At The Fleapit: Avengers - Age Of Ultron (2015)

The key takeaway from Avengers: Age of Ultron is that, for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, it delivers what it promises. However, if you're not already even slightly invested in the franchise this probably isn't a good place to start.

While the original Avengers movie felt like both a natural extension of the solo hero movies that had gone before it and a self-contained entity, Age Of Ultron is very much a part of a greater whole, with many of the sub-plots and Easter Eggs laying the groundwork for what is to come (particularly in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, 2018's Black Panther and the 2018/19 Avengers: Infinity War).

Having retrieved Loki's scepter from Hydra's Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), Tony Stark has a glimpse of the future where he is responsible for the death of the Avengers and decides, with the aid of Bruce Banner, to push ahead with the Ultron project to create an artificial intelligence to protect the world from future alien invasions.

Ultron has other ideas.

Age of Ultron is a truly comic book movie, with its ever-increasing cast of characters to its multiple sub-plots and story arcs. There's a lot crammed in here and it feels like a long movie - but in a good, value-for-money way. Even when writer/director Joss Whedon takes his foot off the accelerator for some necessary downtime, the film never drags.

Joss juggles a lot of balls here and most elements pay off really well (the running gag about Cap's attitude to the more potty-mouth members of the team is great, but rather fizzles out, while the team's playful efforts to lift Thor's hammer has a wonderful pay-off later in the film).

I was really pleased to see Whedon positioning Hawkeye as the heart of the team, but it did generate a nagging sword-of-Damocles feeling that maybe Clint was heading in the same direction as Wash (from Serenity).

S.H.I.E.L.D. also popped up towards the end of the movie, doing what "S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to do", which rather suggests that this all takes place some time in the near-future of the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show.

As well as introducing two new 'enhanced' characters, namely Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), without wasting time on 'origin stories' for the twins, the film gives us the most interesting new addition to the Avengers roster: The Vision (Paul Bettany).

With input from multiple sources into his creation, the android is fascinating personality and I can't wait to see how he develops in future movies.

There's also an unexpected romance at the core of Age Of Ultron, that works really well, being so well-written that it makes sense even if you never saw it coming.

On the downside, I was slightly underwhelmed by James Spader's Ultron, although he was the all-powerful antagonist you would have expected from a rogue AI, he wasn't the sinister evil the trailers had been cut to portray but rather a petulant child prone to bouts of Whedonesque snark.

The character itself felt like a bit of a fudge, as it's set up to be the first artificial intelligence (and certainly runs out of control as predicted in James Barrat's depressing and rather terrifying Our Final Invention). But Stark already has his long-established Jarvis program - which appears, to all intents and purposes, to be an AI working perfectly fine with its human counterparts.

This is where comic book reality clashed uncomfortably with attempts to inject some real world science into the mix.

Age of Ultron also, for some reason, adopted the darker colour palette of the DC Universe films. I hope this is a one-off shift rather than a major misstep in the wrong direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Minor glitches aside, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a magnificent continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline as it heads towards the cosmic dust-up scheduled to go down in  Infinity War.

Five Stages Of Watching A Marvel Movie

Leigh Lahav, of Five Stages Of, teams-up with HISHE Features to present Five Stages Of Watching A Marvel Movie.

Mad Max: Fury Road - Final Trailer...

Supernatural: Mother's Little Helper

The fragile truce between the Winchester brothers is tested again when Sam unearths a possible case for them to investigate, but Dean has become increasingly obsessed with tracking down Abaddon after killing Magnus with the First Blade in Blade Runners.

While Sam heads off, Dean is struggling to cope with the side effects of using the Mark of Cain, and when he can't find answers at the bottom of a bottle, he begrudgingly turns to Crowley - who is more than willing to offer support!

The violent murders that Sam is looking into are proving difficult to crack until he meets Julia Wilkinson (Jenny O'Hara), an ex-nun, who tells him about an undercover visit to the town decades ago by the Men of Letters - in the form of Sam's grandfather Henry (Gil McKinney) and Josie Sands (Alaina Huffman) - the future host of Abaddon.

As Julia's tale progresses, it becomes clear that we are hearing the origin story of the Josie-era Abaddon, and the fact that Abaddon let a witness to her transition survive is the the one slight weakness in this story.

Of course, if she hadn't, then we wouldn't have had a story and Sam wouldn't have unearthed the latest element in the Knight of Hell's masterplan for domination of the infernal realm.

