With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.
Check out our picks, then head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!
Writer Geoff Johns | Artist Dale Eaglesham (DC Comics)
Apple has unveiled its editorial selections for the best apps of the year across its various devices, including game selections on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. They include some pretty well known names, particularly in the mobile space.
Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year is Donut County, the wondrously weird game that riffs on the legacy of Katamari Damacy. Rather than grow an ever-larger ball of junk, though, you control a growing hole that swallows up everything around it. The iPad Game of the Year is Gorogoa, the image manipulation puzzler. On Mac, the award goes to The Gardens Between. Finally, the Apple TV Game of the Year is Alto’s Odyssey.
The announcement also included chart data for the most popular games of the last year. The top free iPhone and iPad game alike was Fortnite. Other top contenders on iPhone included Helix Jump, Rise Up, PUBG Mobile, and Hole.io. Many of those ranked high in the free iPad chart as well, joined by others like Roblox.
The top paid game on iPhone was Heads Up!, the party game, followed by Minecraft and Plague Inc. Minecraft also ruled the roost on iPad, followed by Geometry Dash and The Game of Life. Check below for all the game charts.
Top Free iPhone Games
Top Paid iPhone Games
Top Free iPad Games
Top Paid iPad Games
Netflix has come out to confirm that the iconic TV show Friends will remain available to stream–in the United States at least–through the end of 2019. The confirmation comes after Friends fans noticed that the show’s page on Netflix seemed to suggest it would leave the streaming service on January 1. Thankfully, that’s not true.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Netflix confirmed Friends will remain available to stream in the US through the end of 2019.
As THR reminds us, Friends is expected to leave Netflix and join rights-holder WarnerMedia’s own streaming service sometime down the road. The untitled streaming platform is pegged to launch at the end of 2019.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told THR that Friends leaving Netflix soon was only “a rumour.”
Friends made its digital streaming debut when it came to Netflix on January 1, 2015. The show streams exclusively on Netflix in the US, but in Australia, it streams through Stan and not Netflix. Re-runs still air in the US on TBS and other channels.
Critically acclaimed, Friends ran for 10 seasons from 1994 through 2004. Its May 2004 finale drew 52.5 million viewers in America, according to The New York Times. As of 2015, the show was bringing in $1 billion every year from syndication, with stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry making $20 million a year from that based on their 2 percent share of syndication revenue, according to USA Today.
Cox told People this year that she’d love to do a Friends reboot, but it may never happen. Similarly, Anniston told InStyle that she fantasises about a Friends reboot in this new era of TV where “so many shows are being successfully rebooted.”
The Big Bash League, or BBL, is cricket’s answer to the ever-increasing pace of modern life; a 20-over-a-side slogfest where smashing the ball out of the park to the sound of fireworks and loud rock music takes the place of five-day-long tests of endurance and patience. Big Bash Boom takes this concept and smashes it into the arcade game-o-sphere by introducing nice-looking power-ups, unlockable customizations, and a streamlined approach to gameplay that speeds up the action, while leaning into a goofiness that cricket games rarely embrace. But with a litany of technical problems and no meaningful tutorial to help you work out the basics, Big Bash Boom feels like it needs more time in the practice nets.
Big Bash cricket is all about smashing the heck out of every ball and scoring as many runs as possible, and Big Bash Boom does a superb job of recreating the buzzing atmosphere you’ll find at the ground during a BBL match, complete with wild crowds, fireworks displays, and unintentionally terrifying-looking mascots. You can pick any of the eight licensed teams from either the BBL or Women’s BBL, taking them to glory in a casual match, full tournament, or online head-to-head.
When jumping straight into a casual match, you can customize match options, team lineups, and ball type, which includes a few fun varieties–pie, anyone? You’re led out onto the pitch and greeted by real-world commentator Pete Lazer, though his occasionally charming reads come off as a series of one-liners instead of actual commentary, and they begin to grate after some repeats.
