Titan Comics sent us over the following solicit for Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #9, which will be coming out in June...

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #9 ​(in stores June 3) ​sees the Doctor rub shoulders with Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin!  A brand-new story begins, as the Doctor and Clara are forced to ally with gangsters on the Vegas strip to combat an even more terrifying foe!

Will the Doctor's morals prove as alien as the unearthly invaders – or can he triumph without compromise... in 'GANGLAND'?

Maillaro: We decided to double it up with some X-Men this week. 

You might wonder why exactly we picked Uncanny 250.  There is literally NOTHING special about that issue other than the number.  Something we started doing in this column a long time ago was that we made a commitment to review every fifty issues of Uncanny X-Men.  It's take some time, as it just tends to happen when we feel like it, but this is our fifth entry in the series.  1, 50, 100, 150, 200, and now 250. 

On with the reviews!

All-New X-Men #36

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

My favorite moments as a film critic are the times when I take my seat at a theater and think, “Good grief, why on earth did I accept this review opportunity? This is gonna be awful!” And then I’m completely wrong and I couldn’t be happier. The first time I can really remember this happening was when I saw “Scott Pilgrim vs The World,” a film adaption of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Ameri-manga comic. I sat that mumbling to myself about how bad that movie was going to be, and by the time it was over I declared it the best thing I’d seen in years.

BIRD PEOPLE, directed by Pascale Ferran, is what I call a “boutique” movie: one that will appeal to a select audience, an audience that loves independent, off the beaten path foreign movies filmed outside the realm of traditional Hollywood style; movies that are thick on imagery and symbolism, have periods of no dialog to make you think, subtitles, and in which almost everyone smokes cigarettes.

BIRD PEOPLE centers on Gary Newman (Josh Charles), an American from Silicon Valley U.S.A. in France for business, and Audrey Camuzet (Anais Demoustier), a maid at the Hilton airport hotel Gary is staying at. Gary is burnt out and fed up with everything and, while staying in the hotel, comes to the realization that he’s done with it all and leaves his wife and his job. Audrey it seems is just as tired of the same old life she has too.

LEGO does it again with this humorous treatment of our favorite super heroes.

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS BIZARRO LEAGUE opens with an introduction to who Bizarro is and what his motivations are, as well as how Superman thought he had dealt with the simple-minded creature for good. But a year later, the Justice League -- Superman (Nolan North), Batman (Troy Baker), Wonder Woman (Kari Wahlgren), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Guy Gardner (Diedrich Bader), Plastic Man (Tom Kenny), Flash (James Arnold Taylor), Hawkman and Green Arrow (both voiced by Phil Morris) -- are up against Gorilla Grodd (Kevin Michael Richardson) and his mind-controlled crew of Giganta (April Winchell), Penguin, Deathstroke, and Captain Cold. This was a fun melee battle scene that brings in characters we've never seen in LEGO minifig version before, creating an immediate want in the market for some figures that don't exist yet. Genius! (Because I want my Plastic Man minifig!)

Kate Connors and Kipp Lanham are Senior Account Managers at Media & Communications Strategies, Inc. (http://www.macstrategies.com/)   

Every Sunday night, viewers across the U.S. are getting schooled in early 20th century English lifestyle as they watch the ever-exciting Downtown Abbey. This PBS Masterpiece Theatre follows the lives of the Crawley family and their household staff. It has become a fan favorite across the globe. Although the lessons seem to be tailored towards polite society and upstairs/downstairs relationships, there are often lessons that PR professionals can learn from this vivacious cast of characters.

1)      "I hate to get news second-hand." - Violet Crawley.

To say that the Internet has revolutionized society is a saying so commonly obvious that even the television gecko and camel sneer at me for saying it. But for fans of comics and fantasy, it truly is a whole new world -- or rather a doorway to whole new worlds -- as it allows new artists to have their material seen by millions of people at once. I've seen my share of struggling artists showing off their talents (and, sometimes, lack thereof), but I was particularly taken with the work I started to see from a name I hadn't encountered.

The Ame-Comi vision of DC's super heroines in statue form was so popular that DC brought the characters to the comics. Whether the Ami-Comi girls exist on one of the reserved 52 worlds of the DC multiverse isn't made clear, but the changes are more than simply aesthetic. Almost all of the male characters have been represented as females, including Darkseid. It's similar to the conceit of the gender-swapped reality of Earth 11, but also radically different in regards to the relationships of the characters to each other and their world.

This week!

• NXT Takeover: Rival Predictions
• NJPW: The New Beginning
• NXT Takeover: Rival
• Current Favorite Wrestlers

Mike: My name is Mikey Rage and this is my tag team partner Christopher Truth!  Together, we are Ragin’ Truth!   Let’s get to Truthin’!

