brain out loud

Here we go again. WandaVision, the groundbreaking Marvel series on Disney Plus was a great success with critics but suffered the wrath of viewers. The critic score on RottenTomatoes.com is a certified fresh 91% whereas the audience rating drops to 81%. Not a huge difference and not much of a concern, right? Wrong. If you look at the language trending on social media after the series wrapped you'll see that Marvel fans felt betrayed and disappointed. Why? Insane theories and unachievable expectations set by YouTubers. One particular YouTuber (no names) got theory after theory after theory completely wrong, and each week he doubled down. Claiming his erroneous theory could still happen despite it being thoroughly debunked by the events of the show, while in the same video crafting another unfounded theory with no evidence. Yes, I know what theories are and the entire point of the exercise is not having real evidence to support your speculation. It's a guessing game. You through s

My childhood collection was foolishly abandoned when I moved away to college. For several years the house was left empty, fell into disrepair and eventually demolished. When I was notified of the impending demolition I went back to my hometown, walked through the house, and looked through all my toys. My Star Wars, He-Man, GI Joe, and Transformers collections were all there. Remarkably nobody had broken into the empty house to steal them. Other items, some furniture, and antiques had been stolen, but not my toys. I reminiscent for a while, mainly with the GI Joe collection and for a moment I clutched onto Predaking, the Transformers combiner comprised of five wild beasts. My childhood GI Joe collection was, without doubt, my largest collection and included over a hundred action figures, dozens of vehicles and the piece de resistance the Cobra Terror Drome. I can't recall my thought process at that time but for some reason, I left the house purposely empty-handed. It wasn't

The iconic satirical magazine simply known as Mad, is ceasing publication after issue #10 this fall. However the 67 year old magazine still has life in it...kinda. Reports indicate the magazine will remain on the newsstands (of comic-book retailers) with reprinted older/classic material for the foreseeable future, featuring new covers. How can a magazine published monthly since 1952 only be on the tenth issue, you ask. The magazine was relaunched at #1 in June of 2018 after Warner Brothers purchased it and relocated the headquarters to California. As you may know, Warner Brothers is the parent company of Detective Comics or DC, and the Mad Magazine team was placed under the DC umbrella. Facing challenges after their ill-fated attempt at the box office, and declining comic sales (to be fair an industry wide trend) DC recently announced they will restructure their titles into three age appropriate tiers; DC Kids, DC and DC Black Label. It appears, and I'm just speculating, that t

Spoiler Alert! Godzilla King of the Monsters wasn't a perfect film, worthy of awards, or a shoo-in for an oscars but it did have multiple gigantic monsters in an insane Boston destroying battle royal. After all, why would you go to the theater to watch a Godzilla movie, or any other CGI heavy summer block-buster for that matter, other than the exciting spectacle. The latest entry in Warner Brother's Monsterverse has a low 39% on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, mainly because I feel the critics have forgotten that. Pointing out the short-comings of the writing, or the effortless plot and those issues do persist but who cares. As in the original Toho films from the 50s, Godzilla King of the Monsters as well as the Monterverse itself includes a not-so-subtle environmentalist message, a cautionary tale about disrupting the delicate balance of nature. Expressing that message is why the humans are in the film and to set up the fight between Godzi