The Fate of the Furious, the eighth feature film in the Fast and the Furious series, opens on a familiar setpiece: Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) challenging somebody to a race.

The hallmarks are in place. It’s someplace hot and colorful; this time, Havana. The women are hot and colorful. The cars are hot and colorful. Except this time, Dom isn’t driving one of those cars. He’s been dared to race the fastest car in Cuba, while he himself drives a beat-up wreck.

After kicking off half the body and rigging a turbo system out of the heater and a Coke can, Dom’s on the final stretch with the engine on fire. Of course he wins. Of course the car explodes soon after. And of course he gets away clean, in white jeans.

From this moment on, I was cackling with glee. With each escalating setpiece, each ridiculous defiance of gravity and physics, each bludgeoning bro-down of fisticuffs, each stupendous stunt, I grinned from ear to ear.

I’ve been saying this since 2015’s Furious 7, and I’ll say it again: Fast and the Furious is the best superhero action franchise going. Bar none. And here’s why.

Epic, outsized action that still feels human-sized

In these movies, there are no ostensible superpowers or magic. The movies do function as superhero stories, though, given how technology here works like magic powers, and characters such as Dom and Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) are nigh-indestructible and possess superhuman strength.

I mean, during a fantastic prison riot sequence in Fate of the Furious, Hobbs shrugs off rubber bullets while picking up grown men and hurling them into other grown men! He later dents a shipping container with a bare-handed punch!

Still, even in this hyperbolic reality, everyone is human, and the insane action remains with stuff we sorta know: cars, fistfights, guns and the like. And that matters!

Cognitively, we have an idea of how those things work. But we know a man can’t fly, no matter how much we suspend our disbelief. There’s no having to learn power sets, rules for weaknesses, and what-not.

Dom and the Family’s superpowers are driving sick-ass cars and fighting! If Dom drives a Lamborghini out of the window of a high-rise in Dubai, into a neighboring tower, we know Lambos and skyscrapers.

And, what are the schemes of the big bad villains in each Fast and the Furious movie? Dudes stealing electronics, drug dealers, gangsters and international terrorists trying to gain world-bending leverage or hold the world at ransom.

Generally, the villains are not seeking the apocalypse. (Or, in X-Men: Apocalypse’s case, Apocalypse.) By and large, the fate of the free world does not hang in the balance for Dom and the Family. Even if they’re fighting a submarine this time.

Also, while they often fight hosts of nameless bad guys, at least those bad guys are human, of limited number, and actually on the screen. No endless waves of computer-generated Chitauri drones, Kryptonian battleships or Ultron robots, here. And there are no civilian deaths, or pretending to care about the collateral damage. (Looking at you, The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.)

That’s not exactly a knock on superhero movies’ tendencies. It is, though, a feature that, after movie upon movie, can be repetitive and lose flavor. The lack of grounding the reality of the fantasy sometimes takes me out of these movies now.

Maybe that’s why the Captain America movies are the “grounded” members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even with magical tesseracts, mad-science cybernetics, and secret techno-prisons in the Pacific Ocean.

Diversity is their way of life

By the end of The Fate of the Furious, two white actors play members of the Family: Jason Statham and Scott Eastwood. And Eastwood is placed into the slot vacated by the deceased Paul Walker, to the point that he gets the kind of car his character, Brian, would drive.

Otherwise, the crew returns as we know it, diverse as hell.

Dom appears to be Latino given all of his time in Latin America, his knowledge of Spanish and, in this film, a Cuban cousin. Dwayne Johnson brings his Samoan heritage to the Hobbs character, coaching his daughter’s tween soccer team to perform a pregame haka war dance. Johnson’s very large, very visible tribal tattoos undoubtedly inform such decisions.

A Latina (Letty), two black men (Tej and Roman), and a black woman (Ramsey) round out the rest of the gang. Not to mention dearly departed team members Han, a Korean man, and Gisele, an Israeli woman.

Not even several versions of the X-Men are this diverse, or are centered on its nonwhite characters in this way. The Avengers are still working on it. Funny enough, Suicide Squad, which was a majority-minority cast, was a team of outlaws and criminals, like Fast and the Furious. (And both films use Eastwood as a generic token white guy.)

That diversity on screen is met behind the camera as well.

The franchise was kept alive and rejuvenated with who-can-top-that action setpieces by Taiwanese-American filmmaker Justin Lin, who made four of the eight feature films. James Wan, the Australian director of Malaysian Chinese descent, brought the franchise to even greater heights in Furious 7. Black directors John Singleton and F. Gary Gray, whose work includes iconic black films Boyz N The Hood and Friday, are in the mix, with Gray making the biggest installment now in The Fate of the Furious.

Marvel Studios won’t have a black director until Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is out next year, some 17 movies in after 10 years since Iron Man launched it all in 2008. Singleton, however, directed the second Fast and the Furious film.

DC’s Extended Universe will have a female director after three movies, with Patty Jenkins helming Wonder Woman out in June. Marvel’s Captain Marvel will have a female co-director, Anna Boden, for the 2019 film.

I want to see a female director on a Fast and the Furious film. Maybe then we get Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) to have more of her own arc. It’s tough to say “her own story,” given that everyone’s story runs through Dom.

Or, perhaps, Letty leads the gang for a movie.

For example, Dom’s betrayal of the Family in The Fate of the Furious is not played too hard for the drama it likely should have been. The film should have leaned harder on either Letty’s shaken faith in Dom, or she goes extra hard on doubling down that Dom is still good. I’m not saying a female director, per se, would fix this blind spot, but it wouldn’t hurt.

Amid the requisite skinnny girls in bethonged ass-bearing skirts, The Fate of the Furious does get in one very solid jab about its gender politics. It was a nice touch to see hacker Ramsey, after two movies of Tej and Roman peacocking over getting a shot at her, get the last word on both of them by asking, “What’s my last name?”

As far as which woman should direct a Fast and the Furious movie, start with the grand dame. Hire Kathleen Bigelow. These movies come from the tree she planted with Point Break.

Folks such as The Walking Dead alum Lesli Linka Glatter, Belle helmer Amma Asante, and The Punisher: War Zone’s Lexi Alexander – packing in action on Supergirl – come to mind as well.

Continuity that remains convoluted yet breezy

The Fate of the Furious must contain about 27 callbacks to the other seven movies.

We see a character who sat out the entirety of a previous film after being the main baddie in another one. The main villain of Furious 7 turns into a good guy. Even one part, a bevy of quick-cut flashbacks for how-they-done-itreveals, brings back dudes from three movies ago.

And the big twist of the new film creates a timeline that makes 3-4 movies span, at best, 18-20 months. How these folks’ immune systems haven’t collapsed, or all their bones shatter after nonstop action, I don’t know. Oh wait, I do know – they’re superheroes!

Never mind that the third film, Tokyo Drift (2006), now is retconned to have taken place between Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and Furious 7 (2015)! Or that Vin Diesel stepped out on the franchise for the second and third films!

Credit to Gary Scott Thompson and Chris Morgan. Thompson has been writing these movies from the beginning, and Morgan came on with Tokyo Drift.

In this world, enemies become allies, allies become friends, and friends become family. It’s  nice to see, rather than the heroes always creating their villains.

In a Fast and Furious world, Batman doesn’t drop the Red Hood into the chemicals. Tony Stark or his father wouldn’t be the source of pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe villain. General Zod doesn’t come to Earth and get his neck snapped because Clark set off the Kryptonian search beacon.

The wild cards strengthen the formula

In Fate of the Furious, Vin Diesel brings emotional depth to Dom Toretto that we simply haven’t seen. There wasn’t just the action-hero standards of stoic vengeance, good-humored satisfaction, or determined fury. We saw frustration, desperation, impotent fuming.

In other words, it’s exactly what I didn’t expect from a Vin Diesel performance.

Of course, it helps that Diesel has Charlize Theron to play off.

With an actor of Theron’s calibre, Diesel pulls out emotional line reads that he may not have otherwise. The scenes between Dom and Cipher, by and large, are quiet in the Fast and Furious world. Theron’s menace wrapped itself around Diesel’s rage, snuffing any of its strength. The effect is chilling.

As each movie has gotten bigger, an eclectic roster of movie personalities, stars and actors join the Fast and the Furious stable. Sure, we’ve gotten that with the Marvel movies, which have drawn a lot of quality talent, and Fast and the Furious has been able to draft off that dismantling of typecasting fears. Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren sign up for the eighth film, after Johnson and Staham joined the franchise, and Kurt Russell reappears as government spook Mr. Nobody.

The Fast and the Furious franchise operates similar to how Roger Ebert characterized the casting in the first Sin City movie. Style and ultra-heightened reality soar as strength, and, as Ebert wrote back in 2005, “The actors are mined for the archetypes they contain … rotated into a hyperdimension.”

Ebert’s description of Sin City as a whole also is greatly used for The Fast and the Furious franchise: “It’s like a comic book brought to life and pumped with steroids. It contains characters who occupy stories, but to describe the characters and summarize the stories would be like replacing the weather with a weather map.”

Sure, the superhero movies have been bumping up their game for quality cast members. But it’s also fun when they get to embrace the nuttiness, the cheesiness of it all. Marvel, for example, has left that to The Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor films, which are so far from grounded that they’re literally in space.

Everyone’s having a good time

Think about major superhero movies of the past few years. Besides three-point landings, citywide destruction and female love interests in danger, we’ve also gotten used to superheroes not having much of any fun.

Batman movies are all about him not enjoying himself. Logan operates in a post-mutant future that looks like the end times. Superman never smiles in Zack Snyder’s movies, and the jokes in the Justice League trailer come off as a labored overcorrection. Ant-Man has the most fun in Captain America: Civil War, and that’s only because he’s new.

It was Rorschach who said in Watchmen, “We do it because we are compelled.” Dramatically, it’s so much more powerful to watch someone be compelled to take up something as extreme as putting on a costume to fight evil. But why can’t more superheroes jump in simply because it’s a fun use of their talents?

That used to be Superman’s reason, no? Folks are too cynical for that now, I guess.

But Dom and the Family? They end every movie hanging out over a meal and some bottles of Corona. Every single time.

If the movies ended in a freeze frame like episode of The A-Team, I’d be fine with that.

We’ve asked the question and now its time for you to answer: ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!

DC is bringing you that sweet, sweet sound as METAL kicks off with two ground-shaking preludes—starting with DARK DAYS: THE FORGE in June and continuing with DARK DAYS: THE CASTING in July. The New York Times best-selling writers Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV collaborate with iconic artists Andy Kubert, Jim Lee, and John Romita Jr. to bring these stories to life— laying the foundation for whats to come and showing you the first look into METAL and DARK MATTER this year.

