Batman’s faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth is getting his own story in the upcoming “all ages” graphic novel ‘Young Alfred: Pain In The Butler’ which is rated for teens. The story takes a look at Alfred’s childhood and training for becoming a gentlemen’s gentleman.
“Everyone has to start somewhere—even the MVP of DC Universe. No, I don’t mean Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman. They’re amazing, of course, but I’m talking about Alfred Pennyworth, butler extraordinaire, caring father figure and star of the new graphic novel Young Alfred: Pain in the Butler,” DC Comics said on their website.
They continued, “Young Alfred, an all-ages graphic novel by Michael Northrop (Dear Justice League) and Sam Lotfi, takes us across the years to tell two enchanting stories of past and present Pennyworth. Before Alfred raised young Bruce Wayne, he was a boy himself who made the long journey to Gotham City to study how to be the best butler he can be. This charming book is a reminder that heroes, even fictional ones, can still fail. They’re people just like us who repeatedly mess up, learn and grow in order to reach their full potential.”
The Wayne Manor butler first appeared as Alfred Beagle in the 1944 issue of Batman #16 created by Bob Kane and Don Cameron. He would be reformed as Alfred Pennyworth by Batman Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson.
You can take a look at the cover here:
DC Comics describes the synopsis as follows,
“When Alfred attends Gotham Servants School, he is a clumsy and nervous boy going to fulfill his father’s last wish-he will become…a butler. But when he suspects that his new school may be involved in a criminal plot, Alfred must look within himself to see if he has what it takes to be not only a butler, but a hero.”
The book will be released in digital and print editions.
Fans of embattled isekai hero Naofumi Iwatani got some important news. The release date for the third season of the anime has been revealed by an X post as October 6, 2023, in Japan. Kinema Citrus returns to animate the new upcoming episodes with Hitoshi Haga stepping into the director’s role. MADKID returns to perform the opening theme song titled “Sin.”
Crunchyroll has revealed that they will stream the show as part of their Fall line-up.
— TVアニメ『盾の勇者の成り上がり』@Season 4 制作決定！ (@shieldheroanime) September 13, 2023
The anime is based on a 2013 series of light novels written by Aneko Yusagi, illustrated by Seira Minami, and published by Media Factory which also publishes a manga version.
The Rising of the Shield Hero wiki describes the synopsis as follows,
“Stories of old tell of four otherworldly heroes—wielding the sword, spear, bow, and shield—who defended the land from wave after wave of calamity. With the fate of the world in balance, the kingdom of Melromarc summons these legendary figures; in modern-day Japan, the call is answered, and the unwitting heroes are transported to this fantasy universe.
Thrust into Melromarc and given the title of “Shield Hero,” otaku Naofumi Iwatani is labeled the weakest due to his lack of offensive capability and apparent inexperience. When the heroes part ways to start their journeys, he only has one willing companion: the beautiful princess Malty Melromarc. However, she soon betrays him, steals all his money, and accuses him of harming her.
For his alleged crimes, Naofumi is branded a criminal and made an outcast of society. With hatred filling his heart, he sets out alone, vowing vengeance against those who wronged him.”
The first season was produced by Kinema Citrus with DR Movie taking over the second season but production returned to Kinema Citrus for season three.
At last, Hasbro has decided to bring a classic vehicle out of the vault just in time for one of Star Wars’s anniversaries! Its … The MandalorianAT-ST Raider. Oh.
This 3.75″ scale vehicle stands roughly 12″ tall and features posable legs, a fully detailed cockpit, and a number of other upgrades the Kenner classic lacked. It also comes with a $79.99 price tag!
The re-release AT-ST Raider is scheduled to ship out in April 2024. When it originally hit the market not too long ago, I cannot remember it leaving a huge impression on the collectors’ space. That’s why it feels weird to focus on reissuing this instead of something like the 2008 Legacy Collection Millenium Falcon, without the porgs, of course.