Minor flaw aside, Mother's Little Helper is yet another powerful episode, really driving the the main season arc forward, giving us insight into Abaddon's schemes while simultaneously revealing - without going into the details - that Crowley is, unsurprisingly, playing Dean.

To what end? Who knows? But it's sure to be an interesting ride with an unhappy ending for someone.

Next Time:

Welcome To Riverdale: Free Comic Book Day...

Next On Game Of Thrones...

And some spoiler-packed behind-the-scenes moments from last night's episode:

PUPPY POWER!!!

Achievement unlocked! Rachel is calling it "probably the hardest thing [Tim has] done physically in 10 years", but the sponsored walk is done and dusted.

I may try and kid myself that growing up in Pembury (essentially a sleepy suburb of Tunbridge Wells) makes me "country folk", but nothing brought home my townie credentials quite like the 3km hike Rachel, Alice and I did yesterday in the woodlands surrounding Burrswood Hospital in Groombridge.

Although I'd trained for the distance (Tonbridge Castle and back from my front door) I'd totally failed to factor in that this walk was in real country, where steep slopes and hills are the norm rather than the gradual incline that I'd practiced on.

I'd fooled myself into thinking it would be like last year's Step Out For Stroke event, a walk around primarily flat fields, but as Rachel pointed out (about two klicks into the Burrswood walk) that had been specifically designed with stroke survivors in mind; this route was designed for  dog walkers.

Some of the slopes felt like they were 45 degrees or steeper, and factoring in the mud (from the previous night's rainfall) made this walk seem a lot further than 3km.

But we did it - and I have the aches to prove to it (Alice has a certificate) - and have raised over £330 for Pets As Therapy.

Our JustGiving page will remain open for a few weeks yet if it anyone else wants to throw some pennies in the virtual bucket, to support this delightful charity that brought such pleasure to my late mother in her final years.

Alice was a total star on the walk - befriending every other dog and walker she met, tackling every muddy puddle and fallen tree without complaint.

Given that she supposedly only requires 20 minutes of exercise a day, our hour-and-a-half walk didn't seem to faze her at all.

She was still full of beans when she came home afterwards (although she needed a shower to shift the mud she'd accumulated in her fur), only passing out in the early evening while Rachel and I were curled up on the sofas in the lounge watching Peter Kay's Car Share and the finale of Poldark on TV.

You can see a selection of Rachel's photographs over on Alice's Facebook page.

Musical Monday: A Gotham Fairytale...

A Gotham Fairytale is an original Batman story from Mauricio Abril told as an animatic to Muse's Knights of Cydonia. Composed of over 200 black and white illustrations, it depicts the dark imagination of a little girl as she's listening to a bedtime fairytale told by her grandmother.

James Cameron Praises The Dead Lands...

It's A Matter Of Perspective...

One On One...

Sarah, a runaway teenager in the city of Metropolis, encounters a persistent newspaper reporter named Clark Kent who won't leave her alone until she agrees to an interview for his newspaper column. Ten questions -- that's all he asks. In their moments together, the fragments of her tragic life emerge, but her anger towards superheroes and Superman himself explodes in full force. If he is so great and so powerful, why is the world such a horrible place? Why doesn't he do something about it?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: One Door Closes

After a couple of shaky weeks, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back on track with One Door Closes.

Taking a page out of the Arrow playbook, the episode went with twin timelines, the flashback thread (primarily an excuse to see Lucy Lawless kick ass and take names) laying the groundwork for how the 'real' S.H.I.E.L.D. arose out of the chaos of the rise of Hydra in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Coulson and May had figured Mack and Bobbi were working for someone else (they assumed Hydra) and there's plenty of twists, turns, bluffs and double-bluffs before Coulson eventually comes face-to-face with Robert Gonzales (Edward James Olmos) to argue over which organisation is the 'real' S.H.I.E.L.D.

It soon becomes clear, Gonzales' S.H.I.E.L.D.is also interested in getting its hands on Skye.

While this is going on, Skye is hiding out at The Retreat (turns out it was designed by Bruce Banner) when she is surprised by a visit from the eyeless teleporter, whose name is Gordon (Jamie Harris).

He invites her to join more of her kind, transformed by the mists, who will not only encourage her to embrace her powers but guide her in controlling them.

