The Seven Biggest Geek Moments of the Summer

From awesome video games to cool movies and unexpected surprises, this summer was a pretty great time to be a geek.

When we weren’t trying to catch Pokemon in our neighbor’s yard, we were discovering great new television shows or enjoying some of our favorite comic book characters come to life on the big screen.

As Labor Day will mark the unofficial end of summer, it only seems appropriate to take a look back at some of the biggest “geek” events of the last few months.

From Pokemon Go to Stranger Things the summer of 2016 had a distinctly new-geek feel.

Check out several of our favorite and most impactful stories.

Pokemon Go

The biggest “geek” story of the summer was the rise of Pokemon Go — a mobile app that allows players to “catch” Pokemon in the real world.

When Niantic Labs first released the game in July, it quickly became a worldwide phenomenon as millions swarmed their local parks and neighborhoods to hunt for Pokemon. 

Not only did Pokemon Go put the Pokemon franchise back in the public eye, it also caused communities to look at video games in a whole new light. No longer were gamers confined to their couches, now they were visiting local businesses, clogging up the daily commute and loitering in parks.

Two months and a handful of Pokemon induced stampedes later, Pokemon Go fever has subsided somewhat.

The game’s userbase dipped as players grew bored catching the same Pokemon over and over again, and no longer is the local news dominated by stories about businesses rejoicing or fretting over the influx of traffic caused by Pokemon Go players.

We don’t know if Pokemon Go can hang on to what is left of its waning popularity, but it sure made this summer really interesting. 

Comic Book Movies Dominate in a Weak Box Office

For a second straight summer, a comic book movie wasn’t the biggest movie of the summer.

That honor went to Finding Dory, which beat out Captain America: Civil War by about $70 million. However, comic book movies still helped keep Hollywood afloat, as Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Suicide Squad all landed among the summer’s biggest hits. 

Hollywood had a hard summer overall, and several big blockbuster movies failed to live up to the hype. 

Warcraft, a Ghostbusters reboot, and Independence Day: Insurgence all struggled at the box office, while movies like Star Trek: Beyond and X-Men: Apocalypse failed to hit the sales of their prequels.

Even Suicide Squad was a disappointment to some degree, with mediocre reviews spoiling what Warner Bros. had hoped would be a course correction after Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

But one bad summer isn’t going to stop the Hollywood hype train. There are a ton of movies coming out this fall, including Dr. Strange, Assassin’s Creed, and Rogue One, and even more on the horizon for next year. 

DC Rebirth

Following in the footsteps of the New 52 and DC You, DC Comics announced a new rebranding of their superhero line called “DC Rebirth”.

DC Rebirth was a deliberate step away from the condensed continuity of the New 52 and back towards more recognizable versions of DC’s famous superheroes. 

DC Rebirth kicked off with a special featuring the return of the “classic” Wally West, armed with his memories of a pre-New 52 world. As Wally observed the vastly altered DC universe, he revealed that someone had stolen ten years out of DC’s history, causing the massive alterations.

And who was responsible for that time theft? Dr. Manhattan, the all-powerful atomic superhero from the classic Vertigo series Watchmen. 

Although DC Rebirth had a ton of new series and storylines, DC approached this rebrand a bit differently than their New 52 launch. Instead of flooding the market with a ton of new titles, DC staggered their books’ releases so that only a few new series came out each month. DC also doubled up on their most popular books, releasing the books bi-weekly to keep fans coming back to stores. 

Three months later and DC Rebirth is still going strong. DC reported that they sold 12 million Rebirth books since the summer started, with orders increasing every month. 

Overwatch

The biggest non-Pokemon Go video game of the summer was Overwatch. The game was an innovative new shooter made by Blizzard — the maker of World of Warcraft and Diablo. 

Overwatch deviated from traditional shooters like Call of Duty or Battlefield by having players choose from one of over 20 heroes, each with their own abilities and personalities. 

Overwatch is based around online team play, with two teams competing in modes and missions. However, Blizzard found a way to balance the gameplay between casual and competitive gamers, so that players of all skill levels could enjoy the game. 

According to Blizzard, over 15 million people currently play Overwatch and the game already has a growing eSports division.

Blizzard plans to keep Overwatch growing over the next few months, adding more new characters and maps to keep the game fresh and fun. 

Brie Larson is Captain Marvel

Marvel Studios dropped a major bombshell on fans at SDCC on Saturday night when they announced the newest addition to their superhero universe: Brie Larson.

Larson arrived on stage to take a photo with other Marvel movie stars as the studio announced she’d play Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, out in 2019. 

Captain Marvel will be Marvel’s first superhero film starring a female superhero and Larson was the perfect actress for the role. Although some fans wanted an older actress to play Danvers, Larson certainly has the resume and acting chops to carry a movie on her own.

Larson recently won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in The Room and has appeared in movies ranging from 21 Jump Street to Trainwreck to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. 

Basically, Larson is the perfect pick for Captain Marvel and will surely help elevate the Marvel Cinematic Universe to new heights. 

Game of Thrones Season 6

The latest season of Game of Thrones was unique in that it was the first season that didn’t have a firm foundation in George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series. While each of the previous seasons were based on one of Martin’s books, he wasn’t able to finish The Winds of Winter before the show started airing in late April. That meant fans of the book series were as much in the dark as anyone as what would happen on the show this year.

And a lot happened.

Jon Snow came back to life.

Hodor held a door and revealed his tragic backstory.

Cersei blew up King’s Landing, both literally and figuratively, and took her place on the Iron Throne.

Daenerys finally raised an army and began her journey home. And most importantly, winter finally came to Westeros. 

Unfortunately, fans of the series will need to dream of spring a little while longer, as HBO announced that Game of Thrones would have only two more seasons, beginning with seven episodes out in 2017.

Stranger Things

The most unexpected addition to “geek media” this summer was Stranger Things, a horror/sci-fi series released by Netflix in July. 

Stranger Things revolved around the disappearance of a 12-year-old boy in Indiana, and his friends and family’s discovery of a strange government conspiracy involving a strange monster, a telekinetic girl, and alternate dimensions.

Stranger Things was just the sort of weird sci-fi series we’d expect from Netflix. Filled with homages to everything from Stephen King to Steven Spielberg, Stranger Things was a nostalgia trip back to the 1980s with a healthy dose of Lovecraft-style horror mixed in. Fans grew obsessed with the telekinetically gifted Eleven and the tragically fated Barb and the show quickly became a pop culture hit.

Netflix wisely announced they had ordered a second season of Stranger Things last week, delighting the show’s many fans who hoped for a return to the weird world of the Upside-Down.