The recent Spielberg film Ready Player One contains a slew of video game nods and references, many of which stirred its audiences nostalgia strings. Personally, I felt it had a lot of issues and despite being a film about a gamer on a hero’s journey and video games in general, I should have been its key demographic yet I was left underwhelmed and extremely unimpressed as the credits rolled.

Of course, it’s not just big blockbuster films that fail to represent gamers or portray video games inaccurately, in fact the way they are depicted in TV has been a point of contention for a long time.

One of the worst offenders is a show which really should know better as it claims to be about geek culture. In The Big Bang Theory, early on in the first series the cast are “playing” Halo 3. I adore the Halo series so seeing it on a mainstream TV show at first felt novel, I was pleased that it had permeated into primetime and yet watching Leonard and Co. press every button in quick succession made my blood boil. If the actors had actually been playing, they’d have jumped in the air, fired one shot and then blown themselves up with their own sticky grenade. To add further insult to the Halo gaming community, none of the actors even had their controller turned on!

Sure, that might just be an oversight by the props department and these are just actors doing their job but in a show that claims to be celebrating geek culture, these things matter. Also, when did actors start thinking that games controllers were steering wheels? So many shows portray gaming as flailing about and mashing buttons. But before you bring up the Nintendo Wii, this phenomenon has been a trend in film and TV for years, hell…it’s possibly even more prevalent in stock photography.

Likewise, I know some games do actually warrant a small amount of button mashing but these games are either retro titles, where the controllers a stiff or they are quick time events in obscure Japanese RPGs which constitute a niche section of the gaming industry. In mainstream media, these games are not the ones being represented so why is there so much button mashing in commercials and TV shows?

The Big Bang Theory is not the only one to get Halo 3 wrong, I seem to remember an episode of Dexter where Michael C. Hall is playing it on a keyboard (many years before it had even been released on PC). One saving grace was that at least he knew how to use a sticky grenade but surely, it can’t cost that much to ask someone who actually plays games to fact check this kind of stuff?

Even Breaking Bad has caused the gaming community to collectively eye roll, Jesse clearly distraught after shooting someone in the head is playing the game RAGE, that part in itself isn’t an issue given how cathartic gaming can be but he’s playing it standing up and with a light gun! I know he’s got all that meth-money but I’m preeeetty sure that game doesn’t come with a light gun.

In this day and age, it’s hard to believe that actors don’t know how to play or haven’t played video games so what’s up with the inability to act like a gamer? Is it directors demanding more movement on screen? I understand that someone sitting motionless, concentrating on the screen and holding their controller perfectly still isn’t particularly exciting to watch. However, if that were the case then “Let’s Plays” wouldn’t dominate YouTube and Twitch wouldn’t be the successful live streaming service it is.

And TV commercials, I get it…you need people to believe that playing on your console or a particular game is the single best moment of these actors lives. You’re selling a product, cool…except please understand that actual gamers don’t fall for that, over acting our favourite activity is offensive to us. We buy games based on reviews (that hopefully aren’t paid for) or our love of a particular franchise or on the merit and calibre of a developers previous work.

Despite the overwhelming majority of TV shows getting it wrong, there are a few examples I’ve found that hit the nail on the head. The first are episodes 98 and 99 of the anime Gintama, where gamers are queuing up for the midnight release of the Bentendo Owee, an obvious parody of the Nintendo Wii. Given that the Wii was released just two years previously (one year if you count the manga which was the source material of show) it was definitely current. These episodes also highlight the passion of many gamers who will line up for hours to wait for a new release in a way that film or music fans don’t.

Additionally, all of the references utilised in these episodes are specific to the gaming industry, while some TV shows shy away from anything that isn’t a popular AAA title, Gintama has no qualms referencing Shenmue and its fans who desperately want a new instalment for example. It playfully mocks the more absurd parts of the games industry and does it well because from the dialogue and on-screen jokes, it’s clear that the writer knows the source material well.

Some of the references are more obvious, such as two characters donning Mario-style caps and moustaches but fundamentally the level of detail adds to the humour is quite frankly superb. I may be biased, as this show is my favourite anime of all time but the writers of The Big Bang Theory could definitely learn a thing or two from Gintama.

Another accurate portrayal of gamers can be seen more recently in Riverdale where in one particular episode, Archie and Jughead are hanging out and gaming *shock, horror* normally! Neither character is using their outdoor voice, nor is Archie frantically moving his controller about. They are just two dudes hanging out exactly as gamers do. Jughead genially criticises Archie’s lack of skill while watching him play, Archie is holding his controller horizontally and both are concentrating. It’s realistic, relatable and to add some more alliteration for the hell of it, refreshing.

Another show that gets it right is Community, in season 3 the group help Pierce win a video game called Journey to the Centre of Hawkthorne in order to claim his inheritance. In typical Community fashion this episode takes place mostly within this 8-bit game with each of the characters as avatars.

Although the parts of the episode I want to applaud are the moments where it cuts to the characters in real life because their reactions are completely representative of actual gamers.

Despite the bizarre consequences of the game (such as Pierce and Troy’s avatars being naked after losing a mini-game) and the violent things that happen within it (such as Annie and Shirley accidentally killing an NPC) the actors don’t react in alarm or over emphasise their movements, they are simply concentrating quietly on completing the game…you know, like real gamers.

Additionally, during the scene where Annie accidentally kills the Blacksmith, Shirley is shocked but Annie simply explains “This happens all the time in games, we can’t get hung up on real world morality” which then causes Shirley to relax about the violent scene unfolding.

It’s a commentary on our desensitisation of violence in games but it’s also accurate, not to mention the character of Abed, who falls in love with one of then NPCs, you only need to search video game fanfic to see that countless gamers fall in love with characters all the time and if they don’t, they always know that one friend who does.

Gintama, Community and Riverdale can’t be the only TV shows out there that represent gamers and the industry well, can they?

Games are increasingly popular, every year more and more people are playing them and the industry outsells the film industry on a regular basis so there’s no excuse not to depict gamers well and I hope we start seeing better portrayals in the near future.

Let me know in the comments section if you know of any TV shows that are accurate in their portrayal of gamers that I’ve missed.

Had a great time at this year’s TCMFF. Despite a killer cold that kept me from seeing more than a few films, I got to bask in the glory of big-screen classic films, big-name guests and the company of fellow film fans from all over the country.

Besides seeing films introduced by the great John Carpenter and John Sayles, I had some great conversations with other guests in line: I talked about the best, gritty ’70s NYC films with a guy from New York, chatted about Bette Davis and Wakandacon with three women from Ohio; and discussed David Lean epics and Gothic horror films with a fellow from Texas.

Sadly, I missed Bullitt at the Chinese Theatre and a midnight showing of the original Night of the Living Dead, introduced by Simon Pegg.

But here’s what I did manage to see during the fest:

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974)


The only film adaptation that Agatha Christie actually liked based on one of her books was, in keeping with the trend of all-star movies in the ’70s, stuffed to the gills with a big-name cast.

First to sign on was Sean Connery, who plays a “peep”-smoking Scot. His delivery of the lines about his “peep” is one of the funniest scenes in the Sidney Lumet film.

It’s great fun seeing Connery, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and John Gielgud sharing the screen, but a long way to to go the reveal of whodunit. Especially if you already know the famous solution.

Albert Finney gives an Oscar-nominated performance as fussy Belgian detective Hercule Poirot that wasn’t to everyone’s liking, but the one that Christie felt was closest to her creation.

The film also received nominations for Best Costume, Cinematography, Score, and Adapted Screenplay, as well as Best Supporting Actress for Ingrid Bergman as a very shy, self-conscious Swedish nurse.

Astoundingly, Bergman won that year (her third Oscar) over Talia Shire in The Godfather, Part II and Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles. It’s not much of a part, and Bergman herself didn’t expect to win. In her acceptance speech, she apologized to Valentina Cortese, whom she thought should have won for Day For Night. (Trivia: She had spent so long in America that she needed a coach for her heavy Swedish accent!)

Watching today, the most complex role of the 12 suspects is Mrs. Hubbard, played to perfection by Bacall.

She’s terrific as a brassy American who rubs everyone the wrong way, but who has a pivotal role. Out of the whole cast, Bacall really should have landed the Oscar nod, or the Oscar itself. (She wasn’t even nominated until 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces. She finally received an Honorary Oscar in 2010.)

Another standout, for me, is Perkins, riffing on his career-defining role in Psycho as a secretary who’s rather unhealthfully hung up on his mother. He only gets twitchier as the film goes on — and thus the most likely murderer of his former employer. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. (Josh Gad played the part in last year’s remake, which I haven’t seen.)

Everyone plays it quite broadly, especially Rachel Roberts as a German maid (who, of course, mutters “schweinhund” at a key moment) and Dame Wendy Hiller as an elderly Russian princess.

Not all of it has aged well, particularly Bergman’s line about the “backward little brown babies” in Africa. (Eep!)

But for an old-school, big-screen extravaganza that they don’t make anymore (until they remake them, that is), it was a perfect way to star the fest.

THRONE OF BLOOD (1957)

Isuzu Yamada as Asaji is arguably the most chilling Lady MacBeth on film as she subtly guides Washizu (the always great Toshiro Mifune) to his bloody, traitorous deeds. As TCM host Alicia Malone noted in her introduction, even the soft swish of Asaji’s trailing kimono is ominous!

