by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

- Superfly charged with murder….30 years later…

- MSG on WWE Network

The old adage “good things come to those who wait” was proven true once again on September 4, 2015 as Rob Thomas finally arrived in St. Louis. He had to cancel is tour stop earlier in the summer due to an illness in the family, which is more than understandable. As an apology of sorts for the hassle of having to make folks reschedule their plans, Thomas and his supporting acts, Plain White T’s and Vinyl Station, really cut loose with fun-filled, more-than-your-money’s-worth performance.  Apology happily accepted, Mr. Thomas.

Marvel's latest attempt in their continued march towards a more progressive and diverse lineup of characters, has Amadeus Cho becoming:

Totally Awesome HULK

Amadeus Cho is a Korean-American. One of the most endearing parts of this concept is that we're given a Korean-American creative team to go along with it: Greg Pak (writer) and Frank Cho (artist).

Hulk is now a 'person' of color. Although, technically he's always been that way hasn't he? The jade giant has been rampaging through the pages of comic books for over 50 years now. We've seen several different 'colored' versions of HULK over the years (Red, Gray etc.). But this change isn't about giving that classic muscle car a new paint job, it's about finding someone new to drive it. Someone who will take the wheel and push the limits.

HBO's police procedural, THE WIRE, is a wholly engrossing departure from the norm. There are no mysteries to be solved here -- the viewer is let in on the criminal activities as well as the police activities, so the 'whodunnit' aspect isn't there.

Last season, I managed to do reviews for each episode of Doctor Who within a day or two of them airing, and I definitely plan on doing that again this year when Doctor Who returns on September 19.   So, what I decided to do is create this little primer on Doctor Who for anyone new to the series who might want to check it out.  
 

Actually, Doctor Who superfan Craig Ferguson beat me to this years ago, so I guess I should start with stealing from him:

Scribner is best known for publishing novels, and now they have decided to get into the graphic novel business. INTRO TO ALIEN INVASION is their first release. I will admit, this book caught my eye because it was co-written by Owen King. I am a huge fan of Stephen King (Owen’s dad) and Joe Hill (Owen’s brother, who this book is dedicated to), so I figured why not try this one too. I also think it’s great to see more companies getting into graphic novels. Scribner (which is part of Simon and Schuster) has a lot of marketing muscle they could put behind a project like this. Too many people think of comics as only superheroes put out by Marvel or DC, and that is just such a limited view. And that is coming from someone who loves Marvel and DC superheroes.

INTRO TO ALIEN INVASION

Written by: Owen King & Mark Jude Poirier
Art by: Nancy Ahn

Once upon a time, I read a piece on the Internet where Neil Gaiman extolled the virtues of Susanna Clarke's novel, JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL. A bit of a time later, I found the book in hardcover, which I promptly snapped up, and promptly placed it into a neat little nook on my bookshelf, where it lived happily ever after. The end.

Of course, I had completely neglected to make the time to actually read the thing, hefty tome that it was. Therefore, I am completely without a point of reference by which I could tell you whether or not the vision of director Toby Haynes is true to that of Ms. Clarke's. But I can tell you, as a body of work standing on its own, this BBC series is a thing wondrous strange.

Yep. ALIENS/VAMPIRELLA! A comic no one would have ever thought to ask for, but once you hear the title, you can’t help but want to check it out. At least it’s not another zombie book…

In case you are a casual fan, the monsters from the ALIEN franchise are called Xenomorphs, and that is what I refer to them throughout this review.  Also the VAMPIRELLA universe has a bunch of different vampire types.  In recent issues of her series, she was made Queen of the Nosferatu, who basically look like creepy vampires from the old movies.

