The Fix May or May Not Be In

The winner of the NBA Draft Lottery, and 100000% likely team to pick Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis with the #1 overall pick will be....


After the Break.

The Dark Knight Rises is Almost Here, New TV Spots Casually Reveal New Details

The first The Dark Knight Rises TV spots have aired and they all casually reveal new details unseen in the theatrical trailers. Here's the new info!

• Catwoman pretends to be Bruce Wayne's wife to steal his Lamborghini Murcielago after the party where she and Wayne dance. Wayne voices credulousness that he even has a wife, confirming he's still a bachelor.
• It is confirmed that Batman retired after the events of The Dark Knight.
• Bruce Wayne now uses a cane. There was wild internet speculation that he would use a cane as a result of his fall at the end of The Dark Knight, but it appears to be fact now.

The "Bruce Wayne has a cane now" angle is very important because someone claimed to have full details on the entire film, posting several potential spoilers, including Wayne using a cane. If his other spoilers end up being fact, I'm not opposed to how the film turns out, including a major role for police officer John Blake.

So DC Comics is Going to Add Yet Another Gay Character

As part of the "Second Wave" of titles in the New 52 to replace the cancelled titles, DC will be re-introducing an old character as a homosexual when they were previously straight. There is no word as to the gender of this character, nor how popular they were in the old DC Universe. I think this is a mistake. DC (and comics in general) doesn't have the greatest track record in its treatment of gay characters, the most notable exception being Batwoman, although she has largely been handled by the same people since she was introduced a few years ago. For those not in the know, Batwoman is handled very interestingly because as her secret identity of Kate Kane, she is a publicly out lesbian, kicked out of the military for its Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. As Batwoman, she purposely exudes sex and flirts with her enemies, despite the fact she isn't attracted to any of them.

That's one example out of all the gay characters that exist and have existed in DC Comics. Marvel's treatment is slightly better, what with Northstar recently getting married to his longtime boyfriend finally, but at the same time, Marvel also employed Orson Scott Card to write Ultimate Iron-Man stories. Card, most famous for writing Ender's Game and its sequels, is also known for being unbelievably homophobic and for making very incendiary comments about homosexuals.

The internet has been stupidly assuming that Batman is going to come out of the closet, but it must be remembered that the gay character will one that is not being featured in comics right now, although it is said that they are an "iconic" character, whatever that means. The entire Justice League has been introduced already, so who else could they add? Power Girl and Huntress have recently been reintroduced to the DC Universe, and I suppose it's possible to make Kara Zor-El or Helena Wayne a lesbian, but I don't see the purpose in that.

If you want to have a good read of gay characters in comics and their fates, I recommend you read WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?: A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS, by Perry Moore, author of Hero, a novel about a gay teen who becomes a superhero.

Sunday Night Football is the Highest Rated Primetime Program in America

This news is shocking for so many reasons. For starters, American Idol is no longer the most watched program in America for the first time in 8 years, after years of an increasingly blander format targeted towards teenage girls who refuse to vote for female talent. Secondly, the most watched program that replaces American Idol is not a drama program or a comedy, but a sports broadcast. It beat out NCIS, Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, Two and a Half Men, among many other shows. Thirdly, it doesn't even air a full "season" of shows, airing 18 regular season games, 2 wild card playoff games, and the Super Bowl, which was not accounted for in the ratings, all without a break that most TV shows have.


Sunday Night Football is without a doubt the gold standard in football broadcasts. The NFL on Fox and The NFL on CBS are both ok, with Fox being much better overall, but neither come close to NBC's coverage. Monday Night Football on ESPN is pretty bad all-around, although with the departure of Ron Jaworski, the show might improve in quality with less inane banter. Thursday Night Football on NFL Network is underrated with a great crew, which hopefully get more notoriety this season as more carriers will have the network at no additional cost and with more exposure thanks to all 32 teams having primetime games thanks to NFL Network.


This season figures to have great ratings for SNF, with an incredible slate of games. Here's their full schedule for a refresher, with subplots included:

1. Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants, NFC East Rivalry
2. Pittsburgh Steelers vs Denver Broncos, Peyton Manning's Debut as a Bronco
3. Detroit Lions vs San Francisco 49ers, Rematch of "The Handshake" from last year
4. New England Patriots vs Baltimore Ravens, Rematch of 2012 AFC Championship
5. New York Giants vs Philadelphia Eagles, NFC East Rivalry
6. San Diego Chargers vs New Orleans Saints, Drew Brees faces former team
7. Green Bay Packers vs Houston Texans
8. Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cincinnati Bengals, AFC North Rivalry
9. New Orleans Saints vs Denver Broncos, Brees vs Manning SB XLIV Rematch
10. Dallas Cowboys vs Atlanta Falcons
11. Houston Texans vs Chicago Bears
12. Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers, AFC North Rivalry
13. New England Patriots vs New York Jets, AFC East Rivalry & Thanksgiving
14. Green Bay Packers vs New York Giants, Rematch of NFC Divisional Playoffs
15. Philadelphia Eagles vs Dallas Cowboys, NFC East Rivalry
16. Detroit Lions vs Green Bay Packers, NFC North Rivalry
17. San Francisco 49ers vs New England Patriots
18. San Diego Chargers vs New York Jets

I have a strong feeling Sunday Night Football will repeat as the most watched program in America next season.

