Category Archives: comic books

‘The Avengers’ delivers on four decades of fanboy dreaming

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There’s little to be said regarding “The Avengers” that hundreds of reviews and a million online message board postings haven’t said already.

So I’ll say it anyway. “The Avengers” rocks.

Writer/director Joss Whedon’s big-screen version of the Marvel comic — you’ve probably heard of it by now — seems to have broken our collective “Holy Jebus I’m so relieved” meter. Since Marvel published “Avengers” issue number 4 in March 1964, some of us have been waiting for this day with a mixture of anticipation and dread.

Right up until not long before 2008’s “Iron Man” introduced the concept of Marvel’s superhero team — created way back when as an answer to DC’s “Justice League” — to the movies with Nick Fury’s post-credits reference to “The Avengers Initiative,” most of us believed this would never happen. The odds just seemed too great that someone could get this all so right.

Over the decades, superhero movies had gotten bits and pieces of the comic book experience right: The first night Christopher Reeve’s “Superman” patrolled Metropolis; the slightly off-kilter emotional balance of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego in Tim Burton’s “Batman”; the concept of a tempestuous but effective super-powered fighting force in “X-Men.”

But more often than not, filmmakers proved they didn’t have what it takes.

Whedon ably demonstrated he could do heroic, tragic, funny and deprecatingly self-referential in his TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly.” But to cap — pun only slightly intended — four years of Marvel movie foundation-building with one honkin’ big superhero slugfest seemed like more than anyone could manage.

And yet Whedon did it.

If you’re not familiar with the basic premise by now … I can’t imagine why you’re reading this. Suffice it to say that the heroes and supporting players of “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Thor” and “Captain America” come together when Loki, Thor’s brother, makes a deal with the devil (spoilers later) to take over the Earth in exchange for the Tesseract — known as the Cosmic Cube in the comics — the source of infinite power introduced in “Captain America”  last year.

The first half of the movie finds the Avengers introducing themselves in Mighty Marvel style: Through a series of misunderstandings and moments of self-interest, they fight, bicker and fight some more, much to the exasperation of Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the SHIELD spymaster who, we discover in this movie, has to answer to a (literally) shadowy group of superiors. And isn’t beyond manipulation.

The threat posed by Loki (Tom Hiddleton, in straight-on villain mode here) is great enough — an alien invasion force poised to devastate New York and, presumably, the planet — to convince the heroes to stop squabbling and work together. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) turns his cool sarcasm down a few notches, Captain America (Chris Evans) learns how to be a leader even in the modern world, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) balances his love for his brother and his sense of guilt, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, in both human and Hulk guises) almost seems to revel in letting the beast off the chain and SHIELD agents Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) more than prove their worth as the non-superpowered members of the team.

(I have to say I haven’t understood those people, many of them ostensibly fans of comic books, who said they didn’t understand why Black Widow and Hawkeye would be members of the team considering their lack of superpowers and invulnerability. The Avengers comic has always included human beings — although highly skilled ones — as members. While the movie has great fight scenes involving Thor and Hulk and Thor and Iron Man and Cap, one of the most dramatic scenes involves Black Widow dealing with the onslaught of the Hulk and its aftermath.)

The second half of the movie finds the Avengers, spurred on by dire circumstances, facing off against not only Loki but his invasion force, made up of the Chitauri, Skrull surrogates from the comics.

If there’s a weakness about the movie it is that the Chitauri are nothing but cannon fodder, not unlike the legion of orcs in “Lord of the Rings” or stormtroopers/fighting droids in the “Star Wars” prequels. While the climactic battle that pits the Avengers against the Chitauri — and devastates half of New York, it seems — is beyond exciting, and scenes with the Avengers in battle against the alien invaders and their giant flying snake things — ask for them by name — are great, it all feels like an extended warm-up for something bigger.

Although it’s hard to imagine what could be bigger than this.

Other thoughts:

Hulk catch: Even if you’ve seen the many, many commercials and clips from “The Avengers,” there are entire sequences you haven’t even glimpsed yet. But I did regret that one of the trailers used the shot of Hulk flinging himself through the air and catching Iron Man as he fell, braking their descent by sliding down the side of a building. When the shot comes, late in the movie, I could anticipate it because I knew I hadn’t seen it yet.

