Our Gods Wore Spandex: Last Supper for Superheroes

Our Gods Wear Spandex hit the shelves fifteen years ago this month and prophesied the coming rise of the superheroes, back before the Spandex Age of Cinema took off with the releases of Iron Man and Dark Knight. The age which is now most definitely drawing to a close.

Vril: The Coming Race, or How Lord Lytton Ensorceled the 21st Century

Weird revelations began bombarding me out of absolutely nowhere concerning Lord Lytton of Knebworth's seminal superhuman novel Vril: The Power of the Coming Race (or whatever you choose to call it). This all arose out of a stray line from Dope Inc. (of all places) and has set me off on one of my patented OCD benders. So fasten those seatbelts, kids.

Sorry, Eternals. The Spell's Already Been Broken.

 

I haven't seen the Eternals movie yet, meaning I haven't yet seen the movie coming out today called Eternals. But I've seen The Eternals onscreen time and time and time again, and so have you. 

Apocalypse News Tonight: Lusting After Strange Gods

Here's the real truth about "Robot Sex Culture," Mildred: THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT HAS FAILED.

Don't believe me?

"You Will See Signs in the Heavens. Or Las Vegas."

The Dreadful Orange Sky.

Legion and the Trauma of Metaphysics

It's just about ten years ago that I finished my manuscript for Our Gods Wear Spandex and the perspective that I spelled out in it has become, if not the dominant pop cultural paradigm, then certainly a predominant current within it. 

Secret Star Trek: Levels Above Human

PART ONE / PART TWO / PART THREE 

PART FOUR / PART FIVE / PART SIX 

PART SEVEN / PART EIGHT

If Star Trek is indeed inextricably linked to the human potential movement and a bizarre flying saucer cult, why is that so? What is the purpose of programming these strange themes into what is one of the most successful sci-fi franchises of our time?

There is Supernature

Jeff Kripal is doing yeoman's work in getting the mystical geek gospel out to the mainstream. Hot on the heels of Authors of the Impossible (which we discussed here and here), Jeff has a new book out called Mutants and Mystics in which he explores the superhero meme and its spiderweb of mystical and magical reverberations.

My Ultimate Halloween Movie: Quatermass and the Pit

 

The lights are finally back on at Secret Sun Central after the recent Nor'Easter. I've seen some wild storms in my day, but nothing that left the trail of destruction this storm did. 

Thor: Fit for the King

 

  A typically-tardy, completely-biased review... 

 Every sci-fi and superhero movie of the past 30 years has at least a little Jack Kirby blood pumping in its veins (and most have a lot), as well as most action movies post-Die Hard. The same goes for most video games as well.

 

Astronaut Theology: SuperGod MasterForce

I always assumed that AAT vanished from pop culture when the original Battlestar Galactica went off the air and didn't really come back into vogue until The X-Files. The reason being is that I wasn't watching a lot of cartoons at that time.

 

Alien Entertrainment: Enter the Phoenix

 

  A reader dropped this link in a recent post and needless to say it blew my mind. This was a very short-lived show from 1982 starring Judson Scott, a face familiar to Star Trek, V and X-Files fans. 

The ancient astronaut angle was a bit late in the game, considering we were a year and change into Reagan's term. But the Machu Picchu opener is quite ahead of its time, as it would become a New Age hotspot just a few years later. 

 

Children of the Flaming Wheel, Part 2: The Solar Phone

In the previous post, we looked at what reads like the minutes from an technoccult ritual in which young hippies contact alien artificial intelligences over the vast reaches of space using psychic projection. Jack Kirby seemed to like the idea so much that it included it in a contemporaneous story, starring none other than our old friend, Jimmy Olsen.

 

Freudian Funnybooks: Two and a Half Men

I haven't done one of these in a while but it's been such a gloomy summer and we can all use some unintentional hilarity laced with sac-kickingly blatant phallic symbolism. I'm not going to comment on any of these, but feel free to write your own captions in the comments section. Or not. Hey- it's Sunday in August. Do whatever makes you happy. Or don't.

Click to enlarge. Or not.

Gods and Mermaids: The Secret Sun Goes Nationwide

Here's the 20/20 spot on Superheroes- that voiceover at the end is mine. And here are a few snippets from the article on the piece, written by the unbelievably cool Jon Meyersohn. And being mentioned in the same breath as Elaine Pagels? 

More Dark Knight Darkness

I don't know how I didn't hear about this before - Christopher Nolan's brother is wanted on murder charges:

It's the sort of story that puts Christian Bale's un-Batman-like rant into perspective -- Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan's brother may be a murderer. Matthew Francis Nolan, 40, is wanted in Costa Rica for the kidnapping and murder of a Florida businessman.

 

The Secret Sun Best of the Zer0's: TV

    

OK, here's the TV list, in no particular order. There certainly was a lot to pick from in the past ten years- in many ways the Zeros were to TV what the 70s were to movies. I've had high hopes for TV rescuing the concept of authorship as well as thoughtful sci-fi. In some ways it's done just that, but the economic iceberg is looming in the distance. 

As the Internet and video games take up more of our time, less money is available for quality TV. Certainly the glory days of actors in last-rated series living like pashas is long gone. But there are a lot of encouraging signs, so keep your fingers crossed for the Teens. 

Secret Sun Best of the Zeros: The Movies

The Zeros were a decade in which memes from the underground bubbled up into the mass media and took over the mainstream in a way I would never thought possible. Twenty years ago topics like secret societies and sacred symbolism were purely fringe stuff. Today, they're literally kids' stuff. 

Hey: Remember that Dark Knight Movie?

Let's change the subject - that warning from the board mods is a joke. 

Hey, remember that movie The Dark Knight? You know the movie that everyone saw but no one seems able to recall? The one whose IMDB board is filled with chatter having to do with everything but the movie?

Secret Sun Weekend Edition: 11/7/09

Two movies open today that we've looked at in the past: The Fourth Kind and The Men Who Stare at Goats. T4k is getting murdered by the critics, which doesn't mean anything, but I'll probably wait for the DVD. Goats is getting OK reviews but I'll wait to rent that too. Interesting conjunction with the Fort Hood situation, in a way.