Shot Through The Heart: LiveTweet Transcript of Arrow

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rob here. Last night, while I was working feverishly on my Batman #13 review, Amanda watched the pilot for CW’s new Green Arrow based show, Arrow, and liveTweeted her impressions.

Having read her feed to catch up, well… the good news is, apparently there is plenty of room for improvement!

Getting ready to live tweet #Arrow. #CW

— CrisisOn∞Midlives (@InfiniteMidlife) October 11, 2012

So much. Running. #Arrow #cw

— CrisisOn∞Midlives (@InfiniteMidlife) October 11, 2012

That seems like an inefficient way to light a fire. #Arrow #CW

— CrisisOn∞Midlives (@InfiniteMidlife) October 11, 2012

With A Whimper – Review Of Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan

Well, I’ll give last night’s episode of Doctor Who this much: it made me queue up the Weeping Angels origin episode “Blink” on streaming Netflix to help me put my finger on what went wrong with “The Angels Take Manhattan”. The short answer? Almost everything.

“The Angels Take Manhattan” was intended to be an emotional send off for the Doctor’s most recent companions, Amy and Rory Pond. Here’s a spoiler up front: the Ponds are sent away into the past to a fixed point in time where, apparently, the Doctor can never see them again. Given that it’s been established that the Doctor needs to be around others on a near constant basis in order to remain somewhat centered, if not completely sane, the ending of this episode should have competed with Old Yeller for tear jerker of the millennium. However, convoluted story telling, hype, and lack of attachment to Amy Pond as a character worth caring about, as compared to other Companions, served to kill this episode in its crib.

More spoilery disappointment, after the jump.

Last Days Of The Ponds – Behind The Scenes At Doctor Who

In less than an hour, the final Doctor Who episode starring the Ponds will air in the UK. Those of us here in the states will need to wait another five hours and avoid Twitter and Web site spoilers…like this behind the scenes Doctor Who video which hints at Amy’s fate in tonight’s “The Angels Take Manhattan”.

You’ve been warned.

At least I have no idea what happens to Rory. Yet. Although I think it involves unemployment…

Final Rest: Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore Settle Walking Dead Lawsuit

There is nothing more heartwarming in this world than seeing a childhood friendship grow into adulthood, turn into a productive working relationship, lead to an amicable parting of the ways as one friend pursues his dreams of producing professional comics work for page rates while the other turns their mutual prior work into a license to print money, then meet again in a Federal courtroom with mutual exclamations of affection like “[You are] a proud liar and fraudster,” and “[Your] lawsuit is ridiculous,” all before concluding in that most beautiful of Hollywood of endings: with one friend writing a check so the other can feel free to fuck off and die.

Or, in other words: Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore have settled their lawsuit over profits from and ownership over The Walking Dead.

Revolution 9 (Commercial Breaks): First Episode of NBC’s Revolution

Previously best known for shining an irritating spotlight directly into my hotel window during San Diego Comic-Con this year, NBC’s new sci-fi show, Revolution, is scheduled to air its Jon Favreau-directed pilot on September 17th. The show extrapolates what would happen if we lost electrical power, forever (my guess? I swill warm Jack Daniels while pitiably weeping before finding a bridge to jump from), and is widely expected to be a hit with genre fans who have been slavering for a program that will meet their desires for something that will kill time until The Walking Dead season three starts on October 14th.

But if you’ve been wondering if it’s worth the sectors on your TiVo hard drive, fear not: NBC has made the entire first episode available for early viewing online… and you can watch it in its advertising-driven goodness (I don’t edit them, I just rip the embed code and post them) after the jump. Call it a way to kill your lunch hour while waiting to get to the comic store after work.

This Trouble Goes To Eleven – Review Of Doctor Who 7.1 “Asylum Of The Daleks”

(Ed. Note – This review will be spoily woily, which is like timey wimey or explodey wodey or whatever, but with more spoilers. Starting pretty much immediately. You’ve been warned.)

