What's Marvel's Iron Fist have to do with Buddhism? Thoughts on what it takes to make erotic fantasy work in a video game. And a look at what The Magicians has to say about magic. It's Airy Monday, our segment about magic and religion in popular culture! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Since its announcement, Marvel and Netflix's TV series Iron Fist has been embroiled in controversy. As concerns were raised about the show's orientalist imagery and use of the "mighty whitey" trope those involved assured critics they should wait until it was released and to give it a chance to prove its "sensitive" approach to Asian mysticism. Now the show has been released and people are not impressed.
Acclaimed comics website Comics Alliance is sadly on its way out but that doesn't mean they don't have more commentary to offer before they shutter. In one of their last features Steve Morris takes a look at The Mighty Zodiac, a fantasy story for all ages starring the embodiments of the Chinese Zodiac.
Romance and sexuality is a prominent feature in both written and visual fantasy, so it's only natural that those interests would eventually carry over to fantasy video games. However, making a sex scene work in a game is often a lot more challenging than it is in film. Video game journalist Nathan Grayson talks with several developers about the process involved.
For awhile it appeared that efforts to adapt C.S. Lewis' beloved if occasionally controversial Chronicles of Narnia to the big screen had faltered. But now it looks like the next book in the series, The Silver Chair, has found a director in Joe Johnston, probably best known to general audiences as the director of the first Captain America movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The television adaptation of the Magicians series by Lev Grossman has now finished its second season and has earned both praise and criticism for its darker, more complicated view of magic. At Tor.com, Molly Templeton discusses how one episode of the series gets into "the real meat" of the show's subject matter: what happens when real people deal with magic?
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