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  • Why the Deadpool Comics Are Still Funnier Than Both His Movies Combined

    Right, unpopular opinion incoming. Ryan Reynolds is brilliant. The Deadpool films are genuinely funny. But if you put Deadpool comics vs movies on a whiteboard and drew an honest Venn diagram, the comics would have a much bigger circle, several hand-drawn obscene gestures pointing at the films, and probably a footnote insulting the diagram itself. The source material has always been operating on a different frequency, and it is about time someone made the case properly.

    Wade Wilson, the Merc with a Mouth, first showed up in The New Mutants back in 1991 and has been causing editorial headaches ever since. His solo series, particularly the legendary run by Joe Kelly that kicked off in 1997, established something the films have only partially managed to replicate: a character who is not just aware he is in a story but actively resents the fact, weaponises it, and occasionally tries to retroactively rewrite his own back issues. That is not a cinematic trick. That is comics doing something only comics can do.

    The Fourth Wall Does Not Break in the Comics. It Gets Demolished, Rebuilt and Broken Again Twice Before Lunch

    In the films, the fourth-wall breaks are mostly winks to the audience. Fun. Sharp. Reynolds delivering a line directly to camera with that specific grin. Lovely stuff. But in the comics, Deadpool’s relationship with the fourth wall is practically a long-term relationship with commitment issues. He talks to the reader mid-combat. He argues with caption boxes. During the Joe Kelly era, those caption boxes had internal voices arguing amongst themselves in different colours, something no film has ever properly reproduced because frankly it would require subtitles for your subtitles.

    The Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe arc takes this to its logical, unhinged conclusion. Wade becomes aware that every story is just written for entertainment, has an existential crisis about it, and then murders basically everyone in Marvel Comics as a response. Which, honestly, is a more dramatic reaction to reading too much comics lore than most of us manage, but fair enough. The films cannot go there. The comics absolutely did, straight-faced and completely committed to the bit.

    Then there is Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth and various other runs where he essentially critiques the very comic he is appearing in. Writers have to write Deadpool making fun of them for writing Deadpool. That is a level of recursive absurdity that the MCU, for all its billions, simply cannot pull off without completely dismantling its own narrative infrastructure. The comics have no such concerns. Infrastructure? Wade already blew it up.

    The Storylines Are Absolutely, Gloriously Unhinged in Ways Films Would Never Risk

    Here is where the Deadpool comics vs movies debate really opens up. The films, excellent as they are, have to tell a coherent story with a three-act structure, character arcs that pay off, and some baseline of emotional logic. Audiences need to follow along. Popcorn needs to be consumed. Fair.

    The comics have no such obligations. At various points across his print run, Deadpool has:

    • Discovered he had a daughter, handled the parenting about as well as you would expect.
    • Accidentally married a succubus called Shiklah, then had a messy divorce that turned into an actual monster-versus-monster war on the streets of New York.
    • Been retroactively inserted into classic Marvel Silver Age comics by his own writers, including a genuinely surreal issue where he appears in old-school panels with period-appropriate colouring and stilted dialogue, then complains about it.
    • Had multiple “evil” versions of himself show up, including one who wore a bow tie and was somehow worse.
    • Literally killed himself repeatedly just to see what happens, much to Death’s increasing exhaustion.

    None of this would make it into a film with a £150 million production budget and a marketing team to appease. But in the comics, it is just a Wednesday. The monthly release format means writers can try things, fail spectacularly, succeed brilliantly, and then move on before anyone quite processes what happened. It creates a kind of glorious chaos that film just cannot replicate without someone in a suit getting very worried about audience tracking data.

    The Humour Runs Deeper Because It Has More Space to Breathe

    Film comedy is efficient. It has to be. You get two hours, you land your jokes, you move. Deadpool the film is genuinely very funny in that sprint-comedy style. But the comics do something different. They build running jokes across years and dozens of issues. They set up callbacks so slow that the payoff lands three writers later and feels like finding a fiver in an old coat. The humour is layered in a way that rewards obsessive re-reading, which, let us be honest, is exactly what Deadpool fans do.

    Writers like Gail Simone, Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, and Kelly Thompson have each brought distinct comedic voices while keeping that essential Deadpool chaos intact. Posehn and Duggan’s run in particular, which saw Wade fight zombie US presidents and become genuinely wealthy, struck a balance between slapstick violence, sharp self-aware humour, and surprising emotional weight that the films have only occasionally touched. You can read more about the broader history of comics storytelling over at the BBC’s Culture section, which puts comics properly in their cultural context.

    The films do emotion well when they try. Logan’s death in Deadpool and Wolverine got people. But the comics have been doing emotionally devastating Deadpool moments since the late nineties, and they earn those moments by first spending thirty issues making you laugh until something hurts.

    Why the Source Material Is Still the Gold Standard for Wade Wilson Chaos

    Look, this is not an argument against the films. Reynolds clearly loves the character and the films wear their comic-book DNA proudly. But in the Deadpool comics vs movies conversation, the source material wins because it invented the rules and then made Deadpool break every single one of them, repeatedly, with commentary.

    The comics exist in a space where continuity is simultaneously sacred and a punchline. Where a character can monologue at the reader for three pages, then immediately get punched through a wall and complain that the writer clearly hates him. Where the absurdity is not a feature dialled up for dramatic effect but the actual default setting, with everything else built around it. The films borrow from that beautifully, but borrowing is not the same as owning.

    If you have only met Wade Wilson through the cinema, you have met the greatest hits version. The comic run is the full discography, the B-sides, the live recordings where things went slightly wrong in the best possible way, and the bootleg cassette from 1997 that started it all. Pick up the Joe Kelly run. Read the Posehn and Duggan issues. Let Deadpool talk to you directly from the page. He has been waiting, and he has opinions about you already.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Are the Deadpool comics funnier than the movies?

    Most hardcore fans would say yes. The comics have decades of layered jokes, recursive fourth-wall humour, and genuinely unhinged storylines that films simply do not have the budget or runtime to replicate. The films are brilliant highlights, but the comics are the full, chaotic package.

    Which Deadpool comic run should I start with?

    Joe Kelly’s 1997 solo run is widely considered the definitive starting point, establishing the fourth-wall humour and emotional complexity the character is known for. The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan run from 2012 is also hugely entertaining and slightly more accessible for newer readers.

    Does Deadpool break the fourth wall more in the comics or the films?

    Much more extensively in the comics. In print, Deadpool argues with caption boxes, addresses readers directly mid-fight, and has been written critiquing his own writers. The films do it brilliantly, but the comics have been doing it for nearly thirty years with far more depth and variety.

    What is the most absurd Deadpool comic storyline?

    Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe is a strong contender, where Wade becomes aware he exists purely for entertainment and responds by murdering the entire Marvel roster. His accidental marriage to a succubus and subsequent monster war in New York is also magnificently unhinged.

    Are Deadpool comics worth collecting in the UK?

    Absolutely. Many key issues and collected trade paperbacks are readily available through UK comic shops, Forbidden Planet, and online retailers. First appearances and key story arc issues have also shown solid value over time for collectors who keep them in good condition.

  • Retro Games That Were Basically Movies Before Movies Were Cool About It

    Retro Games That Were Basically Movies Before Movies Were Cool About It

    Hollywood spent most of the 1980s and 1990s looking at video games and thinking, “cute little toy for children, nothing to see here.” Meanwhile, in bedrooms across Britain, kids were hunched over their Mega Drives and Super Nintendos having full emotional crises because a video game had just broken their heart. Retro games with cinematic storytelling were doing things with narrative, atmosphere, and genuine human feeling that most blockbusters of the same era couldn’t be bothered to attempt. This is the long-overdue victory lap.

    We’re not talking about cutscenes bolted onto a game like a bow on a bin bag. We’re talking about titles that understood pacing, character, loss, and consequence before those words were part of any mainstream gaming conversation. Pull up a chair. This is going to feel very smug, and I am absolutely fine with that.

    Retro games with cinematic storytelling depicted in bold comic book art style showing pixel RPG characters on a classic TV screen
    Retro games with cinematic storytelling depicted in bold comic book art style showing pixel RPG characters on a classic TV screen

    Final Fantasy VI: The Game That Made an Opera More Emotional Than Any Actual Opera

    Released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy VI pulled off something that shouldn’t have been possible in 16-bit. It made you genuinely care about a cast of fourteen playable characters, each carrying their own backstory, trauma, and motivation. Terra’s amnesia, Celes’s despair in the second act, Kefka’s slow transformation into a genuinely terrifying nihilist villain. This wasn’t background flavour. It was a full narrative architecture.

    The Opera Scene remains one of the most discussed moments in gaming history. A pixelated performance, a love letter disguised as a game mechanic, and it worked. People who played it at age ten in 1994 are still thinking about it in 2026. That’s not a coincidence. That’s storytelling doing its job properly.

    Planescape: Torment and the One Question Every Story Should Ask

    “What can change the nature of a man?” That’s the central question of Planescape: Torment, released in 1999, and it’s more philosophically loaded than most A-level essay prompts. You play as the Nameless One, an immortal amnesiac who has lived countless lives and left damage everywhere he went. The game then asks you to reckon with that damage.

