Actually, I should amend that: NerdBastards intends to review Episode 4 of Hannibal if it is humanly possible to do so.

I suppose I should start at the beginning, with an article from Variety. The popular trade publication reported that, in recognition of the recent tragedies in both Boston and Newtown, Episode 4 of Hannibal will be pulled. The plot of said episode reportedly involves elements of child murder that the network feels would be in poor taste to air at this time. Instead, next week NBC will be proceeding straight to Episode 5 of the fledgling series.

Now, this is not the forum for me to drone on about my particular feelings regarding this decision (I’m doing plenty of that on Facebook). Instead, I wanted to take the time to assure NB readers that Episode 4 will still be covered. The episode will air according to schedule overseas, and there’s talk on the show’s Facebook Page that it will still be available for online viewing. Therefore, unless there’s absolutely NO reasonable way of getting ahold of the ep, expect a double review of Episodes 4 AND 5 next Friday.

Source: Variety

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They should have known it would end in a PR disaster, and now it seems it has. A column that DC Comics’ Editor-In-Chief Bob Harras and Editorial Director Bobbie Chase co-authored for Comic Book Resources called B&B has been suddenly cancelled, and the reason may be that the fans who submitted questions to the column were getting a little too impertinent.

The source of the controversy over the column may have been another controversy, the hiring of writer Orson Scott Card to pen the online adventures of Superman. Chris Sprouse, a regular DC artist tasked to draw Card’s Superman story, removed himself from the project when fans began to protest Card’s appointment to the project on the basis of, shall we say, his strong views on gay marriage. Here’s the question a fan asked B&B about Card:

Finally, LGBT_Fan asks, “As a gay man, I was disappointed that you decided to work with Orson Scott Card on the upcoming Adventures of Superman. The man has called for the overthrow of the government if marriage equality legislation is passed in the U.S. and serves on the board of the National Organization of Marriage. How do you justify this hiring along with your attempts at reaching out to the LGBT community (e.g. writing LGBT characters in stories like Alan Scott and Batwoman)?”

The answer read as follows:

Note: A DC spokesperson referred CBR back to their previous statement on that question.

Perhaps unwilling to be caught off-guard like this again, the plug has been pulled on B&B with the following statement from CBR:

With regret, CBR News has to inform our readers today that there will no longer be a “B&B” column on the site after only four short months.

When CBR proposed the idea of a regular column with DC’s executive staff, our stated intent was for the feature to be a place to connect the decision makers at the publisher with the wider comics community. Aside from product and story information, discussing the industry news and debates of the day was something we always planned to focus on both in the regular interviews with Harras and Chase and the monthly fan Q&A. However, the DC team has made it clear to CBR that discussing some of the more controversial debates surrounding the company and the comics community is not something they feel comfortable doing in this format, and ultimately they decided to no longer participate in this feature.

Specifically, Harras and Chase declined to comment on questions about DC exclusive talent Jerry Ordway in regards to his statements about his work with the publisher. (Though it should be noted that DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee did discuss the matter in a recent CBR TV interview)

After ensuing discussions on the matter, CBR regrets that DC has decided not to continue what we consider a valuable discussion for readers, retailers and creators. We will however continue to cover the company’s comics, editorial moves and broader impact on comics to the best of our ability – including future interviews with DC executives and editorial staff as they are willing and available.

Well, it was a unique idea while it lasted. Still, The Mary Sue points out that the comic industry is one of the view entertainment media that makes its top people available to fans vis-a-vis convention Q&As and columns like B&B. Could you see the executives of Walt Disney or NBC sitting down with a fan site and doing a monthly article where they answer questions from fans? I hardly think so.

What do you Bastards think? The cancellation of B&B: the coward’s way out, or inevitable result of dealing with combative fans.

Source: The Mary Sue

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Yeah, that’s a question. And you thought Star Wars Episode I was the extent of George Lucas’ propensity for exploiting racial stereotypes and out-dated portrayals of race.