I was thrilled to finally Kurosawa’s samurai take on Macbeth — and on the big screen! And then I had to leave just before the Great Lord’s murder as I was coughing too much. Fortunately, it’s also streaming on Filmstruck.

But before I left, I did get to see the prophecy scene — with just one witch instead of Shakespeare’s three Weird Sisters — and the eerie forest of Spider’s Web Castle.

NONE SHALL ESCAPE (1944)


The movie I wanted to see most at the fest: It’s a powerful World War II drama directed by André DeToth, who also directed noirs Pitfall and Crime Wave.

100-year-old star Marsha Hunt was on hand for a Q&A with Eddie Muller — which I missed! It was a capacity crowd, but since some people left after the Q&A (during which, I’m told, Hunt was given a standing ovation … and confessed to having a crush on her director), thankfully some seats opened up and I was able to see the film.

Alexander Knox stars as Wilhelm Grimm, an embittered solider who was injured during World War I, embraces Nazi ideology, becomes an SS officer, and now stands trial for his war crimes.

Hunt stars as Marja, a teacher in a small Polish town who we learn was engaged to Wilhelm. But he’s not the same man when he returns from the war. Now he hates the talk of “Polish freedom” and vents his hatred of the Polish peasantry, even when Marja points out that includes her. Marja breaks it off with him, which he chalks up to her simply wanting a man who’s not crippled.

Told in flashbacks during Grimm’s trial, we learn how he became the town pariah, how he turned on his own brother, and how he groomed his eager nephew in the Hitler Youth.

It’s a grim tale indeed, even more grim than the similar (and also excellent) The Mortal Storm.

When the town’s Jewish population is rounded up to be shipped via train to camps, Grimm tells the rabbi (who is allowed to stay behind) to address his people so they will be quiet. Instead, he urges them to rise up. In a harrowing scene, every one of them, including the rabbi, is gunned down.

Even after all his crimes have been related to the court, an unrepentant Grimm shouts that the Nazis will rise again and that they will never be defeated. Considering that this film was made in 1944, it’s a chilling moment.

The print was beautiful (it was a world premiere of the restoration), so I hope it will play more theaters soon.

PARK ROW (1952)

This little-seen film about 19th century newspaper wars from B-movie legend Sam Fuller (The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor) was dynamite. And made a very fitting double bill with Howard Hawks’s Scarface, which also features — in between fire bombings — comic relief from a short Italian immigrant who can’t read or write.

Indie director John Sayles (Matewan, Lone Star) introduced the film (he set several scenes in his last novel, A Moment in the Sun, on Park Row in 1898) and he described it as “Citizen Kane shot on butcher paper… a lot shorter and a lot punchier.” (In the film, when newspaper editor Gene Evans runs out of newsprint, he orders his staffers to go get butcher’s paper to print on.)

That colorful phrase also encapsulates Fuller’s lurid film style, and the fact that Fuller (unlike Orson Welles) really was a newsboy in the ’20s who worked his way up to crime reporter at age 16.

As Sayles recounted, Fuller was at 20th Century Fox when he first brought the film to Daryl Zanuck. The studio head liked the idea — if they called it In Old New York, made it a musical and cast big names!

Obviously, that wasn’t Fuller’s vision at all, so he financed the movie himself, outside the studio system. Sayles noted, “Fuller was the writer-director-producer-financier… and from long, bitter experience, that last hyphen is the one you don’t want.”

Fuller cast his Steel Helmet star Gene Evans as enterprising Globe founder Phineas Mitchell and Broadway actress Mary Welch as the ruthless and well-heeled publisher of the rival paper, The Star.

The film begins with a tribute to journalism and doesn’t stint in singing the praises of a free, honest press.

And If you thought The Post had old-fashioned technology, imagine having to set type by hand, one character at a time! And a reporter actually writing his “off the cuff” notes on his detachable shirt cuffs!

The war between newspapers starts off as friendly competition, then heats up to full-scale violence with even the Globe’s cart horses being killed! (Mercifully, offscreen.)

Fuller got to make the film the way he wanted, but it was a box office bust. Most of the $200,000 he spent on the film went into building an unprecedented three-story set, according to Sayles.

Sayles pointed out that one long fight scene toward the end of the movie likely required stitches: “This is a really, really kind of cool, nasty, accidental, messy kind of fight, which you just didn’t see in movies in those days.”

You can rent Park Row from Amazon for $4.99. Highly recommended to fans of Sam Fuller and journalists everywhere.

SCARFACE (1932)

John Carpenter began his introduction Howard Hawks’s gangster masterpiece, starring Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, an Al Capone-inspired hoodlum who blasts his way to the top: “If you’re here tonight to see Al Pacino, you will be very disappointed.”

Carpenter kept his intro to the film short, but he did tell the audience to look out for the many symbolic “X’s Hawks put in the film, a nod to the “Xs” newspapers would place in photographs “where the bodies were” after gangster slayings.

In the scene where Muni and his boyhood pal George Raft have their final face off, they both have a big “X” over their head. And just before Boris Karloff — dignified as always, as Gaffney, a rival mobster who just misses the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre — is gunned down, sure enough, there’s a big “X” hovering in the frame.

The horror master also pointed out that, “This was a Pre-Code gangster movie, that is before the censors, however, the censors did get ahold of this movie. It was heavily censored, including the ending. And the real ending was not shown until 1979.”

Carpenter also praised Hawks’s open shot: “It’s a three-and-half-minute single take, uninterrupted. Now, for the time this was shot, that’s amazing. They didn’t have the technology that we have today. They didn’t have the technology that Martin Scorsese had for Goodfellas or that I had in Halloween. They had two big, giant camera, so it’s a feat to do this shot.”

Carpenter pointed out how modern Ann Dvorak’s “tremendous” performance is as Muni’s younger sister — and that she was Hawks’s mistress at the time. “There’s a lot of incest in the movie that’s suggested,” he says. “Kind of like the Borgias.”

He ended his intro by saying: “Guys, here you go. Scarface. It’s dark, it’s brutal, it’s blackly funny. Please enjoy.”

I’d seen this many times, so I was only going to stay for Carpenter’s introduction. But I ended watching all of it again, up through the original ending where the camera cuts from Tony’s body —in the gutter — as one cop predicted — to the big “The World is Yours” neon sign.

It’s a terrific film and it was great to catch it again, especially with such a distinguished host.

Altus Press is proud to announced their latest release in The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series.

MR. CALAMITY & THE VALLEY OF ETERNITY

TWO NEW DOC SAVAGE ADVENTURES IN ONE VOLUME!

Author Will Murray explains, “After the success of her first solo adventure, Six Scarlet Scorpions, fans of the Wild Adventures have demanded to see more of Doc’s resourceful relative, bronze beauty Patricia Savage. And now we deliver! First, she practically steals the action in Mr. Calamity, our lead epic.”

Prospecting in the Wyoming badlands, Pat spies a man swimming in circles––high in a cloudless sky! After he falls to his death, the dead swimmer is discovered soaked to the skin. Who is he? How did he manage to swim through thin air?

These are the questions Pat sets out to answer when her cousin, the famous scientist-adventurer Doc Savage, diagnoses her account as a hallucination caused by altitude sickness. But when the bronze-skinned girl vanishes, the Man of Bronze is forced to take action.

Murray continues, “Doc readers have also requested that we sometimes do shorter novels, and to return to the Valley of the Vanished, the Mayan Indian outpost from which the Man of Bronze gets his gold—and where Princess Monja dwells, pining for the American adventurer who captured her heart. In The Valley of Eternity, we do both!”

A letter from Doc’s long-dead father presents him with a life-changing challenge that brings him back to The Valley of the Vanished….and the Man of Bronze does the unthinkable: he ditches his loyal aides in favor of his cousin, Patricia––the only one who can help him succeed in the most perilous personal quest of his entire career.

Could this be the end of Doc Savage’s adventurous career? This time, warns Murray, it really could….

Mr. Calamity is available in hardcover and softcover editions. Also from Kindle and Nook in ebook format. Cover art by Joe DeVito.

AdventuresInBronze.com

Created by Josh Heald,
Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Based on characters created
by Robert Mark Kamen
Starring Ralph Macchio, William Zabka,
Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña,
Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan

There’s nothing like the 1984 version of The Karate Kid.

Despite its paint-by-numbers script, it was an accurate portrayal of life as an underdog, bullying and power of a good wax on/wax off.

Thirty-four years later, when its sequel was announced (we don’t acknowledge the others), it was easy to dismiss it as a desperate attempt to pimp out a classic for a payback.

After all how does Ralph Macchio afford to stay so young?

While its been thirty-four years since the Crane Kick that shook the karate world debuted, it would be easy to assume everyone has moved on to find success with their new lives.

This isn’t exactly the case as Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is now a washed up loser who is constantly reminded how much of a failure he is by his stepfather (Ed Asner).

Freshly fired from his job and spending time as a miserable drunk, Lawrence can’t escape the hatred he still feels for LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who is living it up as a small-time celebrity car dealer. However both are haunted by a constant series of flashbacks, they allow the feelings of their last fight dictate the path of their futures. Lawrence’s life is in a state of defeat while LaRusso keeps winning at life.

