On important issues, we here at Monkeys Fighting Robots like to highlight people’s well thought out, honest opinions in hopes of avoiding the internet trolls.
All New X-Men #40 will be in your local comic book store on today, but something just feels off about the issue. Jim Gelder a creative director and a reader of comic books since 1978 had this to say about the issue.
So he wasn’t gay, then he is gay now, but he won’t be gay later?
So this morning when I logged on to the interwebs I was hit with multiple spoiler alert banners warning of the huge news happening in All-New X-Men #40. I’ve been reading the comic since issue one because I, like many older comic book readers, have a weakness for the silver age characters that we grew up with. That being said I did recently stop reading the book at issue #36 when I suddenly had this realization that wish as hard as I could these X-Men characters were not those same characters I grew up with. After clicking on the “DO NOT CLICK” spoiler alert link (I do love to be spoiled), it is very clear that I was right. These are not the same X-Men characters and they never will be.
SPOILERS AHEAD (I don’t want to get yelled out by anyone.)
Bobby Drake AKA Iceman is now gay. Or he’s always been gay but he’s just now accepting it and coming out. Or, more accurately, he’s now being pushed into admitting he’s gay by someone who violated his trust by reading his mind, learning his secret and taking it upon themselves to do what they think is best for Bobby. Pushing him out of the closet. Because that’s never awkward.
First off, I’m gay. Have been all my life. I acknowledged it to myself in my mid-twenties and came out to my family in my late twenties. Up until my coming out I dated women because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do. It was never successful. So to find out that one of my favorite superheroes has finally come out should be a great day for me. It sort of is. But it’s also very odd to me. Let me explain why:
For starters I’ve always felt that Bobby’s character could be gay. He has a history of failed straight relationships, he has always used comedy to cover up some sort of insecurity, for years he resisted fully exploring the full range his powers due to some hidden need to keep himself in control, he even went through a period of being a racist ass to which I attributed it to him hating others because he hated himself. So I’m not surprised that they decided to say that the character is gay. Coming out can be a long process. Not usually five decades long but, hey, this is comic book time. So I should be cheering that there are more gay characters out there, right? While I am happy that there’s another comic book character out there that I can relate with, I am also a bit let down with the way it was handled.
Here are my two main issues with how they handled Bobby’s revelation.
1. Jean outed him. That’s the fact. She also did it with an invasion of privacy and then went on to bully Bobby into admitting it. Just because she knows he’s gay it’s not ok for her to pressure him into admitting it. The coming out process takes some of us a long time and usually it’s the person coming out that takes the longest to accept it. You don’t just admit it because some pushy, nosy bitch (Bobby’s words) keeps going at you like she knows what’s best for him That’s not how it works. This conversation should have been handled over a bit of time. Jean could have dropped some hints that she knew and then Bobby could have opened up when he was ready. Buuuuut Bendis is leaving with this issue and he wanted to get his bomb thrown before he headed out of the building.
2. It appears that the older version of Bobby is still straight. How does that work? Marvel and Bendis have stated numerous times that these younger, retrieved-from-the-past X-Men are in fact the same people. So if this younger Bobby has now come out that would then mean that his older self is also now gay. Contrary to what some people want to think, you don’t get to turn “the gay” on and off at different times in your life. You just either live openly or you hide in denial. So if the older Bobby says he’s not gay that just means that he hasn’t come out yet. So will we get another storyline with the older Bobby coming out? Or will they just ignore that part of the characters identity?
So, it’s a big smile to Marvel for the advancement of diversity in comics. Then a big frown for they way they handled it.
Netflix’s newest original series, “Daredevil” debuted April 10, with all 13 episodes of the Marvel Comic adaptation’s first season available on the streaming service. Ed Carroll reviewed each episode here on Monkeys Fighting Robots without fear and you can read his reviews on every episode of Netflix’s entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe via the links below.
WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE FULL SEASON OF DAREDEVIL BELOW, DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE SEASON.
