editorial by Dr. Richard R. Reichel

Hollywood and the entire United States are missing out on huge opportunities that not only could improve the entertainment industry, but greatly benefit our nation financially and add thousands of jobs.

Remember what happened to our automotive industry because of foreign imports? Something similar is occurring with America’s film industry. Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries are slowly but surely taking our movie and TV business away. China is rapidly building up a significant film enterprise.

In the U.S., California is no longer No. 1 for filmmaking. Louisiana does more production. California says it will triple its tax-credit dollars to $330 million, but this is too little too late.

I actually am amazed that Batwing lasted as long as it did. The fact is managed to reach 34 issues (36 if you count the 0 issues and the Future's End special) is a pretty astonishing feat. Batwing seemed perpetually on the low end of the sale's chart, but DC stuck with it for a long time. Batwing started as a member of Batman Inc stationed in Africa who would deal with villains and problems in that region. It was a very unique book, and I thought Judd Winick did a great job with it.

There have been quite a few comic series lately that have expanded on or continued TV series. Smallville, Arrow, Flash, Young Justice, Buffy, Angel, X-Files, and Charmed come to mind. Most of these series have been very good. In fact, I was never even much of a fan of Smallville, but the comic series was excellent. I actually like this trend, and hope we see it more for TV series, especially those that ended far too soon.

Silk #1

Written by: Robbie Thompson
Art by: Stacey Lee
Colored by: Ian Herring
Lettered by: VC’s Travis Lanham
Cover by: Dave Johnson

This contest has completed. The randomly selected winner is Eric R. of Gibsonia, PA. Congratulations, Eric!

Batman has joined the newly formed Justice League in order to keep tabs on Superman, a mistrust that is complicated by Superman’s clumsy – but well-meaning – clone, Bizarro. Bizarro’s creation of the Bizarro League has caused confusion amongst the world’s greatest Super Heroes, but an even greater and mysterious threat may force the Justice League and Bizarro League to band together to defeat evil.

Okay, we know you're here to enter your name into the form at the bottom and get into this giveaway. But before we get to that, we have some things here that we think you'll really enjoy.

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

Chris: I've got to say, I'm not really certain where a lot these matches are going.  WWE TV has certainly picked up on the Road to Wrestlemania.  Roman Reigns' stock has risen in my eyes because he has Daniel Bryan there to help get him over.  My first thoughts on the show are a lot of title changes.  I miss Elimination Chamber, which was a super fun gimmick match, but this is shaping up to be a solid show with lots of fresh matches.

From Variety:

Aquaman has officially landed.

Director Zack Snyder tweeted the first photo of Jason Momoa as DC Comics superhero Aquaman on Thursday night.

Momoa, ex-star of “Game of Thrones,” will appear in Snyder’s upcoming film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” as well as the future Justice League films.

In the DC comic books, Aquaman is the king of the seven seas, hence the poster slogan.

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” hits theaters March 25, 2016.

Here’s the full photo:

Source: Variety

I've been a fan of Funko's Pop Vinyl line for a while, and Doctor Who has always been a license I hoped they would get around to releasing.  Well, good news everyone, starting in June, we will finally have some cute, beady eyed Doctor Who vinyls for your display shelves.  The line will have nine figures: Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the TARDIS, a Dalek, a Weeping Angel, a Cyberman, and an Adipose.

I ended up already pre-ordering Tom Baker, Peter Capaldi, and David Tennant.  And I think the Dalek is particularly bad ass. 

Here are the pictures:

During Grant Morrison's rather insane run through the BATMAN series a while back, there were two issues that seemed a little off: BATMAN #666 and BATMAN #700. These featured a rather violent Batman a generation into the future. We learned that this Batman was the grown Damian Wayne, and he seemed a little off in the head (he talks to a cat named Alfred) and he's got a bit of an invulnerability power not seen before. Morrison seemed to be messing with our heads with this, because some time after that, in current continuity, Damian was killed at the hands of his mother, Talia al Ghul.

With Damian's recent resurrection -- and with super powers, no less -- it seems almost a certainty that this Batman is an established future, much the way that Jason Todd's death became an established past with statements made in Frank Miller's BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

What’s this now?

As part of Critical Blast’s journey through the DC Multiverse, Open Mike Night will be expanding to showcase some of the comics that helped shape DC’s many, many worlds. We have some pretty cool features planned here, so keep coming back.

As Marvel keeps rolling out their Secret Wars plans, we will probably be expanding to include some of those worlds too.  More on that in the coming weeks!

Justice League of America (1960) 29+30

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• NXT Takeover: Rival Results

• All Time Favorite Wrestlers

This contest is completed. The randomly selected winner is MELANIE D. of CORDOVA, TN.  Congratulations!

