Gamma Squad officially launched on this day five years ago, and we’ve remained steadfast in our obsession with superheros, Star Wars, science, cosplay, and memes on these here internets. And we plan to stick around for many years to come. Observing. Waiting. Pantsless.
Although we used to celebrate our birthdays with birthday animals, this time we’re going recap some of our most popular posts of the past year in no particular order.
We kicked off the previous anniversary by having our hearts warmed by the San Francisco Batkid. And here’s a roundup of how the rest of the year went.
ASSORTED NERDITRY:
- Chris Pratt visited a children’s hospital dressed as Star-Lord, (most of) The Avengers assembled for a cancer patient, and Robert Downey Jr. celebrated his 49th birthday by screening Captain America: The Winter Soldier for 50 kids.
- We wrote a guide to Marvel’s Phase Three.
- We enjoyed Groot dancing, which was made into an unofficial toy, an official toy, and Calvin and Hobbes fan art. Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn even led a Groot dance session at Dragon Con.
- George R.R. Martin created some great photo ops at Comic-Con.
- This roller coaster is even more terrifying than George R.R. Martin as Khaleesi.
- The Deadpool high-res test footage was awesome, and so were the photobombed comic covers.
- Someone found a new way to beat the first level of Super Mario Bros.
MEME ALL THE THINGS
- Star Wars: Episode VII got an official title, which didn’t get past the internet’s notice.
- The internet also noticed Apple’s Special Event, but Samsung had the sickest burn of all.
- Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” crowdsourcing hilariously backfired.
- EA’s “Madden GIFerator” crowdsourcing also backfired, gave us the ol’ razzle dazzle.
- Some of our favorite video games got Honest Box Art.
- Star Trek got hilariously motion stabilized, and Riker’s Google search history was as expected.
- Psst. Hey. Hail Hydra.
- The internet had fun with the fashion choices of Days Of Future Past‘s Quicksilver.
- The internet also had fun with sad Batman and with Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice‘s heavy title. Nonetheless, everything’s better with Batman.
- We tried to explain GamerGate, but then we remembered: Actually, it’s about ethics in gaming journalism.
- Luigi will murder us all.
YEAH, WELL, THAT’S JUST LIKE, YOUR OPINION, MAN.
- This official The Big Lebowski pinball machine would really tie a room together.
- GameStop unveiled a credit card seemingly aimed at exploiting gamers.
- Spider Woman got a porn-y cover, and a 3D rendering of it provided the nightmare fuel.
- Both Marvel and DC Comics unveiled some dumb, sexist shirts.
- Some old court testimony from Neil Gaiman about Todd McFarlane was the funniest thing we read that day.
- Jenny McCarthy’s Twitter Q&A went off without a hitch.
- Jim Carrey talked about how much Tommy Lee Jones hated him on the set of Batman Forever. Meanwhile, Michael Keaton said that movie sucked anyway. To be fair, it did absolutely suck.
HOW ABOUT A MASHUP? (DIFFICULTY: NO DISNEY PRINCESSES)
- The ’80s B-movie version of Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the must-own VHS of 1985.
- The Brain finally lost it on Pinky.
- What if Nintendo remade The Avengers with their own characters?
- Star Wars got a Guardians Of The Galaxy remix, an ’80s high school reimagining, and a set of NFL logos.
- Speaking of the NFL, the teams were also chosen for a Pokémon crossover.
- Game Of Thrones went art nouveau.
- Chun Li ruined everything.
- And Jim Ross had a strong opinion about all of it.
WE’VE GOT LISTS.
- We rounded up Game Of Thrones fan theories, ten overused sci-fi tropes, Guardians Of The Galaxy Easter eggs, and the most ridiculous times Sam influenced the future on Quantum Leap.
- You’ll lose all respect for Emperor Palpatine when you learn his first name, and we also checked out obscure Star Wars tributes and George Lucas’ heinous crimes.
- We learned how Shaun of the Dead resurrected zombie comedies and why “Big Bang theory” is hateable.
- GIFs proved Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was the best.
- We ranked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, video games, and toys, and we tracked down where the ’90s cast is now.
- We also ranked Stephen King’s ’80s movies and nerdy Futurama episodes.
- Ghostbusters II and Batman Returns raised a lot of questions.
- We rounded up ten Transformers voices you should recognize and Back To The Future II predictions on the verge of coming true.
- And we rounded up ten LEGO sets that should be real.
FACTS! FACTS, FACTS, FACTSFACTSFACTS!
- We rounded up fascinating facts about classic games like Resident Evil, Sonic The Hedgehog, Tetris, The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and Batman: Arkham Asylum, as well as the SEGA Genesis, and we even learned how to shoot that damn Duck Hunt dog.
- We also compiled trivia about movies like Galaxy Quest, District 9, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Batman, Ghostbusters, and The Matrix.
- We learned about movies Joss Whedon was involved in, as well as trivia about Bruce Campbell and The Evil Dead.
- And we’re going to just pretend we never saw these tear-jerker Futurama episodes. We definitely won’t hum the song from “Jurassic Bark”.
AND THEN THERE’S COSPLAY.
- BaneCat is the best thing ever — as is the sequel — and disagreeing will be very painful… for you.
- Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers‘ original Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson got into her old outfit and it was a definite win. Another former castmember was less impressive.
- We rounded up geeky Halloween costumes for humans and for our pets, but Ben McKenzie from Gotham beat all of them with his Commissioner Gordon costume.
- Meanwhile, these mushroom-cloud-layin’ motherf*ckers made the best Pulp Fiction cosplay ever.
- This guy built his own Batmobile to help Make-A-Wish kids.
- Wheezing is coming. It’s the cast of Game Of Thrones as pugs.
SCIENCE!
- Neil deGrasse Tyson gave Interstellar an unexpectedly positive review, then followed up with more.
- Meanwhile, Bill Nye is taking no sh*t from CNN.
- A compound found in beer increases intelligence, while gluten “intolerance” (as opposed to actual celiac disease) is likely fake.
- DARPA is trying to make Iron Man.
- A new spinal implant is doing awesome things.
- The handjob robot comes to hospitals, which means we’re probably doomed.
- This bonobo learned how to build a fire, which means we’re definitely doomed.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…
- Here’s a nice lady who makes $30K per month from her Bigfoot porn novels.
- Sir Patrick Stewart does a pretty good cow impersonation. He also had the best Ice Bucket Challenge, although we also enjoyed the one with Silk Spectre and Silk Spectre II (Carla Gugino and Malin Akerman) making out.
- Pierce Brosnan played with himself. Goldeneye, we mean.
- We defended Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and made the case for Hannibal.
- Bill Watterson (Calvin And Hobbes) made new comics (here and here) and we learned how much monetary damage Calvin did.
- We rounded up geeky Valentine’s Day cards.
- Futurama was beautifully rendered in 3D.
- We were introduced to the nightmare fuel that is the original E.T. designs.
- And the NSA has been sharing your nude photos. Sweet dreams.