Carol Burnett is a national treasure. Her groundbreaking television variety show "Carol Burnett and Friends" propelled her to super-stardom. Now 84, the legendary performer returned to St. Louis, Mo, where she once graced the stage of The Muny opposite Rock Hudson in "I Do! I Do!" This time she had the Stiefel Theatre stage all to herself for "Carol Burnett, an Evening of Laughter and Reflection."

Following up on his chronicling of the Justice League's 100 Greatest Moments, comics historian and science fiction veteran Robert Greenberger manages to top himself with DC Comics Super Heroines: 100 Greatest Moments. And while I wasn't particularly fond of the artwork selected for the packaging, finding it not particularly attractive, there's an adage about "books and covers" that comes into play.

This beautiful hardcover book isn't one that you rush through. You linger over each page and, if you're like me, you find yourself in one of two places: you're either recalling happily the first time you saw this event happen, perhaps when it was new to everyone, or you find yourself discovering something you've never known happened and now have something to seek out and add to your collection.

As dark as RIVERDALE has gotten -- and remains even in this episode -- this was a fun chapter in that we get to go back to the late 80s / early 90s and see all the Riverdale parents when they were high school students -- played by the actors who portray their children in the current-time setting of the series.

When Alice Cooper (MADCHEN AMICK) realizes Betty (LILI REINHART) isn't going to drop her investigation into the deadly game Griffins & Gargoyles, she sits her down and reveals to her a dark chapter from her past, back when she was Alice Smith, a southside teen who had just discovered she was pregnant. When she get into a catfight with uptight Penelope Blossom (MADELAINE PETSCH), involving Sierra Samuels (ASHLEIGH MURRAY) and Hermione Gomez (CAMILA MENDES), the four girls find themselves in Saturday detention, joined by Fred Andrews (KJ APA) and FP Jones Jr (COLE SPROUSE).

So here's what we know going into JAMES BOND 007 #1 from Dynamite Comics. There's a Russian guy who has a thing, and he's talking to some Asian guys about the thing. We don't know what the thing is, and unless you go into Google Translate, you have no idea what they're talking about. (Note to comics writers: We don't mind the translation text boxes. Honest.) Fortunately, they all quickly transition to English, just in time for whatever deal they're working to get busted up by a an Asian martial artist with a familiar looking chapeau.

Yes, whatever the Russian is selling, the fan-favorite Bond franchise henchman, Oddjob, wants it. But Oddjob is no longer a strong, silent type, nor is he a mere henchman in this Greg Pak / Marc Laming vision of Ian Fleming's classic characters. He's roguish, charming, outgoing -- in many ways, he's the Korean foil to Bond in many ways and traits.

The year 1992 marked a turning point for animated superhero adventure. After years of shows like SUPER FRIENDS and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN, the time was ripe for the Dark Knight to return to the screen, especially after the second coming of Batmania that followed the Tim Burton film starring Michael Keaton. Rumors began swirling on the prenatal Internet (BBSs in those days) of an animated Batman in the works, and there was even leaked a writers bible for the series written by J.M. Straczynski.  

The latest twist in the case of MEYER VS. WAID, which alleges comics writer Mark Waid engaged in tortious interference (more about that here), has been filed by his attorney, Mark S. Zaid. Zaid has filed a motion for dismissal, based on the claims that the suit is filed in the wrong jurisdiction, citing that Waid is a citizen of Calfornia, and has no business contacts in Texas. Specifically, in places, the motion states:

"Plaintiff brought this suit against Mr. Waid, a California citizen with no contacts with Texas..."

"Plaintiff's Complaint fails to identify any allegegations or facts establishing any connection between Mr. Waid and Texas."

The popularity of anime cannot and should not be underestimated. Over the years it has become hugely popular and inclusive in the sense that there’s anime that will suit everyone’s taste. The genre has provided the inspiration for a number of gaming developers, including leading casino and bingo brand mFortune, who actually create their very own games. There are many anime-based games on the market, which have been a hit with players, but what about anime games which have gone on to be successful movies too? Well, we’ve devised a list of some of the best below.

Pokemon

No matter how fastidious you are in maintaining your comic shop pull list in your never-ending battle to make sure you don't miss anything good (or accidentally waste your money on something not so much), it never hurts to do a last minute check on what's coming out this week so you can make those fine-tuned adjustments.

Here are our looks at this week's upcoming comics, and our hot takes on whether they're a pick or a pan. Your mileage may vary.

For the past three issues of this miniseries, the villains of Gotham have been putting into place their scheme to take over the adults of Riverdale, a town without a caped crusader to stand in their way. While Batman tracked down the 'electronic book' stolen by Bookworm, Robin and Batgirl responded to the call for help, and are only now seeing the depth of the villain infestation in Riverdale.

As Catwoman infiltrates Riverdale High to ply her feminine wiles on high school boys (not creepy at all), Robin and Batgirl get captured, and are placed in the same mind-melting trap where the Clown Prince of Crime has been holding Jughead prisoner.

Mid 1970s music critics ridiculed Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” when it was released as the first single from their A Night at the Opera album in 1975. Fans, on the other hand, pushed the song to number one in the United Kingdom. Bryan Singer’s latest film, also entitled “Bohemian Rhapsody,” likewise received less-than-stellar praise by current movie critics, so if history repeats itself Queen fans will likely push the film to number one when it opens November 2, 2018.

For the most part, Tom King does a fantastic job delving deeper into the mystery of HEROES IN CRISIS, leaving us with more clues but coming no closer to the truth of who massacred all the heroes (and villains) who were being treated at Sanctuary, the pscyho-therapy institute created by Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for super-people to come to deal with their post-traumatic stress.