Aside from the added accessories and cosmetic pieces, this is the same AT-ST that showed up in the Vintage Collection with the Return of the Jedi branding. However, The Mandalorian release is slightly less expensive, and you get a unique character, the Klatooinian Raider.
The vehicle itself is a great piece of plastic. The articulation allows for a pretty good range of display possibilities, but how many people were superfans of this one-episode vehicle?
I’d be way more interested in picking up the Return of the Jedi version of the Chicken Walker … ya know, because it’s the 40th anniversary of the last true Star Wars movie. Thankfully, Entertainment Earthis going to be restocking that classic vehicle soon, and it’s only $89.99.
Photo Credit: Hasbro
Photo Credit: Hasbro
Photo Credit: Hasbro
Photo Credit: Hasbro
Photo Credit: Hasbro
“Celebrate the legacy of Star Wars, the action-and-adventure-packed space saga from a galaxy far, far away, with premium 3.75-inch scale figures and vehicles from Star Wars The Vintage Collection. Figures feature premium detail and design across product and packaging inspired by the original line released in 2010, as well as the movie-real collector grade deco that fans have come to know and love.”
The AT-ST raider comes with the following features:
“With realistic detail including an opening cockpit, articulated legs, adjustable laser cannons and side-mounted weapons pods, and movable command viewpoint blast shields, the AT-ST Raider toy can be displayed in Star Wars action figure and vehicle collections.”
The $65 robot made up of five lions is expected to ship in May 2024. Similar to the original figure from a few years ago, the heroic mech comes with the Blazing Sword, shield, and a good bit of articulation.
Sadly, the only removable parts are the alternate hands. You cannot separate the figure into individual lion toys. You can, but then you’d have a broken, expensive collectible.
Photo Credit: Super7
Photo Credit: Super7
Photo Credit: Super7
Photo Credit: Super7
Photo Credit: Super7
“Voltron is a beacon of hope in a galaxy tormented by the Drule Empire, and the mighty robot never shines brighter than when revealing its mighty Blazing Sword! This highly articulated 7″ scale Voltron ULTIMATES! Lightning Glow Voltron is inspired by the moment that Voltron forms the Blazing Sword and is illuminated by a burst of lightning. Constructed from glow-in-the-dark material, featuring intricate sculpting, premium paint detail, and interchangeable “hand” Lion heads, as well as glow-in-the-dark shield and Blazing Sword accessories. Let this made-to-order, glow-in-the-dark Voltron ULTIMATES! Lightning Glow Voltron illuminates your collection day and night!”
I can’t really fault Super7 for returning to the well, especially for such an iconic character. However, as someone who has owned a couple of these alternate versions of previous figures, it’s getting kinda old. See our Radioactive Rage Toxie review to see what I mean.
Lightning Glow Voltron comes with the following:
4x hands
2x Open Lion hands
2x Closed Lion hands
1x Blazing Sword
1x Shield
What do you think of all of the variants Super7 has put out in the Ultimates line? Should the company re-release the originals instead of trying various gimmicks? Let us know in the comments section below.
One of the most influential first-person shooter games of all time is the original DOOM from 1993. The game was not only a critical and commercial success, but it inspired many developers at a variety of studios to develop their own video games. Because of how popular DOOM was, there were a ton of games that copied many of its mechanics and overall design. These came to be known as doom clones, for very obvious reasons. Gastro Force is a doom clone that has many similarities to the classic DOOM games, for better or worse.
Gastro Force on PlayStation 5 (also for Xbox, Switch, and PC) is a run-and-gun shooter that puts you into the suit of a space marine that is trying to survive an onslaught of aliens taking over a starship. It’s a simple concept for a story, much like the game that inspired it, which keeps the focus on the action. Even in a recycled fashion, the foundational aspects of DOOM can still work out very well when executed right and given a twist. For some, it won’t be enough for the game to differentiate itself from other doom clones, but for others, it’s just enough to get by. Just don’t go in expecting deep lore to latch onto.
