This morning we got a new trailer for BLACK PANTHER from Marvel Studios

You only need to get a hit 1 out of every 3 at bats to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. So it is with Stephen King, who holds what has to be the record for having the coolest story ideas turned into the worst movies ever -- or sometimes turned into really great movies that were nothing at all like the story from which they got their title. (THE RUNNING MAN, I'm looking at you!)

The folks over at Moneypod have actually given this more than some passing thought, as IT continues its theatrical run into Halloween, and have crunched the numbers into this handy-dandy not-so-little infographic, provided here for our readers. Thanks, Moneypod!

She was a ghoul in her village, doing all right. Then she became American overnight.

The latest little lady to take over the Disney Junior programming  is new to American culture. In fact, she's new to human culture. She's Vampirina Hauntley (ISABELLA CROVETTI), and she's just immigrated from Transylvania to Pennsylvania, along with her father Boris (JAMES VAN DER BEEK, DAWSON'S CREEK) and mother Oxana (LAUREN GRAHAM, GILMORE GIRLS), and a few household friends like the ghostly Demi (MITCHELL WHITFIELD, TRANSFORMERS: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE) and stony gargoyle Gregoria (WANDA SYKES).

After having procured an ancient embalming knife at auction, Bruce Wayne (DAVID MAZOUZ) takes the knife to Dr. Niles Winthrop (DAKIN MATTHEWS) for analysis and translation of the markings on the handle. But Ra's al Ghul (ALEXANDER SIDDIG) shows up at the doctor's office, and kills him, with the doctor's grandson, Alex (BENJAMIN STOCKHAM) as a witness. Now Alex is on the run with the knife, hunted by to of al Ghul's lackeys.

Meanwhile, Edward Nygma (CORY MICHAEL SMITH), fresh out of the ice block, works feverishly to compose a riddle to draw out the Penguin (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR) in order to exact his revenge on him. He delivers these riddles through messengers in the form of absurd rap telegrams. The problem is, the riddles suck, evidence that The Riddler's brain has been decidedly damaged by the time spent frozen by Mister Freeze (NATHAN DARROW).

When I saw that there was an old-school Archie once more on the shelves, I made a mad dash to pick it up. My son fell in love with Archie Comics just in time for them to be too mature for him to read, so he's been grabbing up all the new digests and back-issues at used book stores.

The ARCHIE HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR is a three story anthology. In the first one, "Scary Scary Doooo!" by Alex Simmons and Pat & Tim Kennedy, the gang shows up at a Halloween party that Veronica is throwing, only to end up scared silly when Reggie pranks them.

In the second story, "Giving Up the Ghost" by Paul Kupperberg and the Kennedies... Veronica throws a Halloween party, and the gang gets scared silly when Reggie pranks them.

Okay, but in the third story, "A Party for Ghosts" by Dexter Taylor and Rudy Lapick, Little Veronica throws a Halloween party for Little Archie and the gang...only to...errr...get scared silly when, uhm, Reggie pranks them.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Featured Segment

Woke up this morning to find that Fox posted a NEW MUTANTS trailer in the wee hours of the night.

I've really been enjoying the METAL one-shots, and the overall big picture, high concept of the thing really intrigued me. It was like hearing a Grant Morrison pitch, and I love all the big picture, high concept ideas of Grant Morrison. And given that everything in DARK NIGHTS: METAL is grounded in the big picture, high concept foundations of Grant Morrison's previous BATMAN work, it makes sense that DARK NIGHTS: METAL would read that way.

Have I mentioned how much I hate reading Grant Morrison's actual books?

That's where DARK NIGHTS: METAL has finally got to with me with this third issue. The anti-Batmen have come to Earth-0 and abruptly taken over. Doctor Fate has been rescuing heroes right and left and been pulling them to a mysterious location where, we anticipate, they will regroup, fight, and emerge victorious with a plan.

Who doesn't love Halloween? Some cultures love it so much, it's not a night but a three-day celebration. Some towns, like Rutland, Vermont, hold a huge parade. And almost everywhere, kids dress up in costumes and go begging for candy. (Here at Critical Blast, we love it so much we dedicate a monthly feature just to people who put on costumes all year long!)

For Saint Louis, Missouri, the tradition for almost two decades now has been the Dave Glover Halloween Show, on FM 97.1. Dave and his cohorts, Mark Klose, Rachel Zimmerman, and Tony Colombo, comprise the cast of the consistently number one rated radio show in the market, and the Halloween episode is a huge draw.

Last season's cliffhanger ending brought back to this old-timer a sense of deja vu, hearkening back to the era of DALLAS and the burning question that enveloped a nation: Who Shot J.R.? Only for this generation, the question was, "Who shot Fred Andrews?" And it being RIVERDALE, the secondary question: Why?

The second season opens with Archie (KJ APA) careening through town in his dad's truck trying desperatetly to get him to the hospital. Fred Andrews (LUKE PERRY) had been shot by a hooded gunman at Pop Tate's in what seemed to be a simple smash-and-grab robbery. Only nothing is simple in Riverdale, and when Jughead (COLE SPROUSE) learns from Pop Tate (ALVIN SANDERS) that nothing was taken from the cash register, he's certain there is an underlying motivation. But something has, in fact, gone missing: Fred's wallet, with all his information in it.

