I run the Fine Art feature on Kotaku because it’s an aspect of the creative process that I have a big interest in, and the utmost respect for. Indeed, there was a point in my life where I hit a fairly substantial crossroads, and if I hadn’t gone down the path that led me here, I’d have ended up pursuing a career in production/concept art instead.

This story was originally published in April 2012.

The single biggest inspiration for that flirtation was the work of Ralph McQuarrie, who passed away in 2012, aged 82. McQuarrie designed some of the most iconic and important elements in science-fiction movie history, from the alien mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind to the original Battlestar Galactica TV series to some work on Jurassic Park.

He is most widely known, however, and will be most fondly remembered, for his contribution to the visual identity of the Star Wars universe.

McQuarrie’s hands are all over the three original Star Wars films, on which he worked as a production illustrator, design consultant and concept artist. He designed Darth Vader. He designed R2-D2 and C-3PO. He designed Chewbacca. Indeed, it was McQuarrie’s vivid concept paintings, all done on the strength of nothing but George Lucas’ script, which helped convince studio executives to green-light Star Wars in the first place.

McQuarrie appears briefly as a Rebel General in The Empire Strikes Back, and later won an academy award for his work on 1985’s Cocoon.

If you love Star Wars, a lot of what you love is down to the work of this man. His contributions to the enduring popularity of the original trilogy simply cannot be understated.

For perhaps the single best collection of his Star Wars work, many of which you probably haven’t seen, you should really check out this 1997 book. It’s collated like a work of Star Wars fiction, but really, the words are a thin thread tying together an astonishing collection of concept art for the original three films.

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-St...

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner.

Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you’re in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you’d like to share, drop us a line!

Ooooh, pretty! This is the Soyuz spacecraft shaking the bonds of gravity to carry astronauts to the International Space Station in the wee hours of this morning. After a brief docking hiccup, the trio joined the station crew to kick off Expedition 46.

Soyuz TMA-19M launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan early this morning, quickly reaching orbit without incident. Six hours after launch, the spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station. Here, the automated docking sequence aborted, backing way to 450 feet (140 meters) and leaving cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko to manually dock the spacecraft. Ground control confirmed a solid docking seal at 12:24pm, just nine minutes behind schedule.

Soyuz TMA-19 arriving at the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA/Scott Kelly

Malenchenko, Tim Kopra, and Tim Peake are joining Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, and Sergey Volkov on the station. Malenchenko is the most experienced of the newly-launched trio with experience on Mir and the space station, including participating in early shuttle missions to prepare the station for long-term habitation. This is the second mission to the space station for Kopra, and the first space mission for Peake.

Top image: The launch of Soyuz TMA-19M as seen from the International Space Station on December 15, 2015. Credit: NASA/Scott Kelly

Contact the author at mika.mckinnon@io9.com or follow her at @MikaMcKinnon.

Possibly the best thing to happen during tonight’s GOP debate was this ad for House of Cards’s next season. Netflix isn’t a giant tease, either—we’ve got a release date, and a campaign website to tide us over for the next few months.

In a followup tweet, Netflix revealed the new season will land for our binge-watching pleasure March 4th.

Until then, go look at Underwood’s campaign website, which is chock-full of Easter Eggs and House of Cards in-jokes.

Deadspin Dwayne Bowe Is The Browns’ White Elephant | Jezebel Warrant Issued for Ethan Couch, Teen Who Suffered From ‘Affluenza,’ for Violating His Probation | Sploid 200-year old giant salamander discovered outside a cave in China | Gawker Here’s Carly Fiorina Bragging About a Maybe Classified Relationship With the NSA |

Justin Lin talks about the music in Star Trek Beyond. The Force Awakens moves on from TV spots to mini-featurettes. One character is skipping the next season of Game of Thrones. Plus, Doctor Strange gets a writer, plot synopses for Suicide Squad, and The Flash casts another speedster. To Me, My Spoilers!

Star Trek Beyond

Justin Lin defends the use of the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” in the film’s trailer:

It’s in the DNA of this canon. It was in the ’09 Trek, and we went through different iterations of the teaser and I wanted to make sure whatever here is using all the elements from the film. It’s been a part of this Kirk’s journey and so I felt it was very organic, and it will ultimately be in the finished film.

[/Film]

Suicide Squad

DC have released a new synopses for the film, hidden in the announcement for a series of Suicide Squad statues:

It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?

Doctor Strange

Sinister writer C. Robert Cargill has confirmed he is co-writing the movie with director Scott Derrickson.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In two new featurettes, the cast of the movie talk about the biggest parts of the film: female characters, and BB-8.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Here’s a new poster for the film. [Screen Rant]

Iron Fist

Point of Geeks is reporting several details about the series. First off, the series’ codename is “Kick”—later confirmed by Production Weekly—and will allegedly go into production in April of next year.

Secondly, some minor casting—Carrie-Anne Moss will return as Lawyer Jeri Hogarth (her counterpart in the comics, a man named Jeryn Hogarth, served as a legal advisor for Danny Rand and the Heroes for Hire) in the series. And then there are two casting calls, the first of which is apparently for Danny himself:

DYLAN KENDALL

25 – 28 yrs old Handsome and sophisticated, independent and a loner. SERIES REGULAR

HARRY MARSHALL

45 – 50 yrs old Caucasian, highly intelligent, merciless, confident and arrogant, physically active. SERIES REGULAR

Game of Thrones

Mark Gatiss has confirmed that his character, banker Tycho Nestoris, will not return in the sixth season of the show, while offering a humorous anecdote about his eventual return to Entertainment Weekly:

I have hope. I had dinner with Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] when we were in Croatia filming last year and I made what I thought was a very cogent pitch to be the last character alive in the whole saga. There should be a crane shot, everybody’s dead except me. Because, clearly, the only person who can survive is the bank.

The Flash

TV Line are reporting that the show is going to introduce Eliza Harmon, a speedster from the 52 comic series, later on in the second season. TV Line describes Harmon as an “exceptionally bright scientist” with a “split personality a la Jekyll and Hyde.”

American Horror Story

Good news, AHS fans: The show has been confirmed to return for a sixth season. [THR]

Here’s a brief press release for the Hotel finale, “Be Our Guest”. [Spoiler TV]

Iris and Liz oversee a new era at the Cortez. John and Alex struggle to adapt to life outside the hotel.

