Not many comic books improve with their second issue. Generally, writers and artists put everything they got into the first. First issues want to catch the readers with their debut so that they stay around. Most of the time the second issue of a comic book series is all setup. It’s usually the quiet reprieve from the action before the build-up to the climax that is still a couple issues to come. Atomic Robo is not like that at all. In fact, Atomic Robo: The Ghost of Station X #2 is better than the first issue!

In my review of the first issue, I was very positive of the entire series of Atomic Robo, and for good reason. Atomic Robo is rarely a book that you can predict. Generally, it fires at all cylinders at all times, throwing jokes, action scenes, and crazy science concepts at you that make you re-read pages over and over. That’s exactly what this second issue does.

Atomic Robo: The Ghost of Station X #2 begins right where the first issue left off. Robo just got a face full of explosion, he’s unconscious, and he’s beginning to fall to the Earth. Hats off to the writer and artist team of Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener for crafting one of the most exciting comic sequences I have seen in a long time. The pacing of Robo’s fall through the atmosphere is pure brilliance.

Continue Reading →

Even though most of us who upgrades to Apple’s new iPhone 4S are loving our new devices, according to reports there’s a potential threat to our happiness lurking just under the surface. Now, before you get too worried, this “threat” requires a specific set of circumstances most users will never encounter.

However, if  you happen to leave your iPhone 4S in a cab, for example, the person who finds it can potentially access your address book, appointments and more by using Siri, even if your iPhone 4S is locked with a passcode. That’s right, even if it’s locked.

However, all is not lost and there’s a simple fix for this issue. To prevent someone from accessing Siri and your info while the iPhone 4S is locked, simply go to Settings> General> Passcode Lock. Once there toggle the option for “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” to Off.

The iPhone 4S will now require the the phone to be unlocked before it allows access to Siri. There, problem solved.

Don’t you wish all problems could be solved this easily?

If you’re like us (and we know you are) it’s pretty unlikely you thought the first Ghost Rider movie was any good. To be honest, we thought it kinda sucked.

However, that hasn’t stopped Nic Cage and company from trying to make another one. In fact, judging from the clip we have for you today from the movie (which was shown at last night’s Scream Awards) they succeeded.

Of course, the burning question is did they just succeeded in making another movie or did this one actually turn out to be good? We’ve already seen the first trailer for the film which, reluctantly, we think made it look potentially ok.

This new clip shows Cage as Johnny Blaze and his brand new bike which, due to his hellified condition, gets turned into a flaming bike from hell. Yeah, that’s kinda cool.

Take a look after the jump and let us know what you think. See Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in theaters on February 17th, 2012.

Continue Reading →

What is the one thing that has been missing from both the recent Transformers game reboot with War for Cybertron and the Michael Bay film franchise? Ponder that for a moment.

Last summer kicked off with Transformers: War for Cybertron, a return to the much heralded Transformers original G1 continuity. And we all know that for purists of a series, continuity is everything. Players got to take on the roles of both the Autobots and Decepticons as their civil war ripped all of Cybertron apart. The rise of Optimus Prime and the decent of Starscream were both key story elements as well as the Autobots being brought down to their weakest moments before the story ended in somewhat of a cliffhanger of the fate of the world.

This summer, High Moon Studios had to step back from the series and put out the Transformers: Dark of the Moon tie-in game, which while good for movie game standards, it was no War for Cybertron. Thankfully, the folks at Activision and High Moon Studios have heard the cry of Transformer fanboys world wide and are continuing with the story we have been hungering for over the past year.

At New York Comic Con, Activision released the first trailer for the game with only this statement:

Continue Reading →

In typical fashion for DC Entertainment and Warner Home Video, just as we get a brand new release, which in this case was Batman: Year One, we are already getting excited for the next animated project, Justice League: Doom.

The story comes from the Justice League story titled Tower of Babel in which one of Batman’s many “contingency plans” ends up putting the League, and the world, in imminent danger. If the story isn’t enough to excite you, the cast will surely put you over the edge.

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Tim Daly (Private Practice), the reigning voices of Green Lantern and Superman, respectively, join a group of eight actors reprising their famed cartoon roles, including Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter.

With the team of Timm, Romano, and Montgomery behind the scenes, using the final script from the late Dwayne McDuffie, this JL story is sure to be one of the best that WB Home Video has put out. Take a look at the trailer after the jump and grab the DVD and Blu-Ray early next year.

