Weekly Geekly Rundown for April 4, 2025
A Return of The Last Son of Krypton
Among the big announcements at CinemaCon yesterday was the release of a some sneak peak footage from the upcoming James Gunn directed Superman film. My X/Twitter feed quickly erupted with a number of takes on the footage ranging from excitement to anger at how James Gunn doesn’t understand The Man of Steel and how we need a return to the Snyderverse.
I have my own opinions on this and they are in general pretty positive, with caveats. Let me begin by saying that I think Henry Cavill was brilliant casting as Superman. Ever since I saw him in Immortals, I’ve thought he would be perfect for the role. I do, however, think that Zack Snyder was the absolute wrong choice for director. My snarky take on Snyder’s Superman is, “For a Superman director, Snyder sure understands Batman pretty well.” My more elaborate take is that Snyder doesn’t understand the Superman character at all.
Snyder’s Superman was raised by parents who told him that he owes humanity nothing, but somehow Kal-El pushed through his parent’s Randian world view to be willing to sacrifice everything to save humanity. Snyder’s Superman also features the dumbest version of General Zod ever written. Snyder’s Zod has a single mission, to preserve Kryptonian lives and Kryptonian culture. He finds a planet where both of these are not only possible, but where Kryptonians become godlike in their abilities. It is the first planet he’s found where not only can Kryptonians survive, they can thrive like nowhere else. This is due to the unique nature of Earth’s “atmosphere” and Zod’s first priority is to change Earth’s atmosphere to be like Krypton’s, thus creating a world where Kryptonians don’t have superpowers and are vulnerable to death.
It’s stupid and requires the character to say, “I can make Kryptonians immortal…or I can make them vulnerable to death. I choose death!” It doesn’t make any sense given his motivations, at least if he has any reasoning capacity. Then again, it makes as much sense as a self-sacrificing Objectivist. Snyder and David S. Goyer’s Clark Kent proxy version of Howard Roark says to the world, "A man who works for others without payment is a slave! I do no believe that slavery is noble. Not in any form, nor for any purpose, whatsoever!" His dad would say the portion of the quote I struck through. Snyder’s Superman is an inversion in many ways, though not in killing Zod. Superman often kills Zod.
The action of the Snyder version? That was great and so too was Cavill’s performance, even if I’d have preferred him as lean/fit as he was in Immortals over the hyper jacked version in Man of Steel. I just don’t know who Cavill was playing. Okay, I kind of do. He was closer in tone and action to Philip Wylie’s Hugo Danner than Siegel and Shuster’s Superman. Those disappointed that James Gunn is exploring a more Bronze/Silver Age Superman over a Snyderized version are hoping for a deconstruction of the character and that’s the last thing I want.
The irony of my looking forward to Gunn’s Superman is that he directed Brightburn, which is a horror deconstruction of the Superman character. That, and the fact that I often find Gunn to be hit or miss with comic book adaptations. I loved the first Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought it captured Dan Abnett and Keith Giffen’s version of one of Marvel’s most bizarre Cosmic teams perfectly. His Suicide Squad, and parts of his Peacemaker series, left me skeptical. The same is true for his adaptation of Creature Commandos on HBO/Max. For every moment of those I enjoyed, there were elements lingering from Gunn’s days at Troma Studios. Far too many inserted “edgelord” moments for me in what I think should be a property aiming at a broader audience.
In both, there are aliens that control minds via biological connection and in both disconnecting that control kills the person controlled. This is shown in gruesome fashion, that’s the Troma, and invoked a lazy conceit to avoid the tough choice of dealing with the harmful psychological effects of mind control. Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and even the low budget adaptation of Heinlein’s Puppet Masters (ironically also written by David S. Goyer), both grappled with this and Gunn could have done that too or he could have treated it the same way that the first 10 issues of Marvel’s X-Men (in the 1960s) treated Professor X’s mind control/mind wipe powers and just ignored the effects. Either way, he could have avoided the Troma-tic killing of hundreds/thousands of people in unnecessary sequences that were there for pure splatter.
