Howdy howdy! This here is a good ol’ fashioned TV News Roundup where we the good folk of Grizzly Bomb scour the big bad internets machine on the look-out for the news you need and gosh darn just want.
And that’s about as far as I’m taking that.
Hokey fake cowboy talk aside, this really is a TV News Roundup where we’ll scour the latest TV news and compile it for you in one easy to read place, no need to wade through countless photos of a Kardashian or Justin Bieber here!
We have some information on an interesting new movie called All Superheroes Must Die. Before I go into too much detail of the story, here is the teaser trailer to give you an idea of what type of film director Jason Trost has made.
Looks pretty interesting does it not? From the get go it is action packed and has a very dark edge to it. Here is the full trailer which gives a lot more information away.
Now this looks like an incredibly exciting concept for a film. The low tech approach to the superheroes is probably to do with budgetary reasons, but I think in this case it will actually work in the films favor, because it gives it a Kick Ass feel to it. Young (possibly inexperienced) superheroes fighting against a tournament of death with what seems like no powers, has must see written all over it. For the superhero movie genre this is a new way of thinking. But there are parallels to other movies as well. The first that springs to mind is the Saw franchise. An older main villain who has set a series of life threatening traps involving civilians which look like they will go off unless the superhero does something they don’t really want to do. Yes this has all the makings of a Saw meets Kick Ass extravaganza. The photography has that very dark and grainy look we all associate with Saw movies as well.
The more exciting thing I noticed however was how it felt a lot like The Running Man. There are at least two super villains in here, one pumped up fighter in a massive homemade wrestling ring and a psycho Uncle Sam with a flame thrower. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg for the super villains in this movie. The personalized settings for each villain and what looks like their own mode of killing (brute strength and fire) certainly harks back to this classic 80’s movie.
The inclusion of a sinister, yet calm villain played by James Remar (Dexter and The Warriors) looks to be a great casting choice. What I noticed about his character is he seems a lot like the assassin Arcade from Marvel Comics. In the comics he would torment the heroes by putting them into killer challenges, all involving them having to figure out a way of not getting murdered. They both even have a bow tie (though to be fair Arcades is a lot bigger).
All this in just a short 1 minute and 30 second trailer! This movie has a release date of January time, but it is unclear if or how long it will have a cinema release for. No matter what happens, on its release this is a film to look out for in the future.
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order…
Grace Randolph’s ‘Superbia’ brings capes down to Earth.
Admittedly I’m not very familiar with Grace Randolph’s work. It looks like she’s most notable for her Warcraft and Starcraft comics, and there’s probably a big chance I’m missing some vastly important, seminal work of hers and I’m going to look a fool for not knowing it. As I’ve previously said here before, you should own what you don’t know, and be willing to admit your ignorance, rather than feign knowledge. So why am I bringing up her work here today?
Because the pitch of her new book Superbia sounds pretty interesting, if fairly derivative. On first glance it appears to be a story about superheroes putting down the capes and accepting a normal life in the suburbs, hence the name. While that’s been the focus of countless superhero stories, it’s never really been the focus of an entire book. How would you approach your ordinary, everyday life if you had superpowers? I know I’d mess with people a lot. How much only depends on what power I had. As for the book, it looks interesting, and I’m always supportive of original creator owned indie books any day of the week.
It appears good ol’ Brian Michael Bendis is at it again, this time he’s writing yet another story that’s gonna be the be-all, end-all story of stories that he’s been alluding to and foreshadowing all this time all along. Ultron, our favorite evil robot that occasionally runs amok, has gained the upper hand over everyone else, and has decimated the Marvel Universe. The cover even implies that he’s killed a bunch of the fan faves in his conquest, leaving everything in his wake destroyed. Will Ultron be killing Iron Man and Captain America? Maybe. Even if he does though, it’s not like they won’t come back.
[quote]Age of Ultron, a 10-issue event series beginning next March. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco, the book begins with the villainous robot Ultron, a corrupted creation of Avenger Hank Pym aka Ant-Man, having completely taken over and seemingly killed a good deal of the Marvel Universe. Foreshadowed for years throughout numerous Bendis comics including this year’s Age of Ultron 0.1 special, Age of Ultron is said to conclude in a fashion so shocking that only six people actually know what will happen.[/quote]
Six people! They’re locking it down like nuclear launch codes, or the secret 11 herbs and spices for The Colonel’s recipe! Zounds!
America’s Favorite Serial Killer Comes To The Funny Books!