Gameplay is exactly what you might expect if you’ve played any of the original DOOM games. Straight-forward shooting in first-person, with various alien enemies lurking around every corner. You’ll be finding new weapons to use, hitting switches to open new areas, and discovering secret locations by interacting with your surroundings. It’s about as basic for an FPS game as you can get, without doing anything inherently wrong. It definitely appeals to the nostalgia of those who have had plenty of experience playing games that were similar.
But unfortunately, Gastro Force has all of the quirks and stumbles that came with all of those games from back in the day. Moving around and aiming your weapons is very stiff, which can be troublesome for those looking to be precise when aiming their weapons at a target. Luckily, Gastro Force has the same kind of auto-aiming that every other doom clone had, allowing you to hit enemies without needing to be super accurate. You can just aim in the general direction of an enemy and nail all of your shots without an issue. It might take away the skill needed to be competent with first-person shooters, but it gets the job done.
The biggest stumble that Gastro Force suffers from is how quickly it becomes overly repetitive. There are three main areas with multiple stages in them that you’ll have to traverse and complete. They each fall into the same rhythm throughout. Each area gets tougher with variations on enemies you face beforehand, but the general objective remains the same in each area. All you have to do is reach the final platform at the end of the stage in order to move on. There are some boss battles with stronger enemies toward the later sections of an area, but they don’t mix up the gameplay all that much.
A lot of the difficulty in most sections of Gastro Force will come from having a lack of ammo or health pickups around. You’ll need to find where everything is located if you want to be resourced enough in some encounters, especially with how hard enemies will damage you. Although enemy behavior isn’t complex or difficult to deal with at heart, their damage output can feel often inconsistent. Some attacks will hurt you mildly while others much more severe, but all of it will add up quickly if you’re not paying attention.
The stages also don’t have checkpoints to restart from upon death. If you end up getting killed right before the end of a stage, then you’re out of luck. You’ll have to redo the entire stage from the beginning, which can get frustrating. Some stages are complex with the number of switches you need to hit in order to progress, along with backtracking you need to do in order to open up places to move forward. It’s not difficult overall, but definitely tedious. Some people will look at that as old-school game design, which is true, but it’s still archaic compared to what is possible now.
Gastro Force will stand out to those who love the classic DOOM games or anything that was similar. It follows the same beats and has the same problems of those games, which may not be for everyone. There’s very little here to make it stand out as something unique or more interesting than any of the games that inspired it, which is a shame. For those that crave an old-school FPS to tinker with, what you get here will be fun to tinker with. But for others who don’t, you’re better off spending more time with something else instead.
Have you played Gastro Force before? What do you think of old-school FPS games? Which are your favorite DOOM clones? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!
It’s always a bit jarring to realize how long it’s been since your childhood favorites first came into existence. That’s certainly the case with Mighty Max, a franchise that’s been dormant for many years.
But now, it’s making a comeback! Mighty Max was a popular cartoon series and toy line that capitalized on the trend for miniaturized toys back in the early 1990s. The Mighty Max mini dioramas were right at home alongside other tiny toys like Polly Pocket, Micro Machines, and Monster in My Pocket.
PeariA has created four new dioramas to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mighty Max, each with a similar gimmick to the original toys produced by Bluebird Toys and distributed by Mattel. Technically, there are only two dioramas, but each has a variant.
Luckily, the differences between them are significant enough to make each one truly unique. For example, the Snow Version of Hunting Rudolph has glow-in-the-dark paint, while the alternate hat diorama is molded in clear plastic.
The regular dioramas cost $19.99 each, while the variants are priced at $24.99. They’re expected to be available during the final quarter of 2023. They can be pre-ordered from the Big Bad Toy Store.
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
Photo Credit: Pearia
“Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Mighty Max cartoon series with this new playset from Singular Point! Bouncing between various countries and timelines, this Mighty Max diorama features Max battling against one of his iconic foes.”
For more on Mighty Max‘s history, check out the Secret Galaxy review below.