I’m all for splatter from time to time, but I prefer my comics 4-color. I’m more a fan of Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas, J.M. DeMatteis, and Keith Giffen (when not grimdark) than I am of Alan Moore or Frank Miller. My favorite Alan Moore stories are “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” and his run on Supreme and my favorite Frank Miller stories are his more grounded tales like his runs on Daredevil and Batman: Year One. When Moore and Miller delve into deconstructive “Comic Journal” mode, I usually tune out. I prefer pure Charlton comics goodness to Watchmen and Moore’s penchant for SA. All of this is to say that I approach any Gunn comic book property with a certain amount of post-Tromeo and Juliet trepidation.
That was until I saw the first glimpse of Krypto and the way that Gunn’s initial trailer showed a foundation of what I believe mirrors my own understanding of Superman, an understanding that Alan Moore also demonstrated in both Supreme and “Whatever Happened.” I wrote about how Gunn’s use of Krypto actually brought tears to my eyes. This new footage changes that dynamic a little, but only because it makes it more playful and less nostalgia driven. I love what Gunn does with Krypto, who is the BEST boy in the clip, and am equally excited about the use of robots in the Fortress of Solitude.
The robot design brings to mind Marv Wolfman and John Byrne’s design in the 1986 series Man of Steel, which introduced the world to the “Post-Crisis” version of Superman. That series rewrote a lot of Superman’s history, and made him less powerful in many ways, but it also captured the “human” side of Superman perfectly. The new Gunn Superman movie looks like it draws on a heavy amount of Silver and Bronze Age Superman stories, and that’s a big plus.
Your mileage may vary, but I am very much looking forward to a Superman story where the narrative is grounded in the humanity of the character.
The Lamentations of Luke Y. Thompson
I’ve often stated that horror reflects the underlying fears of the era. With The Beast Within and The Invisible Man, we’ve seen commentary on familial abuse and how we deceive ourselves or are victims of gaslighting. The recent Wolf Man touched upon our current disgust at caring for the sick and the very real challenges that caregivers face, especially when they are caring for parents.
Zombie films have adapted to reflect numerous criticisms of society ranging from Night of the Living Dead which commented on race relations and fears of future generations (the girl in the basement). Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Comet examined consumerism from different perspectives. 28 Days Later transformed the classic science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids into a presentation of society’s fear of pandemic. In fact, a lot of pre-2020 films and television shows (Walking Dead) were about our fear of pandemic, then a pandemic happened and we behaved both better and worse than we feared (mostly better).
’s most recent review of Parvulos: Children of the Apocalypse reflects our post pandemic fears of a returned pandemic and of a society that has lost its faith in science.I often tell my students that the scientific process typically takes a long time to actually learn things as each new experiment or study builds on past knowledge. In most cases the fact that it takes decades to make real advances isn’t scary or destabilizing, but when we watch scientists revise theories and make policy changes in quick time this can create shocks and distrust. I remind them that there is a difference between learning something that changes our understanding and lying, but that when things happen as fast as they did in 2020-2021 that can be hard to remember. The result of the recent pandemic was that many lost their faith in science. Given how reliant we are a society on the benefits science has brought to us, this is a deeply concerning thing and very much worthy of a horror film. I don’t know that I’m interested in watching Zombie Sex, but I am interested in this movie in general.
I’ve been a fan of Mark Finn’s for quite some time and think he’s written one of the best books on Robert E. Howard published to date. He’s a part of the most recent wave of pulp fiction advocates and is one of its shining lights. I love pulp fiction, especially pulp that incorporates elements of the “Weird.” This ranges from the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft (and others) to the Sword & Sorcery Fiction of Robert E. Howard (and others) to the Planetary Romance of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I know, I know. You’re saying, “but Burroughs isn’t ‘weird’ fiction. That implies horror elements akin to stories published in Weird Tales and Burroughs never published there.” To which I say, “Have you seen Gino D'Achille’s cover of The Chessmen of Mars or read the story? The Kaldanes and Rykors seem pretty ‘weird’ to me.”
As much as I love fiction from the pulp era, and fiction emulating it, finding new fiction to read is either feast or famine. Fans have been treated to some wonderful waves of fiction output that include the Lin Carter “SAGA” era and the Robert Asprin/Karl Edward Wagner extension of that era that included shared world books like the Thieves World series, grimdark Sword & Sorcery, and some very good urban fantasy from Steven Brust and Simon R. Green.
