Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (Marvel/Walt Disney Studios) This post discusses the plot of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Joss Whedon, the auteur who rose from indie television sensation “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to stewardship of some of the most important movies in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, has seemed…
I spend most of my time admiring and appreciating Joss Whedon’s writing skills. His feminism I can take or leave, but he’s very talented in the dialogue department: he understands why people like each other, why they love each other. He understands why they care and which parts of a story display humanity. He makes…
Some time in the middle of Avengers: Age of Ultron, I came to terms with the fact that there will never be any more decent Marvel movies. In fact, there can’t be. Some of what I have to say is going to read as genre snobbery. So let me get this out of the way:…
Photo Credit Marvel Entertainment In October, Marvel Comics introduced readers to a new hero: a female Thor. Since then, the identity of the woman wielding Thor’s mighty hammer has been a secret. But that ends on Wednesday when issue No. 8 of the Thor series, written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Russell Dauterman, goes…
The history of Marvel Merchandise’s long, confusing and mostly terrible history with Black Widow’s presence on toy shelves is exactly that: long, confusing, and mostly terrible. But never fear, true believers — somehow toy-based representation of Black Widow can get even worse! Wait, what? Remember that shot of Natasha riding her motorbike out of the…
View this image › Joss Whedon at an event for Avengers: Age Of Ultron in Seoul, South Korea, on April 17, 2015. Ahn Young-joon / AP When filmmaker Joss Whedon decided to delete his Twitter account on Monday, the day after his movie Avengers: Age of Ultron scored the second-highest domestic opening weekend ever, it…
[Editor’s Note: The author of this piece is a former Marvel employee and wishes to remain anonymous.] Disney does not care about Marvel’s female market, which makes us virtually invisible. I could probably populate Pluto with the amount of Princess items Disney makes. But where are Gamora and Black Widow? This exclusion of women from Marvel…
The arguments over Black Widow have gotten ugly. Last night, Joss Whedon quit Twitter, with an image that pointed the blame at Twitter haters. But there’s a real issue with Black Widow, and her role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it’s worth talking about. It’s worth talking about it like adults. After Whedon abandoned…
Today in “This is why we can’t have nice things” — Joss Whedon has left Twitter. After a blockbuster weekend for “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the writer and director took an abrupt leave of social media Monday. In his final two tweets, he posted, “Now I may me down to sleep, I pray the lord…
If you aren’t a moron idiot, you probably enjoyed the first Avengers movie from 2012, because it was great. The sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, came out this past weekend, and it’s pretty good, but also, in parts, incredibly fucking stupid. Here are many of the ways that it sucks. Tony Stark is an idiot…