Natasha and Boris — er, Clint: I really want to know more about Black Widow and Hawkeye. The movie doesn’t give them an outright romance, but there’s a lot of shared history there, so much so that they can even joke about it. I want to know all about the movie’s ostensibly “puny humans.”

Tony Stark and Bruce Banner: I loved how Whedon matched up the story’s resident eggheads. They share a lab and a skepticism of SHIELD’s motivations and even ride off into the sunset together at the end. How about making Iron Man/Hulk team-up movies?

Cap’s leadership: Since the fourth issue of  “The Avengers” comic, Captain America has been the team’s leader. There have been many moments of self-doubt for this man out of time. But Steve Rogers is a natural born leader of men. The movie establishes that in a scene in which he barks out orders to some NYC cops who wonder why they should obey his directives. Cap then smoothly demolishes some Chitauri, causing the cops to quickly turn and begin following his orders.

More Pepper: I didn’t realize Gwyneth Paltrow had as prominent a supporting role in “The Avengers” as she does. She and Downey are perfect together. I want a scene or two with her in every “Avengers” sequel.

That’s not creepy at all: SHIELD agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) has had nice supporting parts in several of the Marvel movies. Whedon gives him great stuff here, including a funny scene in which he professes his fanboy love for Cap. “I watched you when you were sleeping,” Coulson says before realizing how stalkerish that sounded. “I was present when you were unconscious .. from the ice,” he quickly adds.

Whedon brings the funny: The whole movie is full of funny quips and scenes like that one.  The guy knows when to ratchet up the action and when to leaven it with humor.

Whedon undercuts expectations. Some people fault Whedon with being too self-referential and jocular, but his sense of humor is perfect for a movie that could be ridiculous. That’s what the final credits scene is about. Finally, after four years of Marvel movies, Whedon came along and played with the audience’s expectations about Marvel’s patented “surprise” extra scenes following the end credits. And he did so in a style familiar to any Whedon watchers.

Spoilers ahead:

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What you’ve heard about the two “Avengers” credits scenes is true. Partway through the end credits, the mysterious figure backing Loki’s invasion is revealed, although non-fans might not recognize Thanos, the Marvel Comics god of death. It sets things up nicely for a sequel.

And the scene at the very end — showing the exhausted heroes having a bite to eat in a battle-scarred New York restaurant, while an employee tries to sweep up in the background — is quintessential Whedon.

Two ‘Avengers’ credits scenes? Complete with screen shot!

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Okay, considering that Marvel’s “The Avengers” brings together more than a half a dozen superheroes, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the movie — which is already playing internationally and opens wide in the U.S. this Friday — doubles down on Marvel’s practice of surprise end credits scenes.

Beware: Spoilers ahead (if Internet accounts are to be believed; I won’t see the movie until Friday). I’ll give you a countdown to the spoilers, though.

In 2008, “Iron Man” sparked the trend for end credits scenes — sometimes called stingers or buttons — in modern superhero movies.

There was plenty of precedent for post-credits scenes, in all kinds of movies, from “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” to “Young Sherlock Holmes.” The latter, of course, showed Ferris shuffling out, addressing the audience and telling us to go home because the movie was over. “Airplane” returned after the credits for a final joke.

For real added-value after-credits scenes, “Young Sherlock Holmes” established the practice of offering a twist to the plot by revealing that Sherlock’s teacher would one day be his rival, James Moriarty.

When Samuel L. Jackson showed up as Nick Fury at the end of “Iron Man” and mentioned to Tony Stark “the Avengers initiative,” fans loved the glimpse it provided into Marvel’s plans for its expanded big-screen universe.

Stark himself showed up a couple of months later at the end of “The Incredible Hulk,” while trusty SHIELD agent Coulson appeared at the end of “Iron Man 2.” “Thor” and “Captain America” brought Fury back into play and the latter nicely set up “The Avengers” with what amounted to a commercial for Joss Whedon’s team-up movie.