Star Trek

In the wake of the announcement of a new TV series in the franchise, Michael Dorn has confirmed that he did meet with Paramount last year to discuss his long-desired plan for a “Captain Worf” series:

We talked with them last year, the beginning of last year. I always tell the story that they didn’t say no. I always knew, and the people that I was working with, maybe they were a little optimistic about it, but I’m always kind of a realist. I said, “They’re going to do it or they won’t do it. Also, they own it. So they might want to do their own.” So when this came out, it wasn’t a big shock to me at all. I mean, everybody was calling me saying, “Hey, Michael, what do you think? What do you say now?” I think it’s an opportunity. I think it’s great for them.

[CBR]

Galavant

Here’s a set of synopses for the first two episodes of season two, “A New Season… AKA Suck It Cancellation Bear”, and “World’s Best Kiss”. [Spoiler TV]

Bad advice results in Galavant and the crew being shipwrecked, and they end up traveling by foot in order to get back to Richard’s kingdom. Later, Galavant and King Richard find themselves at The Enchanted Forest Pub in West Hollow-wood where they are forced into working there by the owner who sees Galavant in a different light. Meanwhile in Valencia, Madalena rules as Queen, and Gareth demands his due when he is announced as King, with Sid as his assistant. Elsewhere in Hortensia, Isabella is imprisoned in her jewel box by her 12-year-old cousin as her parents prepare for their wedding.

Galavant and Richard see a fortune teller who is able to connect Galavant to Isabella using a crystal ball. Isabella receives Galavant’s “call” as she is plotting her escape from Hortensia. Unfortunately, it’s a “bad connection,” and Isabella hears only every other word. She is devastated by the call, but Galavant believes it went well. He promises to return to her as soon as he drops Richard off at his castle. The only problem is that Richard’s castle seems to have disappeared.

Gotham

What killed the dinosaurs? Find out in this trailer, teasing the arrival of Mr. Freeze:

Lucifer

Finally, here are a few cast photos from the series—you can find more at the link. [Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson and Charlie Jane Anders. Image: Jessica Jones.

They finally made a movie sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy. And the good news is? The Force Awakens easily captures the charm and excitement of the first three movies. Here’s our spoiler-free review.

And by “spoiler free,” we mean: zero spoilers. Other than like character names, and the fact that there are spaceships and lightsabers. Honest.

The Force Awakens passes the “grin test”—that is, there were at least half a dozen moments while watching this film that I found myself grinning like a maniac. Director/co-writer J.J. Abrams expertly mimics, at times, the lightness of touch that made the original Star Wars so much fun. There are a lot of cute moments that aren’t milked for their cuteness, but allowed to just happen.

There’s also the fact that we haven’t seen this much spaceship combat and planet-hopping insanity in way too long. Sure, we’ve had Abrams’ Star Treks, Guardians of the Galaxy, and a few others, but this movie delivers a lot more starship explosions for your movie-going dollar than anything else I’ve seen in ages.

And, more than in his Star Trek films, Abrams manages to make all the spaceship technology feel casual, and used, and finicky—there are a number of moments in The Force Awakens where things don’t entirely work the way they should, at first at least, and it’s reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon’s malfunctioning hyperdrive from The Empire Strikes Back.

The number one challenge this movie faced was making us care about its brand new characters: Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, and BB-8. And here, too, The Force Awakens more than passes the test. After seeing this movie, I care about the new arrivals every bit as much as I ever cared about Luke, Leia or Han. Finn, Rey and Kylo, in particular, are given compelling backstories and satisfying arcs inside this movie, and they carry a lot of the film between the three of them. And actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver create performances that are instantly sympathetic, often using body language and facial expressions to convey a lot of what’s going on with their characters beyond what’s covered in their dialogue—Boyega, in particular, is a marvel of both comic timing and pathos.

The Force Awakens is at its best when it’s establishing these new characters, and just letting them run, without having to service much in the way of a larger storyline or mythos. So here’s the bad news: At times, the larger plot and wider story ideas don’t have quite as much sticking power, and some of the film’s second half ends up being a bit cue-cardy.

A fantastic sense of scale

There are tons of ginormous honking spaceships and other massive space things in this film—because that’s one of the hallmarks of Star Wars, the franchise where it’s never just a moon. (Abrams very consciously calls out to the iconic opening shot of the first Star Wars, in fact.) But also, the sense of scale is super important throughout this film, both with the spaceships and other stuff. The characters in The Force Awakens are constantly dwarfed by their environments, and when we visit a desert planet or a snow planet, there’s a pleasing sense of massiveness in the background, with the characters often looking startled in the foreground.

This is a surprisingly well lit film, in fact, maybe because we have to be able to see the goodies at all times. There are no lens flares (that I noticed), but instead there’s a crispness to the image, that only makes the occasional blurry bit of VFX stick out a bit more. And Abrams has gotten a good deal better at shooting action, in a way that’s mostly clear and kinetic.

Many of the most emblematic shots in this film feature a static frame, into which something pops unexpectedly—like the famous shot of Finn’s head popping up in the desert landscape, for example. Abrams’ static lens sees a surprising (or scary, or funny) item lurch into view, and the whole movie is sort of a masterclass in the use of sight-gags as a tool of high adventure.

The visual message is clear: Don’t take anything at face value, because you’re never seeing the whole picture. Abrams loves to surprise and startle his audience, but he also goes into this movie with a laundry list of things that we’re expecting to see, because Star Wars. Instead of simply setting up expectations within the narrative and then playing off them, he’s in a position of having to play off our pre-existing expectations—so he gives us what we expect, but still tries to keep us off guard.

The Force is Nostalgia

Most of us have seen the Original Trilogy so many times, it’s taken on a life of its own in our memories. Beyond the fact that we can all quote Yoda from memory, there’s also the weird distortion that happens when every single cute moment has become a T-shirt or a meme. You’ve probably attended a Star Wars wedding. The Force Awakens is as much a sequel to our collective memory of those films as it is to the films themselves.

In that context, a lot of The Force Awakens is about revisiting the big ideas of the Original Trilogy through the eyes of a new, younger set of characters, and rediscovering them. There’s no way to strip away the cultural baggage that’s accrued to the first three Star Wars films, and get at the essence of what they actually were—so instead, this film aims to connect to that collective miasma of shared ideas, while making it all new again.

