Pre-Order Hot Toys Man of Steel Superman, plus Sideshow's Premium Format Man of Steel Superman! That's a lot of Superman!

Plucky Zack Snyder's Superman reboot Man of Steel is currently dividing critics, thrilling fans, and punching audiences in the face. Unless you're in Australia. Thanks to my gloating about getting both Iron Man 3 AND Star Trek early, us ruffians in the penal colony must wait another couple of weeks before being punched in the face by Supes. But don't fret... we can still look at all the pretty pictures of Hot Toys' upcoming 1/6th scale Superman figure that have recently been released...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Don't be ridiculous. It's a pissed off, muscular Henry Cavill torpedoing towards you, ready to shove both fists down your throat.

If that's enough to sell you already then you can leap over and pre-order this Supermaniac from our very good pals at Sideshow here: Man of Steel: Superman - Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series Man of Steel: Superman Movie Masterpiece Sixth Scale Figure

But if you want more images and ill-informed commentary - plus a look at Sideshow's new premium format statue - then you'd bet join me after the super-powered jump...

El Professore Movie Reviews: Battling Butler

1926
Director: Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, Sallo O'Neil, Walter James
* * * 1/2

I am a huge Buster Keaton fan. The Great Stone Face is by far my favorite of all the silent comics. I always found that I could relate to him better than say, Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp whom I found to be too annoyingly cute as well as too schmaltzy and sentimental. Keaten despite his ultimately lovable, downtrodden characters, had more of an edge and that in part seems to have helped age his films a bit better. This film, Battling Butler is one of his edgiest.

Full review after the break.

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1

Guys, I have seen the annotated history of the world, and it is glorious.

Many years, coffees and sleepless nights in the making, The World of Thedas is a hefty 185 page hardback that has been designed and orchestrated within an inch of it's life. This has been released by Dark Horse, who were responsible for last years The Art of the Mass Effect Universe, and there's a very similar approach taken in basic format - though AoME is primarily a Making-Of with a focus on design, and The World of Thedas is an encyclopedia of what we know about Thedas and it's history and inhabitants up to the current day, written in-world.

Join me after the jump for some beautiful imagery and excitable babbling - or click HERE for my exclusive interview with author and BioWare editor Ben Gelinas!

We talk to BioWare's Ben Gelinas - The World of Thedas, gaming, and Dragon Age!

Guys - this is ultra exciting. I had a chance to exchange a few emails with the very talented (and very tolerant) principal writer of Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, Ben Gelinas! 

Dragon Age 2 concept art 

Volume 1 of Dragon Age: The World of Thedas has been released, and among all the build up of E3 and the unveiling of a truly beautiful teaser for Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third installment of the Dragon Age franchise is back in the spotlight and the anticipation is palpable and and very, very exciting. For obvious reasons we aren't hassling Mr Gelinas about DA3, but we will be hassling him about everything else.

You might want to read our review of DA:WOT as well - over HERE!

Join me after the jump for some hardcore lore-ing. Worldbuilding enthusiasts celebrate!

Thursday Threesome: 3 Podcasts For Nerd Convention Travel

With the impending summer convention schedule, many of us will be traveling all over the world to see the nerdiest of things (I'm going to a board game convention this weekend, many are returning from E3, and comic conventions are happening somewhere every weekend). When traveling, there is nothing better than a good podcast. Whether I am driving or flying, I like to load up my iPad with a few good ones before heading out.

Click through the jump for my 3 favorite podcasts for nerd convention travel.

DC Comics New 52 - Stryder's Weekly Top 5

Another week, another bunch of comics!  These were all released on June 5, 2013...

Green Arrow #21 - "I was Oliver Queen.  I was the Green Arrow.  But now I'm no one and nothing."

This month brings us the really great wrap up to Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's excellent first arc of Green Arrow,  "The Kill Machine"!  Oliver finally catches up the enigmatic Magus and begins to discover the truth about a great many things.  He learns more of the island where he first developed his archery skills, more of his father, and all about his father's untimely death and the legacy that's been left to him!  Oh and of course what "bad guy" archer Komodo's role in all of this is.  Turns out, it's no co-incidence that Oliver Queen was marooned on a tropical island with nothing but a bow...

