The fourth season of THE FLASH has been, to date, one of the most exciting of the series. It's been running like a well-oiled machine.

Last night, a cylinder misfired.

Now, I don't know where it went off the rails. Maybe the writing. Maybe the directing. Maybe there's just too many episodes and not enough story. Either way, things didn't work.

Things begin with Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) trying to run Ralph (HARTLEY SAWYER) through a training scenario. But Ralph's inability to take it seriously grates on Barry, who keeps reminding Ralph that they're doing this to save his life, since he's one of the remaining Bus Metas that The Thinker (played this week by MIRANDA MACDOUGALL, the former Fiddler) is trying to acquire and absorb.

Action Comics #1000 4-page preview of Brian Michael Bendis story, chock full of Jim Lee art! Also: Pre-Order numbers for Action Comics #1000 and DC Nation #0!

Tune in to tonight's episode to hear what I have to say about the newly released 4-page preview and how big the pre-order numbers are for Action Comics #1000. DC Nation #0 has twice as many pre-orders and could be twice as important for the future of DC Comics. Listen in and check out the preview below! Also as an added bonus, the cover of the FREE DC NATION #1 featuring Rogol Zar!

From Ultimate Classic Rock:

They've certainly had their ups and downs, but it looks like Gene Simmons and his former Kiss bandmate Ace Frehley have enjoyed their recent reunions. In fact, Frehley will join Simmons for a series of upcoming tour dates in Australia.

Source: Ultimate Classic Rock

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!

Steve talks (Bizarro) Superman as he goes over the latest issue of Superman by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason.

Some of the topics covered:

• Is Bizzaro truly Superman's opposite? 
• How much effort goes into editing Bizarro language?
• Why is there so much emphasis on characters being attracted to Superman?

Did you read Superman #44? Leave your comments below!

Orson Eerie found a way to live forever -- by embuing his soul into the building and grounds of Eerie Elementary School. Unfortunately, he needs to feed his power by (gulp) eating students! Only the hall monitors have historically stood in his way, and the current batch of hall monitors -- Sam, Lucy and Antonio -- have thus far been able to thwart every evil plan the school has concocted.

Now, with the annual kickball competition on the horizon, Orson Eerie finds a way to eliminate his opposition, by doing little things to teachers when the hall monitors are around to make it look like the hall monitors are misbehaving or acting disrespectful. Events conspire to make them late for class, or doors slam in the faces of teachers. It's enough to get the hall monitors fired!

From Good Housekeeping:

They're back! Actress Candice Bergen, who played the Murphy Brown, shared the first photo from the upcoming reboot of Murphy Brown — and we are getting serious flashbacks.

In the Instagram photo, Candice is joined by the old and new cast members, including Nik Dodani, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto, Grant Shaud, and creator Diane English. And get this: The crew will start filming new episodes this July in New York City!

Marvel Entertainment Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, shared a little fan art on Twitter. But it wasn't exactly what you'd expect. He left out a very important piece of the character as he drew it on official Marvel Comics stock. Was his omission by design?

In today's episode, I discuss the image and what may have been going through Joe Marvel's mind when he drew it. Give us 5 minutes of your time and let us know what YOU think about Quesada's fan art.

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The hunt continues for the escaped Arkham inmates, including Jervis Tetch (BENEDICT SAMUEL), Jonathan Crane (DAVID W. THOMPSON), and their ringleader, Jerome Valeska (CAMERON MONAGHAN). And Jerome's own hunt also continues, as he seeks out a reclusive building engineer named Xander Wilde for reasons unknown.

Until now.

Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, Jerome finds the proxy used by Xander to communicate to his clients. But she turns out to be too much for him to handle, and he finds himself knocked out and transported to Wilde's underground home where he's locked away in a concrete prison.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Bombshell of the Month: RavenGlitch

The Masked Ace has returned, and I have your Wrestlemania predictions here!

André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the André the Giant Memorial Trophy

The Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis is host to the national tour of Hamilton, April 3 – 22, 2018. It’s easily the most anticipated show to hit our town’s venerated stage since perhaps the first tour of The Lion King. Over the last few weeks, theatre-minded friends have been talking about the show nonstop. Some have seen it on Broadway. Others have made road trips to catch the tour at stops prior to St. Louis. Many have memorized the cast recording and added hundreds of hits to various YouTube clips. It wasn’t until the night before the performance I was slated to see that I started to get a little apprehensive. The hype for Hamilton has been ridiculously high. How could it possibly live up to the hype?

Hey DJ, gimme a beat…

Hamilton was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was inspired by Ron Chernow’s book about one of the founders of America.

As the Sagittari crack down on Seg's home district, Seg and Adam race against time to locate the probe that Brainiac sent to Krypton; it may already be too late.

Seg brings the probe that Adam and Kem found in the outlands to have Val-El run analysis on it. Adam meets Val's hologram for the first time and is rather impressed by it. They learn that the probe is just a shell that contains a parasitic sentry that will seek out a host. This host will be used to transmit all available data about the planet back to Brainiac.

When they open the probe to extract the sentry, they discover that it has already been released.

The first thing to know when picking up JETSONS #6 is this: George Jetson is dead, having sacrificed his life doing a Bruce Willis in ARMAGEDDON to destroy a meteor on a collision course with Earth.

The other thing you need to know: It's not a meteor, and George Jetson is not dead.

As Jane, Elroy, and Judy gather for the last three minutes of Earth, they are shocked when the hurtling meteor comes to a dead stop outside the atmosphere. Inside, George is just as shocked to be floating in an empty space with his mother -- who is no longer Rosie the Robot but in her human body and about in her mid-thirties.

I could build this up, but why don't we just forego with the niceties and small talk and delve right in.

I think it's safe to say if we had to guess at the sexuality of any of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters (yes, we're actually having this discussion), probably nobody would bat an eye at the suggestion that, at the very least, Snagglepuss would be gay. The stereotypes were all there. So that fact that he's a gay character in DC Comics EXIT STAGE LEFT: THE SNAGGLEPUSS CHRONICLES is anything but a surprise, and a perfectly acceptable notion for the character.

It's the rest of the world that, quite properly, falls under the category of WTAF.

Snagglepuss is gay.

Huckleberry Hound is gay.

Quickdraw McGraw is gay.

I've got Kurt Cobain singing "All Apologies" in the back of my head now.

Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) lead the cast of Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, a supernatural thriller from Blumhouse Productions (Happy Death Day, Get Out, Split). A harmless game of “Truth or Dare” among friends turns deadly when someone—or something—begins to punish those who tell a lie—or refuse the dare.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2), the thriller co-stars Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, Landon Liboiron, Sophia Taylor Ali and Nolan Gerard Funk. The film was produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and executive produced by Wadlow, Chris Roach, Jeanette Volturno and Couper Samuelson.

The countdown continues to the wedding of the century between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. With BATMAN 44, "Bride or Burglar," things slow down just a bit in order for Selina to do some woolgathering while trying on dresses.

But it can't be as simple as that.

The Berlin Wall is built overnight splitting Berlin in half.  Gerta remains in communist East Berlin with her mother and older brother, Fritz, where the government and rules are very strict.  Gerta’s father and her other brother, Dominic, are caught on the democratic western side while visiting.  To Gerta, the western side of Berlin represents freedom and independent thinking.

Will Gerta’s family ever be reunited?

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!