A product of its time, but not in a bad way: Skull the Slayer
Usually “a product of time” identifies books (or people) with unsavory qualities such as the antisemitism and racism in H. Rider Haggard’s The People of the Mist. While Skull the …
Author: frasersherman
Just shoot him already! Morgan and Mace of the Suicide Squad
Successful formula fiction requires two things. First, a formula that works when it’s reused over and over. Second, characters who make the formula interesting; as Roger Ebert once put it, …
The loneliest miser: another look at Christmas Carol
Last year Greg Hatcher discussed why he loves A Christmas Carol despite a general distaste for Christmas because “someone finally convinces a rich asshole to stop being a jerk to …
Christmas as a black hole
Over the years Christmas has become the black hole of movies, drawing them to the season by the gravitic pull of its marketing power. As my colleagues were discussing in …
A clash of titans: Dr. Mabuse vs. my colonoscopy
Dr. Mabuse vs. my Colonoscopy is not, to date, the title of any film in the Mabuse series. But my colonoscopy did clash with my plans to review the 1960s …
“Batman? Are you named for that guy in the funny books?” The Earth-One Paradox
As we all know, when Barry Allen first popped over to Earth-Two in Flash #123, he discovered the 1940s Golden Age Flash he’d grown up reading about was a real …
“Death, invisible death, until all mankind trembles before me!” The Invisible Dr. Mabuse
As the Invisible Dr. Mabuse title appears on screen, we see an invisible man holding up opera glasses behind the lettering. It’s a neat trick, as the phantom is not …