Thor: Ragnarok Casting Round-Up

Edited by Robert Beach 

As phase 3 of Marvel dawns, several major questions have started to loom in on the horizon as the previous invulnerability of the MCU begins to crack with age. At this point, Marvel is doing a dance of engagement with its audience, flittering between the fleeting high of Age of Ultron and the genuinely infectious interest of Ant-Man. Captain America: Civil War seems to be the best example of this so far, caught between the fun of the actual story and hanging out with characters we like/ All is enjoyable but fleeting, and the excitement of new heroes like Spider-Man or Black Panther, which is much more persistent. 

It seems that Marvel is legitimately at their best when they’re both expanding the scope of their shared universe and are being incredibly weird and idiosyncratic while doing it. That blend of new horizons and unique characters has reared its head once more with the latest casting announcements for next year’s Thor: Ragnarok. True to form, they seem to have everyone genuinely excited for a Thor film. 

Static Thoughts - 10 Things To Expect from Syfy's Krypton

Edited by Robert Beach 

One of the big trends of the 2010s has been the rise of superheroes on TV. Honestly, it’s not that surprising. Superheroes are built from the ground up for syndicated storytelling, and the episodic format of television is a much better fit for that than the limited scale and structure of a film. We’ve had fun and exciting adventures like Supergirl, weird and wonderful adaptations like Flash, thoughtful exploration of the genre like Jessica Jones, and adventurous explorations like Legends of Tomorrow. Now, David Goyer and Syfy plan to add a new name to the roster of superhero television with a Superman prequel show following the Man of Steel’s grandfather Seyg-El entitled Krypton, following the same naming and focus convention of Fox’s Gotham.

Gotham is a show with a lot of problems, but the junky prequel set-up is a big one. David Goyer has managed to write 1 genuinely good superhero movie on his own, so a lot of folks are rightfully worried. However, I’m not quite as cynical (or possibly just more delusional), so I’ve compiled a list of 10 DC comics elements that could show up in Krypton that would make it an awesome experience; let us list them. 

X-Men: Apocalypse Post-Credits Scene Explained

Edited by Robert Beach 

X-Men: Apocalypse has topped the box office for Memorial Day weekend as our third big superhero team movie of the year and 4th comic book movie overall. Ideally, I’ll have a more in-depth review of the film later on, but as we wait on that, we can talk about is the post-credits scene.  Post-credits scenes (stingers) have become the staple of superhero movies nowadays. To the point audiences have been so trained to expect stingers, it’d be weird if a superhero film didn’t have one (that was a Batman v. Superman slam.) 

The entire idea of post-credits superhero teasers originates in the X-Men franchise, first popping up with X3: The Last Stand’s ending clip of Professor Xavier mind-warping into a comatose patient to escape death. Since then, we’ve had big reveals like Nick Fury in Iron Man, funny shoutouts like Howard the Duck in Guardians of the Galaxy, and direct sequel set-up like the Apocalypse teaser in Days of Future Past. What type of scene does X-Men: Apocalypse sport? And what does it mean for the X-Men films going forward?  Let’s find out. Spoilers ahead.

Cover Story - Top 13 Silver Age X-Men Covers

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It is X-Men time of year here at the Lido Shuffle, as ushered in by the release of their latest blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse.  As is tradition for these things I’ll be celebrating this new release in the only way I know how: a list of the best X-Men comic covers.  However, given that the X-Men have a truly titanic amount of covers in existence I’m going to pace myself by just taking on the first age of the X-Men.  These are the best X-Men covers from their first issue up until Giant Sized X-Men #1 in 1975, which introduced the more popular team of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and more.  

Despite being a lot less popular than the post-1975 stuff this era in the X-Men is still pretty impressive with a lot of unique and formative covers that have remained impressive touchstones in the language of superheroes.  The books low visibility gave the artists a freedom to experiment they might not have had in a bigger title and today, we honor that creativity in list format. 

Panel Vision - X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

Edited by Robert Beach 

s I write this, X-Men: Apocalypse is set to underwhelm the world as the latest installment of the shockingly subpar X-Men franchise. While, simultaneously, CW’s excellent The Flash show has delved into the well of madness and disappointment that is time meddling and the Flashpoint event comic. Throw in the Captain America’s turn to Hydra and the ongoing launch of DC Rebirth and it all adds up to a swirling cocktail of public conversation towards retcons, reboots, time travel, event comics, the X-Men, and Apocalypse. My point is, there has never been a better time to dive into the well of madness that is X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. 