A crucial clue to the mystery is discovered during an autopsy conducted on Commander Steel by the Trinity. Batman extracts an object (that apparently Superman couldn't detect with his x-ray vision) that would almost clearly indicate Harley Quinn commited the crime. But when they close in on her, she maintains her claim that it was actually fellow patient Booster Gold who did the deed -- and she gets away after casting serious suspicion on Batman that the other two cannot ignore.

MIDNIGHT MYSTERY combines elements of some of the more understatedly cool detective and supernatural series that have come over the years. The tone is very Raymond Chandler, the art is reminescent of early Darwyn Cooke, and the story is evocative of the best of KOLCHAK, THE NIGHT STALKER and THE X FILES.

Ezekiel "Zeke" King is a private detective of the hard-boiled, no-nonsense variety. He records his cases and thoughts on old-fashioned reel-to-reel tapes, leaving an archive of musings of the greater questions of the universe. As this premiere issue opens, Zeke has been hired by the estate of a former horror movie host to find his long-lost heir. The bulk of the issue is then devoted to who Roland Blackwood -- the actor behind the creepy Count Karloff persona -- truly is and how his life came to be what it was. After that, Zeke does the legwork to find the young man who is Blackwood's illegitimate son, bringing him to the estate to claim that which is now lawfully his.

Like many comics fans, I've got more than my share of superhero emblem t-shirts. And, like many convention-goers, I've dabbled with full-on cosplay.

Over the year of living the dad-life, the writer-life, the IT-life, and the married-to-a-great-cook-life, I've developed a personal philosophy about such things. To whit: There's nothing like putting on the garb of a super hero to remind yourself that I look nothing like one.

And then there are people like our November Bombshell. If my building's on fire, if there's a hostage situation at our offices, if there's a kitten stuck in a tree, our November Bombshell could show up in any of his outfits and I'd readily believe he was there to save the day.

But feel free to judge for yourselves, gentle readers, as Critical Blast most humbly presents our...

Sometimes I watch an episode of THE FLASH and I'm all excited about the cool things that happened in the story. And then I catalog them in preparation for reviewing, and I thing, "Yeah, it was great except for this... and this... and this..." Eventually, I've picked it apart enough to realize that maybe I didn't like the episode as much as I initially thought I did.

Which is why "News Flash," in retrospect, is such a stinkeroo.

Here's what you need to know: When Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) and X/S (JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY) punched The Thinker's satellite into smithereens, those smithereens -- all infused with the same dark matter that once bathed the city at the beginning of the series -- fell where they had consequences. One of them created Cicada and his lightning-bolt dagger-of-power-dampening.

No matter how fastidious you are in maintaining your comic shop pull list in your never-ending battle to make sure you don't miss anything good (or accidentally waste your money on something not so much), it never hurts to do a last minute check on what's coming out this week so you can make those fine-tuned adjustments.

Here are our looks at this week's upcoming comics, and our hot takes on whether they're a pick or a pan. Your mileage may vary.

I'm late to the party with the VAMPIRONICA series -- another reimagining of the Archie universe with a horror filter. I'm late on purpose, because I'm still nursing the wounds of having become addicted to AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE and CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, only to have both of those rugs yanked out from under me, with no hope in hell of ever seeing either of those stories reach anything resembling a satisfying conclusion. I didn't want it to happen again, so I've not invested myself in any more Archie horror titles -- which, yes, means I have not read any of THE HUNGER, either.

But, it was a Halloween event at my local comics store, and I wasn't taken this week with any of the usual superhero fare, which has been becoming less and less appealing over the last few years. So, feeling generous and in the holiday spirit, I gave the latest VAMPIRONICA a shot.

We've reported in the past on the civil war brewing in the comics community, with the lines being drawn between what is termed "Comicsgate" and "everyone else."

One of the biggest touchstones of the ongoing friction, and one that has all eyes in the comics community watching, is the lawsuit filed by Richard C. Meyer against Mark Waid for tortious interference in regards to Meyer's contract with Antarctic Press to publish his independent graphic novel, JAWBREAKERS: LOST SOULS. The allegation is that, after Waid publicly admitted to reaching out to the publisher, AP summarily reversed their decision to publish the book, prompting Meyer to sue for damages.

This new release from Eagle Rock Entertainment captures a 50^th Anniversary concert of the classic Prog-Rock band YES, held in Manchester, England’s famed Apollo Theater.

As you can imagine, over a 50 year spread there have been several personnel changes to the band’s line-up. This current one is billed as “YES Featuring Jon Anderson-Trevor Rabin-Rick Wakeman." Jon, one of the originals, formed the band in 1968. Rick Wakeman first joined in 1971, and Trevor Rabin back in 1983. Performing with them for this concert is Lee Pomeroy on bass and Lou Molino III on drums.

I'm going on the record right now declaring that this episodes title is (a) a lie or (b) better be a lie.

This season's big bad, Cicada, wants to finish what he started with Vibe: killing him. Why he picked Vibe over Flash, or even Elongated Man, we can't say. Guess a man's got to have his priorities. Meanwhile, Team Flash is on the hunt for Cicada, who we learn from XS is a sort of metahuman serial killer -- who was never captured; not by Team Flash, the Legends, even the League (yes, that's a reference to a future Justice League).

XS's plan to find Cicada involves bringing in a detective. And it's not Ralph, which has to sting. No, it's time to approach... the Council of Wells. Yes, the WORST idea ever to inhabit the Flash Writers' Room is back -- or at least one of them is back. And he refers them to yet another Wells we've not yet met: Sherloque Wells, consulting detective with a string of ex-wives to whom he owes alimony.