This just in: The X-Files is officially returning to FOX! Thirteen years after its original run, the sci-fi series is making its comeback with a six-episode event series from creator/executive producer Chris Carter. Stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will reprise their roles as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

"I think of it as a 13-year commercial break," said Carter. "The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories."

The series is set to start production in summer 2015, but an air date has not yet been set.

Source: TV Guide

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

This one is going to be relatively short this week.  Heading out on vacation tomorrow.

In comic books, we have this thing called "the fight scene." Some comics end up being nothing but an extended fight scene, skipping over story for wall-to-wall slugging it out.

With the end of THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, the great dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) was awakened. As THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES opens, Smaug has begun his attack on Lake-town, destroying all in his path. The humans who live there are left refugees, as Bard (Luke Evans) escapes the cell that imprisons him and tries to defend his crumbling and burning town with arrows, eventually succeeding with the enigmatic (and huge) Black Arrow and a makeshift bow.

Mark Millar's writing tends to be hit or miss for me. I think he has a ton of great ideas, but sometimes his execution leaves me a little flat. BUT, Mark Millar is actually one of my favorite people in the comic industry. He seems to love the fans and always seems to be having a good time. I met him in Columbus, Ohio at a comic convention years ago during a nasty rainy, snowy weekend. The fire alarm kept going off at the convention, and the fire department kept evacuating us out into the rain and snow. Despite this, Mark Millar stayed in good spirits, continuing to sign autographes, draw sketches (my wife asked him to draw Batman, and he did it without hesitation), and tell hilarious stories. Just for that alone, I will pretty much always give his book a fair shot.

Last year, he launched two mini-series for Image: MPH and Starlight. Both books were great. So when I heard he was doing a time travel series named Chrononauts, I had to check it out.

So the other night I’m sitting around with my best friend, and I’m gushing about the finale of Spider-verse...which isn’t as easy at it sounds. See, she’s not a regular reader, and when it comes to Spider-Man, she’s a never-reader. This means I had to break down the context for each and every individual thing I wanted to gush over. Not a problem! I do that kind of shit for fun! The real trick, and this is the accomplishment, is afterwards when she asks me for a reading order so she can get in on it.

“The Gunman” is a rare foray into an action-heavy role for Sean Penn, who wrote and produced the film as well. Directed by Pierre Morel, the man who surprised us all with the taunt and darkly comic “Taken” film (which spawned a perhaps ill-advised franchise starring Liam Neeson, who in turn cannot seem to escape that role now) this action thriller is well-crafted but feels very familiar.

Amazing Spider-Man #16.1

Written by: Gerry Conway
Penciled by: Carlo Barberi
Inked by: Juan Vlasco
Colored by: Israel Silva
Lettered by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover by: Arthur Adams and Sonia Oback

I absolutely loved Chris Eccelston as the ninth incarnation of Doctor Who. But, because he only starred in the role for one season, there weren't a lot of tie-in media that featured the Ninth Doctor. There were a handful of novels, and that was about it. I always thought this was a huge loss. The Ninth Doctor seemed to have a lot more story to tell, especially since he was the incarnation of the Doctor that had just survived the Time War. 

I was actually at the New York Comic Con panel where they announced that they would be doing rotating mini-series featuring the older versions of the Doctor. I am really glad they started with Chris Eccelston's Doctor. It was especially a bonus that Rose and Captain Jack Harkness would be featured in this mini series too. 

Cheap Pops - March 18, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

From Newsarama:

Earlier this week Disney has announced via StarWars.com a new publishing intitiative that aims to bridge the gap between Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Entitled Journey to The Force Awakens, the initiative will feature books and comics that tie directly into Marvel's ongoing Star Wars comic, and will be considered in continuity and canon.

The first title, entitled Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens - Shattered Empire #1 was also previewed on the site Friday, with the cover by Phil Noto.

Michael Siglain, director, Creative Franchise, Lucasfilm had this to say about the upcoming titles, “The filmmakers have a lot of surprises in store, and the hints and puzzle pieces in the publishing program will keep fans guessing until the film opens. Until then, let the anticipation — and the speculation — begin,”

The others titles in the program are as follows:

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

Silver Surfer (2014) #10

Written by: Dan Slott
Art by: Mike Allred
Colored by: Laura Allred
Lettered by: VC's Joe Sabino
Cover by: Mike Allred

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Weaver: I don’t generally like space stories, I’m going to say that from the start…

From Entertainment Weekly:

For the eagerly anticipated Sherlock special episode, Holmes and Watson are essentially going back in time.

