NEXT STOP EVERYWHERE 023: "The Doctor's Wife" is Up!

"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."
"No, but I always took you where you needed to go."

As we continue playing catch up with posting, my good friend and co-host Jesse Jackson and I back with another episode of Next Stop Everywhere: The Doctor Who Podcast!  And this time, we reverse the polarity back to the 2011 Matt Smith classic, "The Doctor's Wife"!

Exploring the fourth episode from Doctor Who Series Six, Jesse and I discuss things like other Doctors starring in the episode instead of Matt Smith, Neil Gaiman giving you everything you wanted even though you didn't know you wanted it, bringing back the Time Lord psychic containers, the importance of junkyards in Doctor Who, loving an Ood, old speculation about an Eighth Doctor distress call, Superman being the sole survivor of Krypton, the trope of running through corridors, Bruce Springsteen (take a drink!), what TARDISes look like pre-Chameleon Circuit, Rory as "The Pretty One," the Doctor bringing home strays, the return of the coral desktop theme, deleting TARDIS rooms, our Reverse the Polarity segment, Colin Baker's thoughts on "The Five(ish) Doctors," and more!

And for those who still aren't aware of this yet, we're available on iTunes RIGHT HERE as well as Stitcher RIGHT HERE, so please subscribe and tell your friends about us. If you're looking for direct MP3 downloads, you can find them RIGHT HERE as well. Oh, and don't forget we have an officially official Next Stop Everywhere Facebook page and Twitter account, so be sure to Like and/or Follow us, okay?

Be sure to come on back next week for our review of the first Doctor Who audio adventure from Big Finish Productions, "The Sirens of Time," and look for more of Next Stop Everywhere on iTunes, Libsyn, Stitcher and the Southgate Media Group website!

THE FANDOM ZONE 006: "Who Is Harrison Wells?" is Up!

""I love you.  I mean, I love the way that you beat up criminals."

-- Cisco Ramon to Laurel Lance, The Flash: "Who Is Harrison Wells?"

You guessed it, Karen and I are back with a new episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast!

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

Gotham 1x20 -- "Under the Knife"
The Flash 1x19 -- "Who Is Harrison Wells?"

iZombie 1x06 -- "Virtual Reality Bites"

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x18 -- "The Frenemy of My Enemy"

Arrow 3x20 -- "The Fallen"

Daredevil 1x03 -- "Rabbit in a Snowstorm"

We talk about things like Chuck the Wonder Kitteh, billionaire fashion consultant sugar daddies, The Riddler stabbing watermelons, everybody hating Barbara Kean, Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, DC Comics character Everyman, who Barry Allen should be with romantically, dropping the mic on comic shop sexists, Captain Lance's level of dickitude, Cisco's superhero porn, brain delivery boy pornos, explaining meet cutes, Karen's rant on gamer stereotypes, the Inhumans being dicks, Oliver Queen being the fast one instead of Barry Allen, my rant on Felicity Smoak's numerous dick moves, Arrow's Felicity Smoak fan fiction, Oliver and Felicity's flashback sex, suicide by stabbing yourself through the eyeball, Kingpin the art connoisseur, the entertainment media trying to bury Constantine prematurely, and more!

You can check out the episode HERE and for those of you who use iTunes, we're already available HERE, so please subscribe and rate us! If direct download MP3s are more your thing, you can find those HERE as well. In addition, we have our Fandom Zone show page on Facebook, which you can check out HERE. And we're also on Twitter using the account @FandomZoneCast.

Be sure to come back next week for more on Gotham, The Flash, iZombie, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow, and the fourth episode of Daredevil, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!

NEXT STOP EVERYWHERE 022: "Smith and Jones" is Up!

"Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden...except for cheap tricks."

You've been more patient than you deserve, but my good friend and co-host Jesse Jackson and I are FINALLY back with another episode of Next Stop Everywhere: The Doctor Who Podcast!  And this time, we reverse the polarity back to the 2007 David Tennant classic, "Smith and Jones"!

Exploring the first episode from Doctor Who Series Three, Jesse and I discuss things like Jesse's wife Linda listening to his podcasts, the underrated greatness of Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, Martha as the first black female companion, the Doctor evaluating Martha as a potential companion, Martha's lookalike cousin Adeola, Mr. Burns and Smithers from The Simpsons, the Doctor's respiratory bypass system, the Doctor's big plan to stand back and do nothing, teasing John Simm as the Sixth Master, our Reverse the Polarity segment, Neil Gaiman's wife Amanda F#@%ing Palmer, Wikileaks leaking info on Doctor Who movie plans, Jesse's search for new real life employment, and more!