Last year, “Green Lantern” showed how not to do a credits scene, with Sinestro abruptly embracing his dark — um, yellow — side early in the credits.

So it’s no surprise that “The Avengers” would have an end-credits scene. But after the world premiere a few weeks ago, Robert Downey Jr. teased that the cast was getting together that very night to shoot more footage.

It could only mean one thing: Another credits scene.

If you’re still reading and want to know — at least what little I know — read on.

Otherwise, veer off now!

Spoilers in

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Still here? Okay.

The mid-credits scene in “The Avengers,” as seen in international screenings, shows Thanos, the Marvel Comics god of death. It’s pretty strongly implied that Loki and his alien army were testing the Avengers for a future offensive on Earth by Thanos.

And the end credits scene? If it is what is depicted below, it’s a lighthearted moment of the Avengers, in costume, getting together to have a bite to eat.

This might surprise fans, but knowing Whedon’s whimsical sense of humor, it makes perfect sense. Of course, it could be a big Internet prank.

Here’s the shot. We’ll see soon if it’s true.

 

The road to ‘The Avengers’ (part two)

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Sixty years after the “Captain America” serial debuted in 1944, another Marvel movie milestone occurred: The aborted release of “The Fantastic Four,” a low-budget movie (co-produced by the legendary Roger Corman). Made to perpetuate rights to Marvel’s first family, the movie was pretty bad. While the cast and crew apparently thought it would be released and a premiere was announced, the movie was shelved. Today it is legend to some and reality to others who have bought bootleg DVD copies at comic book conventions.

For a while it seemed like Marvel’s heroes were destined for low-budget life only. Then “X-Men” was a hit in 2000, followed by “Spider-Man” two years later. The characters, as well as the Fantastic Four, were sold off by Marvel to different companies, though. While Sam Raimi made two good “Spider-Man” films, “Fantastic Four” and its sequel were lackluster enough to make fans crazy. After decades of no big-screen adaptations, were Marvel’s heroes fated to live only through erratic, variable-quality movies?

And would fans never see a unified Marvel universe onscreen?

At some point, Marvel decided to take the best of the properties it still had film rights to — Iron Man, Captain America and other longtime Avengers stalwarts — and knit a coherent universe.

The “Yes!” moment came in 2008 with the release of “Iron Man.” Sure, before Jon Favreau’s movie there had been references to the larger world of Marvel characters, notably on computer screens in the “X-Men” movies. Fun “Easter eggs” maybe, but with no hope of follow-through.

At the end of “Iron Man,” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his home and finds Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) waiting for him. Fury tells Stark he’s not the only superhero in the world and tells him he’s there to talk about “the Avengers initiative.”

By that point, fans knew that Marvel had big plans for their universe. Soon, each movie would build toward “The Avengers.”

A long four years followed, but fans were rewarded with some fun movies. “The Incredible Hulk” in 2008 was, I thought, a terrific movie, with good Hulk action but also exciting scenes, including one in which soldiers pursue Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) through a South American slum.

The Hulk movie continued — even amped up — the Avengers foreshadowing. Spymaster Fury didn’t reappear but SHIELD was all over the movie, as it had been in “Iron Man,” and Downey Jr. appeared as Stark at the end. Maybe best of all were the references to the “super soldier” program that created Captain America, as Hulk’s nemesis the Abomination was created in part because of the same serum that, decades earlier in the comics, made Steve Rogers Captain America.

Between them, “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” made for a great one-two punch.

“Iron Man 2” dug deeper into SHIELD and the Marvel universe two years later. SHIELD was fully staffed by this point, with not only Fury and Agent Coulson returning but Natasha Romanov (Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson) showing up. Cap’s shield was even on hand, in Stark’s lab.

We found out why a year later, when the summer of 2011 brought fans “Thor” and “Captain America.”