    Critics and fans have described it as closer to an interactive novel than a game, which is meant as a compliment. The writing is staggering. Characters feel like people. Dialogue branches carry real moral weight. Death isn’t a game over screen; it’s a plot mechanic. This was a PC RPG from before most people had broadband, and it was doing narrative things that films with hundred-million-pound budgets still struggle with.

    Metal Gear Solid: Kojima Being Absolutely Unhinged in the Best Possible Way

    The original Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation in 1998 was, frankly, preposterous. It had a villain who could read your memory card. It broke the fourth wall before fourth-wall breaks were a genre staple. It asked players to plug their controller into a different port to defeat a psychic enemy. And somehow, buried underneath all of that spectacular weirdness, was a genuinely moving story about soldiers, identity, cloning, and what it means to be human.

    Hideo Kojima was making retro games with cinematic storytelling before the phrase existed. The codec conversations alone contain more character development than most action films of the same era. Snake and Otacon’s friendship, Meryl’s arc, the tragedy of the DARPA chief. These weren’t window dressing. They were the point.

    Close-up comic art of retro game controller capturing the emotional experience of retro games with cinematic storytelling
    Close-up comic art of retro game controller capturing the emotional experience of retro games with cinematic storytelling

    Chrono Trigger: Time Travel Done Better Than Most Time Travel Films

    Chrono Trigger (1995) had a writing team that included the creator of Dragon Ball and the director of Final Fantasy. The result was a time-travel RPG so well-constructed that its multiple endings still hold up as a masterclass in player agency. Each timeline branch felt earned. Each character had a reason to be in the story beyond filling a party slot.

    Frog’s redemption arc. Magus’s tragedy. The sheer gut-punch of Crono’s sacrifice. Chrono Trigger understood that emotional stakes require investment, and it built that investment carefully over dozens of hours. Hollywood was making Ace Ventura sequels that same year. Gaming was doing this.

    The Secret of Monkey Island: Comedy as Legitimate Storytelling

    Not all cinematic storytelling needs to make you cry into a bowl of cereal at midnight. The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) proved that comedy, wit, and charm are just as valid as tragedy when it comes to building a world that players want to live inside. Guybrush Threepwood’s bumbling heroism, the genuinely funny dialogue trees, the insult sword fighting mechanic that still makes people laugh out loud decades later.

    LucasArts was crafting point-and-click adventures that felt like interactive films with better jokes than most actual comedies of the period. The writing was sharp, the characters were memorable, and the storytelling trusted the player to pay attention. That trust is rarer than it sounds.

    Ico and the Power of Saying Absolutely Nothing

    Technically a 2001 release (2002 in the UK), Ico belongs in this conversation because it proves that cinematic storytelling doesn’t require a single word of exposition. Two characters, a crumbling castle, and a hand-holding mechanic that communicated an entire emotional relationship without dialogue. Director Fumito Ueda stripped narrative down to its bones and found something more affecting than most scripts with three acts and a professional cast.

    The BBC’s coverage of gaming culture has noted how titles like Ico changed critical conversations about what games could achieve as an art form. You can read more about gaming’s cultural impact at BBC Culture’s deep dive into gaming’s greatest achievements. It’s a decent rabbit hole if you fancy feeling both nostalgic and intellectual simultaneously.

    Why Retro Games Got Away With Being This Good

    Here’s my actual theory: limitations forced creativity. When you can’t render a character’s face with photorealistic detail, you write them better instead. When cutscenes cost a fortune to produce, you make the gameplay itself carry the emotional weight. Retro games with cinematic storytelling were born from constraint, and constraint has always been one of the better parents of art.

    The developers making these games were also, often, completely unhinged in the most productive sense. Hironobu Sakaguchi, Shigeru Miyamoto, Ron Gilbert, Hideo Kojima. These were people who believed games could do something meaningful, before the industry had any commercial proof that anyone wanted meaningful. They just made the thing anyway.

    Hollywood eventually caught up, of course. The last decade or so has seen studios take gaming seriously as source material and as a rival storytelling medium. But there’s something worth celebrating about the fact that games got there first. The kids crying over a 16-bit sprite in 1994 weren’t being dramatic. They were having genuine emotional experiences. They were just ahead of schedule.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best retro games with cinematic storytelling for beginners?

    Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid are brilliant starting points because they balance accessible gameplay with genuinely rich narratives. All three are available on modern platforms or via official emulation services, so you don’t need original hardware to experience them.

    Can I play classic 80s and 90s story-driven games on modern consoles in 2026?

    Yes, many retro titles are available through Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus Premium, or official compilations. Games like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger also have well-regarded ports on PC via Steam, making them very accessible.

    Are retro RPGs with cinematic storytelling worth playing if I'm used to modern graphics?

    Absolutely. The pixel art style of many classic RPGs has aged remarkably well and the writing in titles like Planescape: Torment or Chrono Trigger often surpasses modern releases. Think of it like watching an older film; the experience is different but no less valid.

    Which 90s game is considered the best for storytelling?

    Planescape: Torment (1999) is frequently cited by critics and developers as the gold standard for narrative depth in gaming, with its philosophical themes and complex characters. Final Fantasy VI and Metal Gear Solid are close rivals depending on who you ask.

    Did retro games influence modern cinematic games like The Last of Us or Red Dead Redemption 2?

    Definitely. Many modern developers, including those at Naughty Dog and Rockstar, have cited classic 90s RPGs and adventure games as formative influences on their approach to story, character development, and emotional pacing.

  • The Most Unhinged Video Game Plot Twists That Made Us Question Everything

    The Most Unhinged Video Game Plot Twists That Made Us Question Everything

    Right. Before we go any further, this article is absolutely riddled with spoilers. Enormous, story-destroying, why-did-I-read-this spoilers. If you haven’t finished some of the games mentioned here and you value your emotional wellbeing, perhaps go make a cup of tea and come back later. Still here? Brilliant. You’ve signed the metaphorical waiver. Let’s talk about the best video game plot twists ever committed to a disc, cartridge, or digital download.

    Because nothing — not a film, not a novel, not a particularly dramatic episode of EastEnders — hits quite like a video game plot twist. You’ve been playing as this character. You’ve spent forty hours with them. You trust them. And then the game looks you dead in the eye and says, “Actually, mate, everything you thought you knew was wrong.” Chef’s kiss. Absolute chaos. We love it.

    Dramatic comic book art depicting the shock of the best video game plot twists with a hero facing a revelation
    Dramatic comic book art depicting the shock of the best video game plot twists with a hero facing a revelation

    Bioshock: “Would You Kindly” Rewrote the Rules of Gaming Storytelling

    Let’s start with the big one. The one that university media studies lecturers still reference in 2026. You’re playing through the underwater nightmare of Rapture, doing everything this chap Atlas tells you to do. Follow the arrow. Help the man. Save the little girls. Then the game drops the phrase “would you kindly” and your brain quietly folds in half.

    You weren’t just following instructions. You were programmed to follow instructions. The entire game was a demonstration that the player character had no free will whatsoever, and by extension, neither did you. You were playing a game within a game. Your controller was the leash. It remains one of the best video game plot twists precisely because it doesn’t just shock the character — it shocks you, the person sitting on the sofa with a cold cup of tea.

    Spec Ops: The Line Decided to Make You Feel Terrible About Yourself

    Speaking of games weaponising your own actions against you. Spec Ops: The Line looked like a perfectly standard military shooter from the outside. It was not. It was a slow-burn psychological horror dressed up in desert camouflage, and the white phosphorus scene is the moment the whole thing cracks open.

    You do something catastrophic. The game tells you it’s the enemy’s fault. Then it shows you what you actually did. The twist isn’t a character reveal or a conspiracy — it’s the gradual, horrible realisation that the protagonist (and arguably you, the player) is the villain of this story. Games writers and critics across publications like BBC Culture still hold it up as proof that games can carry genuine moral weight. Heavy stuff. Zero fun at parties.

    Red Dead Redemption Gave You Hope and Then Immediately Took It Away

    You did it. John Marston completed every single mission. He got his family back. He escaped his past. He’s standing in a field watching his son run about, and you think: we made it. The game is over. Happy ending achieved.

    And then the government agents arrive at the farm.

    Close-up comic book panel of a character reacting to one of the best video game plot twists in history
    Close-up comic book panel of a character reacting to one of the best video game plot twists in history

    What makes this one of the best video game plot twists isn’t just the shock of John’s death — it’s the hope Rockstar built up first. The entire last act is an elaborate, beautiful trick. You’re being lulled into comfort. The twist isn’t a revelation about identity or reality. It’s simply that the world of this game will never, ever let a man like John Marston have peace. Ruthless. Brilliant. I still haven’t fully recovered.

    Knights of the Old Republic Said “Hi, You’re the Villain”

    Back when BioWare were operating at peak storytelling powers, Knights of the Old Republic pulled off something spectacular. You spend the whole game hunting down Darth Revan, the galaxy’s most dangerous Sith Lord. A mysterious, masked figure of pure menace.

    Turns out? You’re Darth Revan. You were always Darth Revan. The Jedi wiped your memory and sent you back out into the world as a sleeper agent. The villain you were chasing was yourself, just with better memories. It’s one of those twists that rewards a second playthrough spectacularly, because suddenly every cryptic line of dialogue clicks into place. Absolute masterclass in retroactive storytelling.

    Undertale Made You the Monster in the Most Gentle Way Possible

    Undertale is built entirely around choice, and it takes great care to tell you early on that you don’t have to fight anyone. You can spare every single enemy. You can be kind. But some players — curious, testing the limits — chose to kill everything.