So I Guess the Magic are Done.

I'm slow reporting this news because it took some time to analyze this. The Orlando Magic have fired coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith. SVG and Smith are responsible for assembling a team with the 4th highest winning percentage of the last 5 years, including an appearance in the NBA Finals 3 years ago, where they lost in 5 games to the Lakers. Dwight Howard reportedly wanted both men gone on condition of his staying in Orlando at the end of his contract and re-signing, but the latest reports from inside Howard's camp say that he still wants out, most likely because the Magic organization has made no effort to assemble a proper team around him. The Magic's loss in the NBA Finals can be directly pointed at SVG's insistence on playing the injured Jameer Nelson over Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston who had been instrumental in leading the team to the Finals, as well as refusal to double-team Kobe Bryant, a move that is seen as a no-brainer by the other 29 coaches in the league.


After the Finals loss, Otis Smith either traded away or did not re-sign every role player that got them to the Finals, including trading away Dwight Howard's backup center, Marcin Gortat and obtaining the incredibly questionable players Vince Carter and Gilbert Arenas. Since losing the NBA Finals, the Magics' strategy seemed to be assembling a 12-man rotation made up of Dwight Howard and 11 3-point shooters. The experiment has continued to fail, notoriously after Howard went down with a herniated disc before the playoffs this year.


If Dwight isn't satisfied with this, nothing will satisfy him. Although SVG isn't a great coach, there aren't many coaches out there with stellar resumes as free agents. Mike D'Antoni has become notorious as a coach who can't teach defense or command respect, and although Jerry Sloan has expressed interest in coaching the Magic, my gut says that he will coach the Bobcats as a favor to his friend, Michael Jordan. ESPN continues to talk nonsense that Phil Jackson will coach the Knicks, which I find hilarious since they are now in the final stages of signing Mike Woodson to a contract to remove the interim label on his head coaching position, but I bet ESPN will find some way to talk about how Phil will coach the Magic, because that's totally an ideal situation.


There is one coach out there that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, Don Nelson, the winningest coach in NBA history and infamous for his ability to handle volatile personalities. He isn't retired, the Warriors decided to fire him when they changed owners and no team has decided to pick him up yet.

The Warriors are Committed to Moving Back to the West Side of the Bay

The current logo of the Golden State Warriors

The final logo of the San Francisco Warriors

It is expected that later this week, the Golden State Warriors will announce that after 40 years of being located in Oakland, California, they will be returning to San Francisco in a new arena that will be built alongside Piers 30-32 in the Embarcadero area, in a move scheduled for the 2017-18 season, per reports made by Fox Sports and CSN Bay Area. This move comes as no surprise, considering the recent move to acknowledge the team's history as the 2nd West Coast NBA team and brief history in San Francisco with their new logo, a return to the logo of the San Francisco Warriors. The main difference in the logos is that the color scheme is reversed, but the other big difference is the new logo has the Bay Bridge rather than the Golden Gate Bridge, possibly a reference to the team's future return to the West Bay.


There were previous rumors that the Warriors were going to move to a new arena next door to AT&T Park where the San Francisco Giants play in the South Bay, but that was rejected due to a ridiculous increase in traffic, causing no shortage of traffic in the months with no baseball season and an increase in traffic during the late fall and early spring. I love the move. The Warriors haven't been relevant since Chris Mullin was on the team, although they did have a brief bit of notoriety when they knocked off the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks as the #8 seed a few years ago.


Update: The mayor of Oakland has sent a letter to the owners of the Warriors pleading them to stay, but the Warriors say nothing will change their minds about the move. Additionally, the new arena is located 16 miles away from Oracle Arena, which should create very little additional driving time for fans in the East Bay, and shorter travel for fans in the South Bay. For reference, the distance between The Forum and Staples Center is 10 miles.

Do I Really Have to Post a Review of The Avengers?

I don't need to explain at all why you need to see The Avengers. It's fucking amazing, every character is portrayed excellently, and director Joss Whedon has already explained any plot details purposely left unanswered just because he's an awesome guy. In addition to that, there's about a half hour of deleted scenes just waiting to be seen for the home video release, including further character development and fan service.


