For as long as I can remember people have told me, “Oh, you have to see Phantom of the Opera! It’s so terrific, so beautiful.” I suppose I can’t argue with them in terms of statistics. By box office alone, Phantom is the biggest blockbuster in Broadway history. It has been watched and heard for 30+ years in multiple languages around the world. 180 million audience members can’t be wrong, can they? Leave it to me to dissent with the combined populations of Tokyo-Yokohama, Seoul-Incheon, Delhi, Jakarta, and Mumbai, give or take a goodly portion of San Paolo, as of 2010 statistics.  While the pageantry and grandeur of Phantom of the Opera was evident as it opened its roughly 2-wek run at St. Louis’ Fox Theatre, I found it lacking in several areas. You can start sending your hate mail now, or wait until you’ve read the rest—freedom of choice, God bless America!

I actually wasn't sure if I was going to pick this series up or not. I think Bendis has done a really good job with Guardians of the Galaxy, but I do think the market might be a little oversaturated with Guardians books right now. You have the core Guardians of the Galaxy series, Guardians 3000 (which was sadly unreadable), Rocket Raccoon, Starlord, and now Guardians Team-Up. But, I do try to give most #1's a read...if just for the purposes of reviewing them. So I decided to give it a look.  If nothing else, I knew I would enjoy seeing Art Adams drawing both teams.  

Guardians Team-Up #1

From Deadline:

CBS and Warner Bros. TV have released the first images of Supergirl star Melissa Benoist as the super heroine. Gone are the bleach blonde locks and the skimpy, midriff-baring cheerleader outfit from the Supergirl comics.

The more conservative mesh garb in muted colors is very similar to what Henry Cavill wears in the Warner Bros. Supeman movies — maybe DC and the studio are eying a potential crossover of the cousins in matching outfits?

The CW also is going for consistency, with the Supergirl costume created by the same designer who also did the costumes for the other two CW/WBTV DC superhero series, The Flash and Arrow: three-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland, Memoirs Of A Geisha and Chicago). “In designing Supergirl, I wanted to embrace the past, but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today,” she said.

On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart announced that through Omaze they will be raffling off tickets for the final episode of The Daily Show. 

The prize includes:

• Get 2 tickets to Jon Stewart’s last ever taping of The Daily Show
• Receive exclusive Daily Show memorabilia
• Be flown out to NYC and put up in a 4-star hotel

All proceeds go to Night of Too Many Stars and New York Collaborates for Autism.  My cousin Marcus was just diagnosed with Autism, and my wife works closely with numerous autistic and other classified kids as a special education teacher.  This is a cause that is particularly important to me.  And of course, I am also a huge Daily Show fan, so I am glad to be able to provide a little publicity for this. 

In Pixie Hollow, every fairy has a role. Fawn (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a fairy whose specialty lies with helping animals. But her big heart sometimes has her making dangerous decisions, underscored in the beginning of this film when we find she's been tending an injured baby hawk. Apparently hawks are the natural predators of fairies, and Fawn's attempt to return the baby to the wild results in near-catastrophe. As a result, she makes a promise to Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) that she will be more responsible.

Shortly thereafter, a green comet flashes by, one that returns every 900 and some odd years. Its glow awakens a large hibernating animal, who does strange things. When Fawn encounters the beast, there's an "Androcles and the Lion" moment that bonds them, and then she tries to learn everything about the creature's strange activities, which include building rock towers.

By Gina and Mike Maillaro

Mike: We have a special guest this week!  My wife agreed to help create "fill-in" issues for if Open Mike Night was running behind schedule..  This was actually written a few weeks ago in case of emergencies.  And this week, I was out of town for most of the week and then Weaver's internet was down.  Our regularly scheduled column should be up early next week. 

My wife is an OG comic geek.  Her first comic was Kingdom Come.  She hasn’t read comics in a while, but she’s still got a lot to say.  Hi, honey!

I'm a Tim Burton fan. Flat out, I've loved everything of his I've seen, from the Michael Keaton BATMAN film through the black and white FRANKENWEENIE short. Even SWEENEY TODD is on my list of Burton masterpieces.

But until recently, I had not seen CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, which puts a slight dent in what I considered a perfect record.

If you've read the Roald Dahl book, or seen the slightly renamed Gene Wilder film WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, then you may be somewhat taken aback by the deviations made in this version of the film. Oh, for the most part, it's the same story: Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) is a good kid from a poor family; Willie Wonka (Johnny Depp) agrees to open his mysterious factory to those who find hidden Golden Tickets; rotten kids from around the world make the cut; cue the Oompa-Loompas for every lesson learned as the rotten kids become victims of their own flaws.

When the New 52 was announced, Justice League Dark was one of the titles I was most excited about. Part of that was that I really loved Shadowpact, and this seemed like the natural evolution of that series. And adding the Justice League name would be good on getting that book a little more attention. I also liked Peter Milligan's work on X-Statix and Human Target, and Mikel Janin is one of my favorite artists.

Cheap Pops - March 4, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• ESPN 30 for 30: The Von Erichs

• The Intercontinental Title

• New Japan Cup

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

Descender #1 – Jeff Lemire is pretty much as close as you get to a guaranteed good comic.  Descender is a sci-fi series coming out from Image about a young android trying to survive in a world where android have been banned.  And Dustin Nguyen is doing the art.  I loved his work on Lil Gotham.  Lemire is also doing All-New Hawkeye this week, and I am looking forward to both titles.

