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Max Schindler

2923 Posts
25 Aug

Astro City: The Greatest Superhero Comic Not From Marvel or DC

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
The world of comics is lousy with Superman homages. Marvel has Hyperion, Sentry, Blue Marvel, and Guardian. Homelander and Omni-Man show the dangers of being Superman. Anime fans have All Might in My Hero Academia. Heck, DC itself has Mon-El, Icon, and Apollo (no, Captain Marvel doesn’t count). While all these versions have their positive attributes, no homage quite captures the beauty and optimism of the original article. None, except the Samaritan, the star of the 1995 story “In Dreams.” Most of “In Dreams” follows a day in the life of the Samaritan, a day he divides into half-seconds as…
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25 Aug

15 Actors Who Looked Completely Different in Their Breakthrough Role

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
Some actors seem to arrive on screen fully formed, with the face, style, and presence audiences eventually learn to recognize. Their first major roles can tell a very different story. Early performances often came with unusual haircuts, different physiques, younger faces, or character styling that made the person behind the performance surprisingly hard to spot. In some cases, the transformation was simply the result of time, while others were shaped by costumes, makeup, or a role that demanded a completely different image. These early appearances can feel like forgotten snapshots of stars before their familiar screen identities settled into place.…
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25 Aug

15 Famous Inventions That Were Originally Created for a Totally Different Reason

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
We tend to think inventions begin with someone identifying a problem and then creating exactly the thing needed to solve it. History is considerably messier than that. Some of the products we use every day started life with a completely different job, while others emerged from experiments that technically failed at what they were supposed to accomplish. A children’s toy once cleaned dirty wallpaper, packaging material began as an attempt at home decor, and one of the world’s most recognizable household sprays started out in the aerospace industry. Sometimes inventors spotted a better use for something they’d already made. Other…
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25 Aug

Ridley Scott Takes Aim at Hollywood’s Obsession With Superheroes and FBI Agents

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
Ridley Scott’s new film, The Dog Stars, is set for its theatrical release this week, and its director still seems to be as fired up about the state of storytelling as he was when he claimed that most of the filmmaking world’s output these days is “shit,” suggesting that Hollywood seems fixated on telling the same three stories these days. “Look, everything now is about a murdered girl in the woods, or an FBI agent who is better than anyone else – or a superhero,” he told The Times. “Fuck me! There have to be other stories to tell.” Though…
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25 Aug

13 ‘Hard to Imagine’ Moments from History That Really Did Take Place

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
When people say that reality beats fiction, it does not only mean that it can be more cruel or fantastical. They can also mean it can be more outlandish, to the point that historical things happening in fiction can be seen as poor writing. Or at least, too hard to believe. But these things really did happen, at least according to historical accounts. These aren’t urban legends or exaggerated internet trivia, either. They’re documented events that actually happened, even when the circumstances sound completely ridiculous. From bizarre disasters to astonishing political episodes, these are the moments when history briefly became…
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24 Aug

Lanterns: What Does ‘Mogo Doesn’t Socialize’ Mean?

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Lanterns season 1 episode 2. We still aren’t getting many scenes of Hal Jordan and John Stewart in green tights, but the second episode of Lanterns has a lot of comic book weirdness. Not only do the Manhunters get a mention and John makes a construct, but we also see a lantern tucked away in a pocket dimension. Hal and his fellow GLs have been keeping their lanterns in pocket dimensions since John Broome and Gil Kane have been telling their stories in the early Silver Age. But the most exciting reference might be the…
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24 Aug

Lanterns: The Manhunters Are The Messiest Bad Guys in DC History

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Lanterns season 1 episode 2. We’re only two episodes in, and Lanterns has already had a lot more comic book weirdness than some detractors had guessed from the trailers. But when John Stewart asks Hal Jordan about Manhunters, Lanterns gets really weird. Most fans of Green Lantern comics know Manhunters as the killer androids created by the Guardians of the Universe before the Green Lantern Corps, unfeeling and brutal enforcers of justice who have become one of the Lanterns’ most bitter enemies. But behind the scenes, the Manhunters are some of the most convoluted characters…
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24 Aug

Lanterns Episode 2 Review: Charging Up By Powering Down

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Lanterns season 1 episode 2. At the start of Green Lantern #192 (1985), by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, the supervillain Star Sapphire carries Hal Jordan into the air and drops him. Despite the fact that Hal no longer wears a power ring, having rescinded his membership in the Green Lantern Corps months earlier, he remains unafraid. He looks around as he plummets, searching for a way to continue his mission, despite the fact that he no longer has superpowers. Nothing from that issue appears in the second episode of Lanterns, “Trust Fall,” but it’s…
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22 Aug

The GTA 6 Leak Situation Explained 

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
The past week has turned into full-blown chaos for Rockstar Games, as a wave of leaked Grand Theft Auto VI footage has spiraled into a legal fight over the identity of the person, or people, behind them.  The ordeal started roughly around August 18, when gameplay clips began circulating online under the alias “Cyberleek.” The material, ranging from short clips to map details, spread first through underground forums before jumping to mainstream platforms like Twitter/X and Reddit.  The leaker also launched a website featuring a manifesto, dubbed “The CYBERLEEK Edict,” that criticized monetization practices in the gaming industry and Rockstar…
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22 Aug

Mizu Is Back: Blue Eye Samurai Season 2’s Release Date Window and First Teaser Revealed

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
The hunt is back on. Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai is officially gearing up for another round of blood-soaked justice, and fans finally have a date to mark on their calendars.  The streamer announced that season 2 will premiere sometime during January 2027 at Anime NYC, ending a wait that has stretched on since the series first debuted in late 2023. Alongside the announcement, Netflix also released a teaser trailer that offered a first look at what’s ahead for Mizu’s bloody quest for revenge.  Blue Eye Samurai became one of Netflix’s most acclaimed animated series almost immediately after release, holding a…
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22 Aug