It has been a heck of a year for everything retro. More and more IPs from decades ago are returning in surprising ways. See our story on the new Toxic Crusaders game to see what we’re talking about.
Did you collect the Mighty Max playsets in the ’90s? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Maximum Carnage comic book arc may not have been as big an event as the Death of Superman or Knightfall, but it did spawn a great beat-em-up game on the SNES and Genesis that featured a soundtrack from Green Jellÿ.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 14-part mega comic crossover event, Premium Collectibles Studio has created an equally huge bust of Cletus Kasady’s symbiote. Rather than being a simple recreation of the blood-red killer, PCS turned Carnage’s head into an entire scene featuring multiple heroes and villains from the Maximum Carnage story.
The $1,500 price tag is a bit steep; however, those who pre-order early can get it at $1,350.
Photo Credit: Premium Collectibles Studio
Photo Credit: Premium Collectibles Studio
Photo Credit: Premium Collectibles Studio
Photo Credit: Premium Collectibles Studio
“This fully sculpted diorama highlights the bloodthirsty spawn of Venom, Carnage, hosted by the violent criminal Cletus Kasady. The monstrous Carnage dominates this highly creative collectible, entangling an unlikely assortment of small-scale heroes and villains in his amorphous form. Characters such as Spider-Man, Cloak, Venom, Black Cat, Shriek, Demogoblin and the six-armed Spider-Man doppelgänger clash above the symbiote-covered city below. Each expertly sculpted character is dynamically posed and fully painted, coming together to create a cohesive scene that holds true to the thrilling tone of the Maximum Carnage storyline. The base, composed of a city scene overtaken by the symbiote supervillain’s liquid form, supports a massive, highly detailed life-sized Carnage bust featuring two smaller Carnage bodies seamlessly forming out of either side of this elaborate collectible.”
The Maximum Carnage statue comes with the following:
Unique Multi-Character Diorama
Swap-Out Tongue
Integrated Environment Base
1 in 300 Chance of Winning a 1oz Platinum PCS Coin
Coin Includes PCS Ruby Ticket Worth $300 in PCS Loyalty Points
Metal Certificate of Authenticity
Custom PCS Statue Cleaning Kit
Did you read the story or play the games? Let us know below.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will no longer be rivals in the world ring matches. According to new reports, the two companies will merge together to create a new fight league and a new entertainment corporation now called TKO Group.
Deadline reports, “Execs from both sides will be ringing the NYSE opening bell to celebrate ‘a new premium sports and entertainment company serving more than one billion young and diverse fans, reaching viewers in 180 countries, and producing more than 350 annual live events,’ according to UFC parent Endeavor, which is banking on new content, international expansion and an easy-to-understand investment thesis for Wall Street.”
The WWE was founded as the World Wide Wrestling Federation in April 1963 under the umbrella of Titan Sports, Inc., which would be acquired by Endeavor Group Holdings later on.
TKO Group President and CEO Mark Shapiro told The Hollywood Reporter, “We will be wringing out cost synergies, but at the same time identifying those areas that are under-monetized or where revenue synergy significantly exists.”
“And that’s happening across our domestic and international media rights, our sponsorship and global partnerships, our product licensing, enhancing our live events, through ticket yield, venue fees, and premium experiences and then just overall expanding internationally, all of these businesses and doing it with a halo of the Endeavor flywheel which cannot be underestimated the influence and impact that will bring,” Shapiro continued.
He added, “We believe TKO reflects an opportunity to own a quasi-sports league with robust year-round programming, and an attractive financial profile that offers sizable revenue/cost savings.”
The UFC was founded in 1993 by Dana White, who will retain his title of CEO while Nick Khan will become the president of the WWE following the merger.
Vince McMahon has stepped down from his role as CEO of the WWE following an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Deadpool faces Venom. The Children of the Vault are back. Iceman has to defend his hometown and Janet Van Dyne leads the Avengers in a mystery. All of those tales are being released in the latest Marvel pull list.