If you’re reading this review to determine if Netflix’s Daredevil is a good show, you can stop reading and go binge right now (but feel free to read my reviews as you watch!), because it is a good show. Whether or not you feel it’s a great show, however, probably depends on a few factors, such as how you feel about the Daredevil comics (if you like them or haven’t read them, you could love this show), the Marvel Cinematic Universe (if you like that, you’ll probably love Daredevil), and also your tolerance for violence in your shows (Daredevil is one of the most violent “mainstream” shows to air since maybe AMC’s The Walking Dead). None of those three, save for the violence, are particularly dealbreakers with Daredevil, but those who venture into Hell’s Kitchen will find some tremendous storytelling, acting, and fight scenes.
In many ways, the most shocking aspect of Daredevil was that it was an extended (perhaps too much so) orign story; both the “Daredevil” moniker and the iconic red suit didn’t show up until about the last fifteen minutes of the season finale. We learned of Matt Murdock’s origins, his relationship with his father, Jack, the relationship between Murdock and his legal partner, Foggy Nelson, how Karen Page got involved with Matt and Foggy, as well as an episode with Murdock’s mentor, Stick. For nearly the entire season, Murdock’s alter ego was only known as “the man in black.”
This isn’t necessarily a complaint; Netflix found a way to make an origin story interesting again, and really seemed to take to heart the idea of making their shows into “13-hour movies,” even though a couple of episodes had lots of filler content to help get the show to 13 episodes. Most of these episodes at least found ways to advance the story before the end, so they served their purpose, but part of me wonders if I would have prefered 11 or 12 heart-pounding episodes with less unnecessary stuff. That said, some of the subplots with the Russian gangsters really seemed to be filler in retrospect, even though having them as part of Wilson Fisk’s empire was not.
Of course, Daredevil is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so a lot of that “unnecessary stuff” could actually become necessary by season two, which seems like a given at this point, although we probably won’t get it until mid-2016 at the earliest due to three other upcoming serieses (AKA Jessica Jones will be next, followed by Iron Fist and Luke Cage serieses sometime after that) all leading up to the next time we’ll see Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, in Netflix’s The Defenders mini-series, but maybe Netflix can surprise us with another April release date. There were certainly some potential clues about those shows in Daredevil, particularly for the Luke Cage and Iron Fist. And while we did get some passing mentions of the Avengers, the Battle for New York, and a mention of a villain from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, but wisely Netflix made the show welcoming for newcomers and diehard fans alike. There were connections if you wanted to look, but you don’t have to have seen ANY of the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe to enjoy Daredevil thoroughly.
Netflix has taken to finding marquee actors and actresses (at least by name recognition) for most of its flagship shows, and while Daredevil had plenty of good acting from some less-well known names. Charlie Cox cleansed my bitter memories of the awful 2003 Ben Affleck film, being both likeable as Murdock and (mostly) believable as a blind man. His main supporting cast, led by Foggy (Elden Henson of “The Mighty Ducks” fame), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll, best known for her work on True Blood), weren’t necessarily bad, but their characters did seem to suffer from a lack of development for most of the show, which was disappointing considering they were among the few to appear in all 13 episodes.
The rest of the supporting cast fared much better, though, with terrific performances from Toby Leonard Moore (James Wesley), Bob Gunton (Leland Owlsley) and especially Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich. Rosario Dawson was a bit of a disappointment as nurse Claire Temple, but she really wasn’t given much to do after the second episode other than “stitch Matt up.” Given who Temple was in the comics, I wouldn’t be surprised if her appearances here were to give a familiar face to the upcoming Luke Cage series, but if she returns to Daredevil I’d really like to see her do something other than, y’know, her job.
But the standout performance from Daredevil came from none other than the show’s villain, Wilson Fisk, portrayed brilliantly by Vincent D’onofrio, who has starred in many movies and shows but is likely most famous for his portrayal of “Gomer Pyle” in “Full Metal Jacket.” I’ve always allowed television or movie adaptations of books or comic books to take some liberties with the source material (within reason) and tell its own story. In many ways, D’onofrio created his own nuanced version of the Kingpin, creating many of Wilson Fisk’s nervous tics and helping to bring some depth and sympathy to both an awful man and, perhaps more impressively, to the show’s main villain. Once we got our first look at Fisk in episode three, Daredevil became about the collision course Fisk and Murdock were on, and it was just as thrilling to watch Fisk’s scenes as it was Murdock’s.
