‘Zack Snyder’ Looks To Expand The ‘300’ Franchise

Although Director and Producer Zack Snyder has moved on to pastures-new as lead visionary and Universe builder for Warner Bros. DC franchise. He hasn’t lost the passion for his previous action-romp 300, which Snyder is hoping to expand across history.

In an interview with Collider, Snyder revealed that discussions have taken place about different incarnations of 300, bringing its unique visual style and framing out of Ancient Greece and into other conflicts in time. “I think I mentioned that we talked about the Revolutionary War version, and we talked about the Alamo,” revealed the Batman V Superman director. “There’s a battle in China, a “Lost Legion” kind of concept, any of those kinds of things are on the table.”

Released in 2007, 300 was the first of two films based on legendary comic book writer and artist Frank Miller works, with 2014’s Rise of an Empire based on Miller’s as-of-yet unreleased story Xerxes.

Should Snyder get the go ahead, it would give the creator the opportunity to bring his George Washington passion project to the big-screen – an idea that Snyder has previously expressed an interest in producing – commenting that the painted visual display of 300 would suit the era.

Snyder’s current big-screen venture Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theatres March 25, 2016.

For all your Hack-N-Slash-Sandal-Wearing-News, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. SN3 EP12 – ‘The Inside Man’

This review contains spoilers.

Last episode, we left off on HiveWard playing the worst game of ‘pull my finger’ known to man, whilst Coulson and the team gear up to take on Malick, to take down the final head of Hydra once and for all. Alongside this, we find out the President has assigned our favourite General Talbot as the new head of the ATCU.

 This weeks episode is largely a good, old fashioned undercover episode. It’s good to see these kinds of episodes where the whole team work undercover with new stories and names, and show the spy work SHIELD also does outside of helping the Avengers.

The episode starts with a flashback to the mid-season finale scene where Coulson kills Ward by crushing his heart inside his chest – because what better was to violently and personally kill the man who shot the person you love?

The flashback then proceeds to show the gross and violent possession of Ward’s corpse, and a series of flashbacks of Ward’s life before and after Shield before it cuts to his possessed face opening it’s eyes and saying “Grant Ward. I wish we could have met under different circumstances.” It makes Hive all the more terrifying that to accompany his ever decomposing Ward-Suit, that he constantly refers to himself as “we.” – and the other part of the “we” there probably isn’t Ward.

Then, they proceed to drag in Lucio, the Inhuman cop from Bouncing Back who can paralyze people simply by looking into their eyes – at first he’s bandaged, but then Hive demands to see his eyes. Creepily (but kind of predictably enough.), Hive isn’t hurt by this Inhumans particular power, which naturally causes Lucio to be just a little bit on the afraid side. Then Hive proceeds to step backwards out of an outline of his body, and when Lucio asks “what are you?”, Hive responds with “What are we?” before sending the outline of himself forward. Yikes.

Then, we open up the episode post the Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D logo and we’re in an airport with General Talbot and his very angry wife, Carla. He’s asking her not to leave like this, to which she angrily responds telling him he’s always put his work above his family, and now they’re paying for it. Talbot calls after her, looking rather defeated, that he will fix it – and Carla storms away with one last disappointed look. I can’t help but feel a bit sad about it – it was fairly obvious from their last interactions that they have a deeply loving relationship. (Taco Tuesday’s was so adorable.) Then Phil meets up with him, and they proceed to talk/argue about their roles and relationship now, and about the undercover operation they’re involved in – and then we find out shortly later, much to the others agents horror, that Talbot has Creel on his side.

The next 40 minutes of the episode, we’re treated to Talbot and his overwhelming inability to do espionage. The man was in the army for God’s sake, and yet, the man can barely hold it together. He makes casual racist ignorant (“I don’t just wear a dress for anyone!” – regarding the ceremonial robe he’s been asked to wear to honour the country he’s in, and “It’s good to finally put faces to all of your unpronounceable names” – oh, oh dude. Why have you been made head of the ATCU when it requires being a people person.) There’s also some really cool spy moments in there, including Coulson using his high-tech prosthetic to create film gloves for his team-mates to break into their targets rooms and try and find out which one of them is working for Malick.

Then, during the meeting in which three very important politicians want to make a sanctuary state for Inhumans, the absolute unthinkable happens – Talbot blows Coulson’s cover wide open. He exposes the team, Phil’s arm, everything – and then just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, Malick strolls on in and tells the room that Phil Coulson is the director of Hydra.

