I guess I’ll put a jump in for “spoilers,” although the chances I’ve managed to ferret out Grant Morrison’s mental machinations before he’s chosen to reveal them to us is indeed slim…
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Just back from a week-long vacation, during which I ate ice cream EVERY NIGHT and read trashy crime noir novels courtesy of the fine people at Hard Case Crime.

Today, as we all celebrate the birthday of one Mr. Elvis Costello in our own private, spiritual ways, I’m pleased to announce that I’m writing for a new blog with my pal Jeff of Conditional Axe fame. It’s called Poisoned Letter and it’s dedicated to the music of Mr. Costello, one of those song/album blogs where every post is dedicated to examining a tune until you’ve worked your way thru the whole damned catalog.

Our “why we love EC” posts are up now, and more to come, I’m sure. So read! Listen! Enjoy! Fornicate! Whatever.

While we wait for Simon to help reignite the Star Trek franchise, he continues to bid his time in tiny romantic comedies - a Simon Pegg comedy tends to appeal to both halves of the gender demographic, which gives it a unique strength.

Run Fatboy Run was not only a solid bit of Peggian hilarity, it was a genuinely sweet romance story as well. And hey, anything that continues to help introduce Dylan Moran to the world, can’t be a bad thing.

And now comes Simon’s follow-up lead in the Toby Young bio-pic, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. I hated the poster, but if you add Jeff Bridges to the equation, I’m forced to reconsider. Add Gillian Anderson (yes, she’s in there - watch closely), and I’m sold. SOLD!

Have y’all gotten your first glimpse of Simon Pegg as Scotty?

Check out Rotten Tomatoes for a full range of Trekkian photos.

Quite a bit of buzzing/Tweeting/message boarding about Pegg being perhaps a bit more, ahem, follicularly-challenged than James Doohan. But I don’t know…something in his expression does say Scotty. Frankly, I’m more concerned about young Anton Yelchin, who, to me, has always come off kind of whiny and miscast in just about every role he lands (particularly Charlie Bartlett, which I think I would have really liked if they had gotten someone buy-able in that part). Still, I’m trying to keep an open mind…I mean, Chekov is kind of whiny.

What do y’all think? What’s most important when trying to cast an iconic role like this one? The physical? The general essence? Both? Take a break from your Friday drudgery and TELL ME.

Inspired by yesterday’s Twit-run of Serenity/Veronica Mars/Wonderfalls/Brisco County Jr. crossover fanfic, here are three notable encounters I’ve had with Firefly people and the lessons we can take away from them.

1. Whilst interviewing Gina Torres and Kerry Washington in tandem, I asked Gina if there was any Serenity 2 on the horizon. “No Serenity 2,” she said, smiling kindly. “Not enough people showed up for the first one.” “I went twice!” I blurted out. “Oh my God!” yelled Kerry Washington. “I did, too! And I own it — not the bootleg, the real copy.” Lesson: Kerry Washington loves Firefly! That gal at Comic-Con? The one who you thought was just wearing a “movie version Alicia Masters” costume? That was really her!

2. At the Slither premiere/press screening (yes, it was a strange hybrid of the two), was introduced to Alan Tudyk by friend Jenelle. While talking to The Man Who Was Wash (no, I have no recollection of what was said), a strange lady was walking by, spotted him and stopped abruptly in her tracks. “Anthony!” she exclaimed. “Er, no,” said he. “Oh,” she said, looking confused. “Anthony Rapp,” he said. “Happens all the time. But I’m not him.” “Oh,” she said, giving him Gimlet Eye. She totally did not believe him! And was probably making plans to dismantle her “Seasons of Love…FOR MARK COHEN!!!” fanpage as soon as she got home. Lesson: I always get “hey, you look like Ugly Betty, has anyone very TOLD YOU THAT BEFORE?” Apparently, famous people get another version of that and it is way more obnoxious.

3. This one is short. One time I shook Nathan Fillion’s hand and told him I thought he was pretty awesome. “Thank you very much,” he said, then did something like a wink. Yet better than a wink, if that makes sense. Lesson: Nathan Fillion = so cute.

Now it’s time for what is slowly becoming a weekly event — my post talking about how The Middleman is awesome (actually, maybe I’ve only posted about that once or twice over here…the other instances were on Great Hera! or Twitter. But who has time for math?). Now here’s the thing: I’ve heard rumblings that The Middleman is not a total shoo-in for renewal. Cancellation would truly break my heart, for this show has ignited a special, personal kind of love I have not felt since the end of Veronica Mars. So follow Radio Free Javi’s advice and send ABC Family some M&Ms, because having Wendy Watson yanked unceremoniously from my screen would be like a sad, sad repeat of watching Kristen Bell’s mournful little back as it meanders down the rainy sidewalk and out of my life FOREVER.

Last night’s ep, I think, really brought together all the elements that make the show Must Genre Viewing. The vampire puppet plot was frenzied and fun (and a bit reminiscent of Angel’s great “Smile Time,” in a good way), the Wendy/Lacey bonding was on point, and the Middleman/Lacey stuff was unexpectedly heart-wrenching. One thing I really like about this show is its ability to balance out funny, lightning-quick references with an emotional through line. And it never feels like they’re changing the tone from scene to scene, because all of it — the funny and the sad and the weird — is part of the tone. They also use all of their characters; no one feels superfluous. And the references aren’t just there to be references — they have a point.