The Avengers has been an overwhelmingly success, which led Disney to greenlight a sequel after the opening weekend. This means we will have many more Marvel superhero movies to come, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, and The Avengers 2. Stan Lee also would like to see a big-screen Ant-Man adaptation, but the character has never been popular, even in the comics community.


Final Score: 5 Cosmic Cubes out of 5

Batman Isn't Gay, But...

In this month's Playboy, DC Comics writer Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman, Batman, Final Crisis, Batman and Robin, Batman, Inc., Action Comics) made the following statement, which is making a lot of buzz in the comics industry as well as partially in the mainstream media because it comes from a long-time writer of Batman. Keep in mind that Morrison is Scottish:

“I got interested in the class element of Batman: He’s a rich man who beats up poor people. It’s quite a bizarre mission to go out at night dressed as a bat and punch the hell out of junkies. And then he goes home and lives in this mansion. There’s an aspirational quality to him—he’s an outlaw and he can buy anything. He has a new Batmobile every movie. He’s very plutonian in the sense that he’s wealthy and also in the sense that he’s sexually deviant. Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There’s just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay. I think that’s why people like it. All these women fancy him and they all wear fetish clothes and jump around rooftops to get to him. He doesn’t care—he’s more interested in hanging out with the old guy and the kid.”

The sentence that has gotten a lot of attention is that Morrison calls Batman a gay concept even though he is intended to be a heterosexual character. Although Morrison is partially correct in calling Batman a gay concept, it would be more accurate to say that Batman is a pedophile and/or suffers from Peter Pan Syndrome. More of my personal analysis after the break.

The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer #3

Along with The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers had the latest trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man attached as well. The theater I saw the movie in did not play the trailer, although I assume it did play during 3D showings, being that ASM was filmed in 3D and is the first superhero movie to be filmed entirely in 3D (Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers were all converted to 3D in post-production). The facts already known about this movie (besides casting), compared to the Sam Raimi trilogy:

• Peter Parker's love interest will be Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane Watson will not make an appearance.
• The backstory of Parker's parents will finally be revealed to the movie-going audience.
• Parker has been described as a social outcast, rather than as a nerd.
• Spider-Man's humor is described as being akin to internet trolling, taking advantage of the fact he is an anonymous person.
• Spider-Man will use mechanical web-shooters and will no longer have organic webbing.
• J. Jonah Jameson will not make an appearance.

My observations about the trailer, which reveals the most information about the movie thus far: after the break.

• The Oscorp building makes an appearance, hinting that Norman and Harry Osborn will make appearances or will be hinted at. In the Raimi movies, Harry was a high school friend of Peter. In the comics, Peter and Harry met in college.
• Gwen Stacy knows that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one in the same, clearly before the climax.
• Parker apparently skateboards? It certainly fits the movie stereotype that people who skateboard are not mainstream.
• It's being heavily implied that the spider that bites Peter does not give him superpowers, but rather activates latent abilities in him. Could Peter be a genetic experiment?
• The Lizard is wearing the shredded white lab coat!
• Spidey appears to be facing the police every bit as much as the Lizard.

The Amazing Spider-Man sees worldwide release July 3, just 2 1/2 weeks before The Dark Knight Rises. If Spidey does not make the bulk of its profit within those 2 1/2 weeks, it will be trounced at the box office by Batman.

Time for Me to Eat Crow!

My blog has been around for quite some time now. And now it's time for me to finally admit to being wrong about things here and there.... Here's the full list of things I was WRONG about.

