Warning: This feature contains specific plot details regarding Marvel’s The Avengers. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, then what in the name of Mephisto’s fiery Hell-realm are you doing? Seriously.

Stop what you’re doing right now and get your ass to the nearest movie theater. Just go. No one’s stopping you. This is America [unless you’re not in America]. You have rights and freedoms [unless you don't].

Are you still reading this? Then I can only assume you’re a True Believer and you’ve seen The Avengers at least once, right? OK then, let’s suit up and get down to the good stuff – where I spoil the crap out of Joss Whedon’s epic love letter to Earth’s mightiest heroes.

As I pointed out in my review, I absolutely loved The Avengers. The question now is, “Where do we go from here?” Well, I’ll tell you where… [...]

With a jetpack fueled by insomnia and an easily amused mind, It Came From The Interwebs scours and sifts through everything that has ever appeared on the internet (more or less) to find a few things that you should know about every week. These things come from the interwebs, hence the clever name.

This Week: Hobo Puppets, Tank Demolition, The Church of Shatner, and Licking in a Lift, plus shout out to MCA [...]

This week, The Drill Down team (and Techmeme‘s Lidija Davis) discusses Barnes & Noble‘s new partnership with Microsoft to compete with Amazon‘s Kindle & Apple‘s iPad, and later we discuss a development which could spell the end for Digg.com, one of the most venerated social news sites on the internet.

But first the headlines…CISPA passes the House (and how that will affect you), Apple sidesteps billions in taxes, The Pirate Bay must be blocked in the UK, Blackberry launches version 10 OS, Facebook adds organ donor status to profiles. [...]

In the script for Return of the Jedi, it’s listed as 78 EXT IMPERIAL LANDING PLATFORM – LOWER DECK 78, but to me it’s more than just a landing platform on the forest moon of Endor. This is my favorite Star Wars moment – a scene that has inspired and influenced me more than any lightsaber duel or space battle in George Lucas’s sprawling space saga.

Darth Vader walks down the ramp of his Imperial shuttle onto the platform, into an elevator, and appears on a lower level. He is met by two stormtroopers and an Imperial commander with Luke Skywalker, in binders. The young Jedi gazes at the Dark Lord of the Sith with complete calm.

“This is a Rebel that surrendered to us. Although he denies it, I believe there may be more of them, and I request permission to conduct a further search of the area.” The commander extends his hand, revealing Luke’s lightsaber. “He was armed only with this.” [...]

Comics fans, it’s our day!!! It’s our Super Bowl. Our World Series. Our Wrestlemania. It’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!! Every year, on the first Saturday in May the comics industry comes together and gives out FREE COMIC BOOKS!! Depending on your local comic store, you can choose one or up to ALL of the specially selected free comic books that a slew of publishers put out. Chances are, if you’re a comics fan, you all ready know just what you’re going to pick. But, if you haven’t had the time to look over the Free Comic Book Day website, here’s a brief rundown of SOME of the titles that will be given away at thousands of shops throughout the country. In NO particular order, they are [...]

Each and every week “Let’s Go Red Wings!” MK2Fac3 and “Clap! Clap! Clap, Clap, Clap!” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible… theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of May 2, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Comics rule everything around me. So, in believing in the mantra of C.R.E.A.M., it is my pleasure to tell you about a vast array of new comic books that are coming out this week. There are a wealth of new creator owned books coming out from Image, while DC Comics guides into the Night of the Owls. Meanwhile, behind the facade of an innocent looking bookstore, your local comic shop lets Marvel showcase the latest installment of their comic about heroes fighting each other, while Dark Horse collects some shorts from Dark Horse Presents and Valiant returns! Yes, comics, indeed, rule everything around me. Hence, we offer upon you the readers, The GoD List [...]

There are a great deal of comic books that are released on a monthly basis, so many in fact that some of the best of the lot can fall through the cracks of hardcore comic book fans’ pull lists because quite frankly, you can’t buy everything. So, it’s working under that assumption, as well as weekly beatings from my editor, that I will begin proving you with a somewhat consistent installment of Comics You Should Be Reading. And when I think of a comic that everyone should absolutely be reading, none comes to mind quicker right now than that of The Shade by James Robinson.

The September Relaunch of the entire line of comics from DC Comics caused a huge commotion. Fans were notified that the publishing company would be throwing out all of its continuity, which ended up being more selective continuity than anything else, and while that shocked many of its readership, it provided a whole new landscape of creative possibilities for a wealth of brilliant minds. Fifty-two titles were announced initially, and then came the announcement of a handful of mini-series. Enter The Shade [...]

Titan Books has released Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: The TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books and More: The Essential Guide to the Whedonverse. Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, which came out today, May 1, 2012, delves into every aspect of Whedon’s work, covering every area of the “Whedonverse” through essays and interviews by over 40 contributors.