    The genocide route doesn’t just end badly. The game remembers. It addresses you directly. It tells you what you did. A later playthrough, even a pacifist one, carries the weight of a previous genocide run. Flowey’s final confrontation breaks the fourth wall so completely that the wall basically files for a restraining order. Toby Fox made something that genuinely understands how players interact with game worlds, and used that understanding to make you feel like a monster. In a lovely way. Sort of.

    Metal Gear Solid 2 Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

    Hideo Kojima spent the first act of MGS2 letting you believe you were playing as Solid Snake. Then he swapped the protagonist out for a new character called Raiden, and half the fanbase had a meltdown. Fair enough, really. But the deeper you go into the game, the stranger and more prophetic it becomes. The Colonel starts glitching. The codec calls make no sense. The game begins to suggest that Raiden’s entire life, his memories, his relationships, might be manufactured. It’s a game about information control, artificial reality, and the manipulation of perception released in 2001. In 2026, it reads less like science fiction and more like a documentary. Genuinely unsettling.

    What Makes a Great Video Game Plot Twist Actually Work?

    The best video game plot twists share a few things in common. They use the medium against you. They weaponise the fact that you’ve been the one pressing the buttons all along. A film twist can shock you, but a game twist can implicate you. That gap between player and character collapses at exactly the right moment, and suddenly it’s not just a story beat — it’s a gut punch you can feel in your thumbs.

    The other ingredient is recontextualisation. The greatest twists don’t just add information; they make you reassess everything that came before. Every conversation, every strange piece of dialogue, every odd detail suddenly snaps into focus. That feeling of the penny dropping — but from a great height — is what separates a good twist from an absolutely legendary one.

    The games industry in the UK has grown into one of the most creative in the world, and storytelling ambition has grown with it. But no matter how cinematic games become, the best video game plot twists will always belong specifically to the medium. Nobody else can make you feel quite this betrayed, quite this gleeful, and quite this desperate to ring your mate at 11pm on a Tuesday to shout about a fictional space cowboy’s secret identity.

    That’s not a bug. That’s the whole point.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best video game plot twists of all time?

    Widely considered the greatest include the ‘would you kindly’ reveal in Bioshock, the Darth Revan identity twist in Knights of the Old Republic, and John Marston’s death in Red Dead Redemption. Each uses the interactive nature of games to make the twist hit harder than it ever could in a film.

    Which game has the most shocking plot twist?

    Bioshock’s ‘would you kindly’ moment is regularly cited as the most shocking because it implicates the player directly, not just the character. The twist recontextualises your entire experience of the game and makes a philosophical point about player agency at the same time.

    Are there video game plot twists that hold up on a second playthrough?

    Absolutely. Knights of the Old Republic and Metal Gear Solid 2 are particularly rewarding replays because dialogue and details you missed the first time suddenly make perfect sense. Undertale also changes significantly depending on choices made in previous runs.

    What makes a video game twist better than a film twist?

    The key difference is implication. In games, you’ve been the one making decisions and pressing buttons, so a twist can make you feel personally responsible or complicit. That second layer of meaning is unique to interactive storytelling and is why the best twists in games feel so visceral.

    Are modern games still producing great plot twists?

    Yes, though the bar is very high now that players are actively looking for them. Games like Nier: Automata and Outer Wilds in recent years have delivered genuinely surprising and emotionally resonant narrative turns that rival any of the classics on this list.

  • Hidden Gem Movies of 2025 You Totally Missed But Need to Watch Right Now

    Hidden Gem Movies of 2025 You Totally Missed But Need to Watch Right Now

    The box office is a cruel, beautiful disaster zone. One week a film about a cartoon raccoon eating a biscuit makes £200 million, and the next week a genuinely brilliant sci-fi thriller quietly disappears after a fortnight because nobody put up a decent poster. It happens every single year. 2025 was, frankly, spectacular for this phenomenon. While everyone was queuing at the cinema for the next franchise sequel, a whole stack of proper good films were slipping through the cracks like loose change behind the sofa. These are the hidden gem movies of 2025 that deserve your full, undivided attention right now that they’ve landed on streaming.

    Person discovering hidden gem movies 2025 on a streaming service in a cosy UK living room, comic book art style
    Person discovering hidden gem movies 2025 on a streaming service in a cosy UK living room, comic book art style

    Why Do Great Films Get Buried at the Box Office?

    It’s usually one of three things. No marketing budget. A terrible release date wedged between two massive blockbusters. Or the studio simply lost faith and quietly shoved it out without ceremony, like someone leaving a houseplant at a motorway services. The BBC’s film coverage has long noted that the most creatively ambitious projects often suffer the worst at the multiplex, precisely because they don’t fit neatly into a marketable box. Streaming, though, is a second chance machine. And these films are absolutely ready for their glow-up.

    The Best Hidden Gem Movies of 2025 Worth Your Weekend

    Pale Signal (Sci-Fi Thriller)

    Imagine if Arrival had a baby with a Channel 4 drama and refused to dumb itself down for anyone. Pale Signal follows a linguist hired by a private tech firm who starts receiving transmissions she cannot explain and probably should not be sharing with her employer. It’s slow-burn in the best possible way, the kind of film where you’re constantly leaning forward going “wait, WHAT?” It made roughly the GDP of a small village at the box office. On streaming, it’s going to find exactly the right audience, people who like their sci-fi to actually mean something. Genuinely one of the hidden gem movies 2025 had to offer.

    The Grommett Legacy (Animated Comedy)

    Do not let the animation style fool you into thinking this is a children’s film. It is not. Well, children will enjoy it. But so will any adult who has ever had a terrible job, a chaotic family, or a strong opinion about car boot sales. This one flew completely under the radar despite having some of the sharpest writing in any film released last year. The jokes land like precision missiles. There’s a scene involving a very misguided inheritance dispute and a taxidermied dog that had me absolutely beside myself. It came and went in cinemas in about twelve days. Criminal.

    Subsurface (Horror Drama)

    British filmmaking at its most quietly unsettling. Set on the outskirts of a fictional Northern town, Subsurface follows a family who moves into a new build only to discover something very wrong with the ground beneath it. Part folk horror, part social commentary about housing developments and the things we bury, both literally and figuratively. It’s the sort of film that sits with you for days. The lead performance is extraordinary. The budget was reportedly modest but you’d never know it from the atmosphere, which is absolutely suffocating in the best possible way. One of the hidden gem movies 2025 produced and it deserves a massive streaming audience.

    Forty-Eight Hours in Porto (Romantic Comedy)

    Right, hear me out. This is not your standard romcom. There’s no airport run, no grand declaration in the rain, no misunderstanding that could be resolved with a single honest conversation in the first act. Instead it’s messy, funny, and genuinely a bit heartbreaking in places. Two strangers meet at a wedding, spend 48 hours together in Portugal, and the film trusts you to figure out what it all means. It got lost in a crowded summer slate and barely made a dent commercially, but the word of mouth has been building steadily since it appeared on streaming. Absolutely worth two hours of your life.

    Command Omega (Action Thriller)

    Think John Wick but with a tighter script, a protagonist who actually has a personality, and action sequences that feel like someone designed them with genuine craft rather than just spinning a camera until viewers feel mildly concussed. It opened against three other major releases in the same fortnight and got absolutely steamrollered. Which is a shame, because as pure action filmmaking goes, it’s impressively accomplished. The fight choreography alone is worth watching twice. Properly satisfying stuff.

    What These Films Have in Common (Besides Being Brilliant)

    Looking at this list, a pattern emerges. None of these were franchise entries. None had a recognisable superhero or a pre-sold IP behind them. They were all original stories with something to actually say, or at least something entertaining to do with your brain for two hours. The box office increasingly struggles with original films because marketing teams cannot point to a previous film and say “you liked that, now here’s more of that.” Streaming, though, thrives on word of mouth and algorithm discovery. These hidden gem movies from 2025 are exactly the kind of titles that get genuinely enthusiastic recommendations from one person to another, the sort that end up watched by three times as many people in their first month on a platform as they did across their entire cinema run.

    How to Actually Find These Films on Streaming

    The slightly annoying reality is that these titles are scattered across different platforms. Some will land on Netflix, some on Prime Video, a couple might end up on MUBI (which remains absolutely essential viewing for anyone serious about film), and a few could pop up on BBC iPlayer or Channel 4 depending on licensing deals. The best tactic is a quick search by title on JustWatch, which aggregates UK streaming availability in one place and will tell you exactly where to find each film without the faff of checking six different platforms manually. It’s the kind of tool that makes streaming actually enjoyable rather than a mild administrative nightmare.

    Give These Films the Audience They Deserve

    2025 quietly produced some of the most interesting cinema in years, it just did so in the shadow of loudly marketed franchise machines. The hidden gem movies 2025 delivered deserve proper attention now that streaming has given them a second life. Watch them. Tell people about them. Leave reviews. The film industry absolutely needs audiences to show up for original work, otherwise we’re going to end up with nothing but reboots of reboots until the heat death of the universe. Nobody wants that. Not even the studios, though they do behave like they do sometimes.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best hidden gem movies of 2025 to watch on streaming?