Having delivered his invitation, and emphasised how S.H.I.E.L.D. is clearly frightened by Skye's new powers, he leaves - saying when she has made up her mind, he will know.

One Door Closes started unsteadily, with the prospect of another protracted S.H.I.E.L.D. civil war, but eventually this developed into an interesting situation where there are essentially three sides in this drama (Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D,  Gonzales' S.H.I.E.L.D. and 'the Inhumans') - all of whom could be good considered the 'good guys' from a certain point of view.

A point worth mentioning - because this episode demonstrated it perfectly - is how strong all the female characters are in this show. Even Simmons, not a physical fighter, takes out a more powerful opponent using her brains, while May, Bobbi, Hartley et al are doing what they do so well.

Next Time:

Fleamarket Friday: Hero Kids In SPPPPAAAAAAACCCCEEE... Part Two!

Justin Halliday, creator of Hero Kids, has released a second collection of characters for use in a science-fiction twist on Hero Kids.

As with the first bundle, all these characters are 100 per cent compatible with everything else produced for Hero Kids, the popular entry-level roleplaying game designed to introduce imaginative youngsters to the concept of structured gaming.

Included in the $2.99 (£2) PDF of Space Heroes II are character cards for:

• Goliath - The goliath communicates with his fists and hurled rocks
• Infernal Binder - This infernal's magic can direct the actions of her enemies
• Felinian - The felinian fights tooth and claw for her allies
• Trapper - The alien trapper uses his net to capture wild creatures - and foes
• Fire Binder - The simian binder manifests nadic energy into fiery attacks
• Blade Master - The reptilian's double-ion blade can cut twice as deep
• Ionight - The ion knight wields a matching set of sword and shield
• Insectoid - The insectoid has chitinous armor and a piercing sonic shriek
• Hunter - This tiny hunter is renowned for the accuracy of his sling shots
• Wild Binder - This pandian is barely in control of her nadic magic

Avengers: Age Of LEGO...

Thanks to my fantastic wife Rachel for pointing this out to me!

Olympus Is Wobbling, But Hasn't Fallen...

You'd Never Guess This Was Shot In Front Of A Green Screen, Right?

Last week a new channel launched in the UK, Spike (part of the Channel 5 empire). Among the detritus of reality TV programming and Breaking Bad episodes (only a few years after everyone has seen it) in its schedules is a new, weekly fantasy show called Olympus.

I first heard of this SyFy show about a month ago, but then spotted it being trailed during the promos for the launch of Spike and so knew I had to tune in.

If ever there was a show hamstrung by its lack of budget it's Olympus, an action-adventure serial set in a mythical incarnation of Ancient Greece filtered through a Dungeons & Dragons lens.

Apparently it's made by spending about as much money as the BBC used to spend on Classic Doctor Who.

Outrageous mullets aside, Olympus is hampered by amateurish performances and an over-reliance on weak green screen that make its more 'exciting' moments seem more Knightmare than Crystal Maze.

The show is a cocktail of the BBC's cruddy Atlantis and pretty much everything produced by The Asylum, but with far more charm and imagination than the former.

It wins out over Aunty Beeb's efforts at reworking Grecian mythology by taking its subject matter seriously (although not to a po-faced degree) rather than trying to ridicule or subvert it.

Unfortunately, some of Olympus's good intentions are undone by its hilariously poor CGI, hilariously poor dialogue and hilariously poor acting which give the viewer the impression they are watching a village hall am dram production rather than a mainstream television show.

But don't let that put you off. The first episode alone had more creativity and inspirational material in it than the entire first season of the dire Atlantis, and some of the effects are really good, such as the apparition summoned by the sexy priestess to lure the show's hero to his doom...

And some of the scenic backdrops used in Olympus are truly stunning (such as the one below).

It's just a shame that quite often they are also about as interactive as a painted backdrop in a stage play. But they do look impressive!

A Final, Final Pupdate...

As you may be aware, Alice, Rachel and I are doing a 3km sponsored dog walk this weekend.

I hadn't planned to write anything further about it until after the event, but following my "final pupdate" on Monday we had a surge of generous new donations.

Thank you!

We've now crashed through our £300 goal, in aid of Burrswood Hospital (the event organisers) and Pets As Therapy (their chosen charity)

Our JustGiving page will remain open for a few weeks after the walk, in case you're inspired to donate some cash.

We're doing this walk in memory of my late mother, who always enjoyed the visits by Pets As Therapy animals to the residential home where she spent her final years.

