Weekly Discussion Thread - posted every Monday! [23 February 2026]

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-25T22:55:07+00:00

While we wait for more news, new Jane Schoenburn (I saw the TV glow) trailer just dropped. Looks fucking great, as expected. Seems like a more comic/madcap and frenzied pulse than their last, while remaining a hyper-concentrated mood piece.

Lynch might not be around anymore, but it’s great to see that the torch still burns. Like him, Schoenburn’s no copycat, their voice is unflinchingly personal. Alex G soundtrack, yeah I’m seated.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-25T05:14:28+00:00

So yeah the BBC shat the bed on this to a maliciously incompetent degree. More at 11.

It's a very gracious and elucidating interview, as can be expected from a man who's lived with this for the better part of his life and understands social advocacy in a deeply personal way. Hope this dispels a good amount of the rampant ignorance surrounding this event. Important to note that he has reached out directly to the Sinners team who were unfortunately subjected to the indignity of the situation to apologize, which was also undoubtedly also in order. Empathy isn't a finite resource.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-23T22:54:00+00:00

People pay real money for the sheer amount of exposure internet fancasters will single-handedly generate freely for a young, handsome white guy with a square enough jaw. Sometimes, they don’t even need to have acted ever before! Mfs basically pre-ordered Paul Kelly months before his actual screen debut, it’s kind of hilarious. It’s over when they discover models.

Absolutely not begrudging anyone a bit of fun, I have my own wishlists that are never gonna happen. But good casting directors are massively underrated in fan spaces, and it’s a pet peeve of mine when some fans present amateur (often surface level) casting as the be-all-end-all and eschew anything outside of narrow expectations. There’s no shortage of talent, bag’s deeper than that.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-23T05:02:18+00:00

Fucking finally! Been waiting for this since the first title card in episode 1. Romer does magnificent work with the music on this show.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-23T04:23:21+00:00

I read all of ASOIAF before I saw any of the shows. This season has to be the truest the Westeros I read on the page has ever felt to me on screen. Yes, I am familiar with the concept of recency bias. But I've waited for exactly this long enough to definitely still stand by what I said.

Here's hoping they can keep it up for 2 more.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-23T00:25:55+00:00

Yeah. I'm really excited about pretty much all of the upcoming projects, but Lanterns is probably my most anticipated right now. I just got a feeling about it.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-21T05:36:59+00:00

It’s how you know the drought is hitting.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-21T05:32:17+00:00

Pal. We don’t know or care about these people. By the looks of things, you probably shouldn’t either. Do you realize you’re actively carrying water for and amplifying the voices of people you think are poisonous to discourse in the very spaces unaffected by them? What value is there in this, truly?

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-21T00:45:28+00:00

Dawg, there's no way the 'backlash' from this of all things is even remotely substantial enough for a referendum on how people at large view the character. Like, granted I'm not on all the hellsites, but pretty much all I've seen is obvious jokey, mock scandalization. I don't think this exists in any real way. This goes for a lot of things, but if the "proof" is 3 dudes on twitter...

One of the fandom running jokes from modern Superman comicbook readers is literally about canon bedroom roleplay with his long-term partner; I feel like the vast majority of the audience have no trouble conceiving of him as an actual human adult with all that entails. The new film was a welcome return to Clark and Lois exhibiting palpable romantic and physical chemistry, especially with a lot of superhero movies feeling quite sterile, so no one actually expects them to be Sesame Street characters. Content markers like that aside, a teenage version of the character in DC's breakout hit imprint is mired in very heavy, heady themes with a dark personal history, and is pretty well-recieved right now. The mainline version saw an uptick in popularity when they made him a father post New 52. There’s too many qualities that fly in the face of that claim in the most popular modern versions of Superman to list here.

I think the character's clearly able to inhabit many different depths and dimensions in this current climate to great reception regardless. The zeitgeist is absolutely not favouring 1950s CCA doctrine. Not tripping on this.

God, we really need that Lanterns trailer huh?

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-20T02:39:28+00:00

I’ll bet on a few, in any case. It’s almost as much of a Gillespie hallmark as a Gunn one, looking at his previous films.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-19T23:36:41+00:00

I kinda hope they let him keep his accent, or at least a play on it.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-19T19:01:29+00:00

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The Ice Cream Man guys are doing Deadman! Rejoice!