At the point, I briefly started to worry about the direction this show is going in – because it makes literally no sense for Talbot to be Hydra, and it wouldn’t have held the same shock value as say, when Ward turned out to be Hydra. However, it turns out that Malick has Talbot’s son (which explains Carla’s fury in the beginning of the episode.) – and Talbot is bound to helping him to save his son.

There’s also some side action going on with Lincoln and Daisy but it’s not an awful lot – it’s mostly them fighting and being cute. And oddly enough, pushed to the side is this little tidbit – Creel’s blood contains the secret to stopping people with Inhuman blood from transforming. Why this is only a side story and not a massive focus, I’m not entirely sure, but it does crop up an argument between Daisy and Lincoln, with Lincoln on team “not everyone should change” and Daisy on team “It’s a birthright and if this gets into the wrong hands they will wipe us out”. Both have really valid points – it’d be nice to have control over the people who could turn and use whatever powers they’re given to murder or hurt people, but who gets to decide that path for another person? I wish this had been given more focus than just fleeting scenes between the spy-story side of things.

Overall, this is a fun episode. It doesn’t hold anything too consequential in the main characters story lines, because by the end of it, Talbot’s son is safe again and Phil and Talbot go back to their “hate-buddy” routine. I think if they’d kept the child with Hydra longer, kept using Talbot as a pawn, it might have held some more weight, but this was just more of a filler episode. That’s not a bad thing – it was still a lot of fun, and I always really enjoy the undercover SHIELD stuff a lot. The gadgets, the cover stories, it’s just good old-fashioned spy stuff that makes the show enjoyable.  It’s a bit of a fluffy episode with some action, a few character pointers and very little development, but that’s honestly fine, as long as this is just a bit of ground work for the adrenaline pumping stuff we’ve become used to on this show.

 Well, all was fun until the end of the episode.

About halfway through the episode, Hive asks for five regular, healthy humans to be delivered to him. Under the assumption he’s going to choose one as a host body because Ward’s is literally rotting around him, he’s left alone with them – and outside, you hear a lot of horrifying screaming that seems to even make the bad guys deeply uncomfortable.

And then the end of the episode reveals why they were screaming. Because standing in the middle of five skeletons, red bloody and still with a bit of flesh on them skeletons, covered in human slime and blood, kneels Hive. And slowly, oh so slowly, he rises up and stands, dripping so much of this sickly ooze, rising until he looks dead into the camera through the muck, staring right into you for a really uncomfortably long measure of time, before the episode ends.

It’s very rare of Marvel, particularly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to go all out on the gore like this. While it has had it’s gross connotations and it’s violence, I can’t pinpoint much of a moment when it’s been that grim and visually shocking. It had a tonne of weight behind it, and it’s made me scared and excited to see what Brett Dalton’s character is going to do next.

I’m hoping next episode, more actual plot will start to weave it’s way into the main team, and that we get those full rich episodes that make this show fantastic.

Arrow SN4 EP12 – ‘Unchained’

So it’s time for this week’s  review of Arrow and it brings with it the return of 3 characters from previous seasons  and also we return to the flash backs of Oliver on Lian Yu so without further ado this jump right on in.

So the main story line this week revolves around the introduction of a new villain called the Calculator and a hired thief who we see the team come face to face with at the start of the episode after stealing his first piece of tech and also where we see there is something not quite right with Thea. Oliver goes it alone on his second attempt at catching the thief and after a brief chase we find out it is none other than Roy Harper. The team are shocked by the revelation as Roy used to be on Team Arrow as Arsenal before heading to Hub city via Monument point this is a lot to process especially with the teams concerns around Thea’s health.

The team eventually catch up with Roy at Palmer tech as he is trying to steal the last piece of tech the Calculator needs to make a web bomb that could take out the entire internet, Felicity notices something different about Roy’s eyes and whispers something in Oliver’s ear piece prompting him to shoot Roy with a tranquiliser arrow. The team get Roy back to the secret hideout and find that Roy has a special lens in his eye that transmits what he is seeing before waking Roy up to find out what is going on.  He explains that someone found out who he really was and threatened to expose him as not being The Arrow as the police thought and he wanted to protect Oliver.