Out on the field is where Big Bash Boom shows off its main differences to past cricket games, including Ashes Cricket, which was by the same developer as Big Bash Boom. The action has been streamlined to cut out a lot of the dead air time that you tend to get at a cricket match, which gives the game its arcade feel. You’re never asked to pick bowlers or select lineups. You can if you wish, but the game will otherwise make these calls to ensure a faster flow. The players all have NBA Jam-style big heads, which shows off the player likenesses in a way that’s easy to appreciate. Faces are detailed, if a little robotic and expressionless, but the overall look works in context, especially combined with the great use of special effects to mark big shots.
Batting and bowling feel more pick-up-and-play than in any other cricket game; however, the lack of a meaningful tutorial means things that should be obvious knowledge, like what the changing cursor colour on the pitch means, remain a mystery until you just happen to work it out through the natural course of playing. But that aside, it’s simple enough to get into a match and start slogging balls left and right, with timing and shot selection all coming into play. Time it perfectly, and you’ll probably make it sail over the ropes, but get it wrong and you might pop the ball up for an easy catch or swing and miss entirely. Bowling is a touch more complicated, involving selecting a bowl type to start the run in and then keeping the cursor on the pitch in place while timing your release. It often feels like you’re up against it as a bowler; there’s little you can do to avoid being belted around the park apart from bowling the occasional short ball, and you’re limited to performing only one of those per over. Getting belted around every ball takes some getting used to, but thankfully if you’d rather spare yourself the embarrassment, you can always simulate the innings.
The inclusion of power-ups for batters and bowlers help pump up the excitement of a match, and you can activate these after filling a special meter by hitting runs and boundaries as a batter, or dot balls and wickets as a bowler. Each exhibits some excellent-looking animations and special effects, and you’ll get some extra power for the next few balls. Bowlers can bowl twice as fast, fielders are able to run at double their speed, and batters can force slower throws from the outfield or hit twice as hard, sending loose balls into the stratosphere. It’s immensely satisfying.
Everything you do in a match will earn you coins that you can put towards buying new in-match celebrations, which you’re prompted to perform after hitting a big six or taking a wicket. While it’s somewhat satisfying to rub it in your opponent’s face, the lack of gameplay benefits makes showboating feel a little arbitrary. You can also purchase cosmetic customizations like new hats and helmets, but that’s as far as personalization goes; disappointingly, there’s no player or team editor.
Beyond the excellent special moves and vibrant aesthetic, the rest of the game struggles to hide its seams, most notably when it comes to animations. Fielders will move about awkwardly when chasing the ball before settling and sending in the return throw, while batters often warp into place before setting off for a run. There are also some more obtrusive bugs that, when they hit, can change the outcome of a match. A few times I was called out for a catch on one side of the field when the camera made it look like the ball had gone in the opposite direction. I’ve also had catches made in the outfield seem as though they don’t count, with my player harmlessly throwing the ball back to the keeper as though nothing happened–something that can be immensely frustrating.
Big Bash Boom’s potential is clear. Despite its singular focus making it feel a little barebones when compared to other cricket titles, the shift towards arcade gameplay feels perfectly suited to the relatively flamboyant presentation of the BBL. But it’s washed with bugs that affect the core of the experience, and those technical issues make it difficult to warm up to.
The brand new Captain Marvel trailer has been released, bringing with it a whole slew of new details about the MCU’s first solo female hero–including our first confirmation of a pretty major change to her comic book origin story.
Carol Danver’s history has no shortage of complicated reboots and retcons, so the idea that she’s getting yet another reboot isn’t exactly surprising. Her comic book origins are complicated at best and have only recently been modified to be slightly more streamlined care of the recent The Life Of Captain Marvel mini series released this year. However, it seems the movie is going to be putting a completely new spin on things.
We learn in this trailer that Carol genuinely has no memory of her life as a human on Earth–she was “found” by the Kree empire, after some sort of accident, and “saved” by a procedure that looks suspiciously like a run-of-the-mill blood transfusion which, apparently, spliced her genes with Kree DNA. The process enabled her to “live longer, stronger,” which would explain how and why she’ll be blasting into the present (presumably) without having aged after being summoned to Earth by Nick Fury in the present day ahead of Avengers 4, while her solo movie takes place in the 90s.
