Superior Iron Man # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Straight off the pages of the current AXIS storyline, Tony Stark created a new Extremis App that is free and can turn everyone into improved versions of themselves. His personality was somehow warped during the battle against the Red Onslaught. He wants to make the world a better place....whether the general public wants to or not. It also seems that Tony's developed a taste for booze again. Let's see what happens in the first issue of this new series.

The issue recaps Tony giving everyone the app across San Francisco. Everyone applauds Tony Stark, but they were blind to the truth. A week later, Iron Man runs into She-Hulk who is fighting a monster calling himself the Teen Abomination. The green monster was explosed to gamma radiation, and while She-Hulk warns that he's not as powerful as THE Abomination, he's still strong enough to send her flying into a building. Iron Man taunts him about his chosen super villain name and the Teen Abomination swings a lamp post at him that seemingly takes his head clean off!

The headless Iron Man picks up the helmet, proving it's just an empty suit. She-Hulk and Teen Abomination are both surprised, and the villain feels bad that after all the effort to get Iron Man's attention, he didn't even bother to show up in person. He smashes his helmet down violently onto the villain, knocking him out. She-Hulk says he shouldn't have hit him that hard since he's just a kid. Tony says she can do the clean up since he has somewhere better to be.

The real Tony Stark is chillin in a pool where some kind of illusion app in his contact allows him to control Iron Man from the comfort of the pool. Pepper arrives and tells Tony to get out of the pool. He eventually meets her inside and she disapproves that he's in a pool full of strangers and has taken up drinking again.

Tony shows Pepper he is working on a new symbiote-based liquid metal that can fuse with the body to form the Iron Man armor. Pepper tells him about the consequences of his new app. It seems everyone in San Francisco started to party hearty with their new looks. But worse, now the people that don't have access to the app are severely looked down upon.

A group of attractive people gang up on a homeless person, wanting her to leave the city. Just then one of the guys is smacked by by Daredevil's trademark weapon. The hero tells the crowd to back off. The guy he hit starts freaking out saying that 'something's wrong'.

Tony suits up and tells Pepper that the people won't stay perfect forever since he can't make money by giving away something like that for free. Just then the people in the pool outside start screaming a they start turning back to normal. Pepper picks up a phone someone dropped and it reads that the Extremis 3.0 App's free trial is over... and the daily renewal fee is 99.99. Iron Man says he wants to see how far the people will go to get their perfection back now that they had a taste of it. He then flies off.

Pepper consults with someone with how Tony has changed and seems to have fallen victim to his own ego. The person she's talking to says he will help, and it's revealed to be someone dressed in the classic Iron Man armor.

My Opinions

Wow is all I can say. So Iron Man gives the world a miracle cure of sorts.... and then takes it away charging 100 bucks daily if you want it back. Instant drug addiction. Not only that, he created a whole new kind of prejudice as now the 'beautiful people' look violently down upon those that can't use the free app. Pepper has reason to be worried. This Iron Man isn't twisted or misguided, he's an asshole.

Doc Ock as the Superior Spider-Man set out to eradicate all crime for the greater good, but also to stroke his ego and prove he's a much better hero than Parker ever was. All the wrong reasons and whatnot, but he's still doing this with good intentions. This Tony Stark is purposely getting people hooked on his drug. the charge a hundred bucks a day to keep using it after giving the city a week to get them hooked. Then he flies off with glee to see all the chaos he caused firsthand. This isn't some guy doing things with his own sense of greater good.... or some guy that was so short sighted he didn't realize he was causing more harm than good. No. Tony was doing this on purpose, and is about to go out and bask in his handiwork... What in the flying fuck dude...????

As for the victims, I do wonder how this affects the victims. Do they just turn back to normal, or even worse? Yeah, for someone super vain and self-centered it would suck to finally have the perfect body you always wanted.... and then to lose it... but it seemed some of these people seemed to be screaming in pain. And also what the hell is this Extremis app? Does it crawl out of your phone and into your body? Or how exactly does it get out of your phone and into you? I wonder if they'll ever explain that in detail later on.

It was also good to see She-Hulk and Daredevil in this. I always like seeing these little cameos and it does make sense since most of Marvel's heroes live in New York City. I also assume eventually the other Avengers will come after Tony once he goes too far. We'll have to see what happens. I'm interested in what's gonna happen so far.

Sonic Boom # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Sonic gets yet another reboot as he gets a new cgi cartoon series and a new game called Sonic Boom. I'm not exactly sure if it's an all-out reboot or if this is just 'the new look' from here on out but it seems the Sonic games from now on will look like this. The cast trimmed down to a few characters (so far) and the most notable differences in design are Sonic's new scarf and Knuckles being taller and bulkier to fit his fighter personality. Surprisingly to me, rather than just have Sonic suddenly want to wear a scarf and come up with some way to explain Knuckles' new look and continue the long running comic series... it seems Archie comics has made a whole separate comic book series (I assume) based on the continuity within the new game and cartoon show. Let's take a look.

The comic starts with Dr. Eggman attacking the gang with a giant robot. As the team, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles gets re-introduced to new readers, they all come together to take him down. Eggman's giant robot swims away and the battle is won for now.

All is not well though as Sticks the Badger (must be a new character?) tells Tails that his house has been robbed. Tails asks what exactly was stolen, but Sticks clarifies that the house itself was robbed by a giant stone golem that came up from under it. They soon find it and see that Tails' house is on its head. The heroes try to attack the monster without causing damage to the house, and eventually Amy, Knuckles and Sonic destroy it (after Amy has to explain the plan to Knuckles several times). Luckily the house manages to land just fine.

Even the good guys celebrate, Knuckles hold some resentment, mostly towards Amy since she keeps insulting his low IQ. The comic ends with Knuckles arriving at Dr. Eggman's hideout asking if he wants to team up.

My Opinions

Kind of a simple story. Besides the cool visuals and getting used to the new designs of these classic characters all that happens is that team takes down two of Eggman's giant creations. I guess in this case it's alright since again, this is an intro story. The characters point it out too as everyone gets introduced with their full name drawn as a logo... and there's a lot of 4th wall breaking about it.