DARK DAYS: THE FORGE begins with a discovery, and a secret. Aquaman, The Flash and more of DC’s pantheon of heroes suspect Batman of hiding a dark secret that could threaten the very existence of the Multiverse! What has he discovered? And how does this connect to the origins of one of DC’s most legendary heroes?

Spearheaded by Snyder, METAL and it’s preludes will expand the DCU as we know it— revealing that the world of our favorite DC characters still has many areas left uncharted. Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and the rest of the Justice League think they’ve been to every corner of the Multiverse—but a looming threat is coming from a place they never knew existed. Welcome to a crazy, melt-your-face, hard-rock space adventure like you’ve never seen before.

Welcome to the Dark Multiverse.

The great comics event begins here—DARK DAYS: THE FORGE #1 hits shelves June 14!

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Book Archive
Written and Illustrated by Evan Dorkin
Published by BOOM! Studios
Released 2/16/16
ISBN-13: 978-1608864997

With talk of a new Bill & Ted movie, now is the optimal time to partake in a re-re-read of the most excellent of comic book adventures.

Unlikely heroes William S. Preston, Esquire, and Ted “Theodore” Logan had a rather triumphant comic book run back in the early ’90s. This being the modern age of acquired licenses and returning franchises, we have the pleasure of being re-re–re-introduced to the Wyld Stallyns and their party pal, the non-heinous Grim Reaper.

Revived from Marvel’s archives by BOOM! Studios, The Excellent Comic Book Archive collects a dozen books including all eleven by Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) – who also offers a forward – from the two-year run and the film adaptation of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. The book is an impressive 376 pages with supposedly remastered art and a few pages of new art. It also includes the original letter columns, an element that is often (mistakenly, in my mind) left out of similar collections.

Not only is the book filled with that semi-scratchy, post-’80s comic book feel, but you get lots of weird robots and touches of the pseudo-psychedelic coloring that made acid wash jeans seem cool.

And not in an ironic hispter sorta way.

This is weird with a capital -DUH. Don’t expect much to make sense and you might just enjoy it a bit.

A Most Non-Bogus Adaptation

Fair warning in case you have not read the Bogus Journey adaptation before: It’s not exactly right.

As often happens, a comic book writer is given a shooting script well prior to the final edit of a film. This means things that might have been cut from the film got translated into the comic (see the Joker’s face on dollar bills in the Batman movie comic adaptation).

While a lot does parallel the film, a major chunk of the afterlife, including the Grim Reaper, will be a bit foreign to fans, feeling more like alternate – really weird and crazy – breaks in “reality” than mistakes.

It’s 80+ pages of nostalgic setup to the rest of the book. But do not fret my most excellent friends, for Station and the good robots are still there.

The Excellent Excellence of An Excellently Named Comic

The series picks up pretty much where the adaptation left off, with a bunch of historical buddies, including Rufus, partying hardy.

In the next eleven issues we get to revisit Abe Lincoln, DeNomolos, Station, Death, and the lovely maiden-wife-babes-now-moms) Joanna and Elizabeth. The duo partakes in many adventures with Death has a regular companion, even more so than Rufus.

The run begins with their wedding, a book that proves to primarily act as a warm-up to the rest of the series. The courteous inclusion of the historical buddies is a bit overwhelming and, in my mind, obviously done to simply get it out of the way. They do meet up with old friends in future issues, of course, but it’s not never quite as forced and heavy (except maybe at the end).

We witness such oddities as Death on a siesta, the guys hiring a bass player and an unscrupulous manager, a giant ooze monster and the continual taunting of DeNomolos as he is eternally tormented in Hell. We even get to visit Little Bill & Ted Land in the third issue. And, for whatever artist reason, their faces seemingly explode á la Arnold in Total Recall in pretty much every issue.

We also meet Time Thumb who, aside from being a poor pun, is highly reminiscent of Milk & Cheese in that it’s a thumb with a humanish face on it. He (or she?) is apparently an agent of time and periodically pops up often to add a bit more weird to the story.

While the obvious relationship to Doctor Who is the time traveling phone booth/box, the fourth issue also brings in tiny Stations reminiscent of the fat Adipose, but more in a weird multiplying nasty Gremlins sorta way.

By the sixth issue, historical figures are finally brought into the fold, mostly thanks to DeNomolos and a Candyland match. Of course, there are also a few extra oddities and intergalactic villains who join in, but that just seems insanely natural by this point.

In one issue the Grim Reeper – whose name is really, Thanatos, as we learn – has to take part-time jobs after being replaced by a younger, more exuberant reaper named Morty.

Yep, they went there and embraced the shark jumpin’ younger-version-of-a-character tactic.

In fact, after avoiding the obvious heroes-in-tights-and-capes tactic, issue #10 overly embraces it.

Featuring crazy splash pages galore, the book has the team visit Hyper World where everyone is either a super hero or a super villain. Basically take every hero you know from the ’80s, put their books in a blender, pulse five times and then glue random pieces together. That’s pretty much the result here.

The series culminates with a party to end all parties, featuring a plethora of Bill & Teds from alternate dimensions. A lot of old friends and foes are also brought back to say farewell to the series.

Beyond the totally wacked out stories, the book ends with 16 pages of art including pencils, inks and alt covers by Dorkin as well as a few other artists.

Party on, dude, and be excellent to each other.

PS: If you did the math, you’ll notice that one issue is missing from this book. Yep, it’s intentional: Dorkin didn’t work on issue #8 in the original series, so it’s (unfortunately) been left out.

ALSO LOOK FOR:
    •    Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Return (BOOM! Studios, March 2016)
    •    Bill & Ted Go To Hell (BOOM! Studios, March 2017)

Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s
Edited by Kier-La Janisse & Paul Corupe
ISBN Code 978-1-903254-86-8
Published by FAB Press

The Satanic Panic is something that might just seem insane to anyone who did not live through it… but was very very real. Time has not been kind to this particular panic (is time ever kind to this type of thing)?

What is the Satanic Panic?

It was a period from about 1980-1989 where at some point just about EVERYTHING in pop culture was considered to have some kind of Satanic connotation in some way.

It did not matter if it was music (Heavy Metal specifically), games (Dungeons & Dragons specifically), cartoons (Masters of the Universe specifically), movies (horror films specifically) and even holidays (Halloween specifically). At some point all of these and more were a part of a nationwide panic fed by fear and ignorance (with well placed malice as well).

Malice? Yes malice. Some may argue that going on a publicity war against a game or a song is harmless in the grand scheme of things but there were those inscrutable among us who decided to use the ignorance of the time to push forth their own careers and in some cases cause harm to real victims. Cheap conmen such as Pastor Gary Greenwald of the Eagles Nest Ministries and Phil Phillips were leaders in Christian paranoia about EVERY DAMN THING in the 1980’s.

Attacking and creating (ineffectual) boycotts for cartoons and even breakfast cereals these morons cost many people their livelihood. Not content to let the relative fringe players get all the glory Geraldo Rivera jumped into this hysteria with his famous Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground primetime special just before Halloween of 1988. This was one of the most tabloid things you could ever imagine. Sensationalized and largely fact free this special event was touted at the time for stirring up the Satanic Panic to it’s highest point.

The real malice though and shameful real world harm came in the form of the McMartin pre-school nonesense. Real people went to jail and had their lives torn asunder with NO evidence all so arrogant and cruel prosecutors and scared townsfolk could make headlines. Look up the McMartin pre-school disaster and you will be appalled that this all really happened. This was the real consequence of the Satanic Panic.

Not the laughable Tom Hanks Mazes and Monsters or The 700 Club making claims that Scbooy-Doo preached devil worship to kids… but real people having their lives harmed forever due to a fog over the reason centers of the masses and the media fueling the fires.

With all that said… I am here to review the book Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s. This is a collection of essays from a variety of authors and curated by Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe. Janisse and Corupe are mainly film reviewers and they take a similar approach with this book.

They describe the book as:

Satanic Panic features new essays and interviews by 20 writers who address the ways the widespread fear of a Satanic conspiracy was both illuminated and propagated through almost every pop culture pathway in the 1980s, from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons role playing games, Christian comics, direct-to-VHS scare films, pulp paperbacks, Saturday morning cartoons, TV talk shows and even home computers. The book also features case studies on Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Long Island “acid king” killer Ricky Kasso. From con artists to pranksters and moralists to martyrs, the book captures the untold story of how the Satanic Panic was fought on the pop culture frontlines and the serious consequences it had for many involved.”

If you did not live through this time this book gives you a fairly good overview of each sub-genre which suffered an attack from the Christian paranoids.

The book is segmented into subjects rather than moving along chronologically which I understand but also makes the waters a little muddier in the fact that I was able to put each thing into it’s own context due to having lived through all this but a younger reader may not understand that these things all fed off one another and were not isolated in pop culture.

Being segmented gives the book a chapter by chapter feel and oddly goes “out of order”. By segmenting these in order of arguable significance to the audience it front loads the “fun” subjects such as cartoons and D&D leaving McMartin and Charles Manson almost for the end (the Heavy Metal PMRC hearings are the only thing to follow). So the book ends up getting “heavier” and more serious as it proceeds which may have been a wise decision in terms of reader enjoyment.

The articles herein are well researched and annotated which gives them the creditably they need as some of the claims made at the time are outlandish to the say least (again, having lived through this I knew without needing to verify that this idiocy really happened). More skeptical readers may not believe all this bullshit happened but it did and the annotations help cement this as a part of our reality.

A side note which may show my own bias is that I submitted a piece for this collection and was turned down. I have a (slight) history with these editors, so let that paint the picture even brighter when I have every reason to be bitter about this book and yet I am giving it a very positive review. It’s a good book which I recommend to anyone interested in pop culture or how pop culture can be abused.

The action-packed, coming of age feature film Saban’s Power Rangers will morph onto Digital HD June 13 and on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital HD), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD), DVD and On Demand June 27 from Lionsgate. As part of the 24-year-old global phenomenon and based on the five Rangers from the original TV series, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,”, the reimagined movie features a modern generation of Rangers including Dacre Montgomery (TV’s “Stranger Things”) as Jason the Red Ranger, Naomi Scott (The 33) as Kimberly the Pink Ranger, RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as Billy the Blue Ranger, Ludi Lin (Monster Hunt) as Zack the Black Ranger, and Becky G. (Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) as Trini the Yellow Ranger, as they attempt to stop the evil and unpredictable Rita Repulsa (played by Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games Franchise) from destroying their city…and ultimately the world. Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) as Zordon, and Bill Hader (Finding Dory) as Alpha 5 train the Rangers to morph and master their powers as a united team.

The epic adventure, Saban’s Power Rangers follows five ordinary high school kids who must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove – and the world – is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat.  Chosen by destiny, the unlikely group of teenage heroes are the only ones who can save the planet, but first, they have to band together in order to harness their super powers and become Power Rangers.

