history

14 Sep

Star Trek: Enterprise – An Oral History of Starfleet’s First Adventure

New DVD releaseadventure, enterprise, first, history, starfleet

Before Discovery or Strange New Worlds, the early days of the future as postulated by Star Trek were explored in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. Celebrating its 20th anniversary at the end of the month, it was set roughly 75 years prior to The Original Series, during the fledgling days of Starfleet, when humanity was first venturing out into the cosmos.  Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer captained the first starship given the name Enterprise, leading a team consisting of humans, a Vulcan, and a Denobulan. The voyage wasn’t always a smooth one, but certainly an important part of the…

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13 Sep

Hawkeye Trailer Has a Long History of Holiday Cheer

New DVD releasecheer, hawkeye, history, holiday, trailer

Deck the halls with bows and arrows. It is a wonderful time of the year for Disney+, which dropped the first Hawkeye trailer down the chimney. Marvel’s latest live-action series will be a Christmas show, and Clint Barton, a.k.a Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), is re-gifting his archery set to young hero Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). Clint still has the vision to hit a target, but his hearing may not be so great anymore. We can plainly see Hawkeye’s hearing aid, which could end up being the result of an injury suffered on the show. You can watch the trailer here: The…

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11 Sep

Malignant and a Quick History of the Seattle Underground

New DVD releasehistory, malignant, quick, seattle, underground

This Malignant article contains spoilers. It’s the setting of two of Malignant‘s best scenes, a forgotten city underneath modern-day Seattle. It’s one of the many locations where director James Wan‘s newest monster likes to hunt his prey. Appropriately enough, we first visit this real-world location during a tour guided by Serena May (Jean Louisa Kelly), who we’ll learn later is the key to unlocking Madison’s (Annabelle Wallis) past. Serena walks her audience through the Seattle of the past, an old market with cobblestone streets buried after a great fire. It’s a metaphor for Serena and Madison’s own predicaments, of course,…

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01 Jun

The Best TV and Movie Dragons in History

New DVD releasedragons, history, movie

This article is sponsored by If you’re lucky enough to live near Islay, Scotland, you may have heard the tale of the Islay Dragon, a myth that has inspired a new limited edition whisky from the legendary Scotch whisky distillery, Ardbeg.   Ardbeg Scorch is distilled in heavily-charred American oak casks for a super-smoky flavour, and will be released on this year’s Ardbeg Day— an online celebration which forms part of Islay’s annual Fèis Ìle festival of whisky and music.   The Ardbeg Day celebrations are free to join online, and open to all whisky lovers. For those who can’t yet taste the…

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19 May

The History of Superhero Trading Cards

New DVD releasecards, history, superhero, trading

This article is part of our Collector’s Digest series powered by: For over 80 years, trading cards have been an essential part of collectors’ lives. Whether baseball cards or Garbage Pail Kids, the card collecting bug bites early and often. This seems doubly true when it comes to cards inspired by the beloved heroes and villains of DC and Marvel Comics, who have been the subject of countless non-sport lines across the decades. These companies (and their independent peers) have released comic book characters into the pop culture landscape who have impacted our lives in ways that cultural anthropologists are…

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10 May

Legends of Tomorrow and the History of Big Belly Burger

New DVD releasebelly, burger, history, legends, tomorrow

This DC’s Legends of Tomorrow review contains spoilers. There’s a lot to like about “Meat: The Legends,” the second episode in Legends of Tomorrow’s sixth season. The problem is the good bits are generally disconnected from the main plot of the episode, and the rest of it just wasn’t very good. Our first episode to really jump into the season’s arc picks up right where the last one left off: with an alien floating through the timestream, getting smushed on the windshield of the Waverider. From there, the gang picks up a sign of trouble from October, 1955, where they…

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30 Apr

Yasuke: The Real History Behind Japan’s Black Samurai

New DVD releasebehind, black, history, japan, samurai, yasuke

Yasuke is a groundbreaking new anime that fuses fact and fiction. The six-episode original series streaming on Netflix now is the brainchild of comic artist and animation director LeSean Thomas (Cannon Busters, The Boondocks). The titular role in Yasuke is voiced by Oscar-nominated LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry To Bother You, Knives Out) who is also one of the producers. Yasuke comes from Japan’s animation house MAPPA (Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association) who also produced noteworthy animes like Attack on Titan, Rage of Baphomet, and Punch Line. Grammy-nominated artist Flying Lotus (a.k.a. FlyLo) provides the soundtrack and is also another producer. Yasuke…

