Today I find myself tasked with trying to relate to you, dear reader, the plot and feelings involved in ALEX GARLAND's cinematic soporific, ANNIHILATION.

Slowly paced, quietly executed, chronologically splintered, ANNIHILATION addresses the self-destructive tendencies in people and magnifies that to an unexplainable alien event. I began to identify with the premise, as I started to wish I were dead myself as we plodded through quicksand toward the finish line, much like Lena (NATALIE PORTMAN) toward that iconic lighthouse where it all begins and ends.

Forget Marvel's CIVIL WAR. The real comics civil war is happening in real life. But instead of costumed heroes, the combatants are creators and publishers of those heroes.

A few weeks back, I wrote about the Indiegogo success of the graphic novel JAWBREAKERS: LOST SOULS, and how it had crowdfunded over $200 thousand, but was encountering pushback from retailers who had opted not to carry the title before it was even solicited in Diamond. To be clear, this is the version of the title that was to be published by Antarctic Press, not the version that would go to the Indiegogo contributors -- who have now pushed their pledges to the point that it's now flirting with the $330 thousand mark.

Ten years after the events of the first film, the Kaiju return in Pacific Rim Uprising with a new deadly threat that reignites the conflict between these otherworldly monsters of mass destruction and Jaegers, the human-piloted super-machines that were built to vanquish them.

Superman where are you now?

If you didn't watch the mind-bending, heart pounding, season finale of KRYPTON last evening, you may want to close out and come back after you have. There are spoilers abound as KRYPTON continues to make their own rules in a way that not only honors the Superman mythos, but enhances it as well.

***SPOILER WARNING***

Before Mystery, Inc, there was Ridgely High -- where two students, Daphne Blake (SARAH JEFFERY, WAYWARD PINES) and Velma Dinkley (SARAH GILMAN, LAST MAN STANDING), first meet in real life after having been online BFFs.

Daphne has just transferred to Ridgely, a high-tech school that would make a Jetson's jaw drop. She's led a charmed life where everything has always worked out and good things come easily to her. She also believes in ghosts and aliens. But there's a secret behind Daphne's good luck that gets stripped away, leaving her to her own devices for the first time in her life.

The hottest show on SyFy right now is KRYPTON and with the season finale upon us, news has come out about its future.

Announced yesterday, the show has been picked up for a second season. KRYPTON, starring Cameron Cuffe, Shaun Sipos, Wallis Day, Georgina Campbell, and Ann Ogbomo has taken Superman's homeworld by storm. Shaking up the mythos in ways that no one could have imagined, viewers have been treated to stunning set pieces and impressive special effects.

When ballerina Dominika Egorova (JENNIFER LAWRENCE) is injured during a sabotaged dance recital, her financial status is thrown into jeopardy. Needing the money to continue caring for her ailing mother, she allows her uncle, Vanya Egorov (MATTHIAS SCHOENAERTS) to recruit her into Russian intelligence. As an attendee ast the so-called "Sparrow School" -- something Dominika later refers to, not wrongly, as "whore school" -- she learns to read people, determine what they want, and use her body to accomplish her goals.

THE FLASH Season 4 started off strong, then hit more than one obstacle along the way.

Fortunately for the fans, the season ended just as strong as it began, as Team Flash gets help from The Thinker's estranged wife, Marlize (KIM ENGELBRECHT). Utlizing the pregnancy-induced telepathic powers of Cecile Horton (DANIELLE NICOLET), they are able to broadcast The Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) into the mind of The Thinker, Clifford DeVoe (NEIL SANDILANDS). The mission: to find the good that once was in him, bring it to the fore through a mental nexus, and have that good take over, before his satellites completely canvass the globe and bring The Enlightenment -- the erasure of all human intelligence.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running 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!

Sparrow Dalton is a 12-year-old girl living in the small town of Beulah. Her mother has just died, and to make matters more difficult, she never knew who her father was.  Sparrow’s aunt (her mother’s sister) has come to live at Dalton House to take care of Sparrow. Auntie Geraldine is strict, does not like Beulah, and Sparrow thinks she hates her. 

Once again, it is I, The Masked Ace, Critical Blast's resident wrestling expert! 