One thing that annoyed me is Knuckles' characterization. I assume this is how he acts in the new game and series, but wow, is this ever gonna get really old really quick. Granted, Knuckles has never exactly been a genius, one of his problems in the games is how easily Robotnik seems to trick him into siding with him on several occasions. The first time in Sonic 3 I can let slide since he didn't know him yet and Robotnik would be quick to take advantage of anyone that naive... but any other time after clearly seeing how evil he is... no.... shame on you Knuckles.

However, Knuckles was never flat out 'the dumb one' like he is here, constantly saying random and stupid things, or never understanding what's going on, even after it being explained to him. I swear the only thing missing him is for him to say 'duuuuh'. While his dumb ass remarks makes everyone facepalm, it annoys Amy the most, which leads her to insult him constantly until he finally got fed up with it.

I might check out a few more issues, I decided to take advantage of this since it is the first issue. I assume, as a whole new comic series, it will only feature characters from the new Sonic Boom game and not the gi-normous cast of over nine thousand characters the main 300 issue series. Although I'm curious why they didn't just give Sonic a scarf in the main comic series and call it a day.... I guess this is an opportunity to let new readers have a fresh new start without having to get lost with the long-ass backstory and history of the main series with so many original characters and storylines. Still, I do wonder if the main comic will eventually slowly go with the Sonic Boom re-designs and have Stick appear.

As for Stick herself, so far I just know she's the new character and seems to be more feral than anyone else in the series. Everyone else seems to be pretty much the same. Eggman even has the same robot sidekicks Orbot and Cubot from the newer games.

As for the game itself, which apparently the 3DS version will be different from the Wii U version.. from what I seen at Game Stop, it seems to be interesting. With them mentioning that it relies on platforming and puzzles, it sounds more like the classic 2D formula (with 3D graphics I'd assume) than the 3D format of the Sonic Adventure series. Sign me up. I haven't seen the actual how yet though.

I do have to say... I loved this little scene in the beginning. Not only does Tails take some time out to compliment Eggman on his genius, because after all, good guy or bad guy, Tails does appreciate genius done right... we also get a clever Back to the Future reference. Gotta love it.

Agents of SHIELD Episode 26

By Mark Rodriguez

This episode was pretty much to the point and other than some scenes of Fitz and such, didn't really have multiple plot threads going on.

The episode reveals that a painting has been discovered in a burnt down church, that happens to have the same markings that Coulson carves out on the back. Coulson and May go undercover as a couple to a fancy party to try to get it. They notice that Talbot, the military guy that is out to get them, is also there. Coulson decides the plan has been compromised as Talbot can blow their cover at any time and decide to grab the painting. The painting was already stolen by Talbot himself. Talbot meets up with Coulson and wants them to meet in a hotel since Coulson might be able to figure out what the markings mean. May decides to go ahead to make sure it's safe.

At the hotel, May fights it out with Talbot and a HYDRA female agent that used to be one of SHIELD. As she smacks Talbot in the face, she realizes it's a HYDRA agent wearing the same electronic fishnet face mask that the Black Widow was using in the Winter Soldier. The kind that makes your face look like someone else. May is soon knocked out and the HYDRA agent is made to look like her. This HYDRA agent was actually SHIELD Agent 33 that was brainwashed into working for HYDRA in the previous episode.

Coulson finds fake May and takes her back to the plane, where she plants a device that will damage the plane and blow it up. As Coulson and May head out to meet with the fake Talbot, he finally figures out she is an impostor. The real May escapes and fights it out against her doppelganger. Coulson and May manage to escape before more HYDRA agents could be called in for reinforcements.

Elsewhere the SHIELD plane is being destroyed as electronics start shorting out one by one. Fitz knows how to fix it and gets Hunter to help him out since he has steadier hands and calmer nerves. They manage to stop the HYDRA device and save the plane before it would get any worse. As Coulson and May head back to base, he tells her he's worried about one day going crazy like Garrett did and says it's up to her to put him down when that time comes.

Meanwhile Rayna is attacked by HYDRA and has a device planted on her hand that infects it. They tell her that she has 48 hours to return the Obelisk she stole from them earlier.

My Opinions

It was a fun episode. I like how the advertising for it focused mostly on Coulson and May dancing at a fancy party without mentioning exactly why they were there or what the mission was about. It was funny seeing cold and serious May having to smile and mingle with people. She commented that her face hurt from all the smiling, and as the other Agents overheard their conversations, Skye said 'That's the most I ever heard May talk in a year'. I also like how the sound of her actually laughing freaked the other Agents out. And hey, May also flirts in spanish. That was unexpected.

The one thing that comes up in this episode is the same photostatic veil mask that the Black Widow used near the end of Captain America The Winter Soldier. While it was SHIELD tech, it's obvious HYDRA either stole the idea, had some of the brainwashed agents make it for them, or hell, they were probably the ones that invented it while they were undercover as SHIELD agents. Paige liked the fact that not only do we see this little nod the recent film, but this time they actually show how it works. We see the process of how they program it to make Agent 33 look like Melinda May.

yeah yeah I know, not exactly one of Scarlet's most flattering pictures, is it?

As for Agent 33 I feel sorry for her. When you think about it, she's an innocent victim here. She had no idea what she was doing throughout the episode and it's sad to think that Coulson and May most likely believe she just betrayed them of her own choosing. The last episode showed how much of a struggle she put up against the brainwashing the best she could. She'd never side with the bad guys, and now she is forced her, and the good guys don't know the difference. Of course with SHIELD being such a huge organization before it's downfall, it really is hard to tell which agents were HYDRA all along, which ones were easily seduced into HYDRA by money, power or other selfish reasons, or which ones were brainwashed against their will like Agent 33 was. Either way, she's a sad case.

I have to say the fight between May and May 33 was pretty cool and fast paced. They did a good job making it fast and intense enough to overlook the fact that one of them had to be some kind of stunt double whenever both were on screen at the same time. Plus, as kick ass as May is, it's nice to see someone test her abilities once in a while, and this was a pretty decent fight.

As for Talbot, I was pissed when they revealed the HYDRA symbols and such, because I thought that meant he was HYDRA all along. Which would also mean that instead of turning Creel into justice in episode 2, they just handed him right back to HYDRA. But no, he was an impostor. The real Talbot is still following the law, and is still a jerk in his own right.

