Author: Charlie Brooks

Award-winning author of "Fantasy as you Like It" and "Eight-Bit Heaven," Season 9 finalist in RPG Superstar, author of the young adult fantasy novel Greystone Valley, and super-opinionated nerd dad.

A Kind of Magic: Highlander II, part one

On By Charlie BrooksIn A Kind of Magic, Film1 Comment

Okay, let’s get this over with.

Highlander II: The Quickening. When you’re talking about crappy follow-ups to good movies, you’re talking about Highlander II. It is easily one of the worst sequels of all time, and even all the monkeying around with director’s cuts decades later has failed to make it even remotely tolerable.

The saddest part? Highlander II isn’t even the worst movie in this franchise. That honor goes to Highlander: The Source. But one trainwreck at a time. Let’s go over Highlander II, both its successes and failures.

Nah, I’m only kidding; there are no successes to discuss.

Continue reading “A Kind of Magic: Highlander II, part one” →

My Favorite Panels: An Alternate Origin for Wonder Woman

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite PanelsLeave a comment

Wonder Woman turns 70 this year, and as a comic book icon she has received many retellings of her origin over the years. Despite its many iterations, that origin largely follows certain constants (except, oddly, in her blockbuster movie): Themiscyra holds a contest to choose a champion to visit the outside world, Princess Diana dons a disguise to enter the competition after her mother has forbidden it, she wins and becomes the ambassador of her people. The details change, but the general theme stays the same. But of all the different retellings of this origin, one of my favorites comes from Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #4.

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Red Sonja

My Favorite Panels: Sonja is Everybody’s Type

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite Panels1 Comment

Red Sonja is one of my favorite sword and sorcery characters. Her adventures have a similar feel to Conan the Barbarian’s, but I feel like she has more wit and wile as a character. Part of that comes from her status as a woman in a genre that has a lot of inherent misogyny. In the Robert E. Howard motif, women can be victims or rewards for dashing heroes, but very rarely get to be heroic themselves.

However, there has traditionally been a major problem with Red Sonja, and it is unfortunately tied to her origin story.

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The Timeless Children

The Thirteenth Doctor: A Question of Identity

On By Charlie BrooksIn Doctor Who, FilmLeave a comment

Spoilers for the Series 12 (2020) finale of Doctor Who follow.

Following the huge continuity bombshell dropped by the Series 12 finale “The Timeless Children,” Johnny Spandrell of the Randomwhoness blog posted this thought on Twitter:

That’s quite a fair question to ask. As I mentioned last time, I’m not a fan of stories that exist just to tweak in-show continuity. The Doctor is already alien and somewhat difficult to relate to, being a millennia-old alien being who travels time and regenerates into new bodies upon death. Does making her the foundation of an entire alien society really do anything story-wise?

I argue that “The Timeless Children” does much more than continuity-tweaking. In redefining the Doctor, it opens up many potentially interesting stories in the future. More importantly, it goes back to one of the inherent themes in much of modern science fiction: a matter of identity.

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Doctor and Master

The Thirteenth Doctor: Pros and Cons of Continuity

On By Charlie BrooksIn Doctor Who, FilmLeave a comment

Spoilers for Series 12 (2020) of Doctor Who follow.

I quite liked the continuity-light approach of the Thirteenth Doctor’s debut season. I felt that relying on new aliens and monsters rather than dredging up the old standards provided more of a focus on who the Doctor was and what was important about her.

That said, my favorite moment in the Thirteenth Doctor’s run definitely comes from the climactic moment of Season 12’s “The Timeless Children,” which is anything but light on continuity:

 

So even as I celebrate a continuity-light approach, I lose my mind when the show plays a 30-second montage that acknowledges the Doctor’s long history. Why does continuity have that effect, and when does the show’s 50+ years of baggage drag it down?

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The Thirteenth Doctor: Beginning Ramblings

On By Charlie BrooksIn Doctor Who, FilmLeave a comment

 

In my mad dash to find wild fan theories and cool thoughts about the recent seasons of Doctor Who, I’ve been disappointed to find that most of the online palaver focuses on the binary issue of whether people should consider Jodie Whitaker’s run as the Thirteenth Doctor good or bad. And, of course, a lot of that discussion boils down to people who don’t like the first female Doctor making some very thinly-veiled sexist remarks and those who do like her dismissing legitimate criticisms as anti-feminist.

It feels to me like there is a vast amount of discussion about the Thirteenth Doctor’s episodes themselves that remain untapped. I plan to explore some of those things that I feel people have overlooked. But before I do, I think it’s a good idea to establish my relationship with Doctor Who so people know where I’m coming from.

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Highlander

A Kind of Magic: Highlander

On By Charlie BrooksIn A Kind of Magic, FilmLeave a comment

Highlander. I love it, even though it has caused me so much pain.

Like many fans of the Highlander franchise, I keep coming back for terrible movie after terrible movie, each time hoping that those in control of the franchise somehow catch lightning in a bottle as they did with the first film.

As the powers-that-be struggle to find footing for a Highlander reboot which seems doomed to meet the same disastrous fate that befell the franchise’s many sequels, let’s take a look at the original film. A box office flop but a cult classic, 1986’s Highlander proved strong enough to create a devoted fan base that has remained throughout the years, despite a plethora of sequels that rank among the worst films of all time.

How did this off-beat urban fantasy turn into a hit? In truth, Highlander was about as fortuitous a series of accidents you will ever see in the film industry.

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All Star Superman

My Favorite Panels: Lex’s Realization

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite PanelsLeave a comment

Comics are a visual medium, and one panel can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. With that in mind, I thought I would run through some of my favorite comic book panels of all time.

I begin the journey with one of my favorite comics ever, All Star Superman. I think it’s the best Superman story ever written, and it may be one of the best comics ever. Any given page of this 12-issue series is a work of art, but my favorite panel is rather understated.

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Deck of Many Things

Gaming Stories: Pick a Card

On By Charlie BrooksIn Gaming Stories, Role-Playing GamesLeave a comment

Every once in a while, I like to send the PCs against a monster that’s just out of their league. When you’re low-level, encountering an adult dragon or a lich can still be fun. The only difference is that the goal stops being killing the other guy and taking his stuff and becomes a matter of survival. After all, sometimes the monsters want to kill some adventurers and take their stuff.

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