Mike Maillaro: Welcome to Blast of the Week.  Each week, the Critical Blast staff will post up a question and do our best to answer it.   This is going to be pretty freeform and stream of consciousness, so I have no idea what we’ll end up with.   So, good luck, and hopefully we will all survive this.

When I was just a small child, I would get my hands on a couple of my mother’s pots and a couple of wooden spoons, and go to town making the most unharmonious racket you can imagine. It wouldn’t take long before those cooking implements were taken away and peace and quiet was restored to the Ritter household. I can’t honestly say that I remember having seen a drummer of any sort before that experience, so maybe it’s more of a primal instinct for humans to make music, however they can manage it. Some people are just plain gifted—prodigies on piano or guitar at a young age that make it look effortless to produce sounds some trained professionals would be hard-pressed to achieve with a lifetime of practice. Some are only concert megastars in the shower or in their car, but either way only in their own heads (that’s me!). Some rare, lucky individuals blaze a new path, turning the kitchenware cacophony of my youth into a fusion of jazz, rock, tap dance and sketch comedy.

Convergence: Speed Force #1 by Tony Bedard and Tom Grummett

About a year ago, Wally West and his twins felt something calling them to Gotham.  They arrive there just in time for the dome to appear stranding them from Linda and taking away their powers.  A year later, Wally has been spending his time trying to break free.  Once the dome falls, Flash is supposed to fight Flashpoint Wonder Woman, but he decides to break the rules and races off to try and help other cities that were taken here by Telos.  He ends up in El Inferno, which has already fallen.  Telos warns Flash if he refuses to fight, his family will fall too.  Flash races through the various cities trying to find his way back to Gotham.  He encounters Fastback, a speedster turtle from Captain Carrot's world.  Fastback proposes all the speedsters team up, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Wonder Woman and an army of Amazons.

In The House of Leviathan by B.D. Bruns

Printed by: World Waters

$15 on Amazon ($9.99 for Digital)

When I started to write this review, it occurred to me that I haven’t reviewed a novel in a long time.  The last time was probably 15 years ago when I was still at Rutgers for a "Criticism" class I was taking under the terrific Terry Teachout.  Just as an aside, Rutgers has a great journalism program, and they really shaped the writer I am today.  So if you like my reviews, you can thank them.  If you hate them, you can blame them.  I prefer not to take personal responsibility for my actions…

As I was sitting down with my tablet trying to figure out which Convergence titles I wanted to review this week, I suddenly had the idea “LET’S DO THEM ALL!”  This probably was a terrible idea, and speaks to mental illness, but let’s try this!  I am posting this in two parts.  Convergence 0, Convergence 1, and the first five issues today (alphabetically) and the rest tomorrow.

by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Maillaro: This column might look a little familiar.  Last week, we reviewed Convergence 0 and 100 Bullets Vol. 1.  Both books left us in a place where it felt like there was more to talk about as the two series continued, so we decided to give Convergence 1 and 100 Bullets Vol. 2 a shot this week.  

Yes ladies and gentlemen, we've got a sequel!

Picking up from the ashes of SON OF BATMAN, BATMAN VS ROBIN pits father against son in one of the most dysfunctional family dynamics that could be imagined.

Damian Wayne (Stuart Allan) is a ten-year-old assassin, trained by the best in the business. His bloodlust is potentially inborn, what with having Talia al Ghul as a mother. United with his father, Bruce Wayne (Jason O'Mara) for the first time has been tumultuous at best, as Damian is eager to accompany his father in the battle against crime as Batman and Robin. Only this Robin has to be reined in to keep him from killing the bad guys.

As BATMAN VS ROBIN opens, Robin has gone off on his own in search of some missing children taken by The Dollmaker ("Weird Al" Yankovic). It is during this encounter that Robin meets Talon (Jeremy Sisto), who fights like Batman but isn't timid about crossing the line of taking lives. He offers Robin an opportunity to join him, which Robin begins to seriously consider.

From Mashable:

WB Games just put Skylanders and Disney Infinity on notice with the reveal of a new toys-to-life Lego game called Lego Dimensions.

The $99 starter pack (per Toys R Us listings) includes the game, a Lego Toy Pad (think Skylanders' portal), Lego Gateway building bricks, three Lego minifigures (The Lego Movie's Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle), and a Lego Batmobile. The game is in development at TT Games, the UK-based studio behind WB's Lego franchise.

There's no word on whether Dimensions affects release plans for Lego Jurassic World and Lego Marvel's Avengers, both of which are pegged for a 2015 release.

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• AJ Lee “retires”

• Best Gimmicks

• Lucha Underground Results

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

"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson

I'm a third-grade teacher, so I have the pleasure of teaching science regularly in my classroom. Unfortunately, in a day of state testing and Common Core standards, science doesn't receive quite the emphasis it deserves. Mix this with attacks from groups that don't believe in science and it's a scary world in which we live. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of crackpots out there, but solid work following the scientific method should be applauded. I tell my students all the time that magic is just science we don't already understand. I believe we should be leading our youth towards careers in science; that's where the jobs are.