Netflix’s Daredevil treated us to some breathtaking fighting scenes, and the show took full advantage of being rated TV-MA. They were well-choreographed and intense, and sometimes surprisingly gory, particularly when the Kingpin finally shows his face. I’m a 31-year old single person without kids, so I don’t care, but Daredevil probably isn’t for your 10-to-15 year old child who loves the comic books, or if violence upsets you. Blood is shown, faces are pulverized and mutilated, and more than a couple characters end up dying on screen. If you’re worried about the violence but want to watch the show, the level of violence is pretty well established in just the pilot episode, so watch that and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. But the end of the season seemed to trim the cast a bit while still leaving a lot open to the future. Whatever happens, just give us some more D’Orofrio Kingpin, PLEASE!
A sample of Daredevil’s violence
But this wasn’t just mindless action, Daredevil told some really great stories, with more than a handful of standout episodes; I loved “Rabbit in a Snowstorm,” “World on Fire,” and “Speak of the Devil” were my favourites, but the standalone episode “Stick” was terrific, too. Nearly every episode had something to keep me hooked or make me excited, and there was also usually D’Orofrino’s Fisk to keep me watching. And I know the title credits are a very minor part of most shows, but Netflix seems to be an exception in this regard, and Daredevil’s credits were every bit as fantastic as some of the streaming service’s other big shows.
But unlike another Netflix original, House of Cards, I found myself coming back to Daredevil even though the plot twists were pretty trivial compared to the soap opera of Netflix’s flagship series. This is good television, with the potential to be even greater in the future. My biggest complaint about the series turned out to be a flaw in Netflix’s Playstation 4 app (the lack of subtitles for the many non-English scenes), and my other main complaints were usually answered or addressed as the series went on, or were related to character use. None of these characters seem too far out of what we already might have been familiar with them from the comics, but this definitely feels like a new spin to most of them, which is quite welcome from a series based off their print counterparts.
I don’t regret the time I spent in Hell’s Kitchen, and I’d be excited to go back. If you’ve been looking for a darker take on Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, you found it. If you wanted a thrilling drama dripping with suspense, you found it. If you like your fight scenes heart-pounding and bloody, well, Daredevil is probably your show, too. Netflix’s take on The Man Without Fear is absolutely fearless, and Daredevil continues the high standards set by the MCU’s other entries, while providing something completely different from what we’ve seen from Marvel before; Daredevil quite fearlessly was excellent in its first season, and I am already craving more.
Jerry Bruckheimer tweeted the first photo of Johnny Depp returning in yet another Pirates of The Caribbean film. The fifth film, called Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, is currently in production and set to release on July 7, 2017.
As for the photo, there isn’t too much terribly interesting here. It looks just like a picture that could have been in any of the other four films in the franchise…
Ft. Collins, Colo., April 21, 2015 – New Belgium Brewing has signed contracts with twelve distributors in Pennsylvania and is slated to open that market on August 31, 2015.
New Belgium’s Pennsylvania network is as follows:
Ace Beer Distributors – Miller/Coors
Allentown Beverage – AB
City Beverage – Miller
Durdach Brothers – Miller/Coors
Erie Beer Company – AB
Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale Co. – AB, Coors
Gretz Beer Company – AB
LT Verrastro, Inc. – Miller/Coors
Penn Distributors – AB
Von’s United Beverage – AB
W&L Sales – Miller/Coors
W.R. Hickey Beer Distributors – AB
“Pennsylvania has been on the horizon for a while now and we are thrilled to secure our distributing partners and hit the ground running this fall,” said New Belgium Brewing’s East Coast Division Sales Director, Rich Rush. “We enjoyed getting to know all of the PA distributors through the last six months of the interview process, and truly feel that we couldn’t have made a bad choice. With that said though, we’re excited to move forward with our selected partners.”
Pennsylvania will be New Belgium’s 39th state of distribution.
DC Entertainment welcomes JEFF PARKER and TRAVEL FOREMAN to JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED!