And to some extent, nostalgia for Star Wars has become like the description of the Force from the very first movie: It’s an invisible energy that binds all Star Wars fans together. Nostalgia can cloud your mind, can move large quantities of toys, can go to either the dark side or the light side. It’s hard not to feel at times, watching this new movie, as though what’s awakening is our fond memory of the classic movies, with all the power that goes with it.

There are copious amounts of fan-service and shout-outs to the old movies here—not surprisingly—but at best, these moments just add to the feeling of a world with history, a universe where everything has a layer of grunge. In fact, The Force Awakens very much adheres to the “used future” idea of the classic Star Wars, and technology has both aged and advanced, in ways that feel somewhat realistic and tactile.

But at times, nostalgia definitely overwhelms storytelling, and at times the determination to give us the “greatest hits” of Star Wars is a little too ingratiating.

The Force Awakens is great, as a fun, zippy space adventure about brand new characters exploring a galaxy we already know and love. I’m already a huge fan of these new characters, and dying to see more of them. But when The Force Awakens tries to connect to any larger plot arcs, or to conjure any sense of awe—let alone the wonder and intensity that you might remember from The Empire Strikes Back—it stumbles somewhat. And like I said, the second half of the movie contains some key bits that feel like they come directly off cue cards. The movie seems not to be able to make itself care that much about certain plot points.

That said, the more I think about this film, the more I like it. It’s not in the same league as the first two Star Wars films, but that’s probably not a fair comparison. Nor is it a great film, on the level of Mad Max: Fury Road. But it is an endearing movie that left a strong impression on me. Some of the stuff that left me unconvinced when I walked out of the theater is sitting better with me after mulling it over—which is usually the sign of a film that’s going to reward a second or third viewing.

And at the very least, the brand new Star Wars movie is outrageously fun and entertaining. Witness the awesome power of a fully operational movie franchise.

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming in January from Tor Books. Follow her on Twitter, and email her.

Next year is already scheduled to have a bunch of great blockbusters. One, however, you’ve already seen, just never like this. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is been re-released in 3D for the film’s 25th anniversary.

Cameron has been working on the conversion with a company called StereoD and will release the brand new 3D version of the 1991 mega-hit worldwide. However, the focus of the campaign will be China, where the franchise is massive, even though Terminator 2 has never been released there theatrically. The latest sequel, Terminator Genisys, grossed over $110 million in China earlier this year .

“Next year marks the 25th anniversary of Terminator 2 and that seemed like the perfect time to bring it back but this time in an all-new 3D version,” Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter. “If you’ve never seen it, this’ll be the version you want to see and remember.”

Cameron is quite the 3D fan. Besiding pushing the medium ahead in a big way with Avatar, he’s already re-released his other mega hit, Titanic, in 3D back in 2012.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.

When a big movie is released in theaters, all the other studios take advantage of the attendance bump with new trailers, posters and more. One of 2016’s biggest films, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, already has the trailer and now there are posters too.

The official Batman v Superman Twitter account posted these simple, but striking character posters for the film, which opens March 25, 2016. Check them out.

DC guru Geoff Johns also posted a new poster, that looks official, but when you look at the full version (via The Fire Wire) is actually fan-made. Nevertheless, it’s also pretty nice and while you’re here anyway...

[H/T Superhero Hype]

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.

You know when you say something in a joking manner, but it’s really a mask for dropping a semi-stealthy truth bomb? Yeah, that’s what Tom Hardy did when he was asked about having to drop out of Suicide Squad.

In an interview with Variety, the fact that delays on Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant forced Hardy out of playing Rick Flagg in Suicide Squad provoked this response:

It punched right into that, yeah. That got derailed for me. Was I bummed? Of course I was. I hate fucking losing work. I kept bemoaning that they were losing me significant money on a daily basis. Actually, it was good for my character.

Oh that scamp! I bet his daily “joke” that he could be off making a comic book movie for a lot more money instead was a big hit on set. This really comes off as 50% joke and 50% real frustration.

Although, for pure monetary motivations, Hardy’s got a long way to go before he gets anywhere near the patron saint of honest interviewing: Daniel Craig.

[Variety]

Top photo: Tom Hardy on the set of The Revenant, probably. (or via Warner Bros.)

Contact the author at katharine@io9.com.

Fans have complained that the recent Star Trek movies don’t do enough to explore the philosophical issues that were at the heart of classic Trek. But Justin Lin, the director of Star Trek Beyond, told us the new movie is all about debating Starfleet’s philosophies.

io9 was among a handful of outlets that spoke to Lin in the Paramount Theater in Hollywood Monday, just as his trailer hit the Internet. And he told us that the film’s villain, Krall (Idris Elba), is motivated by a clash between his beliefs and the Federation’s.

In fact, Lin told us that the conflict between Krall’s belief system and the Federation’s philosophy is an important one in the film. (And he confirmed that this is our first look at Krall, below.)

“What would happen if you were going on a five-year journey and you’re trying to not only explore but also maybe introduce other people to this way of thinking,” Lin said. “What would that mean? What are the consequences to that? Spreading a philosophy that you believe in, that you think is great. Are there gonna be any other points of views that’s gonna counter you? And I think those are the things that I thought of as a kid. And also then as an adult when I watch Star Trek. And I think we got to kind of explore that a little bit.”

So Krall’s beliefs will challenge the views of the Enterprise crew, but the crew will also question them themselves. Especially Kirk. “Why is Kirk doing what he’s doing?” Lin asked. “We assume on the TV show that [joining Starfleet] is just something he did, but I want to know why. Are you going to continue? What’s the reason? Why do you do what you do?”

Monday’s trailer was the world’s first glimpse at the third film in this new, J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek franchise—and, as you’d expect, there were some complaints. Some fans complained about the upbeat music and the use of the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” with its callback to the 2009 reboot, especially in a franchise many expect to be heady.

But Lin wanted that Beastie Boys song to make a strong statement: This is not a typical Star Trek movie. “Hopefully [the trailer] represents that we are trying to be bold and take risks,” Lin said. “Whether successful or not, I don’t know, but that was something I was excited to do.”

Some fans were also upset at seeing the Enterprise destroyed yet again, along with the line “We’ve got no ship, no crew, how are we going to get out of this one?” But Lin says the destruction of the beloved ship has a great pay-off.

