Between the Panels

In the grimdark world of the far future, there is only…lore. I, like many others, have been swept up by the splatterific and squelchy good time that is Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2 . As is my way with any property I interact with, I can’t content myself with simply enjoying the thing in question but instead will never be satisfied until I’ve hyper fixated my way through a deep dive into the lore. And there are few deeper lore dives across all fandoms as can be found with 40k! From a biblical perspective, this franchise in all of its grimdark, blood-soaked, nightmarish glory, actually has a monumental amount to chew on. From the fascinating exploration of mankind’s compulsion for worship with the Imperium of Man, to its emphasis on brotherhood and loyalty, to its exploration of the horrors of war. But one through line that is incredibly prominent, particularly in the narrative of the Space Marine games, is the idea of heresy. The Imperium of Man is a theocracy, with a deified figure

Have you ever struggled with confidence? I mean  really  struggled? Felt like you weren’t good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, brave enough, strong enough? If so, you’re far from alone. I’ve been there too. In fact, I was there recently. Felt like no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I was letting people down. During this time, God brought encouragement to me from a couple of unexpected places. A rock man and a rock band. The rock man Eijiro Kirishima , aka Red Riot , from  My Hero Academia . Kirishima feels he has a super lame quirk. He could harden his body. He then had a chance to step up and save some of his classmates…and he blew it. In the aftermath, he felt his resolve break. Then, he rewatches an old clip from one of his heroes that inspires him to keep fighting. So what if his power was lame? He would make it less lame through hard work. So what if he froze one time? He would fight to never freeze again. Despite continuing to feel inadequate, and constantly c

We recently lost an absolute legend. I don’t know that there’s ever been a more influential TV show in existence than Dragon Ball Z . When news broke of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama ’s passing, social media blew up with fan art, tributes, and heartfelt goodbyes. From his iconic artwork, to his epic storytelling, Toriyama-san blended action, comedy, and drama together for titanic battles with high stakes, and even higher power levels (over 9,000!!!) Throughout Dragon Ball, there’s tons of thought-provoking topics to delve into. Gods, aliens, death and resurrection, spending thirty minutes staring someone down screaming at the top of your lungs. But one thing about the show stands out to me as a poignant example of a principle many of us would find very challenging. Goku is a sometimes over-eager fighter with a heart of gold. As such, he squares off with all manner of colorful, disreputable, and outright malevolent foes. Yet, from the likes of Yamcha, Oolong, and Tien Shinhan, to

To Me My X-Men ! Now you may have likely heard this phrase come up fairly frequently over the past month or so as the new series X-Men ‘97 has been coming out. And for me as a 90’s kid who watched the original X-Men series; I'm not gonna lie, I was super amped to be watching this. I was going to be able to finally see my favorite superheroes like Gambit, Wolverine, Rogue, and let's be honest, Nightcrawler! We're desperately hoping for Nightcrawler. It brought back some awesome nostalgic moments to the point where I started rewatching old episodes just so I could feel like I was catching up. As X-Men ‘97 was going to be continuing on where the original X-Men series was ending. Here's the thing though, as we are approaching in X-Men ‘97, there is a sad reality that's hitting all of us nerds. There would be no Professor X, because in the original series Professor X has passed away after an assassination attempt on his life and was unable to make it after much needed m

It’s hard for anyone to deny the impact that the groundbreaking series,   Attack on Titan , has had on the anime fandom. And rightly so! It’s easily one of the most compelling shows on television. For over a decade it kept fans rabidly theorizing and desperately waiting for the next episode to drop. The show doesn’t shy away from lofty questions and challenging ideas, to the point that a lot of it would be impossible to cover in a quick little nerdy blog post. So instead, I’m going to think a little broader. A little bigger. I’m talking about giants . The premise of the show is that the last remnants of humanity try to survive behind huge walls keeping out the hoards of giant man-eating beings (“ titans ”) until one day when they break through. Reflecting about facing down giants, any church kid’s brain is likely to go one to place in particular: David and Goliath .  There’s some debate as to just how big Goliath was, but it is traditionally held that he was “six cubits and a span”, wh

Lately I've been reading this awesome manga series that I highly recommend you guys check out. It's called Kaiju No. 8 . and it features this young man, Kafka , who essentially is part of this police force that tries to take down these giant monsters or Kaiju in Japan. • What I really like about this guy Kafka,  is an older dude. He is not one of these young bucks that are out there fighting. He's actually 32, which is kind of relatable with me at 34, and even gets the term "old timer" throughout the series. Man, talk about feeling it in your knees. Kind of reminds me of how I feel when I'm hanging out with my kids. But really, it made me start going into nostalgia mode, having memories of playing  Super Smash Brothers on my NES ( Nintendo Entertainment System ) when I was a kid or you know, loving the old school retro games like Golden Axe, Double Dragon or even, dare I say, ET. Yeah, some of you might have cringed when I threw that one out there. But really

What kind of villain name is Heartless ? Seriously, though; it doesn't really have an impact like Magneto, Two-Face, or Reverse Flash.... Heartless is one of Nightwing 's villains that really earns his name because of what he does to his victims. This baddie has a special gun that shoots a claw tube that latches on to the victim and literally cuts out their heart . If you think that is pretty messed up, he doesn't just throw it away, no, this creep takes the heart to replace his heart with theirs.... Maybe they should have called this guy the Tin-Man (sorry for the bad joke). Heartless really does work out to be the right kind of villain for Nightwing because of the very thing that he is after in his victims, their heart. Nightwing is known in comics for having a good heart that is compassionate toward the people he protects and even the villains he encounters.  Batman himself sees this and notes that for this very reason, Nightwing would have been the perfect Batman, becau