Judging a book by its cover, David Jagneaux's THE ULTIMATE ROBLOX BOOK: AN UNOFFICIAL GUIDE is visually appealing. The hard, glossy binding; bold title font, pictures, use of color, compact size, and thickness are all a huge win. You could picture this book sitting on your desk, picking it up, fanning the pages, perusing its large font, clear graphics, screenshots, explanations, bullets, and continuous use of the top seller banner throughout. Stunning to say the least.

The title of the book, at first glance, also grabs your attention. Using a power word like ULTIMATE would seem to indicate all users, at any level, would not only benefit from reading it, but that it would offer immense value. What should an ultimate guide contain? Beginning 101 account creation? How to create games? How to script? Advance power user techniques? Examples? And much more! But does it accomplish its objective, or is it just another gimmick to lure an easily persuaded gift-giver? 

Van Helsing vs Robyn Hood is a 4-part mini-series that has the vampire hunter crossing paths with the "otherworldly fixer-for-hire".

The story starts off with an action sequence as Van Helsing quickly dispatches a few low-level vampires. Business as usual for her, as she almost appears to be enjoying herself. Until one vampire in particular seems to be trying to send her a message:

"Find Von."

He seems to be struggling to fight "the hunger" but fights it long enough to give Liesel (Van Helsing) a clue as to who infected him. After killing him, she notices a crown tatoo on the side of his neck.

The Masked Ace has returned!  January 22 marks the 25th Anniversary of Raw!  To celebrate, the WWE will be doing a huge live Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as well as the Manhattan Center (home to the first ever Raw taping back in 1993).  On Raw and Smackdown, WWE announced a who's who of stars returning for the celebration

In the town of Derry, Maine, children disappear. And nobody cares. Well, except for the kids, of course. And only some of them.

From the looks of things, Derry is a small town. Small enough to get just about everywhere in it via bicycle. Plus, we get to see a map of it later in the film, confirming its size. So one would think that if a couple of kids disappeared there, it would be a thing. But the only ones who pay all that much attention to it are a small band of misfit kids who are on persistent defense against a truly sociopathic bully who doesn't just give them wedgies and take their lunch money, but also carves his initials into them with a knife -- and receives no legal punishment for it.

New SyFy series KRYPTON, premiering this Spring, has been the subject of criticism by fans as the direction of the show has been unclear from its inception.

As we get closer to it's premiere date, and production is nearly completed, Geoff Johns, David Goyer and Cameron Walsh spoke candidly about the show, at the Television Critics Association winter press event. Cameron Cuffe, who plays Seg-El (Superman's grandfather) was also in attendance.

Imagine a world where Superman doesn't exist.

I don't like it either. But when the time traveling Adam Strange visits Krypton to speak with Seg-El, Kal-El's grandfather, it is of dire circumstance. Someone is traveling through time in an attempt to prevent Superman from ever coming about.

Color me curious.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

The “mystery” member of Marvel Entertainment’s upcoming comic book series Exiles has been revealed, and it’s a character never before seen in comic books … kind of.

The fifth member of the group, which is made up of alternate universe takes of familiar Marvel characters, will be a new incarnation of Valkyrie that closely resembles Tessa Thompson’s version of the character from last year’s Thor: Ragnarok.

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!

CW posted a fun little trailer announcing the return of their superhero shows starting next week.  I did think it was odd since LEGENDS OF TOMORROW isn't coming back yet, and they didn't include BLACK LIGHTNING which also debuts this week. I know it is a different canon (for now), but I haven't seen a lot of advertising muscle put behind that show, so it just seems like CW doesn't have a lot of faith in it.  Making it part of the Arrowverse could have been a real good way to give it some legs.

Back when I was just a little boy, I'd get up on a Saturday morning, trudge across the ice sheets to milk the dinosaur for my cereal bowl, and tune into one of the three available television networks to watch cartoons, because this was the only day they would air. Times were hard.

Among those cartoons were SCOOBY-DOO, and once in a blue moon the Mystery, Inc. gang would have someone from the real world show up -- like Batman and Robin. This happened twice, and now as an adult I'm glad to have both of those episodes on DVD.

Now I have them again, because they're the bonus features on this new release, SCOOBY-DOO & BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

VOTE FOR THE BEST OF 2017!!!

From Entertainment Weekly:

Wakko, Yakko, and Dot are coming back to television. On Thursday, Hulu announced they have partnered with Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation to create and premiere a brand-new version of beloved cartoon franchise Animaniacs. New episodes will premiere on Hulu in 2020.

Jon Del Arroz is a serious science fiction author. And by serious, I mean he's taken the time and trouble to join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America guild, something I've bothered to do, and now probably never will.