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29 Apr

A Comprehensive History of George R.R. Martin’s NFL Draft Takes

New DVD releasecomprehensive, draft, george, history, martin, takes

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin loves three things above all else: writing exhaustive descriptions of feasts, killing Starks, and watching NFL football. When the “A Song of Ice and Fire” creator is not writing the most impactful bit of fantasy storytelling since The Lord of the Rings, he follows his two favorite football teams: the New York Giants and the New York Jets (yes, supporting two teams in the same city is highly unusual and yes, he’s apparently fine with it).  Martin is fond of expounding upon his fandom in interviews (including this one with ex-NFL defensive end…

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29 Apr

Jupiter’s Legacy: Leslie Bibb and the History of Lady Liberty

Netflix, New DVD releasehistory, jupiter, legacy, leslie, liberty

This article is presented by: Leslie Bibb successfully made the transition from modeling to acting, making her television debut 25 years ago in the TV series Pacific Blue and on the big screen a year later in Howard Stern’s Private Parts. Since then she’s appeared in more than two dozen movies and a wide variety of TV shows, including the main cast of The Big Easy, Popular, Line of Fire, Crossing Jordan, GCB, Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998 and the forthcoming Home Movie The Princess Bride. Fans of the superhero genre will undoubtedly recognize her as reporter Christine…

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20 Apr

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Deals With The Mandarin’s Difficult History

New DVD releasedeals, difficult, history, legend, mandarin, rings, shang

In a spectacular Marvel twist, the first Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer confirms a rumor that the film’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton dropped last year: the Mandarin is Shang-Chi’s father. Typical for the MCU’s shared universe, this plays out well on multiple levels. In the original comics, Shang-Chi’s father was none other than Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu was created by Englishman Sax Rohmer with his pulp fiction book The Mystery of Doctor Fu-Manchu in 1913. It was a stark, racist portrayal of Asians, and Rohmer capitalized upon the ‘Yellow Peril’ xenophobia of the time by milking…

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15 Apr

Audrey Hepburn: The Secret WW2 History of a Dutch Resistance Spy

New DVD releaseaudrey, dutch, hepburn, history, resistance, secret

In stories of doomed World War II gallantry, little is as romanticized as Operation Market Garden. A technical failure by the Allied Powers to defeat the Nazis in 1944, this invasion of the Netherlands left British paratroopers stranded around a bridge in Arnhem, far too removed from their tanks to hold the line. Nevertheless, the bravery of those Airborne “Red Devils” has lived on in pop culture, as have the Dutch resistance fighters who sheltered them. What has been largely forgotten is that among those courageous souls was… a teenaged Audrey Hepburn? For about a week, in fact, the future…

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12 Apr

20 Nintendo Games That Changed History

New DVD releasechanged, Games, history, nintendo

In an industry dependent on ever-changing technology, there’s no video game company quite like Nintendo. They made a name for themselves as the company so synonymous with gaming that parents called every game console “Nintendos” for years to come, and they’re still the source of some of gaming’s greatest modern experiences. There have been a lot of discussions over the years about the best Nintendo games, but there’s an arguably more interesting conversation to be had about the most important Nintendo games. After all, Nintendo hasn’t just consistently delivered the games that defined the childhoods of multiple generations; they’ve spent…

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08 Apr

Saving Private Ryan: The Real History That Inspired the WW2 Movie

New DVD releasehistory, inspired, movie, private, saving

The events as they’re presented in Saving Private Ryan would never happen that way. This was my grandfather’s terse review of the Steven Spielberg movie back in 1998. He would know. After serving in the Pacific Theater throughout the war—being there from Pearl Harbor to Saipan, and then Okinawa—he carried a quiet lifelong interest in documentaries about the World War II American experience. And he had little time for Hollywood sentimentality. “Eight guys for one man during D-Day? Never would’ve happened.” Indeed, the idea of eight men being potentially squandered during the largest seaborne invasion in history is probably a…