Tomorrowland - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet...

Supernatural: Blade Runners

Crowley, supposedly out hunting for The First Blade (the only artifact known to be powerful enough to slay Abaddon) has gone AWOL, and the Winchesters discover he has fallen foul of his addiction to human blood.

Unfortunately Abaddon's agents have been working Crowley and she has been alerted to the Winchesters' quest for the holy relic.

The brothers retrieve Crowley, drag him back to their lair and force him to go cold turkey, while questioning him about what he has unearthed on the missing blade.

Their studious legwork leads them, eventually, to Cuthbert Sinclair (Kavan Smith), a rogue member of the Men Of Letters, a master sorcerer concealed from the world amidst his vast collection of magical items and supernatural critters.

However, Cuthbert isn't so much interested in parting with the First Blade as acquiring Dean - and more specifically The Mark Of Cain - to add to his collection.

Blade Runners was a good, old fashioned treasure hunt, a straight-forward story with predictable (but nonetheless enjoyable) twists and turns that allowed Mark Sheppard to have some fun with Crowley.

The episode also featured a brief cameo by a demonic Snooki aka Nicole Polizzi. Anyone still remember her given that her 15 minutes of fame dried up years ago?

This is, of course, one of the problems with this kind of quirky 'stunt casting' (even for comedic cameos) - the subject of the joke is likely long forgotten before the show they're popping up in ever is.

Especially if, like Supernatural, we're still about a year behind the States over here!

Next Time:

Jurassic World: The "Wow" Factor...

Retro Comic Book Cover Gallery...

Welcome to Riverdale - Episode Twenty-Four...

The Dead Lands...

[HOW] Props Maketh The Game...

It's almost a year since I purchased these magnificent-looking maps from a lady called Lucy (trading on eBay as standon123) but I was finally able to bring them into play during our last gaming session.

Our heroes (Cobblethwaite's Companions) were exploring an abandoned fortified manor, hunting for a missing child, when they came upon a map room. On a shelf under the main map table they found the two folded, tied and sealed parchments pictured above.

I couldn't have been happier seeing the genuine excitement on the players' faces and the reverence with which they handled the documents - as they were genuine antiques!

The fact that Lucy had personalised the maps for my campaign made them all the more special as I was able to indicate on them places that the characters actually knew (either directly or through some nugget of campaign background/history that they may have been privy to).

Meanwhile, Clare and I have been discussing the idea of her character, Marigold, working on a book about the flora of Cidri, our game world..

After our last gaming session, she emailed me a link to the Google doc she is compiling of native flowers (which includes some houserules on harvesting and using them in potions, salves etc).

This is very much a work-in-progress (every time I check back there's a bit more detail), which is impressive in its own right, but what makes it even better is that Clare is tailoring the names of the plant species to the established mythology of Cidri.

She also included a scan of a page from Marigold's notebook:

This is the sort of player buy-in/investment I've been dreaming of for years and proves to me that we're onto a winner with this campaign.

Naturally, Marigold received a bit of an experience point bump for this.

As well as looking forward to what Clare comes up with next for Cidri Botanica, I'm anticipating some unusual adventure hooks that will see her working with Holly (the group's naturalist, Erica's character) in pursuit of rare plants and herbs.

The Last Kingdom...

Rutger Hauer, Matthew Macfadyen and Jason Flemyng star in the BBC's forthcoming eight-part adaptation of Bernard 'Sharpe' Cornwell's tales of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

Thanks to Steve Blease for drawing my attention to this, which had somehow slipped under my radar.

Coming Next On Game Of Thrones...

And here are a selection of mini-features with insight into last night's episode:

D&DVD Of The Week: The Hobbit - The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014)

And so Peter Jackson's epically-padded adaptation of a 300-page children's book into three two-and-a-half hour films comes to end with a concluding chapter that is essentially (as the title suggests) one giant battle.

And, yet, oddly, I found The Battle Of The Five Armies the easiest of the trilogy to sit through, quite possibly because it was just vignette-after-vignette of a massive fantasy battle.