ALIENS/VAMPIRELLA #1

Front Lines by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

CAPTAIN MARVEL AND THE CAROL CORPS #3 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Kelly Thompson, & David Lopez

What a book title! I mean to say, for those of an age, we will never forget the incomparable Bruce Lee. You didn't even have to live in Bruce's own lifetime to be one of his adoring fans. I was born four months after Bruce's death, yet he's one of my favorite cultural icons. Growing up, I fondly recall school recess periods spent "fighting" over who was Bruce Lee in our playground battles. Seriously, what were those lunch attendants doing while we played at karate? Through the years, Bruce Lee has continued to have an impact on me. I've visited his grave in Seattle, watched his film work repeatedly, read some of his writings, and met gentlemen that worked with him like Bob Wall, the late Jim Kelly, and John Saxon. One other such man I wish for an opportunity to meet is Jon Benn.

EVERYTHING LEFT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRILOGY is the subtitle for the newly released STAR WARS FAQ. That's serious word choice when you consider how knowledgeable the fandom is that surrounds the original Star Wars Trilogy. I'm 41 years old, so I grew up with these films as a part of my life...scratch that, the Saga has become such a part of me, it's burrowed down to conjoin with the very depths of my soul. So much so, I've watched, read, and collected just about anything that was available to my greedy mind and body. And I've got to say, much to my surprise, Mark Clark delivered a well researched, in-depth exploration of the creative exploits of George Lucas and so many of the others that played in his sandbox.

For my own part, if I'm going to watch the animated Teen Titans, I'm going to go with the YOUNG JUSTICE series. Following that, the Filmation shorts, and then the Cartoon Network's TEEN TITANS -- all of which I would forego for a DC Universe animated movie of THE JUDAS CONTRACT, but let's not go there while there's still another BATMAN adventure to make. Watching TINY TOON ADVENTURES acted out by cutesified versions of superheroes wouldn't really top my list.

The seven-year-old boy who has taken up (and taken over) residence with me has other ideas. He thinks they're hilarious. He loves the butt-jokes. He even has a little crush on Raven. (When he grows up and sees Tara Strong, who provides the character's voice, he'll still have it and we'll have something in common.)

So while I wouldn't choose to watch TEEN TITANS GO! I nonetheless have viewed it and...I survived. In fact, some of it was actually fun, and funny.

Excited for the chance to finally sit down and watch Mad Max: Fury Road, I was looking forward to some rip-roaring, post-apocalyptic, female-driven action.

And it did not disappoint!

I’d love to consider myself to be some great investigative reporter, who scoops big stories and has sources to provide inside information. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. That being said, through the power of social media I am occasionally presented with something so amazing I need to write about it.

Enter singer/songwriter, Larissa Lam.

She had shared her song, ‘Wonder Woman’, with me on twitter and, as a comic book nerd, I had to listen. Needless to say, I loved it so much I had to know more about the woman who used her talents to write and sing a song that references DC’s Power Couple.

Huge thanks to my friend Greg Manuel for bringing this to my attention! 

One of my favorite things about writing for Critical Blast is that we spend a lot of time looking into indy comics.  There are plenty of sites where you can get your Marvel and DC fix, but at Critical Blast, we always want to find something new to talk about.  And that is what brought us to RAISING DION.

From Fusion:

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

A few weeks ago, I had an idea that I wanted to start subscribing to Comic Bento.  That’s a service that sends you a blind box of trades each month.  Sort of like Loot Crate, but for comics.  $25 bucks for 4 trades seemed like an idea that really appealed to me, but I don’t have a lot of space for comics right now.  So, what I have decided is that I will read and review them each month, and then donate them to local libraries and schools.  So, I get some random new comics each month, you guys get some fresh reviews, and some lucky readers get some new comics at their library or school.  Sounds like a win for everyone.

Sometimes people make a profound impact in our lives without having ever met them. They affect our earliest memories and influence our actions years, even DECADES, later. I write today to memorialize one of the men that were most influential in my life. One of the men who caused me to lose sleep, and affects my actions to this day, 25 years after we first met.

This contest has ended. The winner is KATHRYN C. of LIBERTY, KY.

So, you didn't win the contest featuring THE ORIGINALS Season 2 on Blu-ray? Well, you're not out of luck just yet! Because we still have THE ORIGINALS Season 2 on DVD, and we're making that available to one lucky winner starting... now!