All men are created equal, but all X-Men aren’t. For every Wolverine, there are countless lame characters — lame not necessarily because their powers are useless, but because the character themselves are useless. Comic writers can’t use them, so they disappear, die, or constantly change in an unending bid to somehow…
Science fiction looks to the future — but sometimes the future catches up to you. Sometimes, an idea generates tons of great science fiction stories — until science reveals the truth, and kills it dead. Or technology surpasses it. Here are nine scientific breakthroughs that destroyed science fiction subgenres.
Do you think Skeletor, the Joker, Megatron and Lex Luthor have the market cornered on evil? Not so fast. The world of manga and anime is just as full of villains as Western comics and cartoons are, and they’re no slouches in the murder and depravity departments. Here are 11 anime and manga villain you wouldn’t want to…
In less than a month, we're going to be seeing Joss Whedon's long-awaited return to television, with a show about S.H.I.E.L.D., the shadowy organization from the Marvel movies. But S.H.I.E.L.D. has already had a ton of unforgettable storylines in the comics. Here are 11 sagas that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could draw on.
When Batman and Superman team up to fight evil, they are generally known as the World’s Finest. And yet just because they’re called that doesn’t mean that all their adventures are necessarily good — some are quite wretched, in fact. Here’s 15 tales from the original World’s Finest comics that never need to be retold.
Science fiction book publishers sail the multiverse like a fleet of unstoppable hyper-cruisers. And many of us dream of being beamed up to one of these motherships. But at the same time, a lot of people don't understand how the system works. Here are the seven most common mistaken ideas about science fiction book…
A “utopia” is a fictional place where everything is perfect; it’s supposed to give us a goal to aspire to, a place that we hope we — or maybe even the entire human race — can one day reach. But not all perfect societies are created equal. In fact, here are nine utopias that actually sound pretty goddamned terrible.
You're surrounded by lies, but most of what you think you know about them is probably — you guessed it — a lie.
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that changes everything
Why wait for the future when many of today’s technologies look as though they got here in a time machine? Here are 10 real-life technologies that come from the future.
The idea of sophisticated life on the moon might seem absurd today, but when a story about lunary civilization appeared in newspapers in 1835, many wondered if it could be true. And that's hardly the only scifi story readers have found credible enough to believe.
“Stability” isn’t a term superheroes get to hear much. People die and come back, teams are constantly changing members, and new villains are always popping up. Heck, most heroes can’t even depend on their own bodies to stay constant, thanks to magic, mad scientists, and/or otherworldly rocks. Here are a dozen heroes…
Earlier this year we told you about a dozen true-to-life animals that seem better suited to the pages of a certain anime than the jungle
Some security measures, no matter how high-tech and futuristic, are doomed to fail. Governments and corporations spend billions of dollars on these systems, but never actually protect any of their assets. Here are seven of the worst security fails in human history.
If you know Wool, then you’re already counting the days until Saturday. Hugh Howey’s epic about the last remnants of humanity living in massive underground silos — and the horrifying truth of why they’re there — has sold over half million copies online alone. The trilogy finally comes to a close this August 17th, with…
The end of the world is a scary idea, but the way the world ends isn’t always so terrifying. As it turns out, society could collapse or the planet could get destroyed in a variety of dumb and/or ludicrous ways. Here are 10 doomsday scenarios we hope will kill us, if only so we don’t have to die of embarrassment.
Everybody loves dystopias nowadays — especially dystopias where the evil overlords have crazy unstoppable gear. But a shockingly high number of dystopian futures feature technology that makes no sense, that no engineer would ever design that way. Here are 7 dystopian technologies that could never actually happen.
Science fiction looks to the future — but it also reflects the time when it was created. And the best science fiction often holds up a distorting lens to society that reveals deeper truths. In honor of tomorrow's release of Elysium, here are 11 science fiction films that had a huge impact on pop culture, and also…
Yes, we don't care who you are. If you're not completely dead inside, like some freeze-dried husk, then there are certain moments from science fiction and fantasy that will make you break down. Here are 20 of the most tear-jerking moments from science fiction and fantasy stories. (Update: Added 5 more!)
Heroes are usually larger than life, but sometimes it’s the person standing next to them that casts the bigger shadow. While main heroes usually get top-billing, but they can often be too boring, too troubled, or even too dumb to save the day. Thankfully, here are 11 sidekicks that pick up the slack — often doing a…