This all changes one fateful night when Lawrence opens up a Cobra Kai dojo in to help his teenage neighbor Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) defeat a gang of high school bullies (sound familiar?). This simple act has a rippling affect not only for the town of Reseda but reunites Lawrence and LaRusso through a series of intertwined chaos filled with high school drama, love affairs and a championship match.

While not original, Cobra Kai starts off as undeniably fun. Flipping the script on these characters, its sweet revenge as Lawrence attempts to fight bullies and teach others how to thwart psychological take downs. Even though Lawrence is now the underdog, his personality remains unchanged. Rude, arrogant and unapologetic, nothing will stand between his comeback story. He is the Bizarro World’s version of Mr. Miyagi; using abuse and his depression as weapon.

LaRusso who starts off as a helpful friendly counterpart to Lawrence soon unravels as his buried emotions for Lawrence shines through.  They soon mentally breakdown into the teenagers they once were. It feels like old times watching Macchio’s and Zabka’s chemistry fly off the screen.

Even with the brilliant moments of Cobra Kai, it is not perfect and suffers greatly from being rushed.

Each 30-minute episode introduces new characters are without them being fully fleshed out (LaRusso’s daughter is a karate expert but is sidelined as a love interest). Relying too heavily on footage from the original movie, the series fails to carve out its own path. Becoming more predictable with each scene, showrunners/creators John Heald, Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz fail to create a show that’s genuine.

While Cobra Kai isn’t impactful enough, it is easily one of YouTube Red’s most successful projects (remember the Step Up series? Good, no one should) and hopefully if there’s a season two there’ll be enough confidence to create a show that stands on its own instead of being a knockoff.

This Saturday, Free Comic Book Day returns to a [https://www.freecomicbookday.com/StoreLocator]Local Comic Book Shop near you. Sure, it’s Cinco de Mayo, Derby Day and Revenge of The Fifth all on the same day so you had best get out and do something that day!

Celebrating its 17th year, Free Comic Book Day is the comic book specialty market’s annual event where participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic book absolutely free to anyone who comes into their comic shops. The event is held the first Saturday in May and is the perfect opportunity to introduce friends and family to the many worlds of wonder available at local comic shops. From superheroes to slide-of-life to action/adventure and beyond, Free Comic Book Day has a comic book for everyone!

We were given an advance copy of some of the Free Comic Book Day titles so here is a preview. If this is your first FCBD, follow these simple rules to have the best time!

Follow the store rules!
If the store is only giving one comic per customer, or one per publishing line or whatever they say, don’t be greedy! Free Comic Book Day is for the kids, so make sure you leave some for that kid to discover the wonderful world of comics.

Buy Something!
Within your budget of course, but even buying a pin, toy, a cracked Batman mug on discount or rummage through the $0.25 bin for a rare treat! The stores are paying for these Free Comic Book Day titles to get you into the store. Feel free to browse and pick up a book you wouldn’t usually read.

In the words of the late author Michelle McNamara, “It’s Chaos, Be Kind”. Your normal human interaction rules apply on Free Comic Book Day and every day. Don’t tackle a teenager for that free Riverdale book…and lay off the Jingle Jangle!

That’s enough of the rules! Now for some of the books we are most excited about for Free Comic Book Day 2018!

Shadowman / Harbinger Wars II (Valiant)

Learn more about the explosive Lucia Alonzo in the Harbinger Wars II preview!

Bongo Comics Free For All (Bongo)

Join Bart and Lisa Simpson as they attempt to run Krusty’s show after an accident spend some time with Rod, Todd, Itchy AND Scratchy!

Strangers in Paradise (Abstract Studios)

Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise is back in regular series for the 25th Anniversary. The FCBD offering is a great jumping on for with this ‘Season’ of SiP!

Riverdale (Archie Comics)

Superstar artist Joe Eisma puts the focus on Pop’s in Chock’lit Shop of Horrors on the longest night of the year!

The Tick (New England Comics)

One of the annual treats of FCBD is the existence of new Tick comics! All new stories now streaming…in this comic!

DC Super Hero Girls (Put Your Cape On!) (DC Comics)

We’ve got an unhealthy obsession with this all ages welcome DC Comic Universe. With a cameo from Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Supergirl and Bumblebee team up with Ivy and Harley to save S.T.A.R. Labs. Fun for all ages of DC Comics fans from writer Shea Fontana.

Star Wars Adventures (IDW Publishing)

You read that right, IDW has been cranking out this appropriate for all ages Star Wars book and people are loving it! What doesn’t hurt your cost of admission of free is Chewey and Han on the cover. They have a movie coming out! Artist Derek Charm has a perfectly cartoony style for Cavan Scott’s story.

James Bond: VARGR (Dynamite Comics)

As a fan of this Warren Ellis and Jason Masters run on James Bond as we wait to see if there will be another movie or actor, this Bond is closest to a modern take of what you’d expect from Fleming himself. Another great take on James Bond. I’m tempted to say if you are picking this up for a taste, just put this issue down and grab the trade. This is of the best licensed comics in the past few years.

Die Kitty Die (Chapterhouse Comics)

For fans of old-school Archie, former artist and writer Dan Parent’s Die Kitty Die is a send up in the best possible way. His and Fernando Ruiz signature style mixed with more teenage friendly  themes brings magic, pinups and the afterlife to a new level.

Disney Princess (Joe Books, Ltd.)

The second surprising imprint for a Disney property today takes you ‘Under The Sea’ with Ariel and Sebastian!

Berlin (Drawn & Quarterly)

For the art-school crowd historical fiction comics creator Jason Lutes samples his masterwork Berlin for the uninitiated.

Howard Lovecraft: Big Book of Summer Fun (Arcana)

Is Cthulhu just misunderstood? You make the call! Backup story is The Steam Engines of Oz, which checks off a lot of boxes for this reviewer.

Also look forward to Avengers by Jason Aaron, The Amazing Spider-Man by new team Nick Spencer and Invincible’s Ryan Ottley, Doctor Who #0 from Titan Comics and Transformers #0 from IDW.

There are many more books, one for each quadrant of your fan brain, but choose wisely! If you are lucky enough to live close to a few shops, make a day of it! That way you can get more books, follow the rules and invest some money back in to the shops that work hard to get your books on the shelf every Wednesday.

Have a blast!

Fans can find the closest participating local comic shop by clicking HERE!

In the acclaimed film, T’Challa returns home to the hidden high-tech African nation of Wakanda to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king, following the death of his father. But when a man named Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) appears, T’Challa’s mettle as king—and Black Panther—is tested when he’s drawn into a formidable conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Pitted against his own family, the king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and embrace his future as an Avenger.

The film features a fierce group of Wakandan women, including Nakia (Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o), a War Dog and Wakandan spy; Shuri (Letitia Wright), T’Challa’s little sister and tech wizard; and the Dora Milaje, the all-female Wakandan Special Forces led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). They team up with reluctant ally CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) to help T’Challa defend Wakanda against the forces threatening to destroy it. The extraordinary ensemble cast of “Black Panther” also includes veteran actors such as Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett as Ramonda, T’Challa and Shuri’s mother; Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker as Zuri, the spiritual leader of Wakanda; and Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, an illegal arms dealer; and standout performances by Academy Award nominee Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Royal Counsel to T’Challa; Winston Duke as M’Baku, the formidable leader of the Jabari tribe; and Emmy Award-winner Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu, a Wakandan War Dog.

And we’re giving away 4 Digital Codes!

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

Which Marvel film made the first reference to the existence of Wakanda?

Please include your name, and address (U.S. 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 13th, 2018.

Black Panther is available today on Digital and Blu-ray on May 15th.

Written by Joshua Williamson,
James T Tynion IV, Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Francis Manapul

Ok, here we go.

Justice League: No Justice hits the stands this week, the long-awaited prelude to a new era of the DCU. Everyone wants to know if it’ll live up to the hype. And it does, so far as hype goes. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s creative, it may even be a little brilliant.

Too bad, just out of the gates it also feels maybe just a little bit… forced.

Don’t get me wrong. I really want to like what writers Scott Snyder, Mark Tynion IV, and Joshua Williamson are doing. They’ve earned their shot, and we deserve a new vision of the DC Universe, in step with the new creative talent these three have brought to bear so far. So, I’ll be giving it a chance. We have three more weeks with three more installments for them to really step things up. They may very well. And I’ll be honest, if they manage to just leave me satisfied with whatever justification they spin up that will lead us in to the new status quo, I’ll be content on the whole.

But I’ll be happier if they wow me.

We know that No Justice is designed to shake up and re-arrange the core teams of the DCU. I’m in favor of that, actually. As an old-school Teen Titans fan, toughing it out while Cyborg has been unceremoniously upgraded to original Justice League founder status, while Gar, Kory and Raven have languished in their angsty adolescence has been no fun. To say nothing of the other Titans. All these characters deserve their due, and that’s about to happen. It needs to happen.

Scott Snyder clearly knows that, and he’s taking full advantage of the power he’s created for himself at DC by breaking the universe in his Dark Knights: Metal epic cross-over event. Now he aims to fix things – or at least change them – and No Justice is the tool he’s using to do it. But where Dark Knights: Metal covered six issues with multiple storylines through several titles, this time he only has four issues to work with. And that means he and the crew can’t waste any time getting things done. Or getting things started.

That’s what issue #1 is for, and for all that it relies on some significant contrivance to do that, I have to admit they do a lot to get the ball moving down the field.

First up, we need the players.

