It’s that time again, folks. That’s right, a brand new episode of The Flickcast is here and it’s yours for the taking. For free.

That’s right, free. As in free beer. And really, who doesn’t love free beer? Nobody, that’s who. Yeah, we’ve used that example before, but so what? It still works. Anyway. . .

Moving right along, Chris and Joe are back and ready to rock and roll with a whole slew of new and recurring topics. Some of these topics include the change in release date of Superman vs. Batman, Star Wars VII script news, Elementary, the return of Sherlock, fanboys and haters, the true meaning of life and a whole lot more.

No, not really. We just slipped that “true meaning of life” one in to see if you were paying attention.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the novel Pandemic by Scott Sigler and Joe’s pick of the audio version of the novel Redshirts by John Scalzi and read by Wil Wheaton.

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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This week on The Flickcast , Chris and Joe are back at the same Bat-time and the same Bat-channel to talk all-thing Superman/Batman. That’s right, a big casting announcement has come down from the Warner Bros. tower and it’s one that’s sure to spark controversy.

We won’t keep you in suspense: the actor chosen to play Batman in Zack Snyder’s Superman/Batman is none other than Ben Affleck.

Of course, Chris and Joe debate and discuss this one quite a bit, but their final conclusions and opinions just may surprise you. They also discuss J.J. Abrams Star Wars and a whole lot more stuff that you’ll just have to tune in to find out.

This weeks picks include Joe’s pick of the great works of Elmore Leonard, who sadly passed away this week. They include TV’s Justified and the novels Get Shorty and Outta Sight. Chris’ pick this week is the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film The Conversation.

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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I went for the tacky pun. I had to. Chris doesn’t let me put enough puns on the Flickcast. And it’s Zatanna. You really can’t expect me to post a story about her in any way shape or form and not mess with it at LEAST a little bit. So now that I have gotten that out of my system, let’s get down to business: Zatanna is coming to Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Though appearing in a number of comics such as Hawkman, Batman, Green Lantern and The Atom alongside the title heroes starting in 1964, it was more than a decade later before she was offered membership into the Justice League. The crux of her early appearances revolved around the search for her father, magician Giovanni Zatara. Unlike most magicians though, Zatanna actually possesses legitimate magical ability because of her mother Sindella, who is Homo magi. Staying true to her father’s profession, Zatanna’s costume resembles that of a Playboy bunny combined with a magician’s tux (though the New 52 version only wears that costume on stage).

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Like we originally said, the Martian Manhunter made his way to the cast of Injustice: Gods Among Us yesterday in the form of DLC. The first character not released as a part of the Season Pass, J’onn J’onzz as he is also known was released for 400 Microsoft Points over XBox Live and $4.99 on the PlayStation Network.

For the most part though, not many people know the full story behind the Martian Manhunter or even just how much power he holds. Luckily, Netherrealm studio has released a quick video to help bring people up to speed on those very important details of the Martian Manhunter that you chan check out below.

As it is discussed in the short, the Martian Manhunter has not only the strength and speed to go toe to toe with Superman but also owns a host of other unique powers that make him even more of a wildcard in battle. The ability to phase, turn invisible and shapeshift coupled with his abilities to read and even rewrite memories puts the Martian Manhunter in to a class of his own as a total wildcard in a fight.

When someone can attack you in so many different ways, how is someone able to prepare a defense against it? That is going to be the challenge for all Injustice: Gods Among Us players as the Martian Manhunter enters the fray for the first time in his new DLC pack.

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Back when NetherRealm gave us the Scorpion reveal trailer as the third piece of DLC for Injustice: Gods Among Us, they also teased Martian Manhunter at the end.

But, as all Injustice players know, they instead got Zod which just so happened to time out around the same time as the Man of Steel feature film release. Luckily, that tease ended up being true as the Martian Manhunter is still joining the likes of Lobo, Batgirl, Scorpion and General Zod as a member of Injustice: Gods Among Us’ DLC roster. Sadly though, because he is the fifth piece of character DLC, Martian Manhunter won’t be a part of the season pass.

For those who aren’t familiar with J’onn J’onzz, he has been around since the fifties and has played a variety of roles in the DC Universe. Currently, the Martian Manhunter is the top dog in the Justice League of America book from the New 52 as the corollary to Superman. With strength, speed, senses, intelligence, endurance, shapeshifting, invisibility and intangibility to name just part of his power set, the Martian Manhunter could very well be one of the strongest characters in DC’s lineup.

Considering the level of exposure through both the comics and animated series and his overall power, it makes sense that Martian Manhunter would be in that roster, especially more so than a character like Killer Frost. (To this day, I still haven’t figured out why Killer Frost is in that game, especially as her main adversary Firestorm is not.)

