Reviews by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Gina Maillaro, and Grey Scherl

AGE OF ULTRON VS MARVEL ZOMBIES #1 by James Robinson and Steve Pugh

After having said it so often on THE APPRENTICE and it's spinoff, CELEBRITY APPRENTICE, Donald Trump must find it ironic to hear his trademarked expression thrown back at him. But it's true. The real estate mogul turned Presidential nominee was told to pound sand by NBC after his comments regarding illegal immigration included the words "rapists" and "drug dealers."

The network sent the following message to Talking Points Memo earlier today clarifying their announcement:

Your baby has been kidnapped by a force from an erased timeline. Your immortal father arrives moments after in a time-traveling spaceship to help you get her back from where she was hidden in time -- but only after she's been allowed to grow up into an adult, alone, because somehow during her new life she stops Earth from being annihilated.

What do you do?

We’re doing a double dose of Superman books this week!  

SUPERMAN #41 by  Gene Luen Yang and John Romita Jr.

WAIKIKI, HONOLULU, HAWAII – Outrigger Resorts is proud to announce a partnership with the iconic Blue Note Entertainment Group, with music clubs in New York, Washington D.C., Milan and two locations in Japan, to bring world-class music performances to Hawaii. Blue Note Hawaii will serve as the state’s premier venue for world-renowned artists, from jazz and blues to Hawaiian favorites.

Located in the former Society of Seven showroom inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, Blue Note Hawaii will feature a wide range of musical entertainment – from local talent to international sensations – for limited engagements. As a part of Outrigger’s ongoing commitment to the musical arts, the performance venue will undergo an extensive, multi-million-dollar revitalization, creating a brand new venue in the heart of Hawaii’s most famed beach resort destination. Blue Note Hawaii is expected to open no later than early 2016.

Kyle Wincott (THE FLASH's Robbie Amell) is a U.S. Marine. He serves with another U.S. Marine, Max -- who just happens to be a very highly trained dog.

When Kyle is killed in an attack trying to save Max, the PTSD-stricken dog is taken out of service, and will be put down unless Max's family takes him. The Wincott family -- hard-as-nails former Marine and father Ray (Thomas Haden Church, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL), mother Pamela (Lauren Graham, GILMORE GIRLS), and cynical teenage Justin (Josh Wiggins, HELLION) -- are willing to take Max in because they see him as a family member.

But Max has a secret. One of Kyle's hometown buddies and fellow Marine was running guns, and is to blame for the attack that got Kyle killed. When he comes home to work his deals stateside, he blames Max for Kyle's death, putting the dog in a whole new light to the family, particularly to Ray.

I have a hard time reviewing movies like TED 2, the new comedy from writer/producer/director/star Seth MacFarlane. Most reviews delve into the plot a little, give a rundown of the principle cast and maybe touch on a couple of points such as the score or special effects that really interested or disgusted the reviewer. Some might talk about the nuanced performance of a scene-stealing supporting actress or offer up a particularly lousy turn as a nominee for next year’s Razzie Awards. If that’s what you expect, the next paragraph is just for you.

Being born in 1973 means icons like Bruce Lee, Jackie Robinson, Steve McQueen, Muhammad Ali, and Evel Knievel permeated my life basically from the womb until today. These men had all accomplished many of their greatest feats before I was born, or, if nothing else, at a time when I was still sucking my thumb. Yet through reruns, playground antics, highlights, and toys they became some of my greatest celebrity influences. On Spike! I have seen "I Am..." films for McQueen and Lee, but I somehow missed their recent special devoted to the daredevil some dubbed The Last Gladiator.

I've been a fan of THE WHO since I was a young boy. No, I'm not straight out of their '60s heyday, but I was bopping around in the late '70s and '80s getting an education in the best rock music from my father. I was exposed to "Tommy" at an early age, heard all their best tunes, knew all about the guys destroying their equipment, and always was amazed when my Dad told me he saw THE WHO open for HERMAN'S HERMITS. Can you imagine seeing one of the most legendary bands in history before they were famous?

HEROES is returning to NBC this fall as HEROES REBORN.  The show will be debuting September 24, but we got a first look at the trailer:

Commentary: Lots of action, but not a lot of information here yet.   One thing I love is seeing Masi Oka as Future Badass Hiro.  Masi Oka seems to always get typecast as a nerdy little character (Franklin from SCRUBS or Max from HAWAII FIVE-O....not to mention "normal" Hiro in HEROES).  But, he actually looks great when they show him as Badass Hiro. 

Superman used to be the butt of jokes regarding his underwear being on the outside. DC fixed that by giving him a new 'armored' look. A jeans and t-shirt look was made to accomodate Grant Morrison's run on Action Comics; which he has re-claimed now that he's been de-powered and his identity exposed.

It was also said that just putting on a pair of glasses and slouching his shoulders as Clark Kent shouldn't be enough to conceal his identity. DC is now addressing that problem as well in an attempt to phase out any of the old Superman tropes.