Enter Braniac, who shows up suddenly from a world under siege. He needs the Justice League’s help, which he demonstrates by launching an all-out assault on earth’s heroes, apparently in a bid to convince them that in their current configurations each team alone is vulnerable and beat-able. And beat them he does – handily. Which itself is a lot to simply accept. When does Braniac ever win? Even when he wins he doesn’t win. C’mon – this is the Justice League we’re talking about here. Beating Braniacs is what they do.

Nonetheless beat them he does, and then in a smart move that rings entirely true to character, the big brain baddie doesn’t even wait to petition them for the help he needs. He simply takes the heroes he’s decided he needs for his mission and absconds with them into space. Why he doesn’t simply take as many as possible is unclear. Presumably because that’s just not the way the story goes.

And thus, our heroes are literally forced together for the upcoming adventure. Handy. But wait – surprise twist – the select members of Justice League and Titan teams on board find that they’ve been thrown together with an unexpected toss of villains, aliens, and magic-wielders. And all of them have been conveniently arranged into teams of Braniac’s choosing. Thankfully one of the aliens in J’onn J’onnz. Even if the other one is Starro. O-K.

The whole set-up is a little absurd, even for comics. But it’s also the sort of over-the-top outside-the-box thinking we’ve come to expect from Snyder by now. And really, it’s what he’s been tapped to do. Still these sort of remarkable-bordering-on-the-unlikely elements permeate the book. Take for example the fact that all of our heroes have had their costumes swapped out by Brainiac upon their capture, with the result that Cyborg’s metal is now all red (uh), and somehow Batman’s utility belt has been re-created wholesale – in purple. But OK, they’re color-coordinated now. More or less. Really, on some level you get the impression that at some point the creative team stopped caring about such potential hang-ups. You can almost hear them saying, with a shrug, “Hey, the ends justify the means, here – just roll with it.”

And after all, in just a few short pages we have thoroughly committed the League and friends, in a creative blending of two of the main tropes of comics – the team-up and the divided strike-teams. Nifty. Gets the job done.

Next up – the backstory. We already know there’s a great big hole blown into the Source Wall on the furthest edge of the universe. That’s bad enough. The other side is a seething cauldron of… something. Some terrifying, unknown potential force for destruction. (Or, uh, change.) But the events it kicks off within our own universe are, it seems, equally dire. Apparently, four ancient cosmic gods – Mystery, Wisdom, Wonder and Entropy – have been awakened from their eons of slumber here at the end of all things, and are now abroad to fulfill their purpose – first to judge, and then to consume, all the inhabited worlds of the known universe. Bad.

Now forget for the moment that, for yet another time this year, DC seems to be lifting a page directly out of the Marvel playbook, with a cosmic threat that seems – even visually – to be a pretty obvious blending of both Galactus and the Celestials. Never mind that – this is still possibly one of the more brilliant concepts I have encountered in comics. Or at least it could be.

After all, in what other reality but a comic book universe would we find that the four fundamental energies of creation are wonder, mystery, wisdom, and entropy – sounds like a comic book universe to me. And to be sure, they should be embodied and moving abroad in the land as beings of vast unknowable destructive(/creative) potential. As world-building cosmology goes, it doesn’t get more meta than that.

I applaud the concept. It’s got potential, to be sure. Maybe even huge potential. Again though, it remains to be seen what-all exactly will come of this set-up and how precisely DC’s three amigos are going to execute it. Given what we’ve seen so far, things may continue to proceed somewhat wild and roughshod, with everything bent in whatever which way in the service of getting the job done, whatever that is. It’s also possible though that we’ll see Snyder, Tynion IV and Williamson work some real magic in the three issues they have remaining. Maybe both will happen.

It all depends on how much they plan to cram in, and just how much they expect us, their devoted readers, to fill in the blanks. Just as an example, some of these cast members and their team-ups, demand explanation. I don’t imagine I’m alone in that sentiment. But I’ll be looking to see if Snyder agrees. If he does, then I’d say that bodes well for his Justice League run. But I’ll be disappointed if they end up glossing over all of the potentials they’ve set up. I mean it’s fine to be clever – but it’s better to say something meaningful in the process. We’ll just have to see if that’s on the agenda here. Or how much.

At any rate, they’re off. They are not lacking in ambition. And thankfully there’s some good creative foundation at work to match the effort. Aside from the chomping chops in plotting and script – that among other things has left us with one of the most enjoyably unexpected cliff-hangers you can imagine – the artwork of Francis Manapul is excellent as always. I believe he’s even doing his own inking – which by and large succeeds in lending a very interesting artistic element to the printed page. And Hi-Fi’s colors are fantastic. The opening spread of the Source Wall is simply jaw-dropping. I hope these two will have more room like that to spread their wings together.

I’m hopeful.

Three more issues, a universe of surprises in store – if not a more. Hope everyone’s ready.

Here we go.

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown.

It’s Wednesday, and that means only one thing!

New comic book day! Let’s talk about some titles hitting the stands today!

Suicide Squad #41
Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Eduardo Pansica

I’m going to say something I haven’t said in a long time in this column: I liked this issue of Suicide Squad.

What?! How did this happen? I’m not sure myself.

Let me be clear: This issue was typical of Rob Williams and the way he writes Suicide Squad. It’s loud. It’s bombastic. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, however. Sometimes, things are just meant to be enjoyed.

This issue starts off with Deadshot in prison. Eduardo Pansica has become one hell of an artist. That first page is just great and the body language he draws onto Deadshot is unbelievable.

So what happens?

Well, Batman gets involved and decides to break Deadshot out of Belle Reve! Then, the whole thing looks to be the start of a buddy road film. The two have to go save Deadshot’s daughter from Kobra! All this and Amanda Waller wants Deadshot back at any cost!

The story works best when it’s the Deadshot scenes with Batman.

The two have a nice back and forth. Williams handles them both with flair.

By contrast, the Kobra scenes are incredibly silly and don’t do much for me. Except make me laugh. It makes the issue a little uneven.

I do like the art though. The action scenes are wonderful and Pansica has a great sense of pacing. If Williams can cut down the sillier elements, this book could be great. Hopefully, this new storyline continues to be this good.

RATING: B

Wildstorm: Michael Cray #7
Written by Bryan Hill 
Illustrated by N. Steven Harris

This has been a pretty damn good spinoff from the main Wildstorm title. Bryan Hill really delves into the psyche of Michael Cray and digs deep. I’ve been enjoying his take on Cray very much.

Michael Cray has a new target: A scientist in London who is crazy and into magic. His name is Dr. John Constantine!

Cray is on his way to get him. But Constantine may hold the key to freeing Cray from the consciousness inside of him. What will happen?

This is great from the very first page. We are immediately introduced to this version of John Constantine. It sets the mood perfectly. In this reality, he moves and looks a bit like the Constantine we know but mixed with Nikola Tesla and Lex Luthor. It’s just a great spin on the character.

Then, we see Michael Cray at the end of this rope. Hill makes Cray’s struggles real and heartbreaking. You emphasize with him completely from his very first scene.

The story then follows Cray going after Constantine. It goes into some pretty dark places for a comic book too. I absolutely love that.

The art by Harris is perfectly suited for this book. It’s well done and emotional throughout. This issue is quite good and I may go back and read the entire series up to this point. Well done.

RATING: A-

Red Hood and The Outlaws #22
Written by Scott Lobdell
Illustrated by Dexter Soy

Man, do I enjoy this book.

Scott Lobdell has really done an excellent job here and I have been loving it. This is another fine issue he has written.

It starts off with a bang! The opening page is Red Hood and the gang in a big battle with The Penguin. Lobdell gets us right in the middle of the action and the audience needs to catch up. I just loved the way he did that.

It seems the Penguin has redeveloped a waterfront property into a new boardwalk attraction for children of all ages. Of course, it’s the Penguin running things so it’s not exactly a legitimate business.

Also, Artemis pays a visit to Lex Luthor to figure out what the side effects might be to Bizarro’s revival. The tension between these two is truly crazy.

The rest of the issue is strong. The best scene comes at the end with a moving moment between Bizarro and Jason Todd. It’s stunning and emotional and catches you completely off guard.

The art by Soy is tops. He conveys emotion in every panel. He’s incredibly underrated. Also, the cover by Guillem March is powerful and is worth a mention. A very good book overall.

RATING: A-

Eternity Girl #3
Written by Magdalene Visaggio
Illustrated by Sonny Liew

This is another feather in the cap for Gerard Way.

The Young Animal line of books at DC Comics really is a great line to read. They really are what Vertigo used to be for DC: a place where creativity happens.

And this book certainly is creative!

On the outside, it seems to be a rather silly book. Eternity Girl and Madame Atom are on their way to the mysterious Shining Tower. It sits on the intersection of being an nothingness.

Yet, Visaggio makes it more than that. These two are getting pursued by unknown forces. And is this world real? Visaggio asks these questions and more. The last scene of the book takes place on a rooftop that raised more questions for the reader than ever before.

And that is a truly great thing.

Sonny Liew is an excellent artist for the series. His style seems simple. But it’s deceptive. His design work is awesome. I love the way he does costumes. And I loved his take on the Shining Tower. It’s simple yet chilling.

I need to read the whole thing to get the big picture. I feel reading the book as a whole will benefit the reader. But right now, this is another compelling title from the Young Animal line of books.

