Here is my much delayed review of issue 2 of Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Flaws by Tim Seeley and Freddie Williams II with colours by Andrew Dalhouse. For my take on issue 1, go here.
What is more, it has just been announced that The Sword of Flaws will transition into an ongoing Masters of the Universe comic series at Dark Horse, the first ongoing Masters of the Universe comic we’ve had since the DC run ended in 2016. Continue reading
In the past week, North Germany has been blessed – or cursed, depending on your POV – with an unusual amount of snow. You already saw some of it in my post about my road trip to Hildesheim, but this weekend, we not only got an extra dose of snow, but also a veritable blizzard.
The weather service had forecast a snow storm for Friday and urged people to stay at home if at all possible. Schools were closed in Bremen, Hamburg and Lower Saxony to the usual cries of “But I have to work. Who shall take care of my child?” Oddly enough, you never heard these complaints back in the 1980s, when the schools were closed because of snow approx. one or two days every winter, even though there were a lot of families where both parents were working or single parent families back then as well. Continue reading
In my New Year’s post, I mentioned that I may have a road trip report for you soon and here it is. Because on Sunday, when 2026 was only four days old, I went on the first road trip of the year.
Though this particular trip was still planned in 2025. For you see, I have a toy collector pal named Michael. He lives about 150 kilometers away in a village near Hildesheim. I wanted to buy some Masters of the Universe Classics figures from him, so we agreed that I’d come to pick them up on Sunday, January 4.
Of course, at the time the weather was nice and clear and there was no snow. But then, it started to snow on Friday afternoon and just kept going intermittently through Friday night and Saturday. And according to the weather report, the snow would stick around at least until following weekend. What is more, North Germany is having veritable snow storm this weekend that’s so dangerous that people are being urged to stay at home if possible, though we didn’t know that at the time. Nonetheless, we agree to wait what the weather and traffic conditions would be like on Sunday and then I would decide whether to drive to Hildesheim on Sunday or reschedule.
On Sunday morning, I woke up, looked out of the front door and saw that not only was the snow that had fallen on Friday and Saturday was still there, but that there was even more of it, which had fallen overnight. I guess we had about ten to fifteen centimeters of snow, which is a lot by North German standards. And indeed, North Germany got the brunt of the current snowfall, which is very unusual.
On Friday and Saturday, the snowfall had caused lots of traffic accidents in North Germany and several Autobahnen and Bundesstraßen were clogged with traffic or closed altogether as a result. So I checked the traffic reports and saw that while several train and bus services had been cancelled because of the snow, the streets were clear. I deliberated for a few moments – Do I really want to drive in the snow? Though it would be a lovely road trip. – and then decided, “Screw it! I’ll go.”
Now Autobahnen and Bundesstraßen have priority, when clearing the roads with snow ploughs (and the snow is mostly cleared during the night). Besides, my car has a four-wheel drive, if necessary. So I messaged Michael that I’m coming to pick up the figures and embarked on my road trip to Hildesheim.
Of course, more snow had fallen overnight. So I looked out of the front door and wondered whether to shovel the driveway before leaving. Cause in Germany, you are required to remove snow from your driveway, the path to your front door and the sidewalk, lest someone slip and fall. However, clearing the driveway would take time and there would only be more snow. Besides, it was Sunday and there would be no mail delivery, I wasn’t expcting visitors and no one would have any reason to walk up to my front door. So I decided to shovel the driveway on Monday morning, if necessary. Continue reading
2026 is already three days old by now, so here is my annual New Year post.
As I’ve said before, I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Part of the reason is that New Year’s Eve happens only a week after Christmas Eve and I’m usually all holidayed out from three days of Christmas celebrations, so I don’t really feel like having yet another holiday that requires preparations. Of course, I did the party thing and the “standing around on the market square in the cold, watching fireworks” thing, when I was younger. But in the past ten years or so, I mostly celebrated with my parents at home and/or in a restaurant and in the past three years I’ve been celebrating all alone. Continue reading
I never felt particularly comfortable with eligibility posts, but I posted such an overview for the first time in 2016, when someone added my name to the Hugo Nominations Wiki. Eventually, it paid off, because I was a Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer in 2020, 2021 and 2022 and won in 2022.
So if you’re interested in what I write, here is an overview of all SFF related blogposts of 2025, in chronological order, as well as a list of all the SFF and other fiction I published.
That said, I have a shiny rocket on my shelf and there are many highly deserving fan writers who have never even been nominated, let alone won. I’m not going to refuse another nomination, but I’d like to ask you to consider some of those other great fan writers as well.
Finally, I know that there are people out there who don’t like me and don’t like what I have to say. That’s okay, no one has to like me and my work. But if you don’t like my work, just don’t read it. There’s no need to send harassment mobs my way.
And if you think you’re going to silence me, think again. Cause it’s not going to work. Continue reading
It’s the last day of the year, so we present to you, live from the Multiversal Nexus Ballroom, the winner of the 2025 Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award.