Then game the drought, a drought that was ended with the emergence of the New Sword & Sorcery movement that featured anthologies edited by Lou Anders and a host of excellent books from the Monkey Brain Books crew. The entire Monkey Brain catalog is a straight up list of must buy books. One of those books is Mark Finn’s first edition of Blood & Thunder and it was a book that led me to so many other awesome titles. The New Sword & Sorcery movement has led to the publication of new anthologies from DMR Books, Rogue Blades Entertainment, and the rise of Tales from the Magician’s Skull (edited by Howard Andrew Jones). Sadly, the death of Howard Andrew Jones and the fact that Rogue Blades announced that their most recent anthology (which is a banger) would be there last, had me fearing that we were headed for another drought.
Thankfully, it looks like
and David Afsharirad are stepping in to keep hope alive with an upcoming anthology entitled Swords & Larceny being published by Baen Books. Can’t wait to read the anthology. It’s got a good mix of New Sword & Sorcery staples, as well as a couple of emerging authors., over at , has started a new series discussing the many myths of the Old School R(enaissance/evival) gaming movement. In his most recent entry, he calls out the over reactionary elements who engage in a kind of “Benedict Option” where they reject the current state of rpgs and cloister themselves away into obscurity. Like Ryan, I love a lot of older games and think that they are very much worthy of play and development. Heck, one of the projects I worked on with a friend a few years ago was a Fantasy Heartbreaker that combined elements of older version of D&D with newer game ideas. That game, The Secret Fire, never quite caught on for a number of reasons, but I love some of the newer elements we added. I think one of our mistakes was to stick too closely to the Open Game License Source Document, even as we added some really cool stuff. I’m particularly fond of the initiative system I worked on.
Dr.
stumbles onto the potentially dismaying revelation that H.P. Lovecraft wasn’t just a foundational horror author, but he was a skilled and evocative poet as well. In her latest piece, she examines his talents as a writer of Sonnets and discovers that he is technically and artistically gifted. She laments this a bit because Lovecraft was, to pull no punches, a racist. As Steve Peterson, the creator of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game says…As the saying goes, “this is known.” Yet, Lovecraft’s art endures. It endures just as the art of Wagner and his phenomenally useful concept of Gesamtkunstwerk endure, and for similar reasons. The work is undeniably good. Some critics of Lovecraft will try to say that he was “racist even by the standards of his time.” Such critiques are wrong and forget the fact that Woodrow Wilson screened Birth of a Nation in the White House and that eugenics ran rampant in the US at the time. While I am not one who subscribes to Hegelian or Marxian theories of historical forces, I cannot deny that ones morality is influenced by the world within which they live. It is the rare person who sees outside the mores of the time. Lovecraft was rare in many ways, but he wasn’t rare in that way.
As a fan of art in all its may forms, I often have to grapple with the fact that a lot of the art I admire was made by despicable people. The direction of the ways in which they break my heart vary, I love many an author to the right and to the left of myself, but their art still affects me deeply.
With the announcement of Tron: Ares, it’s the perfect time to check out
’s discussion of the TRON Video Game Tournament of 1982 and the TRON Radio contest. Marketing in the 1980s was wild.
Do you like to explore the mythology underlying Pokémon character? Then
of has got you covered. He’s drafting a long bestiary of the characters and his most recent is a discussion of one of my favorite Pocket Monsters, Wartortle.
As an evangelist for role playing games in all forms (ranging from Tails of Equestria to Amber Diceless to Dungeons & Dragons to SenZar and so many more), people often ask me if it’s hard to learn how to play D&D or another game. Mike Morgan’s most recent
jumps right into addressing that problem and shows that all you really need to know in order to have a great time playing role playing games is that you want to play a role playing game. We all started somewhere and when we started, we all knew nothing about them.
Speaking of accessible D&D.
has been writing posts on how to run D&D adventure, and possibly adventures for other games, using the characters from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. His latest discusses the setting and is a great place to start. I love this cartoon and I also love, and this might lead you to demand I return my geek card. Uni. She is a great character, as are all the kids.
Inspectres from Momento Mori Tactics
Inspectres is Momento Mori Tactics’ game of reality shows and monster hunters and it is one of the foundational games in the storytelling game marketplace. Modern storytelling games would not exist as they do today without the contributions of game designer Jared Sorenson.
Like many Sorenson designs the mechanics are simple, but tied strongly to the game’s theme. In this case, the players are owners of an Inspectres franchise that have their attempts to fight supernatural monsters broadcast on television in an attempt to earn profit for themselves and for the corporation.
