Boulder

Not to belabor the point, but I've been thinking about how deeply situational the humor was in the earlier episodes, and it's incredible by today's standards. In "Bart the Genius," the eventual denouement and resolution comes with Bart admitting his sham to Homer and getting chased through the house. Bart (naked) runs past Lisa and Marge, with Homer chasing after him. Without even turning her head, Lisa just goes "Mom... I think Bart's dumb again." It's not that the line itself was fantastic or anything, it was just executed so perfectly in combination with the preceding 22 minutes.

Some of those older episodes had such great moments in terms of reminding viewers "hey, they're a family, they love each other." One of my favorites is from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" where at the very end, as the Simpsons solemnly drive back to Springfield, Bart just goes "Y'know, Dad, I thought your car was pretty cool." Homer replies, "Thanks, boy. I was waiting for someone to say that." EDIT: And on a separate, but related note, that episode was filled with hilarious jokes. One of my favorites.

Good article, apart from the Futurama bashing. I never realized there was one particular person so largely responsible for that brand of joke, so it's interesting to find out. There's more to it than just the jokes themselves, though. When the show started, the main thing it had going for it was how honest it was. It was an incredibly witty, but not too-greatly-skewed satire of American life. The characters (supporting and major) represented archetypes closely associated with suburbia- Homer, the average boor, Marge, the harried housewife, Lisa, the unnoticed genius, Bart, the hellraising brat, and Maggie, the ".3" of the 2.3 children. The show adhered to the characterization, stayed honest, and with good writing, humor rose organically. They've been showing a lot of the earlier episodes (Seasons 3-4) on TV over here lately, and they never fail to blow me away. Just yesterday was the Mr. Plow episode, and when Homer considers buying the plow, he fantasizes about using it to move protesters at the White House at the behest of George Bush (Sr.). One of the protesters is carrying a sign that says "Give me money to do nothing." That's it, just a little, almost throw-away joke that gets across so much about Homer's beliefs and intelligence. It stays true to the character, and even if it paints a picture with which we don't personally agree, it doesn't make Homer any less lovable.

Looks awesome. Coen brothers movies are the only "kind" of film I go into already knowing I'm going to love.

Lex Luthor, Braniac and Hank Henshaw to name just three. What? Well, at least they all have damn good reasons.

Who hates Superman? What's wrong with you?

Whoops, my bad. Thought this was a thread about They Live. I'll leave now.

#1-#50, plus the Winter Soldier: Winter Kills one shot and the Captain America 65th Anniversary Special one shot.

I need some recommendations. Firstly, does anybody know of any old, old, OLD school Superman stories (think 1950s or thereabouts) that really show life on Krypton, or in Kandor, anything like that? Also, any particularly good Vandal Savage stories (from any time period)?

Wooooo. That wasn't me saying "wooooo," by the way. It was air escaping from my folds of fat. Wooooo.

Yeah, after enjoying Cap and Daredevil, when I found out there was a Brubaker Doom mini I needed to have it. It didn't disappoint, it's definitely Doom done right, which isn't something that always happens these days.

As a big Golden Girls fan, I was sad to hear this. From all accounts it sounds like she had a long and full life, at least. RIP.

Fuck, really? I've had this idea for years, but forgot to do it every April 1st.

-movienewstouse.com My knee jerk reaction is to be unimpressed, but the more I think about it, the more I want to like it. I love the series, and A Link to the Past is possibly my all-time favorite game. I'm skeptical, but if they're really going all out, who knows?

I was stunned to hear this, as I didn't even know he was sick. I only watched Angel for the first couple of seasons, but he was clearly one of the most enjoyable things about the show (and said Pylea episodes were fantastic). RIP.

War Machine has been good. Nothing spectacular, but a fun war comic with a Sci-Fi twist. I haven't read the issue that came out yesterday, though. As far as Spider-Man, anyone who hasn't been reading ought to pick up the Joe Kelly Hammerhead 2 parter from last year (I want to say October), as those were incredible. If you don't enjoy that story, then Spidey might just not be your cup of tea at this point.

