Yes, unfortunately that’s pretty much to be expected from IMDB commenters. They are right up there with YouTube’s commenters in terms of maturity and insight. Normally they just seem to ask if there are any…

WARNING: The following contains intense comic-geekery that may cause nausea, hair loss and spontaneous abortion

Odin fuck. Suck my hammer, bitches, because Heimdall is black in 'Thor: The Mighty Avenger' #6. (Written by New Zealand's own Rodger Langridge,…

Quite. And the outrage continues after the release of the latest Thor trailer. Comments included:

A Black man playing a norse God, NO THANKS. I’m not a racist, but none of our gods…

Rescreened last year, first ep was brilliant right from the get go

I think it's explained here

philosophical and religious dialogues

yeah Tripitaka never really rang true.
Tho’ I did get the social commentary, even as an adolescent.
Well big kid should I say.....

Oh, yes and it was enormous fun. But there, even the Japanese original (which was 13 episodes longer than the dubbed version, for reasons I can't figure out) was aimed at children. Of course they were going to play up the action and knockabout…

The funny thing, I'd probably have said much the same thing after one episode of Outrageous Fortune, and looking back at the first series it's pretty obvious there was a process of discovery and refinement going on. That's…

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

I HAVE NEEDS!

I have a Bruce Campbell story from my time working in a bottle store around the corner from where the cast of Xena would have wrap parties. I only tell it when I’m feeling in particular need of self-flagellation…

Do I need to put our a call for Kevin Sorbo stories – I could grow to like being the Perez Hilton of Public Address. :)

It has, however, provided me with a useful new exclamation — "By the frosted merkin of Madeline…

Uh-huh. Remind me to tell you my Kevin Sorbo story, Jackie.

I'll give it a second episode and pray I warm to it a lot. To be fair, I'm enormously hard on local comedies. But at the moment, I like Madeline Sami and Taika Waititi a lot but the episode felt like a one-woman Comedy Festival show…

Jane Bowron said;

I applaud Super City, think it's very clever, but it leaves me colder than a homeless night.…

Quite – I'm huge fan of Chinese and Japanese culture, but would still tread very carefully indeed before appropriating something as deeply culturally significant as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West|The Journey to the…

Three old bats reading the runes and looking anxious – how could we not have have much hilarity, chaos and bloodshed ensuing from that? :) I did mention them, but…

You could be not the least bit racist and still be seen…

Well, yeah, it can be (and has been, as Tui pointed out) done badly. Extraordinarily so. I can see why you'd want…

Not saying it shouldn't be done (and in fact I'd like to…

Yeah, I saw it, but Geoff obviously missed it.

Fair enough – as both RTD and Moffat have said repeatedly, a…

I didn't dislike the Almighty Johnsons as much as her, but…

But not her 'first sally upon the field of criticism', per se.

Of course it isn't, but I still think Rich has a fair…

Oh, come on, though. "It's too hard not to be racist so we'll just tell stories about white people"? Like there's no-one…

*cough* First line of the post: "The Almighty Johnsons (Three, Mondays, 9.30; repeated Sundays, 10.30pm)"

Yes. Though this question should surely have been answered by James or Simon!...
It will be repeated this Sunday 22:30 on TV something-or-other.

Fair enough – I’ve got a brownish clipping of my first sally upon the field of criticism. Rather embarrasing, as it was promptly followed by a correction and apology for giving the leads unwanted gender reassignments. Spoiling a somewhat important plot…

Give her a break! It’s her first TV review.

http://www.mariephillips.co.uk/ – apparently been optioned by Ben Stiller's company Red Hour.

Yup, yup yup. The fanboy in me was keen for more DW, while the critic was nervous of…

Honestly, I can see the criticism of RTD's 'everything and the kitchen sink' approach to Doctor Who — sometimes it doesn't work. Even Steven Moffat – the new show runner who wrote some of the best episodes of Who 2.1 – has his off days. The much anticipated return…

Just to clarify, make sure you get the UK Queer as Folk, as the US “adaptation” stole all the worst bits and added a steaming pile to them, IMHO. Also, Davies had nothing to do with it creatively.

