Friday 5 collects links and videos spanning all of nerd culture – collating bits of news, fun, and other noteworthy offerings that you might have missed in the hustle and bustle of the week.
Nerd Culture Highlights for the Week of July 3, 2016
1. The TMNT have a much darker origin (that we sometimes forget).
The overwhelming majority of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle merchandise you’ll see on the market feature the likenesses made famous by the 1987-1996 cartoon series. The turtles are relentlessly jovial in appearance apart from the occasional grimace on Raphael’s face (because he’s cool, but one must not forget that he is also rude). But the turtles started out much more gritty and violent in the comics, and it is easy to forget that when all you know is pervy-jokes Michelangelo (thanks, Michael Bay). This video does a solid job of taking us all the way back to the turtles as assassins and I would totally love to see a more true-to-the-source adaption sometime!
2. Marvel’s Champions are back, and the lineup is amazing!
What do Spider-man (Miles Morales), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Nova (Sam Alexander), Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Cyclops (teen Scott Summers), and Viv Vision (daughter of Vision) have in common? Sure, there’s the Marvel property answer, the super powers answer, and even the teenager/young adult answer, but now there’s an even better one: They are officially teaming up under the Champions moniker! This is a team I am pretty darn excited about personally. A lot of personality in this lot, and the quote from Mark Waid in the post makes it sound like I can expect some of the high teenage drama that I really loved about Avengers Academy.
via Comics Alliance
Just something a little fun to do with a few spare minutes. They toss you a few easy ones at the beginning to give you (read: me) a false sense of confidence. I totally got this, you’ll think…until you absolutely will not at all get this. The interface is annoying, but the quiz is pretty fun. Let us know how you do in the comments!
Via Screen Crush
4. Is Westeros heading for a happy ending?
So I recently walked the city of streets of Westeros and removed the shame on my nerd credentials: I watched all of Game of Thrones, including the season finale. Count me in the group that thinks the whole thing can’t possibly have a good ending full of hope and optimism. But, it is good to see this theory that is supported by John Bradley, who plays the very lovable Samwell Tarley on the show. Maybe it will end in happiness and frolicking dragons and lovers in a field. But I suspect it may be much darker. (And I really like the idea that Sam has been telling the story all along.)
Via Time.com
5. Hikara Sulu will be depicted as a part of a same-sex couple in the new Star Trek.
And for a pretty rad reason, too. George Takei, the original Sulu, has long been an advocate for the LGBT community, and cowriter Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin wanted to honor him in this next installment. I particularly appreciate John Cho’s (the current Sulu) quote to the Herald Son:
“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out of it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations.”
Sounds like it will be an appropriate homage and nod to Takei and his pioneering!
Via USA Today
UPDATE: George Takei actually tried to talk Pegg and Lin out of portraying Sulu as a homosexual character. He thought it would it would be best to keep things as creator Gene Roddenberry had intended, and to instead create a brand new character with whom to take that direction. You can read more – including quotes from Takei in an interview about the subject with THR – here, at Geek Tyrant.
Those are our 5 geek culture links for this week. Join us next Friday for another Friday 5. Until then, join us on Facebook or in the comments, string something from nerd culture we may have missed.
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