“Then, find action, mystery, and adventure in AVENGERS INC. (2023) #1,” Marvel said in a statement. “Her name is Janet Van Dyne. She’s a hero. She’s a celebrity. She’s hunting a killer. His name is Victor Shade. He’s a villain. He’s an enigma. He just got killed. And together, they’re out to solve every mystery in the Marvel Universe…starting with their own. Al Ewing and Leonard Kirk bring you a whole new style of Avenging—from a whole new style of Avengers…”
On September 20, 2020, before filming began and before casting had even been decided, co-showrunner, director, and writer for Netflixs’ live action adaption of One Piece spent almost an hour as a special guest on an almost 6 hour One Piece live-stream on YouTubers’ RogersBase show. He shared his story of what his first meeting with Eiichiro Oda was like and what made the One Piece creator give him the okay to go ahead with the project. He also explained some challenges with making One Piece into live action.
Matt Owens began with stating that he has sent his writers to certain YouTube channels, such as Ohara and GrandLineReview, to “fully understand how they should look at this character, this is how they should think about different things around One Piece.”
Owens then goes on to explain that he is a fan first, and that his first interview with Jump was no joke. “One Piece is my favorite series of all time and I need to do this job because I need to try my best to protect what it is. That has been my north star from the very beginning and I’m really glad to have an opportunity say that to you all, to the One Piece community, because I am one of you. And it’s really, really important.
I’ve met him a couple of times and the very first time I went over to meet him, he was very nice. But he was also very much like: ‘This is my Everything. And this is not the first meeting I’ve had of someone wanting to come in to adapt this property. Someone that comes in and thinks that they can turn it into something grand.‘ And I told him I understand.”
In his first trip to the Jump offices, the three hour meeting was about strategy and what Owens and his team were thinking about with the story. He also needed to sell to Oda that he knew and loved the story. Oda understood all of this but he was still quite understandably wary. As is standard practice for business meetings in Japan, they went out to dinner after the meeting and sat across from each other.
According to Owens, Oda apologized to him saying, “Look I’m sorry if some of the things that I said came across as harsh or anything but I just, I want people who want to adapt this to understand how much it means to me and how much this is articulately crafted. Everything is for a reason.”
In response to Oda, Owens explained his personal history with One Piece. “When I was in my early 20s, I went through a really, really bad depression. And I was trying to find a series that I could watch that would occupy all of my time. So I didn’t have to do anything or think about anything. And I had read One Piece when anime was really big for me in high school and stuff but it didn’t click for me at the time or, we all know the horrendous 4Kids adaptation, so I had never really gotten into it. Until I finally made the decision. I was like, ‘you know what, this is the time to watch all of the One Piece.’ And I think the anime was into Punk Hazard at this time. So I did. In like a few short months I caught all the way up to the beginning of Punk Hazard.”
He finished off his personal history with, “You know, one of the great things about One Piece is, it’s really a story about how everyone has tragedy, pain, sadness in their life. But it’s not what defines you. What defines you is how you use that to motivate your future. And that no one has to do it alone. No one in this world has to be alone. When you find those people around you, who motivate you and lift you up and help you, that’s the greatest power in this world. And that is the story that I want to put out into the world. So I know that One Piece means a lot to you, Oda. It means a lot to me. Because I honestly believe that One Piece saved my life.”
And with that, Eichiro Oda looked Matt Owens in the eyes. And then he held out his hand across the table and said, “I have 100% faith in you now.”
After getting to know the creator of One Piece better, Owens discovered that Oda is very funny, but that it also takes awhile to put his walls down. Which is understandable. “When you have people coming in wanting to take your baby and do something potentially different with it, I get it.”
But once his guard is down, he is, according to Owens, very funny. And getting to hear Oda talk about story is “some of the most inspired I’ve ever been as a storyteller, because not only do I read and watch and consume everything that he’s done, but getting the opportunity to hear him talk about things and why they mean what they do and how all of the pieces come together. And I don’t mean that in like a ‘I know the answer to the end of the series’ because I straight up told him I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything.”