The Convergence is over! Now, Alanna Strange, Stargirl and Equinox must assemble brand-new and wildly untraditional teams of heroes and villains to work together and stop another cosmic catastrophe before it happens.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #11, written by Jeff Parker (BATMAN ’66, AQUAMAN) with art by Travel Foreman (ANIMAL MAN, BIRDS OF PREY), will also feature Mera, Poison Ivy, Swamp Thing and Etrigan!
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #11 arrives on July 8th.
Source: DC Entertainment
So I guess while I was riding my bike, my new job was announced: Justice League United! http://t.co/7AnIB2kTNh
Valiant Entertainment and Sony Pictures today announced a deal to bring two of Valiant’s award-winning comic book superhero franchises—BLOODSHOT and HARBINGER—to the big screen over the course of five feature films that will culminate in the shared universe crossover film, HARBINGER WARS.
BLOODSHOT, arriving in theaters in 2017, will kick off the five-picture plan leading to HARBINGER WARS and will be directed by David Leitch & Chad Stahelski (John Wick) from a script by Jeff Wadlow (Kick Ass 2) and Eric Heisserer (Story of Your Life). Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe from Original Film (The Fast and the Furious franchise) and Dinesh Shamdasani from Valiant Entertainment will produce the film. Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will serve as executive producers.
HARBINGER will follow shortly thereafter from a script by Eric Heisserer (Story of Your Life). Sony and Valiant remain tight-lipped about potential directors. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe from Original Film (The Fast and the Furious franchise) and Dinesh Shamdasani from Valiant Entertainment will produce.
Both BLOODSHOT and HARBINGER will be followed by sequels before the title characters confront each other head on in HARBINGER WARS—a motion picture directly inspired by Valiant’s critically acclaimed 2013 comic book crossover of the same name. Andrea Giannetti will oversee the five-picture HARBINGER WARS initiative for Sony Pictures.
“Valiant is one of the most successful publishers in the history of comics, and Neal is one of the best action producers in the business today. This is a formidable partnership that will bring two incredibly commercial franchises with global appeal together on the big screen,” said Sony Entertainment Motion Picture Group President Doug Belgrad. “The long-term plan that begins with BLOODSHOT will be a considerable priority for Sony in the months and years to come.”
Brought back from the dead and infused with cutting-edge nanotechnology by private security contractor Project Rising Spirit, Bloodshot is a nearly unstoppable killing machine equipped with enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and healing. Created by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton in 1992, Bloodshot is one of the most successful new comic book characters of the past two decades with more than 100 issues published and lifetime sales of more than 7 million copies in multiple languages around the world. After returning with a sold-out new series in 2012, Bloodshot’s latest chapter recently began with the release of Bloodshot Reborn #1 in April—the first issue of a new series from New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and artist Mico Suayan.
Centered on telekinetic teenage runaway Peter Stanchek and his recruitment into the mysterious Harbinger Foundation by secretive CEO and philanthropist Toyo Harada, Harbinger was created by former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and artist David Lapham in 1992. Having sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in multiple languages across more than 60 issues, Harbinger returned with a new series in 2012 to multiple sold-out printings and widespread critical acclaim.
Bloodshot and Harbinger collide in Harbinger Wars—Valiant’s 2013 crossover event from writers Joshua Dysart and Duane Swierczynski with art by Clayton Henry, Clayton Crain, and Pere Perez. Valiant’s first crossover of the modern era, Harbinger Wars would go on to become the year’s best-selling crossover event from an independent publisher and spawned multiple sold-out printings.
“Bloodshot and Harbinger are two of the great untapped franchises anywhere in comics,” said producer and founder of Original Film, Neal H. Moritz. “In partnership with Sony and Valiant, we look forward to building the next great generation of superhero films.”
“Sony Pictures and Neal Moritz are the ideal partners to bring the world of Bloodshot and Harbinger to life,” said Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani. “They understand exactly what makes these characters tick and the exciting potential that they hold. These films are just the first step in partnership with Sony to bring Valiant’s biggest heroes to new audiences worldwide.”
