I recently reviewed Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and enjoyed it immensely. I then watched the Wachowski siblings' "Jupiter Ascending" and found that Cinderella in outer space without catchy songs, strong dialogue, an interesting antagonist or a heroic hero figure is nowhere near as enjoyable.

From Newsarama:

 The Avengers may be ending in April, but Marvel's already got a new group on deck to stand in -- and they're from the future.

Marvel has announced a new Secret Wars 2099 series with the never-seen Avengers of the year 2099 stepping forward into what's left of their universe, according to IGN. The book is by the Spider-Man 2099 creative team of Peter David and Will Sliney, and that series will end in April with their storylines carried on in Secret Wars 2099.

David says the Avengers of Secret Wars 2099 will be a corporate-sponsored team under the watch of Alchemax, with the writer noting that it's similiar to his recent All-New X-Factor run but that Alchemax is "more or less running the United States in 2099."

One thing this won't tie into David says is Secret Wars, interestingly enough.

This has been teased for a while, but BBC finally made it official: LEGO DOCTOR WHO!

Doctor Who Lego is about to become a reality - and production is starting later this year.

The successful pitch, which was sent to Lego's Ideas website, included plans for a Tardis and figures including Peter Capaldi and David Tennant.

Lego have yet to reveal exactly what will feature within the set.

The initial concept, created by Doctor Who fan Andrew Clark, included monsters and villains like the Angel and a Dalek.

The images he has shared are of models he has made, rather than pictures of what the final product will look like.

"Both Doctor Who and Lego enjoy a particularly close relationship with their fans and I can't wait to see what Lego produce," said Marcus Arthur, managing director at BBC Worldwide UK.

Along with the Doctor Who set, Lego also announced plans for a new design based on Wall-E.

They still haven't shown us Daredevil in costume, but this show really seems to have the tone and feel of the character and Hell's Kitchen perfectly. The more I see of the Marvel shows that will be airing on Netflix, the more impressed I am. They seem to be well cast and put together. At this point, you really come to expect nothing less from Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

All the episodes for Daredevil will be posted up on April 10, 2015, and I am definitely planning to marathon watch them.   

by Chris Delloiacono and Mike Maillaro

This week!

• Raw Gets Snowed out

• NJPW

• Pro Wrestling Syndicate: Frozen Fallout

• NXT Update

DC posted up a first look at Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer in the Atom (technically A.T.O.M. in the show) costume from upcoming episodes of Arrow.  Honestly, I wasn't sure how this would look on the screen, but they really have made it work!  I really like how all the characters have looked in the Arrow/Flash universe so far, but this might be the best one yet.

I wasn't a huge fan of Brandon Routh in Superman Returns,but so far he's been great as Ray Palmer in Arrow.   He has a little more personality than he ever did in the comics.  It seems like whenever DC wanted to give personality to Ray Palmer, they made him crazy.  But this version is much more nuanced, and he's been a great addition to the Arrow cast this year.   

After I posted up all the movie trailers from the Superbowl, I got a request from one of our readers to post up the Heroes Reborn teaser too.  This is the version off NBC's website, which features a quick thing on The Blacklist before the teaser:

Disney sent us over some promotional material for the upcoming Frozen short "Frozen Fever" which will be screening in theaters before the live-action Cinderella, starting in March 13, 2015.

In “Frozen Fever,” it's Anna's birthday and Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but when Elsa catches a cold, her powers may put more than just the party at risk.

Starring:Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad

Directors:    Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Here is a First Look video:

Because we love you, the faithful Critical Blast Reader, we have collected some of the trailers from this year's Super Bowl and posted them below!  

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

Spawn #250 – Over the last few months, I’ve become a huge Spawn fan.  I know, I know…REAL LATE TO THE PARTY.  Issue 250 marks some dramatic changes to the series, including the return of Al Simmons (Al Simmons basically killed himself back in issue 185 and the series has been about his replacement).  Issue 250 will also be the first issue of Spawn to be available digitally!  This is a huge relief.  I’ve had to drive all over the place for the last few issues.  Lack of a local comic shop, plus a fairly niche title.  Not a good combination.

Valiant dropped us a line today to tell us about a pretty awesome upcoming mini-series:

When Multiversity Guidebook came out, I immediately thought it would be cool if someone had taken all the information in it and created a online handbook people could use to identify the various universes that made up DC's Multiverse.  Then it occurred to me, we should do it here on Critical Blast!