Finally for the other plot threads, the painting reveals that someone else out there knows the same writing that Coulson and Garrett wrote out. And Coulson also fears he's getting worse and he might go insane someday and May will have to put him down. It seems like this will be a major thing throughout this season. All the work to bring Coulson back to life and all the mystery of just how he came back to life.... and he must be put down if he goes crazy?

Just what is the meaning behind this bizzare alien writing and how does the obelisk relate to it???

We also had Fitz dealing with being an outsider as he feels noone really wants him around anymore. I like how fake Simmons tries to cheer him up and even he knows its a delusion now and shushes her up at times so he doesn't look crazy in front of other people. Hunter invites him to hang with Triplet and Mac for a round of beers to celebrate their victory, which was in part thanks to Fitz, and he finally decides to join in and try to socialize.

And finally we have Rayna following whatever her own plans are, being forced by HYDRA to being back the object she stole. It's gonna heat up next episode as not only do we see Rayna try to take Skye to finally see her father, but it also seems that Simmons' cover is blown. I can't wait to see what happens as it looks like it's gonna be a 'all hell breaks loose' kind of episode.

Agents of SHIELD Episode 25

By Mark Rodriguez

This episode opens with a big shocker as we find out that Simmons has left SHIELD to work for HYDRA!!! Actually soon enough we find out that she's actually undercover for SHIELD and Coulson and May were in on it. HYDRA is out looking for super powered people to recruit, similar to how they had the Absorbing Man working with them and are now after Donnie Gil, who is now able to freeze things by touching them.

Skye questions Grant about HYDRA's methods and he tells her that they're after super powered people they could use, and if they refuse to serve, they'll be taken out. The Agents head out to get to Gil first, leaving Fitz with Mac. HYDRA also suspects Simmons' loyalty and make her help them take Gil in, since they have met before. Gil meanwhile is sick of being chased by HYDRA agents and has already frozen some to death.

Fitz goes to question Grant further, and nearly had a breakdown upon seeing him, remembering how he almost died rescuing Simmons. Grant tells him he was told by Garrett to shoot them outright, but he sent them on the underwater trap hoping they could escape it. Fitz tells him how he got brain damage from lack of oxygen and shuts the oxygen off in his holding cell to show him how it feels. Grant tells him that everyone is in danger if they're going after Gil.

Simmons gets to Gil, and HYDRA reveals they have brainwashed him when he was locked away and can be made to side with them once they give him the trigger words. The Agents arrive and Hunter sees Simmons, not knowing she's an undercover HYDRA agent and is about to shoot her, but May ices him first. With HYDRA aware that SHIELD is about, they send Gil to kill them all. Simmons tries to talk to Gil, and Skye shoots him into the ocean, freezing everything around him. She then pretends to shoot at the HYDRA agent so that Simmons has enough time to push him out of the way and further prove her 'loyalty' to the bad guys.

Later on Coulson tells Fitz he sees that he's improving, and that Simmons left because she's on a mission, but won't tell him what. HYDRA is pleased with Simmons and want her to move up the ranks, and if she doesn't want to cooperate, they can brainwash her. Just then one of the SHIELD agents that was seen being tortured with brainwashing techniques throughout the episode is shown to be loyal to HYDRA now.

The episode ends with Grant telling Skye that her father is alive and he can help her find him if she lets him go. She leaves him locked up, now full with doubts.

My opinions

Well, the first thing I'd like to say is that I'm glad Simmons really wasn't with HYDRA. I mean, geez, Grant almost killed her as a HYDRA agent, so why the hell would she side with them? She played her part well and was put front and center when she had to confront Gil and try to suede him over to HYDRA without blowing her cover.

Skye continues to hate Grant as much as she likes him. They liked to play up the tension between the two, and despite the betrayal, you can tell she wishes it wasn't true. Grant however is still full of tricks and knowing about her father is the ace up of his sleeve. We can already see that he sees sweet talking Skye as his ticket out of there and we all know eventually she'll cave and let him out. The question is, will Grant redeem himself, go back to HYDRA or go on his own side.

Fitz finally sees that the Simmons hallucination isn't there and wants to know what really happened to her. His scene with Grant was also cool, with his little breakdown as well as his plan to take revenge. Even though they need him alive for inside info on HYDRA, I kinda wish Grant at least got the same brain damage he caused Fitz.

I also liked the little 'payback' that May and Triplet had coming for Hunter after having shot them in the last episode. May had to shoot Hunter to prevent him from unknowingly taking Simmons down. In the end that counted as he revenge shot but she smiles and reminds him that she might be even with him now, but Triplet still owes him one. I do like Hunter and Mac, their interactions with the classic team are humorous and I hope they stick for the rest of the season.

As for Gil, he really got to show his Blizzard powers this time. Not only did Hydra train him with his powers while he was imprisoned, they also brainwashed. Literally a cold blooded killer, he just wants to be left alone and doesn't hesitate to freeze all the agents to death without remorse. It was cool seeing him back, and how his return affected Simmons and Fitz. Even when he wasn't there, Fitz was upset he couldn't go. I wonder if him falling into the ocean was really the end of him.

The show continues to be entertaining with its story arcs, now involving Simmons as an undercover agent, Grant's manipulation of Skye, and these cool new agents joining the fold. And having some characters like Gil come back to keep the Marvel super power action going on, to of course, remind us that this is a Marvel comics show is always good. I can't wait to see what awaits us in upcoming episodes.

Agents of SHIELD Episode 24

By Mark Rodriguez

Again, here's a brief rundown and my thoughts. The episode actually starts off right where the last one ended, with Creel walking away with the dangerous item and Hunter stuck in an upside down car next to his dead friends. May arrives and continues the chase after Creel, but Hunter is captured by the military. The general wants Hunter to tell them how to get Coulson and and in exchange he wants a proper burial for his friends.

Hunter returns and tells Coulson that he didn't betray him, and he trusts him on the team. Fitz is still trying to work on cloaking technology while suffering hallucinations of Simmons by his side and decides to work on something that will stop Creel. Meanwhile Creel's powers are out of control after touching the item and accidentaly turns people into stone by touching them. He's approached by Raina who wants the item as well, but he's not interested.