I don’t think they’ve been called “The Funny Books” since 1958, but it doesn’t change the fact that Dexter is making his way to having his own Marvel branded comic miniseries. Fun Fact: I never finished the second season of Dexter, and thusly have never caught up with it. Unfortunately I now know all the spoilers from it and will probably never catch up, but that doesn’t change how much I dug the first season. I wonder how a show with such a time sensitive premise would last beyond a season or two (how has he not been caught yet? Seriously?), but it’s not like I hate the thing.
I am a bit surprised to see it come to be a comic now, but at the same time it makes sense. I would have thought Dynamite would have optioned it first though, if anything, so the fact that Marvel is picking it up is a bit shocking. My main problem is that the guy on the cover looks NOTHING like Michael C. Hall, and I’m guessing he’s either some other character, or they’re trying to adapt what he looks like more directly from the original source material description in the novels. Either way, Dexter fans will probably dig it.
‘The Unwritten’s Cover Artist Wins The Society Of Illustrators Medals.
Yuko Shimizu has done covers for The Unwritten for 46 issues as of now, and every single one is a damned masterpiece. Her style is evocative of Japanese wood-cut style paintings, but with a flowing, hauntingly beautiful style all her own. It’s enough that The Unwritten is singlehandedly one of the best written, and most innovative comics still being printed today, but that every single cover is a beautiful masterpiece. Her work being recognized not only cements her place in mainstream artistic press, but brings legitimacy to the comics medium as a whole through that recognition. Too often are comics looked down upon as lesser forms of art by other artistic organizations, and seeing this happen is pretty darned awesome.
In some news that surprised me, apparently Chew was planned to be around 60 issues. Some may call me out on this, but what they don’t know is I’ve actually met John Layman, and asked him how long he planned for it to go. Back when Chew #2 was coming out, and Layman wasn’t the huge name he is today, there was a pretty big buzz around Chew and my LCS managed to get him to show for a signing. I showed up because I was there to game that night anyway, and bought the comic on a whim after hearing its premise. I decided I might as well meet the guy and have him sign my book, figuring it might be worth something later. Little did I know just how big he, or Chew would grow to be, because If I had known, I would have asked him some better questions. I asked him how he got the idea for such a nutty book, how long he expects it to go on for, and then we talked for a bit about The Walking Dead. He seemed like a really nice, down to earth guy, but I distinctly remember him telling me he didn’t have any idea how long Chew would last, other than he wanted it to be a monthly.
Well time has passed, and it certainly seems like we’re bound to see the beginning of the end for the book, as the book is wrapping up story lines to prepare for its second half. Considering the humorous ingenuity of the book, I predict the ending will pleasantly mirror the beginning. A theme of repetition has been pretty prevalent in the book, as well as it’s delightfully non-linear approach to storytelling. Frankly, I look forward to meeting John Layman again some time in the future, and asking him then if he remembers my LCS, and meeting me. Until then, I’ll keep enjoying Chew, and so should you.
The beginning of this episode of Dexter was simply amazing. When Dexter is dropping a package off at the post office, he imagines slitting the throat of the woman behind the counter (we’ve all been there!). Later, he does the same to Masuka. Being constantly watched by Deb is smothering him to the point that he cannot fulfill his need to kill. Deb’s babysitting solution is clearly not going to work.
In regards to his ‘Louis Problem’ – Dexter sent the ‘Ice Truck Killer Prosthetic’ and a letter to the Miami Metro PD Forensics Department, which got Louis fired. He also sent Jamie a video of Louis getting a BJ from a hooker – Louis isn’t having the best day.
His solution is to drill holes in Dexter’s boat, resulting in the sinking of the Slice of Life. Unfortuately for Louis, the last place Victor’s GPS tracking system pinged was from the dock where Dex keeps said boat. This led Issac to the dock to find Louis, who lies and claims it is in fact his boat. That lie all but sealed his fate as the next person murdered on screen. Implausible set of circumstances? Maybe. Nevertheless, it led to Louis’ death, which felt like this was a very lazy kill-off, but may very well end up Mr. Morgan’s ultimate undoing. As Issac is less concerned with disposing of bodies than Dex is, Louis’ blood is all over the boat. Sure that won’t come into play later…Unable to suppress his urges, Dexter tells Deb about Speltzer, a guy who Dex is pretty sure will kill again, and is a perfect subject to be Dexter’s much needed release. Deb is disgusted at the thought of letting her brother continue killing. However, after everything Dexter says turns out to be true, another girl is dead and Speltzer gets away, Deb tells him that she now understands why this is a necessary evil. This is the only way they could continue the show for another season and a half, making Deb accept him, though she will likely still bring about his demise in the end. She does however set him free from her gaze as she allows him to move back to his own place. Baby steps…
In an amazingly surprising turn of events, Quinn is sleeping with a woman who is directly involved in the case, who told him that her boss wanted her to get close to him, and who is a stripper… yawn. Typical Quinn. Speaking of romantic interests though, Yvonne Strahovski was introduced! She will be helping out with an old case which she was involved in. A case where she fell for a serial killer… Now, Dexter has to get a swab of her saliva from her mouth, and it was honestly sexy. How did she make that sexy? She is magical!
