Comicbook releases 31/7

So its that time of the week where you go down to the local comicbook shop and ponder what new releases you should buy this week, well let me help you out with that one.

Batman Annual 2:

Once again Scott Snyder is given the reigns for another Batman Annual- and if this is anything like the first one he penned then it should be a beauty.

The annual continues the current trend of Snyder taking on ‘Year Zero’ and trying to give us a fresh perspective on Batman’s early years in the new 52 universe.

The big hook for this book is that it may well feature the Bats first visit to Arkham Asylum, and who doesn’t want to see that- yeah thats right no-one!

If there’s one book worth giving a go this week- despite my usual displeasure towards annuals- its this.

Indestructible Hulk 11

When the Hulk first joined SHIELD i have to admit, i was skeptical but it made sense from the stand point of Banner being worth more than most of marvel’s so called geniuses. However since Indestructible Hulk began it has been a great read and one of the best hulk related titles out there.

Mark Waid has done a great job of really getting to grips with Banner the man and using Hulk as the final straw and giving us those great big fight moments in small supply- but enough to get us going. And this has really helped the series plus I’m still unsure what Banner wants with his self assembled team of scientists, and what they want from him.

Waid now has to tackle an Age of Ultron tale, that requires hulk to travel through time and try and prevent it from falling apart at the seems.  This could really give us some good moments to showcase Banners genius, at some great fight scenes- anyone else thinking hulk and dinosaurs.

Nuff said- now Hulk SMASH!!!!!!!!

Uncanny X-men 9

I’m not going to go about how great this series is, because it always features in my must reads- and that says it all. But this issue promises to show us how a mutant who leaves the X-men can find the real world hard to live within and survive, how a new mutant learns what it takes to be an X-man.  Ohhh and Magneto isn’t the only mutant working with SHIELD, so has been the one keeping tabs on the X-mens moves?

Honestly if there’s one book by Bendis you should read its this, he has this team and there inner turmoils oozing from every page and sentence- it may be his best series by the time hes finished his run.  And Bachalo really has made the new mutants his own- i mean who else could draw code name ‘Golden Balls’

For all of this weeks other releases check out here:

http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/July_31st.html

Star Wars: Rebels animated series

News has broke that the next Star Wars animated project (from the team that brought you Clone Wars) will be called Rebels.
The logo has been unveiled too- and can be seen above. The show is set to focus heavily on the period just before episode 4, so could fill in some of the missing story in the movie universe.
So far the character design is said to be heavily influenced by Ralph McQuarrie- and this can only be a good thing. The shows creator has promised new characters while hinting at some fan favourites from the Clone Wars showing up too.

With the Clone Wars series being the best thing to come from the prequel universe consider me fully excited by this news.

Assassins Creed: Black Flag14 minutes of new footage

Ubisoft has released another new gameplay trailer that highlights more of the enormous open world to be explored.
To see the trailer simply follow the link below

http://m.assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-gb/

Breaking Bad

Its official Breaking Bad’s final season episodes will air on the UK Netflix from August 12 with a new episode released every Monday.

Show Creator Vince Gilligan had the following to say about the announcement

“Netflix has been instrumental in making Breaking Bad the success that it is – particularly in the UK and Ireland, where it has built an audience and become a huge phenomenon.  I am delighted that fans there will be able to enjoy the end of Breaking Bad on Netflix so soon after it airs in the US.”

I have to agree here- as i remember watching the first season on FX with my wife, and instantly becoming hooked only to find out that this would quickly become the best show not on UK TV.  So to find Netflix picking up the episodes, and giving us the first half of season 5 so fast earlier this year, its great to hear that the same is going to be done for the end of a hugely popular and massively entertaining show.

How it will end, i don’t even want to guess, but regardless of how it all comes to fruition Im truly excited to have been on the journey with Walter and Jessie and will be sad to see the end of one of televisions greatest shows.

Heres the teaser for the end

 

Big thanks to @_so_she_says for breaking the news

Cinema Releases 25/7

This week is a quiet one for movie releases- but does feature one of the most recognizable cultural characters ever envisioned, so ill start there.

The Wolverine:

Now this is the sequel to the the 2009 X-Men origins: Wolverine, and once again stars Hugh Jackman taking on the almighty big boots of the Wolverine (Despite wolverine being short in comics)

The character of wolverine is truly a pop culture icon, and has so many good stories to choose from to make a movie, that its a shame how the first movie turned out as Deadpool was really horrifically butchered. However with the film they’ve chosen a total classic of a story line, deciding to go with Frank Millers 1982 story of Logan in Japan taking on the Hand (a clan of superior trained ninjas) and have thrown in the Silver Samurai too.  This all sounds so good, and Hugh Jackmans Dedication and love for the character mean that it should be a good movie- yet i still have my reservations.

The first of these is that despite the one sheets for this movie looking phenomenal and the marketing campaign doing a great job of really building buzz for the film, they went and released the longer trailer that featured the ‘Silver Samurai’ While this wouldn’t normally be an issue as many movies release images of the baddy prior to the film hitting the cinema release date- the real issue here is the treatment of the Silver Samurai.  I make no bones about being a huge comic book nerd- and that’s not the Silver Samurai i love and wanted to see.  He looks mechanical and huge- and i feel this could be a real wasted opportunity of a good bad guy- just like Deadpool was in 2009. The next big concern for me is that 20th Century Fox have once again chosen to venture into Wolverines past- and as theyve already done a fairly poor job of piecing together the timeline for this mutant im concerned the story here will merely muddy the water more.

However i am excited to see this (oddly) just to see another big screen outing for the mutant who is the best at what he does. And lets be honest what he does best is pop those claws and kill/destroy things.  So if Fox can keep this confusion free and give me some adamantium claw action it could be a good popcorn movie.

Blackfish:

This isn’t necessarily on a nationwide release this week- but appears to be a solid documentary release for the week.  Produced by DogWoof pictures this is a look at the turmoil relationship between man and nature.  The official synopsis for the film is below

Using never-before-seen footage and interviews with trainers and experts, we delve into the psychological turmoil Orcas go through when they are captured in the wild and then held in captivity. The Killer Whale Tilikum has been responsible for the deaths of three trainers, including Dawn Brancheau at San Diego’s Sea World in 2010. This case was discredited as a horrific accident and a mistake of the trainer’s own doing and was thus covered up. Must we rethink our relationship with nature?

I know documentaries aren’t to everyone’s taste but in a slow week of releases this is definitely my second choice to go and see.

As an added bonus this week, here’s the new and first trailer for Keanu Reeves new movie47 Ronin

X-Men days of future past posters

The first two one sheets for X-men: Days of Future Past have been released, and their certainly intriguing. I like the magneto one better, as the image seems less like two distinct images placed together than Stewart and Mcavoy.

These and the recent Sentinel head at comic con, have really heated up the publicity push on this movie.