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Tag Archives: Comic Books
Stan Lee Was the Icon We Needed Him to Be
The Stan Lee moment that stands out to me isn’t from one of his many famed cameos, or his legendary backpage columns, or his colorful promotional appearances. It’s from a short-lived television show called Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Stan was the master of ceremonies on the series, an effort to tap into the waning days of the reality T.V. show craze. Each week, a coterie of costume-clad hopefuls would compete to have the characters they created and cosplayed enshrined in a comic book by Stan “The Man” himself.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6: Deconstruction, Self-Destruction, and the Real World
“Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?”
– Rorschach, in Alan Moore’s Watchmen
One of my theater teachers gave me some advice before I performed a particularly bizarre piece on stage. He said, “Make the character’s reactions real. No matter how wild the situation or how crazy the setting, you have to make the audience believe that this is how someone would react.”
It’s easy to get caught up in the fantastical world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure, creator Joss Whedon lays down some important ground rules for his universe, but at its heart, it’s still a fantasy world where the chosen few do battle with demons and monsters and bloodsuckers in a quiet California suburb. Through five seasons of Buffy, Whedon & Co. populated this world. They gave it life as a place where the mystical reigns above the everyday. Then, in Season 6 they decided to turn it completely on its head.
They changed course and put their focus on how the folks battling supernatural threats handle the fallout of that fight in their everyday lives. The mythic elements of Buffy–the monsters, the spells, the magic–were all still there, but they took a backseat to giving the audience one, big, season-long reminder — that the story of Buffy Summers is supposed to take place in the real world.
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