Thanks to Chris, Patti, and RJ for coming up with the name.  I wanted to give it some kind of name like "Visiting The DC Multiverse for a Dollar a Day" or "DC Travelouge," but we ended up settling with Hitchhiker's Guide to the DC Multiverse. Don't forget to bring your towel!

You will see there are seven universes below listed as Unknown.  I wasn't just being lazy, DC seems to have left these blank for now.  I'm not sure if they were just leaving themselves some leeway if they wanted to add something later or if they were holding back some surprises. My guesses for some of them are:

If you follow the theatre scene in St. Louis beyond the Broadway tour shows at the Fabulous Fox, you will probably recognize their names: Zachary Allen Farmer, Jeffrey M, Wright, and Todd Schaefer. They’ve performed in a wide variety of shows across the St. Louis region, and most recently performed together in New Line Theatre’s brilliant Hand on a Hardbody last spring. Each bring something unique to their roles and this past Saturday night was no exception as the terrific trio took the tiny stage at the Kranzberg Arts Center to perform an adult cabaret set entitled Shootin’ Some $#!%, directed by New Line Theatre’s Mike Dowdy and featuring the music direction and piano playing of Paul Cereghino. It was a one night only show, and if you missed it you missed out on a wonderful hour of song by three excellent voices and ending that you won’t see very often on any stage.

From People Magazine:

There's a new Disney princess in town – and for the first time, she's Latina.

On Thursday, Disney Junior announced that Princess Elena of Avalor will make her debut in 2016 on a special episode of Sofia the First, the network's hit show for preschoolers.

Princess Elena is "a confident and compassionate teenager in an enchanted fairy tale kingdom inspired by diverse Latin cultures and folklore," the network said in a statement. After her introduction on Sofia, 16-year-old Elena will star in her own spin-off series, Elena of Avalor, also set to debut on Disney Junior in 2016.

Dominican Republic-born Aimee Carrero of ABC Family's Young & Hungry, 26, will voice Elena, whose backstory is connected to the magical amulet Sofia wears on the show.

Spider-Man 2099 #8

Written by: Peter David 

Art by: Will Sliney 

Colored by: Antonio Fabela

Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna 

Cover by: Francesco Mattina

Published by: Marvel

Cover Price: $3.99

Note: This is a review of the digital version which can be found on Comixology.

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

By Mike Weaver and Mike Maillaro

Thor (2014) #4

Written by: Jason Aaron

Art by:  Russell Dauterman

Cover by: Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson

Over at Newsarama, I saw this:

The phrase "Avengers Assemble!" may never be more apt than when talking about products like these. On Thursday Marvel and LEGO Group announced new products on two fronts -- a new console video game and a lush new S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier playset.

Celebrations to include collectible giveaways, events, and new publishing

NEW YORK, NY—January 29, 2015—Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking Graphix imprint in 2015, with a yearlong celebration to include collectible giveaways, special events, and new publishing. Graphix is dedicated to publishing engaging, age-appropriate graphic novels for children and teens. Supported by librarians, teachers, and most important, kids, Graphix titles have become bestsellers around the globe and continue to receive awards and critical acclaim including multiple Eisner Award wins and nominations, a Stonewall Book Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor, an Edgar Allan Poe nomination, and 14 New York Times bestsellers to date.

Valentine's Day is a day made for cuddling -- and nobody cuddles better than Doc McStuffins' friend Lambie!

However, when Doc gets a new stuffed friend from her parents for Valentine's Day, a heart named Val, Lambie feels threatened. Val's doing all the things that are normally Lambie's area of expertise -- giving out hugs, getting into photographs, and generally being the life of the party as she makes friends with all of Doc's entourage of toys. Doc has proven especially talented at fixing broken toys -- but what can she do to fix a broken heart?

This contest has ended.

The randomly selected winner is: NICOLE L. of TUCSON, AZ!

Stay tuned for another Power Rangers give3away soon.

Go! Go! Power Rangers! Fans of Saban's MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, do we have your attention? Good, because this contest is geared to you!

Up for grabs is the boxed set of 19 DVDs marketed as MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE COMPLETE SERIES. Yes, we know they made more episodes after these first three seasons, we didn't package it up. This cool set -- still in shrinkwrap -- includes the aforementioned discs in five cases, plus a booklet. You'll get the ten-episode ALIEN RANGERS miniseries, rare archival footage, retrospective featurettes, and so much more!