This prompts Felicity to try and back trace where the lens has been transmitting back to and having the team’s first encounter with the Calculator who eventually manages to block her out of his systems (Has Felicity finally met her technological equal?) She later realises that the web nuke could also be used as a bomb to blow a water treatment plant, Gas main plant or an electrical plant causing thousands of people to be killed. Eventually the team track down the Calculator’s team and manage to stop the attack or so they thought as the Calculator has put a block on any electrical devices being used near the bomb. Roy who has joined the team to help out says that he is the only one who can out run the blast so offers to stay back and destroy the bomb with an explosive arrow and luckily makes it out in time.

Also in this episode we see Thea almost taking a fall over the edge of a building on the first run in with Roy we find out that this is due to the effects of the Lazerus pit and her not feeding her blood lust from Malcolm Merlyn. Oliver asks why this never happened with Sara only to be told that when Constantine cast his incantation he restored the balance of the Lazerus pit. Oliver is beginning to worry that all of this is his fault due to the decisions he has made the team try to reassure him that it is not all his fault cue the flash backs of Oliver’s time on Lian Yu to begin. We see Oliver being tortured for information on his glowing tattoo from episode 10, Oliver eventually passes out and sees a vision of Shadow killing his captors and teaching him that he needs to forgive himself for all the lives he has had to take and he starts by admitting to Vlad’s sister that it was him that killed Vlad and not Conklin as he has told her.

We also see the return of Nyssa still being held Captive in Nanda Parbat but this only last for a moment as she is slipped a blade by another woman from the League as the pair manage to kill some of the guards and make their escape it appears not everyone is happy with Malcolm as the new Ra’s Al Ghul. She makes it to a clearing in the forest only to come face to face with none other than Tatsu, Nyssa advises her that she has come for something called the lotus  but Tatsu has been tasked with protecting this and the pair draw their swords and begin to fight. It turns out the pair are evenly matched with a blade and instead of fighting the night away Nyssa advises Tatsu that she needs the lotus to help Oliver.

We also see Felicity struggling to run Palmer tech and keep them out of bankruptcy but there is hope in the new power cell battery they are planning on announcing in a few days (The same battery the Calculator was after). She struggles through a practice run of her presentation in front of one of the board members who suggests she leaves the presenting to someone more capable. Later we see Felicity flying around the lab at Palmer tech in her chair frantically looking for a piece of tech to help trace the Calculator. Curtis tells her that she should be this kind of Felicity that is doing the presentation and she eventually agrees and knocks the launch out of the park, we see none other than the Calculator in the audience sat next to Oliver and leans in and says that she is very talented. After Oliver congratulates Felicity and leaves we see the Calculator appear behind Felicity as she turns around she has a shocked look on her face and can only mutter the words “Dad”.

The episode comes to an end and it appears Thea has taken a turn for the worse and is in hospital in an induced coma, Cue Nyssa walking in to announce she has an elixir that can cure Thea but in return Oliver must kill Malcolm Merlyn.

To find out who next attempts to fail this city stick with Deadpool_1984

“A Gathering of Shadows” by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E.Schwab is the second in the “Shades of Magic” series and the sequel to the first installment A Darker Shade of Magic.

It’s been four months since the stone from Black London fell into Kell’s hands – four months since a Grey-Londoner, Delilah Bard, joined him on his journey, since the fall of the Dane twins, since Rhy’s fatal injuries and since Kell bound his life to him.

Delilah has found herself part of the crew about the Black Spire, sailing the ocean and exploring with Captain Alucard Emery, and Kell has been at the palace of Red London – resented and confined by his King and Queen, he lives like he’s made of glass to keep his brother safe.

However, the events of the Element Games – an international magic tournament- promises to bring all of them together. And meanwhile, another London is slowly beginning to flourish again. The balance of magic is perilous, and for one London to rise, another must fall.

A Gathering of Shadows is such an incredible sequel and I am so impressed by V. E. Schwab and her absolutely magical hold of fantasy writing.

First of all, the world building is utterly phenomenal. I could cry with how in love I am with this beautiful series of worlds that are so vivid in description and so fantastically put together. The differences between the London’s are so striking and so alive – there is no other word for it. These places don’t just feel like locations on maps – they feel so alive, I am genuinely inclined to believe they exist and Schwab is just keeping a Delilah Bard-esq secret from us about her origins.

