Hey Critical Blasters!

Last week I told you we'd have coverage from Dragon Con complete with cosplay pictures, live panel tweets, interviews and more. This week there's even more exciting news for con enthusiats who aren't able to attend.

Dragon Con has a new streaming service that allows you to catch the higlights of the con with a subscription based service right from your living room. And for those not familiar with Dragon Con TV, it's one of the best compilations of geek culture I've ever seen. There's panels, interviews, videos, and so much fandom awesomeness. Check out the press release below!

And don't forget to check out Critical Blast Labor Day weekend! I'm looking forward to filling all your social media streams with amazing things from Dragon Con!

JK Elison

Streaming Service Will Bring the Best of Dragon Con’s Panels, Costume Contests, and Other Events Directly To Your Device, Wherever, Whenever You Go  

When I started reading comics, X-Force was my absolute favorite.  I was there was the first appearance of Cable, Deadpool, and Domino, and I have been a fan of the characters ever since.   I absolutely loved the first DEADPOOL movie, and I was even more hyped up when they teased Cable for the sequel.  Over the last few days, we've gotten our first look at Cable (played by Josh Brolin) and Domino (played by Zazie Beetz). 

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

• FIRST STRIKE #1 - I have been playing catch up on IDW's Hasbro line. I actually only read REVOLUTION a few months ago. I don't love all the series, but ROM, MICRONAUTS, REVOLUTIONARIES, and ACTION MAN (which needs to come back) have all been excellent, so I will likely give this a shot.

He destroyed Tokyo almost a dozen times, but Godzilla, King of the Monsters, has finally succumbed to time.

Or, more precisely, the actor who marched in the rubber suit across scale models of cities, has passed.

Haruo Nakajima was a stuntman in 1954 when he first donned the reptilian hide -- which was not rubber in the beginning, but concrete and over 200 pounds! After the original release of GODZILLA (or GOJIRA if you're a true kaiju purist), Nakajima went on to play the nuclear lizard eleven more times, with the last being the 1972 creature feature, GODZILLA VS. GIGAN.

Nakajima studied the walking patterns of bears and elephants to develop the signature gait of Godzilla, and went on to appear in other monster movies. He also played a role in the equally classic SEVEN SAMURAI.

We've all been there. Whether it was deep in our childhood, or just last night, we've all been at that place where we've watched a movie before going to bed that just kept us up all night, afraid to go to sleep and praying that the covers were just enough protection to keep us safe.

The folks at MattressOnline know a little something about trying to get to sleep. But sometimes even a good mattress is no cure for the horrors in our head after watching a scary flick. So they've compiled the infographic below on Movie Nightmares. Let's get this Halloween season started a little early, shall we? (Click to Enlarge)

Generations: Totally Awesome Hulk & Banner Hulk

Continuing our interview with Mike Grell, who will be accepting his induction into the Wizard World Hall of Legends this month in Chicago. In this installment, we discuss Mike's work on JON SABLE and stories from the headlines--and Mike's short-lived armed standoff with Nazis! Click here to read the prior installment of this interview series.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Bombshell of the Month – The Walking Farnsworth
 

Game Jab

THE DARK TOWER is Hollywood stupidity in maximum overdrive. I just don’t get it. The studios scramble to secure the film rights to beloved stories and then take a massive dump on the fans who naturally expect these adaptations to be extremely faithful to the source material. I’m not so naïve as to think you can perfectly recreate ever scene from every book or comic issue. Let’s face it, Superman’s costume barely works in the comic books and generally looks cheesy on the big screen. At least Warner Bros. tried to get the look right, if nothing else. 20^th Century Fox (when are they going to accept that the new millennium isn’t going away any time soon and update their name?) fumbled the last attempt at The FANTASTIC FOUR so badly even small children complained about the plot holes and woeful dialogue despite well over 400 issues of story and history to work with in a format that practically anyone should be able to make into a passable film.

Here's why I hate "found footage" films: because when they're done well, they accomplish their objective and convince you what you are seeing actually happened; and when you mentally correct course in the middle of the film, you have a very disconcerting sense of cognitive dissonance as your brain argues against itself as to what is real and what is not.

Enter PHOENIX FORGOTTEN, a slow-starting documentary that picks up the pace about fifteen minutes in. It begins with a birthday party of a six year old girl, with her teenaged brother, Josh, controlling the camera. It is during the party that the so-called Phoenix Lights appear in the sky--beginning an obsession with Josh that potentially leads to his disappearance.

But Josh didn't disappear alone. He took two other teenagers with him, and they were never found.

VOLTRON returns tomorrow on NETFLIX and Prince Lotor takes center stage as he looks to rip the Paladins apart from the inside out.

In the trailer released by Dreamworks Animation, the Paladins scramble to recover from the loss of Shiro. Without anyone to pilot the Black Lion, they cannot form Voltron and in that regard they lack a clear leader.

In season 2, Shiro and Keith were trapped on a planet together. During that time, Shiro told Keith that if anything were to happen, Keith should lead Voltron. Being annointed team leader is different than actually leading. If you don't possess the skills or confidence, then how do you get others to follow?

TEEN TITANS GO gets a bad wrap from a lot of people.  Some people want it to be a lot more like the TEEN TITANS series that aired from 2003-2007.  But despite having the same voice cast, the shows are nothing alike. This is something TEEN TITANS GO is very happy to mock, which makes people further hate the show.  Instead of focusing on their time as superheroes, TEEN TITANS GO focuses on ridiculous ideas like Pig Latin being the heart of a massive conspiracy or tea being a Briish ploy to bring us back under their control.  I personally love that TEEN TITANS GO is full of pop-culture references.  You can tell the show was made by people who grew up exactly when I did.  What other cartoon would have entire episodes devoted to THE GOONIES and OREGON TRAIL?

Continuing our interview with Mike Grell, who will be accepting his induction into the Wizard World Hall of Legends this month in Chicago. In this installment, we discuss Mike's work on GREEN ARROW, an effort that arguably set the tone for the CW television series, ARROW insofar as Oliver Queen's shift to a more lethal approach in the use of his weapons. (Click here to read part one of this interview series.)

From Spil Games, VALERIAN: CITY OF ALPHA is now available in IOS and Android. It is the official mobile game of the feature film, VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS.

Experience the breathtaking sci-fi universe from the movie, engage with stunning artwork, and explore distant galaxies to connect with far-flung aliens and crate your own vision of the Alpha metropolis.

In celebration of the mobile game's release, we are giving away 1 limited-edition mousepad and 1 art print (pictured below).

TRIPPIN' ROUND THE MITTEN, the sixth album from award-winning singer/songwriter Randy Kaplan, is an album that, though it is marketed to kids…. is not just for kids.

It’s not, because it is full of fun happiness and storytelling that you can’t help but like, no matter who you are.

An extremely well-educated, well-rounded man, who has lived in many places around this country, it easy to see (and hear) the many people Kaplan sites as influences to his music and mirth-making: people such as Steve Martin and the Marx Brothers, Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie.

But as a fellow native Long Islander, I personally would say his biggest influence was hailing from Dix Hills, a mere half-hour or so as the crow flies from my home town of Port Washington--and I dare say that is where he must have first learned his art of kibitzing (so apparent throughout this CD in between and during the songs).

Young Mary Adler (FULLER HOUSE's MCKENNA GRACE) is about to start first grade, and is resisting it every step of the way, preferring to continue being home-schooled by her uncle, Frank (CHRIS EVANS, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS). It's not just that she is scared to go to school -- it's that the lessons involve 1+1=2, and Mary is already well past solving quadratic equations.