Thanks to Titan Books, we have an exclusive excerpt from Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, which you can read right here below. Take a read from the book and let us know what you think! [...]

Hello comic book fans!

After a couple of funky weeks, we’re back in action! And on this week’s episode, boy howdy, we’ve got a lot to talk about including Before Watchmen drama including our personal stances on whether or not we will be participating in the madness; also some alternatives for fans of the Before Watchmen creators. In additional to all this seriousness, we lighten it up by talking about some truly great comic books that we really enjoy like the current Daredevil/Punisher/Spider-Man mini-crossover, Batman, Nightwing, Gotham Central, The Sixth Gun, Near Death, Cullen Bunn’s run on Superman/Batman, Avengers vs. X-Men, and the greatness that was Dark Horse Presents, specifically Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle and the hilarious House of Fun strips from Evan Dorkin. So, check in, sit back, and enjoy our crazy opinions on all things comics! [...]

With a jetpack fueled by insomnia and an easily amused mind, It Came From the Interwebs scours and sifts through everything that has ever appeared on the internet (more or less) to find a few things that you should know about every week. These things come from the interwebs, hence the clever name.

This Week: LEGOs, Pie, Fresh Prince memories, and roller skating away from Hepatitis [...]

The First Grader
Netflix Streaming
DVD
Directed by Justin Chadwick
Starring Oliver Litondo, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Vusi Kunene
National Geographic Entertainment
Originally Released: September 4, 2010

The First Grader is one of those rare dramas that is such enthralling viewing; you cannot turn away from the screen. The performances in this movie are well above standards and expectations, with some moving moments sure to bring some viewers to tears. Coupled with some extraordinary cinematography and an exceptional score, The First Grader is a film based on true events that is not to be missed.

In 2003, the People’s Republic of Kenya officially announced that they were introducing free primary education (what Americans refer to as Elementary School) across the country. The result saw a massive increase in enrollment and attendance (Wikipedia cites this as high as 70%), ushering forth a new era of potential for the children of the country [...]

This week The Drill Down team takes a look at the battle for your online distributed data, with new features on cloud storage services from Microsoft, Dropbox, and Google. Then, it’s sci-fi billionaires in space!!! as Google’s Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and director James Cameron launch into a new venture to mine asteroids.

But first, the headlines… Nokia‘s down 30% with a $1.7 BN loss, Anonymous launches a social music service, Facebook pays Microsoft $550 M for former AOL patents, Adobe announces Creative Suite 6 (and subscription-based licenses), and Facebook announces its staggering Q1 financials, including details on its Instagram purchase [...]

One of the Syfy Channel’s most beloved shows, Eureka is began its final season on April the 16th. Leading up to the series premiere the network offered a group of journalists the opportunity to participate in a roundtable discussion with the series creator Jamie Paglia and star Colin Ferguson. Of course, the event began with the most basic of questions: What’s coming up on the show? Though not wanting to spoil anything, Paglia does share that some story elements that were obviously meant to be a larger part of the show’s mythos are being brought to completion in this season, with Beverly Barlow and the Consortium being a specific example.

Eureka premiered as a unique series in the genre. At the time the show started Battlestar Galactica was a big success and Stargate was also still successful. These were shows with spaceships and aliens, the parts that make up the space opera puzzle. Eureka had none of that, plus it had comedy. After the success of Eureka, the possibility of other similar leaps into this sort of grounded sci-fi with comedy seemed possible. Thus Warehouse 13 was born a show this is extremely successful for the Syfy Channel. So it’s an easy assumption to make that the show had some influence of the genre as a while [...]

Take a minute and think about your favorite bad guys. Whether it’s planet-devouring Galactus or not-quite-as-threatening Captain Boomerang, supervillains come in all shape and sizes. The Supervillain Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Destruction and Mayhem shows how you. Yes, YOU can be a part of this exciting, competitive world. We sat down with author, Matt Wilson who adapted the book from his blog The International Society of Supervillains, written in the voice of bad guy King Oblivion, PhD.

Geeks Of Doom: Hello Matt Wilson. Can you describe The Supervillain Handbook briefly?

Matt Wilson: Sure. The way I sort of sold it is like this: Unemployment is so high, and there are all these problems with the economy for the last several years: why wouldn’t people think about Supervillainry as an option? However, I’d warn everyone not to take any advice from the book. I have no legal responsibilities for any City Halls attacked by irradiated killer apes.

GoD: Very safe. You’re credited on the cover this way – “As told to Matt D. Wilson.”

MW: The actual credited author on the cover is King Oblivion PHD, it’s all written with his expertise. It’s an expert’s guide to being a bad guy. The whole book is presented from an unreliable narrator perspective where according to him, he always wins. I might do something later where we find out what the real case is [...]

