DC Comics is re-releasing the first issue of Wonder Woman from writer Tom King with a brand new cover from artist Jim Lee. Diana Prince will join Batman and Superman with solo covers from Lee, matching the distinct style.
“Wonder Woman #1 by Tom King and Daniel Sampere heads back to press for a second printing! The new “Dawn of DC” launch has everyone chasing the first issue of King and Sampere’s new series—and within days of release, all issues of Wonder Woman #1 have sold out at the distributor level! The Amazon Warrior’s action-packed new debut kicks off what will undoubtedly become a groundbreaking run on the character, where Wonder Woman finds herself an outlaw in the world she once swore to protect,” DC explained in a statement. “This second printing will feature new artwork by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair…”
This cover joins the “Jim Lee Icons Series” which includes Superman #7 and Batman #608: Batman Day Special Edition.
You can take a look at it here:
DC said, “After a mysterious Amazonian is accused of mass murder, Congress passes the Amazon Safety Act, barring all Amazons from U.S. soil. To carry out their plans, the government starts a task force, the Amazon Extradition Entity (A.X.E.), to remove those who don’t comply, by any means necessary. Now, in her search for the truth behind the killing, Wonder Woman finds herself an outlaw in the world she once swore to protect!”
“Writer Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) and superstar artist in the making Daniel Sampere (Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, Action Comics) join forces for this action-packed relaunch and the beginning of what will undoubtedly become a groundbreaking run on the character,” DC Continued.
DC will be releasing a foil edition of the comic book cover.
Go for broke? The 1994 anime adaption of the hit Capcom video game ‘Street Fighter II The Animated Movie’ is arriving on home video release on 4K DVD. Discotek Media is handling the new edition and will feature a whole host of special features.
The movie was animated by Group TAC and released by the Toei Company when it was initially debuted. It was directed by Gisaburō Sugii who co-wrote it with Kenichi Imai.
The DVD will feature a host of special features revealed by Discotek:
Newly Restored 4K HDR Film Transfer, Uncensored & Uncut
Every English Audio Track, US & UK, Restored & Remastered
Original Japanese Version with English Subtitles
Complete HD Restoration of the US PG-13 Cut
English Version Opening & Closing Credits
SFII: The Animated Movie Japanese Game Footage
Trailers and Commercials
Isolated Score
Production Art
Liner Notes
While the movie has a planned release on November 28, 2023, it is currently available for pre-order on the Right Stuf Anime website.
They also revealed the box set:
Discotek describes the synopsis as follows,
“M. Bison’s plan to crush those who would oppose his evil Shadaloo organization is simple: brainwash the strongest martial artists around the world with his dreaded psycho power and turn them into living weapons! And now, he’s found his newest target: Ryu, a traveling vagabond said to be the strongest man in the world. In order to stop the dictator’s evil plot, Interpol agent Chun-Li forms a rocky partnership with Major Guile of the United States Air Force.
But they’ll have to put aside their differences and learn how to work together if they want to stop M. Bison; while the wandering Ryu is a hard man to find, M. Bison is closing in on Ryu’s eternal rival Ken in a bid to lure out his real target! Will Shadaloo succeed, or will the World Warriors beat M.Bison to the punch? See the action (and we mean all the action!) in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, presented on Ultra HD Blu-ray, in glorious 4k for the first time!”
Sony Music Entertainment composed the music for the soundtrack.
Not to be confused with Dungeons & Dragons, a new animated series is being created alongside a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) of the same name. French artist Clément De Ruyter, who is an animator and illustrator, created the TTRPG’s Dungeons & Kittens, having successfully crowdfunded the ttrpg earlier this year on a website dedicated to crowdfunding tabletop games “for gamers, by gamers”. Mélanie Duval is also credited as being the creator, having previously worked on the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir animated TV series as one of the writers.
The summary of the story is: Precious, Fib, Ruffles and Suds are four little kittens who live happily between the high walls of the Kingdom of Cats. But when they get banished after an unfortunate series of events, they will have to face the perils of the wild world outside and find a treasure splendiferous enough to earn King Walter’s forgiveness. Adventure, meowgic and hairballs await in this RPG-inspired serialised odyssey!