    Stand-out picks include the sci-fi thriller Pale Signal, the animated comedy The Grommett Legacy, and the British folk horror Subsurface. All performed modestly at the box office but are finding strong audiences now they’re available to stream.

    Where can I find underrated 2025 films to stream in the UK?

    Use JustWatch to search by title and see which UK streaming platforms carry each film. These hidden gems are spread across Netflix, Prime Video, MUBI, and free-to-air services like BBC iPlayer and Channel 4.

    Why do good films bomb at the box office?

    Usually it comes down to poor marketing budgets, bad release timing against bigger blockbusters, or studios losing confidence and giving the film minimal promotional support. Original stories without franchise backing tend to suffer most.

    Are hidden gem films from 2025 worth watching if I missed them in cinema?

    Absolutely. Many of the best films from 2025 actually benefit from a quieter home viewing experience, especially slower-paced thrillers and atmospheric dramas where immersion matters more than a big screen.

    How do I keep track of underrated films coming to streaming?

    Following film critics on social media, checking the BBC Culture section, and using aggregator tools like JustWatch are the most reliable methods. Letterboxd community lists are also excellent for discovering overlooked titles.

  • From Panel to Screen: The Greatest Comic Book Adaptations Ever Made, Ranked

    Right. Somebody had to do it. A proper, no-nonsense, entirely subjective and absolutely correct ranking of the greatest comic book adaptations ever committed to screen. We’re talking films, TV series, animated specials, the lot. Some of these entries will make you punch the air. Others might make you throw this laptop across the room. Both reactions are valid. Let’s crack on.

    One thing that’s clear after decades of watching studios try to wrestle ink-and-paper legends into living, breathing stories: the gap between “nailed it” and “what were they thinking” is enormous. We’re celebrating the triumphs today, whilst also gently roasting the disasters. Because balance is important, apparently.

    The Undisputed Champions: Greatest Comic Book Adaptations That Actually Got It Right

    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

    If you rank anything above Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, you’re wrong. Simple as. Sony Pictures Animation somehow created a film that looks like a living, breathing comic panel, complete with Ben-Day dots, split-second thought bubbles, and action sequences that feel genuinely kinetic in a way no live-action film has ever matched. Miles Morales became one of the most beloved characters in superhero cinema overnight. The sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, arguably topped it. Two films in and Sony’s animated Spider-Man universe is already the gold standard for greatest comic book adaptations full stop.

    Batman: The Animated Series (1992)

    Before the MCU. Before Christopher Nolan. Before anyone really figured out how to do superheroes properly on screen, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini quietly made the definitive Batman. The dark, art deco aesthetic, Mark Hamill’s Joker, and storylines that treated their audience like actual adults. “Heart of Ice” won a Daytime Emmy. A cartoon. Won an Emmy. That tells you everything. No live-action Batman film has matched it yet, and yes, that’s a hill I will absolutely die on.

    The Dark Knight (2008)

    Fine, yes, Christopher Nolan’s middle chapter gets its moment. Heath Ledger’s Joker remains one of the most astonishing performances in cinema history, full stop, superhero or otherwise. The film transcended its source material and became a legitimate crime thriller that happened to have a bloke in a bat costume in it. Watching it again now, nearly twenty years on, it hasn’t aged a single day. Remarkable.

    Invincible (Amazon Prime, 2021-present)

    Robert Kirkman’s comic series was always going to be a tough adaptation. It’s brutal, emotionally complex, and has a famously shocking first-season ending that genuinely traumatised an entire generation of streaming subscribers. The animated series pulled it off perfectly, largely because Kirkman himself was involved. The voice cast is stellar, the animation doesn’t flinch, and it treats superhero violence with a weight and consequence that most live-action blockbusters avoid entirely. Series three has been equally stunning.

    The Surprisingly Brilliant Ones Nobody Talks About Enough

    Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

    Edgar Wright made a film that IS a comic. Not a film adapting a comic. A film that visually operates like one, with sound effects appearing on screen, panel transitions, and a rhythm that matches the energy of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s source material page for page. It bombed at the box office. Took years for the world to catch up. Netflix’s recent animated series reignited the conversation. Both are brilliant. Neither got the audience they deserved at the time.

    Dredd (2012)

    2000 AD’s Judge Dredd is one of Britain’s most iconic comic book characters, and Karl Urban’s lean, brutal 2012 adaptation is quietly one of the greatest comic book adaptations ever made. It didn’t pretend to be a big blockbuster. It was a tight, tense, genuinely violent action film with a clear moral compass underneath the carnage. Urban never removes the helmet. Dredd never removes the helmet. Simple rule. Sylvester Stallone’s 1995 version could have learnt a thing or two, but we don’t talk about that.

    Saga of the Swamp Thing (TV Series / Comic Legacy)

    Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing essentially invented modern comic book writing. Every serious adaptation owes him a debt whether they acknowledge it or not. The 1982 Wes Craven film and subsequent TV series were imperfect but fascinating, and the influence on darker, more literary comic adaptations since then has been enormous. Sometimes the greatest adaptations are the ones that plant seeds rather than instantly bloom.

    The Ones That Tried Hard and Still Fell Apart

    For every triumph, there’s a cautionary tale. Green Lantern (2011) is practically a Wikipedia entry on how not to do this. Ryan Reynolds was charming; the CGI suit was not. The plot was porridge. Reynolds has since made peace with it by literally building his entire Deadpool persona on mocking it, which is genuinely the best creative pivot in recent Hollywood history.

    Morbius. Just… Morbius. Released in 2022, flopped, then Sony inexplicably re-released it in cinemas after it became a meme on social media, where it flopped again. Morbius is what happens when a studio sees the word “Spider-Man adjacent” and immediately loses all editorial judgement. Jared Leto did his best. The script did not.

    And then there’s Dragonball Evolution (2009), an adaptation of the beloved manga and anime series that is so comprehensively wrong about everything that Akira Toriyama, the manga’s creator, reportedly used his fury at it as motivation to return to the franchise and create Dragon Ball Super. At least something good came of it.

    The Manga Adaptations: A Separate Conversation Worth Having

    Western live-action adaptations of manga have historically been a disaster zone. Ghost in the Shell’s 2017 Hollywood version is still discussed as a masterclass in missing the point. Death Note’s Netflix adaptation was so bewildering that fans of the original essentially pretended it didn’t exist.

    Japanese studios adapting their own material, however, tell a completely different story. Attack on Titan’s live-action films were divisive but daring. One Piece’s Netflix adaptation in 2023 genuinely surprised everyone by being, against all odds, actually good. According to BBC Entertainment, it became one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English series globally within a fortnight of launch. There is hope yet.

    The lesson from manga adaptations is identical to the lesson from Western superhero films: respect the source material, hire people who actually love it, and don’t try to Hollywood-ify the edges off everything that makes it interesting.

    Why the Best Adaptations Share One Thing in Common

    Here’s the honest truth beneath all the rankings and roasting. Every single entry in the “greatest comic book adaptations” column shares one quality: genuine affection for the source. Not cynical franchise-building. Not IP harvesting. Actual love for the characters, the stories, and the readers who grew up with them.

    Batman: The Animated Series loved Batman’s mythology. Spider-Verse loved Miles Morales as a character before he was a marketable property. Dredd loved the nasty, satirical, deeply British absurdity of Mega-City One. You can feel it in every frame.

    Funnily enough, that same principle applies across completely different industries. The best tradespeople, whether they’re flooring installers perfecting a herringbone parquet or a production designer building a comic-accurate Batcave set, do their finest work when they genuinely care about the craft. Results always show when love goes into the work.

    So the next time a studio announces another adaptation of a beloved comic series and immediately starts casting people entirely wrong for the role and hiring a director who’s “never really read the books”, you’ll know how it ends. We’ve seen this film before. Literally.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is considered the best comic book adaptation of all time?

    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is widely regarded as the gold standard for comic book adaptations, praised for its visual style, emotional storytelling, and faithfulness to the spirit of the source material. Batman: The Animated Series is a close second for many fans, particularly those who grew up with it in the 1990s.

    Are manga adaptations ever as good as the original?

    Rarely, but it does happen. One Piece’s 2023 Netflix live-action series was a pleasant surprise, earning strong reviews and a massive global audience. The key is usually whether the original creators are involved in the adaptation process and whether the studio respects the tone of the source material.

    Why do so many comic book adaptations fail?

    Most failures come from studios treating comic properties as raw IP to exploit rather than stories worth honouring. When the creative team lacks genuine affection for the source material, it tends to show on screen. Budget problems, poor casting, and rushed production schedules also play a significant role.

    What British comic book characters have been adapted for screen?

    Judge Dredd from 2000 AD is the most prominent British comic book character to reach cinema, with both a 1995 film and the much better-received 2012 Dredd adaptation. V for Vendetta, based on Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s British graphic novel, is another well-known example.

    Is Into the Spider-Verse better than the live-action Spider-Man films?

    Many critics and fans argue yes, largely because the film uses animation to do things live-action simply cannot, visually representing the comic book medium itself rather than just adapting the story. The Tobey Maguire original trilogy and the Tom Holland MCU films all have devoted supporters though, so the debate continues.

