This is the first of three (possibly four) recap videos from San Diego Comic-Con International 2016 from my trip this year. As it is my eighth year going as a part of The Flickcast, it has been an honor covering the convention in a variety of ways such as photo galleries, interviews, visual tours and unboxings. This year will be no different. Later this week, our Comic Con shopping haul video will release followed by our Field Trip video where we take you down to the Con floor and even some of the VIP parties.

Our first video kicks off with the Loot Crate Gallery of Heroes Convention Exclusive Crate. Founders of the monthly geek in a box phenomenon, Loot Crate has maintained the top spot in the subscription box community.

Howdy. How you doin’? That’s right, it’s an all-new episode of The Flickcast. On time this week. Who thought it was possible? Well, we did, that’s who. And yes, we’re gonna try to keep on track. We’ll see how that goes.

On this week’s show Chris and Joe discuss all sorts of new and recurring topics, as you would expect. Some of these include the new Ant-Man movie, changes to The Flash for the second season, more about Mr. Robot (the show you should be watching) and its potential ties to Fight Club, Buffy vs. Angel, Chris Pratt’s greed, the potential reboot of Xena: Warrior Princess and a whole lot more, more, more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the amazing Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Joe’s pick of the delicious 2015 Stone Farking Wheaton Wootstout beer.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

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There’s no doubt Joss Whedon has had a profound impact on the geek landscape. One of his first TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, proved genre programming could be a hit with audiences and spawned a cult following that endures to this day, even thought the show itself went off the air in 2003.

Fortunately, the adventures of Buffy and company have continued, at least in the pages of comics. Dark Horse took up the challenge and released Buffy Season 8 starting in 2008. Now, they’re about to release Season 10.

Of course, we’ve got previews. Here’s more about the season:

New season. New rules. The age-old battle of Slayer vs. vampire is the focus of Buffy’s life once again—it’s downright nostalgic! But with all the toying with magic she’s done lately, this girl should know it’s time for another game change . . . Shouldn’t she?

Look for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10, written by Christos Gage with art by Rebekah Isaacs, to arrive in stores on March 19. Check out the preview after the break.

In September of 2005, both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had finished their runs while Smallville was about to kick off their fifth season. As for me, I had a very busy 5 year-old (hey kiddo; daddy loves you) and another on the way, and my wife and I were looking for a bigger house.

Needless to say, when I started seeing promos for Supernatural – The WB’s latest genre-infused drama – I decided to take a pass as time had become a precious commodity. Almost a decade later I set out to rectify that slight…

Basic premise of the show is simple: John Winchester (played by George Clooney-lite, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) witnesses his wife Mary (Samantha Smith) murdered by a demon. Years later, his sons Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) reunite to track down dear old dad and kill whatever goes bump in the night along the way.

This set up allows for the “freak of the week” template that Smallville had used for most of their seasons, and it works well within the realm of the spooky. Another aspect that clicked in that first season were the genuine scares, of which there are plenty of. The amount of times I jumped could almost be categorized as a work out.

Writer Steven S. DeKnight has got more than enough geek cred to bring any doubtful idea to a new level of excellence even when most other writers would choke under the pressure.

The man has worked with Joss Whedon in the Buffyverse and Angelverse, taken on young Superman in Smallville, and now he’s getting his blood and iron on with Spartacus.

Season 2 is starting up soon and Steven gives us some insight on how exactly they can pick up after the epic season 1 finale, and how difficult it was switching from Andy Whitfield to new star Liam McIntyre.

Another thing DeKnight touched on was a franchise he has yet to work with The Flash. He once proposed a series to WB in which we follow a young Flash in high school, and now Steven thinks this is a perfect time to get the project off the ground.

See what he had to say and more after the jump.

Yes, there’s bound to be several barbarian-like hordes of Twilight fans (that is, if there were a tribe of sickly-looking, sparkle-ridden barbarians…maybe those wimpy Phoenicians) at this year’s Comic Con, but those of us who prefer vampires of Buffy-slaying variety will be pleased to know that Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s newest project A Cabin in the Woods now has a U.S. release date: April 13th, 2012. Need I mention that’s a Friday? OOooOOoooOOo!

Aside from Whedon producing and co-writing with frequent collaborator and Cloverfield and Buffy writer Drew Goddard (who’s also directing), Cabin stars Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth as a young professional who, with a group of friends, visits a rustic cabin in the woods (makes sense) “and ends up scratching the surface of something so massive and horrific that they can only begin to fathom it as time quickly runs out.” My guess is that it’s a busted septic line.