The two movies almost felt like two chapters of one story. Although “Thor” took place in Asgard and the present day and “Captain America” took place in the 1940s (with a modern-day framing device) the movies integrated the Avengers building blocks. SHIELD agent Coulson and references to other characters, notably a veiled reference to Gamma scientist Bruce Banner, were sprinkled through “Thor,” while “Captain America” put the Red Skull in search of the Cosmic Cube, a treasure from the armory of Odin, Thor’s father.

The two movies didn’t have the impact of “Iron Man,” perhaps, because the earlier film took so many people by surprise. But “Thor” and “Captain America” are so strong, so entertaining and so thorough in their establishing of “The Avengers” that they exude confidence.

By this point, Marvel was confident enough of its plans to end the movies not only with surprise extra scenes but James Bond-style “Captain America will return in The Avengers” slides.

Even while DC Comics was floundering, releasing a half-hearted “Green Lantern” movie that clumsily introduced Amanda Waller, a Nick Fury surrogate, and couldn’t get “Dark Knight” director Chris Nolan to agree to let his Batman character exist in the same world as the rest of the Justice League, Marvel had established its world.

The long road led to “The Avengers.” The movie comes out this week. Early reviews are very positive, and Marvel seems confident enough to continue to build its movie universe.

 

 

 

The road to ‘The Avengers’

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It’s been a long road to “The Avengers.”

Not just the four years since Samuel L. Jackson showed up at the end of “Iron Man” and freaked out fans — at least those who were sufficiently clued in to hang out in the theater until after the credits — by telling Robert Downey Jr. he wanted to talk to him about “The Avengers Initiative.”

There’s been a lot of anticipation since 2008, but considering the decades since Captain America was introduced in Marvel Comics (actually, Timely Comics back then), the past four years have been a breeze.

Here’s part one of a highly selective look at the road to “The Avengers” movie.

“Captain America Comics,” issue one, dated March 1941 but on stands months earlier, debuted as the world grew edgier about the war in Europe. The character — 98-pound patriot Steve Rogers, turned into Captain America through the Super Soldier experiment — was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Comics were a  huge deal back then, with far higher sales numbers than today, and Cap was a hit — especially with the punch he landed on Hitler’s jaw on the cover of one issue — and the movies beckoned.

“Captain America” the movie serial was released by Republic Pictures in 1944 starring Dick Purcell as Cap. But Cap wasn’t soldier Steve Rogers in this movie. He was a crime-fighting district attorney. And Purcell was kind of … egg-shaped. At least his head was. Cap continued in the comics but didn’t come back to the screen for decades and his fellow Avengers didn’t get their big-screen chance for an even long time.

The “Avengers” comic debuted in September 1963, the creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and — like Marvel’s other early team, The Fantastic Four — was a cool variation on DC’s happy family the Justice League. The Avengers bickered and fought among themselves — the lineup was constantly changing, which was one of the comic’s charms.

“Avengers” issue four marked a real turning point as Cap was discovered frozen in ice and thawed. While he joined the Avengers — and quickly became the team’s leader — he was an essentially tragic character. Most of the people he knew, with the exception of former commando Nick Fury, were dead. Most tragically, his World War II sidekick, James “Bucky” Barnes, had died in battle. Bucky would, amazingly, stay dead for decades to come.

In 1979, the first of two made-for-TV “Captain America” movies was made. The movies starred Reb Brown and seemed to be a bizarre attempt to cash in on Evel Knievel, the motorcycle stunt rider, since Brown spent more time on a bike than on two feet.

While he continued in the comics and, along with many other Marvel characters, showed up in various animated series, Cap didn’t return to the big screen until the 1990 Albert Pyun “Captain America” movie, starring Matt Salinger as Steve Rogers and Scott Paulin as the Red Skull, bizarrely changed from a Nazi to an Italian facist. Once you get beyond the novelty of seeing live-action images of Cap and the Skull, the move is pretty dreadful. Its low budget doesn’t allow for much action.

For years, attempts to bring Marvel characters to the screen fell by the wayside and it seemed as if fans would never see their favorite heroes in action.

Then Fox released Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” in 2000. The movie was a hit and the studio followed it up with films based on the Fantastic Four.

It was only a matter of time until Cap and the Avengers got their chance.

(More to come.)