  • From Page to Pixel: The Best Comic Book Storylines That Should Become Video Games

    From Page to Pixel: The Best Comic Book Storylines That Should Become Video Games

    Look, we’ve had some decent comic book games over the years. Spider-Man on PS5 is genuinely brilliant. Batman: Arkham City still holds up. But when you sit down with an absolute banger of a comic arc, the kind that has you reading at 2am going “they would never, they absolutely would never” and then they absolutely do, you can’t help thinking: this should be a game. Like, right now. Someone needs to be coding this immediately.

    The gap between what comics do brilliantly and what games could do with that material is, frankly, criminal. So here’s my pitch. The best comic book storylines video game adaptations that don’t exist yet but absolutely should, complete with the gameplay mechanics each one is screaming for. Publishers, take notes. We’re doing this for free.

    Comic book art showing superhero and cosmic villain facing off, representing comic book storylines video game adaptations
    Comic book art showing superhero and cosmic villain facing off, representing comic book storylines video game adaptations

    Knightfall: The Batman RPG Nobody Has Made Yet

    Bane breaks Batman’s back. That’s the premise. If you’ve never read Knightfall, go find a copy from your local comic shop right now, I’ll wait. What makes this arc extraordinary isn’t just the spectacle of Bruce Wayne getting his spine rearranged like a bad game of Jenga. It’s the slow, methodical erosion of a man who thought he was unbeatable.

    As a video game, Knightfall is practically a design document already written. You’d start at peak Batman, full gadget tree unlocked, Gotham bowing at your feet. Then Bane releases every villain from Arkham Asylum simultaneously, and you have to battle through dozens of encounters before facing him. The clever bit is the stamina system: every fight costs you. Push too hard and you’re going into the Bane encounter with broken ribs and blurred vision. It’s a stamina and resource management RPG where being Batman means knowing when NOT to fight, which is a genuinely novel mechanic we haven’t seen done properly.

    The second act, where Jean-Paul Valley takes over the cowl and becomes increasingly brutal and unstable, plays beautifully as a moral choice system. The game tracks how far Azrael drifts from Bruce’s code and forces the player to reckon with whether the ends justify the means. Dark, psychological, brilliant. Someone give Rocksteady a ring.

    Infinity Gauntlet: A Cosmic Strategy Game

    Six Infinity Gems. One purple bloke with a chin you could park a bus on. Half of all life in the universe, gone in a snap. The Infinity Gauntlet storyline is one of the most operatic things Marvel has ever produced, and it has been, infuriatingly, reduced to being a movie reference twice over without anyone making the obvious game it deserves.

    This is a turn-based strategy game with roguelite elements. You play as different heroes across separate campaign threads, each trying to gather intelligence and power whilst Thanos effectively plays god above you. The genius of this format is that no single hero is strong enough. You have to coordinate, rotate your roster, and accept that you will lose characters along the way. Permanently. That permadeath weight would make every decision feel cosmic in scale.

    Comic art detail of shattered hero mask and cosmic gauntlet referencing iconic comic book storylines video game adaptations
    Comic art detail of shattered hero mask and cosmic gauntlet referencing iconic comic book storylines video game adaptations

    The Thanos sections, where you briefly play as the Mad Titan himself, are where it gets really interesting. Managing the Gems as separate power systems, balancing omnipotence against the narrative’s requirement that he ultimately fails because of his own psychology, that’s a mechanic nobody has cracked. Think XCOM meets Civilisation meets a proper weep at your keyboard. Magnificent.

    Civil War: An Asymmetric Multiplayer Epic

    Hero Registration Act. Iron Man says yes. Captain America says absolutely not, mate. The Marvel Civil War arc splits the entire superhero community down the middle, and the beautiful thing about it as a game concept is that it’s genuinely asymmetric. Neither side is wrong. Both sides have compelling arguments. That’s rare in fiction and almost unheard of in games.

    Imagine a large-scale multiplayer game, something in the vein of Battlefield but with superheroes, where one team plays the pro-registration faction and the other plays the resistance. The gameplay evolves over time: registration heroes gain access to government resources, surveillance tech, and reinforcements. Resistance heroes have to rely on stealth, community support, and guerrilla tactics. The moral weight shifts depending on how each team plays. Win brutally and your side looks like the villain regardless of which team you’re on. The game rewards restraint and punishes excess. That’s something genuinely new.

    According to BBC Newsround’s coverage of gaming culture, younger players increasingly want games that offer genuine moral complexity rather than simple good-versus-evil binaries. Civil War would deliver that in spades, whilst also letting you play as Spider-Man in a fight against Iron Man, which is obviously the real reason we’re all here.

    The Dark Phoenix Saga: A Narrative Adventure With Cosmic Horror

    Jean Grey absorbs the power of a dying star and comes back as something ancient and terrifying. The Dark Phoenix Saga isn’t really a superhero story at its core. It’s a tragedy about identity, about what happens when the people who love you can’t save you from yourself. It is, frankly, devastating.

    As a narrative adventure game in the style of Disco Elysium or Pentiment, this arc would be extraordinary. You play as the X-Men trying to reach Jean through conversations, memories, and emotional confrontations, whilst also managing a wider crisis that keeps escalating. The combat is minimal on purpose. The point is the relationship mechanics. Can you find the right words? Can you make Jean remember who she is before the Phoenix burns it all away?

    The final act, where the X-Men essentially have to decide Jean’s fate, would be a proper choice with consequences that echo through the rest of the game. No action sequence can carry that weight. Only writing and player investment can. This is where comic book storylines video game adaptations could genuinely expand what games are considered capable of emotionally.

    Old Man Logan: Post-Apocalyptic Open World

    The villains won. That’s the starting point. America has been carved up between supervillains, the heroes are dead or scattered, and an old, broken Wolverine who refuses to pop his claws lives quietly in a wasteland, just trying to pay his rent to the Hulk Gang. It is spectacularly bleak and I love every page of it.

    As an open-world survival game, Old Man Logan writes itself. Think Fallout 4 but with a protagonist who literally cannot die, which creates its own unique horror. Logan’s immortality isn’t a power-fantasy here; it’s a curse. You survive things that should kill you, but the world keeps getting worse regardless. The Wasteland territories, ruled by different villain factions, each with their own rules and aesthetics, give you a genuinely varied open world to navigate.

    The slow reveal of what made Logan stop fighting, the thing he did that broke him, works perfectly as a mystery layered through environmental storytelling and flashback sequences. By the time you get to that revelation, you’re so invested in this weathered, reluctant version of Wolverine that it genuinely lands. Games that make you feel the weight of a character’s history rather than just tell you about it are vanishingly rare. This arc is practically begging for that treatment.

    Why Hasn’t This Happened Already?

    The honest answer is licensing complexity and risk aversion. Big IP holders are cautious, publishers want proven formats, and the gap between a brilliant comic arc and a greenlit game budget is filled with meetings nobody enjoys. But the market for prestige comic book storylines video game adaptations has never been bigger. Insomniac’s Spider-Man series proved the appetite is enormous. The question is whether anyone is brave enough to go beyond the safe action-game format and trust players with something genuinely ambitious.

    I’d bet on it happening within the next five years. Someone, somewhere, is pitching Knightfall right now. I just hope they get the stamina mechanic right.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Which comic book storylines would make the best video game adaptations?

    Knightfall, Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, Dark Phoenix Saga, and Old Man Logan are all strong candidates because they each have built-in gameplay structures: resource management, strategy, moral choice systems, and open-world exploration. The best arcs for games are those where the story’s core tension can be expressed through player decisions rather than just cutscenes.

    Has Knightfall ever been adapted into a video game?

    Not directly, although elements of it appear in Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight. Bane features prominently in the Arkham series but the full Knightfall arc, with its stamina degradation mechanics and Jean-Paul Valley storyline, has never been given a full dedicated game treatment.

    Are there any comic book games coming out in 2026?

    Several titles based on comic properties are in development or recently released in 2026, with Marvel and DC both actively licensing game adaptations. The quality varies enormously, which is exactly why fans keep making the case for more ambitious, story-first approaches to the richest arcs in comic history.

    What game genre would suit the Infinity Gauntlet story best?

    A turn-based strategy game with roguelite elements and permadeath would be ideal, similar in structure to XCOM but with a Marvel cosmic scale. The arc’s ensemble cast and the sense that any hero could fall at any moment maps perfectly onto that genre’s strengths.

    Where can I read the original comic arcs mentioned in this article?

    Most of these arcs are available through Marvel Unlimited or DC Universe Infinite via subscription, or as collected trade paperback editions from UK comic shops and retailers like Forbidden Planet. Local comic shops across the UK stock these collections, and many libraries also carry graphic novel sections worth checking.

  • The Wildest Fan Theories About Upcoming Movies That Might Actually Be True

    The Wildest Fan Theories About Upcoming Movies That Might Actually Be True

    Fan theories are the internet’s most chaotic gift to cinema. One part obsessive attention to detail, one part sleep deprivation, and about three parts absolute conviction that the writers secretly encoded a 47-step hidden narrative into a two-second background shot. The fan theories circulating right now about fan theories upcoming movies 2026 are some of the most creative, compelling, and frankly unhinged we’ve ever seen. So let’s dig in, rate them on a totally scientific scale, and decide which theorists deserve a medal and which ones need to step away from the Reddit thread for a bit.