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2015, Valiant is one of the most successful comic book publishing companies in the history of the medium with more than 81 million comics sold and a library of more than 2,000 distinct characters. Established by a brain trust of legendary comics creators, Valiant’s heroes and villains inhabit the largest independently owned superhero universe anywhere in comics. Re-established in 2005 as Valiant Entertainment, the company returned to great commercial and critical success in 2012, winning a Diamond Gem Award for Publisher of the Year and numerous industry awards and accolades. To date, Valiant’s titles consistently rate among the best reviewed in comics.
Valiant’s comic book universe—which includes the best-selling superheroes Bloodshot, Harbinger, X-O Manowar, Shadowman, and Archer & Armstrong, among many others—is characterized by a grounded, character-driven approach to storytelling. Its stories take place in a world only subtly removed from our own—one inspired by real-world science and inhabited by morally ambiguous heroes that often forgo capes and secret identities.
In March, Valiant announced that it partnered with Beijing-based entertainment company DMG for nine-figures of film financing capital for the production of theatrical films and television programs based on Valiant’s library of iconic superhero characters.
With over fifty films released, Neal Moritz’s worldwide box office gross exceeds $7 billion. His hits include: the Jump Street franchise, The Fast and The Furious franchise, I Am Legend, XXX, Click, Sweet Home Alabama, S.W.A.T., Battle: Los Angeles, and The Green Hornet.
In addition to BLOODSHOT, HARBINGER, and HARBINGER WARS, Moritz also has several films in development with Sony Pictures, including Passengers, Christian the Lion, 23 Jump Street, Cliffhanger, Rockets Red Glare, and A Prophet.
On important issues, we here at Monkeys Fighting Robots like to highlight people’s well thought out, honest opinions in hopes of avoiding the internet trolls.
All New X-Men #40 will be in your local comic book store on Wednesday, but something just feels off about the issue. Jim Gelder a creative director and a reader of comic books since 1978 had this to say about the issue.
So he wasn’t gay, then he is gay now, but he won’t be gay later?
So this morning when I logged on to the interwebs I was hit with multiple spoiler alert banners warning of the huge news happening in All-New X-Men #40. I’ve been reading the comic since issue one because I, like many older comic book readers, have a weakness for the silver age characters that we grew up with. That being said I did recently stop reading the book at issue #36 when I suddenly had this realization that wish as hard as I could these X-Men characters were not those same characters I grew up with. After clicking on the “DO NOT CLICK” spoiler alert link (I do love to be spoiled), it is very clear that I was right. These are not the same X-Men characters and they never will be.
SPOILERS AHEAD (I don’t want to get yelled out by anyone.)
Bobby Drake AKA Iceman is now gay. Or he’s always been gay but he’s just now accepting it and coming out. Or, more accurately, he’s now being pushed into admitting he’s gay by someone who violated his trust by reading his mind, learning his secret and taking it upon themselves to do what they think is best for Bobby. Pushing him out of the closet. Because that’s never awkward.
First off, I’m gay. Have been all my life. I acknowledged it to myself in my mid-twenties and came out to my family in my late twenties. Up until my coming out I dated women because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do. It was never successful. So to find out that one of my favorite superheroes has finally come out should be a great day for me. It sort of is. But it’s also very odd to me. Let me explain why:
For starters I’ve always felt that Bobby’s character could be gay. He has a history of failed straight relationships, he has always used comedy to cover up some sort of insecurity, for years he resisted fully exploring the full range his powers due to some hidden need to keep himself in control, he even went through a period of being a racist ass to which I attributed it to him hating others because he hated himself. So I’m not surprised that they decided to say that the character is gay. Coming out can be a long process. Not usually five decades long but, hey, this is comic book time. So I should be cheering that there are more gay characters out there, right? While I am happy that there’s another comic book character out there that I can relate with, I am also a bit let down with the way it was handled.
Here are my two main issues with how they handled Bobby’s revelation.
1. Jean outed him. That’s the fact. She also did it with an invasion of privacy and then went on to bully Bobby into admitting it. Just because she knows he’s gay it’s not ok for her to pressure him into admitting it. The coming out process takes some of us a long time and usually it’s the person coming out that takes the longest to accept it. You don’t just admit it because some pushy, nosy bitch (Bobby’s words) keeps going at you like she knows what’s best for him That’s not how it works. This conversation should have been handled over a bit of time. Jean could have dropped some hints that she knew and then Bobby could have opened up when he was ready. Buuuuut Bendis is leaving with this issue and he wanted to get his bomb thrown before he headed out of the building.