RATING: B+

Batgirl and The Birds of Prey #22
Written by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson
Illustrated by Roge Antonio

This is the final issue of this series. Sadly, I could see it coming from that very first issue. There was nothing that really set it apart from the pack that made it stand out.

And that’s a shame, as I feel that it could have been great.

This issue starts off with an interrogation scene gone wrong. It was a snooze. There was no real drama leading up to it that was compelling so it feels rather generic.

Batgirl and Black Canary must find Huntress and save her from the Calculator and Blackbird’s plans.

Can they save her?

And can they figure out the answer to the question “Who Is Oracle?”

The answer is pretty much a yes to all of those questions. It’s very dry and dull. The Bensons don’t do much to make it compelling.

The art is okay at best but it’s rather generic.

I hope everyone from this series moves on to other things that are stronger. This is one title that really needed to be laid to rest.

RATING: C-

Batman: White Knight #8
Written and Illustrated by Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy devised one hell of a comic book here. He decided to do a version of the Joker who takes pills and becomes sane again. That in turn, makes Batman the “villain” of the series. And so off we go!

This is the final issue of the series. It’s been a very compelling ride thus far, and this is a fairly good issue. The one thing that bothered me, is that the ending wasn’t as satisfactory as I would have hoped.

This issue starts off with Jack Napier and the Batman family trying to stop the villain known as Neo Joker.

Neo Joker has Gotham City under her thumb. So what do they do? They make an all out assault onto the Neo Joker!

And there’s some great stuff.

Watching The Joker alternate from Jack Napier to the Joker is great.

We get to see the torment behind the smile and Murphy does a good job. He also gives the supporting cast personalities.

Murphy does a great job writing the Joker and making him a sympathetic character. At one point in this issue it looks like The Joker is sacrificing his life for the greater good. It’s handled well and you actually care about him.

Murphy also handled the psychological ramifications of what a “real life” Batman might do to people. His writing raises a lot of interesting points.

The downside to his writing is he didn’t know how to end on a strong note. He also did a few things that made little to no sense (why is Duke Thomas as old as he is here? What happened to Jason Todd?). He also leaves a lot of plots unanswered at the end and it’s annoying rather than clever. He might be doing a story in this universe later on, I’m figuring. The last moment is pretty obvious and a groaner actually.

Murphy is a great illustrator though and can tell a story like none other. I think with some more development, Sean Murphy will be known as one of the “auteurs” in comics.

I’m looking forward to see where he goes next.

RATING: A-

The arrival of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War caps off a decade of interrelated superhero tales that all exist within the same expanding movie universe. The nearly twenty movies that exist in the MCU are sprinkled with plot points and character motivations that all tie in to the gargantuan Infinity War, and even though the movies are designed to exist on their own merits, there’s no getting around the fact that every film in the MCU plays like a sequel to those that have preceded it, and likewise lays breadcrumbs for future MCU movies to follow.

For those of us counting, this summer’s Ant-Man and the Wasp will be the 20th feature film in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe. Next year’s one-two punch of Captain Marvel and Infinity War: Part II will mark #21 and #22 after that. Having long since surpassed the number of entries contained in many of moviedom’s most popular series, Marvel now joins a very exclusive club of film franchises that have produced twenty or more movies.

The movie series with the most entries are:

Zorro (46 movies)

Though there have been only 11 official Zorro movies made by American studios, foreign productions number a whopping 35 features. The tally includes the two recent Steven Spielberg-produced pictures starring Antonio Banderas, as well as the cult comedy from 1981 Zorro, the Gay Blade starring George Hamilton. Yes, you read that correctly.

Charlie Chan (42 movies)

Throughout the course of 42 films over 55 years, several different actors have portrayed the iconic movie detective. The most recent Charlie Chan picture happened in 1981 with Peter Ustinov in the lead.

Godzilla (29 movies)

Beginning with 1953’s Godzilla all the way through to 2014’s, um, Godzilla, nuclear science’s favorite giant lizard has been wreaking havoc in downtown Tokyo (and other assorted metropolises) for many moons, sometimes even saving the day by protecting the population from various fearsome mutant creatures. I hear they’re making a sequel to the ho-hum 2014 version, which would mark the scaly green guy’s 30th movie appearance.

James Bond (24 going on 25 movies)

Similar to how the Charlie Chan series has withstood multiple changings of the guard, six actors (so far) have portrayed Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy on the big screen. The upcoming 007 movie scheduled for November 2019 will mark the 25th official feature in 57 years.

The Teen Brigade: Movie series with more than ten entries:

Star Wars (13 going on 14)

There have so far been eight core saga movies, plus the two stand-alone stories Rogue One and Solo, and don’t forget the theatrical issue of the animated Clone Wars. Depending on whether or not you count Caravan of Courage and The Ewok Adventure as part of the official series, the next movie beyond 2019’s Episode IX will mark the 15th entry in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Star Trek (13 movies going on 14)

There are two exciting screenplays reportedly in contention to be the next Star Trek movie, which will be the 14th entry counting the ten original Kirk/Pickard pictures and the three films in the rebooted J.J. Abrams-produced timeline. Quentin Tarantino is responsible for one of those two scripts, and even though the studio probably won’t ever make an “R”-rated Trek movie, Tarantino’s name attached would make for a galactic-sized event unlike any other in the series.

Friday the 13th (12 movies going on 13)

If it ever gets off the ground, the next sequel in the Jason Voorhees saga will mark, fittingly, the 13th entry. We’re counting the one where the masked man stalks Manhattan, the one where he kills in outer space, the one with a young bald Corey Feldman, the CGI-addled reboot, and the one where Jason fights Freddy Krueger in Hell.

Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts (10 movies of a planned 13)

The Harry Potter series contains eight movies made from seven novels—and don’t you know Warner’s is kicking themselves retroactively for not “splitting” the books sooner. The offshoot Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them exists in the same universe and shares numerous characters. The second picture of the Fantastic Beasts cycle The Crimes of Grindelwald arrives this Christmas. There are five Fantastic Beasts films plotted, so we’ll count them all as part of a very prolific series.

X-Men (11 going on 13)

If we count Deadpool and its upcoming sequel, there are eleven movies in Fox’s sprawling X-Men universe. Though long delayed, the upcoming New Mutants and Dark Phoenix will mark #12 and #13, respectively.

Batman Ninja is the latest DC Animated Movie and this one takes Batman to a completely stylized anime universe. Not since 2008’s Gotham Knight have we seen an Eastern version of the Bat Family, and both DC Comics fans and otaku have a lot to be happy about with Batman Ninja. The movie is directed by Junpei Mizusaki (Mega Man X7, X8) with character designer Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai). A Japanese version of the film with a slightly different story will be released in June.

Batman is voiced by Roger Craig Smith and in a stroke of brilliance, Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development) plays The Joker. Tara Strong returns as Harley Quinn with Grey DeLisle returning to her role of Catwoman.

In modern Gotham, Batman and Catwoman take on Gorilla Grodd who has built a time machine called the Quake Engine at Arkham Asylum. After a big explosion, Batman finds himself in Feudal Japan after reality closes in around him. The first thing he sees are three Joker samurai ordered to capture the Dark Knight.

This reviewer’s knowledge of anime stunts at around the pre-live action Ghost in the Shell but as a Batman enthusiast who’s favorite stories are Elseworld tales and a healthy natural fascination with ninja, Batman Ninja checks a lot of boxes.

Not only are Catwoman, Harley and Joker in Japan, but the warring feudal states are being lead by headlining villains of Batman’s rogue gallery. Deathstroke, Penguin, Two-Face and Poison Ivy are mini-bosses Bats will have to defeat before he gets back to his own time. Even Alfred Pennyworth is there, learning recipes for miso glazed fish and hunting down rare black tea for Master Bruce. How about a sumo version of Bane against and an anachronistic Batsuit? You get that, too.

The costume and design makes for a beautiful watch, with Joker and Harley in a hybrid of Victorian and samurai visual kei. Batman, his army of Japanese Outsiders led by new ally Eian of the Bat Clan of Hida, Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, Damian Robin as well as Catwoman dress themselves in a hybrid of ninja and samurai garb that has trappings of their modern costumes and chest symbols mixed with Japanese oni masks. Robin makes a Chim-Chim like friend, a cute monkey that only he can communicate with. Because this is anime after all!

The absurdity of Joker constructing a temple that turns into a mecha-robot kicks off the action. Batman masters the ways of the ninja with the help of his new ally Eian of the Bat Clan. The Bat Clan has prophesied a savior, and you guessed it, Bruce is it. Now with an army of ninja on his side, Batman and the family are poised to take back the Quake Engine from Joker and return to his proper time.

There are a variety of animation and drawing styles in Batman Ninja, from black and white to denote explosions, a watercolor dream state and lots of explosions of course to excite the viewer.

Bats and friends are stuck in Japan for a significant amount of time while Grodd attempts to rebuild his Quake Engine and The Bat Clan train for an epic battle. Alfred even opines for the next harvest season to start to bake bread. Alfred’s obsession with food in this movie is gonna get someone killed in my opinion! Wild boar steaks for dinner, Alfred? Calm down, you culinary madman!

Joker’s mecha castle serves as a preview for the climax of the film, as there is still a lot to resolve between the feuding city-states. Each villain has a power converter needed to fuel the Quake Engine, and the Bat Clan is there to sort it all out.