Let me tell you about a wonderful starting point to interest children in science.

SOUL STORIES, releasing May 5^th from Innervision Records, is guitarist Blake Aaron’s fifth album and his first that is entirely self-produced, with 8 of the 10 songs on the CD being original compositions.

From the very first track, “Groove-O-Matic,” it was easy to hear that Blake is no run-of-the-mill guitarist, but rather a highly accomplished virtuoso of the instrument. He plays with a controlled fluency that shines through whether the song is slow, fast, acoustic or electric.

When I did my review of Legenderry Green Hornet, I mentioned that I loved Dynamite’s out-of-the-box crossovers like Legenderry and Song of Sorrows. Writing this review, it occurred to me that I completely forgot to mention Masks. Huge mistake on my part!

Masks was a team-up of many of Dynamite’s pulp characters. This year, Dynamite decided to up the ante with Masks 2. Masks 2 is going to feature pulp heroes from the 30’s, 70’s, and modern day all dealing with the same threat, a new villain called The Red Death. I actually still have not read Masks, but when I saw Cullen Bunn was doing Masks 2, I decided to check this series out.  I am a huge fan of Bunn's work, and he is the perfect fit for this kind of pulp adventure.

When someone asks "which comic company does the best licensed comics?" my typical answer has been IDW. IDW has a wide range of titles from Star Trek to G.I. Joe to My Little Pony, and they are adding Disney titles in the upcoming months. But in the last few weeks, I've had a chance to check out some of Dynamite's offerings, and I have to admit, IDW has some serious competition here.

IDW Publishing, CBS Consumer Products and DC Entertainment announced today that they will boldly go where no one has gone before…in brightest day, in blackest night.

Two iconic franchises will meet this summer in a legendary crossover event with the release of a six-part comic book miniseries, STAR TREK/GREEN LANTERN: THE SPECTRUM WAR. Both Star Trek and Green Lantern are known for their strong cast of interstellar characters, and when they come together for the first time this July, fans new and old are sure to experience a galaxy-sized thrill.

Star Wars Rebels has provided fans with a look at the early days of the Rebellion. At times, it's been a little strange watching Rebels, because I keep find myself wondering what happens to the characters between now and A New Hope. I assume most of them have to have been killed at some point, maybe some kind of huge sacrifice that helped move the Rebellion to the next level. Otherwise, maybe we will get Disney Special Editions with the Rebels characters being added via CGI to the original trilogy. I am not advocating for that idea...please put down the pitchforks.

Throughout Rebels first season, Kanan has been pretty stingy about giving his back story. We knew he was a Jedi at some point, but not much else. This miniseries is set during the Clone Wars and looks to fill in some of the blanks.

It has to be ridiculously difficult to do to a project like Batman Eternal. 52 issues weekly, with a massive creative team and several major plot threads that had to all be tied together in a neat little bow. Not to mention because of the structure of the story, many Batman stories that came out during Batman Eternal ended up being set AFTER Batman Eternal.

So, I have to give the editorial team a huge round of applause for the work they did here. Batman Eternal truly is a masterpiece, one of the best Batman epics I've ever read. I had all but given up on Batman over the last few years, but between Batman Eternal, Tomasi's work on Batman and Robin, and Snyder's run on Batman, I have found myself enjoying the Batfamily more than I have in a long time.

Batman Eternal #52

by Mike Weaver and Mike Maillaro

Convergence #0

Written by: Dan Jurgens and Jeff King
Art by: Ethan Van Sciver
Colored by: Marcelo Maiolo
Lettered by: Travis Lanham
Cover by: Van Sciver and Maiolo

From Variety:

Stephen Amell has been tapped to play Casey Jones in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2″ for Paramount and Platinum Dunes.

Megan Fox is set to return as April O’Neil. Will Arnett is also returning. David Green is directing the pic. Plot details and information on other returning cast members are still unknown.

A loner who becomes an ally of the turtles and a love interest for O’Neil, Jones is a fan favorite of the series going back to when Elias Koteas played him in the 1990 New Line pic.

Michael Bay is producing along with his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec are penning the script.

Amell tested with a half-dozen actors over the weekend, but it was his chemistry with Fox that led to the studio eventually giving the role to the star of CW’s “Arrow.” Paramount had no comment on the casting.

I will admit, I had never heard of Masked (or the original French series which was called Masqué). But Titan had sent us a press release saying it was like "Superman meets Blade Runner." So I decided to check it out.

This collection is translated versions of Masqué 1-4. Clearly the originals were not "full length" comics, as we tend to view them in America. This entire collection is only 48 pages.

Masked Vol. 1 - Anomalies

Written by: Serge Lehman
Penciled by: Stephane Crety
Inked by: Julien Hogonnard-Bert
Colored by: Gaetan Georges
Lettered by: Kirsten Murphy
Translated by: Edward Gauvin

Published by: Titan
Cover Price: $14.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!