Last week, it was announced that Universal/NBC had decided to keep Raw on the USA Network, reportedly tripling what they were paying the WWE.  Smackdown would no longer be on USA, and WWE had been shopping it around.  The frontrunners included Fox, Facebook, and Amazon.  

Wild Wild Weasel begins with a young boy and his best friend and pet, Weasel.  Sadly, his parents have rules for his pet because they think Weasel is just a wild animal.

When the boy receives a school assignment to write about something he learned in a book, he decides to read a book that would help him train Weasel to be more obedient.  Unfortunately, he cannot find a book at the library, but he is not discouraged.  He knows Weasel is talented, but he has to find a way to show others.

The boy decides to take Weasel to a pet training class.  Others in the class have pets like lizards, snakes, pigs, and butterflies.  The boy and Weasel do not graduate, even though the boy had high expectations they would be #1 in the class.  But Weasel continued to be wild during the class, and the boy left class very sad.

JASON BATEMAN and RACHEL MCADAMS are a perfect pair in the Warner Brothers adventure-comedy, GAME NIGHT.

Max (Bateman) and Annie (McAdams) met over bar games. Both are sharp-minded, quick-witted, and competitive, and they continue their game night tradition with their friends into their marriage. But lately they've begun to exclude their neighbor, Gary (JESSE PLEMONS), following his divorce, which has left the police officer seeming a bit on the creepy side, so the friends have to do their game nights with less fanfare.

Complicating matters for Max is the arrival of his older, better-looking, and more successful brother, Brooks (KYLE CHANDLER), who opts to host the next game night at a house he's renting while in town. The game is a murder mystery, so when the house gets broken into and Brooks is kidnapped before their very eyes, the players all believe this is the beginning of the game. Except it's very real, and Brooks is in deadly danger.

From Entertainment Weekly:

EW can exclusively reveal that Warner Bros. Animation is bringing back the iconic cat-like aliens for new animated series called ThunderCats Roar, which will debut on Cartoon Network in 2019.

...

​Imagine a sentient, hostile world focused on the destruction of all human life. In Joshua David Bellin's ECOSYSTEM, Mother Earth has rejected her evil human inhabitants, driving them near extinction. Only small pockets of humanity remain, having evolved to combat their inevitable destruction by becoming "in tune" to the language of nature--a language that requires using previously untapped human abilities, a sixth sense requiring extreme mental energy, emotional control, and physical exertion. This "Force of Nature" is the only gift that allows humanity to exist on the planet. These highly gifted individuals serve important roles in the community, taking back from nature what it previously provided, such as food, wood, shelter, and other natural elements used for the benefit of mankind.

Take your goods and your beverage on the go with the multi-functional Bindle Bottle!

This bottle holds a secret -- it has two compartments!

The top holds 24 fl. oz. of  your drink of choice, keeping it cold or hot for hours!

The bottom storage  holds your small items (keys, money, and more)!

This 2-in-1 bottle features:

From DC:

Following the sales and critical success of titles like Batman/Elmer Fudd, more of Warner Bros classic cartoon characters will get the DC Universe treatment this August as DC revealed new quartet of DC/Looney Tunes special one-shot issues, written and drawn by some of the top names in the DC talent family. Each 48-page issue hits comic book retailers on Wednesday, August 29, includes both a main and bonus story featuring the title characters and will sell for $4.99.

This zany title lineup includes:

CATWOMAN/TWEETY AND SYLVESTER SPECIAL #1
Written by GAIL SIMONE, with art by INAKI MIRANDA
Backup story written by SHEA FONTANA, with art by WALTER CARZON
Cover by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO

From Hollywood Reporter:

The CW's annual Arrow-verse crossover is introducing a new DC Comics favorite.

Here's a tip to restaurant owners out there: If someone needs to use your restroom, let them.

A woman visiting a Langley, BC Tim Hortons apparently had Number Two as her priority Number One. So much so that when she was allegedly denied access to the restaurant's facilities, she laid her burdens down (so to speak) right there on the floor, before proceeding to wipe with a handful of napkins.

I've been to Tim Hortons.

Those napkins aren't soft enough for that.

The woman then threw her feces at the store clerk. And up til this point she seemed to be at least clean about it. I mean, c'mon. She used napkins!

Fortunately, the woman was arrested shortly thereafter, because the RCMP always get the guilty potty.

Meanwhile, the clerks remained inside, because they had shit to do. Literally.