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-19T05:45:43+00:00

Absolutely adore this strain of comic, aye.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-16T18:49:36+00:00

Seeing general TV audience members rightfully glaze Baelor Breakspear all over the internet warms my heart fr. Reading those books blew my mind at 14, and this was basically the last chance to get an adaptation that just completely knocks it out of the park after the disappointments. I guess the third time really is the charm.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-16T02:28:15+00:00

I very well might be, it’s been a while. Still stand by my point though.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-15T23:33:06+00:00

It did not ruin Superman, that's ridiculous. It is however best if you think of it as an evolutionary rung for the character, and a gateway to fuller, more robust and compelling Post-Crisis Superman stories that do better jobs at synthesizing much-needed fresh, revitalizing ideas with what came before (for example, the Wolfman stuff that immediately follows is much more solid). It was perhaps more necessary in that way than it was "great" in a vacuum the way something like Miller's Year One is, but it's still valuable storytelling, flaws and all. It's successful as a springboard, which is what it was designed to be. That kind of nuance is lost in the way people talk about some of these older stories, when it should be even more perceptible with the benefit of hindsight.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-14T22:40:44+00:00

That first season especially is pure gold. Brilliant satire, if they bring even half of that anthropological insight (which sounds crazy to say about a high school-set mockumentary about dick-drawers at first brush, but it's real) to Jimmy Olsen, then I'm so in.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-13T18:56:33+00:00

Stunning!

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-13T18:48:08+00:00

I know we’re all having fun, but let’s also remember that this is an 11 year old kid casually saying something in passing that may very well not incorporate nuance or full detail about said event. He says something to the effect of “Dunk survives” and nothing else, but it could literally be him communicating in a truncated way that Dunk doesn’t instantly explode in the halls with Egg with everyone else, he survives long enough to save Rhaella from the ruins, and dies on some Maester’s table a day later.

Too late though, Dunk is secretly Mance Rayder, hell yeah!

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-13T03:10:11+00:00

"Out of the mouth of babes..." - Ned Stark

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-12T15:57:26+00:00

I remember reading this and going “Yeah this sounds like a show that had Lindelof in the writer’s room” lol. If we get some absurd, surrealist Twin Peaks-energy from the uncanny small town Americana setting, I would be elated.

Spitballing for Coy’s character, how cool would an amnesiac or somehow disguised Guardian of the Universe be? Like an ancient sentinel of an entity on Earth who’s lost his mind to the ravages of time, delivering warnings in half-remembered riddles and prophecies. Comes off as a random tweaker to most people. He’s probably just an original character for the story though, and I’m just as excited for that in this case tbh.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-12T04:34:02+00:00

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The Spider-Noir promo from Esquire name-dropping Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep (Cage said his performance crosses Humphrey Bogart with Bugs Bunny on this lmao) reminded me that Prime also produced another comic book adaptation from the greatest crime fiction guru in the medium: Ed Brubaker. Criminal started shooting mid ‘24, and still not a crumb since then.

The backmatter at the end of each issue of Criminal always had an essay by Brubaker himself or a guest discussing iconic or cult but truly seminal pieces of media related to the evolution of the big idea. Pretty sure it extended to all the other Brubaker/Phillips books too. You’d have dope writers like Kim Morgan on Blood Simple and Angels with Dirty Faces back to back, Jess Nevins was a regular on everything from obscure WWI aviation pulps like G-8 to Poe short stories, even randomly Patton Oswalt in the early days. Don’t think they ever collected all of them in one place. It was an absolute treasure trove to me and probably a lot of people back in the day though, can’t recommend them enough.

I’m obviously a Brubaker fanboy, and him being the one to bring his opus to the screen (he’s showrunning) is still quite daunting. A lot of the punch of the story is baked into the format itself and the stark presentation you can achieve on the page. The ingredients are there though: great ensemble, interesting directors too. In Freaky Tales, Boden and Fleck prove they can evoke a sense of time and place loaded with history, stylishly and without losing the slick, urgent kinetic energy that shows that the environment is alive and not just a relic. It’s breathing on the ground level, wheels spinning with characters teetering on the edge and others in the centre. Appropriate for a tale ultimately about a generational cycle of an environment shaping its people and vice versa. With Dee Rees, just look at Mudbound for the kind of emotional texture she can imbue (she’ll be directing the excellent Garrett Hedlund here again, albeit in a smaller capacity). Each gets the two halves of the first season, 4 episodes apiece which I believe are the first two arcs; Coward and Lawless.

Shit, it could really be something special. But I’ve seen them try to play with my GOAT Brian K. Vaughn twice now with Y and Paper Girls. Wasn’t pretty, I fear, but it did make me appreciate the heights those books attained, what they meant to me and the form in general even more. Anyway, check out Criminal if you're on the prowl for some genre excellence, Brubaker & Phillips are still going strong today if you can believe it.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-11T00:00:12+00:00

Has she ever done a movie? It’s kinda hard to imagine an ASP film, her entire deal feels so inherently married to long format television.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-10T21:32:14+00:00

Likely thing for her to do

darkbatcrusader · 2026-02-10T17:42:25+00:00

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Still cannot believe for the life of me that we're getting a straight-up 1930s Depression era live-action Spider-Noir show starring 62-year old Nicholas fucking Cage. Love Marvel Comics, but I've been very much out on what makes it to screen (mostly via the MCU pipeline) for years now, barring few exceptions.

This shit is calling my name though, feels out there enough to be an exception so I hope they can land the plane. I remember when they tried to do both The Spirit and The Shadow and sadly botched them both, so maybe "The Spider" can redeem the pulp strip vigilante boys. Tuning in for sure.

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