I'll agree to disagree but fair enough, that's an argument without end among Whovians – the SF fandom that make Trekkies look downright sedate. :) And, with all due…

Edits galore!!

Edit: Hang on, did she ask this the day before? I don't remember every line in there!

Growing pains.

The Norse gods (or their stand-ins) play a fairly major role in the Stargate continuity.

And if these are the Norsewood gods, when do their Dannevirke rivals make an appearance? The possibile conflicts are endless.

Not exactly the first or last appearance of Thor in Marvel comics, though!

They are referenced in a lot of video games.

There was also Roger Langridge’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger – which, naturally, was too sweet-natured, humane and bereft of shrink-wrapped Zeppelin-tits doing ultra-violence not to get…

True, but I believe it comes with the territory when dealing with any of the pre-Christian European religions. Norse mythology seems to be the better known, so has more…

The top of my head throws out a couple:

– Six Days of Luke (Diana Wynne Jones)
– Thor Meets Captain America (David Brin, and available online)
-…

Rachel Lang and James Griffin are the Jane Espenson and Russell T. Davies of New Zealand television. Discuss.

I will be awesomely pissed off if Emmett Skilton and Keisha Castle-Hughes don’t have one tender, awkward, prophecy-and-flat-destroying, white supremacist-enraging sex scene. Extra points if she…

You guys are awesome.

Yes, have been following the reactions across the day – really really wasn't sure how this would go down with the punters. So it is with some relief that it seems to have received a fair and generally appreciative hearing – all you can ask for, really.

Had…

Outside of American Gods, I can't think of another pop culture appearance of the Norse pantheon off the top of my head.

To complete the Holy Trinity of British Humourous Fantasy writers, Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul features a Thor with considerable problems.

and thanks B Jones – yep, the 4 horsemen were mutating a while before “Good Omens.”…

LOL. You mean you didn't think of Swedish progg rock band Ragnarök from the early seventies (still going I notice)?

Or the Norwegian black metal band…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OieVKwWuuNY&NR=1

Apart from the hallucinogenic name, At 16 minutes 53 seconds, I can see why they might be considered god-like.

Whereas I thought of Max Payne

Because I'm like that, when I saw "Ragnarok", I thought of the New Zealand acid-rock band from the 70s. Who are actually on MySpace.

Not accusing him off ripping anything off. I love Gaiman.

Personally I think his glorious ripping-off is a key part of Gaiman's awesome.

And I'll chip in that the old gods in Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume have similar problems.

Except the ducks

"Terry Pratchett helped unlock a knotty plot point for me on the train to Gothenburg."

Omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent and civilized? Surely you jest?

No, but it leans away from escapism, I think. Will have to see more episodes to judge.

And what happens to a God when nobody believes in him any more?

A civilized god concedes. The Christian one sends a massive flood…

Certainly not – you could argue, and others have, that they both come out of a very English tradition of taking your heroes seriously enough not to take them seriously at all.

Pratchett explored many of the ideas in American Gods years before Gaiman’s book was published. His thirteenth book Small Gods especially covers that territory but the themes exist right back through the canon.

Strange that Gaiman’s book…

I hope James will drop by and speak for himself, but like most writers his own background (he's a real life Norsewood God) is the foundation of his work. But, of course, there are plenty of creatives…

He becomes Governor of California.

Hmm, must go reread those titles...

Lugh, Morrigan, Goibniu, Crom Cruach, Manannan, Cernunnos, Cerridwen.

They just trip off the tongue, don't they?

Does it have to be an either/or deal, though? I always liked Neil Gaiman's take on the idea of godhood in The Sandman and his novel American Gods: We take our gods with…