Del Arroz, an Hispanic, was planning to attend Worldcon 76, when he received notice that they were disallowing his attendance, stating he had intended to break their code of conduct. "Worldcon 76 strives to be an inclusive place in fandom, as difficult as that can be, and racist and bullying behavior is not acceptable at our Worldcon."

Because nothing says inclusivity and anti-racism like banning an Hispanic author from your event.

What triggered this reaction? What was it that Del Arroz had done to merit sucha response? Had he published a political manifesto? Posted with a frillion AK-47s on Facebook? Publicly burned a picture of Ray Bradbury?

From Marvel.com:

Few matters can force a super hero into exile. And even fewer can cause that hero to return.

But when a mysterious threat puts an alternate future in jeopardy, the teleporting X-Man named Blink—who once fought alongside a classic collection of outcasts, mutants, and strangers—joins a new group in an attempt to save the multiverse. This April, writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Javier Rodriguez leap into the future with EXILES!

In this brand-new ongoing series, the man once called Nick Fury—now known simply as the Unseen—observes Earth from his abode on the moon. When a strange force imperils all of existence, the Unseen recruits Blink, Khan, Iron Lad, Wolvie, and an as-yet-unseen hero to save the past, the present, and the future.

The iconic Charles Bronson film gets a modern remake from Director Eli Roth, and on first blush it looks like the new DEATH WISH is going to be an action-packed thrill-ride audiences are going to love. Bruce Willis takes on the role of Dr. Paul Kersey, a surgeon whose finally had enough of the city's violence when it invades his own home and takes his wife from him.

Let's take a moment to enjoy the trailer, shall we?

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!

January. The first. First day of the first month, and a whole new year laid out ahead of all of us. Many of you may be thinking about what you'll do differently this year, what you'll change from last year. And many of you may have already resigned yourself to the notion that you'll probably fail at it, but what the heck, it's a tradition, right? Think about the gym, the work, the sacrifice, and figure that'll last until February and your first box of chocolates, if you're lucky.

Lucky for you, our January 2018 Critical Blast Bombshell has inspiration to spare! Sure, we love to check out cosplayers and get inspired by their costume designing, their prop-making skills, their ability to pull a character off of a page our out of a game and drop them right into our convention center or special event. But this month, we give you a cosplayer who's a little bit more than that.

Another year has come and gone. The sanitation workers have hauled away the last vestiges of torn Christmas wrapping and boxes, our heads are still buzzing a little from staying up way too late and drinking way to much. And on top of that, the shirt that fit us just fine last October seems to have shrunk in the dryer or something!

But with all that, we've not forgotten that the new year brings with it the voting for the best of last year! So please take a look through the categories below, where the team at Critical Blast has suggested what we think are the Best of the Best of 2017. And because we're not infallible (rumors of selecting new staff members through white or black smoke signals to the contrary), we've got an "other" option in almost every category so you can correct us with what we should have suggested!

When I reviewed the first issue of DOOMSDAY CLOCK, I gave it a bit of a gush. After all, this was my favorite limited series coming into contact with my favorite universe. How could I not be giddy about it?

That review was written by Doctor Jekyll. Mr. Hyde's come to play now, so let's open up the second issue of DOOMSDAY CLOCK and rip it a new one now, shall we?

What's cooler than a LEGO scientist minifigure that comes with two clear beakers filled with different colors? The book she comes with, of course!

The latest in the line of LEGO ADVENTURES IN THE REAL WORLD is LEGO SCIENCE, and where LEGO FARM was a Level 1 reader for beginners, LEGO SCIENCE is a emBIG book with sections devoted to chemistry, matter, space, inventions, physics, and much more! You'll be building water molecules from LEGO, learning how things work, why they work, and the often amazing ways things were discovered. You'll be given build challenges along the way -- but not just to create something, but answer science questions about them, like the kind of energy used to build your pair of racecars, and what things you could apply to make them faster.

What do you do if you're a teenager whose father is an evil villain intent on conquering the ciy, and everybody knows it? And what if you also lived a secret life as a masked ninja, looked up to by everyone because you're constantly thwarting your father's plans?

That's the life of Lloyd Garmadon, aka the Green Ninja. He's one member of an elite teenage fighting force that uses their giant mechs to ward off Garmadon's invasions (that usually have some sort of shark-theme to them). With his friends Cole, Jay, Kai, Nya, and Zane (a robot who, for some reason, hides the fact that he's a robot), he fights the daily invasions that come across Ninjago bay from Garmadon's easily-visible volcanic island where he fires his failing generals -- literally.