Raina calls Coulson and tells him about Creel and the item. The team heads out to catch him before he can deliver the item to his HYDRA contact, but Hunter wants to take down Creel by himself to avenge his friends. He shoots May, Skye and Triplet with icers and tries to take on Creel himself but the commotion causes a panic and a fight breaks out. During the ruckus, the HYDRA agent loses sight of the briefcase he was supposed to get and notices that Raina ran off with it. Coulson saves Hunter from being killed by Creel by slamming a device on his back that turned him to stone. Coulson turns Creel in to the military but they will still continue to chase after SHIELD.

Later we see that every couple of days, Coulson has the urge to write out the same super equation that Garrett was doing after he reviewed the miracle drug. Later on we see Raina use the item but it doesn't kill her this time. Instead it lights up with symbols similar to those of Coulson's equation. It's also revealed Raina is now working for Skye's mystery father... and he wants his daughter back.

My Opinions

Another good episode. I wasn't expecting it to continue right where the last one ended, so it was good to see another ep with the Absorbing Man. They do good work on the CGI with him, especially that last scene where he turned into diamond and glass and all sorts of material before Coulson's device turned him to stone. Musta blown most of the budget for the first two eps just with that.

 It looks like Hunter and Mac are sticking around. It was good to see that despite being tempted with a lot of money from the military, Hunter didn't betray SHIELD. Seeing Hunter stick around, as well as all the time he mentioned Hartley and her death, it really made me wish Lucy Lawless stuck around instead of dying in the same episode her character was introduced. As for Mac, he's hanging with Fitz now and helping him focus as he tries to regain his sanity.

what the hell Ghost Simmons, stop creepin'!

It's sad to see Simmons around Fitz knowing she's just a hallucination in his head, but wow. To what extent does she function? It's funny seeing her interact with Mac even though he clearly doesn't see her, and she does react when people say she isn't around. The oddest thing is when Fitz nearly walked past Creel's DNA files. He was clearly going to walk past them, not paying them a second mind, but 'Simmons' sees them and tells him about them.....so how does that work?

We're also gonna see how Fitz will deal with reality as Mac is unaware of what he sees and asks him things like how he's doing after Simmons left. And it seems she didn't leave in good terms, since Skye feels pretty angry about it and says 'she abandoned all of us'. Well... it's gonna get more complicated next episode since the advertisements shows that the real Simmons will in fact, return in that episode.... but working for HYDRA! Oh crap, say it ain't so Simmons!

I have to say, flashbacks aside, this is also the first episode of the entire series not NOT have Grant Ward in it. I kinda hope it stays that way for a while. I know he was a major player in the first season, but he betrayed them all, killed fellow SHIELD agents and is locked up. They shouldn't have to find some excuse to put him in every episode. Although with Simmons entering in the next episode, she might be after Grant.

Agents of SHIELD Episode 23 (Season 2 season premiere)

By Mark Rodriguez

A second season of SHIELD begins and this time I'll be giving more of a brief synopsis of the episode and then my opinions, instead of the entire play-by-play like before.

The episode starts a few days after the first Captain America movie, as the remaining members of HYDRA want to store all the stolen highly technological goods they had shortly after the Red Skull died. Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos bust in and seize the goods, wanting to have them locked up for the safety of the world.

In present day, Coulson is now the new director of SHIELD and he now has a new set of hired mercenaries working alongside Sky, May and Triplet (one of them played by Lucy Lawless) and find out that HYDRA is after that same piece of technology. They soon find out from Grant (under lockdown for potential HYDRA intel) that they have Carl Creel, The Absorbing Man working for them, a guy that can gain the skin structure or whatever material he absorbs.

 He goes after a General that's in charge of the hunt against both SHIELD and HYDRA, and Carl is captured and sent to the same base where all the technology is being held. Coulson's team sneak into the base and confront Carl and the soldiers in the base. One of the mercenaries finds the item and grabs it, and the block of strange metal grafts itself to her hand. The mercenaries decided to run and take her to the hospital. The SHIELD agents manage to get a plane with cloaking technology to better continue their missions.

Absorbing Man goes after the mercenaries and turns into stone to overturn their car. He steals the block and escapes. He turns it in to his leader, which looks pretty much like the same guy we saw at the beginning of the episode (during Captain America's WWII era) not looking much older in present day.

Meanwhile the episode ends on a sad note. Throughout the episode we saw that Fitz was trying to work on cloaking technology while suffering some sort of Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder after the events of last season, with Simmons calming him down. It gets worse as Coulson reveals that Fitz suffered brain damage from the underwater escape that saved Simmon's life from the last season, and that Simmons had left the team. The whole time we saw Simmons comforting him, was a delusion, further showing the extent of the brain damage.

My Opinions

Wow. This episode hits the ground running with a great flashback scene happening several days after the first Captain America movie, and it was nice to see Agent Carter (in her prime) and the Howling Commandos for a few moments. Coulson gets busy as the new director of SHIELD and is now even more serious than before. I wonder if he'll be hitting the field though since now he can just stand back and give orders like Fury used to. Sky is more battle ready now, a fighter as well as a hacker. The brief scene with Grant shows she still hates his guts, but she might still care. Grant is hard to read, he might still care for her, or he might be using her as a ticket to escape. May is still watching over Coulson to make sure he can handle his new responsibilities. Triplett is still a wisecracking fighter.

The mercenaries were cool and it was nice to have Xena guest star. Yeah, I would have liked these new guys to stick around, especially Lucy's character, but she was dying due to that metal block thing trying to fuse itself to her hand, and then she had her buddy cut off her hand to survive it.... But then Absorbing Man showed up and she died in the car crash. The other guy just laid low and played possum until Carl walked away, so who know if he'll come back. I just wish Xena stayed as a regular.

Then we have Carl 'The Crusher' Creel, the Absorbing Man, now working for HYDRA. Apparently his execution was covered up by Garrett and Grant knew about it. He's basically like the comics, but with someone with his powers.... where are Hulk or Thor when you really need him? Luckily the agents didn't have to face him too much, he kinda ran off after seeing the item he was trying to steal try to fuse with Xena's hand, and came back to swipe it after the heat died down.

But yeah, we got to see him absorb wood, steel and even diamond in this episode. He even had the chance to use the famous ball and chain from the comics. One thing that came to mind when I saw him was that the first Hulk movie was had in 2003 had the Absorbing Man be the villain, or rather they gave Bruce's father the same kinds of powers....