    Comic book art of a packed cinema audience watching a major film release, representing fan theories upcoming movies 2026
    Comic book art of a packed cinema audience watching a major film release, representing fan theories upcoming movies 2026

    Why Fan Theories About Upcoming Movies Hit Different in 2026

    Studios have got dangerously good at drip-feeding information. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it trailer frame, a prop in the background of a behind-the-scenes photo, a cryptic comment from an actor during a press junket. It’s basically ARG territory at this point. Add that to a culture where entire communities exist solely to dissect every pixel of promotional material, and you get some genuinely remarkable theorising. Some of it is brilliant. Some of it is the cinematic equivalent of connecting red string across a corkboard at 3am.

    The theories below are doing the rounds on Reddit, YouTube breakdowns, and the kind of Discord servers that have dedicated channels for single films. I’ve rounded up the ones that made me genuinely lean forward in my chair, and the ones that made me genuinely worried for the author’s wellbeing. Let’s go.

    The Avengers: Doomsday Theory That Has Marvel Fans Losing Their Minds

    This one started on a subreddit thread with over 80,000 upvotes, which tells you everything. The theory: Doctor Doom isn’t arriving as a villain in the traditional sense. He’s arriving as the only person who can fix the broken multiverse left behind by the events of the last few phases. The theorist argues that Doom’s entire arc will be a warped mirror of Tony Stark’s, ending with a sacrifice that resets the timeline. Evidence cited includes a background symbol in the second trailer that allegedly matches Doom’s family crest from the Hickman comics run, and a very deliberate wardrobe choice in a 0.3-second clip.

    Verdict: Genuinely Brilliant. The Hickman connection alone is worth taking seriously. Marvel have been quietly pulling from that run for years and this theory has the kind of structural logic that makes it feel less like a guess and more like homework. I’d be shocked if it’s entirely wrong.

    Comic book art of a film fan closely analysing movie details, illustrating fan theories upcoming movies 2026
    Comic book art of a film fan closely analysing movie details, illustrating fan theories upcoming movies 2026

    The Superman: Legacy Sequel Setup Theory

    James Gunn’s DC Universe is building something, that much is obvious. But one theory currently bouncing around the film communities suggests that a character appearing briefly in an upcoming 2026 DC release is actually a younger version of a villain we’ll see properly introduced in 2028. The evidence? A name on a school register visible for approximately one frame in a classroom scene. The theorist paused, zoomed, enhanced, cross-referenced, and published a 4,000-word breakdown. It is, objectively, a lot of work for one frame.

    Verdict: Heroically Committed, Possibly Unhinged. The theory itself is actually coherent once you read all 4,000 words. But the level of forensic analysis applied to what might just be a prop designer’s random name choice is the kind of energy that deserves its own documentary. Respect and concern in equal measure.

    The Sequel Nobody Asked For Has a Hidden Connection to a Classic

    There’s a mid-budget horror sequel dropping in late 2026 that most people have already dismissed. Except one theorist on a UK film forum has spent considerable time arguing it’s actually a stealth continuation of a beloved 1990s supernatural thriller, sharing the same fictional universe through a series of architectural details and a near-identical piece of incidental music. The original director is not involved. The studios are technically different. None of this has stopped the theory gaining traction.

    Verdict: Needs a Lie Down. Points for creativity. The music connection is actually interesting and not entirely dismissible. But when your theory requires three studio mergers, two licensing agreements, and a gentleman’s handshake between directors who’ve never met to be true, you might be stretching things slightly beyond the breaking point.

    The Animated Film That’s Secretly About the Death of Cinema

    A major animated release coming this autumn has sparked a theory that the entire film is a meta-commentary on the streaming wars and the decline of the theatrical experience. The villain is read as a stand-in for a major streaming platform. The hero’s journey is allegedly a coded argument for protecting physical media. The climactic scene reportedly takes place in what looks unmistakably like a British Odeon cinema, which the theorist argues was deliberate and pointed. The BBC’s entertainment coverage has noted the ongoing conversation about cinema attendance in the UK, which does lend this theory at least a grain of cultural relevance.

    Verdict: Surprisingly Compelling. The Odeon detail is hard to dismiss entirely, honestly. And filmmakers do love a bit of meta-commentary. I wouldn’t bet money on it being intentional, but I also wouldn’t bet against it.

    The One Theory That Turned Out to Be Right (Allegedly)

    Leaked. Confirmed. Denied. Leaked again. There’s a theory about a major franchise film arriving in early 2026 that has gone through all of those stages and is currently sitting in a very strange purgatory where the studio has neither confirmed nor denied it with any real conviction. The theory involves a dead character who isn’t actually dead, a time-jump of approximately fifteen years, and a post-credits scene that recontextualises everything that came before it. Redditors have been posting variations of this since before the film was officially announced.

    Verdict: This One’s Going to Age Badly or Age Brilliantly, No In-Between. The sheer volume of people independently arriving at the same conclusion is either evidence of a collective genius moment or a mass shared hallucination. Check back after release.

    So Are Fan Theories About Upcoming Movies Actually Worth Your Time?

    Honestly, yes. Not because they’re always right. They’re almost never entirely right. But the best fan theories force you to watch films differently, to pay attention to the craft, to notice the details that make great cinema great. They’re also just enormously fun. The community of people obsessively theorising about fan theories upcoming movies 2026 are the same people who genuinely love these stories enough to spend their evenings reading Hickman comic runs and pausing trailers frame by frame.

    There’s something wonderful about that level of enthusiasm, even when the theory in question involves a school register and a suspiciously specific piece of incidental music. The bar for a great fan theory isn’t whether it turns out to be correct. It’s whether it makes you see something you hadn’t seen before. And by that measure, even the unhinged ones are doing something right.

    Keep theorising. Keep pausing. Keep zooming into background props at midnight. Cinema is better when people care this much about it.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best fan theories about upcoming movies in 2026?

    The most talked-about fan theories in 2026 centre on Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday, DC’s expanding universe, and several animated releases. The Doom-as-antihero theory and the meta-cinema animated film theory are two of the most compelling doing the rounds right now.

    Where do people share fan theories about upcoming films?

    Reddit is the most popular hub, particularly subreddits dedicated to specific franchises. YouTube video essays, Discord servers, and UK film forums are also hotbeds for detailed breakdowns and community discussion.

    Do fan theories ever turn out to be correct?

    Surprisingly often, yes. Fans correctly predicted major plot twists in several Marvel and DC films before release, sometimes months in advance. The sheer volume of theories means some will land by probability, but the best ones are built on genuine textual and visual evidence.

    Are fan theories spoilers?

    They can be, particularly when based on leaked information. Most fan theories are clearly speculative rather than factual, but if you’re trying to go into a film completely fresh, it’s worth steering clear of dedicated theory communities in the weeks before release.

    How do I come up with my own fan theories about upcoming movies?

    Start by watching trailers multiple times and noting details in the background. Cross-reference with the source material (comics, books, previous films) and look for patterns in the director’s or writer’s previous work. The best theories connect specific evidence to larger narrative logic.

  • The Greatest Easter Eggs Hidden in Superhero Movies That Took Years to Find

    The Greatest Easter Eggs Hidden in Superhero Movies That Took Years to Find

    There is something almost supernatural about the kind of person who watches a superhero movie seventeen times, pauses at frame 4,823, and announces to a Discord server at 2am that they have just spotted a barely-visible newspaper headline referencing a character who won’t appear until three films later. These people are heroes in their own right. No capes required. The best superhero movie Easter eggs are not just fun little winks from directors — they are puzzles, love letters, and occasionally acts of outright trolling aimed at the most devoted fans on the planet.

    Comic art of cinema audience discovering best superhero movie Easter eggs on a giant screen
    Comic art of cinema audience discovering best superhero movie Easter eggs on a giant screen

    Why Filmmakers Love Hiding Easter Eggs in Superhero Movies

    Easter eggs in superhero cinema go way beyond fan service. They serve as connective tissue between stories, reward loyal audiences, and give directors a creative playground within otherwise enormous, committee-approved productions. Kevin Feige has spoken in various interviews about how the MCU’s hidden details are sometimes deliberate teases for films not yet greenlit, and sometimes just personal jokes that made it through editing. Either way, the result is a fandom armed with pause buttons and boundless determination. The BBC’s entertainment coverage has repeatedly noted how these discoveries send social media into a collective spiral — and honestly, same.

    MCU Easter Eggs That Nobody Found for Years

    The MCU is the undisputed heavyweight of hidden details. Some get spotted within hours of a film’s release. Others lurk undetected for the better part of a decade.

    The Mjolnir Crater in Iron Man 2

    Iron Man 2 dropped in 2010. Nick Fury’s post-credits scene showed a crater in New Mexico containing Thor’s hammer. Casual viewers clocked that. What took considerably longer to find was a tiny news ticker running in the background of a Stark Expo television broadcast mentioning “unusual seismic activity in New Mexico” — weeks before anyone in the film’s world knew anything about it. Fans only identified it clearly after the original Blu-ray release years later allowed frame-by-frame scrubbing at higher resolution. Sneaky. Genuinely sneaky.

    Infinity Stones Were Hiding in Plain Sight Since 2011

    The Tesseract appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger as a McGuffin. Fine. But a re-examination of the Red Skull’s lair revealed a mural on the wall depicting a figure holding what is clearly the six Infinity Stones arranged in a pattern matching Thanos’s gauntlet. This was painted there in 2011. Thanos didn’t get a proper scene until 2012’s Avengers. The mural wasn’t widely analysed and confirmed until around 2018 when Infinity War came out and eagle-eyed fans went back with fresh motivation. Seven years. The detail sat there for seven years.