WWE NXT Takeover: Rival Predictions

No Disqualification Match:
Baron Corbin vs. Bull Dempsey

Mike’s Prediction: Dempsey

Chris's Prediction: Corbin

You know, being a comic journalist is always a pretty fun gig...but then there are days you get to announce things like this, and it becomes the best job in the world:

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.

Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.

I've been a fan of The Dresden Files for a while.  Mike Weaver (my co-writer on Open Mike Night) introduced me to the books years ago.  I even liked the short-lived TV series on Sci-Fi.  All that said, this is my first time reading any of the comic series.  

According to Dynamite, this series takes place a few months after the events in the book White Night.

The Dresden Files: Down Town #1 

Written by: Jim Butcher & Mark Powers
Pencilled by: Carlos Gomez
Cover by: Stjepan Sejic
Colored by: Mohan
Lettered by: Bill Tortolini

Published by: Dynamite
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

When I got the movie, my first thought was, “Well, I'm definitely not watching this in front of my parents!” Just look at the box adorned with a cat-o'tails and fuzzy handcuffs! I'm sure the average viewer runs screaming and innocent women swoon. Or do they? With the recent popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey and normalization of alternative sex ideas, it seems like kink interests are on the rise. The average housewife now knows all about the other uses of a necktie. With all that in mind and ensuring the youth of the household was safely tucked away in bed, I popped in the documentary, Kink, and buckled myself in.

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

Amazing Spider-Man #14 - The end of Spiderverse!  I've really enjoyed this crossover, and I can't wait to see how this changes the status quo for the Spider-Man titles.  I especially wonder what's going to happen to Spider-Ock, since he seems to have a sense that he is working on borrowed time.

I don’t find a whole lot of modern music to be my cup of tea. It seems so often overproduced, Auto-Tuned, and predictable. When I discover an act that feels a little different from the rest, an act that features honest vocals, strong musicianship and more mature songwriting than a bunch of “Yeah, yeah, baby, baby, blah blah blahs,” that’s when I get excited.

Divinity is the first new Valiant series in a while that doesn't seem to have any direct connection to the rest of the "Valiant-verse." I think that is a huge strength for this book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Valiant universe, but this book felt very unique and distinctive, standing out even among the rest of the terrific comics that Valiant puts out every month.

Divinity #1

Written by: Matt Kindt

Pencilled by: Trevor Hairsine

Inked by: Ryan Winn

Colored by: David Baron

Lettered by: Dave Lanphear

Published by: Valiant

Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

This might sound strange, but I only recently became a Spawn fan. I couldn't even tell you what made me decide to check out Spawn, but after doing some marathon reading over the last several months, #246 was the first issue I bought new. Which was a real hassle, because Spawn is one of the few mainstream comics that was not available digitally. I've mentioned in the past, I really don't have a regular comic shop, and it seemed like most stores don't order much Spawn at this point. I also don't have a lot of room to store comics right now, but I was really invested in Spawn, so I would make the effort to get these issues. 

The third volume in the worlds most expensive series with the greatest publishing interval is finally here -- and it's worth it on both counts.

SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE's third volume picks up right where the second volume left off -- with the world leaders aghast at this new Superman's brashness at deposing a despotic leader, and the United States military complex hiring the two most brilliant minds on Earth to devise a way to stop him: Lex and Alexandra Luthor.

Oh, and it introduces us to: The Superman Signal! But more about that later.

From DC:

This summer, DC Entertainment launches a bold new direction for the DC Universe (DCU) that is even more inclusive and accessible to a wider group of readers as the publisher continues to evolve comic storytelling for its next generation of fans.  Award-winning, critically acclaimed writers are headlining the June 2015 slate of DC Comics’ new periodicals and graphic novels, including Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Hitch, Garth Ennis and Ming Doyle. 

Beginning June 3rd, the DC Comics line of comic books will consist of 24 brand-new series that will begin at issue number one, as well as 25 on-going, bestselling fan favorite series that will continue without a break in the issue numbering.  The total number of periodicals in the DCU will be 49, with additional new titles debuting throughout the year.

Maillaro: Hank Pym is Weaver’s favorite character, and with the movie coming up (plus two Ant-Man comics came out this week), we decided to throw a spotlight on him.

Marvel’s Ant-Man Prelude

Written by: Will Corona Pilgrim

Pencilled by:  Miguel Sepulveda

Inked by: BIT

Whenever I'm offered an opportunity to review children's material, I jump. To be honest, I'm basically a little kid at heart, but that's not the real reason. My 22-month old son, Nate, is the driving force behind reviews like this. I'm so excited to share with him all the things I grew up loving.

Baseball has been one of those passions my entire life, so I'm thrilled to review Marla McKenna's nifty double play of titles. Let me start with Mom's Big Catch from Tate Publishing. It's obvious McKenna understands the game of baseball and the passion we fans feel for our team. Even more, she has chosen to enter the story on an ambition of many denizens of the ballpark--catching a ball!