Inspiration”
If you’ve been holding out for a hero since He-Man and the Masters of the Universe went off the air in 1985, Kevin Smith has got you covered! After giving fans a sneak peek at the new character designs last month, we now get to see those designs in action now that Netflix has released a teaser on YouTube.
Continue reading “The Power of Grayskull Returns in Heroic ‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’ Teaser”
Just in time for Father’s Day is award-winning writer and FatMan Beyond co-host Marc Bernardin’s first ever YA graphic novel Adora and The Distance. The novel is inspired by Bernardin’s daughter who was diagnosed with autism as a toddler and tells a deeply beautiful and personal tale of adventure, courage, and mystery. The novel follows the goings-on of young Adora as her fantastical world of pirates, giants, and ghosts comes under threat by a mysterious force called “The Distance.”
Continue reading “Marc Bernardin and Ariela Kristantina Present Original Graphic Novel ‘Adora and The Distance’”
With great power, comes great responsibility. A timeless phrase with a powerful meaning. While it didn’t originate in comics, it was the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man that solidified the adage, transforming it into one of the most iconic comic book lines of all time.
Even if you haven’t ingested a single piece of Spidey content, the famous line tied heavily to Pete’s Uncle Ben has probably been ingrained in your memory by now. The line has been a major part of Peter Parker’s life for years, guiding the troubled hero through his hardest moments and reminding him why he dons the suit every day. But what happens when you don’t have great power anymore? What would Peter Parker do if he never became Spider-Man?
Continue reading “A Talk With Marc Bernardin About His Version of Peter Parker in ‘The Amazing Shutterbug’”
Writer, and Friend of the NOC, Marc Bernardin had always hoped to direct a movie by the time he turned 50. Well, now he’s gone and done it!
Though he has already exceeded his original Kickstarter goal in less than 12 hours, Bernardin’s directorial debut, the short film Splinter, still has a month to go to raise even more money!
Continue reading “Kickstart This: Marc Bernardin’s Directorial Debut, ‘Splinter’”
In 1982, Mattel revolutionized the toy industry when it unleashed its line of 5.5-inch action figures, Masters of the Universe. The following year, Filmation released an accompanying animated series, like all toy lines in the ’80s, and a generation of kids would never be the same. Now, nearly forty years later, a new generation will get to witness the ongoing battle between He-Man and Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revelation when it comes to Netflix on July 23!
Continue reading “‘Masters of the Universe: Revelation’ Has the Power”
This past week, I sat down with the co-host of Fatman Beyond to talk comics, quarantine, and Snyder cuts. Marc Bernardin has been one of pop culture and comic book’s most necessary voices in the industry, with writing credits from Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Treadstone, and Castle Rock. Marc’s work has also spanned outlets like GQ, Wired, and Vulture.
Continue reading “A Conversation with Elite Geek Marc Bernardin on ‘The Plague Nerdalogues’ and More”
Shawn Taylor makes his triumphant return to Hard NOC Life, joining Keith and Dominic as they break down the week in Nerd Pop.
More sights and snikts from the extraordinarily eventful San Diego Comic-Con 2019 (The 50th edition of SDCC!) Check out earlier coverage here and here!
We’ll get into the big reveals from SDCC50 on our podcast; we have plenty of time to contemplate the new Picard series, the Top Gun sequel (Miramar is right there in San Diego, after all), The CW’s Crisis crossover, the multiverse of announcements from Marvel in Hall H. For now, we’re still feeling the sunny afterglow from the melting pot of fandoms, cosplayers, and creative folk who make Comic-Con International such a special gathering, particularly so on this week when our Supervillain-In-Chief was yelling bigotry at POCs to “go back where they came from.” What can I say, fool: We’re from here.
Continue reading “Into The SDCC-Cosplay-Verse With The NOC, Part II”
Since it’s the 29th anniversary of Tim Burton’s Batman starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton, we’re rewinding back to this classic Hard NOC episode from 2014 when we had a pre-Fatman on Batman Marc Bernardin as a guest!
Continue reading “NOC Rewind: Marc Bernardin on ‘Batman 89’”
With historic Oscar nominations for Get Out and record-breaking ticket pre-sales for Black Panther, 2018 is shaping up to be a watershed year for mainstream genre pictures that center Black characters. Acclaimed speculative fiction writers and educators Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, who currently offer an online course dedicated to Jordan Peele’s box office phenomenon, join Keith for a frank discussion of both films and their place in American popular culture.
Continue reading “The Sunken Place to Wakanda with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes”
Writer, journalist, and podcaster Marc Bernardin returns to Hard NOC Life! Keith and Marc engage in a wide-ranging conversation about representation in media.
Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future.
We’ve seen so many different kinds of futures unfurl in pop culture, and many of them have people of color and LGBTQ individuals as backdrop and “local color.” What would a truly diverse, inclusive and intersectional future really look like?
