"With great power, must also come great responsibility." - Ben Parker

Avengers vs X-Men
Uncanny X-Men
Yu-Gi-OH!
Dungeons & Dragons
Justice League
Age of Ultron
War of Light...
and now Amazing Spider-Man will be added to the growing number of sets that WizKids has released for it's popular game Dice Masters!

That will make 8 sets in under 2 years. One has to ask, is WizKids getting carried away with the success of it's game?

By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #1

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE #2

Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Marco Checchetto, Angel Unzueta, and Emilio Laiso
Cover by: Marco Checchetto,
Colored by: Andres Mossa
Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

The Peanuts gang may not be the most intricately animated group of cartoon kids, but they're certainly enduring. Their somewhat sedate pacing and thoughtful observations have made them a mainstay of our Halloweens, Thanksgivings and Christmases for decades.

In 1980, the team of Bill Melendez and Phil Roman brought Charles Schulz's comic strip tykes to the big screen (although not for the first time) in a full length adventure, BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN (AND DON'T COME BACK). It's a tale that finds Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcie (and, of course, Snoopy and Woodstock) traveling to France as part of a student exchange program. This comes just after Charlie Brown has received a mysterious letter from a French girl named Violette, inviting him to come stay at the Chateau Mal Voisin -- the Home of the Bad Neighbor.

Cheap Pops - October 13, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

-NXT Takeover Respect Results

Doctor Who Series 9 - Episode 3 and 4 - Under the Lake/ Before the Flood

Writer: Toby Whithouse

Director: Daniel O'Hara

Cast:

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!

Comics shipping this week

SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK #1 – I was a huge fan of Jurgens’ Superman work in the 90’s, and CONVERGENCE: SUPERMAN was kind of bittersweet for me. I enjoyed the comic, but it just bummed me out that it was memories of a reality that we just can’t see any more. Kind of like AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS. So I was thrilled when they announced we would get a comic series telling us what happens to this version of Superman, Lois, and their newborn son. I am really looking forward to this.

Anyone familiar with Christian Rock today probably knows well the band Building 429. Comprised of Jason Roy (Lead Guitar/Vocals/Keyboards), Michael Anderson (Drums), Jesse Garcia (Guitar/Keyboards/BGVS), and Aaron Branch (Bass/BGVS), their newest album UNASHAMED already has two hit singles getting quite a bit of airplay: "Impossible" and "Ocean Deep."

For those not familiar with them, their name is derived from Ephesians 4:29 which in the HCSB Bible reads as “No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.” They were the Gospel Music Association New Artist of the Year in 2005, and have had many hit Christian songs through the years following, not the least of which was 2012’s “Where We Belong” which set a record for remaining as Billboards #1 Christian Song for an unprecedented 15 weeks.

ODE TO THINKING is the newest album from British singer/songwriter/guitarist Bobby Long comprised of eleven original songs, and produced by Mark Hallman.

Bobby hails from London and moved to New York in 2009. A product of the burgeoning English folk renaissance, it is easy to hear the influences of both the home of his birth and that of his home in New York.

I have been listening to a lot of “old school” rock of late, so listening to Mr. Long’s CD offered me a chance to sit back and listen to music that would stir my thinking. Not being familiar with his earlier works, I wasn’t sure what kind of songs I was going to hear given a title such as ODE TO THINKING. What I found after listening to the CD was that the album was aptly named.

There seems to be no shortage of musicals based on popular films these days. Some of them are pretty good; SISTER ACT was hilarious, and you can bet pretty much any Disney adaption will be top notch. Others, such as DIRTY DANCING and A CHRISTMAS STORY, probably should have been left where they belong -- on dusty VHS tapes. Then there are the unexpected conversions of cult movies to musical theatre that one wouldn’t expect to see. That’s where New Line Theatre excels, in bringing the unexpected to the St. Louis theatre scene. They did an incredibly tense musical version of the horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD a couple of seasons ago that had my niece and I jumping out of our seats. Their current production is HEATHERS, based on the 1989 dark comedy starring Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater. I know dark comedy has been around probably forever, but I think that was the film that I first really became aware of the concept.

Taste, founded and fronted by the legendary guitarist Rory Gallagher, was an Irish blues/rock band, and arguably one of the greatest power trios ever to hit the stage. I would easily put them up there with Cream, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Rail Road and The Jimi Hendrix Experience as the best ever; certainly, in my opinion, playing by far the best rock ever to come out of the Emerald Isle. Yes, I said ever –  e.v.e.r – ever, by anyone.

What made them so good to me was the sheer raw energy with which Rory Gallagher played the guitar. He could stand to-to-toe with any other great guitarist. Doubt me? His performance was so well-received at the show that when Jimi Hendrix was asked what it was liked to be the best guitar player in the world, he replied, “I don’t know, why don’t you go and ask Rory Gallagher." Need a better recommendation than that?

DC Super Hero Girls has released the second mini-sode of their offering to girls of all ages to enjoy. In the episode titled, "All About Super Hero High", Bumblebee gives Wonder Woman a tour around campus. And there are a LOT of wonderful surprises for long-time fans of DC...