The Saban’s Power Rangers 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital HD releases feature never-before-heard audio commentary with director Dean Israelite and writer John Gatins, as well as a nine-part documentary featuring commentary from the actors and filmmakers including Power Rangers Creator, Haim Saban which looks behind the scenes of the film at the casting, training, special effects, and creation of Saban’s Power Rangers, with deleted/alternate/extended scenes and outtakes. The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray will also feature Dolby Vision high-dynamic range (HDR), making it the first title from Lionsgate to feature both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Dolby Vision transforms the TV experience in the home by delivering greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors. Together with the captivating sound of Dolby Atmos, consumers will experience both cutting-edge imaging and state-of-the-art sound technology for a fully immersive entertainment experience.

The Saban’s Power Rangers DVD will include exclusive audio commentary with director Dean Israelite and writer John Gatins, and deleted/alternate/extended scenes and outtakes. Saban’s Power Rangers will be available on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD for the suggested retail price of $42.99, $39.99, and $29.95, respectively.

Story by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless and Michele Mulroney & Kieran Mulroney. Screenplay by John Gatins. Directed by Dean Israelite.

4K/BLU-RAY/ DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Audio Commentary with Director Dean Israelite and Writer John Gatins
• “The Power of the Present” Documentary

o   “Rangers Then to Now”

o   “Building the Team”

o   “Beyond the Rangers”

o   “Suiting Up”

o   “Rangers, Welcome to Training”

o   “Rangers in the Wild”

o   “It’s Morphin Time”

o   “Power Ballad: Music and Sound”

o   “This is Your Destiny”

• Deleted/Alternate/Extended Scenes
• Outtakes
• Theatrical Trailer with Audio Commentary by Director Dean Israelite

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Audio Commentary with Director Dean Israelite and Writer John Gatins
• Deleted/Alternate/Extended Scenes
• Outtakes

www.powerrangers.movie

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has announced on his Facebook page (and according to The Hollywood Reporter) that Hellboy will return for another big-screen adventure, this time an R-rated reboot directed by Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones, Dog Soldiers, The Descent) and starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the title character.

This news comes after reports this past February that Guillermo del Toro would not be making the third film in his series.  Ron Perlman played Hellboy in the 2004 film and it’s 2008 sequel.

According to Mignola, “While we were watching Stranger Things my wife said ‘Now THAT guy should play Hellboy.’ And about two weeks later the producer called to suggest him.”

The film has the working title, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen and has a script by Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

Available Now

Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies is based in the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California, where nothing is quite as it seems. Doting moms, successful husbands, adorable children, beautiful homes: What lies will be told to keep their perfect worlds from unraveling? Told through the eyes of three mothers – Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and Jane (Shailene Woodley) – Big Little Lies paints a picture of a town fueled by rumors and divided into the haves and have-nots, exposing the conflicts, secrets and betrayals that compromise relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and friends and neighbors.

The cast also includes Alexander Skarsgård, Laura Dern, Adam Scott, Zoë Kravitz, James Tupper and Jeffrey Nordling. Big Little Lies is written for television and created by David E. Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.

50 Shades Darker

The global film phenomenon sparked by E.L. James’ best-selling book trilogy returns with the second chapter of the darkly alluring tale that captivated the world. Fans can now stay in and have the ultimate at-home movie night with Fifty Shades Darker Unrated Edition, and this time, there are no rules and no secrets.

When a wounded Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) tries to entice a cautious Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple. Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson) and Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger) intensify the story, determined to destroy the couple’s hopes for a future together.

Directed by James Foley, Fifty Shades Darker also features Bella Heathcote, as well as returning cast members Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden and Rita Ora.

Underworld: Blood Wars

In the next installment of the blockbuster franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Kate Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her.  With her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Directed by Anna Foerster. Underworld: Blood Wars has a screenplay by Cory Goodman from a story by Kyle Ward and Goodman, based on characters created by Kevin Grevioux and Len Wiseman & Danny McBride.  Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Len Wiseman, Richard Wright and David Kernas produced the film.

Crashing: Season 1

From comedy geniuses Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow comes Crashing: Season 1, the new HBO® series that follows a stand-up comic, whose suburban life unravels after he finds out his wife is cheating on him, forcing him to reevaluate his priorities and plunging him into the deep end of the rough-and-tumble NYC comedy scene. Guest stars include Artie Lange, T.J. Miller, Sarah Silverman, Jim Norton, and Hannibal Burress.

Resident Evil: Retribution

Picking up after Resident Evil: Retribution, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only survivor of what was meant to be humanity’s final stand against the undead. Now, she must return to where the nightmare began – The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.  Returning with Jovovich are franchise regulars Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts and Iain Glen, alongside all-new cast members Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken and William Levy.

Written and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, Resident Evil: Retribution is produced by Jeremy Bolt, Paul W.S. Anderson, Robert Kulzer and Samuel Hadida; with Martin Moszkowicz and Victor Hadida serving as executive producers.

The Space Between Us

Sixteen-year-old Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) is the first human born on Mars, living his whole life with a team of scientists on the red planet.  He’s always longed to see Earth to find the father he’s never known and to meet a beautiful street smart girl named Tulsa (Britt Robertson) he’s encountered friends with online.  But when his chance finally comes, doctors discover his heart can’t withstand the Earth’s atmosphere.  Eager to find his father, Gardner and Tulsa escape on a cross-country race against time to unravel the mysteries of how he came to be and where he belongs in the universe.  See the heartfelt and inspiring romantic adventure about how far one person can go for love.

The Space Between Us also stars Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, BD Wong and Janet Montgomery.

MAY 9

Sky on Fire

Exclusive GIF!

In this driving, non-stop action thriller, the chief security officer at a top-secret medical facility (Daniel Wu, Into the Badlands) finds himself caught in an explosive battle when a young thief and his accomplices steal a groundbreaking curative medicine. After discovering the true origins of the medicine, the officer must decide whom he can trust to protect the cure from falling into the wrong hands and prevent an all-out war from bringing the city to its knees. ​

Rock Dog

From Academy Award-nominated writer-director Ash Brannon (Best Animated Feature Film, Surf’s Up, 2007) comes the heartwarming and hilarious family film Rock Dog. The music-filled adventure about a dog’s quest to fulfill his dream features an all-star cast, including J.K. Simmons, Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, Lewis Black, and Kenan Thompson.

When a radio falls from the sky into the hands of a wide-eyed Tibetan Mastiff, he leaves home to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician, setting into motion a series of completely unexpected events.

Get Out

Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a young African-American man, and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), a young white woman, have been dating for several months, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate at her family’s upstate home with parents Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford).  At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.

The Digital HD release will come with the never-before-seen chilling alternate ending that flips the script, as well as Deleted Scenes.

MAY 23

A United Kingdom

David Oyelowo (Selma) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) star in this inspiring true story of the forbidden love between the king of Botswana and a white English woman in the 1940s. When they decided to marry just as apartheid was being introduced into South Africa, it caused an international uproar. But their passionate romance triumphed over every obstacle and changed the course of African history.

Created by Sharon Horgan (creator and star of the Emmy-nominated series Catastrophe), Divorce centers on Frances (Sarah Jessica Parker), who, after more than a decade of marriage and two children, has suddenly begun to reassess her life and her strained relationship with her husband Robert (Thomas Haden Church). The story of a very, very long divorce, the 10-episode first season follows Frances and Robert as they grapple with the fallout from their failing union, not just for themselves, but also for their children and friends. Finding sharp, observant humor in tense situations ranging from awkward public encounters to bitter private therapy sessions, Divorce is about two people at the most difficult moment in their lives, feeling more intense emotions for each other than they’ve felt in years.

The ensemble cast includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Molly Shannon, Talia Balsam, Tracy Letts, Sterling Jerins, Charlie Kilgore and more. Parker serves as executive producer, along with Paul Simms, Sharon Horgan, Alison Benson and Aaron Kaplan.

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “DIVORCE” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

 Thomas Haden Church and Sarah Jessica Parker previously co-starred in this 2008 film?

Please include your name and address (U.S. Residents only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on May 21st, 2017.

Produced by Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam,
Michael Schaefer, David Giler, Walter Hill
Story by Jack Paglen, Michael Green
Screenplay by John Logan, Dante Harper
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup,
Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride,
Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, James Franco

Consider for a moment that the film director is god.

He may start out as the father, fertilizing an idea, which he gives birth to as the mother, and becomes proud as the child grows along the way in a truly unanticipated future.

Does the director eventually look upon what he’s created with enough ego to become in contempt of his very own creator.

Does he, in fact, become his own god?

If any director has the permission to feel more god than father of a film, it’s Ridley Scott, architect of 1979’s Alien. The now eight-film franchise has brought in over a billion at the box office worldwide for 20th Century Fox. Scott’s Prometheus, a return to the Alien universe in 2012 grossed a large portion of that take (over $400 million worldwide), despite mixed reviews of its prequel-plot intentions.

Though Alien: Covenant, Scott’s highly-anticipated, promised return to the original film’s mojo has its moments, the film is, quite unfortunately, a worthless mutation. Even when mixing the more successful elements from prior installments, just about every new iteration is surprisingly dead-on-arrival (and that’s no pun intended to the bizarre casting of James Franco as a BBQd corpse in the film’s first ten minutes).

It goes without saying that what made the original film great was its reinvention of the signal-from-outer-space sci-fi plotting, mixed with a Ten Little Indians haunted-house thriller. Less was more, style was substance, and, get this, we actually cared about each and every cast member. Imagine that.

Alien: Covenant not only tries to reinvent that reinvention, but it has the audacity to try to find meaning behind the mutations. Honestly, it was all a lot more fun when our favorite xenomorphs battled Predators without ever needing to introspectively ask “what the hell are you?”

Whereas Prometheus had the advantage of hiding behind a “don’t-call-it-a-prequel” one-off, introducing some surreal themes of creation, nature and “divine intervention,” this new bridge to the Alien we love has no excuse.

Alien also didn’t need expository, ultimately meaningless dialogue, shouted between characters. This one vomits it up frequently, my favorite being a bumpy landing exchange between couple Lope (Demián Bichir) and Hallett (Nathaniel Dean). “I hate space,” says the gruff, yet gay Covenant crew-member to his partner, who replies “this is why you should do yoga,” or something like that. It doesn’t matter. It’s a long way from the poetic, effortless banter from Aliens like “we’re on an express elevator to hell.”

Where we want Alien: Covenant to thrill, it does so only for a few sequences. Some of it’s fairly intense, but all of it is a variation on what we’ve seen before, and done better, in prior installments. Where we want it to elaborate on its inventions, it doesn’t.