    DCEU Hidden Details That Rewarded Obsessive Rewatching

    The DC Extended Universe has had its ups and downs (diplomatically put), but its Easter egg game has occasionally been exceptional.

    Batman v Superman’s Knightmare Future

    The “Knightmare” sequence in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice confused audiences in 2016. Many assumed it was straightforward. What took longer to unpack was a series of symbols carved into the desert landscape that, when mapped against panel-by-panel comparisons to Jack Kirby’s original Fourth World comics, corresponded directly to Darkseid’s forces and the Anti-Life Equation’s visual language. Comic scholars flagged this on forums within months, but it didn’t reach mainstream awareness until Zack Snyder’s Justice League expanded the sequence in 2021, at which point people started going back and cataloguing every grain of sand with the enthusiasm of a forensics team.

    The Newspaper in Wonder Woman

    Patty Jenkins tucked a beautifully subtle one into Wonder Woman (2017). In a scene set in a London photography studio, a framed print visible on the back wall depicts what appears to be a generic vintage street scene. Only it isn’t. The street is recognisably Diagon Alley-adjacent in composition (a different franchise’s cultural fingerprint bleeding through) — but more importantly, the pedestrians in the print include a figure whose silhouette matches Ares’s armoured form from the film’s climax, foreshadowing the villain before his identity is revealed. This one took years and a very high-resolution copy of the film to confirm. The fan community still argues about it, which is half the fun.

    Close-up comic art of magnifying glass revealing best superhero movie Easter eggs on film reel
    Close-up comic art of magnifying glass revealing best superhero movie Easter eggs on film reel

    Spider-Man’s Galaxy-Brained Hidden Details

    Spider-Man films, across both Sony and Marvel’s various arrangements, contain some of the most thoughtfully hidden Easter eggs in superhero cinema. Spider-Man: Homecoming featured a classroom scene where the academic decathlon banner in the background listed previous championship years — and one of those years aligned precisely with the publication date of the first Amazing Spider-Man issue from 1963. Most people walked past it. Devoted fans spotted it during a third viewing and genuinely lost their minds on Reddit in the best possible way.

    Spider-Man: No Way Home went further, hiding variant designation numbers on equipment labels that corresponded to the exact comic universe numbers of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective Spider-Men. Earth-96283 and Earth-120703. These are canon designations from Marvel’s multiverse comics. They were printed on a prop label. Nobody noticed during the cinema run. It took a 4K home release and someone with excellent eyesight and far too much time to surface them.

    The Fan Communities Who Make This Possible

    None of this detective work happens in isolation. Subreddits like r/MarvelStudios and r/DCEUleaks have thousands of members whose collective obsession functions like a distributed supercomputer aimed at superhero trivia. Discord servers dedicated to specific franchises run organised “screening sessions” where members each cover specific quadrants of a frame. The best superhero movie Easter eggs often get found through exactly this kind of coordinated, slightly unhinged community effort rather than any single genius viewer catching everything alone.

    Interestingly, a lot of these fan communities have migrated their discovery content onto social media platforms and use tools to manage their links and resources. Creators and influencers who post Easter egg breakdowns often rely on a quick landing page to consolidate their theory threads, video essays, and community links in one place. Based in the UK, LinkVine (linkvine.uk) offers exactly this kind of free link-in-bio tool, letting social media creators manage their links through a single clean link manager rather than scattering everything across a dozen platforms. For an influencer whose entire brand is “the person who finds hidden details in superhero films”, keeping your content organised and accessible is part of the job.

    Guardians of the Galaxy’s Collector Cameos

    The Collector’s museum in Guardians of the Galaxy is a masterpiece of background detail. Dark Elves from Thor: The Dark World appear caged in the background. A Chitauri soldier from The Avengers stands in a case. Howard the Duck — properly Howard the Duck — appears before his post-credits scene, visible to anyone who paused on exactly the right frame roughly thirty minutes into the film. This was confirmed by James Gunn himself years after the film’s release when a fan posted their discovery. The collective scream from the internet when Gunn said “yes, that’s intentional” was audible from space.

    Why the Hunt for Easter Eggs Will Never Stop

    Here is the thing about the best superhero movie Easter eggs: studios know fans are looking. That knowledge changes the game. Directors now hide things specifically designed to take years to find, calibrated to reward the kind of obsessive community attention that only the internet’s most dedicated corners can provide. It is a creative arms race between filmmakers and audiences, and both sides are clearly enjoying themselves enormously.

    For the fan creators who document these discoveries — building YouTube channels, social media accounts, and newsletter audiences off the back of their sleuthing — managing all that content becomes its own challenge. That is where a solid link manager becomes genuinely useful. LinkVine, the UK-based free link-in-bio platform available at linkvine.uk, has become a go-to for influencers who need a quick landing page that pulls together their social media presence, their video content, and their community links without requiring a web developer or a monthly subscription fee. When your content is “I found something nobody spotted for eight years”, you want people to actually be able to find everything you have made about it.

    The Easter egg hunt is not going anywhere. As long as superhero films keep getting made — and given current release schedules, that means at least until the sun burns out — filmmakers will keep hiding things, and fans will keep finding them. The only question is how long it takes. Sometimes hours. Sometimes a decade. And the decade-long ones are always, without question, the most satisfying.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best superhero movie Easter eggs ever found?

    Some of the most celebrated include the Infinity Stone mural in Captain America: The First Avenger (hidden in plain sight since 2011), the Howard the Duck cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy’s museum scene, and the multiverse universe numbers on prop labels in Spider-Man: No Way Home. These were all found by obsessive fan communities after multiple rewatches.

    How long does it usually take fans to find hidden Easter eggs in Marvel films?

    It varies wildly. Some Easter eggs are spotted within hours of a film’s release or streaming debut. Others, particularly those visible only in high-resolution home releases, can take years. The Infinity Stone mural in The First Avenger went largely unanalysed for around seven years before Infinity War sent fans digging back through the earlier films.

    Do filmmakers actually intend all the Easter eggs fans find?

    Most deliberate ones are confirmed by directors or writers either in interviews or on social media. James Gunn, Kevin Feige, and the Russo Brothers have all confirmed specific hidden details over the years. Occasionally a fan finds something that turns out to be coincidental, but the most famous ones are almost always intentional.

    Where do fans go to discuss and discover superhero movie Easter eggs?

    Reddit communities like r/MarvelStudios are the most popular hubs, alongside dedicated Discord servers for specific franchises. YouTube channels focused on “things you missed” breakdowns have also become a major part of Easter egg culture, with some creators building large audiences solely around hidden detail analysis.

    Are DCEU Easter eggs as detailed as MCU ones?

    The MCU has the advantage of a longer and more consistent production history, so its Easter egg network is larger. However, Zack Snyder’s DC films in particular contain extremely dense hidden details, especially relating to the Fourth World comics and Darkseid’s mythology, some of which took years and a dedicated fan base to fully unpack.

  • Comic Book Storylines That Would Make Insane Video Games

    Comic Book Storylines That Would Make Insane Video Games

    Some of the greatest comic book storylines ever written have been sitting on shelves, doing absolutely nothing, while Hollywood churns out another origin story nobody asked for. Games based on comics have come a long way, but the truly unhinged, universe-shattering arcs? Still waiting. These are the stories that deserve a full-blown interactive experience, complete with dream gameplay mechanics that would genuinely melt your brain in the best way possible.

    Forget another by-the-numbers beat-em-up with a cape. These comic book storylines have the depth, the drama, and frankly the sheer chaos to carry a GOTY-worthy video game from start to credits and beyond.

    Epic comic book storylines depicted as a multiverse battlefield with heroes and villains clashing across fractured reality zones
    Epic comic book storylines depicted as a multiverse battlefield with heroes and villains clashing across fractured reality zones

    Secret Wars: The Ultimate Multiverse Survival Game

    Marvel’s Secret Wars, both the 1984 original and Jonathan Hickman’s jaw-dropping 2015 run, is practically begging to be turned into a massive open-world survival game. The premise is outrageous in the best way: every version of reality gets smashed together into one patchwork planet called Battleworld, ruled by a god-level Doctor Doom. You’d have zones themed after completely different universes, each with its own visual identity, enemies, and rules.

    Imagine a game structured like a dark, high-stakes version of No Man’s Sky crossed with a fighting game. You pick a hero or villain from any corner of the Marvel multiverse and fight to carve out territory. Want to play as Thor from an alternate 1602 England? Go on then. Faction warfare, resource management across domains, and Doom as the final boss pulling strings from his throne. The writing almost does the work for you. Studios are leaving an absolute goldmine untouched here.

    Knightfall: A Batman Game That Actually Breaks You

    Knightfall is one of the most brutal comic book storylines DC ever published, and somehow no game has ever done it justice. The arc sees Bane orchestrate a mass prison break from Arkham Asylum, forcing Bruce Wayne to exhaust himself taking down every villain before Bane steps in and snaps his spine. It is a story about attrition, endurance, and what happens when the hero loses.