And for those who still aren't aware of this yet, we're available on iTunes RIGHT HERE as well as Stitcher RIGHT HERE, so please subscribe and tell your friends about us. If you're looking for direct MP3 downloads, you can find them RIGHT HERE as well. Oh, and don't forget we have an officially official Next Stop Everywhere Facebook page and Twitter account, so be sure to Like and/or Follow us, okay?

Be sure to come on back for our review of the Matt Smith classic, "The Doctor's Wife," and look for more of Next Stop Everywhere on iTunes, Libsyn, Stitcher and the Southgate Media Group website!

Daniel Brühl Confirmed as Baron Zemo in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

The next Captain America movie just became a little more uncivil.

The Independent has confirmed that Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl will indeed be playing supervillain Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War.  In an article posted last month that people apparently just now noticed, Brühl's role as Baron Helmut Zero is revealed, verifying rumors that have circulated since his casting.

Brühl has just been cast in the new Captain America, as the villain, Baron Helmut Zemo – “I think I can tell you that without being thrown into Marvel prison…” – and starts shooting at the end of April. “For the first few days I’ll walk around like a little boy, just amazed by the megalomania of it. It’s such a huge project. We could do 20 films with the budget.”

Brühl, 36, is best known to American audiences as Fredrick Zoller in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglorious Basterds and as Niki Lauda in the 2013 film Rush.  He's also had roles in the films The Fifth Estate, Woman in Gold and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Created in 1964 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Baron Zemo first appeared in The Avengers (vol.1) #4 as Baron Heinrich Zemo, a top Nazi scientist who developed Adhesive X, a powerful adhesive that was designed to be used against Allied troops.  However, Captain America confronted Zemo and threw his shield at a vat containing Adhesive X, which poured over Baron Zemo's hood and made it permanently attached to his face.

Later, just before the Nazis' defeat, the Red Skull sent Zemo to London to steal an experimental airplane, hoping that his rival Zemo would be captured by Captain America and his young partner Bucky.  However, Captain America and Bucky were captured by Zemo and tied to the experimental plane, which was rigged to explode. Captain America fell from the plane as it exploded, where he landed in the Atlantic Ocean and was frozen in ice for decades.  Bucky, meanwhile, was thought to be killed in the explosion until it was revealed that he was saved by the Russians and brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier.

Zemo's legacy was revived by his son Helmut, who became the next Baron Zemo and first appeared in 1973's Captain America #168, created by Tony Isabella and Sal Buscema. Helmut was an engineer who became enraged after learning of Captain America's return in modern times, and followed in his father's footsteps as a supervillain.  Initially using the alias The Phoenix, Zemo captured Captain America to get revenge for his deceased father, only to fall into a vat of boiling Adhesive X, which hideously scarred his face and gave it the appearance of molten wax.

Most notably, Helmut formed a new incarnation of The Masters of Evil, a supervillain group originally created by his father as a means of attacking Captain America through the Avengers.  This version managed to invade and occupy Avengers Mansion, and severely injured member Hercules and the Avengers' butler, Edwin Jarvis.  Some time later, when the Avengers and the Fantastic Four had disappeared during the Onslaught crisis and were presumed dead, Zemo and a new Masters of Evil team took on false identities and posed as a superhero group known as The Thunderbolts.  Zemo adopted the alias Citizen V, a nod to his father, who killed the original Citizen V during World War II.

Captain America: Civil War is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 6, 2016.

DAREDEVIL's Charlie Cox Discusses Season 2

Like most Daredevil fans who already burned through the Netflix series' first thirteen episodes, you're probably going through various stages of withdrawal until your next fix in 2016.

Well, Empire was able to talk to star Charlie Cox during their weekly podcast about on the timeline for the show's second season and what Cox would like to see.

"I have to be careful because we just got commissioned, so I have no idea who is going to turn up," remarked Cox.  "Based on the show we’ve created, which is very grounded in reality, I’d like to see Punisher maybe show up, a little bit of Elektra maybe.  I wouldn’t mind Black Widow making an appearance, and you can’t think about Daredevil for too long without thinking of Bullseye.  I don’t know when or if or how that would happen, but it’d be cool if it did."

The sudden popularity of the show prompted Netflix to move Daredevil Season 2 ahead of The Defenders, which will team Daredevil with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist in a limited series event.  "We’ll begin shooting in the second half of the year," Cox revealed. "It’ll be the same timeline as the last show, so Season 2 will come out about this time next year. Again, I’m imagining all this, but they’ll probably do Iron Fist or Luke Cage at the same time, followed by the other one [of the two] in the first half of 2016 and then maybe Defenders in the second half of 2016 or the beginning of 2017."

The next Marvel series for Netflix, AKA Jessica Jones, is currently filming with Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones and David Tennant as the Purple Man.  However, Cox seems to prefer the move of having Daredevil Season 2 before The Defenders.  "What’s exciting is to have a season where [Matt Murdock] is really embodying his alter-ego before we get to The Defenders."