It still suffered from dreadful sub-plot bloat:

• Thorin's "dragon sickness" - which started off as fascinating character development - got worse and worse until he had a fever-vision and then it suddenly got better;
• Any scene with Alfrid, the right-hand man of the Master Of Laketown, was just a waste of celluloid;
• Billy Connolly's Dain was a potentially interesting - if stereotypical Scottish - dwarf to throw into the mix, but then he disappeared from the action; 
• Whatever happened to the giant wormy-things that burst out of the ground and were never seen again? 
• What was the point of showing Beorn being parachuted into the battle if we never saw him again?
• etc  etc

The opening pre-credit sequence - the death of Smaug - should have been the finale of The Desolation Of Smaug and I really could have done without Peter Jackson's obsession with Legolas and his physics-defying stunts.

Moments like this tend to bring home the fact that you're just watching what amounts to someone else playing a very expensive video game - and sometimes the graphics aren't even that good.

Thankfully the misty, blur-o-vision that was so prevalent in the trailers doesn't seep in that often in the actual movie.

As much as I enjoyed the variety of fantasy races and monsters clashing, jumping around, killing each other and so on, for me, the most interesting part came with Bilbo's return to The Shire to find all his property being auctioned off - I could have watched more of that!

The hobbits are the most unique creatures in Tolkien's work and therefore the most interesting as they don't seem to fit comfortably with the rough-and-ready rest of Middle- Earth. That's why, if you're going to pad out a story entitled The Hobbit, I feel there ought to be more about hobbits!

Much like the Star Wars prequels, I'm sure I'll come round to liking these three movies eventually, but they're never going to come close to Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, which is a shame.

You have to wonder if The Hobbit might have been better treated as a single movie or maybe two, without all the spurious padding. The book has stood the test of time without anyone feeling the need to write additional chapters and blow it out to the size of Lord Of The Rings, so perhaps there's a lesson there.

Fantastic Four: Change Is Coming...

Final Pupdate...

It's less than a week until Alice, Rachel and I em-bark (pun intended) on our sponsored walk in aid of Burrswood Hospital and Pets As Therapy.

We're just about £80 shy of our new £300 target, so if anyone would like to chip in a few shekels that would be great.

It's a 3km walk, which is a fair old distance for Alice and I, especially if it gets too hot, but we've been keeping up with the training walks. Rachel took Alice for a long walk yesterday and I took her in the week (being a little puppy, Alice doesn't need particularly long walks usually, but we're getting her used to the idea).

As I've said before we've been humbled by the generosity of donors already and if you'd like to sponsor us, please visit our JustGiving page.

Musical Monday: (From Kung Fury) True Survivor - Performed By The Hoff...

David Hasselhoff and Kung Fury director David Sandberg

[HOW] The Magic Of Hawk The Slayer...

Complementing my recent write-up of The Mindsword  and the 'staff of entanglement' from Hawk The Slayer, here are my adaptations of some of the spells cast in that incredible movie, written up for use in Heroes & Other Worlds.

FOG OF CONFUSION (T), IQ: 10, EN: 2, R: IQ

Once cast a number of glowing spheres appear in the mage's hands, which he then crumbles releasing a cloud of thick fog that moves at his command. The cloud can be as large as a 100ft cube and rolls across the ground with the speed of a normal man walking (MV: 6). All people and monsters, not allied with the mage, caught up in the fog suffer a -2 penalty to all die rolls (to hit, saves/checks, damage etc). The mage's friends, however, can see normally within this magical cloud - which lasts for one combat round per two points of IQ of the spellcaster.

WHIRLPOOL OF FLYING FIREBOLTS (T), IQ: 12, EN: 3, R: IQ

The mage creates a pillar of swirling lights that then erupt into a cone of firebolts - with a range of 5ft per IQ point of spellcaster - followed rapidly by a violent blizzard of wind and snow. The bolts will only target those the mage wishes to strike within its area of damage (a IQ x 5ft sphere from the point where the pillar erupts - up to IQ x 5ft away from the mage).

All targeted by the spell suffer 2d6 damage from the firebolts, but then the next round (and for a number of rounds after equal to half the mage's IQ), the entire area is enveloped in a violent snowstorm that causes all within the area to make all die rolls (to hit, saves, damage etc) at -2 and if anyone rolls a "15+" on a to hit roll, they must immediately make a 3/DX save or fall over.

RITUAL OF SEEKING (T), IQ: 16, EN: 6, R: see description

This is a ritual for mages who wish to "teleport" another (willing) person to a location, but wants to avoid some of the issues inherent in the normal teleportation spell (Magi Carta, pg 148).