“The Enterprise being taken down is a big piece of the film,” Lin said. “But I don’t mind sharing that. That’s a point of initiation and I’d love for everyone to engage on that level.”

Lin calls the destruction of the Enterprise the movie’s “inciting” incident, that leads to the crew going up against Krall. Meanwhile, though, the Enterprise crew will be helped by new alien Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella. She’s this one:

According to Lin, Star Trek Beyond originally included some references back to the previous film, Star Trek Into Darkness, exploring the impact of Khan’s attacks on the Federation. But the final version of the movie opts to ignore its predecessor, instead.

“We pick them up about two and a half years after the end of Into Darkness and there were iterations where we did explore [the impact of Khan],” Lin said. He revealed they shot a ton of stuff that won’t make the movie but “at the end of the day I just felt with two-and-a-half years in, in the presentation of this film, it didn’t quite fit in.”

Lin does what he does, in part, because of Star Trek. He used to watch the show with his family while growing up, and the director said that connection was a requirement for being part of the film. “If you weren’t passionate or you didn’t have a connection to this franchise, then you shouldn’t be a part of it,” he said. “And that was the mantra when I signed up.”

How that’ll all play out remains unclear; we’re still seven months from seeing the film. But Lin is determined to live up to the challenge posed to him his producer. Abrams didn’t ask Lin to do anything specific with the story. He didn’t have to use a previously written script. “He said ‘It’s yours, go be bold, just take it and make it what you would do to Star Trek,’” Lin said.

While Beyond takes place two and a half years after Into Darkness, Lin himself has barely been on it for a year. He came onto the movie in January, was shooting in June, and is now six weeks into editing. “We have a good cut already,” he said. But the weight of this franchise and expectations is something he’s quite aware of. “Whether this works or not, it’s on me,” he said. “The accountability is on me.”

Images via Paramount

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is one of the best films of the year. So says the American Film Institute who put the anticipated sequel on their top ten films of 2015 list along with Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and others. Here’s the list.

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton

And here are there TV shows too

The Americans
Better Call Saul
Black-ish
Empire
Fargo
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Master of None
Mr. Robot
Unreal

[Hollywood Reporter]

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.

I have an absolute total unshakable faith in the future of humanity, and in progress. But I’m also sure that awful, terrible things are going to happen, the environment is going to be screwed, and everything is going to hell. How do you reconcile these wildly opposing viewpoints?

When I was asked to give a TEDx Talk at Harvard recently, I tried to do just that. The result is the talk called “The Paranoid Optimist,” which you can watch above. Among other things, I talk about the need to stop thinking in oppositions: like “optimism” and “pessimism,” but also like “technology” and “nature.” I talk a lot about the themes of my upcoming book, All the Birds in the Sky, and how the meeting between magic and super-science is a way to think about different ways of imagining our future. Check it out!

Contact the author at charliejane@io9.com and follow her on Twitter @CharlieJane

For nearly 25 years, the Star Wars Expanded Universe seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut of books, comics, and video games. But in 1988, nobody was even thinking of doing new Star Wars books. Until one publisher decided to write a pitch letter, out of the blue.

Over at Barnes & Noble’s B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog, io9 contributor Andrew Liptak is writing the history of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, focusing on the tie-in novels. And the details of how Lou Aronica with Bantam Spectra convinced Lucasfilm to take the plunge on publishing new books are pretty amazing—especially the idea that his main hook was that they would take huge liberties with the status quo of these characters.

Liptak writes:

“I talked about wanting to publish these books as events, launching in hardcover, which was fairly unusual for licensed properties at that time.” Aronica recalled. “The core of my message was that we wanted to make the books as powerful to readers as the films had been to viewers.”

Aronica envisioned a line of tie-in novels that were more ambitious than other publishing programs. He wanted to tell stories that were greater in scale, and that actively advanced the story laid down by the films, rather than simply staging what he called “costume dramas”: stories utilizing all the trappings of their source material, “but offering very little more than what fans already had from the original source.”

He also outlined a plan that would set Bantam Spectra’s line of novels apart from what other tie-in franchises were doing: each book or set of books would be an event in and of itself: the new “novels [would be] great reading experiences, not just merchandise,” and would come out in hardcover, rather as mass market paperbacks.

You can read Liptak’s whole series here (the index page will keep updating as new articles are added.)

Top image: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, Dark Horse Comics

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming in January from Tor Books. Follow her on Twitter, and email her.

Well, damn. Limitless, the freshman series that won my heart as an unapologetically off-kilter comedic serial with episode-long Ferris Bueller homages and made-up ailments like “micropenis,” took an intensely dark turn for its winter finale. It shifted the focus from Brian to the rest of the characters—and what happens when they take NZT. Spoilers ahead.

First, the big one: Caseeeeey! Don’t go gentle into that dark night. Meaning, you shouldn’t have gone and gotten yourself blown away by Boyle after you took a hostage in your own FBI workplace. Does this mean no more Desmond Harrington in Limitless?! I mean, they did use pretty definitive language—“shot in the head” and “remove the body,” for example—but no one said, “Casey’s dead.” Things don’t look good, though. In fact, they look really bad, and his (apparent) death is sending shockwaves through the bureau.

But when Casey and his boys dropped NZT, it marked other folks in the office dabbling in the stuff. Big surprise: it was a chaotic disaster that led to broken hearts and death. However, continuing to explore what NZT does to other principal characters will no doubt be vital to fueling the show through the rest of season one and beyond.

It also served as a great way to differentiate Brian on NZT from others on NZT, and helped establish Brian as having other defining qualities than just being a savant whose body withstands the ravaging effects of the death super pill. He doesn’t delve into shadowy places of dubious morality like the SWAT guys did, and his innate intuition of how people work is what prompted Boyle to at least re-examine his heat-of-the-moment decision to take Casey out.

On a lighter note, however? The entire cold open. It was kind of a fake-out, because I was hoping for a entire Mike and Ike-centered episode! These dudes are hilarious, and the actors—Tom Degnan (Ike) and Michael James Shaw (Mike)—need to be given more screen time. Two sincere LOL moments for me: “This is stress? I look like I have leprosy!” and fears of being a Brian Finch “lifer.”

New episodes of Limitless aren’t back for another 11 episodes on January 5. In the meantime, ponder what dragons Boyle would unleash on NZT:

Contact the author at bryan@gizmodo.com, or follow him on Twitter.