Spoiler: Click here to viewI didn't mind that he unmasked to them. What bothered me is that nobody remembered that they used to know who he was. According to Marvel, people remember the unmasking but they don't know who was behind the mask. Given that, would a more logical question than "who are you?" be "why the hell don't we know who you are anymore?" Spoiler: Click here to viewI guess they not only don't remember who he was, they don't even remember they knew. Now, I have to ask, I haven't been reading Spider-Man since the whole BND crap, but I know he already interacted with the Thunderbolts, which by proxy makes him interact with Norman Osborn, or at least I'd think that. What was their stance there? Did they make any acknowledgment that Osborn used to know who he was? Heck, or Venom? What's the deal there? Could anyone explain? I'll ditch the spoiler tags since this one was last summer, but yeah, they addressed all that. Norman didn't remember who Spider-Man was, and Peter (in costume) even made a point of teasing him about how he knew all of Osborn's secrets, but it wasn't vice versa anymore. Of course, Norman knew long before the Civil War unmasking, so who knows what "officially" happened to that. Venom (and the symbiote) didn't know Peter's identity, but kept tracking down Eddie Brock and getting into it with him. There was also a part in that storyline (New Ways to Die), where Peter thinks his identity might be in jeopardy, then when he realizes it isn't, thinks something like "the work WE did is still in effect." As yet there's been no explanation regarding that.

Spoiler: Click here to viewI didn't mind that he unmasked to them. What bothered me is that nobody remembered that they used to know who he was. According to Marvel, people remember the unmasking but they don't know who was behind the mask. Given that, would a more logical question than "who are you?" be "why the hell don't we know who you are anymore?"

Hey, to those who saw the movie, is Bubastis in there? Just wondering.

I liked this one a lot, actually. Bender's Big Score is still my favorite, but this is a fairly close second. I didn't care for Beast with a Billion Backs or Bender's Game (the former ignored and damaged the Fry/Leela relationship and as for the latter, I've never seen nor cared about LOTR), but I suppose they deserve second viewings.

Yes, agreed on Magneto Testament. The whole series was top notch. I'm digging Old Man Logan. I can go either way with Millar's work- a lot of the time I find it too overdone and "big screen" for my tastes, but when McNiven's the artist, I don't mind letting the pictures do the talking. The idea is pretty cool and so far the execution has been strong. I can't say if I'll feel the same way when this wraps up, but I'm enjoying it more than any of his other recent work, even Kick-Ass.

Final Crisis #7 lived up to the previous six installments and then some. I loved how most of the major players got their chance to shine- Superman (and the other Supermen), the Green Lanterns, Wonder Woman/Supergirl, the Flashes (though you could argue they got a bit short-changed)- and a lot of minor ones played key roles- The Question, Frankenstein, even Luthor in his own way. The time-travel stuff really came to a head here, specifically with Darkseid's radion bullet. It really wrapped up brilliantly, and my favorite part, the very last page, was beautifully haunting. Great stuff.

Didn't get to read #7 yet, but if it's anything like the past six, I'm sure I'll have nothing but praise for it. I'll let you know what I thought (probably) this weekend. On another note, has anyone read this week's issue of Nova yet? As great as the series is, this was one of the very best issues.

1. Peter Parker 2. Steve Rogers 3. Magneto 4. Ben Grimm 5. Dr. Doom 6. Rich Rider 7. Jen Walters 8. Mary Jane Watson-Parker-Watson 9. Reed Richards 10. Galactus

Though I don't understand your Quitely hate, just wanted to remind you to get the Gaiman two-parter before Battle for the Cowl. Personally, apart from Gaiman's, I'm leaning towards not buying any Batman until Morrison gets back. Not like I have a particular affinity for the character.