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…but if it were, I might sound like this.

About a year ago, AMC+ released what was perhaps the best hard science fiction story I had ever seen: Pantheon. Based on short stories by Ken Liu (a name you may recognize as penning some of the more iconic Love Death + Robots shorts), Pantheon was a fascinating multi-narrative saga surrounding the idea of Uploaded Intelligences, humans who have their brain destructively scanned to live in virtual space. It featured an absolutely star-studded cast including Paul Dano, Daniel Dae Kim, Aaron Eckhart, and Taylor Schilling, and that’s barely scratching the surface.

The eight-episode run completely encaptivated me and was must-watch television. My phone was done, my eyes were glued, it would be paused instantly if I had to look away for even a second. As the credits rolled, the most satisfying thing was knowing that the second season had already been produced which means the story would continue, and I would be happy. 

You can see that this is not what happened.

Instead, AMC+ announced that the second season would not be airing on their platform which was a weird decision given that again: it existed, it was ready to go, and they were people who wanted to watch. Even if it were just me, I would have very much liked to watch it, and these esoteric business decisions were getting to me. But to add insult to injury, the first season of Pantheon, something that AMC+ definitely owned, was inexplicably removed from their library, because we can’t have nice things. 

And this was during a year where media been stricken from the record seemed all too common place. If we look at MAX, formerly HBOMax, we have seen the removal of Close Enough, Final Space, Infinity Train, Westworld, Raised by Wolves, and the preemptive blocking of the Batgirl movie (particularly baffling given the upward trend of Braden Fraser’s career and the allowance of the Flash movie to run amok [in more ways than one]). Disney and Hulu had removed Darby and the Dead, Big Shot, The Mighty Ducks: Gamechangers, Y: The Last Man, and Willow. And let’s not even try to keep of the revolving door of content over at Peacock.

The central point of all of this is that studios are much more concerned with not paying residuals, and you know what, in the capitalist hellscape that we exist in, I can pretend that I can understand. However, as someone who loves media in all of its forms and is a proponent of media preservation, it’s exceedingly frustrating that works of art that I could see as seminal are subject to the whims of razor thin profit margins. And I’m willing to pay to get access to this media. I immediately purchased all four seasons of Infinity Train in a desperate bid to get access to one of my favorite animated series of 2020 and 2021. Even now, I’m aware that if Prime wanted to they could wipe my entire library, and I would have next to no recourse.

But let’s flash forward to early October when thanks to a friend, I caught wind that for some reason, the second season of Pantheon was in fact airing exclusively on Prime Australia and New Zealand and had no discernable release in the States.

Now, I wouldn’t ever promote piracy. Piracy hurts hard working creatives. It denies them of any direct revenue that is generated from purchases or views, and the only thing potentially worse is completely removing any evidence that it ever existed and preventing any legitimate means of acquisition…or you know, something like that.

And it would be a real shame if the second season of a phenomenal science fiction series that may or may not conclude its story as there is no way in hell a third season is ever going to exist. And it would be completely wild if access to the episodes would be entirely dependent on the random whims of a random Prime ANZ executive. But at least *someone* would get to watch it. And at least it would be online.

So in lieu of any avenue to support the animated Pantheon, perhaps the next best recourse would be to just buy a bunch of Ken Liu collections because at least physical is much harder to revoke access at the drop of a dime. And I wish it wasn’t increasingly difficult to watch things on legitimates services as content is subject to just straight up vanishing and that piracy at this point seems less like a crime and more like the only means of digital media preservation.

In the 13th Century, archivists carved 52 millions characters into 81,258 wooden blocks and for 8 centuries that data has been preserved with zero data loss. And we can’t manage to keep a few gigs of video around for people to watch at their own pace. The Tripitaka Koreana serves as a testament to the fact that we as a species are in fact acting as a custodian for our histories and that rampantly preventing stories from being told isn’t necessarily our default way of thing.

