Friday Five: Books That Define Chuck Characters

This week’s Friday Five comes to us from G. Walter Bush, author of Unpacking Chuck. He’s currently working on a follow-up volume, coming later this year.

1. Chuck inserting Roark Industries schematics in & “reading” Brian Vaughan’s Ex-Machina

Echoes Chuck’s desire to have Intersect removed from brain and no longer be a walking computer.

2. Jeff reading Flowers for Algernon

Echoes his transformation from moronic to intelligent, though ironically reversed.

3. Devon reading aloud Leakey’s  Origins: The Emergence and Evolution of Our Species and its Possible Future

Figures/foreshadows his wife (over his shoulder at laptop in the frame) who simultaneously claims she has found a “missing link”: Ellie’s evolution into a neurobiological expert who becomes a part of Team Bartowski & finds successfully heals the missing links with her parents.

4. Beckman owning Atlas Shrugged

Implies she has the weight of keeping a violent world from falling off her shoulders.

5. Chuck’s favorite Brian Vaughan comic series/graphic novel, Y: The Last Man

The central character, Yorick Brown, mirrors Chuck in sharing a unique status (Brown is only male on earth; Chuck is the only Intersect). Brown’s constant monkey companion recalls Morgan (who is actually figured as an ape in one episode) and Brown falls in love with his female bodyguard, Agent 355, recalling Sarah.

Did you notice any other significant reading material on Chuck?