Between the Panels

Batman . I mean, hands down one of the coolest characters ever created. Some would argue he’s the greatest superhero of all time (they are obviously mistaken, Superman is the OG). But if you’ve been reading some of the more recent Batman comics, you’ll know that ol’ Brucie’s not doing so hot these days. It all kinda started when his bride to be, Selina Kyle (better known to some as Catwoman ) left him at the alter. What had, to that point, been something of an upward trend for the Dark Knight suddenly took a hard pivot into the awful and the poor guy has not been able to catch a break since. Now, sure, some of these things have been factors well outside of his control. Like being trapped thousands of miles away while Bane killed Alfred , his belov'd mentor and adoptive father. Or having Penguin fake his own death and framing him for it triggering a robotic failsafe that Batman had, unbeknownst even to himself, designed to stop himself were he ever to violate his own code and go ...

SPOILER ALERT ! If you haven’t had a chance to watch the most recent season of My Hero Academia, but intend to and you don’t want spoilers, you may want to stop reading now. For years there has been suspicion of a traitor within UA. We now know this was, in fact, the case. And the traitor was none other than Mr. Can’t Stop Twinkling himself, Aoyama . To this point little more than a source of awkward comic relief, Aoyama’s betrayal of his fellow classmates hits like an emotional freight train, particularly in understanding all the nuances of what led to it in the first place, which I will not spoil here. But what hits even harder is the immediate love, grace, and forgiveness the rest of Class 1A show their troubled comrade almost instantaneously. Their willingness to move past the betrayal and still embrace him as their comrade and fellow hero is a display so stunning as to almost come off as unrealistic. Who could ever look past such devastating betrayal so quickly and with such pat...

Hey guys! PLo here, and I want to chat a bit about not a bird or plane, but Superman . I will be honest and say that for years I thought Superman was lame. He had all these powers and only one weakness and I just didn’t feel like I could relate to the character. And then came Henry Cavill. I remember the first time I watched Man of Steel . I was instantly sold on the character. Henry played not just Superman, but Clark Kent. And he brought a human side to the character that I had never seen before. I could relate to him, knowing he’s not of this world, but has been sent here for a time and is tasked with making this world a better place with the amazing abilities he has been given. But we aren’t going to be talking about the obvious “not of this world” angle today. No, we’re gonna talk about his name . Throughout the scriptures, time and time again, we see how important names are to God and just how thoughtful He is in how He names His people. He had Sarah name her first born Isaac, wh...

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, an...

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 ...

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...

We look up to our heroes, right? That's what we are supposed to do; I mean that's what they are there for isn't it? They are the ones that are supposed to be the gleaming example of how we can conquer over the dark times in our life. Heroes are supposed to be the ones that challenge us in our core to level up past what we are facing. Wow, start off on a positive note why don't ya; am I right? But, I think there is something to be ask here on what happens to us when our heroes fail? What happens to our core when we have someone that we look up to that lets us down or does something that breaks our faith in them? Really, it's devastating.... You're whole world feels like it is shook and you can feel directionless. The game  Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League hits this idea further, when you play as a villain and you are needing to take down heroes (Batman, Superman, The Flash, etc.) because they have been corrupted and are destroying the world. Like, that...

Class in my faith? I must have missed that chapter in the Bible! No, you haven't missed anything dear reader.  I want to give you a different vantage point on something that is not always talked about: spiritual disciplines .  As a teen, I was given the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster as a way of developing more in my personal time with God.  To this day, it is one of my favourite resources to come back to when I feel like things are getting a bit stale in how I am spending time with God. This book covers 12 different spiritual disciplines ( meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration ) as ways to connect with God.  Often, we have a couple of practices that we naturally lean toward, but it is good to at least try out another discipline to sometimes gain a new appreciation/vantage point with God. Just as your connection with someone may change in it's expression over ti...

Imagine you could have someone that you are able to just chat with at any point and time. Some of you may already have an image of a friend or you are reflecting on your last chill time with them. Don't get me wrong, that's awesome and we all need friends that we can connect with like that. However, that can only happen if that person is there or available.  What I am talking about is a connection that cannot be severed by distance, signal, or availability.  I am talking about the connection with you and God. My favourite example of this connection is Yo and Amidamaru from Shaman King . Yo is a high schooler who is able to connect with spirits and he makes a connection with Amidamaru to get stronger to become the Shaman King. What makes these two stand out is there communication between each other. Yo does not treat this spirit like it is something that can be ignored; there is a friendship/bond there that he connects with Amidamaru in sincerity. Whenever they face different...

Lately there have been a large number of animes that have been featuring their main characters reincarnating into new and strange things.  A couple that have caught my eye and my time have been Black Summoner and A Faraway Paladin, but let's focus on Black Summoner . Our main character has no memory of his past life (typical), but has chosen previously that he is going to be a mage with certain skill sets. As you can imagine he maxed out some of his skills that pertain to magic or special knowledge, while along the way has to retrain his other skills in life. What's really cool is seeing this character make lots of progress and the joy that he gets out of this chosen path that he laid out before himself.  This character even has a spiritual companion that helps guide him along his journey and discuss next step strategies for personal growth.  He seems very refreshed and has more of a drive about him in whatever missions he takes along his journey to get stronger . Imagine...

A man in a red suit, a large antlered beast, the sound of sleigh bells ringing on a snowy night, and a raised crossbow loaded for battle?!?! That’s right crew; you are not reading a typo there. Earlier this month DC Comics published a comic series ( Silent Knight ) featuring our big man in red, a.k.a.  Santa Clause (though he prefers to be called Chris Kringle ) showing up in a way that would get our D&D nerds amped for an impromptu session. One of the best parts of this series was the different heroes’ reactions to the reality that Chris was not a holly jolly guy, but an epic, battle-worn warrior. Turns out that Chris doesn’t just deliver presents to boys and girls, but fights off the things that go bump in the night for the sake of the world’s safety.   Reading through this series made Santa interesting for me.  Like I would look at pictures of Santa throughout Christmas and would automatically translate those images to Chris from the comics. We have a bit of a ha...