Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 04/28/2015 - 19:49
One of the things Zenescope is known best for is they have a variety of series that are modern day versions of various classic and fairy tale stories, most notably their Grimm and Oz lines. So, when I heard that Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen was supposed to be a very good jumping on point for Oz, I decided to check it out.
Before I get into the review, I do want to say that one of the early impressions I had about these books was that they had done a lot of cheesecake redesigns for the characters. In fact, when you search for “Zenescope Grimm” on Google, one of the first images that comes up is this:
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 04/28/2015 - 03:00
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!
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Mon, 04/27/2015 - 12:44
Charmed Season 10 #7
Written by: Pat Shand Art by: Dimat Cover by: David Seidman Colored by: Valentina Cuomo Lettered by: Christy Sawyer
Published by: Zenescope Cover Price: $3.99
Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!
Even though I just reviewed Charmed a few months ago, this was supposed to be a good jump on issue for new readers, so I decided to give it another shot. This story was mostly a stand alone story, though there was a lot here that provided closure to hanging story threads, and a lot of setup for future storylines too.
Submitted by Critical Blast Staff on Sat, 04/25/2015 - 03:00
Convergence Week 3 by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver
This week, we have Pre-Crisis Gotham City, New York City (Kamandi), Gotham City (Red Rain), Central City (Tangent), Durale (OMAC), and Pre-Crisis Legion Metropolis as our combatants...though I will say up front, you don’t get to see much of these characters in many of the tie-ins.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 04/24/2015 - 11:36
Very interesting news posted by Gamespot this morning:
Today during a special event in San Francisco, Telltale Games and Marvel Games announced a partnership for a new game due out in 2017.
The event is ongoing; we'll have more details on the new game as they become available.
Telltale has also published a blog post about this announcement, though it doesn't offer much in the way of specifics.
"Announced this evening in San Francisco, we're excited to reveal an all-new partnership with the incredible team at Marvel Entertainment. We'll be teaming up on the development of an upcoming Telltale game series project set to premiere in 2017!"
Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 09:10
UPDATE (7-7-15): The official website for DC Super Hero Girls is now up and running with full character bios! Head on over to dcsuperherogirls.com to check it out!
DC couldn't have picked a better time to make this announcement. Whether it was planned to do it now, or they saw an opportunity and seized it; it's genius.
On the heels of fans raging about the lack of Black Widow on Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise, DC announced they would be creating an entire line of merchandise and media dedicated to young girls.
DC Super Hero Girls is a new effort to nurture the growing female audience and invest in the future of their strong female characters.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 04/21/2015 - 03:00
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!
I'm going to preface this week's column by saying this is one of the weakest comic weeks I've had in a long time. Very few books jumped out at me as MUST TALK ABOUT! And even the few I did, were real stretches. The only book that I am real excited about is Uncle Scrooge #1...
SCARLETT COUTURE is a book that gets your attention through its stylish designs, eye-popping colors, and an overall unique approach. Many of the panels appear to be animation cels overlaid with blurred photo backgrounds that were then flattened to give the piece an overall unified appearance.
Submitted by Critical Blast Staff on Sun, 04/19/2015 - 03:00
By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver
Convergence: Justice League International #1 by Ron Marz & Mike Manley
Summary:The Justice League International (Blue Beetle, Red Tornado, Martain Manhunter, Captain Atom, Fire, and Ice) were trapped in the dome. Most of them have lost their powers, but they continue to protect an unappreciative Metropolis from threats like Metallo. The dome comes down, and several heavy hitters from Kingdom Come arrive to challenge them.
THE POSTHUMAN PROJECT is an idea we've seen before, any number of times with varying degrees of success, with outings like X-MEN and GEN-13. In this particular version of the trope, the teens are a group of Oklahoma high school kids nearing graduation. To celebrate, they're going to climb a mountain. Denny Burke (Kyle Whalen) is still recovering from falling off a mountain, in a freak accident which also saw his father disappear.
All is not as it seems, however, as Denny and his beleaguered brother, Archie (Collin Place), meet their long-lost Uncle Billy (Jason Leyva), and his unusual offer. Soon enough, the Burke brothers, joined by their friends Adam (Josh Bonzie), Lisa (Alexandra Harris) and Gwen (Lindsay Sawyer) pile into the SUV and drive off to conquer Mount Dominick, which Uncle Billy now owns.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 04/14/2015 - 03:00
I think Valiant has been very smart about limiting the number of books they put out at one time. There have been some new series, but for the most part, they have kept their number of books very consistent. The original Valiant seemed to expand way too quickly, and as a result, they had a lot of books put out by weak creative teams. Valiant seems to have a good plan in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
One thing that’s odd about the comic industry is that in order to help sell books, we get to see solicits of upcoming titles months in advance. So that tends to diminish some shocking moments. For example, at the end of The Valiant, before she dies, the Geomancers last act is to free Bloodshot from the nanites in his system, turning him human again. But, since we already knew there was an issue called Bloodshot Reborn, coming out a few weeks later, it was obvious this wouldn’t stick.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 04/14/2015 - 03:00
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!
Fox #1 - Black Hood has been excellent, and The Fox has an extra bonus of being written by Mark Waid. So this is definitely my early pick for book of the week...though there is a lot of competition.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Mon, 04/13/2015 - 12:39
This is the trailer Marvel posted this morning. It definitely looks like it will live up to the terrific movies Marvel has been putting out the last few years. I'm still not sure Ant-Man needs his own movie, but at least the movie does look pretty awesome. I laughed when Lang says "my days of breaking into places to steal stuff are over. What do you want me to do?" and Pym replies, "I want you to break into some place to steal some stuff."
If nothing else, the effects look incredible. And the Yellowjacket costume looks incredible. I was actually thinking that Pym was going to end up having a split personality and secretly be Yellowjacket, but the trailer definitely suggests otherwise.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Sun, 04/12/2015 - 03:00
Convergence: Speed Force #1 by Tony Bedard and Tom Grummett
About a year ago, Wally West and his twins felt something calling them to Gotham. They arrive there just in time for the dome to appear stranding them from Linda and taking away their powers. A year later, Wally has been spending his time trying to break free. Once the dome falls, Flash is supposed to fight Flashpoint Wonder Woman, but he decides to break the rules and races off to try and help other cities that were taken here by Telos. He ends up in El Inferno, which has already fallen. Telos warns Flash if he refuses to fight, his family will fall too. Flash races through the various cities trying to find his way back to Gotham. He encounters Fastback, a speedster turtle from Captain Carrot's world. Fastback proposes all the speedsters team up, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Wonder Woman and an army of Amazons.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Sat, 04/11/2015 - 03:00
As I was sitting down with my tablet trying to figure out which Convergence titles I wanted to review this week, I suddenly had the idea “LET’S DO THEM ALL!” This probably was a terrible idea, and speaks to mental illness, but let’s try this! I am posting this in two parts. Convergence 0, Convergence 1, and the first five issues today (alphabetically) and the rest tomorrow.