Top 12 Disney Infinity Characters We Didn't Get

Edited by Robert Beach 

By now, you may have heard that Disney Infinity, the thoroughly popular Disney video game franchise, is being discontinued. If you’ve never heard of it before, Disney Infinity was a bold experiment from the Mouse House to get in on the growing trend of toys integrated into video games. The concept (selling kids action figures that also act as playable characters in a video game) originated with Skylanders before Disney picked up on it, and now even Nintendo has gotten in on the act. 

Previously, when a Disney adventure like this failed, it was an indication of the companies plan to purchase a more successful iteration of the same concept; the way the failure of Disney’s boy brand action films prompted them to buy Marvel and Star Wars. While some have speculated this will happen again, that’s not today’s subject. Today, we mourn the Disney Infinity characters we’ll never get to see now that the line is discontinued. Let the requisitely somber top 12 list commence. 

Panel Vision - Dr. 13: Architecture & Mortality

Edited by Robert Beach 

Well, May is almost over. The thermometer is headed skyward, and blockbuster movies are hitting the multiplex. It all adds up to one thing: Summer is officially here. For comic nerds, the arrival of Summer is more or less synonymous with the arrival of event comics, the massive cross-universe stories smashing heroes together and reshaping  continuity as we know it for about 9 months till the next one.  

Obnoxious and overused as they are, event comics are basically just a force of nature in comics, which makes our relationship with them a little complicated. While endless retcons and shock deaths are certainly tedious staples of the event comic, fans have become so inundated with them we’ve come to appreciate the subtle differences between garbage event books like Fear Itself and the at least interesting ones like Secret Wars (2015). 

For DC, their event comic this year is called DC Rebirth, a universe-reshaping retcon comic that’s already been spoiled. However, I’m not here to discuss those spoilers, but rather a sister comic to DC Rebirth. The actual plot of DC Rebirth is all about what happens to heroes who’ve been rendered non-canon by the events of a reality-reshaping crisis, a concept that was also explored by one of the greatest comics of all time Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. 

Static Thoughts - The Flash Season 3, What's Next?

Edited by Robert Beach

The Flash season 2 has come to its conclusion and what a conclusion it was. As the title suggest, I’m going to be discussing what could happen in the immediate aftermath of The Flash’s major season 2 reveals and twists, so if you haven’t seen the finale yet, beware of spoilers ahead. 

At the end of the show, Barry foiled the villainous Zoom by managing to summon the time wraiths, the undead monsters that defend the timeline and the speed force that consumed Zoom and dragged him off to parts unknown. However, victory came at a high price as Zoom had killed Barry’s father Henry Allen, a loss compounded by the discovery that Zoom’s prisoner was the Henry Allen of Earth-3 AKA the real Jay Garrick.  

In the face of so much loss and flirting with the dangers of time travel once more, Barry chose to travel back in time and save his mom from being killed by the villainous Reverse Flash, causing catastrophic reverberations through the timeline. 

Static Thoughts - 8 Questions About Gotham Season 3

Edited by Robert Beach

Gotham has now completed its second season and was it ever mixed. The slow development of the superhero landscape has not been kind to Fox’s Batman prequel series. While other shows like Supergirl or The Flash have been able to dive head first into crazy superhero concepts, Gotham plodded along through the muck of its own timeline and the restriction of its central hero, Bruce Wayne, still being a 12 year old.  

This has led the show to attempt many bizarre solutions like bringing in a radically reimagined Order of St. Dumas to target young Bruce Wayne and, more recently, setting up Hugo Strange as the true architect of all Batman’s villains. Batman villains really have become the key to Gotham’s attempts at crafting a larger, multi-season story arc much in the same way Spider-Man villains were the crux of Sony’s now defunct Amazing Spider-Man series.  Monday night’s finale took this to all new heights and has left me with 8 major questions about where Gotham is going in season 3. 

Static Thoughts - 12 Things They Need in Supergirl Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach

Supergirl season 2 has now been officially confirmed, with one significant twist: it will be on CW instead of CBS. At this point, that shake-up makes a lot of sense. Supergirl was a big hit show that never quite had the ratings to sustain its budget with CBS, so farming it out to CW’s legion of superhero shows make a lot of sense. It remains to be seen if Supergirl will in some way immigrate to the main universe of CW shows or if it’ll take place on Earth-4, separate from the adventures of Arrow, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. However, as we wait for that answer, let’s all climb aboard the Supergirl Season 2 hype train with a list of all the stuff they should include in the next, installment of the girl of steel.