AKA Jessica Jones is expected to air on Netflix later this year, while Daredevil is expected to return for Season 2 in April of 2016.

THE FANDOM ZONE 005: "Broken Arrow" Is Up!

"This is not about strength, this is about heart.  Ray, when the mayor was killed, you put yourself in harm's way to save Felicity.  Normal people, they don't do that -- Heroes do that."

-- Oliver Queen to Ray Palmer, Arrow: "Broken Arrow"

After a slight delay, Karen and I are back with a new episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast!

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

Gotham 1x19 -- "Beasts of Prey"
The Flash 1x18 -- "All Star Team Up"

iZombie 1x05 -- "Flight of the Living Dead"

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x17 -- "Melinda"

Arrow 3x19 -- "Broken Arrow"

Daredevil 1x02 -- "Cut Man"

We talk about things like fun with an action figure of Grant Gustin as The Flash, the awesomeness of the name Eagle Egilsson, the movie American Psycho, waiting for Jada Pinkett Smith to leave, Bruce Wayne becoming an accessory to murder, the Bosom Buddies theme song, connecting Kevin Tancharoen to Joss Whedon, Cisco Ramon and Ray Palmer's bromance, guys not responding well to ultimatums, Karen and Cisco's mutual apiphobia, Felicity getting an arch-nemesis, Karen crushing on Lowell, getting crap from skater punks, getting background on Melinda May, the M*A*S*H mountains, the awesomeness of Doug Jones, Arrow and The Flash being one show on twice a week, Captain Lance becoming a total douche, saying goodbye to Roy Harper, finally bringing up the issue of S.T.A.R. Labs prisoners eating and pooping, fun with Lazarus Pits, dropping ACME fire extinguishers on bad guys, Matt Murdock's advantage of learning braille over other blind kids, the awesomeness of the hallway fight scene, getting Facebook likes from Deathlok, and more!

You can check out the episode HERE and for those of you who use iTunes, we're already available HERE, so please subscribe and rate us! If direct download MP3s are more your thing, you can find those HERE as well. In addition, we have our Fandom Zone show page on Facebook, which you can check out HERE. And we're also on Twitter using the account @FandomZoneCast.

Be sure to check out our 005.5 bonus episode of spoilers, then come back next week for more on Gotham, The Flash, iZombie, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow and the third episode of Daredevil, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff to Feature Mockingbird & Lance Hunter

Here's hoping they call this show Mockingbird and not Mr. & Mrs. Hunter...

Deadline reported yesterday that the planned spinoff of the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will feature Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood, reprising their current roles of Marvel superhero Mockingbird and her ex-husband Lance Hunter.

Hunter first appeared in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 opener, "Shadows," as a mercenary brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. by Isabelle Hartley together with Idaho.  He used to work for S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies), the British counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D. until Phil Coulson hired him as a mercenary following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Mockingbird first appeared four episodes later in "A Hen in the Wolf House" as Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent posing as the head of security for Hydra Laboratories, but actually working for Coulson in order to monitor Jemma Simmons (who had also infiltrated Hydra).  When Simmons was compromised, Morse revealed her true allegiance in order to help Simmons escape and acquire valuable Hydra data.  She was later revealed to have been previously married to Hunter and to be good friends with Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie.

According to Deadline, the spinoff was developed by S.H.I.E.L.D. executive producer Jeffrey Bell and co-executive producer Paul Zbyszewski, who are writing the script and would executive produce.  ABC isn't expected to make a formal greenlight call until the script comes in, with the hope of doing that before the upfronts.  The spinoff may film a promo or do a pilot and if it goes to series, Zbyszewski is expected to serve as showrunner.

The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff is one of two new Marvel series for ABC in the works, along with a drama written by John Ridley, that has been rumored to focus on the current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan.  ABC and Marvel also have the midseason drama Agent Carter under consideration for next season.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesday nights on ABC at 9 p.m. EST.

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE Director Reveals Teaser Trailer & Premise

Remember, many Bothans died to bring us this information.

The Hollywood Reporter has details from yesterday's panel at Star Wars Celebration 2015 in Anaheim, California, where Star Wars: Rogue One director Gareth Edwards appeared, with Pablo Hidalgo serving as panel moderator.  They were joined by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and head of development Kiri Hart.

The film, starring Felicity Jones, will officially be called Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, the first of a series of Star Wars spinoff films comprising -- you guessed it -- an anthology. "We really wanted freedom to do some films that could stand on their own, and tell new stories," said Hart.

Edwards mentioned that filming will begin this summer, but did come with a teaser trailer showing a jungle landscape, with a voiceover reusing dialogue from the late Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi...