The Turkish Cultural Community of Austria (TCCA), which includes at least two things you never would have thought go together, is pointing at the new LEGO Jabba’s Palace playset and calling “racist” on it. Now you may be reading this at home, at the local cafe, or even on the bus and maybe thinking to yourself: “How can a LEGO version of Jabba’s Palace from Return of the Jedi possibly be considered racist?” Good question.

According to the TCCA, the palace looks like both the Hagia Sophia, a 1,600-year-old former basilica and mosque in Istanbul, and Jami’ al-Kabir, a mosque from the 7th century in Beirut, and that’s not cool. On the surface, that doesn’t sound that bad, but the TCCA looks at it thusly:

“It is clear that the figure of the ugly villain Jabba and the whole scene [exemplifies] racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against … Orientals and Asians as sneaky and criminal personalities (slaveholders, leaders of criminal organizations, terrorists, criminals, murderers, human sacrifice)…,” the group wrote on its website.

First of all, really? Second of all, it’s been 30 years since the release of Return of the Jedi, did someone at the TCCA finally put on the Blu-ray? Or is like the whole thing last summer when adoption advocates went off against The Avengers for Thor’s wisecrack: a case of people with too much time on their hands and platform to exploit their over-sensitivity? I think we all know what I think, what about you Bastards?

Source: Blastr

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His jacket has polka dots and yours doesn’t.

I’m not going to burn off 80 words on flowery bullshit that takes both sides of this issue into consideration before I finally err on the side of objectivity. I’d rather try an alternative approach: This shit is stupid.

Django Unchained is not going to ever air on the Hallmark Channel. It isn’t a movie that was made to be adored by everyone, and that’s why I would allow Quentin Tarantino to take me in a thrusty, masculine, and yet gentle way should his tastes suddenly take a left turn toward big-titted fanboys. Fuck appeasing the masses (and didn’t I just demonstrate my own antipathy for that?). Foot fetishists and bad ass motherfuckers. That’s who QT works for, and though there is a shocking lack of primo tootsies in Django, there is a fuck-ton (a slang term for a ton of fuck, meaning a whole lotta shit) of controversy thanks to the films slave-y subject matter, violence, and the use of the word that the “N-word” (THUNDER SOUND EFFECT) implies… you know, that one that they used all the time in the 1850s (And today! Ah, the timeless classics…) By the way, charades isn’t as much fun when you can’t act out the words… though I imagine acting out that word would be FAR, FAR more offensive than just saying the word. In fact I think I was just offensive while explaining what would be offensive. So that’s nifty.  (more…)

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If someone writes something on the internet and nobody notices it for almost 2 years, does it really make an impact?

This is the question we all (yes, all) find ourselves asking in the wake of the James Gunn/Superhero sex scandal that is ROCKING the internet (Am I overselling it a little?), the world (Or a lot?), and the galaxy (see what I did there?).

In case you haven’t heard, James Gunn – the director of Slither and Super and the man tabbed by Marvel to write and helm the Guardians of the Galaxy movie — has raised the ire of some with his musings about sex and superheroes.

In the post, Gunn calls Gambit a “cajun fruit”, talks about the supposed thrill of seeing oneself ejaculate into the Invisible Woman, mentions that he hopes Iron Man can “turn” the lesbian character Batwoman, and discusses a host of other graphic sex acts he’d like to perform (or not perform) on a wide array of comic book characters.

Published on February 17, 2011 on Gunn’s personal blog in response to the results of a poll on his Facebook and Twitter, Gunn’s “The 50 Superheroes You Most Want to Have Sex With” lived in near obscurity until a few Tumblr users and Mary Sue writer Susana Polo found it and called attention to some of Gunn’s remarks. Here’s her article.

Modok was not ranked…

What did Gunn do in response? Well, he hasn’t said anything yet, but he totally used internet magic to make the article disappear. Magic that was combated by Polo, who posted the Google cache copy of the article that Lady Geek Girl found.

Naturally, the contents of Gunn’s treatise and Polo’s article have lit a fire across the internet sky.

The venerable Hollywood Reporter has reported on the matter, as has the not-so-venerable Huffington Post and nearly everyone else.