Yet, this sequel/prequel isn’t without intriguing efforts. Face huggers from the first film share screen-time with nanosized viruses of the most recent installment. Also returning from Prometheus, thankfully, is the brilliant Michael Fassbender, who brings back android David and introduces us to his fine-tuned, yet flawed successor Walter. Fassbender may be the only redeeming factor of Covenant and somewhere within this modified specimen of cinema contains ideas awaiting proper evolution.

After the new film’s promising set-up, is a downward spiral into a head-scratching final act packed with messy action sequences, gratuitous false endings and nonsensical, almost mean-spirited intention.

Don’t expect a seamless set-up to Alien, with a resurrected, CGI John Hurt going into cryogenic hibernation. This is not that film. After all. Fox wants two more films to mutate more millions in returns before bridging into the Nostromo section of the saga.

As a result, Scott is just a lazy “god,” and a devil to his own creation. Perhaps he’s knowingly aware of what he’s done with Alien: Covenant, and it’s a clever, albeit expensive, inside joke. Like David, and Walter, the two androids at extreme ends of opinion over mankind as creator or commander, he’s clearly responsible for this latest detour, conflicted by an industry demanding his nearly forty year old film continue to produce new specimens.

San Diego Comic-Con International announced the nominations for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges.

This year’s nominees reflect the wide range of material being published in comics graphic novels today, with nominations coming from over 50 publishers and creators from all over the world.

The Eisner Awards judges have also selected four individuals to automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame for 2017.  They include Milt Gross, H. G. Peter, Antonio Prohías, and Dori Seda.

The winners will be announced on July 21 in San Diego.

Eisner Awards Nominations 2017

Best Short Story

• “The Comics Wedding of the Century,” by Simon Hanselmann, in We Told You So: Comics as Art (Fantagraphics)
• “The Dark Nothing,” by Jordan Crane, in Uptight #5 (Fantagraphics)
• “Good Boy,” by Tom King and David Finch, in Batman Annual #1 (DC)
• “Monday,” by W. Maxwell Prince and John Amor, in One Week in the Library (Image)
• “Mostly Saturn,” by Michael DeForge, in Island Magazine #8 (Image)
• “Shrine of the Monkey God!” by Kim Deitch, in Kramers Ergot 9 (Fantagraphics)

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

• Babybel Wax Bodysuit, by Eric Kostiuk Williams (Retrofit/Big Planet)
• Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged In, by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)
• Blammo #9, by Noah Van Sciver (Kilgore Books)
• Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• Sir Alfred #3, by Tim Hensley (Pigeon Press)
• Your Black Friend, by Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket)

Best Continuing Series

• Astro City, by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson (Vertigo/DC)
• Kill or Be Killed, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)
• The Mighty Thor, by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman (Marvel)
• Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)
• Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)

Best Limited Series

• Archangel, by William Gibson, Michael St. John Smith, Butch Guice, and Tom Palmer (IDW)
• Briggs Land, by Brian Wood and Mack Chater (Dark Horse)
• Han Solo, by Marjorie Liu and Mark Brooks (Marvel)
• Kim and Kim, by Magdalene Visaggio and Eva Cabrera (Black Mask)
• The Vision, by Tom King and Gabriel Walta (Marvel)

Best New Series

• Black Hammer, by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (Dark Horse)
• Clean Room, by Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt (Vertigo/DC)
• Deathstroke: Rebirth, by Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagulayan, et al. (DC)
• Faith, by Jody Houser, Pere Pérez, and Marguerite Sauvage (Valiant)
• Mockingbird, by Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk (Marvel)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 8)

• Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World, by James Sturm (Toon)
• Burt’s Way Home, by John Martz (Koyama)
• The Creeps, Book 2: The Trolls Will Feast! by Chris Schweizer (Abrams)
• I’m Grumpy (My First Comics), by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House Books for Young Readers)
• Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea, by Ben Clanton (Tundra)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 9-12)

• The Drawing Lesson, by Mark Crilley (Watson-Guptill)
• Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic)
• Hilda and the Stone Forest, by Luke Pearson (Flying Eye Books)
• Rikki, adapted by Norm Harper and Matthew Foltz-Gray (Karate Petshop)
• Science Comics: Dinosaurs, by MK Reed and Joe Flood (First Second)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)

• Bad Machinery, vol. 5: The Case of the Fire Inside, by John Allison (Oni)
• Batgirl, by Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque (DC)
• Jughead, by Chip Zdarsky, Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Derek Charm (Archie)
• Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image)
• Trish Trash: Roller Girl of Mars, by Jessica Abel (Papercutz/Super Genius)
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Marvel)

Best Humor Publication

• The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, by Lee Marrs (Marrs Books)
• Hot Dog Taste Test, by Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn & Quarterly
• Jughead, by Chip Zdarsky, Ryan North, Erica Henderson, and Derek Charm (Archie)
• Man, I Hate Cursive, by Jim Benton (Andrews McMeel)
• Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump, by G. B. Trudeau (Andrews McMeel)

Best Anthology

• Baltic Comics Anthology š! #26: dADa, edited by David Schilter and Sanita Muizniece (kuš!)
• Island Magazine, edited by Brandon Graham and Emma Rios (Image)
• Kramers Ergot 9, edited by Sammy Harkham (Fantagraphics)
• Love Is Love, edited by Sarah Gaydos and Jamie S. Rich (IDW/DC)
• Spanish Fever: Stories by the New Spanish Cartoonists, edited by Santiago Garcia (Fantagraphics)

Best Reality-Based Work

• Dark Night: A True Batman Story, by Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso (Vertigo/DC)
• Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo, by Sandrine Revel (NBM)
• March (Book Three), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
• Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir, by Tom Hart (St. Martin’s)
• Tetris: The Games People Play, by Box Brown (First Second)

Best Graphic Album—New

• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
• Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, by Dave McKean (Dark Horse)
• Exits, by Daryl Seitchik (Koyama)
• Mooncop, by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Patience, by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
• Wonder Woman: The True Amazon, by Jill Thompson (DC Comics)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

• Demon, by Jason Shiga (First Second)
• Incomplete Works, by Dylan Horrocks (Alternative)
• Last Look, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
• Meat Cake Bible, by Dame Darcy (Fantagraphics)
• Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam and Other Stories, by Simon Hanselmann (Fantagraphics)
• She’s Not into Poetry, by Tom Hart (Alternative)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

• Equinoxes, by Cyril Pedrosa, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
• Irmina, by Barbara Yelin, translated by Michael Waaler (SelfMadeHero)
• Love: The Lion, by Frédéric Brémaud and Federico Bertolucci (Magnetic)
• Moebius Library: The World of Edena, by Jean “Moebius” Giraud et al. (Dark Horse)
• Wrinkles, by Paco Roca, translated by Erica Mena (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
• Goodnight Punpun, vols. 1–4, by Inio Asano, translated by JN PRoductions (VIZ Media)
• orange:The Complete Collection, vols. 1–2, by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis, adaptation by Shannon Fay (Seven Seas)
• The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime, by Toshio Ban and Tezuka Productions, translated by Frederik L. Schodt (Stone Bridge Press)
• Princess Jellyfish, vols. 1–3, by Akiko Higashimura, translated by Sarah Alys Lindholm (Kodansha)
• Wandering Island, vol. 1, by Kenji Tsuruta, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips (at least 20 years old)

• Almost Completely Baxter: New and Selected Blurtings, by Glen Baxter (NYR Comics)
• Barnaby, vol. 3, by Crockett Johnson, edited by Philip Nel and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, Colorful Cases of the 1930s, edited by Peter Maresca (Sunday Press)
• The Realist Cartoons, edited by Paul Krassner and Ethan Persoff (Fantagraphics)
• Walt & Skeezix 1931–1932, by Frank King, edited by Jeet Heer and Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books (at least 20 Years Old)

• The Complete Neat Stuff, by Peter Bagge, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, edited by Trina Robbins, Gary Groth, and J. Michael Catron (Fantagraphics)
• Fables and Funnies, by Walt Kelly, compiled by David W. Tosh (Dark Horse)
• Trump: The Complete Collection, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Denis Kitchen and John Lind (Dark Horse)
• U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories, by Sam Glanzman, edited by Drew Ford (Dover)

Best Writer

• Ed Brubaker, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed, Velvet (Image)
• Kurt Busiek, Astro City (Vertigo/DC)
• Chelsea Cain, Mockingbird (Marvel)
• Max Landis, Green Valley (Image/Skybound); Superman: American Alien (DC)
• Jeff Lemire, Black Hammer (Dark Horse); Descender, Plutona (Image); Bloodshot Reborn (Valiant)
• Brian K. Vaughan, Paper Girls, Saga (Image)

Best Writer/Artist

• Jessica Abel, Trish Trash: Roller Girl of Mars (Papercutz/Super Genius)
• Box Brown, Tetris: The Games People Play (First Second)
• Tom Gauld, Mooncop (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Tom Hart, Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir (St. Martin’s)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

• Mark Brooks, Han Solo (Marvel)
• Dan Mora, Klaus (BOOM! Studios)
• Greg Ruth, Indeh (Grand Central Publishing)
• Francois Schuiten, The Theory of the Grain of Sand (IDW)
• Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)
• Brian Stelfreeze, Black Panther (Marvel)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

• Federico Bertolucci, Love: The Lion (Magnetic)
• Brecht Evens, Panther (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Manuele Fior, 5,000 km per Second (Fantagraphics)
• Dave McKean, Black Dog (Dark Horse)
• Sana Takeda, Monstress (Image)
• Jill Thompson, Wonder Woman: The True Amazon (DC); Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged In (Dark Horse)

Best Cover Artist (for multiple covers)

• Mike Del Mundo, Avengers, Carnage, Mosaic, The Vision (Marvel)
• David Mack, Abe Sapien, BPRD Hell on Earth, Fight Club 2, Hellboy and the BPRD 1953 (Dark Horse)
• Sean Phillips, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed (Image)
• Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)
• Sana Takeda, Monstress (Image)

Best Coloring

• Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Green Valley (Image/Skybound)
• Elizabeth Breitweiser, Criminal 10th Anniversary Special, Kill or Be Killed, Velvet (Image); Outcast by Kirkman & Azaceta (Image/Skybound)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)
• Laura Martin, Wonder Woman (DC); Ragnorak (IDW); Black Panther (Marvel)
• Matt Wilson, Cry Havoc, Paper Girls, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Black Widow, The Mighty Thor, Star-Lord (Marvel)

Best Lettering

• Dan Clowes, Patience (Fantagraphics)
• Brecht Evens, Panther (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Tom Gauld, Mooncop (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Nick Hayes, Woody Guthrie (Abrams)
• Todd Klein, Clean Room, Dark Night, Lucifer (Vertigo/DC); Black Hammer (Dark Horse)
• Sonny Liew, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