While I have been awarding the Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents for 45 years now (see the 2025 winner here), the Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award is a fairly new prize that I only introduced in 2020 as a companion piece to the Darth Vader Parenthood Award. The 2020 winner may be found here, the 2021 winner here, the 2022 winner here, the 2023 winner here and the 2024 winner here.
As for why I felt the need to introduce a companion award, depictions of parenthood in popular culture have been undergoing a paradigm shift in the past few years with more positive portrayals of supportive and loving parents and fewer utterly terrible parents. Personally, I believe that this shift is a very good thing, because the reason that I started the Darth Vader Parenthood Award in the first place is because I was annoyed by all the terrible parents in pop culture. For while most real world parents may not be perfect, at least most of thmy do their best. Maybe, the conditions that gave rise to the Darth Vader Parenthood Award will eventually cease to exist and we can permanently retire the award.
The bar is open for the adults, the play area and ball pit are open for the kids, and the kitchen is serving up delicacies from around Multiverse as well as the greatest selection of pastries and sweets found anywhere in any universe, so without further ado, let’s get started.
Warning: Spoilers for lots of things behind the cut! Continue reading
It’s almost the end of the year, so we are proud to present to you, live from the Multiversal Nexus Ballroom, the 44th Annual Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents.
Let’s have a bit of background: I have been informally awarding the Darth Vader Parenthood Award since sometime in the 1980s with the earliest awards being retroactive. Over the years, the list of winners migrated from a handwritten page to various computer file formats, updated every year. Eventually, I decided to make the winners public on the Internet, because what’s an award without some publicity and a ceremony? The list of previous winners (in PDF format) up to 2017 may be found here, BTW, and the 2018 winner, the 2019 winner, the 2020 winner, the 2021 winner, the 2022 winner, the 2023 winner and the 2024 winner were announced right here on this blog.
The bar is open, the various assembled winners of yesteryear and this year’s hopefuls are plotting with each other, while enjoying delicacies from around the Multiverse, so without further ado, let’s start with the ceremony.
Warning: Spoilers for several things behind the cut! Continue reading
Yes, it’s the obligatory Christmas post.
In past years, December was generally very busy with translation work. This year was remarkably quiet, which is a tad worrying. Though I decided to make the most of the unexpected free time I had and thus I wound up visiting a whopping four different Christmas markets (Bremen, Oldenburg, Vechta and Emden) during the advent season. They were all lovely in their own way and Vechta’s Christmas market has drown a lot since I last visited it back in 2013, when it was literally just three stalls, a carousel and a beautiful nativity scene. Nowdays, Vechta’s Christmas market has two carousels, a lot more market stalls and even an ice skating rink. They also still have the biggest and prettiest nativity in the entire region. Continue reading
A week after issue 1 of the new Masters of the Universe comic mini-series The Sword of Flaws came out (see my review here and a review of issue 2 is coming soon), Dark Horse already brought us the next Masters of the Universe comic, a one-shot set in the Revelation/Revolution continuity focussed on the character of Andra, written by Tiffany Smith, the actress who voiced Andra, with art by Adriana Melo and colours by Guiliano Peratelli. Releasing two comics in the same franchise a week apart seems like a strange choice, but the Andra one-shot has been delayed for a couple of months now, likely fallout from the bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors.
And talking of delays, I’d planned to post this review long before now, but then I caught the flu and was busy with day job work and then I had problems taking the toy photos you’ll see below, because the lamp illuminating my usual photo spot was broken. Still, better late than never, so enjoy my review of the Andra one-shot:
Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution gave a lot of development to many existing Masters of the Universe characters and also introduced two brand-new characters. One is the Mighty Motherboard, Hordak’s agent on Eternia and idol of a bizarre technocult. The other is Andra, tech whiz as well as Teela’s friend and partner during her mercenary phase. Though there is some debate whether Andra really is a new character, because a character named Lieutenant Andra, also a friend of Teela’s and member of the Royal Guard, had a few small appearance in the Marvel Star Comics of the 1980s. However, apart from the name and their connection to Teela, both characters have nothing in common, so I assume they’re two different characters who just happen to share the same name (which coincidentally is also the easiest solution to the King Grayskull dilemma, simply assuming that the white King Grayskull from the 200X cartoon and the black King Grayskull from Revelation/Revolution are two different people, King Grayskull I and King Grayskull II).
Though this didn’t stop the usual haters, who most likely had no idea who Lieutenant Andra from the Marvel Star Comics even was, from bitterly complaining about Andra in Masters of the Universe: Revelation/Revolution, because Andra happens to be a) a major character, b) female and c) black. Honestly, this crap is so predictable.
That said, I really liked Andra as a character. Masters of the Universe has always been a male-heavy franchise – leaving Princess of Power aside for a moment – so another female character is always welcome and Teela certainly needs a female friend, since she grew up raised by a single father and surrounded by men. Masters of the Universe is also a very white franchise, so another character of colour is always welcome as well. Finally, Andra is also part of the “passing of the torch” motif of Revelation/Revolution, since she is promoted to the new Man-at-Arms at the end of Revelation.
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