As you know, the not-sequel The Incredible Hulk would later make like this movie never happened.... and even added a Tony Stark cameo in the after credits to further tie it into the new cinematic universe they were starting up at the time. Since this series is tied to that movie universe, we now officially have Carl Creel as the true Absorbing Man of the series, and we can further believe that the Hulk 2003 movie never happened with this new continuity.

As for Fitz.... damn.... that's just so sad... Throughout the episode he seemed so shaken up and kept losing his train of thought whenever he wanted to finish a sentence (in which Simmons would correct him) and he'd only feel calm and relaxed whenever he 'stared into her eyes'. To know that she was gone the whole time and this was all a hallucination caused by brain damage.... dude... That's hitting the feels kinda hard in the first episode, isn't it??? And to make it more tragic, this was caused by his sacrificial efforts to rescue Simmons from downing in the sinking death trap that Grant put them in. I do wonder, will Simmons come back in real life? Will the show continue to twist the knife by having more scenes of Fitz 'talking to Simmons'? I guess we'll find out next week.

Sadly, Fitz' bold rescue plan from the end of season 1 had horrible consequences.....

IDW TMNT New Animated Adventures #13

By Mark Rodriguez

There's only so much one-off adventures that don't really lead anywhere that Paige can take and after 12 issues (most of them being about Mikey doing something stupid and hilarity ensues), she's all turtled out. I'll be taking over on the comic series based on the new cartoon. I do have to admit though, it must be very difficult to write a comic based on an existing cartoon and not be able to do anything that will contradict anything already seen on the show.

Though the series started out with one story, lately they started off with a longer 'major story' and two short stories. So let's go by story.

April's Way

The story starts with April tossed on her butt by Leonardo during a training session. She complains that Leo used a new move she never seen before so she wasn't able to block it. Leo mentions they learned it the other day while she was at school. She thinks it's unfair the others train without her while she's at school, and she says even Mikey has perfected meditating. Well, actually he was on his tPhone, listening to music. April heads off to a field trip to the zoo and tells them not to learn anything too awesome in her absence.

On the field trip, April learns about elephants, or as much as she can as she scribbles drawings of the turtles and herself in her notepad. The guide explains that Ellie is safe at the zoo and if she ever gets angry, music calms her down  She watches some monkeys and finds out that she lost her group and the zoo will be closing soon. As she heads out, she finds out that the Kraang are planning to mutate the people and the animals in the zoo and call for the elephant.

April tells the Turtles about the Kraang and their plans, and they tell her to hide and wait for them to arrive. April feels Ellie the elephant doesn't have that much time and heads off to stop them on her own. The Kraang are already dragging the elephant out of her cage and April figures if she can't out-fight them, she can out-think them.

The Turtles head down the sewers and run into a bunch of Kraang. Mikey rushes in and the others follow and they quickly take them down. However, their fight brings the attention of more Kraang and they're captured.

April plans to take the Kraang out one by one with stealth, but then see that the Turtles were captured. She then sees that the elephant is tried to a Mutagen miachine and looks angry based on what she just learned about Ellie, so she tosses her pencil at the release button to let it go. Once free, Ellie goes on a rampage and stomps the Kraang down. Leo says once it's done with the Kraang, the elephant will come after them. April runs in and grabs Mikey's tPhone and plays music to calm the elephant down. It soon goes to sleep.

The turtles are impressed with the ninjitsu April just used, even though she's confused. They say she used stealth, and smarts. Raph invites her to train, but April says as a ninja she should also learn about the world around her, and invited the turtles to continue the field trip with her.

Lesson Learned

Raph pulls a shoulder muscle during some heavy lifting training and Splinter says he should heal up before risking further injury. Soon enough the Turtles have to head on patrol without Raph. He gets upset and decides to walk off on his own. Sulking by himself, he is suddenly attacked by Mousers. As he fights them off, the ceiling collapses onto him, further injuring his shoulder.

Raph re-wraps his wound, but can't use the tPhone to call for help since it was busted. He sees a Mouser head, still chomping away at nothing and sees that they're built to last. He uses the Mouser head a boxing glove and soon punches his way out of the rubble. The Turtles arrive in time to see him escape. Splinter arrives to commend him on his resourcefulness to make up for his injury... but he still disobeyed him so he is now double-grounded. Raph says he's fine and his shoulder doesn't even hurt anymore. Splinter touches Raph's other shoulder, and he passes out from the pain.

oh and I got attacked by Mouser.... you think maybe we should go see what Baxter Stockman is up to? No? OK.

LEGO TMNT Part 3

The Turtles prepare to face the Shredder on a rooftop. Shredder does arrive and is confused why his past with Yoshi is coming back to haunt him now. Shredder call for the Foot and soon the Turtles take them down. Shredder says they were just students and he is a master and challenges them to fight him one by one or all at once. Raph goes first and quickly kicked back. Don and Mike go next and are defeated. Leo also tries but is beaten.

Leo says he's too dangerous to fight one on one, so they try to hit him from a distance. They toss their throwing stars and blades at the Shredder, and Raph tosses his sai. Leo jumps in to kick him back and slices off his helmet. Shredder pulls out a thermite grenade, ready to take everybody out but Don hits him with his staff and he falls off the building as the grenade explodes with him.

The Turtles have succeeded in their mission, and like Leo says, the Shredder has been shredded. The Turtles are worn out and decide to head home. They're ninjas, so they strike hard, and fade away into the night.


My Opinions

Well on the first story, it was a short and simple tale that shows April can handle herself just fine. On its own it was pretty entertaining. It's also good to see April do more stuff on her own that doesn't have Donnie involved. I know lots of people on the show complain that April feels more like Donnie's friend and potential love interest than a friend of all four of them. The only time I can recall off the top of my head where she had screen time with one of the Turtles that wasn't Donnie, was when Leo came to her for advice on his feelings towards Karai. Here we see him train with Leo and also handle a Kraang situation mostly by herself.

That's another thing we don't see on the show. April trains with Splinter, but we never actually see her train with the Turtles themselves. In this comic (and the other one where April accidentaly socked Raph and he made up this elaborate story to cover up the fact that she, of all people, gave him a black eye) we see that she does actually spar with them. If anything, this comic does kinda fill in the blanks from time to time and show things that we can only assume happen on the show off camera.