WGN America’s Manhattan ended its critically acclaimed second season with a bang — the detonation of the first nuclear bomb on July 6, 1945. As the series awaits news on whether it will be cancelled or renewed, io9 caught up with creator Sam Shaw to find out how he turned real history into drama.

Spoilers below....

The broad narrative arc for Season 1 centered on the competition between two designs for a nuclear bomb: implosion and the gun model. (In the end, both were built.) How did you find your narrative arc for Season 2?

We spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of entry point we might give a new viewer. It’s a big ensemble cast of characters, and the moral topography of the world is complicated. We as writers try to construct the season in such a way that by the end, a lot of small detonations in the stories of this big ensemble cast will converge together and create a shock wave that leads to a concussive ending. We construct our own implosion bomb narratively.

Season 2 was all about the race toward this moment when the bomb is something real and material — a weapon of mass destruction. It’s no longer a thought problem or a set of numbers on a blackboard. As an engineering problem it was so incredibly difficult and complicated and it’s so amazing that we built it, in that respect. It’s a triumphant story about ingenuity.

But it’s fascinating to me that these same men and women who were able to wrap their heads around a technical problem that complicated, seemed not to focus very much on how messy the moral issues were. The show has aspects of a spy story and soap opera, but I like to think of it as a moral thriller. This was a season where all the characters had to confront a whole set of complicated moral problems. The hope was that along the way we’d begin to engage with some of those fascinating questions that are at the center of the paradox.

Ashley Zuckerman (“Charlie Isaacs”) on the set of Manhattan.

Charlie Isaacs had one of the most shocking character trajectories, going from a rather naive wunderkind who found the moral implications of the bomb deeply troubling in Season 1, to openly advocating for dropping the bomb on a major city in the heart of Japan. His reasoning: make the destruction so terrible that nobody would dream of doing it again.

The intention was not to take Anakin and turn him into Darth Vader. Charlie, in the very first episode, is a proxy for the audience. He’s the moral conscience of the show. So it made sense to tell a story that brings him to a place where he makes the most morally objectionable argument that anybody makes over the course of the series. Some of that had to do with watching Ash Zuckerman’s performance; there’s a certain darkness to Ash that was really interesting to us. Although I don’t agree with Charlie’s argument to the Target Committee, at least Charlie is honest with himself about what it is that they are building. He may be the most honest person in that room. He’s not going to let anybody hide behind evasive language.

One thing that’s always fascinated me about the Manhattan Project is, how is it that all of these secular humanist, mostly lefty scientists became the authors of this instrument of death? A lot of them came to the project with a great sense of moral urgency that was connected to Germany and Hitler, but then Germany surrendered and they didn’t leave. It became clear that they weren’t involved in a race, there was no other atomic project, and yet they went to work the next morning.

We get blinkered by life. That is something that the scientists from Los Alamos talk about so poetically in The Day After Trinity [a John Else documentary from 1981]: they talk about getting caught in the trap of science and losing sight of the human questions connected with what they were doing.

Manhattan creator Sam Shaw on set with Michael Chernus (“Fritz”) and Christopher Denham (“Jim Meeks”).

Frank Winter tells Meeks in their final face-off that he kept rationalizing all the lesser evils, hoping they would add up to a greater good: “But it’s just bad math. There’s always some variable you can’t account for.” That seems central to this season’s themes. So many characters try to follow their conscience, yet they end up doing morally compromising things, hoping the end will justify the means. And inevitably, they fail.

That was the animating idea for this season. Frank makes this crazy 180-degree turn at the beginning of Season 2 and becomes just as Ahab-like, just as dogged, about trying to put this atomic genie back in the bottle, as he was in Season 1 when he was trying to deliver the bomb. [By the finale] there’s a slightly clearer-eyed Frank, where the wisdom he’s arrived at is, who the fuck do I think I am to be trying to save the world? It’s never worked. He’s always approached history as a kind of math problem he can outsmart if he can just get it right. Maybe two lives surrendered today will save four lives tomorrow. I think he just arrives at a place of weariness and clarity, where he’s not willing to sacrifice anyone else.

Speaking of math problems, one of my favorite scenes was in the second episode, when Frank realizes that the equations from implosion that supposedly came from a German spy were his own. He knows because he’s coded his daughter Callie’s name into the variables. It’s just the sort of thing a physicist would do. What made you think of doing that?

That was a classic piece of puzzle writing. We knew what the shape of the [narrative] lock was: we needed some element in the storytelling to be the key to Frank recognizing that the equations he’s looking at are his own. It couldn’t just be wonky and mathematical, like the difference between an American decimal point and a German decimal point. It needed to be emotional. There is something a little bit self indulgent and sentimental to put that name in the math. As a writer, I may forget my anniversary with my wife, but write a line of dialogue as an homage to some aspect of our relationship — and hope that makes up for other shortcomings. So I love that Frank has the clarity to realize that he hasn’t been the greatest father.

Manhattan director Thomas Schlamme on set with the recreation of the Gadget.

Robert Oppenheimer observed after Trinity that the physicists had “known sin.” Perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of the finale comes in the final seconds: Fritz’s despairing suicide after learning his best friend was responsible (indirectly, at least) for his wife’s death. It’s like he symbolized the death of innocence at the dawn of the atomic age.

It may surprise some viewers that the story comes to such an explosive end in the final minutes of the season. To me that came out of a place of character. Frank offers to Meeks a way out, and this vision for a different kind of life tomorrow on the other side of Trinity, and I think Meeks just couldn’t accept it. And I think Fritz has come to a place where he sees something of the future when he looks off into that horizon, and that’s just not a place where he wants to live.

It was a choice we agonized over. We strike a more existentially dark note at the end of the second season, but it felt like the right note to strike. I’m not an emotional writer. But it was actually physically hard for me to write the end of that season; I kept putting it off, because it was painful. And I think that pain was an indication that it was the right ending.

For all the critical acclaim the show has received, the ratings have never quite hit the same level of success. What are the odds of getting a third season, and what themes might be explored?

The fate of the show is very much in question. Everyone’s talking about peak TV. I know my dance card with my DVR has never been more full, and there are lots of incredible shows that I lose along the way. It’s been tricky for us to find the audience that we think the show deserves, especially at a network that doesn’t have the track record of an FX or an HBO.