• I claimed the Lakers were the team to beat going into the 2010-11 NBA season.
• Michael Douglas was not given a sympathy Oscar nomination for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
• I regretfully predicted the Giants would not reach the 2010 World Series.
• I arrogantly predicted the Lakers would make their 4th straight NBA FInals.
• I continued to predict the Lakers would three-peat.
• I called the Houston Rockets serious contenders.
• I called the Dallas Mavericks over-hyped. They won the 2011 NBA Championship.
• Ha ha, I was so wrong about the "epic battle" of Thor versus Green Lantern. GL was a colossal failure.
• Tomb Raider coming out in November 2011? Try Q4 2012.
• The 49ers fixed their quarterback problem by hiring Jim Harbaugh and they did not replace Alex Smith.
• Nate Davis was released by the 49ers and currently plays in the Arena Football League, without ever being given a chance to take the starting QB job.
• Troy Smith was not re-signed by the 49ers and was signed as a free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers in January 2012.
• I incorrectly predicted the Celtics or Magic would defeat the Heat in the playoffs.
• I claimed the Mavericks could not defeat the Spurs in the playoffs. The Spurs were trounced by the #8 seed Memphis Grizzlies.
• I claimed Kemba Walker would be the #1 overall draft pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
• lol, I called Caius Ballad a woman. I should have known Square would design an extremely feminine looking man.
• lol, I called Immortals a tv show, rather than a movie.
• I wrongly predicted the Giants could contend for a 2nd consecutive World Series. They didn't even make the playoffs.
• I wrongly predicted the winners of Best Director and Best Picture at the 83rd Academy Awards, the only awards of the Big Six I got wrong.
• I predicted the Heat to be a 1st round exit team. Boy, was I wrong.
• I had too much faith in Pat Riley to fire Erik Spoelstra, although I did accurately predict he would clean house and get rid of all non-contributors from the bench.
• I again predicted the Mavericks would choke in the playoffs as they always do (which they are currently doing).
• Arrogantly said no team could beat the Lakers in a 7 game series.... They were swept by the Mavericks.
• The Celtics haven't fired Danny Ainge yet! I really can't explain this one, but most analysts are on my side and think Ainge is an overrated GM.
• I was dead wrong about the Dodgers not being able to undergo a miraculous turnaround just by being sold to a new owner. Matt Kemp is the early favorite for NL MVP right now.
• I wrongly predicted Tim Duncan would retire.
• I wrongly predicted a Grizzlies vs Lakers Western Conference Finals and predicted the Celtics would defeat the Heat.
• I claimed the Bulls would go to the Finals.
• I was wrong about Mike Brown's tenure as the new coach of the Lakers. He's actually done a pretty good job.
• In a move that nobody predicted, Dwight Howard signed an extension with the Magic through 2013.
• I was backwards in my analysis of free agents Nene and Tyson Chandler. I claimed Chandler would remain a Maverick and Nene would be gone. The reverse eneded up being true, although the Nuggets eventually traded away Nene.
• I really want David Stern fired as NBA commissioner. Unfortunately, just wishing it to happen doesn't cause it to happen.
• I said the Giants would annihilate the Marlins this season. The Giants just got done losing close contests to the Marlins, who are not having a great start to their season.

I would like to comment that I accurately predicted the 49ers would finish with a 14-2 record last season, back when they were 4-1 and hadn't defeated the Detroit Lions yet.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Attached to The Avengers Released

The 3rd trailer for The Dark Knight Rises has arrived! It will be attached to The Avengers, a giant reminder by Christopher Nolan and WB that The Avengers is NOT the movie event of the year. Here's what I noticed in the trailer, in order:

• The 8-year time skip is noticeable right away in Bruce Wayne. He has graying temples, noticeable wrinkles, and has let his beard grown out.
• With the beard, has Wayne retired from being Batman?
• At the party scene, Wayne has shaved his beard, implying there will be a case of important haircut.
• Bane's men are going to hijack a plane while rappelling from another plane. That makes 2 movies in a row, someone gets into a plane without the plane landing.
• I didn't previously complain about Bane's voice, but it does sound much clearer now. I could have lived with or without the change.
• This will be the final time we ever witness Hines Ward play football. Ward retired after being released by the Pittsburgh Steelers at the end of last season.
• Another plot involving the bridges, similar to the Joker's plan in the last movie to force the people of Gotham to evacuate via boat, except this time Bane is more proactive.
• Did "they" kill who? Trailers always lie, so John Blake and Selina Kyle may not be speaking to each other.
• How is Bane torturing Wayne?
• The child talking to Blake speaks as if Batman has retired...
• How did Catwoman get the Batpod anyway?
• The Mystery Man from the 1st trailer can be seen again briefly, but now it is clear they are holding a gun and there is a 2nd person next to him. Could these actually be Bane's henchman and not, as rumored, Ra's al Ghul come back from the dead?
• Bruce Wayne's love interest will apparently be Miranda Tate, not Selina Kyle.
• I have a terrible feeling that Catwoman's dialogue with Batman is going to be a little hammy.
• Does the Batmobile transform into the Bat? Catwoman seems to believe at first that it is a car...
• The movie's outdoor scenes have a serious gray-scale look. The first movie was mostly filtered reddish-brown, the 2nd was mostly filtered blue.
• Batman Begins had red-brown as a primary color because of the recurring theme of fire (Ra's al Ghul's and Bruce Wayne's houses burned down, Batman set on fire by the Scarecrow, Scarecrow's horse "breathing" fire)
• The Dark Knight used a blue filter throughout because blue is generally identified as a "night" color. Harvey Dent's scenes never use the blue filter.
• The gray-scale may imply neutrality, either by Catwoman, or by Gotham City itself. The child talking to Blake even draws the Batman logo with white chalk.

The Dark Knight Rises sees worldwide release on July 20.