"For more than a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic...before the dark times, before the Empire."

The camera pans skyward, revealing the Death Star orbiting the planet.

Hidalgo revealed the official logline for the movie -- "A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a daring mission to steal the Death Star plans."  This, of course, means the film is a prequel to Star Wars Episode IV, showing the events of how the Rebel Alliance obtained the secret plans to the battle station.

Edwards added that Rogue One won't have easily definable heroes and villains, and also will be a war film.  "It's called Star Wars," he joked to the audience.  "It’s about the fact that God’s not coming to save us, and we’re on our own.  The absence of the Jedi is omnipresent in the film.  It hangs over the whole movie."

Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is expected to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2016.

Leaked Sony Emails Reveal DOCTOR WHO Movie Plans

Rule One -- The Moff lies.

Less than two weeks after Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat shot down the idea of a big-budget Doctor Who film, The Telegraph has revealed that -- Surprise! -- there will be a film made, after all.  Sometime within the next eight years, anyway.

The article reports that leaked Sony emails that were published by WikiLeaks show that Danny Cohen, the Director of BBC Television, "claimed that the popular TV series will become a film under an eight-year plan to keep the franchise alive."

However, the Doctor Who team are "very hot under the collar" because they feel "their position on it is not being listened to or accepted."  The article claims that they want to wait until the time is right and have made their feelings "very clear" on the matter.

In addition, Cohen claimed there is "tremendous interest" in a Doctor Who film and says there has been "pressure" to make it from BBC Worldwide, the subsidiary of the BBC that commercially exploits BBC brands and sells BBC programming abroad.

The details were included in a database of 30,287 documents and 173,132 emails that was uploaded to the WikiLeaks website after hackers stole them from Sony Pictures Entertainment, the company’s movie division, last November.

The movie plans were in an email sent in January last year from Andrea Wong, president of International Production for Sony, to the company’s chief executive, Michael Lynton.  The email says: "He (Cohen) said that while there has been tremendous interest (and pressure from BBCWW) (BBC Worldwide) to do a Dr Who film, the show runners feel very clear that they don’t want to do one at this moment.  That said, over the course of the coming months, the show running team is coming up with an 8 year timeline for the brand – laying out all that will happen with it.  He says that a film will certainly be a part of that timeline. So the answer is that a film won’t happen in the next year to 18 months, but it is expected that it will happen after that within the 8 year horizon."

Lynton replied, "Sounds like we need to meet with the show runners."

Wong followed up, emailing: "Spoke to Danny and he doesn’t think it makes sense right now and actually might hurt our cause.  He said that the creative team on the show have been having the movie conversation with BBC Worldwide in recent weeks and are very hot under the collar that their position on it is not being listened to or accepted."

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Teaser Trailer #2 Reveals Han & Chewie

So, are you pumped for Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet?  If not, you will be.  You will be...

A new two-minute teaser trailer for the film debuted today at Star Wars Celebration 2015 at the Anaheim Convention Center.  In our newest look at Star Wars Episode VII, we finally get to see and hear some of the returning characters, including Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and everyone's favorite Wookiee, Chewbacca.

Opening up a a desert planet that may or may not be Tattooine, we hear the lovely sounds of John Williams' score and see a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer.

"The Force is strong in my family," Luke Skywalker begins in a voiceover, recalling his words from over thirty years ago in Return of the Jedi, as the severely-damaged helmet of Darth Vader is raised.  "My father has it.  I have it."  A cloaked figure, presumably Luke, places his artificial hand on R2-D2 and then someone hands a young female a lightsaber. "My sister has it.  You have that power, too."

A squadron of X-Wings soars over a river and then we see Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn with ball droid BB-8 running from an explosion.  The Sith known as Kylo Ren raises his lightsaber and Stormtroopers in new armor stand together in formation.  A group of TIE fighters then attacks the Stormtroopers, hinting they're on the side of the New Republic.

The Millennium Falcon battles the TIE fighters on the planet that may or may not be Tattooine, as the familiar rumble of Harrison Ford's voice begins speaking.  "Chewie...we're home," sans Han Solo as he and Chewbacca come into view aboard the Falcon and Chewbacca gives his approval.

Yes, we're home, all right.  It's gonna be a long wait until Christmas.

Here's the trailer, thanks to Star Wars' official YouTube account...



Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives in theaters on December 18, 2015.

THE FANDOM ZONE Episode 004: "Into the Ring" is Up!

"I'm not seeking penance for what I've done, Father.  I'm asking for forgiveness...for what I'm about to do."

-- Matt Murdock, Daredevil: "Into the Ring"

We're back with a new episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast, and even better, the ever-awesome Karen is back as well!