And yes, I get the moral of the story is April is better at outsmarting things than out-fighting things... though to be fair, on the show she has proven examples of doing both. Oh and I also noticed the zookeeper said Ellie loves Punk Music...

And yet April used Rock Music to calm her down. I guess music is music.

The second one was kinda interesting. Raph hurts himself, so he should take it easy. He doesn't and things get worse for him. Yeah, Raph did disobey orders, but a walk wasn't gonna kill him. Those Mousers literally came out of nowhere. No really, did Baxter just let some loose hoping to get lucky? It was very weird, but I guess the story just needed a quick villain tossed in there. It was a weird story... and easily could have been a sub-plot to the April one, or any other one. Also the art to this second one seems to be a lot more lively and brightly colored. It's the main artist tries to capture the 3D models of the show in animated form, complete with some of the stiffness.... while this guy goes all out and make them into fully animated characters.

As for the Mirage comic, it's cute. One other thing I noticed besides the censored mentions of death and leaving out things like Leo impaling Shredder and making him commit seppuku.... is that they also had to toss in Mikey acting silly here. It's hard to say Mikey is all that serious in Mirage anymore, since more recent Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 issues added him acting goofy and using slang that he didn't before... but in the first issue of the original comics, all of the Turtles were basically serious and violent. The only slight hint of characterization went to Raph for liking to go outside on his own, and Leo since he was calling the shots during the battle. Don and especially Mike didn't get their character traits til later issues.So yeah, it was kinda weird, and funny to see Mirage Lego Mikey still crack a smile and goof off. Not much to say except... it's the first issue of the Mirage comics but Lego style.

As for the comic itself, it was a decent read, though it was probably more fun reading the Lego re-telling of the Mirage comics. I did enjoy April doing other things than just being Donnie's crush. Plus drawings opposed to CGI makes it easier to show her school and her doing actual school-related things without the expense of designing a classroom full of new throwaway characters.

I also notice the titles for these tales are just randomly slapped onto the first panel without any big presentation. But then again, the main IDW title doesn't seem to have titles for their issues at all.

Well, let's see what happens in other issues. I do agree with Paige, it needs a multi-parter or something to keep us coming back for more. I think the only redeeming value here is waiting to see when so-and-so is gonna be in the comic. I am wondering when we'll see Casey and Slash.

Mark's Book Report- The Sea of Monsters (Percy and the Olympians Book Two)

By Mark Rodriguez

I gave myself a little break from Percy to let the story sink in. I also found the movie and checked it out... bottom line... I liked the book a lot better. But yeah, I wanted everything from the first book out of my system before going into the second one. Here's my Out on DVD review episode about the first movie....

And now that I have that out of the way, I returned to the book store to continue on with the second book. Sadly the same girl wasn't there from the first time, cause she really seemed to love the series and was curious about what I would think. I actually met someone where Paige works that absolutely LOVES the series and is eager for the next book of the spin-off series later this year. So now that I got 'The Sea of Monsters'.... here is my review.

The Story

After the first book, Percy, Annabeth and Grover went their ways. Percy went to live with his mom and went back to normal school where there hasn't been an incident for almost a year. Grover went off to search for Pan. Annabeth also returned to her family. All seems well.... until the final days of the school year.

Percy is attacked by giant cannibals in a deadly game of dodgeball. Luckily Annabeth has arrived to seek him out and helps out. Also his new friend Tyson turns out to be a cyclops and is a great help in the fight. After defeating the giants, Annabeth insists that Percy return to Camp Half-Blood since it's really gone to hell since he left.

When they return they find it under attack by giant metal bulls. The main problem is, the camp is supposed to have a forcefield that protects it from outsiders and monsters, but now the bulls are running causing damage like it was nothing. They find out that Thalia, the tree named after the daughter of Zeus is dying from a deadly poison, and when it goes, the camp will be vulnerable to monster attacks forever. Chiron was blamed for this and got expelled from the camp grounds. The only thing that can cure the tree is the legendary golden fleece. The only problem is that instead of Percy going on this quest... the duty of obtaining the golden fleece was given to Clarrisse, the camp bully, and also daughter of Ares that already hated Percy since day one.

Besides that, Percy finds out in dreams, that Grover never made it in finding Pan. Instead he was tricked by a giant cyclops that happens to have the fleece and uses it to lure Satyrs to their deaths. Grover is buying time, taking advantage of the fact that the cyclops is almost blind, but how long can he hold out? Percy, Annabeth and Tyson sneak off to take this quest, even if they risk clashing against Clarrisse. The fleece is located beyond the Sea of Monsters. Will they be able to find it in time, rescue Grover and Camp Half-Blood before the tree dies out? And what will they do when they run into Luke?

My Opinions

Wow, this series only gets better and better. Now that Percy knows that he's the god of Poseidon and all that, this book jumps right into the Greek Mythology. Lots of details and things introduced in the first book return here, like the story of Thalia the tree and Clarrisse having a bigger role. There's so many things to talk about, it's hard to know where to begin.

Grover is missing from most of the book, being held captive by the giant cyclops Polyphemus that loves to eat satyrs. It's kinda funny thinking of Grover in a wedding dress, pretending to be his bride so he can stay alive. I am glad that when he eventually does get rescued, there is still enough page-time left for him to hang with Percy and Annabeth like old times.

Tyson is basically Percy's new best friend in the story. He talks like he's not all that bright, but he has a heart of gold, and as a castaway son of  Poseidon, he's basically Percy's brother. Also as a cyclops he's super strong, fire doesn't hurt him and he's very good at building and fixing things. Everyone is against cyclopes in general since they can't be trusted, so Percy has to assure everyone that Tyson is cool. Percy though feels embarrassed to be associated with him at times, but he eventually does win his favor. I liked seeing both of them interact throughout the book as Percy is constantly trying to keep Tyson out of causing trouble... and Tyson is usually saving Percy's life. Tyson was unwanted and abandoned before he met Percy so he cares a lot for his brother now that he has one.