Fifteen minutes ago, Rip Hunter (ARTHUR DARVILL) left Sara Lance (CAITY LOTZ) in charge of the Waverider timeship and its crew, the Legends of Tomorrow.

Ten minutes ago, the Legends arrived in modern-day Los Angeles to dinosaurs and futuristic buildings, with Sara announcing, "I think we broke time."

Five minutes ago, a five-years-older Rip Hunter re-appeared to disband the Legends team, having used his intervening five years to establish a buttoned-up, by-the-book secret agency, the Time Bureau, who arrived with him to clean up the time anomalies and remove all memory of it from having occurred.

Six months ago, Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN) left the physical world in order to save it, allowing himself to be imprisoned by the mysterious Speed Force that fuels his powers as The Flash. Today, his friends continue to protect Central City as best they can, with Iris West (CANDICE PATTON) taking the lead of the team, tracking metahumans and sending out Cisco Ramon (CARLOS VALDES) and her brother Wally (KEIYNAN LONSDALE) as Vibe and Kid Flash, along with her father, Detective Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN) to do battle. The fourth season opener finds them with a better than Hall-of-Fame record, capturing two out of every three, and having just put the wraps on capturing (again) Peek-a-Boo (BRITNE OLDFORD). But that's not good enough for Iris, who is moving forward with her life with a cold determination that has accepted that Barry is gone forever.

As Lucifer Morningstar (TOM ELLIS) continues his rant about the new villain in town stealing his schtick, the so-called Sinner Man, the LAPD gets pulled in on a homicide involving a second-rate comedian found murdered after publicly claiming another successful comedian had made a career on jokes stolen from him. Detective Decker (LAUREN GERMAN) tries to get Lucifer to focus on the case at hand rather than continue off on tangents about some mythical bogeyman, and warns him not to let their new boss, Lt. Marcus Pierce (TOM WELLING) hear him gon on about that or his 'devil nonsense' or he'll think Lucifer is nuts. At which point, of course, we ominously see that the good lieutenant is watching and listening from afar.

There were several comics titles out there that showcased the unique retro style of Darwyn Cooke, but JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER was definitely his crowning achievement. His signature look was tailor-made for the late-50s, early-60s era of comics, and worked perfectly for his graphic novel. The DC Animated Universe has had some misses in its history, but adapting the graphic novel to the animated movie, while absolutely nailing Cooke's style, was a Grade-A bonafide hit!

The setting for JL:TNF is just after the disbanding of the Justice Society due to McCarthy era paranoia over masked men. The government simply did not trust them, and not without good reason. The only ones left operating openly are Superman (KYLE MCLACHLAN) and Wonder Woman (LUCY LAWLESS), while Batman (JEREMY SISTO) is more of an outcast than ever.

Before I start, WrestlePro Owner Pat Buck has launched his own podcast, The Pat Buck WrestlePro Show.  His old show, “The Pat Buck Show,” was actually the first podcast I ever listened to (and these days I listen to way too many podcasts these days, so I guess you can blame Pat for ruining my life). 

The first episode is features a terrific interview with Impact’s Fallah Bahh, plus some great insight into the training aspect of wrestling.  

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!

During Monday Night Football, Disney posted up a brand new trailer for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI along with this poster.  I think it's a wonderful tribute to Carrie FIsher to feature General Leia front and center on the poster.  The poster doesn't give us a lot of new info on the movie, but it does look damn cool.

The trailer itself is pretty cool. Not a lot of spoilers, thankfully, but definitely enough teases to get people hyped up for the movie.  Poor Luke seems to have lost his fricking mind since we last saw him...wonder if we will ever get the full back story there.

During the Summer of ’16, something monumental happened…

Jeff Beck, one of the greatest guitar players rock has ever known, celebrated his 50^th anniversary in the business by having a concert at the celebrated Hollywood Bowl amphitheater, along with some very special guests he’s worked with over the years.

At 72 years of age at the time of the concert, you would think it more of just a tribute concert. Not so at all. This was no going-through-the-motions event. Jeff was in perfect form, and played as astonishingly as he ever had. Think about what I just said: one of the greatest (in anyone’s list of greatest guitar players ever) played as good as I have ever heard and seen him--at 72 years old!

Now, if (like me) you didn’t know about this, or couldn’t even go if you did, the music lovers at Eagle Rock Entertainment wove their magic and were smart enough to capture it for all of us to see and hear.

DC is teaming up with Archie Comics (after teaming up with IDW, Dynamite, and Dark Horse -- gosh is there somebody missing from all the company-crossover fun? Let's marvel over that for a moment...) to bring us the team-up that nobody demanded: Harley & Ivy and Betty & Veronica!

A few years ago, this crossover would have resulted in a fab foursome, and I'd have chunked over good change for it. (Forgive me while I dream over what a Dan DeCarlo page of that story would have looked like.) But this is the new Archie, the now Archie, the edgy-and-hip Archie, and Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are much more friendly with each other than Riverdale's former best buds, who spend their time snipping at each other. The old rivalry has evolved into a cooler-than-chilling frenemy relationship that's built more on tolerance than friendship.