• The A.V. Club comics coverage, including Comics Panel, Back Issues, and Big Issues, by Oliver Sava et al., www.avclub.com
• Comic Riffs blog, by Michael Cavna and David Betancourt, www.washingtonpost.com/new/comic-riffs/
• Critical Chips, edited by Zainab Akhtar (Comics & Cola)
• PanelPatter.com, edited by Rob McMonigal
• WomenWriteAboutComics.com, edited by Megan Purdy and Claire Napier

Best Comics-Related Book

• blanc et noir: takeshi obata illustrations, by Takeshi Obata (VIZ Media)
• Ditko Unleashed: An American Hero, by Florentino Flórez and Frédéric Manzano (IDW/Editions Déesse)
• Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White, by Michael Tisserand (Harper)
• The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, vol. 1, edited by Bhob Stewart and J. Michael Catron (Fantagraphics)
• More Heroes of the Comics, by Drew Friedman (Fantagraphics)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work

• Brighter Than You Think: Ten Short Works by Alan Moore, with essays by Marc Sobel (Uncivilized)
• Forging the Past: Set and the Art of Memory, by Daniel Marrone (University Press of Mississippi)
• Frank Miller’s Daredevil and the Ends of Heroism, by Paul Young (Rutgers University Press)
• Pioneering Cartoonists of Color, by Tim Jackson (University Press of Mississippi)
• Superwomen: Gender, Power, and Representation, by Carolyn Cocca (Bloomsbury)

Best Publication Design

• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, designed by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)
• The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, designed by Keeli McCarthy (Fantagraphics)
• Frank in the Third Dimension, designed by Jacob Covey, 3D conversions by Charles Barnard (Fantagraphics)
• The Realist Cartoons, designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics)
• Si Lewen’s Parade: An Artist’s Odyssey, designed by Art Spiegelman (Abrams)

Best Webcomic

• Bird Boy, by Anne Szabla, http://bird-boy.com
• Deja Brew, by Taneka Stotts and Sara DuVall (Stela.com)
• Jaeger, by Ibrahim Moustafa (Stela.com)
• The Middle Age, by Steve Conley, steveconley.com/the-middle-age
• On Beauty, by Christina Tran,  sodelightful.com/comics/beauty/

Best Digital Comic

• Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain/comiXology)
• Edison Rex, by Chris Roberson and Dennis Culver (Monkeybrain/comiXology)
• Helm, by Jehanzeb Hasan and Mauricio Caballero, www.crookshaw.com/helm/
• On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden, www.onasunbeam.com
• Universe!, by Albert Monteys (Panel Syndicate)

Cyborg Superman you have me perplexed – who is writing the real one? Steve Orlando or Dan Jurgens? Whoever it is one character will suffer for it. Apart from that mystery it is time for you to go back and enjoy back issues as both Gotham Academy and Wonder Woman are delivering some superb writing.

Lana Lang unlocks the power of Superwoman just in time to take on a deadly foe that hunts children. Hal Jordan is embracing the past while endangering the future, Velma Dinkley is putting her house in order and Killer Frost turns a corner which might change the JLA forever…

This is my look into the DC Universe this week!

WONDER WOMAN #22
Godwatch: Part 4
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Mirka Andolfo
Cover: Bilquis Evely & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Variant: Jenny Frison

Beating Bruce Wayne & Lex Luthor in a charity auction, Veronica Cale uses her winning an evening with Wonder Woman to mine her for information on Themyscira and get the measure of the Amazonian princess.

Diana plays along but in this first meeting, has she already realised Cale is not as innocent as she seems?

It has been a while but we finally get a bit more back story to Veronica Cale and it’s played out very well adding more to both the past and present storylines.

The artwork really brings the story to life, kudos to Mirka Andolfo for providing that little bit extra with some brilliant visuals. As we near the end of the run by Greg Rucka it is just starting to hit me that it really will be the end of a truly special era.

RATING: 5/5

ACTION COMICS #979
Revenge: Part 1
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Patch Zircher
Cover: Clay Mann & Tomeu Morey
Variant: Gary Frank & Brad Anderson

While Lois and Clark are apartment hunting, the Eradicator rescues Mongul and convinces him to join their team. The villains raid the ruins of the Himalayan Fortress searching for a powerful artifact hidden inside. They murder others living inside and smash Kelex before escaping to the the Lunar Batcave.

Hank Henshaw reveals his identity and tells the villains they have one last villain to enlist before they can all finally seek revenge.

So is Zor El Cyborg Superman or is Hank Henshaw?

Did Supergirl Rebirth happen?

Color me confused.

A brilliant issue if not for that as it not throws the opening five issues of Supergirl into continuity madness. Lois and Clark apartment hunting was a breath of fresh air, and it is nice to see them just being a couple.

The balance between their relative normality and the plotting of the Revenge Squad is skillfully written, but then I’d expect nothing less from this team!

RATING: 5/5

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #20
The Prism of Time Part 3: Dogfight
Writer: Robert Vendetti
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Inker: Jordi Tarragona
Cover: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Tomeu Morey
Variant: Kevin Nowlan

The bugs prove unstoppable forcing the Lanterns to a stand still. As Hal battles them he realises that the gauntlet he once wielded may have created their foes and the two lost Lanterns disappeared in the sector he buried it.

Sarko, the visitor from the future is indeed tapping into the power of the gauntlet and if he succeeds Rips future prediction will come true.

Tying into the recent Hal Jordan and the emerald Gauntlet era and making it relevant not only to today but also the future is a stroke of genius that expands upon the rich storytelling and gives Hal’s fugitive period new meaning. I’m still unsure about Sarko and Rip was next to useless this issue, but I like the way Vendetti has brought all the storylines together.

RATING: 4/5

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6
Heart of a Bastich: Part 2
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Andy MacDonald
Cover: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Marcelo Maiolo
Variant: Doug Mahnke & Wil Quintana

Aegeus supernatural weapon has poisoned Lobo’s heart and if Ray doesn’t perform some horrifying surgery the poison will spread, and prevent the Czarnian from healing. Meanwhile the JLA battle the Khund villains magical forces with Atom at a standstill against their leader.

The team pulls together and Lobo comes back stronger than ever – unfortunately for Aegeus!

The battle leads to some revelations for both Atom and Frost that may change them forever…

I realise now that the below par villains are deliberate. It was something I couldn’t figure out till now but it took Lobo and Frost to wake me up.

This book is thriving on character and that is one thing Orlando knows all about. It might sound silly but it really isn’t their superpowers that make this team powerful it is their strength of character. I’m not sure why Lobo is holding back but one day he is going to release his inhibitions and when he does – well I don’t think anyone will be able to stop him.

RATING: 5/5

SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #13
Brotherly Hate
Writers: Keith Giffen & J.M DeMatteis
Artists: Dale Eaglesham & Tom Derenick
Cover: Howard Porter & HiFi
Variant: Nick Bradshaw & Tomeu Morey

Velma realises her nanite technology was stolen and abused by her brother, Rufus T. Dinkley.

The apocalypse is his fault and only Mystery Inc can clean up the mess but while sister is hoping to discover a cure, brother is intent on ruling the monsters as his slaves – the Dinkley family are not very harmonious!

Sickened by her former lover’s plan, Daisy aids the gang in escaping leaving Rufus at the mercy of his creations.

SCRAPPY DOO & CLIFFY in “MONSTER MEAT!”
Writers: Keith Giffen & J.M De Matteis
Artist: Jan Duursema

Cliffy and Scrappy are on Velma’s trail but they are struggling to survive. Scrappy hunts several of the monsters for food and tries to get Cliffy to eat. The boy struggles and the relationship between the two becomes strained. Will they ever make it out of this apocalypse alive?

It is taking a while but Scooby Apocalypse is beginning to grow on me, it is more like an alternate universe story than classic Scooby but it is shaping up to be a really good ‘world’s end’ storyline, I’m even enjoying the Scrappy Doo story – that’s right I said it. Giffen and DeMatteis know all about mythos as they also helm Blue Beetle. This is a remarkably dark tale and it isn’t for everyone. For me its a fun take on the legend of Mystery Inc. and I am enjoying seeing this play out.

RATING: 4/5

SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #81
Troll Bridge
Writer: Sholly Fisch
Artist: Walter Carzon
Inker: Horacio Ottolini
Cover: Walter Carzon, Horacio Ottolini & Silvana Brys

The opening of a new suspension bridge attracts the attention of a giant troll who promptly moves in underneath it. Scooby and the gang are called in to investigate only to discover the beast still there terrorizing anyone that comes close. The gang investigate further and find the trolls amazing secret, along with a criminal master plan that only Mystery Inc can uncover.

“VELMA’S MONSTERS OF THE WORLD – ROKURO KOBI”

Writer: John Rozum
Artist: Scott Gross
Inker: Jorge Pacheco

Velma teaches us the story of the strange Japanese legend of the race of cursed women, the Rokuro Kobi and their sad spooky secret that scares their husbands to death. Is the legend scary enough to frighten Shaggy and Scooby from their midnight snack?

“THIS OLD HAUNTED HOUSE”
Writer: Sholly Fisch
Artist: Scott Jeralds
Inker: Jeff Albrecht

Extreme Homewrecker‘s latest episode is the demolishing of the mobster, Bugsy Swarm’s old house.
The only problem is the ghost of Bugsy wants to stop them before they demolish his house. Scooby and the gang arrive to save the day and unravel a shocking mystery that could kill them all or be the best episode of Extreme Homewrecker ever!

Three enjoyable stories that bring the nostalgia in spades but they still offer something new by Fisch & Rozum craftily and creatively writing in some twists so the endings are not as you’d expect them to me. The art looks great, just like the tv show breathing life onto the page. As an old geezer that remembers this as a classic, revisiting the past in these pages is an absolute treat.

RATING: 5/5

SUPERGIRL #9
Escape From The Phantom Zone: Part 1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Brian Ching
Cover: Brian Ching & Michael Atiyeh
Variant: Bengal

Ben and Barbara are investigating Tychotech and arrive for the press conference of their newest invention. The DEO is interested in the tech too and send in Supergirl to investigate as it appears to be stolen Kryptonian hardware.

The Tycho Eidolon is unveiled and as it activates the villain Magog appears in hopes of drawing out the Justice League and killing Supergirl for something she is destined to do in the future.

Batgirl, Ben and Supergirl are sucked into the Eidolon which turns out to be a vacuum into the Phantom Zone while Magog escapes swearing to return with the Fatal Five one day.

Meanwhile the Phantom King realises that Supergirl is now in the Phantom Zone and with her comes a means of escape and a deadly plan for revenge against the House of El.

This issue wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped jumping straight into the action rather than show Kara and Barbara investigating Tycho as I had expected (following Batgirl’s annual) but we have a surprise attack by Magog foreshadowing more of an arc to explain Supergirl’s future actions against the Fatal Five. So if you wanted action – this was the book to find it in, throw in a touching nod to the 1984 movie and one of DC’s deadliest villains and all is forgiven.

