Nicole Drum

Marvel gets pointed to because they have the largest footprint in the comic book movie landscape. I agree that the good versus evil foundation has been around forever, you do need more than "good guy fight big mean bad guy" to make a story genuinely intersting. That's why superhero comics in the modern day are, arguably, better than some of the earlier ones because we see layers of nuance in the characters and, while Marvel has done that to a limited extent, the movies really do largely boil down to "team of good guys go against irredeemable bad guy who is just bad bad". And that works for that! It's great! It just is less interesting when you take superpowers out of the equation.

So, in a new interview Meryl Streep said that movies have been "Marvel-ized" with largely one dimensional heroes and villains and it's made movies boring. I tend to agree with her-- but I don't think that means Marvel movies are bad. I think the black and white nature of superhero stories work very well for Marvel movies but would be hard to pull off in other genres. What are your thoughts?

I love thought exercises that ask you to make choices so we'll play one here as inspired by a friend who did indeed have to evacuate their home and did indeed grab one very specific collectible as they fled a fire. Assuming all of your loved ones and pets are safe and it is safe for you to do so (because safety first), what is one collectible you would grab on your way out of your house if it were on fire or there was a weather situation that you had to get safe from (like a tornado or flood)? For me, and you can argue this doesn't count as a collectible, it is an issue of She-Hulk signed by Stan Lee and Charles Soule. There is a two-fold reason for this. The issue and Soule signature were given to me by a friend who met Soule at a conference and apparently talked to the author about my love of his writing the whole time and then the Lee signature (added later) came from when I met Lee while very pregnant and he gave me life advice on raising a comics fan. For me, it's less about the item itself but the feelings and experiences around it. What would you take (and why if you want to share)?

I will forever have beef with Lucasfilm or cancelling this show.

One of my prized possessions is something gifted to me by a friend that came from a television set that has movie ties (I'm being vague on purpose). I still feel incredibly lucky to have it and it's such a cool thing to every so often look at and get a little giggle knowing where it's been when everyone else just thinks it is a regular thing.

We often talk about what people currently collect or what cool things they actively have, but every collection starts somehwere, right? If you were to start collecting something right now (and let's just say that you have a reasonable budget -- not unlimited, but not pennies, either) what would you start collecting and why? I think that I would probably start collecting screen-worn costumes from movies and television shows I particularly enjoy. I tend to like fashion and design and I think that would be a pretty neat little nerdy thing to collect (and you can often find very cool things online.)

Gotham so very desperately needs like an entire fleet of solid therapists.

I feel like that's being generous. It's probably 10 seconds and only if you squint.

I think it looks great! I'm excited about it. Though, that said, the entire time watching that my former social worker brain kept leaning into the idea that so much comic book villainy would be solved by a stronger mental health system and Clayface just needs some therapy. 🤣

I think I might be the only person not especially excited about movies coming back to theaters like this. Okay, so maybe Top Gun will get me but I know the Avengers Endgame one just annoys me.

Justice League, preferably if I get to like, hang out in the satellite.

I know that in my house, my partner will go to see it because that's who he is, but when even he was complaining that this feels like a blatant cash grab, it sets off all kinds of alarm bells for me. Frankly, I didn't even enjoy Endgame so for me it's a giant nay (I'm also not convinced the Russos ever had a coherent plan for anything and there's no way they had one for Doomsday so that's just an extra reason for my nay.)

I think it will be in front of Mandolorian and Grogu just as a way to get more people to go see that movie.

I don't so much mind the format, but I'm concerned about the overall health of the Star Was franchise. Personally, I haven't really disliked anything that's come out in recent years, but it is definitely feeling more and more daily that they're stretching things too far and we're not getting properly developed stories -- and when we do get them they kill them (aka The Acolyte). It's not a movie that I will feel compelled to spend theater money on and I feel like a lot of people are going to feel that way; for me that's the bigger issue.

You already know they're going to AI slop that project to hell.

Dune exhausts me. I'm here for The Odyssey.

And streaming is unreliable! They remove things all the time and that's even before you get to the idea that you need decent internet to be able to access them.

Let's be blunt for a moment: when has Marvel ever actually made good decisions when they're vulnerable?

It's one thing to get a physical media release. It's another for the whole packaging and presentation to be cool. What is your favorite physical media release, in terms of its packaging and presentation? I am still partial to the Alias complete series box set.

Exactly this. Like, I don't the idea of the story I just think it's a weird choice since we go into it knowing that they fail.

Warner Bros announced that Jamie Dornan has been cast as Strider in The Hunt for Gollum. Given that the idea of casting someone other than Viggo Mortensen in the role has been a little divisive, how does everyone feel about this update?

While we usually think of DC and Marvel when it comes to superhero movies, there are a lot of other ones out there so it begs the question -- what is your favorite underrated superhero movie?

I don't know if I'd consider Close Encounters a franchise, but it's certainly a influential movie!

This is going to sound really dumb, but I've always wanted to have a grandfather clock like the one in literal any Batman movie and have it installed so that it functions as the door to my basement. Is that specifically nerdy, no. But the function of it and the iykyk factor is just so nerdy to me.

What is the most influential sci-fi franchise... that isn't Star Trek or Star Wars?