The mage and his subject must agree a short-term purpose for the journey the subject is to be sent on and one or other of them must know the location where the subject is to be sent (see Magi Carta pg 148 for standard teleportation restrictions, range etc).

The mage sits beside an unlit fire, which the subject the spell is sitting in. The mage casts specially-prepared powder into the fireplace, which springs to life (without harming the subject of the spell) and creates a pair of glowing rings of light around the subject.

A moment later he is then transported to the agreed destination and has a number of combat rounds equal to the wizard's IQ to complete the object of his 'mission'. Once completed - or when the when the time is up - the subject (and one other willing person within 10ft of him) will be instantly transported back to the location of the mage, who may not move from beside the fire for the duration of the ritual.

If the subject was successful in his objective (ie the time limit didn't expire) and returns unhurt, he (and he alone) may, if he wishes, be dispatched on a second journey - as long as the objective is similar to the first trip. This all counts as a single ritual no matter how many jaunts the subject ends up taking.

Should the person being sent to achieve his mission be slain while on said mission, the ritual spell will be broken and the wizard who cast it will suffer 1d6 physical damage and a temporary loss of 1d6 IQ (which is regained at the rate of one point per day of total bedrest).

DVD Of The Week: Clown (2014)

When the clown hired for his child's birthday party bails, dad Kent (Andy Powers) lucks out finding an old clown costume in a house he is having restored.

He turns up, dressed as the clown, and saves the day.

Unfortunately, after the party, Kent discovers he can't get the costume off.

And from there his life goes from bad to worse as he learns the true history of the costume and realises he is transforming into something less-than-human.

My best mate Paul had alerted me to this intriguing looking film and Rachel got me the DVD for Easter, so it was only fitting that I hold off watching it until Paul came down this weekend for an evening of trashy movies.

Our opening gambit was Paul's contribution, Return To Nuke 'Em High Volume I, which turned out to be possibly the worst film we've seen together and the less said about it the better. But it meant we were looking for a quality flick to save the evening.

And Clown did the trick.

A simple Twilight Zone-style plot, interwoven with some fabricated folklore, made for a clever and engrossing horror movie.

The core conceit - of the 'cursed' costume that wouldn't come off - was easy to grasp and Kent's gradual metamorphosis into a hideous, child-eating monster was delightfully gruesome, tapping into the darker side of fairy tales (à la Grimm,but with a higher ick quotient).

Produced by Eli Roth (who also has a small cameo as Frowny The Clown), the film probably didn't need to be as long as it is (just over the standard hour-and-a-half) as this style of story is told regularly on TV in half-hour or one-hour shots.

However, Clown never slows nor feels padded, being that well directed and written by Jon Watts (sharing the scripting credit with Christopher D Ford).

It starts from a humourous premise and builds into a smart horror, getting darker and darker as it goes.

Clown faces both the claustrophobic body-horror of Kent's imprisonment in the suit and the changes wrought  upon his body as a consequence, and the atrocities Kent is driven to perform to service the needs of the folkloric curse.

Star Wars: Rebels - Season Two Trailer...

It's A Matter Of Perspective...

First Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice Trailer...

The Week In Superhero TV...

Arrow - Broken Arrow: Roy Harper has thrown himself under the bus, to take the heat for The Arrow's "crimes" and ended up in Iron Heights. Meanwhile Team Arrow are under constant surveillance by the police and there's a new metahuman in town, robbing banks.

Hailing from Central City, Jake Simmons (Doug Jones) aka Deathbolt shoots Cyclops-like beams of energy from his eyes, but when Team Arrow accept that they can't move against him, Felicity calls in Ray Palmer, who is more than willing to climb into his Atom suit of armour again.

Unfortunately for Oli, Ray treats the whole thing like a big game - repeatedly calling it a "team-up" - and ends up getting pasted by Deathbolt.

And while there was no Flash this week in the UK, we did get a cameo by Cisco, and Ray passing comment on the human-rights-violating metahuman prison under STAR Labs!

The main plot in Broken Arrow was superb, up to the show's usual high standards and featuring an unexpected murder and a wonderful bit of smoke-and-mirrors deceit, but the flashback plotline - despite having an interesting revelation involving Waller - suffered an Arrow cliché of having Oli learn the exact same lesson he learned in the main story.

This, again, suggests that events in his 'old' life unfolded in the exact same order they do in his current life... which is just ridiculous.

