Tag: war

Comics, Interview9 Comments

Making Monstress: An Exclusive Conversation with Marjorie Liu

Zhouweiwen

I spent this past weekend at New York Comic-Con. When I wasn’t manning the Epic Proportions booth, I was able to sneak away and meet with writer Marjorie Liu. She makes her long-awaited return to comics with Image Comics’ Monstress, reuniting her with X-23 artist Sana Takeda.

In the first part of this exclusive, wide-ranging interview, Marjorie and I discuss the origins of the book, her childhood obsession with the apocalypse, the influence of pre-World War II China, and what it was like reuniting with artist Sana Takeda.

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Literature, Movies, Sci Fi8 Comments

Why I Hate All Things Mockingjay

Jordan M Calhoun

Originally posted at Black Nerd Problems

While the book Mockingjay was released in 2010, this is your spoiler alert for both the book in its completion and the movie, Mockingjay: Part 1.

Several years ago I was introduced to The Hunger Games, a new book gaining popularity as a young adult dystopian novel featuring a female lead. I borrowed a copy from the library and was introduced to Katniss Everdeen from District 12, and she was everything I wanted her to be. Clever, bold, and independent, The Hunger Games’ leading lady was instantly a crowd favorite, and the world of Panem made for a breezy thrill ride as I sped through it in 3 days of subway rides and bedtime reading. When the second book came out, Catching Fire expanded the world from the Battle Royale of the games, to the larger theme of dystopia and revolution. “Tread carefully,” I remember thinking. But most of my thoughts were still preoccupied with wishing Katniss would finally leave Peeta to die and ride out with Team Gale, so I was still a fan, to say the least. Before the first movie was even announced I tried to pre-order tickets by holding my Fandango app in my hands and concentrating really hard.

All of that ignores the existence of Mockingjay.

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Movies, Sci Fi5 Comments

Mockingjay’s Big Box Office: Why Audiences Love The Hunger Games

Christelle G.

This weekend, Mockingjay Part 1, the third installment of The Hunger Games film franchise, was the victor of the box office with a $123 million haul. On its opening Friday alone, the film made $55 million, making it the best opening day debut of 2014, in addition to having the year’s largest domestic weekend debut (beating Transformers: Age of Extinction’s $100 million opening weekend from June ). Despite being “the weaker tribute” compared to the first two films domestically (The Hunger Games: $152.5 million; Catching Fire: $158 million), Mockingjay Part 1 grossed $275 million worldwide. Those are some kickass numbers, Katniss.

So how do The Hunger Games movies manage to hit the target — you’re welcome, reader, for this archery joke — year after year? Is it the draw of a dystopian society that is so popular in young adult novels? Is it the idea of kids killing each other for TV ratings? Is it Jennifer Lawrence?

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DC Comics, Movies6 Comments

Wonder Woman on Gaza: What Would Diana Do?

Keith Chow

Now that San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, the geekosphere is slowly recovering from yet another event-filled summer week of blockbuster teasers, secret announcements, and surprise reveals. The biggest news of the weekend was probably Zack Snyder surprising Hall H with an exclusive first look at Gal Gadot in full Wonder Woman regalia. DC’s new cinematic trinity — Gadot, Ben Affleck, and Henry Cavill — even joined Snyder on stage to tease actual footage from the movie.

The move made Batman v Superman the buzziest movie presentation to emerge out of San Diego by far. And to be honest, I think Gadot looks fantastic as Wonder Woman. Yeah, the internet’s got jokes, but I think the costume successfully threads the needle between comic book accurate and live action practical. For me, though, the thing that I find disconcerting about Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman isn’t how she looks, but what she believes.

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Comics4 Comments

A Few Thoughts on Saga

Tribe One

If you aren’t already reading Saga there are a few things that I can assume about you without ever having to meet you.

1. You just straight up aren’t a comics person, or, if you are, you aren’t a good comics person. Or a good person. Or possibly even a person at all.

2. You’re sick of hearing about how good Saga is from all your friends who are comics people and how much you really need to pick up the first trade because it’s only $9.99 for six issues, and no you can’t borrow my copy because I’ll never get it back, come on, you know how you are.

3. You have some weird guilt thing about enjoyment, probably having to do with your deeply religious upbringing.

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