In an effort to get Gunn tossed from Guardians, a petition has popped up and on the other end of the spectrum, many have come to Gunn’s defense, including Bad Ass Digest chief Devin Faraci, who said on Twitter:

“We can have a discussion about ‘is that funny,’ but the Mary Sue article is coming from the assumption Gunn’s list was straight-faced.” later adding: “the article author is straight up ignorant. It’s pathetic – she didn’t do ANY research at all.” in response to someone saying that the Mary Sue writer was unfamiliar with Gunn’s “MO” and that he has a “crass sense of humor.”

Despite his last name, HitFix editor Drew McWeeny was also unafraid to enter into this debate about sex and superheroes and I am a child. Here’s what McWeeney said:

“Hey, guys, I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I have a sneaking suspicion that James Gunn, who is writing and directing “Guardians Of The Galaxy” for Marvel, likes really, really dirty jokes.” McWeeny later added: “If you’ve seen “Slither,” then I think you’ve got the basic idea, which is that there is no line James Gunn is unafraid to cross for no other reason that It amuses him.”

McWeeny’s full article can be found here, and here’s the link to the justifiably lauded Tumblr post by Dark Horse Editor Rachel Edidin on this whole mess. I swear to God I am not trying to set some sort of hyperlink world record by the way, sourcing is just my jam.

Now, I’ve seen Slither, the PG Porn shorts, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake that Gunn wrote, and other things that he’s done. I’ve also read some of his blog posts and the list in question and I take three things away from it:

Number 1: This list is PAINFULLY unfunny.

Number 2: It comes off like it was written by a very sexually immature person who has some issues with how he regards women.

Number 3: For what Gunn is to us, I don’t know that his ideals matter.

James Gunn is a writer and a director. He also seems like a piggish asshole, but these two things don’t really have to intersect. Everyone has an ugliness within them, and maybe this is his. Frankly, we judge people in the public eye as if we are sizing them up to be our soulmates and it just isn’t necessary.

All I want out of this guy is a movie, an enjoyable and fantastic two hours that justifies the cost of admission and the expense of my time. As long as he can keep a lid on his chauvinism and keep it out of the finished product (a product that would go through many filters before getting to us), his views really don’t affect me.

I’m not going to trot out a bit of shiny new homophobia in an effort to over-compensate and get chuckles and I’m also not going to de-value women or over-sexualize them because James Gunn did so in a blog post 21 months ago. I know some fear that others may, but I’m not willing to assign that much power to the words of the artist who gave us the Scooby Doo movies.

So if it doesn’t affect us, why do we care? I assume it’s because in some cases, being offended understandably boils down to anger.

Some people don’t like the remarks that Gunn made (obviously you can put me on that list) and they want him to be punished for those remarks (not that list). They want there to be a cost for thinking in a way that is contrary to the way that they think and the way that society deems acceptable. Really, this is pig-shaming in response to “slut-shaming”.

Now, I don’t agree that Gunn should be thrown off the picture and punished like an out-of-line child, but I’m not going to grouse about it if it happens because I understand that Disney knows how to count and they know how to gauge public sentiment.

All this may seem unfair if this was just a joke or a piece of shitty satire, but this is a free market society, meaning if you supply the world with stuff like this, eventually demand for your work is bound to suffer.

That’s the reality of this situation and a reminder that one should always think before they speak or type — especially when they have the ambition to be more than a self-amused blogger.

Update: For whatever it is worth, Mr. Gunn has apologized.

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AMC’s The Walking Dead is no stranger to unusual characters or representing a wide diversity of different people be it race, color or creed, but there is one minority group that’s now starting to seem conspicuous by their absence. Allow me to explain…

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The internets are all abuzz with this still from the season one finale of Game of Thrones, which features a fake latex bust of George W. Bush as one of many heads on pikes. Some people are – perhaps understandably – a bit up in arms about this.

• This was not done as any kind of political statement at all.
• Indeed, production just needed severed heads, and the prop department had a Bush head laying about.
• As you can tell from the pic — which is a severe close-up of part of the shot where Joffrey makes Sansa look at her dad’s head on a pike and not an actual shot in the show — they put a wig on it and turned it away from the camera to minimize the chance anyone could tell it was Bush.
• In fact, no one would have even know it was Bush except that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss mentioned that it’s Bush in episode 10 director’s commentary track.