And they're using Lois Lane to do it.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources, John Romita Jr doesn't pull any punches when speaking of Lois Lane. He explains that not only is she annoying, but she should consider herself stupid for not figuring out Clark's identity 25 years ago:

When I was a kid, I learned how to make paper airplanes. I can now make three different kinds -- the basic kind, the skinny basic kind, and the one that somewhat looks like a Star Trek scout ship. When pressed, I can make a paper sailboat (or maybe it's a hat), and once I made a swan. I don't think paper fans count.

That's me.

And then there's John Montroll.

John Montroll is the author and designer behind DC SUPER HEROES ORIGAMI. Which I absolutely had to have, because I'm a fifty-years-in-the-making fan of all things DC Comics. And I thought it would be fun to share this with my seven-year-old through art projects of origami.

I learned that I knew nothing about folding paper -- but that I could be taught.

Rounding out our coverage of JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS CHRONICLES is the third episode. This one is called "Big" and is all about Wonder Woman.    

Commentary:

You know, the HR-V ads before these videos are WAAAAYYYYY off theme.  The narrator is so bright and cheery, it takes a second to adjust back into the dark tone GODS AND MONSTERS has going for it.  

This one starts with President Waller sending Agent Steve Trevor to infilitrate Kobra to find a powerful new weapon they are building.  Kobra is about to execute him when suddenly Wonder Woman appears through a Boom Tube to rescue him.  They quickly defeat Kobra, but Kobra is able to activate their secret weapon, Gigantra!  Actually, a giant robot.

Here is the second of three episodes of JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS CHRONICLES.  This one features Harley Quinn and Batman, and is called “Twisted.”

Commentary:  While I have thought both of these shorts were terrific, I can’t help but think that it has to be confusing for a lot of casual viewers to do stories like this.  One of the comments on Youtube said “This ain't your grandma's Justice League!” and I’m just not sure how I feel about that.  YES, I love to see the status quo get rocked at every opportunity, but when you get this far away from the source material, part of me wonders why you don’t just create something new entirely.  Batman’s costume in particular is such a departure, he looks more like an homage to Batman than any version of Batman I’ve ever seen before.

The American heavy metal band, 'Disturbed', announced on their Facebook page that new music is forthcoming. Having taken a hiatus from both music, and each other, the band secretly came together and has been working on the new album IMMORTALIZED.

"This album had the arduous task of, in some way, justifying the hiatus; giving the fans something that made it worth our time away from one another. We hope that it succeeds in that task. Thank you for staying with us over the years." - Official Statement from Disturbed via Website/Facebook

The first song released titled, "The Vengeful One" is accompanied by a music video. Fans of Disturbed will recognize the style of music right away. While they haven't done anything revolutionize their sound, they certainly didn't alienate their fans.

Last night on TBS's CONAN, Conan O'Brien announced that he is going to be immortalized with a set of four Pop! Vinyl figures to be available this July, when CONAN will become the first-ever late-night show to broadcast from San Diego during Comic-Con® International. Created for TBS byFunko, the figure designs include "Conan O'Brien," "Batman Conan," "Zombie Conan" and"Conan's Monster."

Check out Conan's announcement from last night's show:
teamcoco.com/video/pop-conan-figures-are-coming

by Mike Maillaro, Gina Maillaro, Graham Scherl, and Mike Weaver

ARMOR WARS #2 by James Robinson and Marcio Takara

Summary: Rhodes is watching the autopsy of Spyder-Man by Dr Druid.  Fisk is working with Arno Stark to rob Kiri’s technology.  Arno is able to provide Fisk’s operative Stingray with a stealth armor to sneak into her lab...though the armor is killing Stingray.  Kiri’s lab defenses go into full effect, and Kiri and Lila (Rhode’s niece) defeat Stingray.

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

DC has been putting a lot of marketing muscle behind the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS.  In the upcoming weeks, there will be a digital comic series, and they have also been posting some shorts on Machinima's Youtube channel.   There are three of them, and we'll be posting them over the next few days.

Here is the first one, called "Bomb" and featuring Superman and Brainiac:

From Comicosity:

June 22nd, 2015 – New York, NY / Portland, OR – Today comiXology, the revolutionary cloud-based digital comics platform, proudly announced a digital distribution agreement with Dark Horse Comics, the largest independent comic book publisher, to bring their full digital catalog of collections, graphic novels, and manga to comiXology’s platform! Now, all Dark Horse Comics collections, graphic novels, and manga will be available on comiXology the same day the print versions arrive in bookstores.

“We are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement which brings the Dark Horse catalogue found in the Kindle Store to the comiXology platform,” remarked President and Publisher of Dark Horse Comics Mike Richardson.  “For the first time, hundreds of Dark Horse graphic novels will be available to comiXology’s devoted readers. The technology is stellar and we are pleased that our books will be showcased flawlessly.”