Overall, this episode was slow. You would think that with the murder of an increasingly more important character, this would be a more memorable episode; alas, it was not. The death of Louis seemed like it was very forced, he tells the mob that the boat is Dexter’s, and gets shot. It is too easy, though it’s obvious they are using it to set something else up.
It seems like this episode is definitely setting up for the next episode. Nevertheless, 3.5/5 Grizzlies. The beginning was very well structured, and you could see the anguish in Dexter’s eyes as he tried to hold back from going all Dark Defender on everyone’s asses.
In true Dexter fashion, the latest episode, “Sunshine and Frosty Swirl“ began where the premiere of season 7 left off. The title comes from Dexter’s interaction with an inmate who decided to come clean about where some bodies were hidden, after many years. Since Dexter had to be on the scene, he inquired as to how he changed; how he got rid of his evilness, or his dark passenger. After a gruesome suicide of the inmate (he hurled himself in front of a moving semi truck) Dexter realized that he hadn’t changed, and just wanted some sunshine and the ice cream across the street before killing himself.
After Dexter had officially admitted to Deb that he is a serial killer, she had a very difficult decision to make; does she turn him in, or does she help him? As you know, Deb is a sucker for her big brother and offered to help him try to control his urges. Deb has taken on the duty of rehabilitating her serial killer brother.
Deb has blinded herself to the obvious red flags about her brother being a criminal in the past. She seems to be a great detective, yet she has been completely oblivious to all of the signs. As Deb structures this information in her head, she realizes that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher. She also starts remembering other signs. If this wasn’t hard enough news for her to take, she learns that her hero father whom she has spent her entire life trying to please, even after his death, knew about Dexter’s true nature; and had actually trained Dexter.
Although she tries like hell, Deb cannot watch Dexter 100% of the time. I am not sure what is going to happen between Dexter and Louis; after this episode, Louis is clearly not scared of Dexter. Even though Louis must know many dark things about Dexter’s past, he doesn’t seem phased by what he knows. This leaves two possibilities: Louis doesn’t know just how dangerous Dexter is, or Louis sees himself as more dangerous than Dexter. I am curious to see what comes of this.
A fun little turn of events was that Dexter did not kill anyone, but we did see a gruesome death. A mob boss by the name of Isaac, played by Ray Stevenson, murdered a bouncer by stabbing him in the eye with a screwdriver! Holy shit! This was so quick and unexpected, that I got a little bit nauseous. That is how you know this was a good episode; if you feel a little bit sick at the end.
When Dexter told Deb that he’d already tried to quit before and it didn’t work, her response was something I hadn’t really considered before. We all assume that since Harry had to nurture Dexter’s urges and teach him how to use them in a more positive (uh…ish) way, that there was simply no way he could help himself. However, Deb tells Dexter that since their dad helped him to become this sick man, it might be solely because of that, that he cannot stop. Harry didn’t tell Dexter to stop killing; he told Dexter to be picky about his victims, how to clean up after himself, and how to avoid getting caught. He used his son’s illness as a means to get revenge on the criminals who slipped through the cracks in the judicial system. If Harry had tried to get Dexter help, who knows how he would have turned out? I do not think that as his age, Dexter can change his entire way of thinking… his need. I know that Deb wants to see the good in him, though.
This was a very fun episode for me to watch. Being a huge Dexter fan, and having re-watched every single episode of the show recently, I can honestly say that I am excited for what’s to come this season. I had lost a lot of hope before the premiere, because of the lazy and poorly written previous seasons, but this one seems different. Different is what Dexter needed, no? What makes the boring episodes so lackluster? Normalcy and monotony. Here, we are getting some of the missing pieces to the puzzle that is Dexter Morgan… and I like it.
The long-awaited Season 7 premiere of Dexter was last night, and though I had very low expectations following the disappointing season 6, I was pleasantly surprised. The premiere began right where season 6 ended; Dexter was caught sticking a knife into Travis Marshall by Deb. As she stood there, eyes wide and jaw dropped, the season ended and we were left to speculate what might happen next.
Grizzly Bomb 