PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A review of Maleficent and the launch of The Summer Of Free!

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A review of X-Men: Days Of Future Past, ComicKate's review of the Superior Spiderman comic book series, a conversation about Paper and pencil RPGs and a boatload of listener feedback!

Before you go totally  TLDR  on me ;-) , an audio version of this review is available as well, as a podcast entry for the   Spiritblade Underground Podcast . The Superior Spider-Man  is a new series and part of the Marvel Now universe, following right after #700 of the previous volume,  The Amazing Spider-Man . Spider-Man has never been my favorite superhero. The movies with Toby Maguire were kind of okay I guess, but definitely no more than that, although I have to admit I really do like the  new  movie franchise with Andrew Garfield playing the webslinging hero. It's especially the Spidey  comics  however that were never able to grab me. Whenever I encountered him in other Marvel titles, I found Peter Parker (and his superhero alias) too "teenagey", often childish even. Frankly to me he bordered on an annoying do-gooder who consistently failed to hold my interest for more than one comic. I had heard that with the new Marvel Now relaunch/reboot/reimagining (

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A review of "Godzilla and what the "throne of grace" means for geeks!

There are a lot of things going on in my life right now that I need some fun distractions.  One of those distractions is a new AMC series, TURN . While not a SF/Fantasy show, I still will hold it up as a genre show. TURN is the story of America's first spy ring. This fact along puts it in the same camp as the Bourne and Daniel Craig 007 films. I first learned about the Culper Spy Ring (as it is commonly known) by way of the short-lived (two seasons worth) Brad Meltzer's DECODED. This series, hosted by author Brad Meltzer (who also wrote for Green Arrow and Justice League of America - how's that for connecting it back to the topic?) looked into various urban legends, conspiracy theories and other fodder for thrillers. In one episode , his team investigated the historical record regarding the Culper Spy Ring, which would have made it the first in our nation's history. TURN is extremely well done. They get many historical details right, including how the British ex

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A review of Knights Of Badassdom and how geeks can REALLY unwind and relax as we continue looking at the book of Hebrews!

Recently I discovered a graphic novel which is kind of a prequel to the  Pacific Rim  movie, which I thought I'd share with you all for it's a great read.  Pacific Rim - Tales from Year Zero  was published in close collaboration with the movie's creators, which is great: some of its most important characters are in the graphic novel, and of course the Kaiju and Jaeger designs are very recognizable as well. Nevertheless, the writers used background stories to the movie that were never filmed, but were originally created to give more substance to the movie's universe. Thanks to this graphic novel, much of this  unknown  extra material  is now available to us as well. The graphic novel contains 52 pages of world-building short stories. I'm not going to summarize the stories, for that's near impossible without spoilers. What I can do however is give an example of the kind of background story you will get: the  drifting  phenomenon that we got to see in te

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A review of The Amazing Spiderman 2, and some thoughts on Dr. Who!