Not only do we get a comedic response to Hal Jordan's introduction to Wonder Woman, but we get a quick preview of what she thinks of 'boys', stemming from her warrior culture from back home.

Superman has been under some heavy criticism since he's been depowered. Most of the criticism is due to a mythical ideology of the character being a 'boyscout' . Superman/Wonder Woman writer, Peter J. Tomasi says those views are why the 'boyscout' is 'boring'...

In an interview with comicbook.com, Tomasi touched on why the 'brawler' version of Superman is the better version:

"What it is for me is that I've always loved that brawler, impetuous Superman. When he gets to be too much of a boyscout, when he gets to be too "Everything is black and white," there are certain things where I like that brawler Superman from the early Action Comics and Superman comics from the '30s and '40s."

I’m actually kinda tired tonight, so here’s hoping I can last through this. I had nothing queued up, and so I’m digging through Netflix, wishing I was using my PS4 so I could entertain myself by yelling at Max (the “help you find something” feature that never finds you anything that I’ve only used on PS3, so I’m actually not sure it works on PS4), but alas, on my Xbox, so I’m digging and I see something in the popular section called Dark Was the Night, and that will be the winner.

Lumberjacks. The movie opens up with trees being cut down and turned into sawdust, and I’m thinking, “IS DEXTER HERE?!” And now everything is all quiet, people are heading home for the weekend, and one guy is on his walkie looking for his buddy Jesse who isn’t answering. Zoom in on that walkie and it’s just laying on the ground. A hand reaches out to grab it, but there’s static and the dude gets in his car to go see what’s up.

I saw my first Broadway show when I was 18 years old. A friend of mine bought me tickets to see LES MISERABLES as a High School graduation present. Since then, I have probably been to about twenty other shows (LES MISERABLES is still my favorite...I have seen it at least five times). Unfortunately, since our kids were born, my wife and I don't get to go as much as we would like. Getting to New York is a bit of a hassle, and the tickets are expensive. Not to mention adding on the cost of eating dinner in New York. A night at a Broadway show will typically end up costing us over $500 bucks.

From the first time I heard George Takei speaking about ALLEGIANCE about two or three years, we have been excited to see it. In fact, we have had our tickets pre-ordered since February. After a long hard road to get to Broadway, ALLEGIANCE finally opened in previews on October 6, and we were there!

Time for my first haunted house movie of the season (because fuck The 13th Unit), and I can’t say I know much about this one, but hey, that’s half the fun of this. This one’s called We Are Still Here, and I’m hoping for something with legitimate horror.

Winter. That’s my takeaway from this opening scene, that it’s winter. Snow everywhere, and one car, so it’s winter in a really quiet area. Older couple, the woman looks like she’s been crying, and they’re moving. He looks like a high school science teacher. The house is old, middle of nowhere, and the wife finds a picture to hold on to tightly. She winds up putting it on a table in the hall, and it’s a younger guy that I’ll assume is their son.

What I really can’t tell is whether or not is how new this house is, since either that picture was there when they got there, she just used the frame, or I’m totally missing something.

As GOOSEBUMPS prepares to roll out into theaters, today, October 8, is the birthday of the legendary author behind the series that's been chilling children for years, R.L. Stine.

So please join with us -- and Jack Black and Slappy -- in wishing Stine a happy (and someone creepy) birthday!

goosebumps-swat-Happy Birthday RL Stine JB Slappy 720_scc_h264 from Critical Blast on Vimeo.

Photo: (L-R) R.L. Stine, Jonathan Munro, and Critical Blast's own roving reporter, Tavis Munro.

So last night was the hotly anticipated return of CW's hit series, THE FLASH, now entering its second season. When we open, we are well past the cliffhanger ending of season one, which saw Central City, the Earth, and everything else about to be sucked into a singularity caused by the wormhole opened by the Reverse-Flash. In fact, Central City is preparing a "Flash Day" to present their hero the key to the city for having saved them.

So why doesn't Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) want to attend, and why is he moping around, pushing away all his friends and rebuilding Central City building-by-building every night?

Well, it turns out Barry doesn't think he saved Central City -- that it was accomplished by someone else, at a great sacrifice. And when we flash back to the events to see them play out, he's partly right. He did get help, and that help came with (apparently) tragic losses.

Following up on the 2014 hit movie MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN, Netflix has announced an all-new original series titled: THE MR PEABODY & SHERMAN SHOW. Adding to their growing list of original content, the show will debut on Friday, October 9th. This will be Dreamworks Animation Television's seventh show, quickly making them a leader in producing high-quality television series.

Netflix continues to provide content that sets them apart from cable providers and other digital subscription services. Adding to a growing list of kid-friendly shows such as SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED and DINOTRUX, Netflix has solidified itself as the leader in original digital content. Chris Parnell will lend his voice to Mr. Sherman, while Max Charles reprises his role from the movie as Sherman.