New X-Men Apocalypse Trailer Goes Epic
Did you know there’s a new X-Men movie out this year? Yeah, they’re tucking it down in there behind all the hype for Captain America: Civil War and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It’s called X-Men: Apocalypse, and they are really trying.
I’m probably being a bit harsh on this movie. Not sure why. The X-Men movies have always been fine. But this franchise feels played out. So many better and more nuanced superhero movies and franchises have come along. Do the X-Men really mean anything anymore? They haven’t had a consistent team lineup for several movies.
I dunno, I’m just griping. The trailer was pretty epic and exciting. I just don’t know if the franchise has any more gas in the tank.
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A New Comic Book Cartoon Youtube Show Enters Our Lives
Behold the work of Noah Sterling, a comics fan who has taken to animation and Youtube to explain complex and awesome comic book stories in simple form! He’s funny and the work is quality. Here’s his take on Civil War.
Unfortunately, according to his Youtube channel, his videos have been taken down — so watch that one while you can. Sterling explains in a short bit that he works for Marvel, but the videos were his own little project. The popularity of his Civil War video outed his project to Marvel, and they asked him to take down the unlicensed work. Makes sense. But he says he’s going to do some other comics, so we’ll see where things go. Still, fun video.
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My 6 Favorite Female Comic Book Characters
Once upon a time, back when I started this blog, one of my first Lists of Six was of my favorite comic book characters of all time. The list is all men, in large part because I settled on my list of favorites back when I was a kid, and Young Sean wasn’t all that interested in female characters. Or facial hair. I didn’t like characters with mustaches for some reason.
So in honor of Women’s History Month, I want to talk about my six favorite female comic book characters.
I need to catch up on A-Force
This is a purely personal list. These are the characters I enjoy reading about, characters whose existence alone will almost guarantee I take a look at a comic. I love seeing them pop up in cartoons and movies. And I’m usually excited to see how their characters grow and change. We all have our favorite characters for one reason or another, and these are some of mine.
Join me after the jump!
My Theory on the Eagles in The Lord of the Rings
I don’t see what the big deal is with the eagles in The Lord of the Rings. Everybody’s always cracking jokes about the eagles or scratching their heads. They ask why the Fellowship of the Ring didn’t just fly giant eagles to Mordor to destroy the One Ring? But these people are ignoring the most obvious answer! I saw yet another fan theory the other day proclaiming that the eagles were Gandalf’s plan all along, hence shouting, “Fly, you fools!” when he died at the Bridge of Khazad Dum. It’s a neat theory, but it’s wrong. The answer is obvious:
The Fellowship of the Ring didn’t fly to Mount Doom because they were trying to stay under the radar.
This sorry lot
If you’ve seen The Lord of the Rings movies, then you know that Gandalf was pals with a bunch of giant eagles, who came to his aid every now and then. And the question is: why didn’t Gandalf just fly a giant eagle to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring? Seems pretty obvious, right?
Of course it’s obvious. And it would have been just as obvious to their enemies, Saruman and Sauron. The bad guys were actively looking for the One Ring. You don’t think they would have noticed Gandalf riding a giant eagle into Mordor?
Not only that, but evil had an Air Force of their own. As we saw in the climactic battle in Return of the King, the flying Nazgul were the natural enemy of the eagles. The Nazgul were perfectly designed to combat those eagles.
So picture Gandalf and the Fellowship flying up to the edge of Mordor and having a flock of evil lizard dragons pouncing. The eagles would have put up a fight, and I’m sure it would have been glorious, but do you really want to bring the One Ring into that kind of scuffle? How easy would it be to lose the darn thing? Imagine dropping the ring from that height? Not to mention giving the whole game away. Nothing says, ‘We have the One Ring’, like a flock of enormous eagles making a beeline for Mount Doom.
Sauron had no idea who had the ring or where to find it. The One Ring wasn’t with the Middle Earth Air Force, and it wasn’t on the finger of a king sieging the Black Gate with an army of oliphaunts.
It was in the pocket of a hobbit, a curious and unnoticed creature, wandering through the woods. Frodo was a walking hiding place.
And it worked.
Sauron didn’t know about Frodo until it was far too late for him. That was the entire plan. Frodo, with Sam’s help, walked from Hobbiton to Mount Doom without once being found out by Sauron. He stayed so far under the radar that Sauron didn’t have any idea that he was going to lose the One Ring.
The eagles would have been too big. They would have caused a scene, and Sauron would have quickly figured out what was going on. The walking hobbit may have taken longer, but it was clearly a good idea.
But the eagles have no excuse for the ending of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The Lonely Mountain was right there in front of them. That would have been another 20 minutes in the air, tops.
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Spock Rock
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that there’s a super popular Broadway play about Alexander Hamilton. Considering I’ve never seen a Broadway play, it makes sense that Hamilton snuck up on me. Fortunately, some kind and awesome soul has already parodied the play with Star Trek.
Hats off to you, Jackson Lanzing. You are doing the Internet proud.
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Henchman-4-Hire 