Next Time:

Agents Of SHIELD - Love In The Time Of Hydra: Coulson and his team are still reeling from a shocking revelation that leaves the team fractured as they must decide what to do with one of their own. Meanwhile, Bobbi and Mack reveal their true allegiance to Hunter, while elsewhere, Ward and Agent 33 embark on a personal mission.

Daredevil: You can find links to all my reviews of the individual episodes of this impressive show here, which earned itself an impressive Enjoyment Ratings Average (or ERA... little nod to baseball statistics there) of 4.77 (out of five). This is my very unscientific guide to the overall quality of the season. For comparison the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. score 4.295, season eight of Supernatural a 4.04 and the last season of Merlin a 4.12

If you haven't seen the show yet here's a taste of how awesome it is in a Raid-meets-Taxi Driver hall fight sequence:

And here's a mini behind-the-scenes feature:

Here's a review video by the wonderful Amy Dallen:

Gotham - The Blind Fortune Teller: This was a new low for Gotham. To be honest if I didn't have a geek investment in seeing how the show progresses, develops and celebrates the comic book characters I love, this is the episode that would have stopped me watching.

Riddled with stupid, lazy writing, the few decent moments were soon forgotten in the torrent of nonsense that was mistaken for a good idea here.

While Fish Mooney is off in her own bubble universe of captive organ donors and Penguin is running his club into the ground by showcasing his own 'unique' musical preferences, an 11-year-old boy is addressing the board of a multi-national company... and this is considered okay.

Sure, it was Bruce's father's company, but why haven't the board sought legal measures to block a CHILD from trying to tell them how to tun their company (I know they're the baddies and he's going to be the freakin' Batman... but, at the moment, he is just a snot-nosed little kid)?

Then we had Gordon solving a  murder at a circus (where Dick Grayson's future parents were on opposite sides of a three-generational family feud over a stolen horse, all very Romeo & Juliet) by seemingly plucking a resolution out of the air, from a mere handful of clues.

And to round it all off, there was the heavy-handed attempt to shoehorn in a possible origin story for The Joker.

If ever there was a villain that didn't need an origin story, didn't need demystifying, it's The Joker. Part of what makes him so terrifying is the complete absence of a backstory. Once you have backstory you can start to understand a character - and The Joker is so frightening because he is beyond understanding.

If the Gotham team do decide to run with Jerome (Cameron Monaghan) as The Joker (which was very pointedly suggested by his warped smile and manic laugh) then they've cut off the major Batman antagonist at the knees.

Not that they really should be thinking of introducing The Joker anyway as his origin is intimately intertwined with Batman's.

But then, this is Gotham, not the Batman comics. Heck, we may never even have a Batman in this Gotham!

Craig Oxbrow nailed it when he wrote, this week, that of the Batman-like shows currently on TV, Gotham isn't even in the top three.

Next Time:

Daredevil: Daredevil

I've spoken before about this being an amazing time to be a geek, especially a comic book reading one who loves his TV and films.

And it's shows like Daredevil that make that truth all the more sweeter.

I'm nearly 50 years old, but I couldn't contain my inner child - whose been reading comics seriously since he was a teenager - from nearly exploding when Matt got to suit up in his red costume, complete with collapsible billy club, for his final boss fight of the season.

From the moment he took down one of Fisk's goons with a ricochet shot with the club, I knew this was going to be something special.

And 14-year-old me was sitting right beside 48-year-old me on the sofa jumping up and down and cheering Daredevil on.

With Gao - and her drugs - gone, Fisk's empire was crumbling, accelerated by the discovery that Leland had been stealing from him as well.

However, Owlsley thought he had protection - a trump card that would keep Fisk from going after him. He was wrong.

When Matt learned of Leland's 'security measure' - a corrupt cop who could name names - he made sure he got him to the FBI before Fisk's men can put a bullet in him.

However, just when it looked as though Fisk was going down, he still had a trick up his sleeve.

When the show began I wasn't sure about Vincent D'Onofrio's take on Wilson Fisk, he felt a bit hesitant, but as the show progressed I came to appreciate that this show isn't just the origin story of Daredevil, but also the Kingpin.

Daredevil was the grand finale we'd been looking forward to, wrapping up the overarching story we'd been following for these 13 episodes, but leaving enough character threads and hooks that can be tackled in the other Hell's Kitchen serials coming from Marvel/Netflix or left for this show's well-deserved second season.