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Superman. Michelangelo. Kobe Bryant. Where could you possibly see them all in the same movie? Well since the title of the article already spoiled it for you, I don’t have to leave you in suspense before revealing The LEGO Movie as the answer. Chris Pratt will lead an ensemble cast including Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, an old mystic, and Liam Neeson taking the role as Bad Cop. As you’ll see in the teaser below, The LEGO Movie is far from your typical film.

In a world where continuity barely exists, tons of LEGO licenses are brought together in what may be considered an ultimate mashup style movie. Similar to the vein of Toy Story where the setting explains why this variety of characters would be together, The LEGO Movie has Pratt’s character Emmet who mistakenly finds his way into a fellowship of Master Builders including Freeman’s Vitruvius, Batman, Superman and the like.

They will be taking on Neeson and Will Farrell (who upgraded from President to Lord Business) in this CG movie. Interestingly enough, the movie is presented in a stop motion fashion even though it is obviously CG. Even more interesting is that there are collections of YouTube creators out there making actually stop motion that looks smoother than that of the trailer.

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Whatever happened to The Man of Tomorrow? In the late ’70s, when Richard Donner and Mario Puzo were making their Superman movie, they realized that the lead character, when in costume, lacked a personality. He’s tough, he’s fast, he can fly, and those abilities define him. It may be impressive as spectacle, but it’s a hard lead for an audience to connect with, and so they chose to focus on Clark Kent — in short and in a bad pun, theirs was a classic because it was more Man than Super. Now, with Man of Steel, Snyder, and his writers David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, do precisely the opposite.

The film opens with the usual prologue, though seeming far more extended here, on Krypton. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) is arguing with the planet’s elders about mining the core of their world — he warns them that the planet has only weeks left before it implodes, and as soon as he’s dismissed, General Zod (Michael Shannon) appears and starts blowing the elder’s palace up. Jor-El escapes to his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer), who has just given birth to their son, Kal-El, Knowing the planet is doomed, they place him in a shuttle and shoot him off to earth, but not before Jor implants a whatsit codex into the ship.

Zod attempts to intercept the shuttle, killing Jor-El in the process, but is overpowered, tried, and sentenced to the Phantom Zone, a kind of black-hole prison. Krypton implodes, and Kal makes his way to earth, specifically to the Kansas farm of Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane), who adopt the boy and impart to him the lessons of compassion and anonymity. I will say that it’s clever of Goyer and Nolan to handle Kal-El’s childhood in flashback, lest we sit through another hour or so of an origin story whose end we already know.

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It’s getting harder and harder to contain our enthusiasm for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel. We’re really expecting it to be something awesome.

Well, most of us are anyway. Still, even with Wally’s apparent lack of enthusiasm, we can still bring you the latest trailer from the movie, an exclusive one from the folks at Nokia.

Yeah, that means some Nokia advertisign and probably Supes using a Nokia phone in the movie. He also goes to Burger King apparently. Whatev.

Anyway, Check out the trailer after the break. Look for Man of Steel to arrive in theaters next week.

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Take a look at the roster of Injustice: Gods Among Us and tell me, who do you think is missing? The Season Pass has already brought us Lobo and Batgirl but there are still so many of DC’s top tier talent or at least upper B-level stars yet to appear in the game. Scarecrow. Mera. Firestorm (who is conceivably the only reason Killer Frost is in the game). Deadshot. Guy Gardner. The Black Hand. Hell, even Ambush Bug. So who is the third character revealed in the Season Pass for Injustice: Gods Among Us?

That’s right. Scorpion. Yup, the fighting game that won’t let you perform fatalities was just begging for Mortal Kombat to make its way into its ranks. Now, I won’t be completely cynical about it. There is an awesome new redesign to Scorpion done by Jim Lee in the game (so we know what he would have looked like if he had been a Marvel mutant during the Claremont run of X-Men).

This is also a character who MK fans will instantly be familiar with his moveset allowing for a much slower learning curve to the character since his gameplay isn’t almost entirely new like most of the rest of the cast. You can check out his full trailer below.

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Summer is a great time for movies, especially if you’re a geek. With Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness already in theaters, we can next look forward to Man of Steel.

Another new trailer for the Superman reboot has arrived. In this one General Zod issues an ominous message to the people of the Earth: “Your world has sheltered one of my citizens. … To those of you who know his location, the fate of your planet rests in your hands.”

Uh, oh. Does Superman end up kneeling before Zod? What do you think?

Check out the trailer after the break. Man of Steel arrives in theaters on June 14.

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