What I also utterly adore is alongside this beautiful world building, is how incredible the Magic is. It’s wielded unlike any other fantasy novel I’ve read before – it’s treated like a living creature, that cannot be told what to do, and that can be deadly if you allow it to have control. It’s treated like an entity you have to communicate with, and I’ve honestly never seen magic treated like this. It’s so fluid and beautiful and I just adore it.

In terms of characters. Schwab not only has a astounding grasp on world building and fantasy writing, but human emotions are also part of her talent. Every reaction to what’s happened feels so real – Rhy and his terror and guilt that he’s become a burden to his brother, which pushes him to try and be more of a responsible ruler and to try his best and free his brother. And Kell, oh dear sweet Kell, you broke my damn heart in this book – his constant trying to make it up to his family, to the King and Queen he once considered parents who are now so cold and distrusting to him. I nearly burst into tears when Kell ended up breaking down to the King and the line “I can’t keep atoning” – it was so wonderful. And then his thrill at the Games, his love for the Elements and for his magic, it’s just so perfect.

And here is a paragraph just for Delilah Bard. That wonderful, beautiful character that she is. I love everything about her; her attitude, her fighting style, her ability to find trouble wherever she goes. She’s everything I wanted to be as a little child, and she’s so damn great with such an impressive thirst for adventure. I love that she’s so willing to risk everything to find out who she is, and that she’s damn willing to risk everything for Kell.

In terms of how the story holds up? A Gathering of Shadows follows on very, very well. The consequences and main focuses of the first book are kept in line and remembered, and meanwhile, the characters grow, and the new story comes to light. You learn all about the Element Games, how they’re so involved in the politics in Kell’s world, and the fight scenes involved in those scenes are kick. Ass. They’re so wonderfully written, I can pretty much see these fights when I read them and I love them so so much. I also really love how the old characters interact, and the introduction of some new ones – including Rhy’s ex-boyfriend-ish pirate, Alucard Emery.

The other part of the story also ties in beautifully – with the return of an old character, and the introduction of two new and terrifying ones, it flourishes alongside Kell and Delilah’s story despite literally being an entire world apart. It fits so beautifully in with everything else, and it’s unbearably tense and terrifying to know this is happening while Kell and Rhy and Delilah hatch plans to sneak themselves into the Games and play.

A Gathering of Shadows is a more than perfect sequel. It carries the story on, continuing to build on this incredible world V.E. Schwab has written, developing the characters without entirely changing who they are unrealistically. It’s an incredible second installment to this series, that leaves on an ending that has you begging for more because no way did it just end there.

The third installment of the Shades of Magic series hasn’t had a title or a release date announced at this time.

The Flash SN2 EP12 – ‘Fast Lane’

So this weeks episode starts with a flash back to the night of the particle accelerator explosion at a tar factory with two men holding another man over a boiling vat of tar after some the two men get the information they need they drop the guy into the vat below. As the pair are leaving we see the explosion in the distance and they high tail it out of there, we then see the blast catch the drowning mans foot before he is fully submerged. We there arrive back in the present day to see the tar factory being demolished and as a digger disturbs the ground we see a puddle of wet tar appear and then a hand pop out from this puddle we have ourselves a new meta human.

We then see Dr Wells from Earth 2 working on a piece of tech that will allow him to drain Barry’s speed a bit at a time so that he can give it to Zoom but before he can complete his build he is interrupted by Barry who wants to help him with what he is working on. Wells tries his best to put him off by suggesting Earth 2 technology is to advanced for Barry to understand and that he prefers to work on his own. Barry doesn’t take no for an answer and proceeds to read all the books Wells has in double quick time and sets about trying to help Dr Wells with what he thinks is a way of stopping Zoom and saving his daughter.

After Barry trying to connect with the new Dr Wells by telling him he felt like this was like the old days and that the previous Dr Wells was like a mentor to him at which point Earth 2 Wells snaps and throws a board eraser at Barry’s head stating that he will eventually betray them all and if he was made to choose between his daughter and Barry he would pick his Daughter every time.

We then get to see the new meta human in the form of a tar puddle on the floor of a garage owned by none other by one of the guys who dropped him into the tar at the beginning of the episode. The new Meta human explains what it felt like to be dropped into that tar before deciding to show him instead, Barry and Joe arrive on the scene to investigate the murder and can tell this was a work of a meta human and he will take a sample to Cisco to analyse back at Star labs.