Can you feel it in the air? It’s officially Comic-Con week, and we are happy to announce that for the first time ever, the N.O.C. will be in full effect in San Diego! In addition to seeing many of our guest contributors on panels and at booths during the show, we are also co-hosting a meet up with our friends at Black Girl Nerds on Saturday night! So check out everyone’s schedules and we’ll see you at the con!
Continue reading “Join the N.O.C. at Comic-Con in San Diego”
by Marc Bernardin | Originally posted at Playboy.com
We have entered a brave new world of advertising, where the marketing material needs its own marketing. Late yesterday, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder tweeted this:
Continue reading “There’s a Teaser for the Batman v Superman Trailer: This Bullshit Has to Stop”
by Marc Bernardin | Originally posted at Playboy.com
Fox wants to bring the BBC’s award-winning, frankly awesome detective thriller Luther to the U.S., but they’ve got a problem: Finding an American Idris Elba — who brought a ruthless intelligence and rugged sexuality to the role of haunted detective chief inspector John Luther — has proved too daunting a task. So, according to The Hollywood Reporter, they’ve put their remake on hold — after, apparently, entertaining the thought of Marlon Wayans as the lead.
Continue reading “Luther Remake Stalls: What Happened to Colorblind Casting?”
[Ed. note: This essay first appeared as a series of tweets on Marc’s twitter account and is being re-presented with his permission.]
The six years between the Genius Pilot Season issue release and the miniseries dropping [last week] felt like an eternity. But now, it feels like the world was making us wait for just the right time. When the hunger for female leads would reach a tipping point. When the hunger for diversity on and behind the comics pages would reach a tipping point. And, sadly, when the devaluation of black youth would reach a tipping point.
I wanted the opportunity to voice the reasons for the design of the cover for a comic book by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman entitled Genius. Before the book’s release, it has already been the subject of many heated conversations. Some feel offended that a black character being celebrated for her tactical Genius, is displayed nearly nude on a floor with caution tape loosely bound around her. They think the cover is over sexualized and offensive. Some feel it’s a poor representation of the book and black women as a whole, without ever having read it.
Others have their burdens of color on their shoulders because of the past suffering of blacks, its subsequent plots and the negative portrayal in mainstream media being so prevalent, that anything slightly resembling that, is tarred and feathered in the digital town square. Where I can understand why this may be the case, I’d like the opportunity to explain who I am and why I’ve made this. If you then feel I should be hung on the proverbial cross for doing this, c’est la vie. I have spoken my mind and created something without apology or retraction. Not everyone will like my work. But I won’t have it misrepresented by people who don’t understand it.
I warn you, there are spoilers in this. So if you prefer not to know the twists and turns, I’d wait until the end of the month after the book has reached its completion. Otherwise, journey forth, brave soul.
As you know, Image/Top Cow releases the hotly anticipated weekly series Genius today. Before you head out to your local comic shop, make sure you check out Shawn’s very nuanced endorsement of the series.
The co-creator of the book and friend of the blog, Marc Bernardin, was a guest on Hard NOC Life recently and talked briefly about the series.
He was also asked by Wired to “write a piece charting his childhood voyage through the nerd-culture landscape — a landscape that rarely felt like a place he belonged.”
Continue reading “Genius Co-Writer Marc Bernardin’s Nerd Origin”
After reading this book, I was hesitant to review it. It is one of those rare books that transcended the four-color realm and hit me in my real life. I was also unsure if my endorsement of the book was an endorsement of some of the messages in the book. Artist Afua Richardson and co-writers Marc Bernadin and Adam Freeman’s Genius is a book that I am still digesting. First introduced in 2008 by Top Cow via “Pilot Season,” Genius is a book that challenges me in a way that I haven’t felt in a while.
Comics are my escape from a stressful job. I want to read snikt and see folks teleport, and leap off buildings — it is a great way to decompress after days of seeing people in pain. Hell, even the more serious fare can act as 22-page escape pods — escaping into the fantastic from the sad and mundane. But this book read more like a possibility than a fantasy. In light of the killings of Eric Garner, Pearlie “Miss Sully” Golden, and Kathryn Johnston at the hands of the police, Genius is almost prescient. And it is a little foreboding.
by Marc Bernardin | Originally posted at The Hollywood Reporter
If your only exposure to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender came by way of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 feature film adaptation, then I am truly sorry. I can see how that limp, bland take on creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s blisteringly entertaining animated series would steer you away from ever checking out the source material. And that’s a shame, because Avatar — a story about a world where certain people can “bend” the four elements to their will and a young Airbender named Aang who is destined to be the Avatar, who alone can restore balance to a pre-industrial civilization that’s out of whack — is everything an animated series can be. Avatar: The Last Airbender is like a cross between Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Stand By Me if it was animated by Hayao Miyazaki.
Continue reading “The Third Season of The Legend of Korra Delivers”