The addition of amnesia is the real pivot point here. Through her various origins and comic book incarnations, Carol has never really lost sight of the fact that she was born a human–or at least, believed herself to be human. There have been some brief instances of brainwashing and some typical comic book flavored stakes involving memory loss and time travel, but nothing that would really necessitate her origin involve her not remembering Earth.
This change is likely heralding a larger and more mysterious plot point, pointing back to the still as-of-yet unknown role played by Jude Law, who fans long believed to be Mar-Vell before the trailers started dropping. It’s looking more and more likely that Law’s character is, in fact, not Mar-Vell, but a Kree villain named Yon-Rogg who has a history rubbing elbows with some of the more dubious branches of the Kree science departments. The Kree Empire’s obsession with eugenics and hybridization has long since been an undercurrent of their characterization, often culminating in aborted attempts to genetically engineer stronger and more powerful offspring to strengthen their military prowess throughout the galaxy. Add to this the confirmed role of Gemma Chan, playing Kree science officer Minn-Erva, another character with a shady, genetics-obsessed past, and it seems more and more likely that a major turning point of Carol’s MCU story is going to be the revelation that her “accident” and subsequent “rescue” by the Kree was really anything but.
Captain Marvel blasts into theaters everywhere on March 8, 2019.
The second trailer for Captain Marvel is here and while we all enjoyed her Skrull-punching antics in the latest video, many people are confused as to who this character is. More specifically, some folks are not sure why she’s a woman. To the average person who isn’t well-versed in comic book lore, this can all be a little confusing. Don’t worry, we’ll get you up to date and explain it all as quickly as possible.
First are foremost, comic book continuity is confusing and full of plot holes and errors. Keeping track of what’s gone down in stories for the past 80 years or so can be quite the task. However, Captain Marvel at Marvel Comics is a women and has been for the past six years, and the character behind the mask–Carol Danvers–has been a part of the collective comic book universe for 50 years now. When Danvers took on the role of Captain Marvel, it made the character relevant again, which it hadn’t been for 30 years or so.
So let’s talk Captain Marvel. There are three main characters using this name. The first is DC Comics’ Captain Marvel–who goes by the name Shazam now. He’s actually a young boy named Billy Batson who becomes a superpowered adult when he yells “Shazam.” He’s the DC hero in the red suit with a giant yellow lightning bolt on his chest. Zachary Levi will be playing the character on the big screen on April 5, 2019.
Then, there’s Marvel’s first Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell. He was the captain of a Kree militia and a protector of the universe. Mar-Vell died in 1978 after inhaling poisonous gas and getting terminal cancer. He’s been resurrected a few times, and still shows up every now and again but he hasn’t been a heavy hitter for decades.
So that leaves us with Carol Danvers, the current Captain Marvel. Throughout the years, many people of various sexes and races–both alien and human–have fought under this mantle, but Danvers was the person that made this character relevant again. If you grew up in the ’90s and watched the X-Men cartoon, you know who this character is. In the realm of X-Men: The Animated Series as well as comic book canon, Rogue got her super-strength and flight by sucking the life out of Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers. However, Danvers eventually recovered, and years later, after the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, she took on the mantle of Captain Marvel. Her backstory is wildly confusing, as is almost every cosmic character from Marvel’s silver age. However, her origin is getting a little bit of a clean up in the new movie.
You can learn more about the character by checking out her history video above to see just how insane it is or wait until Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8, 2019.
Marvel has released the new trailer for Captain Marvel, and it does quite a few things, setting up Carol Danvers’ backstory and establishing the basic premise of the movie. It also straightens out something that some viewers were no doubt confused about during the first trailer earlier this year.
That debut trailer for Captain Marvel featured a striking moment for those who don’t know much of the Kree/Skrull backstory that serves as a major foundation for the upcoming movie: Captain Marvel punches an old lady in the face. That might have seemed inexplicable to some, though we felt safe in our assumption that the old woman was simply a Skrull in disguise.
The new trailer goes heavy on the exposition. Aside from some dialogue where Samuel L. Jackson explicitly lays out the absolute basics of the relationship between the Skrull and Kree, the trailer also wastes no time in sorting out that punching incident. Rather than cut away after the punch, we see the old woman is–surprise!–not an old woman at all. She’s unfazed by the punch, and the two begin to fight.