Co-creator Steven Moffat has now confirmed the special will take place in Victorian London, validating fan assumptions about the episode. Last month the show’s stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were spotted filming Sherlock in 19th century clothes, causing fans to wonder if perhaps the crime-fighting duo attended a costume ball, or ir perhaps it was just some kind of dream sequence within the special. But no: The 90-minute episode literally takes place hundreds of years ago.

Anniversaries. They have a nasty habit of just sneaking up on you without notice. Some of them seem to come faster than others, and even The Fastest Man Alive has to eventually succumb to them.

While much has been made of Batman's 75th anniversary, we're now leaving behind the year of the bat and entering the era of the lightning. And with a hot new television show burning up the airwaves, it's never been a better time for fans of The Flash. So we sat down for a little conversation with current FLASH scribes, Robert Venditti and Van Jensen to get some insight into being at the helm of the Scarlet Speedster at this pivotal point in his history.

How fun is it -- or how scary is it -- to be at the helm of THE FLASH at what has to be his most visible point in 75 years?

Howard the Duck. Unfortunately, when most people hear the name, they immediately think of the pretty awful movie from the 80's. But before that, Howard the Duck was a real funny comic from Marvel by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik. Marvel has tried to bring the character back a few times over the years, including having him as a regular in Generation X for a short period of time, but he just never seemed to go much higher than cult favorite.

Last year, Howard the Duck had a brief cameo appearance in the credits of Guardians of the Galaxy. Since Guardians was such a huge hit, Marvel has seemed determine to flood the market with Guardians-related series. Just last week, they announced that Groot is getting his own book soon too. So, I'm not surprised that they decided to give Howard the Duck another try. What did surprise me though, was that this issue was great!

I really liked Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when it first came out. I was ten years old and a bit of a history nerd. So seeing characters like Billy the Kid, Abe Lincoln, and Joan of Arc dealing with life in modern day California was just a lot of fun. I also thought the end of the movie used some real clever tricks when it came to time travel. It was just about a perfect movie to my ten year old self. Despite my love of the movie, I never watched the cartoon, read the comics, etc. It just seemed like a pretty closed work that any expansion to would ruin. Because of this, I have never even seen Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

But, when I heard they were doing a comic series, I decided to give it a try. Clearly ten year old Mike was MUCH smarter than 35 year old Mike...

There's a lot of wrong ways you can go when you want to blend 'cute' and 'dark'. Ted Naifeh gets it right with COURTNEY CRUMRIN. So does Roman Dirge with LENORE.

Stan Silas takes things a step further with his Chibi characters living in a CALVIN AND HOBBES-like world, in the Titan Books publication, NORMAN. The titular Norman is a cute little 8-year-old blonde-headed boy with an imaginary friend. It just so happens his imaginary friend to urge him to kill people, and taunts him about getting caught.

Growing up, I was never really into Star Trek. When I met my wife, she was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, especially the tie-in novels. So, I became a fan of Star Trek through her, but I've never really had a huge nostalgia connection to Star Trek. Because of this, I've been real open to enjoying some of the newesr Star Trek like Enterprise and the relaunch movies.

IDW has done a terrific job with their ongoing series exploring the new Star Trek continuity. A few months ago, the Enterprise crew encountered Q and were sent into the future to see what the Deep Space Nine crew were up to. After that, the Enterprise was finally able to embark on their 5 years mission...to boldy go where no one has gone before. Though that took a bit of a twist...

Star Trek #43

Variety posted some big news about upcoming Star Wars movies, including the title of next year's spin-off film and the release date for Episode VIII!

Disney and Lucasfilm have announced details of the upcoming “Stars Wars” films at its annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco.

Rian Johnson has also been confirmed to write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII, which will hit theaters May 26, 2017.

Gareth Edwards’ upcoming standalone film, starring Felicity Jones, will be called “Rogue One.” The movie starts filming in London this summer and opens Dec. 16, 2016.

“Rogue One,” based on an idea by Oscar-winning vfx supervisor John Knoll, was written by “Cinderella” scribe Chris Weitz.

Kathleen Kennedy will produce the standalone film alongside Knoll, Tony To and John Schwartz.

Plot details of “Rogue One” are unknown.

This contest is over. The randomly selected winner is: LINDSAY D. of URBANA, OH.

Well, we promised you it was coming, and now it's here. On the heels of our POWER RANGERS COMPLETE SERIES giveaway, we now have POWER RANGERS SEASONS 4-7 -- the series that came after the "complete" series.

This hotly sought after series by fans of Saban's POWER RANGERS show includes the story arcs ZEO, TURBO, IN SPACE and LOST GALAXY, and includes a bonus disc of extra features.

But how, you may ask, can you make this set yours? Well, one way is to be the randomly selected winner of this contest, which is as simple as entering your information in the form below! Really, it's that easy!