We see Dr Wells finish his piece of tech back at Star labs and manages to fix it to Barry’s suit under the flash symbol just as Barry and Cisco are discussing Ciscos new app that helps track meta humans from his phone. The app goes off and Barry goes off to face the new meta human Cisco has named Tar pit, as Barry is hurtling towards danger Wells activates another piece of tech that seems to storing the speed force of Barry as he is producing it. Barry faces off against Tar pit and manages to stop him by setting off a fire hydrant he then takes the second attended victim who was the other guy who helped create Tar pit to the police HQ for answers on why he after him.

When Barry gets back to Star labs we see Cisco ask Barry if he is feeling ok as he was moving slower than he normally does, Barry replies that he is feeling fine just a bit tired. We then see that Dr Wells has come up with a way of stopping Tar pit by using nitrous grenades and that this will help freeze Tar pit and not allow him to fry his next victim. We then see Dr Wells waiting at a warehouse and who appears none other than Zoom, Dr wells gives Zoom the speed force that he drained from Barry and then advises if he gets his daughter back he will help him drain off all Barry’s speed force. Zoom grabs Wells by the shoulder and advises that he will not give him back his daughter until he has helped him fully drain Barry and that he will torture his daughter for fun over and over again unless he does.

During this episode we also see Iris and Joe try and talk Wally out of continuing his illegal drag racing but this does not go down well and Wally walks out to attend another race, Iris makes guest appearance at this race and advises Wally she is going to do a piece on the racing for the paper. This also does not go down well as this is the last thing that people at these type of races want, Iris also spots the guy who appears to be organising these races and manages to sneak a picture of him for her story. Iris later visits the organiser and threatens too write the article about the races, he does not take to kindly to this and threatens to hurt Iris if she runs the story only for Iris to reveal that she has been recoding the whole conversation.

We see Wally show up to confront Iris about her visit and to warn her to back off as these are not the kind of people to be messed with. Iris advises Wally that he does not need to race anymore as the hospital bills for his mum have been paid in full and she doesn’t eat to see him wrapped around a tree, Wally leaves advising Iris that if she turns up to another race he wont be able to protect her. The team are trying to piece together how the two men that have been targeted by Tar pit know each other, it turns out they were all in prison together even two of them sharing a cell together. They manage to find out who the other person was sharing with and it turns out to be none other than the guy organising the drag races just in time for Iris to show up and say she knows where to find him.

As they Iris and Joe show up Wally is about to start his latest race as the two racers speed off the tarmac in from of them begins to bobble making the two high speed cars start bouncing around. We see a large piece of the tarmac appear in front of Wally’s car as he’s goes up this ramp it aims his car back towards the spectators and the race organiser, Barry turns up and manages to get Wally out of the car in time before seeing the car flying towards Iris. Barry sets off to stop any debris hitting Iris and he manages to push away a wing mirror but cannot seem to catch a rather sharp looking piece of glass heading towards Iris no matter how hard he tries and it ends up hitting her in the shoulder.

Luckily Iris is taken to the hospital and the injury isn’t serious and she is going to need to rest up. We go back to star labs and the team are trying to figure out why Barry has been getting slower and we find out that Barry’s speed force has decreased by 2%, eventually Dr Wells can’t take it anymore and advises that team that is was him and shows them the device and that he is working with Zoom to get his daughter back. Joe loses it and punches Wells in the face and chucks him in one of the Meta human cells before he kills him. Barry and Joe then go off to deal with Tar pit once and for all by using the guy the arrested earlier as bait and sure enough Tar pit takes it and ends up being nailed with two nitrous grenades by Barry.

The episode end with Barry saying that the team need to decide if they are going to send Dr Wells back to Earth 2 and then uses the implosion grenades that Wells has designed to close the portal. The team go down to the cells and Dr Wells thinks this is goodbye and they have agreed to let him go home only for Barry to announce that they are a team and they would not send him back alone and they will be coming with him to Earth 2.

As always for all your Scarlett speedster needs stick with Deadpool_1984

 

Arrow SN4 EP11 – ‘A.W.O.L

So it’s time for my review on the latest UK episode of the Arrow this weeks episode focuses on Diggle and his Brother Andy as well as Felicity’s struggle to come to terms with her condition.

We start the episode with Diggle and Delilah out for a walk after a dinner only to be interrupted by Chan an Argus agent who knows Delilah he is looking panicked and asking Delilah for her help as he has been compromised Diggle and Delilah suggest that he contact Argus but he refuses as he does not know who he can trust apart from her. The next thing a van we see if a van come hurtling towards them and someone shooting at them, Diggle jumps in the way of Delilah taking a shot to the arm before then men bundle Chan into the back of the van Diggle manages to catch up with them before being dragged along and then being shook loose.

