This contest has ended. The two randomly selected winners are:

AL J. of CHICAGO, IL  and JENNIFER M. of CHICAGO, IL.

So you didn't make it to Lollapalooza this year in Chicago? Well, you may have missed out on all those great bands, like SCHOOL OF ROCK ALL STARS, B0RNS, PHILIP SELWAY -- and, of course, PAUL MCCARTNEY, but you can at least look like you were there.

Up for grabs this week, we have TWO of the Limited Edition Lollapalooza Skyline logo caps by New Era. We are going to randomly select two winners from everyone who fills out the form below, and each of those winners will receive one of these caps. What you say to your friends while wearing the cap is none of our business.

Reviews by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #2 by Marguerite Bennett, Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Irene Koh  

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

Yeah, that is about as Deadpool as you can get.   Today, Fox posted a teaser up for the Deadpool trailer coming tomorrow.   Not work safe (some foul language), but really funny! Definitely very encouraging that Fox is going to have the exact right tone for this movie:

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

By Gina Maillaro and Mike Maillaro

Weaver is running LARP’s at GenCon, so my lovely wife has decided to step in for him.

DC Bombshells #1

Written by: Marguerite Bennett
Art and Colored by:  Marguerite Sauvage
Cover by: Ant Lucia
Lettered by: Wes Abbott

When I saw what 13 HOURS was going to be about, I actually expected Oliver Stone to be the director. However, when your story calls for massive explosions, there's really only one go-to guy: Michael Bay (TRANSFORMERS).

So what's the controversy here? Military films based on recent history are nothing new. Perhaps it's the textual disclaimer that comes near the end of the trailer: "This is a true story." Not "based on," but "is." And depending on what the definition of "is" is, you can upset all the right people.

Bay's approach takes the viewer into Libya with a team of elite ex-military operatives who receive the call, "We need immediate assistance." When the team tries to respond, they are told "You are not the first responders. You are the last resort." In apparent defiance of these orders, the team proceeds anyway. I don't want to spoil the ending, but they don't make it in time to save the U.S. Ambassador.

In a move that is one part opportunistic, one part marketing genius and two parts trolling a fan-base, SC Films International announces plans to launch an animated feature and tv series titled:

TROLL: "THE RISE OF HARRY POTTER, JR"

Based upon the 1986 cult film, TROLL, the new animated feature will revisit the world of wizardry in which a wicked, magical troll wizard seeks to take over the world. With the help of a witch, Harry Potter, Jr can save the planet.

Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette, has been signed for the witch and child actor Baxter Bartlett will lend his voice to the young Harry Potter Jr.

Provided he isn't enchanted with a 'Babbling Curse', by a ravenous fanbase who will no doubt be angered when they discover this isn't all about 'you know who'.

There's a magic in the comic strip format that allows serious subjects to be broached with gentle humor and delivered in manageable bites. Tom Batiuk has tapped into this magic, both in his long running series, FUNKY WINKERBEAN, and with this collection of CRANKSHAFT strips entitled ROSES IN DECEMBER: A STORY OF LOVE AND ALZHEIMER'S.

Superman villains appear to be taking out their frustrations on his younger cousin.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Browning, who appeared in seven episodes of SONS OF ANARCHY, will arrive in the third episode of SUPERGIRL on CBS. He will portray Ben Krull, a deadly Superman villain who wears a nuclear powered armored suit. According to the report, using the villainous name, Reactron, he'll be seeking to kill Supergirl in order to exact revenge on the Man of Steel.

Prepare for this to be a running theme.

DreamWorks Animation is preparing to release the second season TURBO FAST, an animated series featuring the title character from their animated film, TURBO, and his crew of racing snail buddies.

TURBO FAST is a collection of shorts, averaging around ten minutes each without commercials, putting the FAST crew into all kinds of unique situations. The animation, however, is not the same caliber as seen in the film. Unlike the tack taken by Disney*Pixar's CARS TOONS, where there was an effort to conform to the CGI to some extent, TURBO FAST shorts follow the more traditional 2D animation format, in a style akin to SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS.

Over the next two weeks, Lucha Underground is doing their big “season finale” event called Ultima Lucha.  It starts this week and will finish off on August 5th with a big two-hour blow out.

I do want to comment on how impressed I’ve been with the build-up for this show.  Lucha Underground basically put together a coherent season-long story line.  Many of these matches have been building for a long time.  I did think it was a little odd that the Black Lotus storyline seems to have vanished, but I suspect that might have been because Chavo Guerrero’s injury.  Hopefully if they have a season 2, we will finally get to meet Matanza. 

WHO IS STAN LEE?

Written by Geoff Edgers
Illustrated by John Hinderliter
Published by: Grosset & Dunlap (2014)
Cover price: $4.99

Front Lines by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

E IS FOR EXTINCTION #2 by Chris Burhnam, Dennis Culver, and Ramon Villalobos

Summary:  Cyclops, Emma, and Wolverine had tricked the U-Men to free Xorn.  The old X-Men end up blowing up the U-Men as they leave.

Meanwhile, Beast realizes that the Hank McCoy who showed up at the end of issue one is a human with no X-Gene.

Thic contest has ended. The randomly selected winner is LL L. of Lexington, KY.

Cyberspace. The latest frontier. These are the contests of the website, CriticalBlast.com. Its continuing mission: To explore all forms of entertainment. To seek out new readers and new fan material. To boldly go where no website has gone before. Let those who worship boredom's might, beware our power...

Wait a minute. We're mixing mantras. Oh, but there's a good reason, good reader! Because IDW and DC Comics have reached across the galactic barrier separating their universes to bring us STAR TREK / GREEN LANTERN: THE SPECTRUM WAR, a union of two of fandom's favorite spacefaring adventurers.

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

The fifth comic release week of any month is usually a pretty light week for me, and this month is no exception.

Bomb shelters, doomsday preparedness, and those on the apocalypse watch have a part in our society today just like they did at least as far back as the Cold War. The struggle to survive is deeply ingrained in the human psyche but some people clearly will go to drastic means to survive an Earth-changing conflagration. I can see the sentiment, more so now that I have a family, yet building an underground bunker has never been high on my things-to-do list. Perhaps it's because, no matter how close to the edge society rides, I'm more of a "half full" kind of guy, that believes the world won't drop over the precipice.

Blizz Richards, the Yeti, is back for another adventure with his fellow cryptid friends. This time, it's to answer a lonely call for help from Vanessa -- Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

So Blizz, Gunthar the goblin, and Alexander the Elf head east to Scotland to see what can be done -- because when a cryptid becomes unhappy, there's an increased likelihood of being seen. Fortunately, Alexander knows exactly where to find more monsters like Vanessa. Unfortunately, they're all 65 million years in the past.

When 6 minutes of 'first look' footage was released, to get fans excited about the upcoming SUPERGIRL series on CBS, people wondered if they had watched the entire pilot. While a lot is still to be revealed by watching the pilot, it felt like I had seen it all before.

The pilot moves fast.

VERY fast.

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week we sound off on Hulk Hogan and Sunny talking out of orifices other than their mouths, WWE Battlegrounds, NXT and Lucha Underground! Let’s get right to it!

Hulk Hogan No Longer Exists!