Hollywood tells us that the world of espionage is glamorous, dangerous, sexy, and unpredictable. It's full of femme fatales, debonair secret agents, car chases, and equal parts gunfire and explosions. Bond, Bourne, Hunt: these are our heroes. They're handsome, muscular, and always ready with a quip. They go through women like tissue papers—women who are…
Sent to the Devil by Laura Lebow is the 2nd Lorenzo Da Ponte historical mystery. “You! What do you want with me?” “You know what I want you to do,” the man hissed… “No!” He tried to shout, but his voice was merely a croak. “No! I will not!” The old man saw a blurred…
The Series: Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona (and others, including Joss Whedon). The Heroes: The teenaged sons and daughters of a secret society of super-villains known as the Pride. The Ideal Format: A live-action Netflix series in the vein of Daredevil and Jessica Jones.* See also: Marvel’s Daredevil…
Horror audiences take so much for granted. So many of the monsters, tropes, and scenarios of the genre have been hammered into us over the years that we've become quite jaded. “Oh,” we say halfway through the trailer or synopsis blurb, “another serial killer story—yawn.” We fail to appreciate that clichés had to start somewhere.…
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny is the 2007 Agatha Award winner for “Best Novel,” and the 2nd in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. Had CC de Poitiers known she was going to be murdered, she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift. She might even have gone to her daughter's end of…
The Series: Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson The Heroes: A pack of dogs—Jack, Whitey, Pugsley, Ace, Rex, Miranda—and one cat, The Orphan. The Ideal Format: An animated series, a la Scooby Doo, only much darker. Beasts of Burden is a little-known gem of a comic series, set…
At this point, it's probably only a matter of time until every superhero on the books gets their own movie or Netflix series. Some feel we're hitting saturation levels, and that's true to an extent. But, the real issue with “Comic Adaptation Fatigue” isn't that we're necessarily tired of superheroes—we're just tired of seeing the…
I can still remember the first time I saw the trailer for Colombiana. I can't remember the movie I was actually in the theater to see at the time, strangely enough, but I remember that trailer: the frenetic cuts, the percussive beats of the action and dialogue, the indelible image of Zoe Saldana in that…
Whenever I complain about the misogyny in a James Bond film, I'm inevitably told: “What do you expect? It's Bond.” The fact that this is said so matter-of-factly—it's often delivered in a condescending tone of voice, as if my outrage is unreasonable—is appalling. An entire series of movies shouldn't carry such a reputation like a…
My mother is still shocked that I enjoy James Bond. Partly because Bond has always been one of the ultimate male fantasies, a testosterone-and-martini-soaked wish-fulfillment on steroids. But mostly because I'm a very vocal feminist, and the Bond franchise has always been, well, let's put it bluntly here—disgustingly misogynistic. But as a feminist who enjoys…