Still considering what just happened in Action it would have been nice to see what has justhappened there addressed and I am still hoping Kara Danvers gets to shine a little soon.

RATING: 4/5

SUPERWOMAN #10
Rediscovery: Part 1
Writer: K. Perkins
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Inker: Art Thibert
Cover: Ken Lashley & HiFi
Variant: Renato Guedes

Natasha and John run tests on the Insect Queen armour it is attuned only to Lana’s unique biology and Natasha reveals somehow it seems to still have a link to Kryptonian energy. When Lana dons the suit it begins to supercharge and whilst in it she can be Superwoman once more.

Meanwhile Skyhook the evil demonic creature that preys on children has arrived in Metropolis and has set his sights on someone close to the Irons family. Is Lana ready to jump back into battle or is it too soon?

K. Perkins takes on the reigns of Superwoman following the the epic first arc by Phil Jimenez, and that mere fact meant there was a lot to live up to.

To negate the fact Lana was powerless there was a long drawn out and contrived ‘repowering’ storyline that aimed to quickly get Lana back in action… it wasn’t good I’m afraid but it was a means to an end and the rest of the issue was actually really, really good. Skyhook has always been a favorite villain of mine, criminally underused and perhaps one of DC’s darkest most vile ever to grace the pages of a comic. Aiming the rest of the story at the Irons family was exactly the right thing to do and though it was rushed, at least next issue K. Perkins can start fresh with minimal baggage.

RATING: 3/5

GOTHAM ACADEMY SECOND SEMESTER #9
The Ballad of Oliver Silverlock: Part 1
Writers: Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan & Karl Kerschl
Artist: Adam Archer & MSassyK
Inker: Sandra Hope & Rob Haynes
Cover: Karl Kerschl

The ancestral home of the Dent family is burning down and Olive surmises that Harvey will return when he hears of it. The youngster is right but as she confronts Harvey, he realises she is as damaged as he is. Seeing a kindred spirit in one another they decide to look into the fire and come up with a common enemy and swear to make them pay.

Can Daisy’s friends stop her and save the day before it’s too late? It isn’t looking good.

Gotham Academy has been one of the most creative ‘Gotham City’ books in years and I can’t believe we are gearing up to the final act.

Still it seems they aren’t going out with a whimper as we begin an arc that goes back to the roots of Gotham itself and the kids are immediately thrust into a dark tale that pits two of Batman’s rogues against one another with Olive caught in the middle. This book is fantastic, check out the back issues, you’ll thank me.

RATING: 5/5

There are many nerd types out there and I bet that most of them are not viewed as nerds by the vast majority of people… yet they are nerds all the same. The term nerd has evolved into anything where one takes a protracted and hard-lined interest in a subject or genre.

Most of you are an “Insert NERD Something” about something and that right there should tell you how far this term as expanded and been rewritten by time and society.

RPG (Role Playing Game) Nerd

“Everything I know about courage I learned from Role Playing Games”

The Role Playing Nerd is the kind that always has a D20 on them (and if you know what a D20 is then you are most likely one of these). They give themselves stats and hit points (400 hit points and maximum charisma). When they trip and fall they do a saving throw. Stacks of Dungeon Masters guides and character sheets litter their living space and walking down the street requires a stick to poke the ground… checking for traps don’t ya know.

Movie Nerd

“Star Wars borrowed from a long tradition of Kafka inspired theft”

The movie nerd knows the background actors from every film Orson Welles ever watched in the theater let alone had a hand in the production of. They don’t watch a film for simple things that entertain an average cretin, no the film nerds watches for subtext, for symbolism and most of all for the deeper meaning that film shines on the world of darkness by offering a ray of light from the mundane and the ordinary.   The movie nerd sees not film but sees worlds heretofore unrealized which make life worth living… that or a movie nerd is just someone that really, really likes movies… either way.

Book Nerds

“Books whisk you away to a place where imagination flows free and there are no restrictions… ow, damn paper cuts”

The book nerd reads printed words more than they speak verbal words. They embrace the simplicity of the printed word while chastising the complexity of those very same words. They always think the book was better than the movie even if the book in question was never made into a movie… the book IS JUST THAT AMAZING AND PROFOUND. They look down on those that don’t read and weep at the sight of textese. They know the meaning of words unspoken by human lips in 200 centuries and they aim to keep it that way, it’s far more special like that and the book nerd requires the feeling of special.

Sports Nerds

“Brett Favre could never out throw Barry Bonds even if Bonds was off the juice and Favre was not hitting on the cheerleaders”.

Ah the Sports nerd. The Sports nerd never, even in the slightest degree, considers himself a nerd of any variety, no, the sports nerd is a real man that likes to watch other men roll around with one another while getting all sweaty and then reaching for balls and… *cough* well you get the idea. The sports nerd knows all the stats, knows all the players, all the back ups, everyone that ever looked at the team of (insert sportsball activity here) and does it all with the smug assurance that he is not a nerd… not like that “Star Trek” geek over there that knows all the stardates of the episodes, knows all the dead red shirts and knows all of the call numbers for every Constellation Class Starship ever.   Nope, not even remotely like that guy. Nope. Oh and shut up… Fantasy Football is not just D&D for real men. SHUT UP NERD!

Computer Nerds

“Sigh, you right clicked on the dll when you should have double clicked on the exe”.

You are one of these guys if you knew what a dll or an exe was without having to google it. The computer nerd knows and cares more about a hard drive then a hard body. They hold tightly onto the simulated world so much so that they are excluded from real life. Contact with humans is a cause to panic but damn it they are a god on 4chan. They can fix your computer in mere moments with a few clicks of the mouse but they don’t know about social interaction. They see the world as lines of code (think The Matrix).

Music Nerds

“I was listening to them back when they were playing in clubs and you never even heard of them”.

The music nerd is usually also called the hipster. They know every band that has ever played on planet earth… long before that band was popular of course. They always have the best bootleg live shows and import CD’s from Botswana. The music nerd experiences music rather than listens to music. The music nerd always, without fail, hates any band that gets a record deal and screams sell out once that band get played on the radio. The music nerd is really kind of a jerk.

Comic Nerds

“Wolverine could kill Superman to death if it were a cloudy day”.

The comic nerd is one that is gaining in status of late. They know what issue a character first appeared, who drew them, who wrote them, who inked them and even what the name of the UPS driver was that brought the book to the store on that fateful Wednesday. The comic nerd views the world though a series of 4 color panels and thinks that punching someone really makes a THOOM sound. Wearing underwear on the outside of your tights is just how real men dress when they bring justice to the world.

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown!

The Summer months are getting closer…that means the Rebirth storyline is heating up! Let’s take a look at some of DC Comics offerings this week.

All Star Batman #10
Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque

Scott Snyder is a brand of his own these days. With Snyder, you always know going in that he put heart and soul into the writing. That is especially true for this book, which is the first part of a new storyline called “The First Ally.”

Batman’s will is tested to the limits here when he is defeated by a new enemy he cannot beat. Who is this new enemy? How long has he been around? And what is his connection to one of his closest allies? Find out starting here.

The writing is always solid, and the art by Albuquerque is just awesome. Within the first three pages I knew I was going to like this. His panel layouts and figure drawing are something to behold. This is a good creative team. Pick this up for sure. It’s one of the consistently best book currently in the marketplace.

RATING: A

Detective Comics #956
Written by James Tynion IV
Illustrated by Marcio Takara

This is a great issue. Why is it so good? Well, it’s the finale of the “League of Shadows” storyline and man is it a doozy.

Action! Intrigue! Great storytelling! All of these things and more can be found within these pages.

It’s all out war in this issue. Batman and his team are up against Lady Shivs and her league of killers. It’s a brutal fight to the finish and it’s enjoyable as hell. I love the all out brawl that happens here. Kudos to Tynion for keeping the excitement and the action high. The last page is something to pay attention to as well.

The art was pretty spiffy too on this. A great storyline from start to finish. This book has gotten really strong and I can’t wait to pick it up every time it comes out.

RATING: A-

Shade the Changing Girl #8
Written by Cecil Castellucci
Illustrated by Marley Zarcone

The creative team of Castellucci and Zarcone are reunited in this issue. It’s a new storyline for this title and it starts off strong. I really love how this book is turning out.

Shade decides to go on the road in this issue. Shade realizes she’s not wanted in high school, especially because her friends made it clear that they don’t want her there. So she makes her way to Gotham City…and that’s where the madness begins.

She uses her powers and that alerts the Meta Police to her location…and then craziness ensues. I was hooked on this issue as soon as it started…it’s a hell of a first two pages.

The writing is strong and the art by Zarcone is fantastic. This is perfect creative team for this title. I hope they stick with it for many more issues to come.

RATING: A-

Titans #11
Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by Brett Booth

Speaking of great creative teams, here’s another team that does a great job every month. Dan Abnett and Brett Booth are at the top of their game here. This is the start of a new storyline called “The Lazarus Contract” and it’s pretty damn good .

Deathstroke guest stars here. He finds out that Wally West’s return may allow him to bring his son back from the dead. So, he decides to figure out the puzzle. That means action and excitement from cover to cover here!

Deathstroke is as brutal as one would hope here. Abnett has a really good take on the characters.

I’m so happy with Booth’s art. It’s really great. I’m happy to see him drawing Slade Wilson as well. I’m excited about this title. There is some solid work being done here and it’s very cool to read.

RATING: A

New Super-Man #11
Written by Gene Luen Yang
Illustrated by Billy Tan

This book has been surprising lately! It’s never really been all that bad. Gene Luen Yang has always been a solid writer after all. Yet, Tan adds an immense amount of energy to the whole affair. His artwork really cooks off the page.

This is the start of a new storyline called “The Zero Ultimatum.”

The original Superman of China happens to get free here. This forces our hero to come into conflict with him! It’s a good time and get damn exciting.

Yang and Tan make for a great team. They are started to cook over here. I thought this book would probably be canceled when it first started. Now, I’m excited to see where it goes. A very good book overall.

RATING: B+

Suicide Squad #17
Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Tony S. Daniel

This is the end of the current Suicide Squad storyline and, though it has been better the last few issues, this chapter is pretty underwhelming. I wanted to like it more than I did but it kind of fell flat for me. It’s a shame because I kind of enjoyed the last six or so issues.

Part of the problem here is that Williams’ writing is kind of all over the map here. He does okay with the action. When it comes to the humor however, it doesn’t quite work. He’s a guy who thinks Zod saying “Kneel before Zod!” repeatedly is a scream. It’s not. Trust me it’s not.

Still, the art by Daniel is more than worth the price of admission and the last page was all sorts of awesome. We are definitely in a better place than when this series started. Thank god for that.