See the trailer here:
In an interview with Animation World Network, De Ruyter explained the inspiration behind Dungeons & Kittens, saying, “I’ve always loved initiation stories, where characters who are far too small for their fate are pushed by fate to brave dangers. There’s undoubtedly a bit of “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit,” and “Okilélé” (a French children’s book by Claude Ponti) that have been constant sources of inspiration.”
De Ruyter added, “At the very beginning, I was thinking about a sci-fi project with cats in space, but after a while, I realized that I wanted to explore the “genesis” of this universe through the lens of young adventurers, and that became Dungeons & Kittens. And quite quickly, I wanted to make it into a role-playing game to “test” my stories and my universe with my friends. I wanted to create a contrasting universe that speaks of childhood and beautiful friendship but also of wandering and danger, a bittersweet fable, and that’s when the unfair quest of King Walter appeared to me. And then, as time went by, Watch Next saw the drafts of the game, and here we are!“
“After several successfully completed series, Watch Next has decided to develop an epic saga to accompany the rise of its broadcasting partners’ non-linear platforms and to allow its teams to showcase their talent in a new format and genre. With its unique aesthetic and endearing characters, Dungeons and Kittens has the qualities to capture the hearts of an entire generation of children – and their parents’ too!”
Philippe Alessandri
Watch Next head of development Sylvain Huchet pitched the project at Cartoon Movie showcase on September 19th, praising De Ruyter’s lush graphic style, as translated and brought to life on screen by director Jeremy Guiter.
Huchet also added that, “Beyond the gorgeous style, what really appealed to us was this idea of putting these tiny characters that feel a bit helpless in a world that seems way too big for them. And that’s really the main idea: Even if you’re a tiny kitten or a small kid, you can still make an impact and change the world around you.”
The new series will have 13 episodes at 22 minutes of length each, with the show having an adventure story from a child’s perspective, expecting “meowgic”, dangers, and secrets along the way with the kittens. The series is expected to begin airing somewhere around 2025.
What do you think of the new animated series and ttrpg? Will you be interested in playing with your friends or kids when it becomes available? Do you think they would enjoy the animated series as well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Several years ago, Ajit Pai, the FCC’s chairman, agitated the entirety of the Internet by announcing the end of Net Neutrality. Rules that had kept Internet service providers from filtering what customers could and could not access or at what speeds were nixed. So many tech blogs, YouTubers, and talking heads told us that the Internet as we knew it would collapse.
Half a decade later, things are mostly the same, but our ability to post what we want and access specific platforms was hindered not by ISPs but by another source. However, that doesn’t matter much because the FCC, the same unelected agency that rolled back the 2015 Net Neutrality rules, is now voting on reestablishing said rules.
According to a story on Ars Technica, the Federal Communications Commission has reached a 3-to-2 majority that will allow Ajit Pai’s grand plan to be repealed. However, this reversal is not official yet. Public input and a vote are still required, which won’t occur until next month.
Openness – Establish basic rules for Internet Service Providers that prevent them from blocking legal content, throttling your speeds, and creating fast lanes that favor those who can pay for access.
Security – Reclassify broadband internet access to give the FCC and its national security partners the tools needed to defend our networks from potential security threats.
Safety – Allow the FCC to enhance the resiliency of broadband networks and bolster efforts to require providers to notify the FCC and consumers of internet outages.
Nationwide Standard – Establish a uniform national standard rather than a patchwork of state-by-state approaches, benefiting consumers and Internet Service Providers.
Facts:
Since the adoption of a policy statement in 2005 affirming net neutrality principles until 2018, it was the clear policy of the FCC across administrations that it would enforce open Internet standards.
Without this authority, no federal agency can effectively monitor or help with broadband outages that threaten jobs, health, education, and safety.
Open internet policies protect Americans’ freedom and their speech, only enshrining limits on broadband companies’ ability to limit consumer and business activities.
The rulemaking specifically proposes to forbear from 26 provisions of Title II and more than 700 Commission rules that might pose a threat to network investment or are unnecessarily burdensome. Accordingly, policies like rate regulation and network unbundling would be strictly prohibited.
What is entertaining is that the doomsday rhetoric examples given during the repeal never materialized. Vox, for one, claimed that ISPs could charge users more based on what sites they visited. Another potential issue the outlet brought up was that not having Net Neutrality may stifle future apps and platforms. News flash: Meta’s Threads failed on its own and in record time!