2. It appears that the older version of Bobby is still straight. How does that work? Marvel and Bendis have stated numerous times that these younger, retrieved-from-the-past X-Men are in fact the same people. So if this younger Bobby has now come out that would then mean that his older self is also now gay. Contrary to what some people want to think, you don’t get to turn “the gay” on and off at different times in your life. You just either live openly or you hide in denial. So if the older Bobby says he’s not gay that just means that he hasn’t come out yet. So will we get another storyline with the older Bobby coming out? Or will they just ignore that part of the characters identity?
So, it’s a big smile to Marvel for the advancement of diversity in comics. Then a big frown for they way they handled it.
We seem to be getting inundated with glimpses into the sci-fi world of Disney and Brad Bird’s upcoming Tomorrowland. Trailers and TV spots are coming fast and furious for Tomorrowland now, and this latest one showcases some of the film’s world building, action, and cutting-edge technology.
Check out the new trailer here:
Tomorrowland stars George Clooney, Britt Robertson, and Hugh Laurie among others. The Brad Bird film will hit theaters May 22.
Comic Book Speakeasy: How To Attract A Wider Audience MSNBC’s Your Business features experts to share their secrets for improving your business. It can be frustrating if you have a product that you know a lot of people would love if you could just get it in their hands. They meet Aaron Haaland, a Florida comic book store owner with a novel idea. He opened a bar and started hosting events that stealthily got his comics in front of a whole new audience.
Matthew Sardo of Monkeys Fighting Robots has a candid conversation with “Weird Al” Yankovic and Mad Magazine Editor-in-Chief John Ficarra.
Weird Al is MAD’s first-ever guest editor.
ABOUT WEIRD AL’S TAKING OVER MAD MAGAZINE AS GUEST EDITOR
“The Usual Gang of Idiots” are getting a new Idiot-in-Chief! Celebrated musical satirist and comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic, the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history, will helm the next issue of MAD as the legendary humor magazine’s first-ever guest editor. Winner of the 2015 Grammy® for Best Comedy Album, Weird Al is the writer of some of the biggest song parodies in history.
Speaking from the MAD offices in New York, current “Idiot-in-Chief” John Ficarra said, “Al will surely ruin his nearly four decades of popularity by associating with MAD. I still can’t believe we talked him into it!”
Among Weird Al’s many duties will be writing an introduction to the issue, contributing (along with some of his celebrity friends) to the Fund”AL”ini Pages, and picking his favorite MAD article for the Vault section. Other ridiculous responsibilities are yet to be determined but will certainly do nothing to advance his career.
“It was my childhood dream to one day be a contributor to MAD Magazine,” said Weird Al. “This is an excellent example of why children are never allowed to make important decisions.”
Monkeys Fighting Robots holds two weekly podcasts, the Movie Show and the Comics Show. The Comic Show goes live Wednesday with the Movie Show going live on Friday (holidays could change scheduling).
If you are looking to sponsor either podcasts email matt@popaxiom.com as well.
Thank you for listening!
About the Movie Show:
A Gen Xer and a Millennial debate the latest topics in pop culture. One guy is a filmmaker and the other is a journalist, but both are nerds. We make your slowest days at work better. Hosts, Matthew Sardo and EJ Moreno.
Never heard of Matt Sardo? For starters, he made the Kessel Run in less than 11 parsecs. Prior to that, he gave Doc Brown the idea for the flux capacitor and led the Resistance to victory over SkyNet – all while sipping a finely crafted IPA. As a radio host, he’s interviewed celebrities, athletes and everyone in between. He’s covered everything from the Super Bowl to Comic-Con.
Who’s EJ Moreno? Is he a trained physician? No. Is he a former Miss Universe contestant? Possibly. But what we know for sure is he’s a writer, filmmaker, and pop culture enthusiast. Since film school, EJ has written & directed several short films. He’s used his passion of filmmaking to become a movie critic for MonkeysFightingRobots.com.