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

iZombie 1x04 -- "Liv and Let Clive"

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x16 -- "Afterlife"

Powers 1x07 -- "You Are Not It"

Daredevil 1x01 -- "Into the Ring"

We talk about things like grammar issues with the song "Live and Let Die," everyone's complete disinterest in Liv's zombie skin tone and hair color, knowing kung fu, Karen busting on me about my show notes, Ravi crushing on Liv, Blaine's Jenny Craig plan for zombies, keeping zombie henchmen in a freezer, the movie Glengary Glen Ross, the awkwardness of jumping the line to becoming an Inhuman, FitzSimmons shippers being happy once again, Deathlok's Matrix-like aircraft flying downloading ability, Powers being overly convoluted again, producing on the fly, Matt's horror at becoming blind, Karen's approval of depicting the visually-impaired, Matt Murdock as a Catholic, taking your shirt off in front of a blind person, the superiority of Daredevil's fights over Arrow's fights, and more!

You can check out the episode HERE and for those of you who use iTunes, we're already available HERE, so please subscribe and rate us! If direct download MP3s are more your thing, you can find those HERE as well. In addition, we have our Fandom Zone show page on Facebook, which you can check out HERE. And we're also on Twitter using the account @FandomZoneCast.

Come back next week for more on Gotham, The Flash, iZombie, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow and the second episode of Daredevil, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE Casts Olivia Munn as Psylocke

Bryan Singer sure loves to overload his X-Men movies, doesn't he?

On his official Instagram account yesterday, Singer announced another member of his cast for the upcoming film X-Men: Apocalypse -- Olivia Munn as Betsy Braddock, better known to X-Men fans as the mutant superhero Psylocke.  Here's his official post...

Munn, 34, is probably best known as Sloan Sabbith on the HBO series The Newsroom and as the co-host of the G4 series Attack of the Show!  In addition, Munn has had various roles in the movies Iron Man 2, Magic Mike, Mortdecai, and Deliver Us from Evil.  Her other TV roles include The Daily Show, New Girl, Chuck, and Robot Chicken.

Created in 1976 by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, Psylocke first appeared in the UK comic Captain Britain (vol.1) #8 as Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, the twin sister of Captain Britain.  Betsy was a charter pilot with mutant psychic abilities who later filled in for her brother as Captain Britain until she was blinded by the villain Slaymaster.

Betsy was soon abducted by another villain called Mojo, brainwashed, fitted with bionic eyes and given the name Psylocke.  After being rescued by the New Mutants, Psylocke joined the X-Men after fending off an attack by Sabretooth.

Later, Psylocke was captured by ninja cult The Hand, who also brainwashed her and physically altered her so that she could blend in with people in Hong Kong.  After being rescued by Wolverine, Psylocke eventually died while fighting the villain Vargas, but was soon resurrected by her older brother, Jamie Braddock, who reached back through time to prevent her spirit from passing into the afterlife.  Psylocke later joined the black-ops mutant team X-Force, but remains closely allied with the X-Men.

Munn will be the first actress to portray the character in a major role, although Psylocke appeared as a minor villainess in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, played by Meiling Melançon.  The character has also appeared in a couple of animated projects, including the X-Men animated series (voiced by Tasha Simms), and Wolverine and the X-Men (voiced by Grey DeLisle).

X-Men: Apocalypse is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 27, 2016.

New ANT-MAN Trailer Goes Full-Size

After over a decade of development and a number of teasers, we finally have our first good look at Marvel Studios' upcoming film Ant-Man, based on the Marvel Comics superhero. The two and a half-minute full trailer shows a good deal of sci-fi superhero action, as well as a number of humorous moments that are pretty much mandatory when you have a superhero calling himself Ant-Man in the 21st Century.

The trailer opens with Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) giving a presentation at Pym Technologies of potential military uses for Dr. Hank Pym's shrinking technology.  "Imagine a soldier the size of an insect..." he begins as we see Ant-Man growing into view, "...the ultimate secret weapon."

Meanwhile, Hank (Michael Douglas) has concerns about such uses, remarking "If you give godlike powers to everyone, it's gonna be chaos."

"So how do we stop him?" asks Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), the daughter of Pym and Janet Van Dyne.  

"I know a guy..."

We cut to a scene of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in the middle of a prison fight as Pym speaks to him across a table.  "Scott, I've been watching you for a while...You're different...and I believe everyone deserves a shot at redemption.  Do you?"

"Absolutely," replies Scott.  "My days of breaking to places and stealing stuff are over.  What do you want me to do?"

"I want you break into a place and steal some stuff."

"Makes sense."

Hope teaches Scott about the Ant-Man suit's various abilities.  "Now, this suit has power," she says as we see a group of ants spinning a penny.  "You have to learn how to control it.  And these are your greatest allies..."