It's amazing you know, I used to only liked Green Arrow as a fun character to mock, but every issue of this comic since Lemire and Sorrentino took over the book has sold me further on the character.  I know I say this every month, but it just blows my mind how much better this comic has become...from a book I had to talk myself into buying once a month into one that I really look forward too!  Now I can't wait to see what comes next!

What other 4 comics did I pick this week?  One way to find out...after the JUMP!

Game of Thrones Season 3 Finale Book Comparison and Review

After last week’s worldwide shared heart attack this week’s Game of Thrones episode Mhysa was a wonderfully structured wind down to the season that strung all of the hanging plot points together beautifully.

The episode checked in with most of the major characters and reset the board for next season. No wonder it lasted over an hour!

Under the cut I’ll give you some final book comparisons for the season and then speculate on what they might include early next season.

The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 46: Hackers (with guest host Simon Haynes!)

The Book Was Better is the podcast where we steadfastly tackle the unenviable task of reading and reviewing (usually) ridiculous movie novelizations with (usually) hilarious results!

This week I’m hacking into your mainframe with my 1337 guest host, pop culture and computer expert, Simon Haynes as we download the batshit insane novelization of nineties hacker movie, Hackers! Yes, the book based on the cyber-babble filled movie starring Angelina Jolie, who looks like a boy but still shows her boobs. Will you get a stiffy or a microfloppy? Join underground hacking duo Popcakes and Hotlock as we crash the system!

You can download it right now from the official site, or why not subscribe to us on iTunes like a total pro!

F**k Yeah Game of Thrones Recaps! Episode 10: Mhysa!

Okay so everyone can unclench for the rest of the year. Blood-and-boobs fantasy epic Game of Thrones season three has finally ended. Let your throner boners deflate, and look forward to a nightmare-free slumber again.

You may commence with the heavy touching.

I never read those big, fancy word-books, but I attentively watched each episode and I've been recapping the crap out of them for your enlightenment/pleasure. So join me one more time (this year) as I recap the crap out of Mhysa... after the jump!

Kickstart the Week: An Interview With Folk Singer Sofia Talvik

Back in 2008 or so, when Amie Street was a thing, I tripped up on a new album by a folk singer called Sofia Talvik. It was a new release of an album, Jonestown, and I instantly fell in love with the whole thing, and quickly sought out her back catalog. I've kept up with all the new releases since then, and I'm generally impatient as a fan for new music to come about.

This past week, Talvik launched a Kickstarter to fund a live album and book chronicling her year-long-plus tour around the United States. Hailing from Sweden, Talvik and her husband packed up shop, purchased an RV in Florida, and toured incessantly, visiting 37 states and performing hundreds of shows over the tour. As someone who was kicking himself for missing the tour, that there's a live chronicle of some of the moments is great, and that there's a book that will forever immortalize the experience is icing on the cake.

Sofia Talvik was kind enough to give us some of her time this week to talk about being an independent touring musician, about her experiences with crowdfunding, about the Kickstarter campaign, and plenty of other stuff. You can find her website here, and all her music is available as digital albums for the time being for only $5 (I personally recommend Street of Dreams and Florida, but they're all excellent), and she has a remix album available for free). You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+...if there's a website you can be on, she's on it. Thanks to Sofia Talvik again for talking with us!

Courtney Coulson's Costume Critiques- Paint it Black

The Matrix - Costumes By Kym Barrett

Black, the ever-versatile colour. has had a long and interesting history, what it represents, how it is worn and by whom. This of course extends to film as a highly symbolic colour, it's so frequently used that we don't even question it, the villains wear black, they ride a black horse, their castle is black and somehow when they are in power even the sky turns black. There is the white knight and the black knight, the cowboy in the white hat and the villain in the black. But now days it seems almost any character can wear the colour regardless of their moral alignment, is this representative of the more complicated roles characters play in modern film? Is it simply a change in taste and how we as an audience respond to the colour?

Join me below for A Study In Scarlet Black....