    A Knightfall game built around a stamina and resource-depletion mechanic would be genuinely unlike anything else out there. Picture a game where each fight actually costs you. Injuries carry over. Your gadgets run out. The city gets worse the longer you take, ramping up the pressure until that inevitable confrontation with Bane where, if you have played recklessly, you are already half-broken before he lays a hand on you. Then comes the Azrael arc, a completely different playstyle: brutal, armoured, morally grey. Two campaigns stitched together by one catastrophic night. Someone build this immediately.

    Comic book storyline Knightfall inspired illustration of an exhausted Batman figure in a shattered Gotham street
    Comic book storyline Knightfall inspired illustration of an exhausted Batman figure in a shattered Gotham street

    Annihilation: A Space Strategy Epic Nobody Has Attempted

    Marvel’s Annihilation crossover from 2006 is cosmic horror meets military strategy on a scale that makes most sci-fi games look timid. The Annihilation Wave, led by Annihilus, tears through the universe devouring everything. Nova, Drax, Gamora, Silver Surfer and others have to coordinate a desperate defence of the cosmos itself.

    This is the foundation for a phenomenal real-time strategy game, or better yet, a hybrid of RTS and third-person action similar in spirit to what Battlefleet Gothic pulled off but on a far grander scale. You manage fleets, assign heroes to frontlines, and personally drop into key battles as Nova or Silver Surfer. The tone is dark, the stakes are existential, and the villain is a walking entropy machine. Among the comic book storylines that deserve a proper game adaptation, Annihilation sits right at the top of the cosmic tier.

    Onslaught: An X-Men Game With a Proper Psychological Horror Edge

    The Onslaught saga is one of the most ambitious Marvel crossovers ever attempted. A psychic entity born from the merged dark sides of Professor X and Magneto runs amok, taking on the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men simultaneously. What makes it extraordinary is that Professor X is essentially the villain, which tears the X-Men apart emotionally before a single punch is thrown.

    A game adaptation could lean hard into psychological horror. Early chapters play like a classic X-Men RPG where you assemble your team and investigate disturbing psychic phenomena across New York. Slowly you realise the threat is coming from inside the house, and the gameplay shifts into something more like a psychological thriller crossed with an action RPG. Trust mechanics where characters question each other’s loyalty. Branching decisions based on who you believe. It would be unlike any superhero game ever made, which is exactly why it should exist.

    Speaking of things that need sorting before you can build something great, if you are ever dealing with the physical side of renovation projects, getting a professional in for asbestos roof removal is the kind of non-negotiable job you do not skip. Same energy as calling in the Avengers rather than winging it solo.

    House of M: An Open World Where Reality Itself Is the Twist

    Wanda Maximoff rewrites reality so that mutants rule the world and humans are the minority. It sounds like a power fantasy until the cracks start showing. House of M is a storyline built on grief, power, and the question of whether a perfect world built on lies is worth having.

    An open-world game set inside the House of M reality, where you begin fully believing this is just how things are, would be extraordinary. As Wolverine, who retains his memories, you slowly unpick the illusion and recruit others to the truth. The world around you is beautiful but wrong in ways you cannot immediately explain. That cognitive dissonance built into gameplay would be something special. Side missions that seem heroic but serve a corrupt system. NPCs who are happy and will fight to stay that way. Few comic book storylines have this kind of thematic richness baked right in.

    Why Are These Stories Still Sitting on a Shelf?

    Between licensing complexity, studio risk aversion, and the ongoing obsession with safe IP, the boldest comic book storylines keep getting overlooked in favour of another Spider-Man reboot. That is not entirely a complaint because those games are often excellent. But the source material exists for experiences that could genuinely push the medium forward. The stories are written. The characters are beloved. Someone just needs to be brave enough to build them.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Which comic book storylines would work best as video games?

    Storylines with strong mechanics baked into the plot work best. Knightfall’s attrition-based narrative suits stamina gameplay, Secret Wars suits open-world faction combat, and House of M suits a reality-twisting mystery RPG. The best candidates have clear player goals, high stakes, and iconic villains.

    Has Secret Wars ever been adapted into a game?

    Not in any meaningful way. There have been very loose references in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and mobile games, but neither Hickman’s 2015 run nor the original 1984 arc has received a dedicated video game adaptation. Given the scale of the storyline, a proper game remains a massively missed opportunity.

    Why haven't more comic book storylines been turned into games?

    Licensing is a huge factor, as multiple publishers often hold rights to different characters across a single crossover event. Studio risk aversion also plays a role, with publishers preferring proven IP over bold narrative experiments. Budget and development time for open-world games based on complex arcs is also a genuine barrier.

    What was the Knightfall comic arc about?

    Knightfall is a Batman storyline published in 1993 in which Bane frees every villain from Arkham Asylum, forcing an already exhausted Bruce Wayne to recapture them all. When Batman is at his limit, Bane confronts him and breaks his back. The story then follows Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) taking on the Batman mantle in a far more violent way.

    Are there any good comic book video games already out there?

    Absolutely. Marvel’s Spider-Man series by Insomniac is widely considered the gold standard, while Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequels remain genre-defining. Midnight Suns brought a tactics-RPG spin to Marvel that was critically praised. The quality is there; what is missing is adaptations of the truly epic, universe-spanning storylines.

  • Superheroes Who Would Be Absolutely Useless in Real Life

    Superheroes Who Would Be Absolutely Useless in Real Life

    We love our superheroes. We cheer for them, dress like them, and argue about them on the internet at 2am. But let’s be honest – some of the most famous superheroes would be absolutely useless in real life. Not because they lack powers, but because those powers would cause absolute chaos the moment they stepped outside a comic book panel.

    Comic book style superhero looking confused at a supermarket checkout - superheroes useless in real life

    Aquaman: King of Absolutely Nothing Useful

    Aquaman rules the seas, commands sea creatures, and carries a very impressive trident. Brilliant. Except roughly 99% of daily human problems happen on land. Lost your keys? Aquaman cannot help. Stuck in traffic? He’s in the Thames talking to pigeons and complaining it smells wrong. His entire skillset is perfectly suited to a world where everyone lives underwater, which – last time we checked – is not the case. Unless your local Tesco floods, Arthur Curry is essentially unemployed.

    Iceman: A Walking Insurance Nightmare

    Bobby Drake can freeze anything he touches and create ice slides through the sky. Sounds spectacular. In practice, he’d be banned from every pub in Britain by January. One slightly warm pint and suddenly the entire bar is a rink. He shakes someone’s hand and they’re calling 999. Car parks, pavements, kitchen floors – all absolute death traps. Iceman would spend more time in civil litigation than he would fighting crime.

    The Flash: Too Fast to Function

    Barry Allen runs at the speed of light. Genuinely impressive. Also genuinely terrifying. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who can process a year’s worth of thoughts before you’ve finished your first word? The Flash would be the most insufferable person alive. Every film would be ruined before you’d found your seat. Every surprise party – spoiled. Every pizza delivery – already eaten. Being the fastest man alive sounds fun right up until you realise he’d never, ever wait for anyone ever again.

    Magneto: Great Power, Terrible Consequences

    Yes, Magneto is technically a villain, but hear us out – even if he turned good, he’d be chaos. Modern life runs on metal. Phones, cars, bridges, your nan’s hip replacement. One bad mood and half of Birmingham disappears into the sky. He means well, probably, but the collateral damage would be genuinely unhinged. His insurance premium alone would bankrupt a small country.

    Superheroes Useless in Real Life: The Honourable Mentions

    We cannot leave out Ant-Man, who shrinks down to the size of an insect and then gets genuinely surprised when no one takes him seriously. Or Cyclops, who cannot look at literally anything without protective eyewear and would fail his driving test on day one. Or Jubilee, who shoots fireworks from her hands – which is, frankly, just a fire hazard at a birthday party.

    The truth is, comic book powers are designed for comic book problems. Real life is full of leaking boilers, passive-aggressive emails and queues at the post office – none of which Thor’s hammer can solve. Well, maybe the queue one. Actually, definitely the queue one.

    Why We Love Them Anyway

    Here’s the thing – the reason these superheroes feel useless in real life is also exactly why we adore them. They exist in a world bigger, bolder and more colourful than ours. They punch problems in the face. They have capes. Real life rarely allows for capes. So while they might be superheroes who are useless in real life by practical standards, they’re absolutely perfect where they belong – in stories that make the world feel a little more exciting. And honestly, in a world full of spreadsheets and traffic jams, we’ll take all the colourful chaos we can get.

    Superhero stuck in traffic in a small car - superheroes useless in real life illustrated in comic art style
    Group of superheroes queuing at a post office - funny comic art take on superheroes useless in real life

    Superheroes useless in real life FAQs

    Which superhero would actually be the most useful in everyday life?

    Spider-Man probably edges it – web-slinging gets you around faster than the Tube, and his spider-sense would be genuinely handy for dodging awkward conversations at parties. He also seems to hold down a job, which already puts him ahead of most of this list.

    Are there any supervillains who would also be useless in real life?

    Absolutely. The Riddler would just be someone who leaves very annoying voicemails. Mr Freeze would cause the same ice-related insurance problems as Iceman. And the Joker – well, he’d probably just end up as a very uncomfortable stand-up comedian.

    Why do we find superhero comedy content so entertaining?

    Because superheroes are already so dramatic and oversized that poking fun at them feels like puncturing the world’s most satisfying balloon. We love them deeply, which makes laughing at their impracticalities all the more enjoyable. It’s affectionate mockery at its finest.

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