This is not to say I favor repealing rules that limit what large companies can do, but in the past five years, it turned out that big tech was what we needed to keep an eye on. There is something I agree with Ajit Pai on, and that’s his statement that “The Internet should be an open platform where you are free to go where you want, and say and do what you want, without having to ask anyone’s permission.”
Since 2015, our most significant threat to the freedom to say what we want has come under attack not from Verizon or Spectrum but from the major tech giants such as Google. It was apparent that Alphabet and others were more than willing to suppress YouTubers and social media users if their opinions contradicted certain narratives.
What do you think of the reinstatement of Net Neutrality? Let us know below.
High On Life‘s “mini-sequel” High On Knife has a new announcement trailer. The stop motion release date teaser doesn’t give us much insight into what we can expect from the DLC, but we know the expansion will arrive on October 3rd. It will be playable on PlayStation, XBOX, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.
The game’s Steam page gives us much more info:
“It’s been 2 years since the Bounty Hunter defeated the G3 cartel. Now Knifey needs help tracking down a mysterious package from his homeworld. Will they get mixed up with a friendly giant, a pinball gun, poaching rings, and a terrifying intergalactic shipping company? Yeah. Sure.“
High On Knife will feature new characters, probably in the form of new Gatlians (the weapons).
High On Knife has “features.” Yup. The descriptions are written in the same style as the game’s dialog. So … get ready:
Hunt an entirely new bounty on a new adventure that’s basically a mini-sequel to the main game. You don’t have to play the main game first but it wouldn’t hurt. It works either way.
Hack and blast your way through the depths of an ominous shipping warehouse as you search for a mysterious package that holds the key to Knifey’s origins…or die trying! Or do both! Knock yourself out.
Engage in rapid-fire, acrobatic, bullet hell-infused combat with one of the galaxy’s most craven CEOs. Doesn’t that sound fun? The CEO is more interesting to fight than you think. I promise.
Explore a planet full of dying slugs. Not sure if that’s a selling point but it’s one of the main things in the DLC so we have to put it on here. Look, you’re gonna talk to a bunch of slugs.
Okay, you’re not going to believe this but we’ve got two – count ’em! – TWO brand new deadly talking guns who are as quick to crack wise as they are to blow a hole through alien flesh.
New characters voiced by Sarah Sherman, Gabourey Sidibe, Ken Marino and more plus all your returning favorites like Michael Cusack, JB Smoove, Tim Robinson, Betsy Sodaro, and Andy Daly.
Considering Justin Roiland resigned from Squanch Games in January, I wonder if the DLC will even feature his often annoying, rambling improv dialog. Kenny, one of the characters voiced by Roiland, does not appear in the new game’s press material. So, that may be our answer.
If you missed High On Life late last year, you didn’t miss much. It’s great if you’re a Rick and Morty fan, but if the game contains an option to turn down the chatter, you know it’s targeting a specific audience.
The most interesting thing about High On Life was the fact that I could watch Demon Wind, complete with a Red Letter Media commentary track. Yes. The thing that caught my attention the longest in this FPS was something imported from an entirely different medium.
ColourPop Cosmetics is one of my favorite make-up companies. Their products are highly pigmented and blend well. Now they are releasing another Sailor Moon collection tomorrow , 9/28, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.
The original Sailor Moon collection contained more warm tone shades and this one features cool tones.
The For Love & Justice Pressed Powder Palette contains the following shades:
Twinkles, Save The World, Schoolgirl, So Cosmic, Secret Powers, Friends Forever, Starlight, Aqua, Her Destiny, Always There, Girl Power, and Starry Sky.
Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime was supposed to be the cool, sleek Optimus Prime replacement. However, as we saw when the TV series picked back up after the 1986 movie, Optimus returned, and Hot Rod got sidelined. However, as a kid of the ’80s, I loved the character’s design regardless.
Whenever I see a new Hot Rod, my wallet loosens a bit. A year ago, I noticed that the UltimetalS line was adding the young Autobot to the series, but the influx of other Hasbro news caused me to lose track. However, he popped up again recently while browsing the Big Bad Toy Store.
