TV Has Made Me Happy

It has occurred to me that this generation of TV writers are comic book readers. But it's not from "Heroes", "Bionic Woman", or any Sci Fi show that has me coming to this conclusion. I know those guys are geeks.

On "Numb3rs", a rare ashcan comic is stolen during a comic book convention. Not only is one of the agents an avid collector with "long boxes"(his words), but Charlie Eppes(played by David Krumholtz) gets into a discussion about comics with his friend Larry Fleinhardt(played by Peter MacNicol). Fleinhardt says that some of the characters he liked were Daredevil and the Fantastic Four, but his favorite was Galactus. When Charlie points out Galactus's diet, Fleinhardt comes back with Galactus is one of the three fundamental forces of the universe along with Death and Eternity. Not only is that the Marvel explanation for Galactus's purpose, but to even for someone to even think of Eternity requires a deep interest in Marvel comics a casual reader is likely to miss.

Last week's episode of "NCIS" began with Agent Timothy McGee(played by Sean Murray) reading an issue of the original Iron Fist series before Agent Tony DiNozzo(played by Michael Weatherly) tries to snatch it out of his hand. McGee tells Tony to "watch it. This is Iron Fist #14, the first appearance of Sabretooth." The issue shown was indeed Iron Fist #14, and not a crappy reprint. You can see the yellowed pages of the book as McGee is reading it.

On "Dexter", the serial killer drama on Showtime, Dexter was called to examine the blood spray for a murder at a comic book store. There were Heroclix all along the counters and in glass cases. It doesn't take a deep understanding of comics to display Heroclix but they are awesome. So, hooray.