Has He Thoughts Within His Head?

I had already decided that I would not go see Iron Man, because it looked like just another multi-million dollar piece of shit. But David Denby has given my smug leftist heart a moral reason to avoid it altogether:

The director, Jon Favreau, and two writing teams, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, have enlisted Iron Man in the war on terror. Stark is now showing off his advanced missiles to American forces in Afghanistan. He gets ambushed by a mysterious group of burning-eyed men who hang out in caves and scream in foreign tongues. They are never identified, though their leader, Raza (Faran Tahir), says that they want to conquer the world. In any case, the freelance fanatics, or whatever they are, waterboard Tony Stark, which, considering what some American interrogators and their surrogates have done to suspects recently, is enraging to watch. Such are the ways of pop: we cast our sins onto others. The complaint sounds a little wan, but it’s worth noting that, possibly, more Americans will see this dunderheaded fantasia on its opening weekend than have seen all the features and documentaries that have labored to show what’s happening in Iraq and on the home front.

That said, I still haven’t forgiven Denby for recommending A.I. Then again, it was Kubrick. I’da seen it anyway.

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Tags: daviddenby, iron man, war on terror, torture, waterboarding

Choking on Spinach

Tom Toles:

Pearls Before Swine:

Is this a new meme?

UPDATE: Point of order, my wife points out that in the first cartoon Popeye does not, in fact, choke on the spinach. He just eats it and dies. STILL, I say, it’s funny that two different cartoonists used Popeye dying from spinach as a joke.

What is Wrong with Lizard Breath?

Why does she need to be told this? Who the hell is Anthony to have to explain this crap to her? What happened to her brain?

The Comics Curmudgeon nailed this one in a comment on yesterday’s strip:

There’s an entire Women’s Studies thesis waiting to be written about the Foobs today. Elizabeth’s abject terror and panic that Anthony will think she’s a two-timing ne’er-do-well would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic and queasy-making. The fact that Anthony isn’t being a total douche for once (“Gosh, sorry you’re terrified about being caught alone with a man after sundown … I didn’t realize that this phone could call the 19th century”) just makes it ickier. Presumably Liz will agree to Anthony’s inevitable proposal to “make it up for him,” setting a firm foundation for a future life of quiet desperation and self-loathing.

For the unindoctrinated, “Foobs” are the characters in For Better or For Worse.

Shaenon Garrity wrote the definitive case against Anthony a couple months ago.

UPDATE: The Curmudgeon comments on today’s strip, too. Iz hilarious.

The Parable of the Batman and the Jesus

Found via Dirk Deppey, this pamphlet handed out by a comic book shop owner (and scanned by graphic novel blogger Franklin Harris) must be seen to be believed.

Believe!