More new ‘Avengers’ pics, clip

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How many more days until May 4?

I told myself I wasn’t gonna do this. But I’m prematurely geeking over “The Avengers.”

It’s not like I’ve been waiting for this movie since I was in elementary school or anything. Not like I’ve been waiting since the first “Iron Man” movie had a hint of, ultimately, the superhero team-up that is “The Avengers.”

Not like the Twitter reaction to this week’s premiere of Joss Whedon’s movie hasn’t been pretty much uniformly praiseworthy.

Not like Marvel didn’t just release a quick clip of Cap and Thor fighting aliens.

Not like I didn’t just read my first review of the movie. I’m not even going to link to it. The review gives too much away.

Sigh.

Twenty days.

‘Man of Steel:’ Is Superman ‘edgy?’ No. No. No.

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First of all, I guess we should remember that we’re talking about a stray comment from a teenage actor. But fan sites on the Internet today were ablaze with reaction to a quote from actor Dylan Sprayberry, who plays a younger version of Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent character in director Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” movie:

“When Zack [Snyder] and I were talking about it the first time, he was saying how Superman, they want to give it a more edgy feel like ‘The Dark Knight’ but also make it more realistic and emotional so it’s not just the all-american superhero that saves everyone. He has dilemmas and love and struggles throughout the whole movie, especially when he’s a kid.”

Can you guess which word had fans worried?

If you guessed “edgy,” you’re right. Edgy like “The Dark Knight.”

There’s been an undercurrent of concern about the tone of the Superman movie, which comes out in 2013, since producer Chris Nolan — who with the “Dark Knight” movies made Batman a blockbuster character but has added new depths of darkness to the already dark hero — took over the efforts to bring Superman to the big screen.

Bryan Singer’s 2006 “Superman Returns” didn’t completely work, in part because of its slavish devotion to the Richard Donner classic but also in part because of its somber, even moping, tone.

I think we’ve seen that a downbeat Superman movie doesn’t work. The tone just doesn’t fit with the character.

It’s the success of Nolan’s Batman movies — the third of which comes out this summer — that has led us to the point that some people are expecting Snyder’s “Man of Steel” to be dark. And kind of dreading it.

Make no mistake, there’s some angst to the classic Superman character. He is — at least in many versions of his story, but not all — the only survivor of his planet. He is, literally, a stranger in a strange land. There’s a reason he separates himself from the rest of the planet either by going to the Fortress of Solitude or the depths of space. The guy is lonely.

It is the loneliness that we all feel, at one time or another, even in a crowd. Who hasn’t felt alone and unreachable, even by those around them?

In the current Cartoon Network series “Young Justice,” the Superboy character — the Superman clone from recent comics — is mostly alienated from his companions, is often hostile, and is shunned by Superman himself.

But Superman isn’t a dark character. Not even in the best interpretations, the “Superman” and “Justice League” animated series. In some episodes of those series, Superman is considered suspicious by the U.S. government, even a rogue.

But he’s still Superman. So much so that in “Justice League Unlimited,” Batman chides Superman, noting that the (literally) child-like Captain Marvel is replacing him as the happy-go-lucky member of the League.

“He’s … sunny,” Batman says, intimating that quality is exactly what other League members have always liked about Superman.

So today we have a random comment by a teen actor who’s certainly not setting the tone for “Man of Steel.” He didn’t write the script. He’s not behind the camera.

And we also have some anxiety by longtime Superman fans that their hero — who can, if not properly written and played, seem like a stick-up-his-butt do-gooder prone to noting that airplanes are still the safest way to travel — is being turned into an angst-filled mess, a version of Hamlet in spandex.

We’ve got a year to go until we see if Nolan and Snyder’s “Man of Steel” is dark and edgy.

Regardless of whether their version is or is not, the fact of the matter is that our version — the one we’ve known for three-quarters of a century — is not.

Not dark. Not edgy.

New ‘Avengers’ images: Giant flying snake thing and … Beta Ray Bill?

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At this rate, I’m afraid we’re not going to be able to hold out until May 4.