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06 Apr

Kung Fu: Inside The History of a Martial Arts Classic

New DVD releaseclassic, history, inside, martial

It’s been a long journey for The CW to snatch that Kung Fu pebble from the master’s (Warner Bros.) hand, but the new reboot of Kung Fu could not have come at a better time. Issues of diversity and representation have been at the forefront of our cultural conversations for years now. The rise in Asian hate crimes – nearly a 150% increase in 2020 – has made #StopAsianHate a frequent trending topic on social media. For The CW to launch a show with a Chinese leading actress and a largely Asian cast right now makes a bold statement for…

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02 Apr

Link Tank: A History of the Real Concrete Cowboys of Philadelphia

New DVD releaseconcrete, cowboys, history, philadelphia

As Idris Elba’s new movie Concrete Cowboy premieres on Netflix, let’s take a look at the real history of the Black horsemen of Philadelphia. “Philadelphia holds the distinction of being called ‘the city of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.’ The city is surrounded by historical significance, cultural landmarks, and ethnic diversity. But one of Philadelphia’s best-kept secrets is the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, a horse stable for urban youth riders and home to a thriving community of Black cowboys that have been in existence here for more than a century.” Read more at Mental Floss. Check out some of…

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31 Mar

Godzilla vs. Kong: A Brief History of Mechagodzilla

New DVD releasebrief, godzilla, history, mechagodzilla

this article contains spoilers for godzilla vs. kong. It may not have quite the cache or iconic status of Mothra or King Ghidorah, but Mechagodzilla has managed to become a consistent element in the Godzilla movie universe for years. And now the metallic wonder makes its Hollywood debut (not counting Ready Player One) in director Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong, the fourth film in the modern MonsterVerse that kicked off in 2014 with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. Ever since making its first appearance in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, the gigantic robotic reptile has stuck around as a relatively constant thorn in…

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28 Mar

The Irregulars: the Real History of The Golden Dawn and the Ipsissimus

Netflix, New DVD releasegolden, history, ipsissimus, irregulars

Warning: contains plot spoilers for The Irregulars episode three Tooth fairy: not real. Baby-stealing bird man: not real. Group of middle class oddballs who dress up in ceremonial robes and practise occult rituals: surprisingly, real. While most of the supernatural cases featured in Netflix’s The Irregulars are drawn from myth and legend, one involves a real-life organisation that started life in 1887: the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In episode three of the Sherlock Holmes-adjacent Netflix series, the Baker Street gang is enlisted by Mycroft Holmes to investigate a murder linked to the Golden Dawn, an occult organisation of…

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25 Mar

Monster Hunter’s History of Absolutely Ridiculous Weapons

New DVD releaseabsolutely, history, hunter, monster, ridiculous, weapons

The release of Monster Hunter Rise is rightfully being celebrated for many reasons, but one of the best things about the release of any new Monster Hunter game is the chance to explore their extensive collections of ridiculous weapons. While there’s really no such thing as a “practical” Monster Hunter weapon (this is a franchise that loves to go far over the top), there’s a special class of weapons in this series that’s on another level in terms of absurdity. These weapons aren’t just giant creations that defy the laws of physics en route to conquering the most feared beasts…

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18 Mar

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A History of Steppenwolf

New DVD releasehistory, justice, league, snyder, steppenwolf

This article contains Zack Snyder’s Justice League spoilers. The influence of the legendary Jack Kirby permeates almost every single aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But despite creating an impressive corner of the DC Comics cosmic mythology in the 1970s, his Fourth World and New Gods concepts have yet to be properly represented in live action. That, of course, changed with 2017’s Justice League movie, which saw the introduction of Steppenwolf, as well as other concepts from the Fourth World mythos such as Mother Boxes and Darkseid. And now those concepts are even more on display in Zack Snyder’s Justice…

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18 Mar

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Bucky Barnes MCU History Recap

New DVD releasebarnes, bucky, falcon, history, recap, soldier, winter

This Friday, Disney+ starts the next step in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Spinning out of the Captain America movies, the series follows the character’s two best friends working together (albeit reluctantly) to fill the void left from Chris Evans leaving the series. One of these heroes is Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, as played by Sebastian Stan. Bucky is an interesting part of Marvel history. He predates most characters in the MCU, created during World War II in Cap’s very first appearance by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as a blatant Robin knockoff.…

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