In 2009, Popular Mechanics published an article titled "Hollywood Sci-Fi's Bronze Age: Are Comics to Blame?" Erik Sofge's thesis was that "smart sci-fi" was imperiled by the stream of comic-book, cartoon, and video-game (but especially comic-book) adaptations he saw in the theaters. "What's missing from Hollywood sci-fi, and what the comic adaptations continue to smother, is a celebration of smarts." Sofge conceded that there were smart comic books in existence, and his argument seemed to stall out altogether when he got to Watchmen, a comic then seeing an extremely faithful (if not, as it turned out, commercially successful) adaptation. Though he correctly pointed to 1982 as a banner year for sci-fi and he's not wrong that Hollywood resists celebrating smarts and original material in general, he seemed to be dragging comics into the mix as a colorful scapegoat. He wasn't the first, nor was he the last to rail against the comic-book film in particular.