While storytelling games predate Inspectres, see last week’s discussion of Good Guys Finish Last for one earlier example, this is one of the games that most modern mechanics have some connection too. For example, in the recent Candela Obscura kerfuffle, Critical Role were criticized for borrowing ideas from John Harper’s Blades in the Dark game. To be certain, Harper’s creations influenced the design, but his own game was a product of influences that date back to Inspectres as you can see from this Reddit discussion where Harper specifically laments having excluded Inspectres from the list of inspirations.
If you look at the skill roll result chart for Inspectres, you can immediately see the influence it had on later games where player agency takes the forefront of gameplay and where tactical combat mechanics take a back seat to dramatic performance and interaction. I highly recommend checking it out and will go into more discussion of the game when it gets a full review in the future (and when I address the Candela Obscura game in full). If the idea of combining MTV’s Real World with Ghostbusters appeals to you, then this is the game for you.
I’ll try to keep this short and sweet and just give brief comments with my recommendations here. Robert Smith is one of my favorite song writers and performers of the post-punk era and I love that he was a part of Siouxie and the Banshees for a time. Spellbound is one of their great songs and it doesn’t get enough play on my local “oldies alternative” station.
I saw Catherine Wheel when I was an undergraduate student and their ability to create an enormous sound with a relatively small kid blew me away. They were able to perform live in a way that captured the “Wall of Sound” that many record producers seek to create in album form. I have always been disappointed that they didn’t blow up bigger, but such is the curse of Shoegaze.
Are you even a real rock ‘n roll band if you don’t have a gunfighter song? Eagles have Desperado, the Beatles have Rocky Raccoon, Ratt has Wanted Man and there are many more. A recent band that has produced an entry into this tried and true genre is Good Kid with their song Ground. Good Kid is the perfect example of a modern pop/post-punk band. My daughters are as big in their fandom of Good Kid as I am of Catherine Wheel and it looks like their fandom is shared by just as many people. It’s too bad too, because they’re kinda great.
You hear that? It’s sizzlean! It’s time for Steve’s Lava Chicken.
Val Kilmer passed away this past week and a lot of people are recommending some of his best roles and remembering the bright and shining moments of his great career. He starred in a number of films that are now classic, ranging from Real Genius to Tombstone, but I thought I’d go a different direction with my recommendation.
2000 was the year of the “Stranded on Mars Filmic Battle Royale” between Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars and Antony Hoffman’s Red Planet. My wife and I have a particular distaste for De Palma’s film. Mine is due to the fact that it presents itself as The Martian level plausible, obviously pre-The Martian, while having utter disdain for anything remotely resembling reality. Let’s just say they lost me at “There’s an urgent emergency and we need to leave now…so that we can get there in 18 months” and then they really lost me by not understanding inertia. These are things I could forgive in a straight pulpy version of the story. If the tone was more The Core with its unobtanium and less Robinson Crusoe on Mars, I’d have been all in, but it wasn’t. It was selling itself as hard SF.
Jody’s reasons are more personal. I discussed them last year when I recommended De Palma’s Blow Out. I still stand by my recommendation of Blow Out, which is a very good if flawed film. Mission to Mars fails at what it attempted to deliver, but somehow it made $111 million in the box office while Red Planet only made $33.5 million. It’s too bad too because Red Planet is a fun pulpy adventure on Mar and a big part of that is Val Kilmer’s performance as Robby Gallagher. The film has a very low score on Rotten Tomatoes, but I think the critics are exactly wrong on this film.
Sure, as a film about terraforming Mars, it’s pretty bad. However as a film about a murderous AI hunting down a stranded team of scientists in a remote area, it’s a great ride. It combines the evil AI elements of the Terminator and 2001 franchises with the relatively underappreciated (in that it isn’t well known enough) Peter Weller film Screamers. Essentially, it’s what a Mars movie would be if it was released by Blumhouse instead of a big studio and I’m kind of always in the mood for that. I have a sneaking suspicion that if this film was Predator on Mars, it would have been a huge success and you wouldn’t have to change much in the screenplay to transform it into that exact film because it’s plot is very much along Predator lines.
The last dog of Krypton hasn't always been treated with a lot of respect- I'm glad Gunn knows how important he really is.
Hi Christian, now that I know "the secret fire", i'd like to hear more about its story, the foundation, the purpose and your role in it!