RATING: B-

Batgirl and The Birds of Prey #10

Written by Julie and Shawna Benson
Illustrated by Roge Antonio

This is another solid entry in this comic book series. It’s not a spectacular issue, but it is a decent read. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This book feels like the most average book on the stands.

This is the finale of the “Blackbird” storyline. The Birds of Prey find out just what Blackbird is capable of.

The whole comic almost has a vagueness about it. It just feels like an average comic book but it feels like it should be more than that.

A hell of a lot more. The art is decent enough.

I just felt the whole thing was just “okay.” I’d like better than that.

RATING: C

Bug: The Adventures of the Forager #1
Written by Lee Allred
Illustrated by Michael Allred

What the living hell Is this? The Young Animal line over at DC decided to put together a new miniseries. They decided also to entrust it in the hands of the Allred Brothers! It’s an Allred family affair! (Michael’s wife, Laura, does the colors) This is a heck of a happy and joyous comic book.

Our hero, The Forager ,escapes from a place called the Hive. He escapes from his cocoon and goes to a strange house in a strange realm. There he meets a wacky bunch of characters.

He then discovers the existence of a villain called the General Electric. The General Electric is hunting a metal that could destroy reality. So the Forager has to find the Meta first…and possibly become a New God!

Um….it’s great. I loved this nutty tale. I wish Allred would do more Madman. I’ll take this though. It’s the craziest thing I’ve read in a long time. Ginchy!

RATING: A

Future Quest #12
Written by Jeff Parker
Illustrated by Evan “Doc” Shaner

This title is the only good thing to come from the Hanna Barbera line over at DC Comics. I’m sad it’s the final issue for the time being. I know there will be more coming on down the line. It was just nice overall and made me incredibly nostalgic.

The heroes make their final stand against the evil being, the World Ender! Will they survive? Read the issue! (It’s awesome trust me)

Jeff Parker is the real MVP here. He has killed on this title. The writing is sharp and there are some great character moments. Shaner’s art really evokes the a time past. I love every picture in this book.

Pick this up and then pick up the entire series…well worth your time.

RATING: B+

Red Hood and the Outlaws #10
Written by Scott Lobdell
Illustrated by Dexter Soy

I enjoy Scott Lobdell’s writing. He mixes action with humor perfectly (put him on Suicide Squad maybe?). He paces the story nicely and here it works yet again. This is a good issue.

This is part two of the “Who is Artemis? Storyline and it’s fairly good! Lobdell creates a good mystery here and there are great character moments abound. The part where the Red Hood has to confront his death is nicely handled and emotional.

Dexter Soy is an unsung hero in comics. His artwork is expressive and well composed. I love the way too he draws the Red Hood especially.

Pick this up. It’s another good issue in a solid run.

RATING: B+

When a wounded Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan, “The Fall,” Anthropoid) tries to entice a cautious Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson, How to Be Single, Black Mass) back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple. Jack Hyde (Eric Johnson, “The Knick,” “Smallville”) and Elena Lincoln (Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential, 9 ½ Weeks) intensify the story, determined to destroy the couple’s hopes for a future together.

Directed by James Foley (“House of Cards,” Fear), Fifty Shades Darker also features Bella Heathcote (Dark Shadows, “The Man in the High Castle”), as well as returning cast members Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Fifty Shades of Grey, Miller’s Crossing) and Rita Ora (Fifty Shades of Grey).

In addition to both the original theatrical version and a steamy new unrated version with over 13 minutes of footage not seen in theaters, Fifty Shades Darker Unrated Edition on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital HD comes with more than 30 minutes of never-before-seen bonus content, including cast interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and a peek at what lies ahead in the upcoming Fifty Shades Freed!

And we’re giving away copies to Forces of Geek readers!

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “DARKER” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

Kim Basinger previously starred in this 1986 erotic thriller opposite Mickey Rourke?

Please include your name and address (U.S. Residents only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on May 21st, 2017.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day.

We all know that Mother’s Day might not be applicable to the woman who gave birth to you, but to any woman (or even man) who provided a maternal emotional connection in your life, Mother’s Day is a nice opportunity to acknowledge them and the influence and support they’ve provided in your life.

And while cards, flowers, brunch, candles, and perfumes are nice, here are some of our suggestions.

Word to your mother.

Masterpiece: Victoria: The Complete First Season

In 1837, a diminutive, neglected teenager is crowned Queen Victoria, navigates the scandal, corruption, and political intrigues of the Court, and soon rises to become the most powerful woman in the world.

Starring Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) as Queen Victoria the series follows Victoria from the time she becomes Queen through her passionate courtship and marriage to Prince Albert, the lavish premiere season of Victoria dramatizes the romance and reign of the girl behind the famous monarch. In addition to Coleman, the stellar ensemble includes Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle, Zen, The Pillars of the Earth) as Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first prime minister and intimate friend, and Tom Hughes (Page Eight, Dancing on the Edge) as her husband Prince Albert.

Magic Fortune Teller Board Cigarette Case

The mystical Magic Fortune Teller spirit board bridges the realms of the dead and the presently living and connects the two. What new knowledge will be revealed to you through your new magical case from Retro-a-go-go? May good fortune be yours!

Some other interesting and additional details you may be interested in: Your case will comfortably hold 9 credit cards or i.d. cards, or 20 of your business cards. For those of us who enjoy a smoke, it holds a half pack of your favorite brand. The gentle, but effective, swing arm will secure your important items with just the right bit of strength to keep your goodies in their place.

Dimensions: 3.1″L x .44″W x 4″H

In real Retro-a-go-go! style, each artful image is coated in hand-poured clear resin for a shiny glass-like finish.

The Freedom Broker
by K.J. Howe

There are twenty-five elite kidnap and ransom (K&R) specialists in the world. Only one is a woman: Thea Paris. And she’s the best in the business.

Twenty years ago, a terrified young boy was abducted in the middle of the night by masked intruders while his sister watched, paralyzed with fear. Returned after a harrowing nine months with his captors, Thea’s brother has never been the same.

This life-shattering experience drove Thea to become what she is today: a world-class freedom broker. Most hostage-recovery work is done at the negotiation table, but when diplomacy fails, Thea leads Quantum Security International’s black-ops team on highly sensitive rescue missions to political hot spots around the globe.

Her childhood nightmare resurfaces when her oil magnate father, Christos Paris, is snatched from his yacht off Santorini on his sixtieth birthday, days away from the biggest deal of his career. The brutal kidnappers left the entire crew slaughtered in their wake, but strangely, there are no ransom demands, no political appeals, no prisoner release requests-just obscure and foreboding texts written in Latin sent from burner phones.

Knowing the survival window for kidnap victims is small, Thea throws herself into the most urgent and challenging rescue mission of her life-but will she be able to prevent this kidnapping from destroying her family for good?

COOL: Style, Sound, and Subversion
by Greg Foley and Andrew Luecke

It’s no secret that the youth of the world buck conventional mainstream culture every chance they get, blazing countercultural trails in the process.

Driven by their thirst for art and music, and their environment, young people combine their inspirations with the innate desire to rebel, resulting in a defiant subculture; and mainstream society runs to catch up, to co-opt it, and drag it to the mainstream. Lindy Hoppers of the 1930s, greasers of the 1950s, Rude Boys of the 1960s, glam rockers of the 1970s, club kids of the 1980s: there are countless subculture styles that were born from resisting authority.

COOL: Style, Sound, and Subversion is equal parts historical chronicle and handbook of the myriad subcultures—most unknown to mainstream culture—that have influenced style.

Authors Greg Foley and Andrew Luecke have compiled a comprehensive list of subcultures that have evolved over more than one hundred years, taking a look at the fashion, the art, the films, the books, the music, and historical context of these style movements, many of which came to influence conventional culture and eventually became a norm. Lavish with original illustrations, COOL references a wealth of ephemera—including a timeline, zeitgeist films, ’zines, secret music scenes, art collectives, and over one hundred music playlists tied to specific subcultures through the years—to give the reader a thoroughly vibrant picture of each movement and their sub-movements. COOL: Style, Sound, and Subversion is sure to appeal to fashionistas, culture mavens, and pop culture fans alike.

Curl Up & Dye Women’s T-Shirt

Curl Up & Dye Beauty Salon….We’ll make you so beautiful, they’ll die a little inside.

From our friends at Retro-a-go-go, this 100% combed and ring-spun cotton tee in color black. For best care, do not iron decoration.

It is recommended to wash this shirt in cold water, on gentle cycle, with the shirt inside out and dry on low heat.

Princess Leia “Rebel Rebel” Print

In 2016, David Bowie and Carrie Fisher both passed away unexpectedly, leaving million of fans.

During his career, Bowie assumed many different identities including Ziggy Stardust, The Goblin King, Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke.

And although Fisher was an accomplished writer and actor, one particular role she became synonymous with; Princess Leia Organa, a leader in the rebellion against the galactic Empire.

This Giclée print arrives on natural white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 1″ border for framing. This print is a wonderful tribute to both icons.

Stephanie Buscema Artist Edition Spook Show Bag

One of artist Stephanie Buscema collaborated with the amazing Trophy Queen to bring these kick ass signature artist edition bags and wallets to fruition. Made exclusively with her custom art print incorporated into TQ’s El Dorado Bag.

This version features her Spook Show art in green with black glitter and Trophy Queen’s signature leopard lining-these are built to last!

The bag measures 13″ length, 9″ height (at center) and 2.5″ width.  The bag also features a 21” single shoulder strap.

Quantities are very limited and perfect for your hip mom.

With only several hours left, time is of the essence to bring the cult comic book series, Swords of the Swashbucklers back in an all new series from Dynamite Comics.  With a fully funded Kickstarter ending today, there’s still time to hit it’s third and final stretch goal, which will bring the Swashbucklers back.

Check out the full press release below and support Dynamite’s efforts in not only collecting this series, but also it’s plans to bring it back.

Dynamite Entertainment is proud to share the great news that, thanks to the overwhelming support of backers, the current Swords of the Swashbucklers Kickstarter has surpassed not only its original $9,500 goal, but two additional stretch goals. It’s with great pleasure that the publisher is now announcing the third and final stretch goal for this Kickstarter campaign: an all-new Swords of the Swashbucklers comic book project with involvement by original series artist Butch Guice and the Mantlo family!

To support the Kickstarter, Click HERE!

Produced by Dave Bartis
Written by Dwain Worrell
Directed by Doug Liman
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson,
John Cena, Laith Nakli

Many war movies make use of explosions, gore, and ear-shattering effects to drive home the feeling of the battlefield. But what of the quieter and equally deadly encounters, where a few soldiers may be trapped in a life-threatening situation posed by a single well-placed threat?

The Wall lets us see this scenario with an intimate portrait of the will to simply survive when nothing seems to be aligned in one’s favor.