Continue Reading →

At New York Comic Con, we were able to get a booth tour from Capcom which got us some hands on time with three of their much anticipated titles. The first of which was the upcoming rerelease of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Back at Comic Con in San Diego, after announcing the first set of new characters being added to the game, there was a massive leak which revealed the full roster. Now, Capcom has gone official with all but a few of these characters and had them available for us to play as at the Con.

We demoed the game on a traditional controller for the XBox 360. As there was an all day tournament going on, the wait for even press to play using the fight sticks was outrageous and considering most households would use a regular controller anyway, we felt like this would give us a good idea of what to expect from the game. Focusing our teams on the newer characters, we had to learn on the fly just what kind of play styles to use with them.

Vergil was the most reminiscent of Dante from the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3 focusing on using his sword for a majority of his attacks. Firebrand from Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins ended up being surprisingly fun to play with as we didn’t really have any idea what to expect from him. Nova and Ghost Rider felt like the badasses we expected them to be but sadly Rocket Raccoon was not an option for us yet.

The most surprisingly fun character was Phoenix Wright. The best character comparison we could make was him being like Dan from Street Fighter. His attacks may look horribly wimpy as he throws paperwork at opponents but he is perfect for luring opponents into a false sense of security.

Continue Reading →

Last year, Beenox took a drastic departure from the Spider-Man video game experience by not only taking the open world sandbox enviroment out of play, but also for the first time creating a game that had multiple Spider-Men at the player’s fingertips with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

This year’s iteration of the Spider-Man franchise brings a different experience as well. While the Spider-Men in Shattered Dimensions all shared a common goal, their actions were independent of each other.

Now, in Spider-Man: Edge of Time both Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 must work together to save the past as well as the future from a mad scientist who has interfered with the time stream by causing the death of Spider-Man.

Gameplay:

Much like the previous Spider-Man title, Spider-Man: Edge of Time focuses on contained levels instead of a free roaming city. The story is kept fairly on rails with little room for full exploration, though there are hidden collectibles that can be used to upgrade the powers of both Spider-Man and his 2099 counterpart throughout the game. As a result, the focus on much of the game revolves around combat.

Continue Reading →

Even with all the hype and attention Apple gets for its product launches (yes, we love the iPhone 4S and iOS 5), we can’t forget the other smartphones out there. In fact, one of the most popular “other” operating systems, besides Apple’s iOS, powering some of the most innovative smartphones is, of course, Google’s Android platform.

Now Google has taken the wraps of of its brand new version of Android, known as Android 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich” during a press event in Hong Kong yesterday. The software was revealed next to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone we’re looking forward to checking out.

Android 4.0 combines many of the tablet features already available in Android 3.x (Honeycomb) with the smartphone features available in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It will power both tablets and smartphones, and it offers several enhancements.

Some of these include the ability to unlock an Ice Cream Sandwich device using face recognition. Android 4.0 also has a new cleaner “Roboto” typeface and an extensive UI makeover.

The lock screen in Android 4.0 can be used to quickly unlock the phone or launch the camera, and users can also access notifications directly. “Back,” “Home” and “Menu” are now part of the Android virtual user interface and hardware buttons are no longer needed.

We could go on about the new OS but instead, we’ve gonna let Google’s own video tell the story. Click through for it after the break.

Continue Reading →

Adult Swim has been on an absolute tangent with their slew of live-action parody series. It all started with Rob Corddry’s webseries Childrens Hospital which is now going into its fourth season on the network, then Chris Elliot took off in a Walker, Texas Ranger spoof titled Eagleheart. Their latest venture into the third dimension of funny has been in Paul Scheer’s NTSF:SD:SUV::, which just got picked up for a second season.

Now, the network is hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of the creepy horror shows that are shrouded in mystery but as original as bad soap operas. That’s where The Heart, She Holler comes in. Here’s the rundown.

The Heart, She Holler is a new live-action series starring Patton Oswalt, Kristen Schaal and Heather Lawless. Boss Hoss Heartshe owns 98.5% of Heartshe Holler and keeps the other 1.5% in a hidey hole.  Upon his death, the hole is opened to reveal a secret son, Hurlan. Watch as his blood grubbing heirs Hurshe, the coquettish daughter closest to Hoss’ heart and nether regions and Hambrosia, Hoss’ other only child with a fearsome ability to scorch eyeballs with her mental powers, wrestle for every sort of supremacy that power provides. Their miseries and mysteries collide in this first-ever Adult Swim six night miniseries event.