Each and every week “Phoenix Barbarian” MK2Fac3 and “Bulldog Barbarian” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible… theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of April 25, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Nothing means nothing. Nothing means nothing, man. No more, I’m talking about all the way to the top, yeah. I’m justifiably in a position that I’d rather not be in, I’m in a position to tell all you readers, yeah, that there are a whole lot of comics coming out this week, yeah, and every comic site has their say. But the cream will rise to THE TOP, oh yeah, GoD Madness has got more to offer in the way of great comics, yeah, than any of those other comic sites think we have. Now, the card’s stacked against every book that we pick this week, yeah, but let me say it, let me say it OUT LOUD that MK2Fac3 and Henchman21 are not happy with your decision to not buy all of these books that we suggest, yeah. WE ARE THE CREAM in weekly comics suggestions and there is no doubt about it, yeah. You, dear reader, you know that The GoD List is the CREAM OF THE CROP! [...]

For the best part of the last decade Phil Lewis has been fighting to keep his version of LA Guns as the one true band. It is clear from this interview the lead singer is not amused by his ex-bandmate guitarist Tracii Guns launching his own band under the same name with, it has to be said, often disastrous results.

But Phil Lewis is not a man who dwells on what’s passed. With new album Hollywood Forever due for release in early June in the U.S, he is excited to show the world once again that his is the only LA Guns worth listening to. With the first single from the album, “You Better Not Love Me,” it is immediately clear that Lewis and his merry band of rockers will smash any obstacles placed in front them.

The band will release Hollywood Forever on CD, but in the age where download is king, they have also taken the step of releasing the album on vinyl.

Geeks of Doom: What made you go for a vinyl release?

Phil Lewis: Well we’re influenced heavily, well certainly me and Steve [Riley, drums] anyway, very influenced by the ‘70s. When we grew up the format the music we were listening to was on vinyl. Actually sounds better than CDs and infinitely better than MP3s…with the vinyl you get the nice big artwork and the fold gatesleeve and all the sleeve notes and so it looks really, really good on a 12-inch frame. It looks awesome and it will sound good. Unfortunately you can’t put as much music on vinyl as you can on CD, so it’s gonna be like side A and side B. Think it’s like 20 minutes each side so we had to cull a few of the songs for the vinyl. But yeah, turned out great [...]

Electric Dreams and Cybernetic Wishes…
José Padilha’s RoboCop remake

“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me…”

Director José Padilha is relatively unknown by American audiences. The Brazilian filmmaker studied business, politics, and economics in Rio de Janeiro before taking up English literature and international politics at Oxford.

Padilha emerged onto the film scene in 2002 with the documentary Bus 174, but he is best known for his fiction films Elite Squad and its sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (the highest-grossing film in Brazilian history).

The Elite Squad films are action-packed, filled with intense violence, police corruption, and political commentary – which is probably why Padilha was selected to helm MGM and Sony’s RoboCop remake.

Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film about a police officer (Peter Weller) who is brutally murdered and recreated as a powerful cyborg is by far one of my favorite films. RoboCop was incredibly violent (originally Rated X by the MPAA) and stood out from other action movies as it addressed larger issues regarding media, corruption, and privatization with humor and satire [...]

The eleventh episode of The Geeks Of Doom Round Up is here, and Andy pays tribute to Levon Helm from The Band who passed away this week, as we review a clip from the movie, The Last Waltz. For our music selection this week, it’s a week of tribute to the fallen, as we pay tribute to Dick Clark and his dedication to rock and roll through the years, with a clip of him introducing KISS playing “Rock And Roll All Night.”

Later, we also take a look at Bethesda’s new upcoming game called Dishonored, and review the recent casting news for Iron Man 3. Finally, we also pay tribute to Greg Ham from Men At Work who also died this week as we close our show with the song “Who Can It Be Now?” [...]

From a ‘secret’ stint with English hard rock outfit UFO guitarist Bernie Marsden has just about done it all. After brief turns in Wild Turkey, Babe Ruth (the English rock band) and Paice, Ashton & Lord, he grabbed the attention of a certain David Coverdale who approached him to join the new band he was putting together.

Marsden and Coverdale collaborated on some of Whitesnake’s best and most popular songs including “Fool For Your Lovin’” and the magnificent “Here I Go Again.” With all this in mind, Marsden and I had plenty to talk about and he was happy to recount his early days with Whitesnake and his surprising appearances with the band last year – when he shared a tender moment with current guitarist Doug Aldrich…

Geeks of Doom: Your first big break was with UFO, but that was never an ideal situation for you was it? [...]

With a jetpack fueled by insomnia and an easily amused mind, It Came From the Interwebs scours and sifts through everything that has ever appeared on the internet (more or less) to find a few things that you should know about every week. These things come from the interwebs, hence the clever name.

This week: The Pizza Dance, The Widowmaker Hamburger, a Trippy PSA, the Ugly Duckling, and Fun with Cartography! [...]