And at the crux of this is the simple fact that digital media is so vulnerable. Flash games, shuttered servers, media that exists in small pockets of the internet, USB drives, and circulated VHS tapes. The era of physical media is quickly phasing out. This isn’t likely to be on the same scale of the burning of the Library of Alexandria. I’m not a professional archivist or data technician. Given how much more complicated audiovisual media there is a distinct possibility that it’s significantly more. That’s not really the point though. Any loss of cultural touchstones is tragic. And if as a result of the actions of capitalist overlords culling content, an uptick of nautical behavior started, I wouldn’t say it was morally justified.

But I also wouldn’t say it wasn’t.

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The post To Watch ‘Pantheon,’ I Wouldn’t Ever Promote Piracy… appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

A Marvel writer will be collaborating with a Black-owned manga digital comics magazine, according to a recent announcement at SaturdayCon 2023.

According to CBR, the convention, which took place from Nov. 4–5, the announcement said that Saturday AM will be working with Marvel writer Stephanie Williams on the magazine’s first-ever light novel. The project will be called “Apple Black Origins: Spectrum and the Spectre.” It will be a prequel to one of the magazine’s popular series, “Apple Black,” created by Nigerian artist/influencer Odunze Oguguo, whose online alias is Whyt Manga.

The completed project is slated to be released on June 11, 2024. The Saturday AM website describes the upcoming comic: “In this light-novel prequel to the Apple Black series, Willow and Gideon together take on the evils that riddle Eden in their adventure to find gold.”

According to the outlet, the comic will predate the series Apple Black by nine years. The series is about a young sorcerer named Sano, destined to save the world. His ancestors consumed Black Apples, allowing them to obtain sorcery powers. The series includes three manga volumes, and a fourth one is scheduled for release on Nov. 21.

Oguguo is excited about the collaboration and stated that Williams brings a lot of expertise and, as a Black female content creator, holds a unique perspective to her art, the outlet reports. Williams has contributed her creativity to well-known and iconic titles like “Captain America,” “Scarlet Witch” as well as “Nubia: Queen of the Amazons,” and “Wakanda.”

With the release of “Apple Black Origins: Spectrum and the Spectre” next year, there is hope that this will be the first of many between the collaborators.

To check out the first three volumes of “Apple Black,” you can purchase the work from the Saturday AM website.

This isn’t your mother’s Mean Girls, the trailer for the Mean Girls (2024) musical movie wants you to know. Ouch. That does make us feel like we’re back in high school. But honestly, from what we can see, this movie musical captures all the true spirit of Mean Girls and brings us right back to 2004. Of course, this movie is an adaptation of the hit Mean Girls stage musical, which was released in 2017. But the musical was based on the 2004 movie. So, while this trailer is for an adaptation of an adaptation of Mean Girls, it speaks to the power of the movie that its essence is not diluted at all. And that, my friends, is so fetch.

Take a look at the full trailer for Mean Girls, the 2024 movie edition, below.

This movie musical feels like a great way to celebrate twenty years of Mean Girls. The movie really did shape our culture in a big way. In the Mean Girls trailer, we see all the greatest hits, but reimagined for a slightly new audience and age. There’s The Burn Book, health class, the epic performance of “Jingle Bell Rock,” Cady’s scary Halloween look, and more. But this time, everyone’s phones are out. We imagine that makes the jungle of high school that much wilder.

In addition to the trailer, Mean Girls has shared a synopsis for the movie. It notes:

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

So we agree, we think that’s pretty excellent. Jumping from original to adaptation, once-removed, are Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, who reprise their roles as Ms. Norbury and Principal Duval. There’s no word yet on whether any other cast will cameo or act in this Mean Girls musical movie. But Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Daniel Franzese, and Rajiv Surendra all came together recently for a Mean Girls reunion/sequel of sorts—by way of a Walmart ad. So maybe, just maybe, we’ll see them.

In the meantime, we’ll look forward to a new generation of Plastics and friends. The Mean Girls movie musical releases on January 12, 2024.