SPIRIT OF ‘67 is the first album by Vanilla Fudge in 10 years. The group still retains three of the four original members of the band: Carmine Appice on drums, Mark Stein on lead vocals and keyboards, and Vince Martell on guitars. They’re joined by Pete Bremy on bass, who replaces Tim Bogert. The band continues to be true to their original form of playing covers of some of the greatest songs in rock and R&B. The only difference here is that, when they first started, the covers they did were of fairly current songs; now they are bona-fide classics.

On this album they cover songs that range from the Doors to the Stones, the Who to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, from Procol Harum to Marvin Gaye, and others, putting their own touch, their own style on every song.

The CW Network has yet another DC Comics show to add to its programming schedule -- but don't expect any crossovers with THE FLASH or ARROW.

iZombie was the creation of comics veterans Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, and was part of DC's Vertigo line of horror comics. In the comics, the lead character was named Gwen, a girl who was a zombie who lived undetected among the living, but she had to eat a brain every month or lose her memories. Fortunately, her job as a gravedigger gave her ready access to food, at the cost of gaining the dead person's memories upon consumption of the brain.

Some critics will scoff at The Million Dollar Quartet for its thin plot and light conflicts. If you see a review of this show somewhere that does exactly that, you should quit reading those critics because clearly they didn’t get it. This is a show based on actual events in which there wasn’t any real conflict. In fact, what conflict there is in this show is probably somewhat inflated if not outright fabricated. Every musical need not be as densely plotted as Rent or as elaborately staged as Warhorse. Sometimes a simple brick backdrop and four talented actors and musicians recreating a magical alignment of budding stars is all you need to keep the audience’s toes a-tappin’ until they raise the roof during the grand finale.

This contest has ended. The randomly selected winner is: RAY P. of SHARON, PA.

A dream is a wish your heart makes. Well, if your heart is making a wish for this beautiful poster for Disney's live-action CINDERELLA starring Lily James and Helena Bonham Carter, then we just may be able to make that wish come true -- no bibbity, bobbity, or boo required.

Archie Comics has made numerous attempts over the years to bring back their Red Circle line of heroes. The biggest problem is that Marvel and DC have pretty much cornered the superhero market, so if someone is attempting to get in on the game, they need to bring something different to the table.

The latest attempt has brought in some big names in the comic industry to put a darker, more mature spin on the characters. This actually is my first exposure to the Red Circle characters. But since I enjoyed Afterlife with Archie and Sabrina so much, I figured it was worth checking this book out.

The Black Hood #1

Written by: Duane Swierczynski
Art by: Michael Gaydos
Cover by: Michael Gaydos
Colored by: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Lettered by: Rachel Deering

Leonard Nimoy, star of stage and screen, and idol to millions of science fiction fans everywhere for his portrayal of the logical Vulcan, Spock, on STAR TREK, has passed away at age 83 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

There will be numerous articles appearing almost immediately detailing Nimoy's illustrious career. This isn't one of those. This is rather my personal remembrances of this actor, author, photographer and -- yes -- singer and musician.

From Deadline:

DC Comics superheroes are uniting in a potential new drama series at the CW, a spinoff from hits Arrow and The Flash that will feature several fan-favorite recurring actors/characters from both shows. I have learned that the network has teamed with Arrow creators Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim for a project eyed for next season toplined by Brandon Routh, Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz.

The untitled project, now in development, is described as a superhero team-up show. Routh, Miller and Garber will reprise their popular DC Comics characters  — Arrow‘s Ray Palmer/The Atom (Routh), Flash villain Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Miller), and Flash‘s Dr. Martin Stein (Garber). Because her Arrow character Sara Lance was killed off, with her sister Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) taking over as the Black Canary, it is unclear whether Lotz will play the same or new superhero.

Will Smith is an easy actor to like. He doesn't interrupt award shows pining for Beyoncé like some people we could mention. He hasn't had a major meltdown on the set or in public. He's gone about his film career about as well as any top drawing actor truly could and yet he hasn't really had a huge hit at the box office for some time, at least in my opinion—2008’s “Hancock” was the last Smith movie I really enjoyed. That's about to change.

I did not see the Doctor Who Christmas Special last Christmas. That is to say, I did not see the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "Last Christmas" last Christmas. Of course I've seen the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "Last Christmas," but I saw it last night on DVD.

The annual Doctor Who tradition traditionally provides some of the best stand-alone episodes of the show. And this one certainly plays with the viewers' heads -- and their hearts. The episode opens with Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) being awoken by such a clatter that has arose on her roof; so she springs from her bed to see what is the matter. When what to her wondering eyes should appear but two elves, a man in a Santa suit, and flying reindeer!

DisneyXD posted up a teaser for Monday's season finale of Star Wars: Rebels, "Fire Across the Galaxy."  I've really been enjoying Rebels, it definitely feels like Star Wars.  I know a lot of people preferred Clone Wars, but I just couldn't get into Clone Wars.  Rebels I was hooked from the first episode.  I really like the characters, especially Sabine and Hera.  I did think that Ezra was annoying in some of the earlier episodes, but even he's developed into a good character over the course of the series.

Watching this show, I really wonder what happens to these characters between Rebels and A New Hope.  It seems very likely to me that they pretty much would all have to die at some point, probably in some kind of act that starts to pull the threads of the Rebellion together. The teaser for the season finale definitely suggests someone will be dying next week, and I think Kanan is the most obvious choice.