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K-Box in the Box

@kbox-in-the-box / kbox-in-the-box.tumblr.com

Newspaper reporter, TV/movie reviewer and self-appointed pundit of pop culture.
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NBC's New Night Court Is Desperately Missing These Original Series Characters
These Night Court supporting characters appeared in less than a dozen episodes, but they deserve appearances in the new series as much as Bull or Roz.
www.cbr.com

While NBC’s Night Court has always run on one-off gags, it also has a rich existing history of characters to draw from, as I elaborate on for Comic Book Resources. Looking back on some of them will have you saying, “I’m feeling much better now!”

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Transformers: Optimus Prime's Death Ended Peak '80s Kids' Culture
1980s nostalgics tend to recall the same cartoons and toys. Most of their faves are from the same part of the decade, before 1986's Transformers film.
www.cbr.com

The 1980s were actually two eras: Peak ‘80s, and the subsequent transition into the 1990s. As I write for Comic Book Resources, the latchkey kids’ childhoods took place during Peak ‘80s, and effectively ended when our square-shouldered cartoon robot dad died.

I even graphed my data:

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One thing I'd hoped to do, by getting hired by a site as well-read and well-regarded as Comic Book Resources, was to introduce concepts my friends and I had played around with — such as "Peak '80s" — to a broader audience. Based on this morning's Google search, I've apparently succeeded:

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Transformers: Optimus Prime's Death Ended Peak '80s Kids' Culture
1980s nostalgics tend to recall the same cartoons and toys. Most of their faves are from the same part of the decade, before 1986's Transformers film.
www.cbr.com

The 1980s were actually two eras: Peak ‘80s, and the subsequent transition into the 1990s. As I write for Comic Book Resources, the latchkey kids’ childhoods took place during Peak ‘80s, and effectively ended when our square-shouldered cartoon robot dad died.

I even graphed my data:

kbox-in-the-box
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From Top Gun to Picard, 1980s Nostalgia Is All About Resolution
1980s heroes and franchises aren't just being brought back. From Star Trek: Picard to Quantum Leap and Willow, revivals are giving them closure.
www.cbr.com

Wonder why modern pop culture cares about tying up loose ends and settling subplots of stories started in the 1980s? As Comic Book Resources lets me explain, it’s closure for grown-up Eighties kids, who never stopped hoping their heroes might finally make the leap home.

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How the MCU's Military Heroes Rate as Officers
Everyone debates which MCU heroes or villains are best or worst. Few evaluate the service members among them on their strengths as military officers.
www.cbr.com

I served seven years enlisted in the U.S. Navy, including two overseas deployments for the “War on Terror.” Like most enlisted men and women, I’d like to think I learned to recognize effective officers, so Comic Book Resources allowed me to rate the officers of the MCU.

This article doesn’t rate any S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, nor any military officers appearing in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any Marvel streaming series originally produced for Netflix, because of those shows’ nebulous canonicity. Army Sgt. James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes and Army Sgt. Maj. Lemar “Battlestar” Hoskins are excluded because they’re enlisted soldiers.

Nick Fury attained the rank of colonel in the Army, but the MCU hasn’t shown his service prior to his stints as a CIA agent and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Former Air Force pilot and CIA agent Everett K. Ross is excluded for similar reasons. Isaiah Bradley was conscripted into the Army as an unwilling test subject and prisoner.