"You're kinda cute," remarks Ant-Man as he examines a baby ant.  Unfortunately, the protective mother or father isn't happy, sending Ant-Man into a swarm of ants inside an ant-hill.

"When you're small, you have superhuman strength..." continues Hope as we see Ant-Man growing and taking out some Pym Technologies guards, "...be like a bullet...so, you'll need to know how to punch."  Scott scoffs at Hope, daring her to show him how to punch his extended hand, only to have her punch him square in the face.  "That's how you punch," she smiles.

Of course, Cross is quickly revealed as the film's villain.  "You tried to hide your suit from me," he says to Hank, "and now, it's gonna blow up in your face and destroy everyone you care about."

Cross dons a yellow-and-black-armored suit with stinger-like artificial limbs extending from his back, taking on the supervillain identity of Yellowjacket.  Footage of Ant-Man fighting Yellowjacket at various sizes follows, with Yellowjacket yelling, "Did you think you could stop the future?! You're just a thing!"

"No, I'm Ant-Man," replies Scott, shrugging at the name.  "I know, it wasn't my idea."

Finally, we see the two fighting across a child's toy train set, featuring Thomas the Tank Engine.

If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can view it below thanks to Marvel Enterainment's official YouTube channel...



Ant-Man arrives in theaters on July 17, 2015.

DAMN Good Television -- DAREDEVIL: "Into the Ring"

It's been a long, hard road for fans of Marvel Comics' Daredevil, but finally, the devil has been given his due.

Back in October of 2012, the Daredevil film rights reverted to Marvel Studios after 20th Century Fox was unable to get a second film into production since their mostly disappointing 2003 film starring Ben Affleck.  Marvel fans rejoiced at the news, even more so when Netflix announced one year later that they would release four TV series starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, leading up to a miniseries event called The Defenders.

The first thirteen episodes of Daredevil premiered late last night, with the opening episode written by former showrunner and current consultant/executive producer Drew Goddard.  As the series opens, we get a flashback to the day young Matt Murdock loses his eyesight after saving a man from getting hit by a runaway truck.  The chaotic scene is fundamental to Daredevil lore and immediately hooks the viewer as we learn that the truck carried barrels containing toxic chemicals that splashed into Matt's eyes.  What really sells this opening scene is the horror Matt experiences as his sight quickly fades into permanent blindness.

Switching to the present, we see the adult Matt talking to a priest in confession, introducing the character's Irish-American Catholic background and giving us our first impression of Charlie Cox as Matt.  We get some background on Matt's father, the boxer known as Battlin' Jack Murdock, but what's most interesting here is that Matt isn't confessing his past sins, he's confessing the sins he's about to do.

The next thing we see is Matt's superhero playground in Hell's Kitchen, New York, where Matt is now wearing the black semi-ninja costume and eyeless bandana mask from the comic book limited series Daredevil: The Man Without Fear by Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr.  Daredevil (or at this point, the future Daredevil) proceeds to take out a bunch of men forcing girls into a van as part of human trafficking.  The fight is brutal and messy, giving us a brief taste of Daredevil's penchant for billy clubs as Matt frees the girls after taking a pounding in the process.

We're then introduced to Elden Henson as Matt's legal partner and best friend, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson.  Matt and Foggy are starting up their practice, so Foggy meets with a former childhood friend named Brett who's now an officer for the NYPD.  Bribing him with a bag of cigars for his mother, Foggy arranges for Brett to tip him off on promising cases. However, it's the following scene where Foggy comes to life as he and Matt meet with a real estate agent to check out their new office for Nelson & Murdock, Attorneys at Law.  The agent mentions that the building was barely damaged during the Chitauri invasion featured in the first Avengers film, officially confirming that Daredevil is set firmly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe without beating viewers over the head with references the way Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter have.

And sure enough, Brett tips off Foggy that a woman named Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is being held in police custody for a homicide of a man named Daniel Fisher.  Foggy and Matt go to meet her at the station and offer her legal assistance as their first and only client. Karen tells them that she worked with Fisher and met up with him for a few drinks at a bar, only to black out and wake up with a bloody knife in her hand.  As Daredevil fans already expect, Matt listens to her steady heartbeat as the human lie detector that he is and knows she isn't lying.

After a police guard tries to to kill Karen in her cell and fails, Matt and Foggy arrange for her to be taken to the offices of Nelson & Murdock.  Karen tells them she knows why the guard tried to kill her, remarking that she worked in the offices of Union Allied, a property developer that was working to restore New York’s West Side, as the secretary for the company’s chief accountant, where she’d coordinate the company’s pension claims. Accidentally opening an e-mail meant for her boss, Karen accidentally learned that the company is receving too much money and guesses that someone is embezzling.