Oliver and Felicity are having a heart to heart about her condition and Oliver tries to convince her to join back up with the team to keep herself occupied and do what she does best. They are interrupted by a text to Oliver to advise that an Argus agent has been kidnapped and that Diggle has been shot and has to rush off to catch up with the team. The team split up in order to try and find out some information on where agent Chan has been taken to, Laurel and Diggle arrive at a crime scene to find Chan’s body and it appears he has been tortured for information before he was murdered.

Delilah and Diggle go off to see Amanda Waller to find out what she knows about Chan’s latest mission she refuses to help them but not before slipping a flash drive to Delilah when shaking her hand. The team uncover that the people who took Chan are an ex military group called Shadowspire, Diggle knows the team as they were stationed with him and Andy when in Afghanistan and that they were disbanded by Argus when they were found to be war profiteering. We also find out that Andy was working for them behind Diggles back and we also find out that the man in charge of Shadowspire is none other than Reiter.

We also she and interesting turn of events with Felicity as she struggles to cope with being bound to a wheelchair she starts hearing voices only to be confronted by an hallucination of her past Goth self. Telling her that she has changed and is hiding the true her behind trying to be a hero, Felicity does not react well to what is happening and when Oliver tries to talk to her again she snaps and asked to be left alone she is not talking to Oliver of course but the hallucination of her former self. Later in the episode we see Felicity finally take control and advise her past self that she is not that person anymore and to be left alone the hallucination stops with Felicity re joining the team and finally given her code name of Overwatch (Oliver states that he wanted to call her Oracle but that was already taken making a nod towards Batman’s Barbara Gordon who is also wheelchair bound and a tech wizard for the Dark knight)

 

We see Andy being transferred to a cell at Argus HQ so that Amanda Waller can ask him some questions about Shadowspires plans all he gives away is that they are not after the rail guns that Argus thinks they will be targeting. This is later confirmed when Shadowspire storm the HQ taking Waller and Delilah as well as some other agents hostage, Diggle and Andy are down in the detention centre and Diggle manages to rig a TV to send out a signal to send to the team a trick he learned from Felicity. The team assemble and make there way to the HQ but before they can make it there the commander of Shadowspire shoots Waller in the head as she will not give up the codes to something called Rubicon so the task now falls to Delilah after Diggle is captured and threatened with being shot in the head she agrees to give them the codes.

Andy proves his loyalty and trust to Diggle by attacking the Shadowspire commander and saving his brother for being murdered and putting a stop to the siege. The episode comes to a close with Andy being released from his cell and taken to Diggle and Delilahs place and being introduced to his niece. We also see Felicity show a picture of what she used to look like to Oliver before burning the picture stating that she is not that person anymore.

As always stick with Deadpool_1984 for all your Green hooded vigilante needs.

NEW “CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR” TRAILER DROPS

Ladies, gentleman, all in-between. A new trailer for the highly anticipated Captain America: Civil War has dropped.

And it’s two minutes and twenty-seven seconds of flawless, beautiful perfection. And it’s led to a lifetime of crying from me and every other Marvel fan going.

Honestly, this is a really flawless trailer – the Russo brother’s have been absolutely perfect in executing their marketing, they really have. It’s probably mostly because we all know roughly how the story goes, but with the huge differences between the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the actual comic books, they also know that realistically – we have no clue what’s coming.

So, let’s break it all down.

By the looks of the trailers, and what we’ve heard so far, the bulk of this movie is (obviously) centering around Captain Rogers, as he blurs certain lines to try and protect Bucky Barnes – and considering Bucky was, until recently, the brainwashed Winter Soldier, a lot of people do not want him protected. Riding on that, is also General Ross, here to ask for heroes to sign up for the Superhero Registration Act – and whilst some seem to agree with the idea of monitoring heroes, keeping their actions in check, not everyone else does.

And such, all at war seems to break out.

The trailer looks like it’s going to be, as recently described, “an emotional horror movie” – you’ve got Steve and Tony fighting sure, but then you’ve also got Bucky going after Rhodey, you’ve got T’Challa coming off of a car onto a motorcycle to stop him driving away, there’s ANT-MAN ON HAWKEYES ARROW and just tonnes of the usual phenomenal stuff. Alongside the Scarlet Witch seeming to wrangle Vision down into a crumpled mess, Black Widow kicking men in what appears to be task-force gear, and Crossbones showing up, this trailer was already all levels of hype.

