The world mourns another fallen star in the wake of Alan Rickman's death. The new video game Dreamfall Chapters: Book Four is reviewed. And Wonder Woman's childhood on Paradise Island is revealed in a new comic. It's Airy Monday, our weekly segment on magic and religion in pop culture. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Shortly after the death of beloved musician David Bowie, the world was rattled by the death of another pop culture icon: actor Alan Rickman, well-known for his roles in Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, and probably, most of all, the Harry Potter films as potions master Severus Snape. Max Gladstone at Tor.com writes about loss and mourning our fallen heroes in commemoration of Rickman.
Are British writers just better at telling children's stories? Having produced such classics as The Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter novels, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, and more it's hard to make an argument against the island country's domination of Anglophone children's literature. But why precisely is that? The Atlantic's Colleen Gillard takes a guess at the secret to British writers' success.
Over a decade and a half ago, the video game The Longest Journey, about two parallel worlds of magic and science, was released to critical acclaim. Seven years later, its sequel was released. Now the series draws to a close with Dreamfall Chapters: Book Four, which continues the story of series protagonist Zoë. You can read Kotaku's first look at the game here.
Marvel Studios, well-known for its adaptations of Iron Man and Thor, branched out into streaming entertainment last year. The second of its two Netflix streamed series, Jessica Jones, was highly acclaimed for its complex depictions of trauma and abuse as well as its well-rounded female characters. But some have complained the show was sexist against men. Not so, argues The Mary Sue's Molly Booth, who makes a passionate defense of the series and examination of its gender roles here.
The daughter of Zeus and princess of the Amazons, Diana Prince is well-known to comics fans as Wonder Woman. But what was her life like before she became the superhero fans know and love? The new comic The Legend of Wonder Woman takes a look at Diana's early childhood on the remote utopia of Paradise Island.