Matt, of course, is a complete sucker for a pretty girl, despite being blind, something that Foggy is constantly incredulous about.  Taking Karen to his apartment, Matt offers her a clean and dry shirt after a rainstorm, which she changes into right in front of him knowing that he's blind.  Matt runs through Karen’s story with her again and suggests that Karen must have a file containing all of Union Allied’s embezzlement information.  He asks Karen if she still has the file, she says no, but her rapid heartbeat reveals that she’s lying.

Karen leaves Matt’s apartment and walks back to her own, the scene of Fisher’s murder, to get the file contained on a flash drive.  A man enters the room and knocks Karen out, taking the file, but Daredevil enters and the two scuffle, which results in Matt being pushed out of the window.  Falling onto the street below, Matt struggles to pick himself up after recalling a memory of his father telling him to get back to work on his schoolbooks.  The fight becomes even more brutal, once again showing a more realistic, messy throwdown than the perfectly choreographed stuntwork on the CW's Arrow.

Recovering the file, Daredevil dumps both the file and the attacker on the steps of The Daily Bulletin, a fictional New York newspaper that serves as a replacement for Marvel's The Daily Bugle, which is presumably tied up with the Spider-Man movie rights and off-limits. With Union Allied's scheme made public, crimelord Wilson Fisk's assistant Wesley is instructed by his boss to keep tabs on Karen, Matt and Foggy, teasing us with Vincent D'Onofrio as The Kingpin with only his voice.  And now that Karen is exonerated, Matt and Foggy offer Karen a new job as their office secretary, which Karen is more than willing to do considering everything they did for her.

Matt goes to Fogwell's Gym, where his father used to train, and starts pounding on a punching bag while we get a montage of various criminal activity taking place in the Kitchen. Anyone connecting Fisk with Union Allied is taken out, while somewhere else, a room filled with blinded workers package cocaine for shipment.  Even more ominously, a man looks over some New York City blueprints, with bold Japanese characters positioned directly over the Hell's Kitchen blocks.  But don't worry, the last thing we see is Matt as Daredevil once again, leaping into action as the episode fades into the closing credits.

So all in all, a promising start for Daredevil and already it's the best television series Marvel has produced to date.  Some may find some elements of the first episode a bit slow and heavy with exposition, but Daredevil is a slow burn to savor and appreciate over the next twelve episodes.  If you can't see the potential for greatness in this series, well...you must be absolutely blind.

Marvel Developing AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff for ABC

What do you do when your Marvel Comics TV series is only pulling in so-so ratings?  Make a spinoff, of course.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Marvel is developing a new show spinning off from ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., although the featured characters are still unknown.

According to the article, there won’t be a specific pilot episode this season directly setting up the spinoff, similar to how The CW launched The Flash out of Arrow.  Things still to come on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second season will be used to lay the groundwork for the potential new series.  This means that by the end of the season, we should have an idea of what the spinoff will entail.

There are a number of routes the spinoff could go, including solo series for Adrianne Palicki as Mockingbird, Brett Dalton as Grant Ward, Chloe Bennett as Daisy "Skye" Johnson, or J. August Richards as Deathlok.  And then there are concepts the show has already introduced, such as Hydra, Agent 33, Major Glenn Talbot, the Inhumans, the Kree, etc.

The article claims the spinoff will debute on ABC as soon as this fall, but could be a midseason replacement similar to how Agent Carter filled in the show's winter hiatus. There's also the matter of S.H.I.E.L.D. not being officially renewed yet, and ABC still has to choose select which pilots will receive series orders, which could affect the spinoff plans. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. currently averages 7.4 million viewers and a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49, when including seven days of DVR playback.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesday nights on ABC at 9 p.m. EST.

SUICIDE SQUAD Casts Deathstroke, Hugo Strange & Ravan

David Ayer, director of the upcoming film adaptation of DC Comics' Suicide Squad, posted the following cast photo yesterday on his official Twitter account...

Cast read through today! #SuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/yajjcB5aEb
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) April 9, 2015

The photo revealed three new cast members -- Jim Parrack, Ike Barinholtz and Adam Beach.  However, the real question was, who are they playing?

Well, Latino-Review has word that Parrack, Barinholtz and Beach are playing DC Comics supervillains Deathstroke, Hugo Strange and Ravan, respectively.  Joe Manganiello was originally selected to play Deathstroke, but has been replaced in an apparent decision to go younger with the role.

Deathstroke was created in 1980 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, first appearing in The New Teen Titans (vol.1) #2 as Slade Wilson, a former U.S. Army officer skilled in various fighting techniques that was experimented upon and given enhanced physical powers.  Slade soon became the mercenary/assassin known as Deathstroke.