But this was never just a show about the first nuclear bomb; the most exciting storytelling is still ahead. It’s not just a question of what happens immediately when the bombs are dropped. The most interesting journey for the characters takes place on the other side of WWII, in this moment when Los Alamos becomes the most famous city in the world and when all of the clarity that they thought they had when they were waging war against fascism is lost. I hope we’ll be able to keep telling their stories.

It’s been nearly three whole months since we bid adieu to the Marvel comic universe of old, and said hello to the world of “All-New, All-Different” Marvel. In many ways, a lot has changed, and in some frustrating ways, barely anything has. Not been reading along? This is how it has shaped up so far.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/everything-you...

We Only Have The Vaguest Idea Of What Happened To The Old Universe

Somehow, Secret Wars is still happening—it got delayed, had a whole new issue added on to its run, and Marvel even had a joke at its own expense that even it had no idea how it would all wrap up. So we don’t really quite know how everything lines up to create the Marvel universe fans have been reading about since October.

And even with those three months of stories, we don’t really know the real impact. In many ways, the world isn’t all that different—some characters have shuffled about and major events have set them on new paths, but for all intents and purposes, these heroes are still the same heroes we knew before the universe went kablammo. Peter Parker might be a Tony-Stark-ian tech billionaire, but he’s still swinging around as Spider-Man. He might be making some controversial waves in the real world and in the comics, but Sam Wilson is still Captain America. Jane Foster is still Thor, battling cancer as she battles the mythic threats to Asgard and beyond.

Even the sense of a multiverse is still there—Spider-Gwen, for example, is still set on the parallel world of Earth-65. Speaking of Spider-Heroes, the Web Warriors still patrol the interconnected realities that are home to alternate Spider-Men and Spider-Women, too. Marvel’s “Ultimate” parallel reality was a big casualty in Secret Wars, but beyond that, it still seems like a good chunk of this extended universe still exists.

That’s not to say there haven’t been hints though. Invincible Iron Man has started sowing the seeds for some sort of cross-dimensional shenanigans that could explain a least a little of what happened: Doctor Doom has been newly invigorated (and been made shockingly handsome enough to not need his mask any more) after he ruled over Battleworld in Secret Wars, and is hunting down relics from other realities before they do serious harm on earth.

Everyone’s Still Settling In

That frustration of nothing too much happening also extends to some of Marvel’s comics at the moment—it was always going to be a slow burn, but even with some series entering their third or fourth issues now, not a lot has really happened in the “All-New, All-Different” universe.

A groundwork has been laid; the vast majority of new series have spent their first, if not also their second issues, establishing a status quo to go forward on. But in terms of big events driving everything ahead? We’re still getting there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—and some series have definitely hit the ground running, like All-New X-Men, Uncanny Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, and more—but at this point getting some major traction going in this new universe would be nice.

The Avengers Have Barely Assembled...

This even extends to what could arguably be the flagship title of “All-New, All-Different”: All-New, All-Different Avengers ... which, two issues in, only just about features the main Avengers team that Marvel have been teasing for months and months at this point. They don’t even call themselves the Avengers yet!

It’s kind of insane that one of the biggest books of this new lineup still hasn’t quite gotten its heroes together yet, but the Avengers in particular are a curious case. It doesn’t really matter that the “main” Avengers haven’t quite assembled, because suddenly, there’s a lot more of them.

... But There Are A Lot Of Avengers Teams

The Avengers have always been more than just the main team. Great Lakes Avengers. New Avengers. Secret Avengers. Mighty Avengers. The list could go on and on. But in “All-New, All-Different,” we’ve suddenly got a lot of disparate branches of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and that soon might be a bit of a problem.

Let’s break it down. Aside from the main Avengers, we have:

• The Uncanny Avengers, a “Unity” team of Humans, Mutants, and Inhumans ... and Deadpool
• The New Avengers, a group of younger heroes that have merged with the previously villainous organization AIM
• The Ultimates, cosmic Avengers who deal with universe-threatening characters like Galactus
• The Squadron Supreme, a group made up of sole survivors of parallel realities destroyed in Secret Wars
• The A-Force, an all-women team that was made for Secret Wars but will live on in this new universe

That’s not counting technical Avengers groups like the upcoming Illuminati comic, either. Not all of them may have “Avenger” right in the name, but that’s a lot of Avenging happening.

And now we know that’s all going to come to a head in March of next year. This week Marvel announced plans for a crossover event called “Avengers Standoff,” which will see circumstances sour between these different groups and have the Avengers duking it out over a mysterious place called Pleasant Hill Alpha. Could we perhaps end Standoff with fewer of Earth’s Mightiest hanging around?

Mutants and Inhumans Can Co-Exist ... Sort Of

One of the biggest concerns going into this reboot from fans was the fear that Marvel will push away the X-Men—thanks to an ongoing spat over movie and merchandise rights—in favor of heavily promoting the Inhumans, who have their own movie coming up as part of Marvel’s monolithic shared universe. And while, yes, the Inhumans have made a huge splash in “All-New, All-Different,” the X-Men are just as prominent as ever, dealing with their own issues (and the fallout of whatever the hell Cyclops did to make the world hate them again). They even have similar amounts of books dedicated to each other.

In the comics though, that happy co-existence is ... well, it’s not entirely there. After all, one of the biggest points of this new universe so far has been that Inhumans are on the rise and Mutantkind is slowly dying out, after the release of Terrigen Mists across the world began poisoning mutants and awakening new Inhumans. While the different X-Men and Inhumans teams are both trying to tackle the event, it’s clear that the X-Men are being put on the back foot for a little while. They’re down, but not out, like they have been many times before.

There’s Somehow Still More To Come

Somehow, Marvel are still not done putting out new series for this Universe despite an almost overwhelming number of them being out already. A lot of those books are going to be about expanding and diversifying Marvel’s slate even further—we’ve had books like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur or this week’s Weirdworld introducing new leading female characters, for example—but we’re also going to get some key heroes making their series debuts. Hopefully, these will answer some big questions about how this all came about in the first place, like Miles Morales’ very own Spider-Man series set in the current world, or the highly anticipated Black Panther series due out in March.

It may not quite feel like “All-New, All-Different” has kicked into high gear just yet—but it seems like Marvel are in this for the long run, and we can’t wait to see what answers are in store for one of comics’ biggest universes, next year and beyond.