The post MEAN GIRLS Movie Musical Trailer Fetchingly Revives the Original’s Fun appeared first on Nerdist.

For many Black women, they are the first in their families to ever leave the safety and comfort of home, and step into the unfamiliar adventures – not to mention dangers – of life in the military. Along with new uniforms and boots, comes a new way of life. Women in the military have emerged from only being allowed to work in traditional support capacities, such as nurses and cooks, to becoming pilots, drivers and mechanics, to now fighting alongside their male counterparts in combat.

When the Army opened its doors to women in 1942, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC) was established with 400 slots and only 40 of them were for Black women. Overcoming adversity, sexism, racism, and more also helped to open doors for Black women in other areas.

Not only did Black women face the hardship of discrimination outside of the military, but faced segregation within. Women in the Black WAACs were in a separate company than white trainees, had separate housing, dining tables, and even recreation areas. At the end of training, there were 36 Black women left to graduate with the rank of third officer.

The Army wasn’t the only branch where women wanted to serve, and other women’s units were established. Women who wanted to help the Navy joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), the Coast Guard had the SPAR, the Air Force had WASP, and the Marines Corps had the WR. The Army, however, was the only branch to allow Black women from its inception. Despite this fact, recruitment of Black women proved difficult. Segregation meant many Black women didn’t want to join, and Black WAACs still faced discrimination. The Black Press helped monitor and speak out against discrimination in the military, including within the WAACs. Reports came out that Black WAACs with college degrees were being assigned to cleaning duty. The press demanded a Black woman to be assigned to the WAAC director’s office to monitor and address discrimination complaints.

In July of 1943, it was announced that the women of WAAC would be classified under the same ranks as soldiers, a big victory for women’s equality. The name changed to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Black WACs didn’t receive the same specialized training that white WACs had, and most were trained in motor equipment, cooking, or administrative work. One of the biggest complaints amongst Black WACs was that there were no Black units overseas. Unfortunately, the WAC had to abide by all Army regulations, and overseas commanders had the right to designate race of units being sent, and no Black WACs were requested. But with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt speaking on their behalf, the War Department directed commanders to accept Black WACs.

After high school, my parents informed me there was not enough money for me to go to college. Joining the military was never something that crossed my mind, even with my dad serving nearly 20 years at the time. After listening to my dad’s speech about traveling the world and getting money for school, I enlisted. That’s how my journey started. It’s one that took me from to Germany to Austria to Amsterdam. I was also able to pay for college. My service held a lot of struggle and opposition, at times being the only woman or only Black person. But more so, I experienced great pride and reward.

I am always grateful for those 40 Black women who were determined to serve, and knew that this nation belonged to them too. So, when we talk about Black women trailblazers, the military has to be on the list.

As of now, half of the United States Army Sergeant Majors are Black women. While they are less likely to reach the top levels of the commissioned officer ranks, their numbers in the enlisted ranks mean they fill top advisory and mentoring roles. This is a big deal, because enlisted noncommissioned officers have more years of experience than officers at the same level, and they can provide much guidance to those younger soldiers.

Throughout history, Black women have worked to increase diversity and inclusion in the military. Cathay Williams was the first Black woman to serve in the military, posing as a man to fulfill a three-year contract with the Union army. In 1866, she would join the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment and would travel throughout the West as a buffalo soldier.

This year marks 75 years since the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act was passed, which permitted women to serve as full members of the U.S. Armed Forces in every branch. It also marks a decade since the Pentagon reversed its policy allowing women to serve on combat ships, even though it banned them from serving in direct ground combat.

Black women have held crucial roles that opened doors for other Black women in today’s military. Many have survived trauma and harassment from the very men assigned to be their leaders. They have pushed through the door when the government they fought for told them no. Nonetheless, Black women in the military have always found a way to persevere against all odds. They continue to make major contributions in service to our nation, and for that, we owe them a debt of gratitude.