And then, the Russo’s did it. The Russo’s finally, finally did it. They revealed Spider-Man.

And this might be a snap judgement considering he’s in it for all of a few seconds – but he’s perfect. He’s so perfect. This trailer has captured Spider-Man and everything he should be, after coming home to MCU for his big debut with only a short clip and a few little words. Tom Holland, Russo’s – well damn done.

Captain America: Civil War hits UK cinemas April 29th 2016.

Collector Corps Unboxing: Deadpool Box

 

Collector Corps is a type of collectible goodie box, along the lines of Lootcrate and BeautyBoxes, but with a bit of a nerider, Funkier flair (see what I did there?). Every two months, a new Marvel Comics themed box is released, containing goodies exclusive only to subscribers – each box is themed differently, ranging from the Villians box to the Secret Wars box.

February featured their most romantic box yet: Deadpool.

The box came looking super awesome – as per usual! Collector Corps always nail it with the outside of the boxes, keeping this constant and gorgeous design. Alongside the outside of the box, the inside is just as beautiful. As per, it features comic panels of the main feature inside the box in red and it looks absolutely stunning.

Looking into the box initially, you’ve got the usual staple of the box – the Collector Corps exclusive patch and pin! As per, they’re very adorable and very fitting to their theme and wonderful little collectors items.

Onto the content of the box – opening the inner lid, I’m greeted by a T-Shirt and the exclusive variant issue comic book.

The t-shirt is an adorable Funko exclusive, featuring a neat background with Deadpool in his black and red suit on the front, in Funko style. It’s super cute, and now that I’ve changed my shirt size from Small to X-Small, it fits extremely well.

The comic in this box is, fittingly, Deadpool #1 – the variant is a cute little cover of Funkpool, munching away on some Chimichangas from his katana whilst standing on a mountain of them. It’s fitting, it’s colourful and it’s a really great variant issue.

On to the toys and figurines!

The first one was this absolutely adorable little plush I pulled out, who was sitting free in the box. He’s from the brand Mopeez Plush, and he’s so sweet! He’s very squidgy and soft so, everything you need in a plush. He’s also incredibly well weighted despite his massive head, so he’ll sit wonderfully on a bed or a shelf.

The second figurine is from the brand Dorbz – and as it suggests, this little guy is completely adorable.

These Dorbz are slowly but surely taking over, and for good reason – they’ve also featured in the Villian’s box from October, with a Loki Dorbz featuring in there.

I just really love him. He’s so detailed for something so small, and the little pony and cowboy hat just really top him off. He’s such a great edition and he’s going to look great next to Ultron and Loki from the prior boxes.

Finally, the star of the box – the moment we all wait for when unboxing the Collector Corps boxes – the exclusive Funko.

Look at him. Isn’t he just so awesome?! A little Deadpool, springing into action with katanas at the ready, and a gorgeous see-through stand to pop him on.

He’s just perfect: I love him. Like all Funko’s, there’s a wonderful attention to detail. He’s also a fantastic exclusive – he feels so unique and right for this box. He’s not too over the top, but he’s not bland. He’s in action, ready to go, and a really fantastic edition to the collection.

Honestly, Collector Corps always do these boxes fantastic – they always ensure great quality and amazing value for money. They’re consistantly great in both design of the actual box, and the execution of the goodies inside. Personally, I can’t imagine ever cutting off this subscription, and I am so very excited for the Civil War box to hit us come April.

And that’s all for now! Let me know if you’re a Collector Corp’s subscriber, or if you have any questions about the boxes and/or how I get them as a UK Subscriber.

Fare thee well,

Fran

The Flash SN2 EP11 – ‘The Reverse-Flash Returns’

So it’s time once again for a review on The Flash season 2 and this week it focuses around the return of the Reverse-Flash, Barry’s greatest enemy.

So as we saw last week Patty made the decision to leave to move to Midway city to enrol in a forensics course, Barry is not taking it well and has been making himself busy with patrolling the Central city and starts the episode off by stopping a runaway fuel truck. As Cisco is going through the plan to use the turtle to capture Zoom with Harry (Dr Wells from Earth 2) Jay and Caitlin come in and make the announcement that the turtle was found dead in his cell at Star labs. We also see Eobard Thawne looking over The Flash saving the truck and telling Gideon that he now knows which time period The Flash is from and he has found a way to go home.