A few weeks back, we asked the io9 readership to come up with their geekiest Star Wars questions. No topic was too taboo, no idea too nerdy, and you did an amazing job. We then picked our favorites and now, we have the answers.

Note: There are no spoilers for The Force Awakens here.

Below, here are the geekiest Star Wars questions io9 readers could come up with, along with the answers from Brandon Rhea, Senior Community Manager at Wikia, which runs Wookieepedia.

Then, there are also questions we submitted that they wouldn’t answer, which are kind of funny.

Is Smhi Skywalker lying about Anakin’s conception in order to conceal some great secret, has she been deceived herself? And is the implication of Sidious/Palpy’s opera house tale vetted as an admission that he ‘used the Force’ to have Anakin conceived (and imbue him with super-mega-chosen-one powers)? - Rancorr

In the official Star Wars canon, all we know at this point is what Shmi told Qui-Gon Jinn: there was no father. As Qui-Gon surmised, this means that Anakin was conceived by the midi-chlorians through the will of the Force.

In the Star Wars Legends (the non-canon former Expanded Universe) novel Star Wars: Darth Plagueis, it was revealed that Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious experimented with the midi-chlorians for the benefit of the Sith. The midi-chlorians retaliated by creating the Chosen One to destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force, a balance that meant the elimination of the Sith once and for all.

What is Yoda’s race/species? - deadp00l

No one knows! It was very important to George Lucas to never reveal Yoda’s origins, even in the old Expanded Universe. Whether that’s revealed in this new era of storytelling remains to be seen.

What made Han Solo go pirate? What’s his story...is it true he was a Stormtrooper? - gmoat

In the non-canon Star Wars Legends stories, Han Solo was an Imperial who defected after he assaulted a fellow Imperial to save Chewbacca. The two formed a friendship and became partners in crime.

In canon, Han’s backstory has yet to be revealed - but we’ll soon learn more in a young Han Solo movie, which will be released in 2018.

Where was Admiral Ackbar during the Battle of Yavin? - Ben Grimm

The Rebel Alliance is a collection of cells and fleets that rarely came together. The Battle of Endor, for example, was a big deal, because it was an assembling of the full Rebel Alliance. So during the Battle of Yavin, the Rebels present in the Great Temple on Yavin 4 were only part of the larger Rebellion. After the destruction of the Death Star, General Dodonna ordered the evacuation of Yavin 4 because the Empire knew their location. Admiral Ackbar arrived with the Rebel fleet to assist with the evacuation.

Is the Jedi Order’s policy of celibacy really an ascetic practice, or is it a way to minimize the number and power of Force users by taking them out of the gene pool? Are there Jedi spies watching the people that flunk out of the Jedi order, and their kids? - sajanas1

The Jedi Order believed that relationships like that could lead to attachment, and that attachment could lead to the dark side of the Force. As a result, they generally refrained from any sort of romantic relationships.

Where did the names “Luke” and “Leia” come from? After all the commotion, and while she’s giving birth, the names just come out of her mouth so matter-of-factly, like she’d always knew those names, held them dear to her (or Anakin?), much less, they’re already waiting on the tip of her tongue - shafdude

I don’t think that’s ever been established, but expecting parents generally think of names for their children before they’re born. If Padmé didn’t know if she was having a boy or a girl, she might have had a boy name and a girl name picked out, which she was then able to give the twins when they were born.

Where do humans come from in the Star Wars galaxy? - Bagpiper

It’s never been established where humans come from in canon. In Star Wars Legends, the origins of humanity were lost to ancient history but it was commonly accepted by historians that humans originated somewhere in the Core Worlds.

What was the reason Chewbacca did not get a medal after the Battle of Yavin? - miskatonic

It’s not entirely clear why Chewbacca didn’t get a medal after the Battle of Yavin. However, the novel Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure recently revealed that Chewbacca did receive a medal after the ceremony.

Given that Hyperspace is a place and not a speed what determines how fast a craft arrives at its destination? Let’s just assume that an Imperial Star Destroyer and the Millennium Falcon both depart the same part of vast empty space with no stray gravity wells. They are both going to the same place. Will they arrive at the same time? - Q Tzal

In canon, there is no clear answer to this. Star Wars Legends stories have made some attempt to explain it, though, so I turned to Wookieepedia administrator Toprawa and Ralltiir for more information. He told me that the Millennium Falcon has a faster hyperdrive than an Imperial Star Destroyer. Using what we saw in the films, the Millennium Falcon can go “point five (0.5) past lightspeed” while traveling through hyperspace. Presumably, a Star Destroyer can only travel through hyperspace at lightspeed.

Prior to its being wholly enveloped by cityscape, was Coruscant a planet replete with lush, thriving ecosystems? If so, was there outcry in the march to sheer enshouding of the planet in infrastructure and the resultant utter destruction of said ecosystems? - America’s Wang

Star Wars Legends gave some details about what Coruscant once looked like. Before it became a sprawling metropolis, it had landscape features like mountains and oceans over much of its surface.

How old is Chewie? - GELLA LLAP

Chewbacca is at least 200 years old by the time of the films.

I’ve noticed a lot of Star Wars books and comic books have been re-released under the ‘Legends’ label. How come Genndy Tartakovsy’s Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) miniseries hasn’t been given the ‘Legends’ label and re-released in either DVD or Bluray also? - AstroPCR

That series is indeed Legends. Book re-releases and DVD re-releases tend to work differently, though, so the distributors of that show probably have their own reasons for not releasing it again.

“If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.... Turns into weird ghost-stalker. This can’t possibly be it, can it? - RuthlessBurger

That is indeed it! As Yoda said in The Clone Wars, the power to be able to influence events and interact with the living even after death is a power like none other. It may not manifest itself in any sort of combat-oriented way, but without the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker never would have become a Jedi.

What do Jawas look like under their hoods? - aja32

Jawas have never been depicted without hoods, so it is an enduring mystery!

What ever happened to the Ebon Hawk from the original KOTR? Did it survive into the Force Awakens era? - lostengineer

For this question, I turned to David Statman (“Ifindyourlackoffaithdisturbing”), an administrator on Wookieepedia. He told me that, after Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the Jedi Exile - Meetra Surik - flew into unknown space aboard the Ebon Hawk to find Revan. The novel The Old Republic: Revan reveals that the Exile found Revan on Dromund Kaas, the capital of the Sith Empire, where she was killed. That was the last we saw of the Ebon Hawk.