You've either got one, you know one, or you are one. That's 'The Duff' -- an acronym that stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend, the person who's a member of the clique for the purpose of making all the other members look that much better.

But it's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you can proudly declare your own Duff-dom by displaying this theatrical poster from the release of this Ari Sandel film starring Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell. All you have to do is enter your 411 in the form below, and elevate yourself from DUFF to WOAPOAIS (Winner of a Prize on an Internet Site).

USA Today anounced:

John Oliver is returning to HBO for two more seasons, the cable network announced today.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver will have 35 shows each for Season 3, due in 2016, and Season 4 in 2017.

"We are incredibly proud to have John as part of the HBO family," HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said in a statement. "His unique ability to deliver socially significant commentary week after week, along with his innate comedic brilliance, puts John in a class by himself."

BATMAN: BLINK collects two stories from the inventive concept that was LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, a series where Batman stories could be told without regard to where in the current continuity any of the other Bat-books might be.

In this volume, written by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie, readers are introduced to a blind man who has the ability to see through the eyes of others if he touches them. To date, he's been using this ability to live the good life -- just wait until the last 'touch' pays their bills, then use the information about their checking account to funnel money to another account. It was a pretty sweet con... until his last 'touch' puts him behind the eyes of a wanted serial killer, and he witnesses the next victim's capture. He stops this from happening, but in doing so makes himself a suspect.

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

MPH #5 (Of 5) – I have to admit, I actually had forgotten that this series hadn’t finished yet. When you’re doing a short mini-series, why don’t you just finish the series before you release them? MPH has been an excellent series from Millar about super speed pills falling in the hands of some small time criminals. Starlight and MPH were two of my favorite series last year, so I am really looking forward to Chrononauts in the coming weeks.

It's a big chapter in the (after) life of Lenore, the cute little dead girl, as creator Roman Dirge delves into the Secret Origin of Taxidermy. No, not the art of mounting dead animals (and I don't mean... oh, just for get it!), but Lenore's chilling and sinister friend with antlers, who has a penchant for killing.

I'm lucky to have experienced Beatlemania. Unfortunately, it was thirty years after all the other wild teenage girls. I grew up listening to the music my parent's enjoyed like most children. But I didn't just tolerate it, I loved it...with a passion! Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen played on my tape deck non-stop and my radio was always set to the New York area oldies station, CBS-FM. And then, I can't remember what started it, but I discovered the Beatles. When I did, it exploded. I listened to my parents' vinyls, they bought me the CD's as they were released, I watched the Beatles movies on repeat and tried to get my hands on any form of them performing. Remember, this was well before YouTube. I couldn't just type in “Beatles” into a search box and click through all of the results. I had to seek as much as I could and, trust me, I did. I had been infected with Beatlemania and completely understood the allure. And for me, I never lost that adoration.

Announced on Newsarama over the weekend:

Looks like someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting a promotion.

Deadline is reporting that Adrianne Palicki, who has guest starred recently on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird), has been upped to series regular. Palicki debuted in the role in the second episode of the show's second season, and will be seen next in the mid-season premiere on March 3.

In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Palicki's character of Bobbi Morse was introduced as a HYDRA operative who had secretly been working as a double-agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. Morse's ex-husband, Lance Hunter, remains a HYDRA agent.

If the first volume of SECRET ORIGINS makes anything else clearer about the continuity of the New 52, it is this: It's a Batman world, and we're all just living in it.

This set kicks off just the way it should for a new series of origins of DC characters -- with Superman, whose origin comes courtesy of Greg Paks and Lee Weeks. It's a unique way to tell the age-old story, as Paks chooses to come at it from the point of two mothers, each carrying the same message despite being galaxies apart. Tony Bedard and Paulo Siqueira deliver the origin of the other Kryptonian sporting the crest of the House of El, Supergirl. This provides a detailed look into her family history, including the military and scientific roles played by her parents, and how those roles conflicted.

Spider-Verse has been going on for about 30 comics and 6 months now. All together, it was a really good event. It was pretty epic in scale, and you can tell the creative team was having a lot of fun throwing together different versions of Spider-Man and seeing what would come out of it. We got to see some characters I really miss take the spotlight like Mayday. We've also gotten some interesting new characters added to the mix, like Silk and Spider-Gwen, both will be receiving their own series in the coming weeks. And we finally got to see some confrontations between Peter Parker and the Superior Spider-Man. I also thought the Inheritors were impressive villains, and it was great to see something done with the lore JMS had built up during his run. So I was really looking forward to seeing how this story would play out.

Amazing Spider-Man #14 - Spider-Verse Finale