Tue
10
Feb

To Kink or Not to Kink

Kink Documentary Bondage BDSM

When I got the movie, my first thought was, “Well, I'm definitely not watching this in front of my parents!” Just look at the box adorned with a cat-o'tails and fuzzy handcuffs! I'm sure the average viewer runs screaming and innocent women swoon. Or do they? With the recent popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey and normalization of alternative sex ideas, it seems like kink interests are on the rise. The average housewife now knows all about the other uses of a necktie. With all that in mind and ensuring the youth of the household was safely tucked away in bed, I popped in the documentary, Kink, and buckled myself in.

Mon
09
Feb

The Longbox Short-List - Week of February 11, 2015

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

Amazing Spider-Man #14 - The end of Spiderverse!  I've really enjoyed this crossover, and I can't wait to see how this changes the status quo for the Spider-Man titles.  I especially wonder what's going to happen to Spider-Ock, since he seems to have a sense that he is working on borrowed time.

Sun
08
Feb

Talented Trio Clockwork Crafts A Flawless Sophomore CD

Not Meant For The Dark, by Clockwork. Art/Layout by Kate Davies/Padgraphics.

I don’t find a whole lot of modern music to be my cup of tea. It seems so often overproduced, Auto-Tuned, and predictable. When I discover an act that feels a little different from the rest, an act that features honest vocals, strong musicianship and more mature songwriting than a bunch of “Yeah, yeah, baby, baby, blah blah blahs,” that’s when I get excited.

Sun
08
Feb

Early Look at Valiant's Divine New Series

Divinity is the first new Valiant series in a while that doesn't seem to have any direct connection to the rest of the "Valiant-verse." I think that is a huge strength for this book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Valiant universe, but this book felt very unique and distinctive, standing out even among the rest of the terrific comics that Valiant puts out every month.


Divinity #1

Written by: Matt Kindt

Pencilled by: Trevor Hairsine

Inked by: Ryan Winn

Colored by: David Baron

Lettered by: Dave Lanphear

Published by: Valiant

Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Sat
07
Feb

Spawn Celebrates Huge Milestone - 250 issues!

This might sound strange, but I only recently became a Spawn fan. I couldn't even tell you what made me decide to check out Spawn, but after doing some marathon reading over the last several months, #246 was the first issue I bought new. Which was a real hassle, because Spawn is one of the few mainstream comics that was not available digitally. I've mentioned in the past, I really don't have a regular comic shop, and it seemed like most stores don't order much Spawn at this point. I also don't have a lot of room to store comics right now, but I was really invested in Spawn, so I would make the effort to get these issues. 

Fri
06
Feb

Superman: Earth One Focused on Action and Interaction

Superman Earth One Volume 3 Critical Blast

The third volume in the worlds most expensive series with the greatest publishing interval is finally here -- and it's worth it on both counts.

SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE's third volume picks up right where the second volume left off -- with the world leaders aghast at this new Superman's brashness at deposing a despotic leader, and the United States military complex hiring the two most brilliant minds on Earth to devise a way to stop him: Lex and Alexandra Luthor.

Oh, and it introduces us to: The Superman Signal! But more about that later.

Fri
06
Feb

DC's Announces New New 52 (well, 49 this time)

From DC:

This summer, DC Entertainment launches a bold new direction for the DC Universe (DCU) that is even more inclusive and accessible to a wider group of readers as the publisher continues to evolve comic storytelling for its next generation of fans.  Award-winning, critically acclaimed writers are headlining the June 2015 slate of DC Comics’ new periodicals and graphic novels, including Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Hitch, Garth Ennis and Ming Doyle. 

Beginning June 3rd, the DC Comics line of comic books will consist of 24 brand-new series that will begin at issue number one, as well as 25 on-going, bestselling fan favorite series that will continue without a break in the issue numbering.  The total number of periodicals in the DCU will be 49, with additional new titles debuting throughout the year.

Fri
06
Feb

Open Mike Night: It's a Hank Pym World, And We're All Living in It...

Maillaro: Hank Pym is Weaver’s favorite character, and with the movie coming up (plus two Ant-Man comics came out this week), we decided to throw a spotlight on him.


Marvel’s Ant-Man Prelude

Written by: Will Corona Pilgrim

Pencilled by:  Miguel Sepulveda

Inked by: BIT

Fri
06
Feb

Mom's Big Catch, Sadie's Big Steal a Winning Double-Play

Mom's Big Catch and Sadie's Big Steal

Whenever I'm offered an opportunity to review children's material, I jump. To be honest, I'm basically a little kid at heart, but that's not the real reason. My 22-month old son, Nate, is the driving force behind reviews like this. I'm so excited to share with him all the things I grew up loving.

Baseball has been one of those passions my entire life, so I'm thrilled to review Marla McKenna's nifty double play of titles. Let me start with Mom's Big Catch from Tate Publishing. It's obvious McKenna understands the game of baseball and the passion we fans feel for our team. Even more, she has chosen to enter the story on an ambition of many denizens of the ballpark--catching a ball!