Clarrisse got a bigger role for this story and she's her usual bully self. Despite everything, she still fights for the sake of defending the camp, so it's good to see she's not all that bad. Though I'm sure she likes fighting the bad guys for the sake of fighting. She gets her own pirate ship complete with skeleton pirates and actually helps Percy on getting past the Sea of Monsters.  Even I feel sorry for her when Ares was chewing her out since he wanted her to succeed on this quest and get some fame away from Percy. She really is trying hard to please her father and wants him to be proud of her, so there is some goodness in there...somewhere.

Annabeth is pretty much the same. One of the most interesting chapters was when they were sailing close to the sirens and she wanted to hear their songs while Percy tied her up. The book did an amazing job describing how desperately she wanted to break free once she fell under the song's spell. When Percy touched her, he saw what she saw, which was the perfect image of the perfect family she wished she had, with Luke still as a good guy since she had a crush on him before he turned evil.

And yes, spoiler from the last book, Luke was the Lightning Thief and he did it to help revive the god Kronos that wants to destroy everything to get revenge on Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. He returns in this story a few times... and it always seems like it's gonna hit the fan when he does... I mean, damn, this book does a great job of keeping me in suspense! We also see his father Hermes, who gives Percy some items to help in his quest, and he hopes to one day regain Luke as a good guy again.

As for Percy himself, he's still the brave and heroic character from the first book. This time he's really going out there to save the camp and stop Luke's plans without any ulterior motives like in the first book. He's more of a nice guy and especially shows it near the end with Clarrisse. He has trouble dealing with Tyson, being embarrassed of him at first, and also not liking the fact that Poseidon just dumped a brother on him without warning. And he still feels some of the resentment of being abandoned by his father. He does eventually value Tyson's friendship and sees that Poseidon is watching over them, in his own way.

One theme this book kept from the first one, is the gods or goddesses disguising themselves as normal humans in some kind of store or shop to lure them into the trap. The first book had several, including the Las Vegas Casino trap where time literally stood still for everyone inside it. This book had Circe running some kind of spa and offers to give Percy and Annabeth make overs. While she made Annabeth look stunning, her idea of a make-over for Percy, or any men in general, was to turn him into a guinea pig. Another theme this book follows is all the snazzy titles for each chapter with crazy things like 'We meet the sheep of Doom' or 'Clarrisse blows up everything'. And we still get the 'Percy is the narrator' sense of humor.

The book is also full of action and they face all sorts of monster and creatures from sirens to giant metal bulls, to pirahna-ish sheep. And yes, Polyphemus the giant cyclops is probably the main monster they face in this story. I'm glad I got to see how Tyson and Polyphemus got to interact and actually fight it out. The characters are lovable and you care about what happens to them. Like I said, even the jerk characters like Clarrisse have things make you feel sorry for them so you can't hate them outright.

It's a good book, again I enjoyed it cover to cover. I'm really enjoying this series and I know there's a movie out about this one too. I'll be renting and reviewing it soon. But man... THAT ENDING. It made me super eager to pick up book three and find out what happens next! It's a hell of a plot twist and it's based on something that was mentioned in the first book! I'm really anxious to see how Percy and company will deal with this!

Nicktoons TMNT Episode 46- The Legend of the Kuro Kabuto

By Mark Rodriguez

The Shredder has had a lot of different henchmen, top men or second-in-commands throughout different versions of the franchise. He had Tatsu in the live-action movies. Hun and Karai in the 2003 series. Karai and Koya in the IDW comics. But we all know the most popular henchmen will always be Bebop and Rocksteady from the classic 80's cartoon show. That incompetent duo that Shredder still keeps around for some reason... back in the day where Shredder didn't punish failure with death. Here, he'd rather send them to their rooms, or even fire them if they failed enough times.

Well, the IDW comics has already shown us a more dangerous and threatening version of the classic duo. They were still dumb as rocks, but so powerful it hardly mattered. Well it seems we're getting Bebop and Rocksteady in the new cartoon too, though I'm surprised since interviews with the Nick cast had them say they already had the roles of mutant henchmen full when we got Dogpound and Fishface. Now we got a whole new version of them coming soon, and like Chris and Xever, we're gonna spend this episode with a guy that is clearly the human version of human Bebop and a guy that might be Rocksteady. And wow, wait til you see just how different they are this time around.

The episode opens with the return of Steranko, the arms dealer Shredder made a deal with in an earlier episode. He has a collection of several weapons and artifacts, but is missing one thing... Shredder's helmet, the legendary Kuro Kabuto. He sends the master thief, Anton Zeck to steal it, and if he succeeds, he'll forgive him for the time he accidentaly shot him in the eye. Anton is wearing a high tech suit that turn him invisible, and he's confident he can steal that helmet. And yes, Anton looks very familiar...

Leo watches as Splinter feels sad over his daughter, Miwa. The others are trying to eat pizza before Mikey gets it all, and Leo tells them they should go rescue Karai. Raph disagrees, and Leo says he'll go alone to Shredder's lair if he has to. The other follow him.

Shredder visits Kara in her cell and tells her she hopes she understands that he took her because he didn't want her to be raised by 'scum' like Splinter. As he leaves, Karai reveals a hidden blade that she's using to cut her way out of prison.

Anton sneaks in and manages to steal Shredder's helmet. Rahzar and some Robo-Foot enter the room, and the mutant wolf can smell the invisible thief. Rahzar smacks him against a wall. Anton quickly gets up and dances around as he tosses laser-boomerangs that look like his purple mohawk that take down the Robo-Foot. He also tosses glue at Rahzar, that sticks his feet to the floor. Anton blows up a window and gets away, but not before tossing his business card into Rahzar's face. Shredder steps in a while later and Rahzar tells him that his helmet was stolen. Shredder is angry and demands to get all his men together.

Meanwhile the Turtles are driving on the Shell Raiser and Don is confused when his heat sensors detect someone, but he can't actually see anyone. Don tells Leo to hit the brakes, but they hit Anton. The Turtles wonder what they hit, and Don tells them it was 'some kind of invisible guy'. Raph finds Anton's pouch and shows everyone Shredder's helmet. Just then they are completely surrounded by Robo-Foot...

The Turtles fight it out with some of the robots and then make a break for it. As they drive off in the Shell Raiser, Anton tosses a homing device at it so he can track it down.

