In Pan, recently released in cinemas worldwide, Rooney Mara’s casting as the Native American Tiger Lilly has left audiences baffled. Could the studio possibly have chosen a whiter white girl to portray a Native American character? And why would they ...

No one can deny that the history of popular stories – be it novels, comics, films, TV – is littered with stories focused on the male experience, featuring male protagonists and a general male view of the world. With all ...

Those of us who attend conventions aren’t as scary or weird as we’re often made out to be – though that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of scary weirdos (or terrifying people in Alien costumes that like to sneak ...

I have been reading the Bendis run of Daredevil and noticed something that is apparent – though not so openly addressed in many forms of fiction: that the hero and the villain need each other. In the comic, Daredevil notes ...

I have been less than impressed by The Big Bang Theory since its fourth season (I wrote an article about it jumping the shark two years ago, you can read it here), but the season 9 premiere has stooped to ...

Were you missing watching a regular TV series that was kitsch, embraced clichés, and was hopelessly over the top? Ryan Murphy – as always – has the answer. Following his success with Glee and American Horror Story, Murphy (along with ...

Sanderson is currently the poster child for popular fantasy writing. And there’s a blood good reason for that – he’s great. It was the original Mistborn series that first made me fall for Sanderson’s storytelling and since then The Stormlight ...

With all the hype around the new Star Wars films and Disney’s decision to depart from the original Expanded Universe, a new ‘official’ Star Wars novel being added to the cannon was always going to be controversial. Throw in a ...

If you thought the first film in this YA franchise was batshit crazy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet… The log line for the sequel to The Maze Runner reads ‘The maze was just the beginning.’ They weren’t kidding. The world ...

I’m a big fan of Young Adult novels. Forget the haters who claim that the books should only be read by the intended target audience. Screw that! Read what you want to read. There should be no rules about what ...