This scene will presumably be more of a comedic beat in the final film than anything particularly meaningful. Elsewhere in the trailer, we do see some more significant aspects of the movie, including the fact that Marvel seems to be introducing a new origin story for Danvers. Based on what we see, she’s unaware of the fact that she’s actually human, and piecing that together will apparently be part of her arc during the movie.
Captain Marvel–which is set in the ’90s–will also presumably set up why the character has gone unseen in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to date. We know based on the post-credits Infinity War stinger that Nick Fury signals Captain Marvel after Thanos snaps his fingers, but we’re not sure where she’s been for the past few decades.
Captain Marvel’s release date is set for March 8, with Avengers 4 set to follow on May 3.
As expected, a new trailer for Marvel’s next big super hero movie, Captain Marvel, premiered tonight during Monday Night Football on ESPN. This trailer provides the best look yet at the Brie Larson-starring movie and offers up new insight into the plot and what appears to be a new origin story for the character.
The trailer also shows off a better look at the Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Jude Law as a Kree commander, and the two-eyed, digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. We also see Annette Bening’s character for the first time–she’s a Kree. This trailer is heavy on exposition, as it also goes into the Skrull/Kree relationship, and finally explains that old lady-punching incident from the previous trailer. You can check out the full trailer in the embed above.
Captain Marvel is set to premiere in March 2019. The first Captain Marvel trailer came online in September, and just like we did that for one, we’ll have a in-depth breakdown of this newest trailer covering all the big takeaways.
In addition to Larson, Law, Mendelsohn, and Jackson, the movie features Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, and Gemma Chan as Minn-Rrva. You can see a full breakdown of who’s in the movie here.
Larson, who won the Best Actress Oscar for his role in Room, will play Captain Marvel again in 2019’s untitled Avengers 4.
Image credit: Marvel on Twitter
Daryl Dixon from AMC’s The Walking Dead recently befriended a dog, and now fans all over the internet are petitioning to ensure that dog stays alive and doesn’t find a grisly fate like so many others on the post-apocalyptic show.
As reported by ComicBook.com, over 54,000 fans have signed a petition to keep Daryl’s dog, a German Shepard named…well…Dog, alive and well.
It’s going to be a big week for Epic’s battle royale game Fortnite. In addition to the launch of Season 7, Epic has an announcement teed up for The Game Awards.
Show organiser Geoff Keighley said there will be some kind of Fortnite announcement and a “world premiere” at The Game Awards on Thursday night. Epic’s own Donald Mustard will be on hand at the event to drop the news, apparently.
I can’t stress enough how much we have going on this week. Geoff isn’t talking about Season 7 launch here. Tune in! https://t.co/K2gwZoizqa
— Nick “Unusual Spending” Chester (@nickchester) December 3, 2018
Epic PR lead Nick Chester confirmed in his own tweet that the announcement lined up for The Game Awards is not related to Season 7. “I can’t stress enough how much we have going on this week,” Chester said.
Keighley’s cryptic teaser mentioned that Fortnite fans will want to “keep your game close,” which sounds like a suggestion that something will happen in the game.
Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who are big fans of Fortnite, will be presenting an award at The Game Awards this week. However, it remains to be seen if the directors will have any news to share during the show.
The pair played Fortnite during downtime during of the editing process of Infinity War, they told EW this year. Joe Russo personally called Mustard to get a conversation going about about the Thanos limited-time mode that eventually came to Fortnite. More recently, Anthony Russo wore a Fortnite t-shirt during an Infinity War Q&A just last week, so their appreciation for Fortnite seemingly continues.
As for Fortnite Season 7, Epic recently released a new teaser that teases, “A bitter ice spreads,” which follows previous rumours and reports about the seventh season having a wintry, cold theme. Season 7 begins on December 6, which is the same day as The Game Awards.
The Game Awards 2018 take place on December 6, starting at 8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT. That works out to 1:30 AM GMT and 12:30 PM AET on December 7. There are more than 10 new game announcements on tap, one of which is the next RPG from the makers of Fallout: New Vegas. You’ll be able to watch the show on GameSpot, while we’ll have a rundown of all the big news as well.