But one thing that made last night’s adventure really great was the little hint of mythology dropped in at the end. So Lacey isn’t the only woman Middleman loves, eh? Hmm. What’s nice about this is…we know it’s not Wendy. I mean, we can kind of tell because of how the scene is played, but we also know because Radio Free Javi has said so. Pretty refreshing that they’re not going there, right? Anyway, I hope we get to find out who it is, so please send in some M&Ms and get this show renewed. Come on! Dollhouse hasn’t even aired yet — surely those of you who are already working on that campaign can spare a little time.

By now, I’m sure you’ve read John Debillo’s essay on sexual harassment at the San Diego Comic-Con. If you haven’t yet read it, click on over and give it a look.

I think it’s important to note that a “zero-tolerance” statement in Comic-Con materials on harassment is more than just a deterrent; it’s a declaration that the space is absolutely intended as a safe place for people of all genders, races and creeds to enjoy a relaxing weekend of being themselves without fear of lechery, discrimination, or assault. That’s an important statement to make and it should absolutely be made. There’s no question.

Let’s also not forget that these incidents of harassment (and countless others–it’s remarkable how many examples spring to mind if you just spend a few minutes thinking back on your experiences at conventions, comic shops, and other geek gathering places) are just the most tangible expressions of the underlying sexism and chauvinism that has churned throughout fandom for decades, fandoms of all stripes and in all places. You can draw a line from an Ed Benes splash page featuring Wonder Woman’s ass to the commonplace “models” hired in skimpy costumes to parade around booths, and then to those twisted individuals who feel entirely comfortable violating a woman just because she’s at a convention, and…um…a woman, I guess?

Casual objectification of women is part of the heart of this problem, and as long as it is part of the heart of mainstream comics, this culture is poorer for it. I’m not saying Power Girl’s cleavage is why these women were assaulted, but if we all shrug and say such images are a-okay, then it’s just a matter of degrees.

This is my just-in-time entry to pal Jeff’s First Inaugural Hawkman Pitch Contest. You may have seen we have our own pitch contest going right now, The Shitty Watchmen Sequel Contest. I’d plug it but frankly our prizes suck compared to original art, so pal Jeff has pretty much stolen our thunder. As he should. He is thunderous.

And so, the pitch…best of luck to all.

Let’s start with a basic rundown of what makes Hawkman worth keeping around:

1) He’s a cool-looking dude with wings.
2) He carries a bad-ass mace.
3) His vibe is that he’s this tight-ass warrior dude who doesn’t have time for pointless rhetoric like Green Arrow’s lefty leanings. Beat downs now, ask questions later.

In short, he’s kind of an otherworldly redneck–the Ted Nugent of superheroes.

Let’s run with that, shall we?
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Comics blogger and underground murder cult leader Kevin Church has kicked up a kerfuffle with his post criticizing a comic shop’s e-mail newsletter for suggesting in a review that their customers “Not Buy” an upcoming issue of Astonishing X-Men.

Not buy. A retailer, in his newsletter to customers, is telling people to not buy a comic book before it hits stands. He’s telling them in advance that he doesn’t think they should spend their money at his shop, on this comic. This is the stupidest goddamn thing I’ve seen lately from an industry plagued with stupid goddamn things. I don’t want my bartender telling me that I’m drinking the wrong damn thing; I don’t want the clerk at the record store giving me shit because I’m buying some motherfucking Yanni; and I don’t want the guy who’s selling me my weekly comics fix to tell me to not buy a fucking X-Men comic.

I tend to wholeheartedly agree, as have others, but the comments thread has featured some guest appearances by folks who seem to think the “Not Buy” suggestion somehow actually makes GOOD BUSINESS SENSE.

Their argument seems to boil down to, “A negative review makes me trust my comic shop guy/gal more,” which of course leaves aside that from a marketing perspective, providing negative reviews of anything to your customer base makes no sense fundamentally, compared to providing positive reviews of stuff they may like, explaining WHY they may like it. For some reason, these forms of positive heads-up are dismissed out of hand as being too much like “marketing,” which YEP, they are, since that is marketing’s chief goal: TO SELL SHIT.

Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about here; I’m more interested in the idea of “trusting” the person who sells me comics. Or more specifically, why?

Why do we need to like and trust the retailer who sells us comic books in the first place?
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It’s always sort of interesting when we nerds try to diagnose what, exactly, is going wrong with a certain TV show. The season unfolds, the wrongness unfolds, and we climb all over each other (and our piles of remotes and nachos) trying to say why. We usually get it almost right. Not entirely. But there are times when I think we really miss the mark, especially if we’re so focused on Why This is Not What I Want and begin every sentence with “they should…” (and end at least 3/4 of them with “pay me big stacks of money to tell them how to do this show because I know everything and people on the internet think I’m smart”). Like, remember when everyone tried to theorize about what was wrong with Alias at varying points in its tumultuous life? Too much Rambaldi, not enough Rambaldi. Too outlandish, not outlandish enough. Too complicated, too dumbed-down. Maybe the fucking problem was that J.J. Abrams got a bunch of stupid notes from the network that were just as confusing and contradictory as all the armchair criticism. You know?

All this is a lot of build-up to talk about the recent rumblings about romance on this season of Heroes. (Some potential SPOILERS in that link, FYI.)
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