This show was both quintessentially Marvel (especially in its stylistic homages to Frank Miller's legendary remaking of the character) and totally unique, standing apart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe we already know with its grittier, more brutal tone, and yet still most certainly part of it.

Television doesn't get much better than this for comic book superhero fans. Everything worked for Daredevil, from the high caliber of the writing, the plot flow, the shifts in episode make-up to tell the story from different angles, and the slick but visceral fight scenes to the costume, the Easter Eggs (I see Melvin was sketching out parts of his Gladiator costume) and the steady, confident direction.

My optimism for the AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist shows, and The Defenders mini-series, has now gone through the roof thanks to the incredible work put into this first show in Marvel's new venture into television.

I don't want to use Daredevil to knock Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which I'm still very fond of), , because the latter show has to work on network teleivision.

But perhaps tighter storytelling in the first season, condensing everything down to 13 episodes (as with Daredevil), might have made it more appealing to the general viewing public... as well as us very overexcited geeks!

Bill The Galactic Hero...

BILL THE GALACTIC HERO from Alex Cox on Vimeo.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Love In The Time Of Hydra

While last week's 'supervillain team-up' was underwhelming, to say the least, this week's introduction of a second iteration of S.H.I.E.L.D. bordered on the baffling.

And despite the return of Agents Ward and 33 and their infiltration of Brigadier General Glenn Talbot's army base (to liberate Sunil Bakshi), as well as Hunter's escape from the new S.H.I.E.L.D., Love In The Time Of Hydra highlighted a major issue with the show - almost a backslide to some of the weaker episodes of the first season - in that really very little happened.

Sure a lot was said and people moved around a lot, but, honestly, the story here could have been handled in half the time.

As much as I love all the spy-fi stuff and the sneaking around, at the end of the day this is a Marvel show and Marvel means action when it comes to live-action.

For instance, all this agonising over whether Skye can handle her powers is getting rather tedious already. That sub-plot should have been over in a couple of episodes, so the show could move on.

Comparing recent episodes to the incredible run at the end of the first season - where Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. tied directly into the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier - this almost feels like its floundering because it has no big film to sync itself to.

Maybe, once Coulson and co are aware of this second S.H.I.E.L.D. things will pick up again, but at the moment, despite its best efforts, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing itself no favours by pussyfooting around.

That said, it was great to see the legendary Edward James Olmos (who makes everything better) as Robert Gonzales heading up the alternate S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside Fringe's Kirk Acevedo as Agent Calderon.

And I do get that they have concerns about Coulson's "alien tech" obsession et al, but there are still a lot of questions about this super secret organisation (that still manages to have a fleet of planes at its beck and call and more agents than Coulson).

Thankfully, Coulson and May are getting suspicious of Mack, so hopefully now it won't be long before S.H.I.E.L.D. meets S.H.I.E.L.D. and we get some answers.

Next Time:

Fleamarket Friday: Getting Classic & Savage On The Streets Of Lankhmar...

Although the person who introduced me to fantasy roleplaying games - particularly Dungeons & Dragons - in the late '70s did so through the gateway drug of the works of JRR Tolkien, my personal influences were always more Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Gerin The Fox and a lot of TV and movies (big up for Hawk The Slayer, of course).

So imagine my delight recently when I discovered not one but two RPG companies releasing Lankhmar titles - Pinnacle, with Lankhmar: City Of Thieves for Savage Worlds, and Goodman Games, with Through Ningauble’s Cave, the first of its Lankhmar adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

The Savage Worlds supplement is now available for pre-order from the Pinnacle Web Store.

It is described as "the core setting book for Fritz Leiber’s world of swords & sorcery. It contains details on the world of Nehwon and the city of Lankhmar, Setting Rules, Savage Tales, monsters and foes, and recounts the tales of world’s most notorious scoundrels – including Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, and their sorcerous sponsors".

Also available from Pinnacle is a double-sided poster map: one side showing Lankhmar and the other Nehwon.

The Dungeon Crawl Classics module is being promoted as the first step towards a "a large boxed set".

Through Ningauble’s Cave is a sourcebook providing "DCC RPG judges with all the information needed to journey to the world of Nehwon, home to Lankhmar, the fabled City of the Black Toga... It includes rules for using [Ningauble of the Seven Eyes] as a patron, as well as information on his fantastic cave that touches multiple worlds. With the material in this book, your players can journey to Nehwon…or have Nehwon come to your campaign world!"