Thu
05
Feb

"Jupiter Ascending" Fails To Achieve Escape Velocity

Jupiter Ascending

I recently reviewed Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and enjoyed it immensely. I then watched the Wachowski siblings' "Jupiter Ascending" and found that Cinderella in outer space without catchy songs, strong dialogue, an interesting antagonist or a heroic hero figure is nowhere near as enjoyable.

Thu
05
Feb

Spider-Man 2099 Gets a Secret Wars Makeover

From Newsarama:

 The Avengers may be ending in April, but Marvel's already got a new group on deck to stand in -- and they're from the future.

Marvel has announced a new Secret Wars 2099 series with the never-seen Avengers of the year 2099 stepping forward into what's left of their universe, according to IGN. The book is by the Spider-Man 2099 creative team of Peter David and Will Sliney, and that series will end in April with their storylines carried on in Secret Wars 2099.

David says the Avengers of Secret Wars 2099 will be a corporate-sponsored team under the watch of Alchemax, with the writer noting that it's similiar to his recent All-New X-Factor run but that Alchemax is "more or less running the United States in 2099."

One thing this won't tie into David says is Secret Wars, interestingly enough.

Thu
05
Feb

Lego is about to get a bit more "Timey Wimey"

This has been teased for a while, but BBC finally made it official: LEGO DOCTOR WHO!

Doctor Who Lego is about to become a reality - and production is starting later this year.

The successful pitch, which was sent to Lego's Ideas website, included plans for a Tardis and figures including Peter Capaldi and David Tennant.

Lego have yet to reveal exactly what will feature within the set.

The initial concept, created by Doctor Who fan Andrew Clark, included monsters and villains like the Angel and a Dalek.

The images he has shared are of models he has made, rather than pictures of what the final product will look like.

"Both Doctor Who and Lego enjoy a particularly close relationship with their fans and I can't wait to see what Lego produce," said Marcus Arthur, managing director at BBC Worldwide UK.

Along with the Doctor Who set, Lego also announced plans for a new design based on Wall-E.

Wed
04
Feb

Check out the trailer for Netflix's Daredevil series

They still haven't shown us Daredevil in costume, but this show really seems to have the tone and feel of the character and Hell's Kitchen perfectly. The more I see of the Marvel shows that will be airing on Netflix, the more impressed I am. They seem to be well cast and put together. At this point, you really come to expect nothing less from Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

All the episodes for Daredevil will be posted up on April 10, 2015, and I am definitely planning to marathon watch them.   

Wed
04
Feb

Cheap Pops - Wrestling News & Views - February 4, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono and Mike Maillaro

This week!

  • Raw Gets Snowed out

  • NJPW

  • Pro Wrestling Syndicate: Frozen Fallout

  • NXT Update

Tue
03
Feb

WB releases a "small" hint of things to come in Arrow Season 3

DC posted up a first look at Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer in the Atom (technically A.T.O.M. in the show) costume from upcoming episodes of Arrow.  Honestly, I wasn't sure how this would look on the screen, but they really have made it work!  I really like how all the characters have looked in the Arrow/Flash universe so far, but this might be the best one yet.

I wasn't a huge fan of Brandon Routh in Superman Returns,but so far he's been great as Ray Palmer in Arrow.   He has a little more personality than he ever did in the comics.  It seems like whenever DC wanted to give personality to Ray Palmer, they made him crazy.  But this version is much more nuanced, and he's been a great addition to the Arrow cast this year.   

Tue
03
Feb

By Request: Heroes Reborn Trailer from Super Bowl

After I posted up all the movie trailers from the Superbowl, I got a request from one of our readers to post up the Heroes Reborn teaser too.  This is the version off NBC's website, which features a quick thing on The Blacklist before the teaser:

Tue
03
Feb

First look at Disney's "Frozen Fever"

Disney sent us over some promotional material for the upcoming Frozen short "Frozen Fever" which will be screening in theaters before the live-action Cinderella, starting in March 13, 2015.

In “Frozen Fever,” it's Anna's birthday and Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but when Elsa catches a cold, her powers may put more than just the party at risk.

Starring:Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad

Directors:    Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Here is a First Look video:

Tue
03
Feb

Best Trailers from Super Bowl XLIX

Because we love you, the faithful Critical Blast Reader, we have collected some of the trailers from this year's Super Bowl and posted them below!  

Tue
03
Feb

The Longbox Short-List - Week of February 4, 2015

Will you die for Spawn over this Longbox Shortlist?

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

Spawn #250 – Over the last few months, I’ve become a huge Spawn fan.  I know, I know…REAL LATE TO THE PARTY.  Issue 250 marks some dramatic changes to the series, including the return of Al Simmons (Al Simmons basically killed himself back in issue 185 and the series has been about his replacement).  Issue 250 will also be the first issue of Spawn to be available digitally!  This is a huge relief.  I’ve had to drive all over the place for the last few issues.  Lack of a local comic shop, plus a fairly niche title.  Not a good combination.

Mon
02
Feb

Valiant Announces Dead-Drop #1 for May

Valiant dropped us a line today to tell us about a pretty awesome upcoming mini-series:

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