As anticipation for “The Avengers” builds and speculation about the elements of the movie works toward some kind of geeky online meltdown, new images and details continue to appear.

Today a new commercial tie-in to the movie was released featuring an Acura outmaneuvering New York street mayhem brought about by … yes, the giant flying snake thing we’ve been wondering about since we first saw it in the trailer released in late February.

We’ve already noted speculation that the big ol’ beastie was some kind of incarnation of Fin Fang Foom, an oddball dragon creature from the early days of Marvel Comics.

Online of late he’s being referred to as Leviathan. Not sure where that came from, but it’s pretty cool.

The Acura commercial featured shots of the creature/ship flapping its stubby little wings. Here’s what it looks like:

Meanwhile, some enterprising geek has analyzed shots of the alien warriors the Avengers face, using images from a TV spot that has debuted in the last week and theorized that the menace unleashed by Loki are denizens of the Marvel world of Korbin. The planet is of interest because it’s where Beta Ray Bill, an important character in Thor lore (try saying that three times fast), comes from.

Could the aliens be from Korbin? Could we see the introduction of the geeky but popular Beta Ray Bill, or at least overtures of such?

Does old Bill there look much like the alien at the top of this blog entry?

And don’t you think the giant flying snake thing could outrun an Acura?

New images: ‘Man of Steel,’ ‘Avengers’ on Disney XD, ‘Beware the Batman’

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Images, we got images. Nah, it just doesn’t sing.

But nevertheless, we’ve got lots and lots of images.

In the days, weeks and months leading up to the debut of a new TV show or the release of a new movie, set photos and officially sanctioned photos of the cast turn up online and in magazines. But the geeks among us also enjoy seeing logos and promotional pictures.

So today was a bonanza, with new images released for “Man of Steel,” Disney XD’s “Avengers” series and “Beware the Batman,” the new Cartoon Network show.

First the big-screen movie, “Man of Steel.” It comes out in June 2013, but we’ve already seen set photos like this one of star Henry Cavill:

It is a cryin’ shame how that guy has let himself go.

Anyway, today came the release of the new “Man of Steel” logo, showing the Superman shield.

I think it looks pretty good. And I’m definitely pleased they’ve made the shield bigger on Supe’s chest than it was in “Superman Returns.”

If you haven’t seen “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” on Disney XD, you should check the half-hour animated series out on DVD. It’s a good show that feels very close in spirit to the Marvel comic. It also seems to dovetail nicely into the “Avengers” movie coming out in May.

Anyway, here’s a new photo from the Disney XD series showing what would appear to be a greatly expanded cast that includes the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Wolverine. Some online comments said the picture reminded them of “Justice League Unlimited,” the Cartoon Network classic of the DC Animated Universe. What do you think?

Can you name all the heroes? I was stumped by only one.

Lastly there’s “Beware the Batman,” the new Cartoon Network series coming in 2013.

The image is pretty cool and hopefully the computer animation is a little more polished than in the new CN “Green Lantern” series.

But can any cartoon depiction of the Dark Knight ever top the classic “Batman: The Animated Series?” I can’t imagine it.

Have the nerds inherited the earth?

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It wasn’t that long ago that fans of comic books, monster movies, science fiction and other nerdy stuff had to be fairly closeted about their pop culture choices.

I still remember the look on a guy’s face who, when I was a teenager, looked at the paperback book in my hand and read the title: “The Martian Chronicles.” This was Ray Bradbury. The author was — and is — considered a literary lion, for pete’s sake. But the guy glanced from the book cover to me and looked as if I had been perusing the latest issue of “Nuns and Nazis.”

God only knows what would have happened if I had been reading the latest issue of Famous Monsters magazine.

So I still feel a little lightheaded over the rise of geek culture. Not just the number of big-screen, big-budget movies based on comic books. I’m kind of getting accustomed to that.

No, I’m thinking about the TV shows — at least one of them based on a Podcast — that are not only devoted to a celebration of geek culture but even feature honest-to-goodness, real life geeks.

These shows portray the real-world versions of geeks like those in “Big Bang Theory” — without the Hollywood veneer. More about “Big Bang” in a bit.