Barry makes his way over to the police HQ and Patty and him share an awkward moment where they talk about her leaving and she walks out as Iris walks in. Iris then offers Barry some advice that he does not have to let her go but Barry does not want to stand in her way as it’s her dream job. Cisco and Harry are at Star labs trying to figure out what causes Ciscos vibe ability, Harry asks Cisco to follow him into the time vault. Cisco obliges and walks into the room only for Harry to turn up in the Reverse-Flash suit to announce that Ciscos ability is triggered by fear before grabbing him by the neck, cue Cisco seeing the return on the real Reverse-Flash being shot at by two security guards.

It turns out that the Reverse-Flash is at Mercury labs and kidnaps Dr McGee after knocking The Flash down, but turns out that the Reverse-Flash needs Dr McGee to use the tachyons to send him back to his time in the future, Dr McGee tries to refuse only to have the Reverse-Flash say if she doesn’t she will die.

We also find out that Iris’s mums life is coming to an end so Iris pays her a visit to tell her that she forgives her but her mum also mentions that she hasn’t seen Wally for a while as she thinks he is mad at her. This causes Iris to visit Wally to advise him to go and see her before it is two late, Wally doesn’t agree and walks away from Iris.

Caitlin has asked Barry is she can help find Jays Earth 1 doppelgänger as she believes that she can uses some of his cells to help combat the mystery illness Jay has contracted from losing his speed to Zoom. Patty shows up to speak to Barry but Patty thinks it’s strange to find Caitlin there prompting her to say to Barry that she did not know he worked with Star and Barry lets slip that him and Joe help them sometimes. This later leads to her catching Joe off guard and telling him that Patty knows that Barry is The Flash a fact that he denies only for Patty to tell him that he is a terrible liar.

Harry has also come up with a way of enhancing Ciscos vibe ability using some goggles as Cisco focuses on the Reverse-Flash and Dr McGee he sees a conversation between the two of them and the Reverse-Flash killing her before jumping through and time portal. Cisco tells the team what he saw but the time he saw was three hours on the future so the team have that long to figure out where they are and stop the Reverse-Flash from going back to his time.

Joe shows up at Star labs to tell Barry that Patty knows he is The Flash and that he should try coming clean with her about it only for Barry to shoot him down advising him that he does not want to give his enemy’s another person to target to get to him. Patty later confronts Barry about him being The Flash and he denies that he is causing her to leave the room in tears and heading for Midway city.

The team eventually track down the Reverse-Flash and The Flash shows up just in time to save Dr McGee before she is killed. The Flash takes off on a chase to catch the Reverse-Flash and when he does eventually catch him beats him to the point that he knocks him out and he ends up in a cell at Star labs. We start to see that something may not be right with Cisco at this point as blood starts coming from his nose but this is only notice by Harry who says nothing.

We then see Cisco taunting the Reverse-Flash stating that he was the one who was responsible for his capture only to start bleeding from his nose again on the way back to the lab, Barry then goes down to confront Eobard Thawne to tell him that there race was finally over. The team then interrupt Barry for an emergency he rushes back to the lab to find Cisco fitting on the bed and bleeding quite a bit from the nose, it turns out that within capturing the Reverse-Flash they have changed the time line and Cisco is being affecting by this and if they don’t send the Reverse-Flash back to his time Cisco will die.

The hardest decision Barry needs to make comes with him agreeing to help him get back to his time in order to save his friend as he does not want someone he cares about suffer because of him. The episode comes to an end with Barry throwing the Reverse-Flash through a the time portal and saving Ciscos life.

The episode comes to an end with Caitlin and Jay meeting in the park and Jay saying that he found his doppelgänger but he would not be able to help him as Jay has mutate genes and the only way for him to get well again is for them to defeat Zoom. We also see Patty make a panicked phone call to Barry saying that someone is on her train with a gun as you would expect Barry whizzes off to save the day only to get to the train and find out it was just her way of getting him there to see that he is The Flash after all.

Once again for all your scarlet speedster needs stick with Deadpool_1984

February Owl Crate Unboxing

In the latest video from Aly The Little Librarian she takes you through the Owl Crate unboxing for February.