Later on, Shredder gathers all his men and tells them to drop everything until the helmet is found. Fishface asks if he could just get another one, and gets smacked to the ground. Shredder explains that the Kuro Kabuto was forged by all the captured trophies by the most skilled ninja of Japan, and was a symbol for the Foot Clan for 1500 years. He then sends Fishface off with Baxter, and Tiger Claw off with Rahzar to find the helmet.

Fishface runs with Baxter, telling him they have to get the helmet back so they don't have to look at Shredder's face... that looks even worse than Baxter's. Tiger Claw picks up Anton's scent and tell he's using devices. Rahzar says Fishface once told him they wouldn't get along since they're a mutant cat and dog. Tiger Claw says that's ridiculous, but he admits he'd like to eat Xever since he's a fish. Rahzar would eat him just to shut him up.

Leo says they can use the helmet to trade for Karai. As Raph and Leo argue, Anton finds them and tosses another purple mohawk laser boomerang ting that knocks the Shell Raiser on its side. Tiger Claw and Rahzar jump in to attack, and the Turtles get away, only to run into Fishface and Baxter. Baxter chases after Leo, trying to nail him with his acid spit. Even though Leo dodges them all, the acid did affect a nearby billboard, and it falls over the other three Turtles. 

Leo stops Xever from stabbing the Turtles, but Raph tells him to go and rescue Karai. As Leo runs, Tiger Claw and Rahzar give chase while Xever and Baxter stay to finish off the Turtles, but Raph helps them escape with a ninja smoke bomb. Leo runs from the bad guys and hides in a nearby dumpster... only to end up with dirty diapers on his head. 

After the mutants run, Leo runs into invisible Anton. There's steam coming from the sewer vents which helps Leo see him just enough to kicks him down. Leo then gives Anton his pouch back and runs since now Shredder's crew is after him. Anton runs and says he just needs to lose the pouch and they'll never find him... but his suit's been damaged and won't turn invisible anymore. He gets smacked to the ground, but before the mutants could beat him down, Steranko arrives in a helicopter and helps him escape. Anton shows Steranko the pouch.... but it turns out to be full of dirty diapers.

Leo still has Shredder's helmet and heads off to his lair. Shredder finds him and Leo says he wants to trade it for Karai. One of the Robo-Foot brings her in with a bag over her head. Shredder and Leo fight it out, and the Turtle is no match for him. The other Turtles arrive and they all gang up on Shredder. Shredder is still too much for them all, but Mikey points out they were just keeping him busy long enough to be able to rescue Karai. Don tosses the helmet back at him. Shredder sees that it has a smoke bomb in it, which blows up in his face. After the smoke clears, he notices that the Turtles are gone. He puts the helmet back on and laughs evilly.

Leo thanks the others for coming to help out. When they take the sack off Karai's head, they see that she was a fake dummy with a bomb for a head. The Turtles just barely make it off the rooftop as the bomb explodes.

My Opinions

Wow. What a random episode. First off, most abrupt ending ever. Plus honestly, this would have almost been filler if they used some one-shot character as the master theif. I'm surprised they actually remembered Karai and were out to rescue her the very next episode. But yeah, they're lucky she's alive at all. I'd like to see the look on Raph's face if they found that Shredder killed her the moment Tiger Claw brought her back. 

I like how Shredder's helmet has its own backstory and is even considered a legend. In any other version... It was just his helmet. I guess when he decided to become Shredder adding one of the Foot's symbols that has been around for 1500 years is the finishing touch. It's also funny to see how he sometimes sends a few of the Foot after the Turtles in other episodes, but when it comes to his helmet he calls in ALL his minions. 

Speaking of which, I like seeing Shredder surpass past versions and have more than two mutants on his side. There is no unwritten where he has to always send one or two guys after four turtles. I liked the short scenes between the bad guys. I mean they work together and I assume live in Shredder's lair together, we should see how they interact. It's noticeable that Baxter didn't talk in this episode, but he does have a few lines in a later episode so I guess Phil Lamar just wasn't available today. Though it's still weird and stands out, or maybe they could have cut his scene with Xever. 

I also realize that Xever and Baxter are Shredder's B-team, mostly because Baxter was never a fighter to begin with, and for whatever reason Xever has become a joke and 'the idiot' of the gang in recent episodes. Why? Why do we need a 'funny incompetent one' among the bad guys, especially since Xever was no laughing matter before. Leave that crap in the 80s please. 

Now for the main reason we saw this episode. Mr. Anton Zeck who looks like a human Bebop. Quite a big change from a big thug to a wisecrackin master theif. Just like Tiger Claw, there's no explanation for the high-tech Tron suit, he just has it. Paige and I were surprised by his antics, and she was quick to point out  his Micheal Jackson/Prince-ish 'hee-hee' and 'hoo-hoo' and such similar sounds. 

Honestly for some reason his dancing and other mannerisms reminded me of Fatal Fury's Duck King, if he wore a high-tech Tron suit that is. 

Another thing is actually giving the character a name. I mean who names their kids Bebop and Rocksteady, right? While in the 80's cartoon we can only assume they're gang names, the IDW version actually states it. This version finally named them Anton and Steranko. Again, makes sense because those would be weird-ass normal names, though I'm curious how they'll name themselves as such. Or how Mikey comes up with their names. Will Anton throw a Tron-ish boom box at them and Mikey will say 'whoa they're playing cool bebop and rocksteady jams there'. I don't know. 

One thing that stands out though is that Anton isn't much of a fighter and relies on the suit's gimmicks and tricks to do everything for him (Paige couldn't help but say 'aw geez' when he threw his laser Mohawk energy thing). I assume that'll change whenever he gets mutated... But who knows?

As for Rocksteady, it looks like Steranko will eventually become the mutant rhino. A lot of his gear matches the stuff Rocksteady is wearing in some photos that were released of the 2014 version of the infamous duo. Of course this means we're going to see a Russian Rocksteady  but hey, if it worked for Spider-Man, why not here? 

People wonder how they'll end up working for Shredder since they have a very different character dynamic this time.... But I'm thinking who says they'll work for Shredder? He already has his mutant crew and Tiger Claw alone is more than enough. 

A great episode overall, but wow what a drastic change for a classic character. Anton is literally a whole new character modeled to look like a classic one. 

Stay tuned as we continue with more episodes. Let's see what happens whenever he eventually mutates.