A criminal called the Jackal kidnapped Wilson's son Joseph, eventually slashing his throat and rendering Joseph mute.  Slade's wife Adeline, angered at the endangerment of their son, tried to kill Slade but only managed to destroy his right eye.  Deathstroke later became an enemy of the Titans, accepting a contract from the H.I.V.E. after his other son Grant Wilson died while trying to kill the Titans as the assassin Ravager.

Deathstroke has fought various incarnations of the Titans and the Justice League over the years, most notably murdering the fourth Atom, Ryan Choi.

Created in 1940 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Professor Hugo Strange first appeared in Detective Comics (vol.1) #36 as a scientist who uses a stolen "concentrated lightning" machine to generate a dense fog every night, allowing his gang to rob banks unseen, though he knows Batman poses a threat to him.

Strange later ran a private hospital for Gotham's wealthiest citizens, holding them to ransom and changing them into monsters.  When Bruce Wayne checked into the hospital to recover discreetly from radiation burns he sustained while fighting Doctor Phosphorus, Strange discovered that Wayne is Batman and proceeded to wreak havoc on his personal life.

He later attempted to auction the identity of Batman to City Council Boss Rupert Thorne, Penguin, and The Joker.  Thorne had Strange kidnapped and beaten to reveal Batman's identity, but Strange supposedly died before telling them.  Strange's "ghost" came back to haunt Thorne, driving the council boss insane.

Ravan, created in 1987 by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell, first appeared in Suicide Squad (vol.1) #1 as a member of the mercenary superteam The Jihad.   Part of the thuggee cult, Ravan tries to stop the coming of Kali and thereby the Kali Yuga, the Age of Chaos.  By killing, he delays the coming of Kali another thousand years. It is through this practice that he both prevents and worships Kali.  

In an encounter with the Bronze Tiger, Ravan's back was broken, but he was later recruited by the Squad, joining them because his primary enemy is the villain Kobra who wishes to bring forth that same Age of Chaos.  During the Janus Directive, when Amanda Waller must make it seem she is being controlled by Kobra, she sends the squad after The Force of July, where Ravan kills their member Mayflower.

Ravan and the Squad later went to Israel in order to capture Kobra, but Kobra had already been captured by the Israeli government's superteam the Hayoth.  While Kobra's plans were thwarted by the rest of the Suicide Squad, Ravan faced Kobra in combat, but Kobra had the upper hand and was close to killing Ravan.  At the last moment, the third Atom, Adam Cray, appeared, striking down Kobra. Ravan's last wish was for either him or the Atom to kill Kobra, but the Atom denies him that final wish and he died unfulfilled.

Suicide Squad is scheduled to arrive in theaters on August 5, 2016.

THE FANDOM ZONE Episode 003: "Tricksters" is Up!

"There's just one thing I've been dying to ask -- Why did you choose me?"

"Because I knew you had the strength to fulfill my legacy.  Besides, it was in your blood."

"Wait...What do you mean, in...in my blood?"

"The real reason I tracked you down and groomed you to be the best you could possibly be, Axel...I am your father...."

-- Axel Walker and James Jesse, The Flash: "Tricksters"

We're finally back on track with a new episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast, but this time, we have a special guest host with the most, Dahne, who was kind enough to fill in for Karen as she deals with some Real Life stuff.

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

The Flash 1x17 -- "Tricksters"

iZombie 1x03 -- "The Exterminator"

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2x15 -- "One Door Closes"

Powers 1x06 -- "The Raconteur of the Funeral Circuit"

Arrow 3x18 -- "Public Enemy"

We talk about things like introducing Dahne, millions of Star Wars fans crying out at once with joy as Mark Hamill says the thing, nods to the original 1990-91 Flash series starring John Wesley Shipp, genetic camouflage, the return of comic relief cop Tony Bellows as the mayor of Central City, James Jesse as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who originally stopped the Trickster in the new Flash TV continuity, Slimer in the movie Ghostbusters, the introduction of the Speed Force, confiding in Eddie Thawne, Liv not being good enough for Major, Marcy from the Booze Cruise going Full Zombie, is some of Harrison Wells still alive in Eobard Thawne, the science of restoring Full Zombies back to normal, trivia night at a cop bar, flashing back to the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a mini-Battlestar Galactica reunion, hating Skye as a character, Bobbi and Mack as Team Back, Mockingbird vs. The Cavalry, shoutouts to comic book creators, Krispin's epic sex fail, Felicity outing The Atom as a Doctor Who fan, bringing back a dead character as her twin sister, Arsenal's sacrifice move, and more!

You can check out the episode HERE and for those of you who use iTunes, we're already available HERE, so please subscribe and rate us! If direct download MP3s are more your thing, you can find those HERE as well. In addition, we have our Fandom Zone show page on Facebook, which you can check out HERE. And we're also on Twitter using the account @FandomZoneCast.

Come back next week for more on iZombie, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Powers and the first episode of Daredevil, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!