There were two aspects of translating One Piece to live action that proved challenging. One was comedy. “One Piece is very funny and it’s very important to have comedy there. But some of the comedy in the series is very Eastern. Some of it is, no disrespect, sometimes a little childish. So how do you keep humor a part of the series? That’s one of the big challenges. There is humor. This will be funny. One of the big things, when we were starting out, is I said, ‘if you tried, which is impossible to ask, try to boil One Piece down into three important elements. I think if it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you go ‘holy shi**’. If it makes one of those moments in every single episode, and then we will have done our job.’ So that’s just something we tried to keep in mind every step.”
Matt Owens explains how it is understandable to be skeptical of him. “Because we as anime fans, we haven’t had a whole lot of good reasons to trust anybody. We don’t have a lot, but that’s why I thank you for the ability to talk to you guys because I can understand being a fan of all of this stuff also. I can see a news article and some guy you never met claims that he loves this story and blah blah blah. You don’t know him. So you’re not going to necessarily believe, because we’ve been conditioned not to. Look at all the terrible sh** we’ve had to put up with debasing the properties that we love. So I just really want to put the communities mind at ease that at the very least, there is someone in this who loves it and knows it as much as you guys do. And I am fighting for this to be what I think it should be, and what I think it can be.
This is just as much to make money as it is to wanting to bring new people in. How many times have we all talked to people, and they’re like: ‘what? How many chapters is this? That’s an f—ing lot. I don’t want to read all of this.’ This gives people an opportunity to jump in and see it, and see what they’ve been missing. And hopefully jump on the train with all the rest of us.”
The second challenge was One Piece as a whole. “One Piece, in its’ beginning it is a serialized manga from 1997. Audiences, for a live action television series in 2020, work a little differently. The East Blue arc is fairly episodic. And so one of the things we’ve had to try and do is: what exists in the canon. That’s always what we come back to. We know a hell of a lot more about this story now than we did when it started. So what are some things in the world already that we can use to try and make the story feel a little bit less episodic in the beginning? Not betraying anything, but just trying to give it a little bit more connective tissue. Because once you get to the Grand Line, it’s on. You get to introduce Clockwork. You get it. There is a clear shot through every arc. Because we all know the story. We know, if someone were to ask, ‘well what’s the point of the East Blue?’ It’s Luffy building his crew. It’s gathering his people and getting to the place where the One Piece is fabled to reside.”
From the very beginning, Oda was heavily involved. Matt Owens may have been chosen by the studio, but he still needed approval from Oda himself before anything else could start. Owens had to go and pitch him on what he loves about One Piece and here is what he hopes to accomplish with it. After that, Oda and his team read all of their outlines and scripts and gave them notes. Oda and his team were very involved in the notes process.
The degree in what changes were allowed to have creative liberties within the scripts, the story, and the characters was always a conversation between each teams. They always went back to the source material. “Something I also told Oda is my job is not to come in here and go, ‘oh cool One Piece! This is popular. It’s about pirates. Got it. I’m gonna do my own thing’. That’s not my viewpoint with it. And, again, because Netflix knows how valuable this property is, because of what it is. It is successful because of what it is in its existence already. So any changes are just about trying to make it palatable to a wider audience and a live action version of it. No changes come because it’s like, ‘oh I don’t like Luffy and the Arlong fight. I’m gonna have Luffy fight someone else…’ There’s nothing like that.”
He adds on that they’re “picking and choosing the right time to do the Luffy stretching so that it looks as cool as can be.”
This is a world of brutality and violence just as much as the show is about hope and family.
Matt Owens
To hear the full talk with Matt Owens, skip to 54:34. He stays on the live-stream until around 1:52:18:
What do you think about the things Matt Owens has said? Do you think they accomplished what they set out to do, based on the things talked about in the live-stream? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