And here are the questions we submitted to Wookieepedia that they, probably rightfully, didn’t answer.

Is there a problem with Chewbacca getting feces all over the Millenium
Falcon’s co-pilot seat? I imagine all of that hair would make it
difficult to wipe cleanly. There has to be poo-stragglers everytime he
does the deuce. Is this an ongoing conflict between Chewie and Han
when the cameras are not rolling? Or does Han just roll with it
because he’s so roguish? - temu17

If Luke and Leia were to have relations prior to finding out they were
siblings, multi-part question:
What are the odds the child would have some type of inbreeding-related
birth defect, and would Force sensitivity increase or decrease chances
of birth defects in this scenario?
Does the presence of Midichlorians somehow negate any chance of
defect, i.e. would the Force correct any error in the DNA of the child
upon conception due to ‘destiny’?
If Anakin had the highest Midichlorian count ever seen, and he has had
twin children with Padme, do his children’s Midichlorians increase or
decrease in count - is mating with a non-Force sensitive person going
to dilute the count, or is the presence and population density of
Midichlorians within an individual not dependent on parental factors? - Archaeyopterix Majorus

Why the hell is Chewbacca’s name “Chewbacca?” How does he let people
know his name is Chewbacca? He can’t pronounce it himself! He only
talks in a series of throaty growls and roars. It’s not like he can
walk up to someone and say, “My name is Chewbacca.” At best his name
would sound something like Scooby-Doo speak: Rooragha or something. So
why don’t they call him that? How did they get from whatever his name
really is in Wookiee to “Chewbacca?” - diasdiem

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.

NASA has a long history of seeing its technology turned around after spaceflight for some more earthbound purposes. (Enjoy that scratch-resistant coating on your glasses? Well, it began life as an ‘80s-era spacecraft water filtration system.) What some people miss is that it’s still happening today.

Every year, NASA puts out what it calls a “spinoff report.” No, this is not a list of ideas for a series of zany, roommate comedies set aboard the ISS. (Although this is an excellent idea. Call me, NASA TV!) The spinoff report is actually a list of all the ways NASA’s tech has been repurposed into new products, ranging from the inevitable to the surprising to the bizarre.

Here are a few of highlights from this year’s version:

• A turntable laser spectrometer that was part of the Mars rovers’ methane detection system was repurposed into a handheld gas leak detector.
• “Space blanket” tech was used to make some ultra-durable laptop casings.
  
• NASA robotics tech found its way into a “smart” coffeemaker, with more consistent temperatures.
• Carbon dioxide capture research, used for analyzing Martian results, was turned around into a carbon dioxide capture system for microbreweries to carbonate.
• A NASA Langley ‘80s design for a never-carried-out “hypersonic plane” managed to make its way into a more current version of a wind turbine.
• Originally designed to measure replacement parts for the Hubble telescope, a laser vision tool is now more pedestrianly used to sort packages.

You can check out the full list of products for 2016 right here.

Top image: Artist’s concept of Curiosity rover using its “chemcam” laser to analyze some Martian rocks / NASA JPL

Thor is currently facing a whole heap of problems in The Mighty Thor—and so is Jane Foster. Everything is about to get trickier with the re-arrival of Loki in her adventures. But that’s not the weirdest thing going on with Loki’s return ... his face is.

Minor Spoilers ahead for The Mighty Thor #2, by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino.

The Mighty Thor #2 ends with Thor coming up against Loki amid a huge battle in the Light Elf realm Alfheim, in which Malekith is up to his usual tricks wanting to murder everyone for shits and giggles. Thor stands alone, mainly because Odin has turned into a tyrannical jerk and sealed himself away in Asgard. It’s all very cool, and it’s been interesting to see Jane have to face her all-too-real cancer battle as well as the universe-threatening destruction being wrought by Malekith and his cronies.

But we’re not here to talk about The Mighty Thor. We’re here to talk about one single panel, the panel in which Thor and Loki encounter each other in for the first time in ages.

Because holy hell did they actually turn the comics Loki into Tom Bloody Hiddleston!?

Now, this wouldn’t be the first time that Marvel’s comics have been heavily influenced by the imagery of the Marvel movies. Hell, it wouldn’t even be the first time they’ve used an actor from the films as the basis for the appearance of a comic book counterpart—even though technically it was the other way around, as Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance as Ultimate Nick Fury actually lead to him being cast as Fury in Iron Man and beyond. But the thing is, Tom Hiddleston’s wonderful interpretation of Loki has been around for four years ago, and they’ve never actually swiped his face and put it in the comics before. Here’s Loki in Ms. Marvel earlier this year:

Definitely not Hiddletastic. Here he is in this summer’s Loki: Agent of Asgard:

0/5 Hiddles. Okay, maybe 1/5 Hiddles with that jawline. Weirdly enough, even in this actual issue of The Mighty Thor, he spends most of it only looking vaguely like Tom Hiddleston, rather than totally dead on like he does in that panel with Thor:

Also, he has weirdly wispy facial hair that Russell Dauterman draws in this wonderfully evocative way. I don’t know what I like about it so much but it’s just the right sort of slight skeevy look that’s perfect for Loki.

But that last panel though, you guys. That’s 10o Percent Premium Free Range Tom Hiddleston, right? Am I going crazy? Am I suddenly seeing Tom Hiddleston everywhere? If so, why? Should I consult a doctor? Here’s Comics Loki side by side with Avengers Loki, just for even more comparisons.

Maybe this is Loki’s greatest trick of all. But man, even if it doesn’t last—like I said, Loki doesn’t look this close to Hiddleston throughout the issue, so it could’ve just been an innocent reference point for Dauterman as an Easter egg or something—I kinda like the thought of Tom Hiddleston hanging around with Thor on the big screen and on the page.

Though what you see above looks a lot like Kevin McCallister’s Battle Plan from Home Alone, it is not. Look a little closer; it’s got pizza rats, medical waste, and boobs. This is a far more sinister plan! This is Deadpool’s version.

Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool have been posting fun, viral stuff for the past few days leading up to a new trailer on Christmas Day, and the latest is this great homage to the holiday comedy classic. You can read more on Deviant Art, and here’s a GIF.

And here’s the original version, if you’d like the comparison. Much tamer and PG rated.

Deadpool opens February 12.

Contact the author at germain@io9.com.