What’s more exciting than Batman vs. Joker in feudal Japan?

I’d argue that adding in Gorilla Grodd as the other major foil make this a better story! We all know that Grodd ultimately wants to rule a Gorilla City and he nearly gets his chance to transform Japan into his primate paradise. Perhaps he’d keep Alfred around for some Banana Flambé

You will have to see for yourself if Batman is able to return to a Gotham that is familiar and history remains unchanged. I, for one, will be happy to see a sequel to this or have the creators do more with DC characters. Samurai Superman might not be a great story waiting to happen but with so many parallels between Batman and actual ninja but I wouldn’t mind revisiting this world with another hero. Green Arrow, perhaps?

Tony Hale is a perfect Joker for the anime and to be honest could hold his own as the Clown Prince of Crime in other productions, so I also hope to see more from him in the future.

Batman Ninja is bizarre, contemporary, stylized and over the top. As it should be. These are the stories that make Batman a rich cultural icon that can be celebrated as legend, much like ninja and samurai themselves.

Batman Ninja is now available on on Digital HD,
Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD.

Written by Joshua Williamson
Illustrated by Scott Kolins

The Flash War is coming!

Ever since the return of the original Wally West, DC has faced the conundrum of what does it mean to have two Flashes running about.

With the recent proliferation of speed powers in the Flash comics, and the seemingly unending flow of DC hero sidekicks, offspring, and other iterations, that concern may have dissipated in urgency for many.

But the question still remains.

At this point, Barry Allen and his first protégé both have legitimate claims to the title. And yet it remains a little strange to see them side by side in slightly different shades of red and wreathed in different shades of lightning.

Almost as if Wally’s still a step out of synch with the current DCU.

It’s hard to say whether that dissonance is going to resolve conclusively, or not at all in the coming run, but it’s fairly clear writer Joshua Williamson is going to have as much fun as possible threshing it out.

It’s unclear really what circumstances would set Wally and Barry so at odds with one another that they would actually go to ‘war’ with one another. Despite recent tensions, the bond they’ve shared since Wally’s youth is one of real mutual respect and admiration – at least it has been since Barry’s memories of Wally have returned. Of course, those memories don’t include any of Wally as the Flash. And Wally’s own memories are causing him real problems, as he finds himself dislocating mentally in and out of the current DC universe and his old one.

And while we may not know the circumstances that will drive this once mentor and pupil team to conflict, we do now know the cause – none other than the evil machinations of the Reverse Flash of the 25st century, naturally.

But wait.. isn’t Eobard Thawne… dead? Again? Sort of?

True, true. But thankfully just as there are two Flashes in the DCU there are also two Reverse Flashes – one for Barry, and one for Wally. Eobard may be gone, trapped in a hellish existence of eternal dying, but Hunter Zolomon (otherwise known as Zoom) is still with us it seems, and in this issue of The Flash, Williamson brings him back onto the main stage with a story that updates for us where’s he’s been, what he’s doing now, and why his warped lunatic version of the Flash heroic legacy promises to be a big danger for our two scarlet speedsters.

Sure, it’s a little crazy. But given the typical Flash wheelhouse of mirrors, reflections and multiple realities, timelines and dimensions, it actually makes plenty of sense. And it’s a great hook to set up the sort of epic conflict that Barry, Wally, and perhaps the whole of the DCU needs, to settle some issues and perhaps bring everything into brand new alignment.

Williamson’s script deftly manages all of the potentials pitfalls of his plot, with dialogue that as always is clear and honest. And, Scott Kollins pencils are an added treat, recalling to those of us who fondly remember it, his and Geoff John’s classic run of The Flash starring Wally West back in the early 2000’s. Good times.

It’s a great lead-in to what promises to be a wild run. Flash War is almost here everyone! Hang on to your wristwatches.

Ready? Set?

Go!

Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian (Jamie Dornan, “The Fall,” Anthropoid) and Ana (Dakota Johnson, How to Be Single, Black Mass) fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins. Directed by James Foley (“House of Cards,” At Close Range), Fifty Shades Freed also features returning cast members Eric Johnson (“The Knick,” “Smallville”), Rita Ora (Fifty Shades Franchise) as well as Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Fifty Shades of Grey, Miller’s Crossing).

And we’re giving away five copies!

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

Who was originally supposed to play Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades trilogy?

Please include your name, and address (U.S. 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 20th, 2018.

The rumors are true! Discover more secrets, seduction, and corruption as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases Riverdale: The Complete Second Season on DVD August 7, 2018. Currently the #1 show on The CW with women 18-49,* Riverdale: The Complete Second Season contains all 22 scandalous episodes from the second season, and includes three bonus featurettes, the 2017 Comic-Con Panel, a hilarious gag reel and never-before-seen deleted scenes. The DVD is priced to own at $39.99 SRP. Riverdale: The Complete Second Season is also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers.

Riverdale: The Complete Second Season will also be available on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Archive Collection. The Blu-ray^TM release includes all bonus features on the DVD and is also arriving August 7, 2018. Warner Archive Blu-ray releases are found at wb.com/warnerarchive and your favorite online retailer.

Based on the characters from Archie Comics, Riverdale returns with its subversive take on small-town life. Determined to protect the sanctity of his town in the wake of his father’s shooting by the Black Hood, season two of Riverdale finds Archie (KJ Apa) seeking justice…and vengeance. As a civil war brews between the Northside and the Southside, loyalties are divided. Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) relationship enters fragile territory when Jughead decides to join the Southside Serpents and Betty’s long-lost brother Chic returns. Veronica (Camila Mendes) finds her life upended by her father Hiram’s (Mark Consuelos) arrival and his dark schemes for the town’s future. Everyone will have to pick a side, including Queen Bee Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), star-to-be Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), and Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton). Things are never what you’d expect in Riverdale, and that’s especially true as Archie and the gang race to avert a full-on riot and to solve the mystery of the Black Hood.

“With a phenomenal 60% average viewership growth from last season, Riverdale continues to build its passionate fan base in its second season,” said Rosemary Markson, WBHE Senior Vice President, Television Marketing. “We’re thrilled to release Riverdale: The Complete Second Season on DVD so both new and returning fans can relive all of their favorite episodes and enjoy new behind-the-scenes extras.”

Riverdale is created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Glee, Big Love), produced by Greg Berlanti (The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Blindspot), and stars KJ Apa (Shortland Street), Lili Reinhart (The Kings of Summer), Camila Mendes (Randy Doe), Cole Sprouse (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Marisol Nichols (Big Momma’s House 2), Madelaine Petsch (The Curse of Sleeping Beauty), Ashleigh Murray (Deidra & Laney Rob a Train), Mark Consuelos (All My Children), Casey Cott (The Mascot), Skeet Ulrich (Law & Order: LA), with Mädchen Amick (Twin Peaks), and Luke Perry (Beverly Hills 90210). Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is also an executive producer, along with Greg Berlanti (Arrow, Blindspot, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Blindspot, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), and Jon Goldwater (Publisher/CEO, Archie Comics).

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Caught Between Two Worlds: The Darkness Inside
• Making the Musical: Riverdale
• Riverdale: 2017 Comic-Con Panel
• Riverdale Pop Quiz!
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel

Red Sonja/Tarzan #1
Written by Gail Simone
Illustrated by Walter Geovani
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
Released 5/2/18 / $3.99

Tarzan and Red Sonja? In one comic book? Did anybody want this? Apparently so!

The good thing about this book is that it’s pretty well written!

But what did you expect when Gail Simone is at the helm?

The book starts off with a hunting party led by the evil Eson Duul.

Eson kills an animal without remorse in the opening scene. He has a villainous scene with his cohorts and thus, the book begins.

Then, we are introduced to Red Sonja. The next scene, we are introduced to Tarzan. Before the issue ends, we know that they are going to cross paths.

And they do!

They realize that they have to team up to fight against Duul.

The whole thing moves pretty well. I’m not a huge fan of either of the characters, but I am a fan of Simone. She really knows how to compose a scene. The first Red Sonja scene especially was great. She goes into a town, finds a bar, and orders a drink. She takes the drink and pours it on her wound! Funny and well done.

The art by Geovani is pretty good too. These two are reunited after their work on Clean Room. This book isn’t my thing, but I still liked it enough. The Adam Hughes cover is a thing of beauty too wrapping the whole thing up in a nice package.

RATING: B+

Television’s biggest night is just around the corner as Emmy nominations are set for July 12. But before Hollywood’s small screen Hunger Games can begin, networks need to prep their contenders.

As we speak, primetime nets, streaming services and cable channels are stamping the Do Not Replicate messages on their “For Your Consideration” DVD samples and deciding which billboards to hang over traffic jams in Los Angeles.

While the focus on good performance and great writing, shows with political and social messages are being pushed forward in the great race, as real world problems take over the old school primetime sitcom issues of dating and bratty teens.

As social commentary continues to each its way into the small screen landscape, television is becoming less of an escape and more of a mirror. But can this changing tone translate to Emmy gold?

Over at ABC, the network has put forth their comedies with a message as their frontrunners for possible nominations. This includes Roseanne, American Housewife, Black-ish and Grown-ish.  All of the comedies have tackled subjects beyond the comedy of their situation. While Roseanne is fighting Jackie over the 2016 Presidential Election, the Dre and the Johnson family are dealing with the occasion race issue along with mouthy kids.