The story centers around two soldiers who have been pinned down by a lethally accurate Iraqi sniper. As the standoff goes on, both parties attempt to learn more about the motivations and character of their enemy.

What follows is a battle of wits and perseverance where life hangs in the balance.

This is a fairly short movie, but it makes good use of the time. At a mere 90 minutes, it manages to tell a fully engaging tale with little dead air. This can be difficult with war movies, especially ones as Spartan in effects and characters as this. Hearing and seeing the pain and weariness on Isaac’s face (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) while he slowly bleeds out under the Iraqi sun should not be as captivating as it is. But the voice of Juba (Laith Nakli) infiltrating the military radio makes for a wonderful dialogue that shifts from nameless enemies to a strangely conversational tone over the hour and a half. I dare not ruin the ending for you but I left the theater surprised and a bit startled.

There is little to say about cinematography outside of the excellent use of tight shots. But how else would the story be told, when the character has only a few feet of wall to crouch behind (or be dispatched with haste)? There is nothing but a trash heap, some vehicles, the wall, and a few bodies here and there to provide set dressing. This film is heavily dependent on the emotional investment of the audience in the actors.

Luckily, Taylor-Johnson shines as Isaac, an injured soldier. His performance feels genuine and heart-breaking when the severity of the situation becomes clear. He elicits empathy not in a #TeamUSA way, but in an investment in the human experience. As stated in song, “Who the f*** wants to die alone all dried up in the desert sun?” Nakli is equally interesting as the voice that haunts the radio. His calm and collected delivery is a sharp contrast from Isaac’s straightforward Southern backtalk. There’s an air of refinement in Nakli’s delivery that makes his actions seem detached from emotional investment even when his words are full of meaning and poetry. Yes, actual poetry. This is a fairly interesting movie. To talk in length about John Cena would be to give away plot points, but he is serviceable in this role and I generally enjoyed his performance. But all glory goes to Taylor-Johnson for keeping the viewer guessing and interested.

War is difficult to portray on the screen in a way that feels honest to the situations soldiers face. The Wall is a decent example of the success found in taking one momentary conflict and exploring it thoroughly. The pared down set and cast list are strengths rather than weaknesses. Only someone who has been in the field can truly judge the accuracy of this film, but as a viewer my heart was sitting right behind that crumbling wall in a desert far away.

At least for 90 minutes.

Produced by Guy Ritchie, Akiva Goldsman,
Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell,
Steve Clark-Hall,Lionel Wigram
Screenplay by Guy Ritchie,
Lionel Wigram, Joby Harold
Story by David Dobkin, Joby Harold
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring Charlie Hunnam,
Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou,
Aidan Gillen, Jude Law, Eric Bana

Full disclosure; I love Guy Ritchie’s movies.

From Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels right on up to last year’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I have enjoyed his kinetic style of filmmaking paired a big dollop of dry humour.

His movies are usually driven by a great cast of characters.

Charismatic tough guys that delivery the cheesiest kind of lines that are fun to quote with your friends.  Without Guy Richie, we would not have Jason Statham. When I saw that Richie’s latest project was King Arthur I thought that it was a done deal.  Richie’s flair on top of kings, swords, and battles, awesome!

Nope, not awesome.  In fact, kinda painful.

I was so very disappointed with King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.  From the trailers it looked like it would be a fun, over the top fantasy movie, with Guy Ritchie’s usually modern spin to bring in the crowds that wouldn’t touch a Tolkien movie with a twelve foot pole.  Instead it was a mish-mash that felt like 3 different people put the movie together; part Snatch, part generic medieval movie, part mid-life crisis movie.

Charlie Hunnam (Pacific Rim) as Arthur plays the usual Ritchie tough guy, just this side of the wrong side of the law but with the code of honor for those he considers his friends.  His rapport with his friends, Wet Stick (Kingsley Ben-Adir, World War Z) and Back Lack (Neil Maskell, Kill List) and the rapid fire delivery of dialog accompanied is pure Ritchie and it is one of the few times the movie shines.

Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) as Arthur’s throne usurping uncle, Vortigern is in a completely different film. In the scenes with his wife and with his daughter Law seems as serious as if he were playing Claudius or MacBeth.  While he may have been trying to lend the films some gravitas, it felt ingenuine and provoked unintended laughter from the viewing audience.

Djimon Hounsou’s Bedivere (Gladiator) was wasted as a one dimensional character that only served to be there for when the story need someone from the past to prod Arthur into accepting his role as a leader. However, Aidan Gillen (Games of Thrones) was given the rare opportunity to play a character other than another manipulative slimeball and actually be an honorable knight.  It was refreshing to see him act against cast type.

Another pitfall of the film is the lack of quality women’s roles.  Although twice, Arthur would not have survived if it had not been for the intervention of a woman, the woman of the film are there to be set dressing or victims with the exception of The Mage played by Astrid Berges-Frisbey (Alaska).  The Mage may be the most important person to Arthur’s success in battling his uncle, but is given little acknowledgement for her contributions.  It is disappointing to see a lack of strong female characters, especially where they were a highlighted in the Sherlock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

I usually try and find something good to say about a movie, because I know so many people worked hard on it, but it is hard for me to find anything about the film that was more than just a basic attempt at a blockbuster.  It’s as if there was a checklist of how to make an epic, medieval film.

Although all the boxes were checked, it had no heart in it.

Produced by Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam,
Michael Schaefer, David Giler, Walter Hill
Story by Jack Paglen, Michael Green
Screenplay by John Logan, Dante Harper
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup,
Michael Fassbender, Danny McBride,
Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, James Franco

Alien: Covenant is visually everything you could have hoped for from an Alien movie made by Ridley Scott. Unfortunately, it also suffers from many of the storytelling and character flaws that maligned and crippled an uneven Prometheus.

Scott is a master of stunning visuals and the art of building tension in film. It is unfortunate he has sacrificed the art of storytelling to achieve such greatness in these other aspects of his craft.

After the tepid, sometimes volatile and negative reaction to Prometheus, Scott decided that he made a mistake. He thought the reason the film failed was because the audience wanted aliens, as we knew them, in an Alien movie.

He couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I think it had more to do with Damon Lindelof limitations as a storyteller, ruining a good script with his particular brand of stupid and arrogant bullcrap that ruined Prometheus, a film who’s theme and basic storyline I love but thought was then executed with the subtlety of a chestburster.

But I digress.

It seems Scott has forgotten how to tell a well-woven story with characters that not only have the proper motivations to move the story along, but aren’t just doing things because he needs the plot to get from point A to point G regardless of how stupid they are. I mean the fastest way between two points is a straight line… Why not six points, who cares if it doesn’t make any sense.

It looks super cool, right? And that’s all that matters.

Right?

RIGHT?!

Much like Prometheus there are brilliant concepts and very well thought out pieces of a great cinema here. However, unlike his original foray into the xenomorph world, Alien in 1979, this film’s brilliant and often breathtaking ideas are strung together with plot-hole ridden through lines and spoon-fed storytelling that borders on insulting. Screenwriters, John Logan and Dante Harper have taken the story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen and turned in a weak, less than original screenplay that, while better written than Prometheus still suffers a lot of the same issues as its predecessor.

The story centers on the crew of the colonizing ship, Covenant. Much like the doomed crew of the Nostromo, in the original film, the crew, sets down on a mysterious planet only to have everything go sideways and they have to escape when the all too familiar, to us, xenomorph appears and wreaks havoc.

But wait. What about David? What about Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, my two favorite characters from Prometheus? When we left Prometheus they were on their way to the Engineers homeward to finally meet their makers…

Well… they sorta do in this film.

It seems the film we were promised is more like a footnote and a flashback in this film. Though not entirely a complete “bait and switch” like the 1992 Alien 3… You know, the one where we were promised “On EARTH, everyone can hear you scream”. Except by Earth they meant a remote space prison and everyone they meant like 20 dudes, but you know, basically the same thing. It seems that somewhere Ridley Scott decided that no one wanted to see a whole movie about finding out where we came from, where the aliens came from and what people really wanted was basically a mediocre Alien rehash with only some of the things we were originally promised in this film, so he wasn’t a blatant liar.

Don’t get me wrong, there were moments that I loved. There were some were beautiful and well thought out scenes and a few of the characters that I truly liked. Unfortunately, they were definitely overshadowed by some  bad spoon fed dialog and visuals intended to “make sure we got it” when it eventually happened. There are also a couple of really awful plot devices and “explanations” that made me scratch my head and say “WHAAAAT?”.

I think in the end, what made both the first and second Alien films brilliant were that not only were they night and day different from each other but they never felt the need to spoon feed me anything. So much was left for the audience to decide. The first more so than the second but again, very different films. I feel like Alien: Covenant was trying rekindle the feel of the original film but instead of just telling a solid story it tried to be the servant of two masters by giving the fans and die hards of the series what they wanted but also tried to make it accessible to people who are new to the franchise. In doing so they basically hamstrung the film and never let it completely evolve into the xenomorph is should have been.

Sir Ridley Scott never goes full George Lucas, however there IS another sequel being written right now to begin shooting next year so who knows we may see “Alien: Revenge of the Xenomorph” sooner more than later…

This is Benn Robbins, last survivor of the Nostormo, signing off.

From the team behind THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON and the Hugo Award-nominated writer of Vision comes a unique take on Mister Miracle, one of Jack Kirby’s most beloved New Gods. Beginning this August and running for 12 issues, new series MISTER MIRACLE from writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads will take readers on an episodic roller coaster of death, resurrection, mystery and intrigue.

Created by Kirby for DC and first appearing in 1971’s MISTER MIRACLE #1, Scott Free, using the stage alter ego of Mister Miracle, is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. So great is his skill that he has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt and pulled off every trick—except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible?

“MISTER MIRACLE is the most ambitious project I’ve ever worked on,” says King. “Mitch and I asked ourselves if we could do something as good as SANDMAN, PREACHER or NEW FRONTIER, which are transcendent, contained stories that comment upon the times in which they were made. We knew we’d be stupid to think we could, but we’d be more stupid not to try.”

“Because of the nature of how Tom and I are creating the book, I’m able to really stretch how I approach the art,” adds Gerads. “I’ve followed Tom into Baghdad, Gotham City, and now I couldn’t be more excited to join him on the battle plains of Apokolips! So here we go, into the breach once more, and I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side. FOR NEW GENESIS!”

“MISTER MIRACLE is the story of a trapped man who can get out of any trap,” continues King. “It’s about the weird that surrounds us now, that seems to push into every aspect of our being, that leaves us questioning the very foundations of our existence: how did I get into this and how the hell do I get out?”

MISTER MIRACLE #1, written by Tom King, illustrated by Mitch Gerads, lettered by Clayton Cowles and edited by Jamie S. Rich, will hit shelves August 9. Cover artwork is by Nick Derington with variant cover by Gerads.