Action Toys’s UltimetalS series Transformer is 11.8″ tall and is constructed from metal and plastic. The best part of this figure is that he can be converted from his Prime form back into Hot Rod.
While Hot Rod and Rodimus can be pre-ordered from the Big Bad Toy Store, it appears that Target has the figure in stock right now. It’s also more affordable at the big box store, too. Target is charging $275.99. Keep in mind the retailer isn’t selling this directly. The Transformer is being sent out from TFSource.
In fact, if you order from TFSource, the figure will only cost you $229.99. I’ve never seen prices swing so much.
The Autobot will be packed with the following accessories:
2 Blaster weapons
Photon eliminator rifle
Matrix
Image Credit: Action Toys
Image Credit: Action Toys
Image Credit: Action Toys
Image Credit: Action Toys
Image Credit: Action Toys
Image Credit: Action Toys
If you’re looking for more Transformers: The Movie figures, check out the recently announced ’86 Ultra Magnus.
What are your opinions on Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime? Was he too much of a “hey fellow kids” character? Let us know in the comments section below.
‘Helck’ is returning to the HiDive streaming service for its second cour and will have a fall debut. The action comedy will be available for fans to enjoy on October 3rd, 2023, and will be a part of the HiDive “simulcast” slate, arriving the same day as its premiere in Japan.
The anime is produced by the Japanese animation studio Satelight and is directed by Tatsuo Sato. The scripts were written by Toshizo Nemoto and Mitsutaka Hirota, the character designs were handled by Yoshinori Deno, and the music was composed by Yoshihisa Hirano. Cour 1 had a total of twelve episodes.
You can watch the trailer below:
The show is based on a manga written by Nanaki Nanao and published by the Tokyo-based publisher Shogakukan. The stories are serialized in the ‘Ura Sunday’ magazine and are published in the United States by Viz Media.
“After the defeat of a powerful demon king, the Demon World has begun a tournament to find a worthy successor. Powerful demons from all across the land gather to show themselves worthy, but a slight problem has arisen. An extremely powerful human hero by the name of Helck has entered the tournament, and worst of all he is almost guaranteed to win.
Red Vamirio, one of the Four Great Kings of the whole Demon Empire, cannot believe this and furthermore will not allow it – humans are the enemy. She sets several roadblocks for Helck but the human passes them all easily and with each contest the citizens come to love Helck.
Unbeknownst to everyone though are the dark and tragic events that have led Helck to the tournament. Will Helck be the savior of the world or the beginning of the end?”
Japanese pop singer Aimi sings Cour 2’s theme song “Help.”
One of Gotham City’s most infamous citizens is getting his own podcast in the form of a Spotify audio series from DC Comics. ‘The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark’ will feature the clever Edward Nigma in his story which features his vigilante foe Batman.
“Today, Spotify, in partnership with Warner Bros. and DC, announced The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark will premiere on Tuesday, October 10 with all 8 episodes available exclusively on Spotify,” DC Comics reported in a statement. “The series will follow an unexpected adventure from the perspective of one of the most cunning DC Super-Villains in Gotham City, Edward Nygma voiced by Hasan Minhaj (The King’s Jester, Homecoming King, The Daily Show). Minhaj leads the cast, reprising his role from last year’s global sensation, Batman Unburied. You can check out a special video message from Hasan here.”
DC continued, “Colman Domingo (Fear The Walking Dead, Euphoria) joins the cast as Batman, who begrudgingly teams up with Minhaj’s Riddler to track down a masked vigilante on the loose in Gotham City. The mysterious character is murdering notorious DC Super-Villains all over Gotham City, and all clues point to the suspect being the Caped Crusader himself. Now, with a target on his head, The Riddler is forced to break out of Arkham Asylum and team up with Batman. The unlikely duo must solve the mystery before they too, become victims.”
David S. Goyer (Foundation, The Dark Knight trilogy), Keith Levine (Hellraiser, The Night House), and Gracie Wheelan (Batman Unburied) have been announced as executive producers for the audio series.
The Riddler was created by Batman co-creator Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang. He would make his comic book debut in the 1948 ‘Detective Comics’ #140. Since his appearance, he has become one of Batman’s recognizable foes and has made numerous appearances in film, television, and online content.
