Guillermo del Toro makes moves that no one else in Hollywood would ever even conceive of, and that should be considered high praise. The big blockbusters generally follow a pretty routine formula. Most films so. Very seldom does a director write and execute his own script with the clarity of vision and abundant originality of his latest film, The Shape of Water. It’s a love story, a monster movie, and a unique look at a creature that doesn’t belong in this world…and minor spoiler alert—only one of these three descriptions applies to the “monster.”

Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen continue the SECRET HERO SOCIETY series that casts all your favorite DC Comics characters as middle school students. Told from the perspective of a cynical Bruce Wayne via notes, diagrams, text message continuity, and standard comic book style panels, DETENTION OF DOOM kicks things off with a handful of your heroic students getting academic awards from the Luthor foundation. Clark gets a unique looking trophy for bravery, while Bruce gets a medal for participation. (Other students can be seen in the program, including Guy Gardner for Debate and Dinah Lance for Musical Achievement.)

St. Louis -- Michelle Reeves

(This review contains material that may be considered by some as spoiler.)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS was slow, as it introduced new characters, and ended with Rey facing the missing Luke Skywalker, thus building into STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

Without really knowing what to expect from TLJ, I went in with an open mind.  After a lengthy period of time, Rey finally convinces Luke Skywalker to assist the Resistance, after he initially refuses. He also reluctantly starts teaching Rey to be a Jedi. 

The film excellently portrayed the struggle between good and evil within us.  Rey converses with Kylo Ren, trying to learn about who he really is.  Using the Force, she sees and feels the conflict within Kylo--the same conflict we all face individually between right and wrong, good and evil, restraint and temptation. 

From Forbes:

Nintendo announced today that the Switch had broken 10 million sales. An astonishing number, given the Wii U before it, analyst projections being much lower, and the holiday season still to come. The Switch has been a hardware success story only equaled by Nintendo’s software success stories between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey both released this year.

To put that sales figure in context, I wanted to go back and see how it stacked up to other current and former consoles. As it turns out, it’s among some of the best in recent memory, as you might expect.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Fire up your 2-Way Wrist TVs! Heat Vision can exclusively reveal that Archie Comics is bringing Dick Tracy back to comic books with a new series focusing on his early days as a detective, launching next April.

The monthly series will be co-written by Archie Comics co-president Alex Segura and Michael Moreci, whose résumé includes Image Comics’ Roche Limit and Hoax Hunters and the upcoming novel Black Star Renegades, with art from New York-based illustrator Thomas Pitilli, who has previously worked on covers for Riverdale and The Archies.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

When a woman's 911 call reveals the Sinnerman's work is still being carried out despite his incarceration, Team Lucifer determines that the Sinnerman must have an accomplice. Lucifer's plan is to take the Sinnerman out fo custody and torture him into revealing the girl's location, but he has to play along with Chloe's method of going by-the-book and following up leads. Her investigation takes them to the world of roller derby and a skater with whom the abducted girl, Maggie, has had fights. And while she knows nothing of the abuction, Helena Handbasket does know where Maggie parks her car, leading #Deckerstar straight to a booby-trap.

They are many young people out there today who have never heard of Red Skelton or the mirth he brought upon this Earth. And that is a shame. Fortunately, though, it doesn’t have to be that way any longer, thanks to Time Life who brings us the definitive set of Red Skelton.

From TV Insider:

Last month, we told you that Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS Corp., had told a group of investors that "All Access will be the home of a new version of one of the most iconic television shows of all time – The Twilight Zone." There were also reports that Get Out director Jordan Peele was in talks to executive-produce the revival.

On Wednesday, CBS All Access confirmed that Peele will indeed serve as an executive producer of the series, which will air exclusively on the CBS streaming service, along with Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez. The three will also collaborate on the show's premiere episode.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Reviews

It's a night of funerals, betrayals...and war!