Last night was the premiere of Doctor Who season 7. Last night was also the night I discovered that Layer Cake Wines makes an excellent, if powerful, Grenache that will knock you on your ass and make it very difficult to post a review in real time, let alone live tweet it. This is probably just as well, given the number of folks I saw in my Twitter stream threatening to do awful things to those who might post any hint of spoilers that might ruin their own personal viewing experience when they get around to finally watching it themselves, in their own good time. For example:

.@davemaulding @sizzlerkistler Yeah, I haven’t watched it yet. I’ll be blocking and cursing anyone who spoils it for me.

— Janna O’Shea (@dreamyeyed) September 2, 2012

But, it’s a whole new day and I’m sober. Therefore, I feel I should dispense with the niceties and warn everyone up front that last night we learned that The Doctor regenerates and comes back as Raptor Jesus. Also, the Ponds discover they can assemble themselves into Voltron. Oh, and The Doctor’s new companion is a Dalek.

One of these things may or may not be true.

Read the rest of my actual review, after the jump!

Doctor Who News: Is Moffat Planning On Killing Off Both Rory And Amy Pond? Also, Here’s All Of “Pond Life”.

The US premiere of Doctor Who Season 7 is tonight at 9pm EDT. We’ve all heard that the Ponds will be exiting the series this season, potentially with one of them being killed. However, the wording of Matt Smith, the actor currently in the role of The Doctor, in this interview with The Mary Sue is positively cryptic:

…what’s really interesting about these next five episodes, which is the first season, if we tag that as the first season, it deals with the fall of the Ponds and the demise of those two great companions (emphasis added) that the Doctor is hugely, hugely attached to and had such a significant impact on him as a character and for me as an actor. So that’s bound to be an event that flips his universe massively.

Wait, what? Words like fall and demise are pretty freaking dire there, Matt. Are you being dramatic about the exit of The Doctor’s companions or are they taking their leave in a somewhat more permanent and final manner?

Well, all we know for sure, based on this Doctor Who Insider clip and the events of the Season 7 Web series prequel, Pond Life, is that whatever’s coming down the pike, it’s going to be pretty emotional. Check it out:

And, catch the entirety of Pond Life after the jump!

New DC Nation Shorts Trailer!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: DC Nation makes me look forward to Saturday morning cartoons again!

This new trailer of upcoming shorts features Bane, Amethyst, Black Lightning, goofy takes on Green Lantern, Shazam, The Flash and his Rogues Gallery, and Doom Patrol, along with a whole bunch of other awesome, if not completely readily identifiable, clips.

I think I saw John Kricfalusi-esque animation in there. Would stuff by the actual man be too much to hope for?

DC Nation runs every Saturday morning on The Cartoon Network, beginning at 10am EST.

via WB’s Comic-Con

New Arrow TV Trailer: Because We Need Our Live Action Supes Fix Post TDKR

In the lull that follows the movie industry’s summer blockbuster, nigh hangover inducing after the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises, television network CW releases the most recent trailer for its great fall season hope, Arrow. Yes, it’s a new take on Green Arrow. Marketing apparently thought dropping the “Green” would make it sound more bad ass or something. But it’s still got the bones of the familiar story. Oliver Queen has been trapped on a deserted island somewhere on the ocean, north of China, for five years. That’s long enough to grow some stylin’ facial hair, hone his archery skills, and develop a taste for those little crabs that live in tidal pools vigilante justice! CW shoehorns in Dinah Lance (that’s the eventual Black Canary to the five of you who might watch this that are unfamiliar with the comic book) as an ex-girlfriend. We may see Speedy in the form of a druggie sibling. Wonder if the druggie sibling is going to lose an arm and have a child with a super villain? Now that would be bad ass.

Anyway, check out the new trailer after the jump.

Doctor Who Season 7 Trailer – Daleks, Dinosaurs, And Death?

Whovians who have embraced Amy Pond, Weeping Angels, and Steven Moffat, rejoice! Your tonic of choice is set to return to the airwaves August 25th. Of course, if you happen to be at the Edinbugh International Television Festival, which begins on August 23rd, you may get to see it before it officially hits the TV. Either way, Season 7 sees the return of Doctor Who to television after a particularly long hiatus. Amy and Rory will rejoin the Doctor for at least the first part of the season. Well, probably at least until this happens during a fight with some Daleks:

Does Amy actually cash in her chips this season? Check out the trailer after the jump!