CBS Studios is leaning into their female-driven vehicles, including the latest Star Trek reboot of Star Trek: Discovery with Sonequa Martin-Green and The Good Fight with Emmy darling Christine Baranski.  Also up for possible noms are Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, both of which received kudo love and praise in the past.

FX is putting the spotlight on returning Emmy winner Atlanta with Donald Glover, The Americans and limited series The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Half-hour laffer Atlanta tackles life below the average median income, while The Americans took a hard cold look at former Cold War politics. Mini Versace takes a deep dive into the murder of world-famous designer, but also explores early issues of the LGBT community.

Looking at HBO, political poker John Oliver will continue to be the network’s stand-out in the war against everything, but comedies like Crashing, Barry and Insecure continue to tackle issues involving the economy, PTSD and problems surrounding modern women.

On Netflix, the streaming service will add the latest season of Arrested Development and David Letterman’s new sit-down to their growing list of heavy hitters, which includes Dear White People and the celebrated Stranger Things. Letterman’s latest includes long chats with President Barack Obama, while the fifth season of Arrested Development will no doubt use the recent political climate as fodder for their dysfunctional Bluth family.

This is just a small smattering of politically and socially charged possible Emmy contenders for the upcoming awards. In following of the footsteps of shows like M*A*S*H,” this crop of Emmy wannabes are not just in it for the gold, but for the message as well…

Although the accolades are nice too.

Iconic comic book artist Joe Kubert—and his commitment to teaching the next generation of comic book creators—will be honored with a major new award and two scholarship programs announced today. The first ever Joe Kubert Distinguished Storyteller Award will be awarded at the second annual Comic Con Revolution, to be held May 19 & 20 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA.

The Joe Kubert Distinguished Storyteller Award is designed to recognize outstanding comic book creators who exemplify both Joe Kubert’s artistic talent and his commitment to nurturing the comic book community. In addition, the Joe Kubert Future Storyteller Scholarship is being established by Atomic Crush Events for first and second year students of The Kubert School, while the Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project will help graduates begin their career. The Kubert School will determine the recipient of the scholarship and jumpstart project based on merit and honors. The recipient of the Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project will be named by the school at this year’s graduation and the Joe Kubert Future Storyteller Scholarship will go into effect next year, allowing students to apply for the scholarship. The award and scholarship program were announced by The Kubert School in tandem with Atomic Crush Events, which runs Comic Con Revolution and will host the annual Joe Kubert Distinguished Storyteller Award Ceremony.

“With the Joe Kubert Future Storyteller and Jumpstart Project, Atomic Crush Events has not only shown their commitment to building and investing in future creators for our industry but ultimately their love for the medium and their drive to have it not only succeed but thrive,” said Andy Kubert. “Thank you so much for this endeavor.”

“Joe Kubert was an incredible talent and his impact on the industry both on and off the page really can’t be overstated,” said Atomic Crush Events Partner and Co-Founder Mike Scigliano. “This annual award and scholarship program will honor Joe’s legacy and help nurture the next generation of comic book creators.” The award will be presented annually at Comic Con Revolution Ontario.

The recipient of the Joe Kubert Future Storyteller Scholarship will receive a one-time scholarship. Funding for the first annual Joe Kubert Future Storyteller Scholarship is provided by matching contributions from Atomic Crush Events, GeekChic Promotions, Storm King Comics and Superfan Promotions. Interested individuals and companies can also contribute to the scholarship program. The scholarship recipients will be announced later this year.

The recipient of the Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project will receive an artist alley table at any of the Comic Con Revolution events for one year and credit with SGX Print to create a pop-up banner and a limited print run of comic or art books. Storm King Comics’ Sandy King Carpenter will review the winning graduates’ portfolio, and Superfan Promotions will consult the winner of the award on how to best promote their work.

“Mike Scigliano and Atomic Crush Events have come up with an amazing opportunity for our grads,” said Adam Kubert. “They really care about our industry and helping out young creators. I couldn’t think of a better or more creative way to jumpstart a young artist’s career than the Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project. My Dad was the ultimate storyteller and I know the student that receives this award will work to be one as well.”

Widely beloved and acknowledged as one of the greatest comic book artists, Joe Kubert is most frequently associated with his work on Hawkman and Sgt Rock for DC Comics, his illustrations of Tarzan, and his gripping war stories. As The New York Times wrote after his death in 2012, “Mr. Kubert was often described as a war artist, but as he made clear in interviews and in his work, it was far more accurate to call him an antiwar artist. His distinctive visual style—raw, powerful and unstinting in emotional immediacy—was ideally suited to capturing the brutality of battle, and capture it he did, over more than a half-century.”

In 1976, Kubert and his wife Muriel established The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, NJ. Today, The Kubert School is the country’s only accredited trade school for comic-book artists, offering students a comprehensive three-year program. The first graduating class of 1978 included bestselling Swamp Thing artist Stephen R. Bissette, Tarzan artist Thomas Yeates, and Rick Veitch, creator of The One. Alumni include artists Kevin Colden, Amanda Conner, Shane Davis, Jan Duursema, Scott Kolins, Steve Lieber, Alex Maleev, Tom Mandrake, Rags Morales, Tom Raney, Bart Sears, Eric Shanower, and Timothy Truman; writer and inker Karl Kesel, Eisner award-nominated Jared K. Fletcher; acclaimed colorist Matt Hollingsworth; DC Comics VP of Manufacturing Administration Nick Napolitano, and Archie Comics  President Mike Pellerito. Current faculty include his sons, the bestselling artists Adam and Andy Kubert, Mike Chen, Jan Duursema and others.

The Joe Kubert Distinguished Storyteller Award event will be held at Comic Con Revolution on Saturday May 19 at 5:30 in Ballroom B in the Ontario Convention Center. More information about the award and the convention, visit  comicconrevolution.com/ontario and follow the convention on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Aquaman must battle foes in the air, on land and in the depths of the Seven Seas, along with some help from The Justice League, to save the day in his latest animated adventure, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment and the LEGO Group, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on July 31, 2018 on Blu-ray Combo Pack ($24.98 SRP), DVD ($19.98 SRP) and Digital ($19.99 SRP).

The Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD releases of LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman -Rage of Atlantis feature an exclusive LEGO mini-figurine of Jessica Cruz/Green Lantern (while supplies last).

In LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis, the King of Atlantis must make some difficult decisions to ensure the future of his ocean realm. Under attack from Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns, Aquaman realizes he must relinquish his sovereignty and go on a journey to regain his confidence before returning to his rightful throne. Along the way, Aquaman reunites with the Justice League – including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and newest member Jessica Cruz/Green Lantern – to conquer Atlantis’ latest enemy and reemerge as the ruler of the Seven Seas.

LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis voice cast features opposing forces Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad!) and Jonathan Adams (Last Man Standing) as Aquaman and Atrocitus, respectively. The film also stars LEGO DC Super Heroes core Justice League voice cast members Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Knight) as Batman, Nolan North (Pretty Little Liars) as Superman, Grey Griffin (DC Super Hero Girls) as Wonder Woman (and Lois Lane), and Khary Payton (Teen Titans Go!, The Walking Dead) as Cyborg.

Several actors reprise their roles from other notable Warner Bros. Animation/DC Entertainment productions. Alyson Stoner (Phineas and Ferb) returns to her Young Justice role as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon; Eric Bauza (The Adventures of Puss in Boots) recreates his role as Jimmy Olsen from LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash; Cristina Milizia (Bunsen is a Beast) is back as Green Lantern/Jessica Cruz, as originally heard in DC Super Hero Girls; and Scott Menville (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) reprises his Teen Titans/Teen Titans Go! role as Robin/Damian Wayne.

New to the LEGO DC COMICS Super Heroes films are the voices of Susan Eisenberg (Justice League/Justice League Unlimited) as Mera, Fred Tatasciore (Batman Ninja) as Lobo, and Trevor Devall (Batman and Harley Quinn) as Ocean Master.

LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis is directed by Matt Peters (LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Gotham City Breakout) from a script by Jim Krieg (Batman: Gotham By Gaslight) and Jeremy Adams (LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash). Executive producers are Jason Cosler, Robert Fewkes, Jill Wilfert, Sam Register and Brandon Vietti.

Image via Netflix

Sure, we’re late on this.

But that’s the best thing about mothers (or maternal types in general).  They’re understanding.  A lovely card with a note explaining the gift is on it’s way should quell even the most persnickety mother types who will be happy that you even remembered them (like you could ever forget).

They’re always in your corner, backing you up, encouraging you and providing tough love when you need it most.

So, if they happen to have a hankering for pop culture, here’s some pretty sweet gifts that they might enjoy.

Visualizing The Beatles by John Pring and Rob Thomas

This is the story of the Beatles told as never before

Filled with stunning full-color infographics, a unique, album-by-album visual history of the evolution of the Beatles that examines how their style, their sound, their instruments, their songs, their tours, and the world they inhabited transformed over the course of a decade.

Combining data, colorful artwork, interactive charts, graphs, and timelines, Visualizing the Beatles is a fresh and imaginative look at the world’s most popular band. Meticulously examining the songs on every Beatles’ album from Please Please Me to Let It Be, UK-based graphic artists John Pring and Rob Thomas deconstruct lyrical content, songwriting credits, inspiration for the songs, instruments used, cover designs, chart position, and more.