The film also stars Richard Jenkins (Let Me In), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Kristen Connolly (The Happening), Brian J. White (Stomp the Yard), Amy Acker (Angel), Fran Kranz (Donnie Darko), and Jesse Williams (Brooklyn’s Finest). Not much else has been said about the film, but with such names behind it, we can expect some genre-bending badassery (septic tank or not). Whedon himself has described it as, “The horror movie to end all horror movies,” though he may be slightly biased.

Congrats to all those who have made it past Comic-Con’s endless Hall H lines, sat through countless hours of the studio’s pleading with you to buy movie tickets, and made it back home in one, tired piece. What awaits you is a month filled with the studio’s last line of blockbuster attack ads until the holiday season.

Fear not, as the lines will be vastly shorter than the wait for Eclipse. Instead of emos and soccer moms in “Team Edward” T-shirts, you’ll find yourself beside teenage boys who watch Rocky V on their Evos while waiting for The Expendables.

Curiously, the generals of Universal and Lionsgate both decided to fire missiles into the 13-30 years old guys camp. With the troops dispersing, you should be able to deftly maneuver yourself to the safety of a comfy recliner at the multiplex.

My advice, do like Julia Roberts and Eat some buttery popcorn, Pray for a film worth the ticket price, and Love the below reviews. Let’s check out what’s in store for us in August.

Julie Benz appears to have gone from victim to hero in one fell swoop. After leaving behind Rita Morgan after four seasons on Dexter, the actress is primed to portray Stephanie Powell on ABC’s upcoming family show, No Ordinary Family.  No longer the dead body in the bathtub, Powell is a busy professional scientist and researcher who develops super speed following a crash landing in the Amazon on a trip with her family. After deciding to move on from Dexter, Renz related that she was looking for a new challenge and the character of Stephanie was just what she was looking for.

“When pilot season started, my quest was to find a character that was strong female character, a character that is more active than Rita. I was getting offered a lot of parts that were similar to her and I was turning them down because I wanted to find something that was different.”

While there might be the temptation to compare Rita with Stephanie, Benz insists that she didn’t pull inspiration from portraying a mother on a previous show. For one thing, the personalities are incredibly different.

“I think they’re both mothers, but other than that, there’s really no commonality. Rita was not career driven at all, she was very dependent, very damaged with a lot of  vulnerabilities, very emotional. Stephanie’s very controlled, a Type A personality, goal oriented and has a hard time interacting with her own family.”

In case you’re not familiar with the story of actor Steven Baldwin. He’s had a long career, was pretty popular and did some decent movies, including The Usual Suspects. But now, according to reports, he’s broke and needs money.

So, what do celebrities do when they’re broke and need money? They turn to the Internets of course. Although, according to the site established by a Christian ministry for Baldwin he didn’t commission them to put it together, they are just doing it to help out the actor.

What does all this have to do with Joss Whedon and his ass-kicking chicks? Glad you asked. Watch the video after the jump and all will be revealed in a pretty hilarious way.

Enjoy and don’t say we never gave you anything good.

It seems the prayers of geeks everywhere are going to be answered as Joss Whedon is reportedly in final negotiations to direct The Avengers movie for Marvel Studios. This comes after rumors have been circulating for weeks that the Buffy, Firefly and Dollhouse creator was on the short list of possible helmers that would take on the project.

Marvel’s Avengers is to be a massive superhero team-up film featuring characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Nick Fury and many others all assembling to fight bad guys and rally to save the world. Needless to say this film will be a huge undertaking for all involved and a giant, expensive release for Marvel.

I have to say that this news is still somewhat surprising given Whedon’s track record. His shows (Dollhouse, Firefly) get canceled by the networks, his one decent-sized feature film, Serenity, performed modestly at the box office and he seems to have a tendency to get kicked around a bit by “the powers that be” in Hollywood — which, of course, is one of the reasons fan’s love him. However, he is a tremendously talented writer, of that there is no doubt. Plus, he can direct.

It just seems like a very large and important project for a studio to take a chance on someone that’s never done a very large project before. Hollywood is not known for taking chances. They definitely prefer as much of a sure thing as they can get. And make no mistake, if Whedon is getting this job, somebody is taking a chance.

That said, I firmly believe he can do it and do it extremely well. He’s a smart, talented and thoughtful man. Plus, I’m just pretty damn psyched for the idea. I’m just still sorta amazed its actually happening. Maybe some of those “powers that be” in Hollywood are not as lame as I thought?

How about you guys? Do you think Joss Whedon is the right man to direct The Avengers? Assemble and sound off in the comments.