Here’s a run-down of the geek and nerd equivalents of Johnny Carson:

“The Nerdist:” Back in the day, Chris Hardwick was that snarky guy with the big voice on “Singled Out,” the MTV game show. A couple of years ago, Hardwick began “The Nerdist” podcast, an online audio look at geek and nerd culture featuring not only fans but celebrity guests.

Hardwick and “The Nerdist” — which also features genuinely funny geeks Jonah Ray and Matt Mira as regular panelists — got somewhat wider (or different) exposure when BBC America tapped the three to appear on a “Nerdist” TV series.

Only a handful of episodes have appeared so far, but they feature Hardwick, Ray and Mira chatting with geek culture demigods like Wil Wheaton and Nathan Fillion. The shows — available On Demand and no doubt online — are breezy and silly and don’t have any more substance than your typical talk show. They are, however, about the kind of geeky stuff that your parents used to hate.

“Talking Dead:” Hardwick packed up his geek shtick — but unfortunately not his sidekicks — and hosted this AMC talk show that followed episodes of the channel’s hit “The Walking Dead.”

Although the focus is narrow — it’s all about “The Walking Dead” — the show is entertaining and offers some insight into the series. The episode following the season finale of “The Walking Dead” featured the show’s creators announcing the actress who will play Michonne but also included one of the show’s funniest bits: An “In Memoriam” video montage of zombies killed off during that evening’s episode.

“Comic Book Men:” Somehow AMC has become the channel for nerd talk shows. Airing on Sunday nights along with “The Walking Dead” and “Talking Dead” is “Comic Book Men,” a series set in director Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic book store.

Smith makes appearances but the series is focused on Walt Flanagan, manager of the store, and three employees/layabouts, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic and Bryan Johnson.

All four guys are opinionated and entertaining. Chen, the low man on the totem pole, is like the Gilligan of the series.

It is Johnson, sporting a wild mane and wooly beard, who is the show’s highlight, however. Johnson’s online bio indicates that he has acted and directed in projects associated with Smith.

In “Comic Book Men,” Johnson is portrayed as an archetype familiar to anyone who has spent time at a comic book store or convention: The guy — usually older — who always seems to be hanging out, offering up sarcastic comments and withering put-downs. Johnson makes that stereotype immensely likable, however, through his genuine wit.

If “Comic Book Men” has a fault it is that I don’t think it realistically portrays a comic book store in one respect: Nobody ever buys anything! Most of the interaction between the employees and the public comes when people come in hoping to sell old comics or “Catwoman” Barbies. It’s like a nerd version of “Pawn Stars.”

Not even a roundup to non-fiction geek talk shows would be complete without a mention of “Big Bang Theory.” One of the most popular shows on TV, the CBS sitcom is about four geeks who hang out together, playing online games, going to a comic book store and obsessing about sex.

There’s a pretty divisive view of “Big Bang Theory” online. A lot of geeks consider it patronizing and shallow. It is, of course. But it’s no more patronizing or shallow a look at a group of friends than … well, “Friends” was.

And “Big Bang Theory,” like its real-life counterparts, offer a view of geek culture that not even Ross in the depths of his museum-geek persona could reach.

 

 

‘Avengers’ Japanese trailer is trailerific

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I guess we can play this game, you and me and the Interwebs, right up until May 4 and the theatrical debut of “The Avengers.”

Every couple of days it seems like, some more “Avengers” goodness promoting the Joss Whedon movie comes along. Today it’s the Japanese trailer.

Granted, a lot of the footage we’ve seen in previous trailers and TV spots. And while the trailer does end with the flying snake thing (Fin Fang Foom?), the cool shot of Hulk catching Iron Man in mid-dead drop is missing.

But the Japanese trailer does have some cool moments:

Hawkeye sliding between bad guys on a rubble-strewn New York street.

The first shot of Pepper Potts, confirming the “Iron Man” supporting character is in the movie.

A beauty shot of the SHIELD helicarrier lifting out of the Atlantic.

Cool.

Okay, so what can we look forward to tomorrow?