They also break down the success of Beatles’ singles across the world, their tour dates, venues, and cities, their hairstyles, fashion choices and favorite guitars, and a wealth of other Beatles’ minutiae. Visualizing the Beatles also includes illustrations involving the conspiracy theories of the “Paul is dead” hoax as well as A-to-Z lists of every artist or performer who has ever covered a Beatles’ song.

Comprehensive, entertaining, and packed with fun facts, Visualizing the Beatles is a wonderful introduction for new fans and a must-have for devotees, offering a new way to think about this extraordinary band whose influence continues to shape music.

Game of Thrones Candles

Now Game of Thrones fans have the chance to prepare for the coming of winter with these deluxe candles including House Lannister, House Stark and House Targaryen. Each candle features a sculpted, hand-painted emblem of their house crest.

Cheeky Oven Mitt: This Is F*cking Delicious

Of course it’s f*cking delicious – you f*cking made it. From the makers of Swear Socks, this 100% cotton, well-insulated and luxuriously quilted oven mitt is a must have kitchen accessory for all domestic gods and goddesses. Featuring charming retro-style illustrations, this will not only prevent your dainty hands from getting scorched, but also showcases your love of kitsch.

Cheeky Dish Cloths: Cute Little Fuckers

It’s the frolicking forest friends known as the ‘Cute Little Fuckers’ on these vintage-style tea towels. Super absorbent to mop up inevitable spillages, these 100% unbleached cotton dish cloths are cute and classy at first glance, but provide a sassy message to put the stuck up bitches in their place if they decides to invade your personal space.

Bettie Page Aloha Tiki Parasol

Bettie Page will teach you to hula. It’s all in the hips! Warm sunset colors are attractive and alluring as Bettie plays your favorite island song on the ukulele. Not in the mood for music; no problem, Bettie knows how to make the best tiki cocktails inspired by the islands. Whether you bring Bettie to a fun day at the beach, an outdoor event or feature your exotic pin up in your tiki bar, she’ll make an amazing companion. Paper Parasol measures 33″ diameter w/ a 22.5″ bamboo handle. Beautiful, hand-crafted worksmanship.

Masterpiece Mystery!: Unforgotten Season 1 & Season 2 Blu-ray

Two stone-cold cases of murder test the wits of crime-solving duo DCI Cassie Stuart and DS Sunny Khan, played by Nicola Walker (Last Tango in Halifax) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Indian Summers), in back-to-back seasons of the critically acclaimed UK crime series Unforgotten.  The duo re-open a series of chilling, decades-old cold murder cases. Yet their investigations still hold present-day consequences, throwing lives into turmoil as the detectives seek long-withheld justice for each unforgotten victim

Season 1 opens with a human skeleton found beneath a basement. The remains could be centuries old—or four decades, as comes to light upon further investigation of the crime scene. Cassie and Sunny eventually discover the victim was a young man, Jimmy Sullivan (Harley Sylvester) and his nearly-disintegrated pocket diary leads the detectives to a list of names that may hold the key to solving the murder.

The list of names includes Sir Phillip Cross (Trevor Eve), a mobster who bribed his way into the aristocracy; Father Robert Greaves (Bernard Hill), a beloved vicar with a dark secret; Lizzie Wilton (Ruth Sheen), a reformed skinhead; and Eric Slater (Tom Courtenay), an elderly, disabled bookkeeper taking care of his wife, Claire (Gemma Jones) who is suffering from dementia. They all lead very different lives, but something links them, something that explains Jimmy’s final resting place and the torture marks found on his bones.

Season 2 starts innocently enough with a routine river dredging operation. When the scoop brings up a soggy, old suitcase, the workers open it and find a corpse sealed up so long that the tissues have turned to a soapy substance. Gruesome forensic work identifies the victim as David Walker, a businessman missing for twenty-five years.

Cassie and Sunny locate Walker’s wife, Tessa Nixon (Ashbourne), now remarried. A hard-bitten DI herself, Tessa reminds her fellow police officers that “sixty-three percent of all murder victims are killed by their partners.”

“You’ll be thinking that, won’t you?” she says. “I would be.”

But Cassie and Sunny have other suspects to consider. A pager found with Walker’s remains leads them to Sara Mahmoud (Badria Timimi), a Muslim teacher who wishes she’d never heard of David Walker. Other clues connect Walker with Colin Osborne (Mark Bonnar), a gay attorney in the process of adopting a young girl with his partner; and Marion Kelsey (Rosie Cavaliero), a harried nurse in a children’s cancer ward.  The puzzle pieces won’t fit together—until Cassie has an inspiration that climaxes in “the perfect ending.”

The world is a confusing place for Wendy (Dakota Fanning). As a fiercely independent and brilliant young woman with autism, Wendy longs to leave the regimen of her group home and return to life with her sister’s family and their new baby, but she must first prove herself. As a lover of all-things-Star Trek, Wendy writes fantasy stories in her free time. To her, people are an indecipherable code, so she uses her Star Trek filter to understand them. When a screenplay competition presents itself, Wendy decides to finish her 500-page Star Trek script and enter. Now, the problem is getting it there. In order to meet the deadline, Wendy must travel hundreds of miles outside her protected boundaries to submit her script in person.

With her little dog Pete in her purse and a few dollars in her pocket, Wendy boldly goes where she has never gone before. And with her no-nonsense therapist (Toni Collette) and big sister Audrey (Alice Eve) following close behind, Wendy, with the help of some colorful friends she meets along the way, must learn how to follow her dream and find her place in a world she hopes will accept her …. Just like everyone else.

From Director Ben Lewin (The Sessions), Please Stand By also includes a special appearance by Patton Oswalt (“Veep”).

And we’re giving away three copies!

To enter, send an email with the subject header “PLEASE STAND BY” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following question:

Which cast member previously play a Star Fleet character in Stae was Ojreioduriw

Please include your name, and address (U.S. 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 20th, 2018.

Hysterical and over-the-top parental trio John Cena (Trainwreck, Sisters), Leslie Mann (The Other Woman, This Is 40) and Ike Barinholtz (Neighbors, Suicide Squad) will do anything to foil their daughters’ prom night sex pact in BLOCKERS, the uproarious hit coming to Digital and the all-new digital movie app MOVIES ANYWHERE on June 19, 2018, and Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand on July 3, 2018 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Hailed as the “perfect comedy for the current era” by Vanity Fair, BLOCKERS is a gender-swapped spin on the classic teen sex comedy, filled with outrageous antics from the parents as their daughters take control of their epic prom night. The Blu-ray, DVD and Digital feature unrated bonus content with even more wild shenanigans including deleted scenes, gag reel, line-o-rama and more!

Making her directorial debut, Kay Cannon (writer of the Pitch Perfect series), along with the producers of Neighbors and This Is the End, bring laugh-out-loud moments in the outrageous comedy BLOCKERS. When three parents (Cena, Mann and Barinholtz) stumble upon their daughters’ pact to lose their virginity at prom, they launch a covert one-night operation to stop the teens from sealing the deal. BLOCKERS also features teenage newcomers led by rising actress, Kathryn Newton (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Big Little Lies), Geraldine Viswanathan (EMO The Muscial), Gideon Adlon (“American Crime,” “Girl Meets World”), Graham Phillips (“Riverdale,” “The Good Wife”), Miles Robbins (“Mozart in the Jungle”) and Jimmy Bellinger (“The Middle”). Also joining in on the fun are comedic supporting cast members Gary Cole (“Veep,” Office Space), Gina Gershon (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), Hannibal Buress (“Broad City,” Neighbors 2), Colton Dunn (“Key and Peele,” “Superstore”) and June Diane Raphael (“Grace and Frankie,” “New Girl”).

BONUS FEATURES:

• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel – The entire cast contributes to these on-set flubs.
• Line-O-Rama – The laughs continue after the take!
• Rescue Mission – Being a parent isn’t easy, as Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, and John Cena make abundantly clear. Hear them and director Kay Cannon discuss parental mistakes and lessons learned. They even top it off with a good old-fashioned car explosion!
• Prom Night – Filmmakers and cast discuss how they achieved the perfect prom look and also share some of their own personal prom stories.
• The History of Sex with Ike Barinholtz – Ike Barinholtz explains the origins of human sexuality and its evolution through time.
• John Cena’s Prom Survival Kit for Parents – John Cena shows off a survival kit filled with items that will help parents survive the most stressful time of year – prom season!
• Chug! Chug! Chug! – The film introduced the world to the concept of “butt chugging.” Hear cast, crew, and butt-chugger John Cena discuss how they handled this standout scene.
• Puke-a-Palooza – One memorable scene involves copious amounts of projectile vomit. See what cast, filmmakers, and crew went through to make sure the puke was as authentic as possible.

BLOCKERS will be available on Blu-ray combo pack which includes Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, and Movies Anywhere.

• Blu-ray unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.
• DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away.
• Digital lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.
• Movies Anywhere is the digital app that simplifies and enhances the digital movie collection and viewing experience by allowing consumers to access their favorite digital movies in one place when purchased or redeemed through participating digital retailers. Consumers can also redeem digital copy codes found in eligible Blu-ray and DVD disc packages from participating studios and stream or download them through Movies Anywhere. MOVIES ANYWHERE is only available in the United States. For more information, visit https://moviesanywhere.com.

For more details, visit Facebook.com/BlockersMovie