Train to Busan Director Yeon Sang-ho on Colony and the Fear of Community

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
At first glance, the new movie Colony seems to cover a lot of the same ground that South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho explored in his 2016 breakout Train to Busan. In Colony, people transform into rabid killers and invade a public space, this time a shopping mall instead of a commuter train. But where the monsters of Train to Busan remained mindless beasts, Colony features creatures who evolve and learn to communicate and become a single community. And that’s truly scary to Director Yeon. “For me, zombies illustrate the peril of collectivity,” Director Yeon tells Den of Geek. “They can…
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22 Aug

Jon Favreau Talks Embracing Natural Storytelling With Nat Geo’s ‘Lion’

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
Two creative forces from two very different disciplines — one a blockbuster filmmaker with a penchant for spectacle and humanity, the other a nature documentarian with decades of field experience — have formed an unlikely partnership for a new project about the world of nature. Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and the live-action remake of The Lion King, first formed a creative bond with Mike Gunton, the legendary producer behind Planet Earth II, while both executive produced the Apple TV dinosaur series Prehistoric Planet.  Now Favreau and Gunton have come together again for Lion, a new National Geographic documentary…
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22 Aug

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: A Guide to the Slasher References

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Jane Schoenbrun‘s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a distinctive film, a mix of surreal postmodernism, gender critique, and surprising humor. It’s also a celebration of ’80s slashers, filled with references to movies that most people dismiss as tasteless trash, even if icons like Jason and Freddy remain in the popular culture. The specificity in those references reveals Schoenbrun’s deep love for subgenre, as does the movie itself. Among the many other things it does spectacularly well, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma also argues…
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21 Aug

Explosive New Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Story Highlights Netflix’s Anime Release Calendar

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
“What kind of edgerunner are you?” That’s a question asked…nay, screamed midway through a brand new first look at the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 (styled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2), the next standalone installment set in Netflix’s anime adaptation of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. It’s a good question too, as fans of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (which includes notable names such as Cyberpunk tabletop RPG creator Mike Pondsmith and acclaimed video game industry visionary Hideo Kojima) have also wondered what kind of edgerunner they’re going to get to see next. The first season of the Netflix series provided an open-and-shut case, which means the…
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21 Aug

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Celebrates the Problematic Pleasures of Trash Cinema

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains full spoilers for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Trailers for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma made clear that the film would celebrate ’80s slashers. What’s more surprising is the fact that Jane Schoenbrun‘s latest is also about junk food. Not only do up-and-coming director Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder) and reclusive actor Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson) eat a lot of candy throughout the movie, but a stand-out scene involves the latter seductively placing pieces of KFC on a silver platter to serve to the former. While preparing the meal, Billy half-apologizes for serving take-out,…
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21 Aug

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’s Puppet Episode Is the Height of Silly Trek

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 5. The title of the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Level Five Transporter Accident,” brings to mind one of the most upsetting moments in franchise history. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a transporter accident results in two people merging into one, screaming in agony as they die a painful death. Yet, what actually happens in “Level Five Transporter Accident” doesn’t come anywhere near horror, despite the fact that Pelia gets sliced in half by Orion pirates. Instead, “Level Five Transporter Accident” pushes Star…
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21 Aug

Marvel’s Third Wolverine Origin Comic Tries to Repair the Mystery it Ruined

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
Wolverine is the best at what he does, and what he does is talk about his past, apparently. Marvel has announced Wolverine: Origin III – The Dark Age, an upcoming miniseries written by Paul Jenkins and illustrated by CAFU, which will explore Logan’s actions in the 1950s, leading to his recruitment into the Weapon X program that gave him his famous adamantium skeleton. Marvel’s pitching the series as a look into an unexamined part of Wolverine’s history, which is true enough. But when they also present Origin III as a 25th anniversary celebration of the original miniseries Origin, by Jenkins…
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20 Aug

12 ‘Common’ Facts Many People Still Don’t Know

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
We all have those moments when somebody mentions an ordinary fact, and suddenly the world feels slightly different. Something you have seen, heard, eaten, used, or said countless times can hide a surprisingly obvious explanation. The funny part is that these discoveries rarely feel like obscure trivia. They are the kinds of things that make you wonder how you managed to miss them for so long. A recent Reddit discussion brought together plenty of those moments, with people admitting they had completely missed facts that seemed obvious once explained. These are twelve everyday facts that might make you stop and…
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20 Aug

Lanterns Is a Gamble That DC Needs to Make Again in the Future

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
This article contains spoilers for Lanterns season 1 episode 1. The first episode of the HBO series Lanterns has received praise from almost everyone who watched it, from critics to casual fans to many comic book readers. But there’s one group of people who are not happy with the Green Lantern show, particularly what happens in the final moments. It’s not just that fans of Hal Jordan hated that the first episode ended with their hero dead from a bullet in his head. It’s that the series killed Hal after keeping him almost entirely out of costume, unmasked, and only…
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20 Aug

Ed McBain: The Writer Who Invented the Police Procedural

Max SchindlerNew DVD release
Turn on a television, stroll the bookstore, walk through a movie theater, and you’re bound to see a cop. It doesn’t matter if you’re watching Spider-Man touch base with Jean DeWolff in Brand New Day, enjoying Jake Peralta goof around on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or reading the latest John Sandford thriller to pass the time at the airport, the police are everywhere. Moreover, they’re almost always the heroes—certainly flawed, often beleaguered, but at the end of the day, effective and morally good. But that wasn’t always the case, at least in film and literature. While several different events sent cops to…
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