Between the Panels

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...