Sofia Falcone's plans for Gotham have finally put the city on the brink of a gang war with Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot. And to put an end to that and keep the peace: Daddy's home! Yes, Carmine Falcone is back in Gotham, and he's there to give his little girl a spanking and cart her cute little butt back home with him. But a drive-by shooting  changes everything.

Operating on the assumption that Penguin's men were behind the attack, Sofia turns to Jim Gordon to arrest him. But without proof of Penguin's involvement, there's nothing he can do to him. But when Penguin confronts Jim in the middle of the GCPD, Jim can do one thing! He can rally the police behind him and take the war to Penguin's thugs. And this he does with great success.

From Buzzfeed:

BuzzFeed News can exclusively reveal that Marvel Television is working on Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, an upcoming feature-length animated film about a new generation of diverse superheroes.

Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors is part of a new, multi-platform animated franchise starring the next generation of Marvel heroes set to launch in 2018. The program will launch with six, four-minute digital shorts (which will follow Spider-Gwen with her new secret moniker, Ghost-Spider). Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors will premiere later in 2018.

From Entertainment Weekly:

This Phoenix has risen… again. On Nov. 2, 2018, Dark Phoenix will arrive in theaters and finally deliver the storyline X-Men fans have wanted for years. Simon Kinberg previously attempted to tell the iconic Jean Grey tale — about the telepath’s battle with demons in her own mind — with his screenplay for 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, but studio pressure squeezed her story into a reductive subplot. Kinberg, making his directorial debut, felt in his gut that this was the story that he needed to tell once Bryan Singer, who directed the previous two sequels, stepped aside. “[The film] was so clear in my head, emotionally and visually, that it would have killed me to hand this to somebody else to direct,” Kinberg says.

It should be a great day for our Riverdale High students. Jughead has just received word that his dad, FP, is being released early from jail, thanks to overcrowding and Cheryl Blossom's character testimony. And Betty's going to be there for Jughead all the way, helping him with his dad. Which means neither of them can look into the "Devil House" where Betty was led earlier by the Black Hood -- which they've just discovered is the same house where the Riverdale Reaper murders occurred forty years earlier -- so they ask Archie and Veronica to look into it for them.

That will put quite the crimp in #Verchie's schedule, as they've been using every spare minute making out and hooking up. But since Archie dropped the L-word on Veronica after a bout of canoodling, they both need something to distract them. It seems Veronica wasn't able to say it back, and her introspection as to why leads her to realize that she's never heard her parents say it to each other once.

Huge weekend for WrestlePro coming up.  They have shows on Friday and Saturday, and both shows are going to feature a huge dose of Impact Wrestling on top of the amazing WrestlePro regulars.

We're still in the "I can't even..." stage of processing last night's mid-season finale of THE FLASH. That was a very, very naughty place to leave the fans hanging for the winter break, @FLASHtvwriters!

We open simply enough: Barry and Iris are going through the wedding gifts, opening the cards, and -- like most people -- making a huge return list. The reference to Mick Rory's gift of forty toasters from a fire sale was priceless. But the action quickly picks up when the two leave the department store with their credit, only to be assaulted by Clifford DeVoe -- The Thinker -- who captures The Flash and whisks him away.

I have been pretty excited about the return of ROSEANNE.  Ignoring the last season, ROSEANNE remains one of my all-time favorite comedy shows.  Part of me wants to be jaded about all the revivals and remakes we get on TV, but I actually loved the X-FILES and PRISON BREAK revivals, not to mention WILL AND GRACE has been getting a ton of positive buzz.  As long as these shows are being done with love and respect for the audience, I am all for them coming back.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Since the mysterious Sinnerman has been granting favors and stealing Lucifer's gig (not to mention somehow being able to get the drop on him, leave him in the desert, give him back his wings and steal his "devil face"), Lucifer has decided to up his game and get back to granting favors himself. But when he grants a favor to a young man named Joey whose greatest desire is to work for the mob, the result is finding Joey as the victim of a homicide that falls into Lucifer and Chloe's lap.