DisneyPlus’ “What If…?” offers a fanfic-styled exploration of Marvel’s multiverse…

Catching Up With Fandom. The notion of taking favorite beloved (licensed) characters and playing around with them a bit isn’t exactly new–in fact, the internet has been doing it almost since its inception, with fan-written fanfic (‘fan fiction’, for the uninitiated). In pre-internet days, fanfic was often printed in mimeographed, self-published fanzines circulated at conventions,…

Experiencing “Black Widow” (2021) at our ad-hoc home movie theater…

Our Pandemic Movie Theater. As I already mentioned in a previous column I did last year (“At-home projection: How I learned to love my movie collection all over again…“), the COVID pandemic put the kibosh on movie attendance for me—and going to the movies was once a favorite pastime of mine. However, a safely-masked visit…