It’s time for another edition of What We’re Watching. This time What We’re Watching is the television series Titans.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti, Titans debuted and already ran for two seasons on DC Universe. The show has now moved to HBO Max with a third season set to drop later this year.
Titans follows the adventures, misadventures, trials, tribulations and bloody fights of a group of teen, and slightly older, superheroes led by everyone’s favorite sidekick Dick Grayson (aka Robin, the Boy Wonder). Although, as the show begins, Dick has been out from under Batman’s shadow for five years and been replaced by a younger Robin (aka Jason Todd).
The show also features Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Hawk, Dove, Deathstroke, Connor Kent (a clone with combined Superman and Lex Luthor DNA), Wonder Girl and a host of other familiar names, faces and costumes. They’re especially familiar if you’re fan of the Titans‘s comics. Fortunately, we are.
The show is violent, profanity-laden and immensely enjoyable. Sure, some may not appreciate another gritty take on superheroes, but we think this one works. And yes, we’re aware of the “issues’ with the season one finale, the “problems” with Raven’s Dad Trigon and especially the “controversy” about the casting of Anna Diop as Starfire.
Some people are always going to be upset about something and these things don’t in any way detract from our enjoyment of the show. And it should’t for you either. In fact, especially in the case of Diop, we find the objections ridiculous.
She does a great job. Give her, and the show, a chance. You just might enjoy it. If not, you can always watch something else. Plenty of other things on HBO Max and the host of other streaming services.
Season one and two of Titans, which features Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Anna Diop as Kory Anders, Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth, Ryan Potter as Garfield “Gar” Logan, Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger, Conor Leslie as Donna Troy, Esai Morales as Slade Wilson and Iain Glen as Bruch Wayne, are available on HBO Max. Season three, which is filming now, arrives later this year.
Check out the trailers for Titans season one and two below. If you watched Titans, let us know what you think. Any other shows you love we should be watching?
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.
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).
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.
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.)
Take a look at the roster of Injustice: Gods Among Usand 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.
Ever wonder what the attraction to Lobo as a character was? Aside from being an amalgam of various comic tropes and stereotypes, something about him ended up resonating to the point that thirty years since his inception, the anti-hero (who is pretty much just such a badass villain that people still like him) finds his way to the roster of Injustice: Gods Among Us as the first of four DLC characters.
For those who purchased the Season Pass, Lobo was announced on launch day for the game as the first member of the DLC roster. From the video below, he looks like a combination of fighting styles of some of the other brute characters like Solomon Grundy or Doomsday with the gunplay of Deathstroke. The trailer also gives a brief history of Lobo and the concept behind him, and how Lobo started out almost as a parody before taking on a life of his own.
After the long wait since first seeing glimpses at San Diego Comic-Con last Summer, Injustice: GodsAmong Us arrived last week. After all the hype behind it with its roster of heroes and villains facing off against each other in a Mortal Kombat style fighting engine, “What could go wrong?” we pondered. Famous last words right? Well, luckily the team behind Injustice: Gods Among Us at NetherRealm Studios pulled through and gave the best DC fighting experience to date that could possibly rival that of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
The Long
On the surface, there is a huge appeal to seeing who could win in a fight between Batman and Superman. Comic fans won’t deny that but to create a successful fighter, NetherRealm couldn’t play by traditional comic book rules. While Superman and Batman may be on a level playing field in a comic setting where brain matters as much as brawn, no one is ever going to believe that the Green Arrow can beat up Superman or Doomsday… like ever (sorry Arrow fans). So while the appeal of the game is the premise, it is the nuts and bolts under the hood of Injustice: Gods Among Us that make it a solid fighter.
Back in February we revealed that the leader of the Yellow Lanterns, a.k.a. the Sinestro Corps, would be taking one of the roster spots in Injustice: Gods Among Us to act as the opposition to Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. It only made sense with NetherRealm Studios working on the game that you’d need a yellow Scorpion to counteract the emerald Sub-Zero.
So it ended up being a huge surprise when yesterday a new video emerged that shed some light into Hal Jordan’s story when he saw… himself.
In the latest trailer released this week, check out Hal Jordan vs. Hal Jordan as the man who has found himself at one point a member of pretty much every Corps wearing both the green and yellow as he takes on himself. As you’ll see from the trailer though, this isn’t just a reskin for a fantasty match. This looks to take place within Hal’s actual story during Injustice: Gods Among Us as both Hal and his Justice League compatriots react to what is happening.
This just adds to the already interesting mythos that is being associated with the game as it sees both Superman and Lex Luthor on the same side and a clone of Hal Jordan attacking himself.
After NetherRealm’s success with their DLC packs for Mortal Kombat, its no surprise that they are already planning out the DLC for their upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us. And what better way to distribute DLC than with a season pass. It was announced yesterday that the season pass for Injustice: Gods Among Us will include four new characters and a special exclusive costume pack.
Also announced as a member of the Injustice roster, who you can check out in the trailer below, is Raven. Most well known for her role in founding the New Teen Titans. Adding another female to the roster, Raven’s mythical powers give her distinct advantages against even powerhouses like Superman. She will also have the opportunity to face off against former teammates like Nightwing and Cyborg.