I find it hilarious that Benioff and Weiss brought this on themselves, and I guess they wrote it off as a kind of a joke. But… In these highly politicized times, people read dual motives into everything and thus just saying that the make-up department had this old W. head lying around and they decided to use it doesn’t fly.

But hey, why did the make-up department have a W. head lying around? One of life’s mysteries, I guess.

Anyway, HBO has apologized, and made Benioff and Weiss apologize. (Probably not) The end.

Source: Topless Robot

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Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And where there’s money, there’s controversy. The Hunger Games is rolling in the dough at the box office, making more money than any other movie on its opening weekend not starring Batman or Harry Potter, but the controversy du jour has to do with race.

In the wake of some very disturbing, and very real, questions about race in America in the news, these Hunger Games related tweets went out over the interwebs last weekend:

“why does rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie.”

“Kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn’t as sad”

“why did the producer make all the good characters black”

“Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you pictured”

Where’s Jeff Foxworthy when you need him? “If you’re disappointed because your favorite Hunger Games characters are black, and you tweet about, you might be a red neck!”

Laying aside the fact that if you read the book it clearly describes Rue as being black, if you’re arguing that Rue’s death wasn’t as sad with her being black, yeah, I’ll take you up on your offer and call you a racist. And if you pictured Rue as a little blonde haired white girl, you clearly need to go back to Grade 3 and work on your reading comprehension.

At least the actress that plays Rue, 13-year-old Amandla Stenberg, hasn’t had to be exposed to the… Oh, f**k it! Of course it’s gotten back to her, and she’s been forced to release a statement:

As a fan of the books, I feel fortunate to be part of The Hunger Games family. It was an amazing experience; I am proud of the film and my performance. I want to thank all of my fans and the entire Hunger Games community for their support and loyalty.

Stay sweet Amandla. Don’t let the haters get you down. Maybe some words of support, from the girl that tried to kill you with a knife in the movie can cheer you up.

Kidding. Here’s what Isabelle Fuhrman (Clove) told EOnline:

I think Amandla was fantastic in it, and she’s so beautiful. She’s exactly how I imagined her to be.

I think it’s just terrible. She’s such an amazing actress and she’s so sweet. I guess people read things differently and imagine things different, but I think she was the perfect choice for Rue.

So people, I know where called Nerd Bastards, but maybe we can work hard on educating the actual Bastards.

Source: The Mary Sue

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Superman #712 story is cancelled. Yeah you heard right, the story that has been solicited for three months as part of the “Grounded” story arc  is canceled , and DC’s only comment on the subject is that:

“This fill in issue contains a lost classic, Lost Boy: A Tale of Krypto the Superdog, set shortly after Superboy died in Infinite Crisis and Superman went missing. DC Comics determined that the previously solicited story did not work within the ‘Grounded’ storyline. However, Chris Roberson, will be back for the final two issues of Superman’s year long walk across America. As we near the conclusion, catch up with Superman next month as he makes stops in Portland and Newberg, OR.”

Now for those of you unfamiliar with planned story for this issue, here is a quick rundown. Superman travels to Los Angeles to help out a shunned new superhero, Sharif, whose Muslim identity makes the public reject his help. Superman challenge for this comic was to see if he could quell a prejudiced people or admit defeat that there are some problems the Man of Steel can’t solve. This interesting topic is relatable to our times and would really hit home with America’s continued prejudice of the Muslim community. Comics Alliance writer, Chris Sims, brings up many valid points on the reasons for this issues cancellation being shady.

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With last months release of the HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes, the announcement of the fifth gen Pokemon series, Pokemon Black and White (which will probably go through a name change of Shadow and Light), and the announcement of Ash and Pikachu not appearing in Pokemon Black and White anime, you gotta say Pokemon is still going strong for 14 years.

Pokemon is well known and it has long already set its place in nerd culture for its games, cards, anime, and countless of merchandise. Like anything popular, it  deals with problems which lead to controversies. Some of these you may know and some of these may be news to you. So, after the jump, check out what Pokemon had to deal with in the last 14 years. (more…)

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