While Adult Swim may not be completely backing the idea with a full episode order, they are giving it a 6 episode miniseries run that will air every night starting on Sunday, November 6th at 12:30am and go through Friday, November 11th. Check out a preview of the series after the jump to see what awesomely random and horrifying stuff you’re in store for.

Continue Reading →

As always, one of our favorite parts of any convention is the sights and NYCC was full of them this year so we had to share them with the Flickcast audience. The level of dedication by the men and women who attend the con every year is staggering.

Some are picture perfect renditions that rival movie quality costumes like the Anakin Skywalker we saw wandering the floor. Others come from careful collection of legitimate television costumes and props like the classic Power Rangers Green Ranger. Still others take their own imagination and run wild with custom Mandalorian battle armor for both human and giant chicken alike to life sized Castle Crashers.

One of the things this gallery sadly doesn’t do justice is give an idea on just how huge NYCC was this year. Though it is yet to overtake the surrounding neighborhood like SDCC does, the New York Comic Con feels every bit as big and as important as its west coast counterpart.

The entire Javitts Center was filled with every major comic company to movie studios and video game publishers in every corner. This year the Flickcast was only able to spend a day on the Con floor but if things keep looking up for NYCC, we may have to tackle this show the same way we do San Diego Comic Con or E3.

Take a look below to get just a glimpse of the many sights at this year’s convention. See you next year New York!

Continue Reading →

Everyone knows that Wednesday is new comic book day. While picking up your new issues consider looking at some of the trade paperbacks and hard covers of past issues and story lines. But which ones should you choose?

That’s why every Tuesday, The Flickcast will recommend a collection of comics that are just as good, if not better, than the issues you are currently buying. Books that deserve to be read, and bought the next time you walk into your local comic book store.

“When I was a kid growing up, I never could decide what I wanted to be when I grew up.”  - Green Lantern #75

Some heroes are born, and others are made.

In the mid-90s, Green Lantern wasn’t selling well. So DC Comics did the unthinkable, they created a storyline where Hal Jordan went crazy, became a super villain named Parallax, and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. While that story line was pretty bad, the issues that followed were pure gold.

We were introduced to Hal’s replacement, Kyle Rayner, a twenty-something graphic artist who couldn’t hold a steady job, and flirted with all the ladies, a screw-up. Kyle received his ring not because of his ability to overcome fear, but because he was in the right place at the right time. Kyle was more creative with his ring than any other Green Lantern because of his artistic mind. The only trouble was with no Green Lantern Corp around anymore, Kyle had no training. Here was Kyle Rayner, a screw up, in possession of the most powerful weapon in the universe, and he has no idea what to do with it.

Continue Reading →

Did any of you own a Motorola RAZR? I’m sure you did. Back in 2005 it was the coolest phone to own.

It was skinny. It was light. It had cool glowy blue buttons. It was on all the carriers. It was the phone to have. At least if you were a tech-crazed high schooler, like myself back then.

It seems that Motorola may not have done it again with the newest addition to the RAZR, but the new Motorola Droid RAZR, as it’s being dubbed, is still a really neat phone.

Sporting 4G, a 1.2 GhZ dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fiber, and at only 7.1mm thick, the Droid RAZR is now the thinnest 4G phone on Verizon. And because of the kevlar, the phone will be protected against spills and other nasty accidents.

You know what else is made of kevlar? The Batsuit. I’m officially calling this one the Batphone. This thing is cool.

The phone will also be compatible with the rest of Motorola’s line of devices, including the Moto Webtop and the brand new MOTOACTIV, a pretty nifty fitness watch that was also announced today. Only downside to this phone seems to be that it’s running Gingerbread, and not the upcoming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motorola’s announcement comes just hours before Samsung announces their newest version of their Nexus line, which will be exclusive to Verizon AND will have Ice Cream Sandwich. So the Motorola Droid RAZR certainly has some competition.

You’ll be able to pick up your very own Batphone, I mean Motorola Droid RAZR, in early November exclusively for Verizon Wireless.