Marvel's Daredevil is Brutally Brilliant Art

This isn’t the Daredevil I grew up with. This show doesn’t have any of the signifiers for which many know the character. There aren’t a lot of high flying acrobatics. We don’t constantly see the world through the beautiful and haunted perception of the Man Without Fear. And we most certainly don’t get the colorful cast of characters like Elektra, Bullseye, or (most importantly) Stilt Man. This is something else entirely.

And thank gods for that, because a show that had adhered so closely to the source material might have denied itself the excellence we’re seeing here today.

Second Trailer for Ant Man Brings the Tiny, Tiny Pain

Marvel's next Big Gamble's second trailer hit the internet this morning. Ant Man, let's be honest, has never been a big player in the Marvel Universe. Despite all the major storylines Hank Pym has been a part of - helping found the Avengers, creating Ultron - he's always relegated to one side while Iron Man, Captain America and Thor get all the credit. Will this movie change all that, and make Ant Man into a star? That remains to be seen. The trailers have both been a bit concerning. Hit the jump to see the trailer and our analysis.

Geekly Roundup April 12th: Movies and Dicks Edition

Welcome back to the Geekly Roundup, your source of all the fun, interesting, and poignant news we’ve collected that didn’t make it into an article this week! We've got ancient remedies, dick pics, awesome new casting and more!

In today's round up, Lauren, Ben and Mark talk about Medieval remedies for modern, drug-resistant infections, as well as Marvel's tearful goodbye to DC as DC says goodbye to New York city. Then the group discusses recent controversies in Final Fantasy and the Hugo Awards. Check it out now!

iZombie Ep 4 "Liv and Let Clive"

This week's episode had some interesting stuff going on... Rose McIver brought her Yellow Ranger moves! Blaine's building a mob empire, and we see a little bit more back story on Clive. Ravi puts the obvious in front of Liv's face, and that makes Liv think about her relationship with Major - into which Ravi has somehow been drawn. We think we know what happened to Eddie. (And when Eddie said he didn't like his teddy, you knew he was a no-good kid... No? Oh, fine.)

My two favorite things about iZombie are the writing and casting. The writing is great! There are little clues dropped in each episode that are relevant to to either the previous or upcoming episodes, which helps preserve the continuity and storyline sequence. The dialogue is both witty and cheesy at times (my favorite things!), but it's also starting to look familiar. That in itself isn't a bad thing necessarily, although I'd really like to see this show stand on it's own rather than lean on comparisons to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

We're already building the Scoobies, we've got the Big Bad. We have the love-interest-at-a-distance (granted, he's not a vampire). We've got the younger sibling who so far hasn't caused any trouble, but wait - is it Tuesday yet? Don't get me wrong. I loved "Buffy," but I love iZombie too - probably for all the same reasons, which is why I really want to see it become something more than another "Buffy" clone.

The casting of major characters is really great, and some of these folks have been around the genre before:

• Rose McIver (recurring roles in the Herculese/Xena franchises, Tinkerbelle in "Once Upon a Time," "Power Rangers RPM" as Summer Landsdown/Yellow Bear RPM Ranger) is really owning the role of Liv Moore, and she is already my favorite alabaster badass living dead girl. 
• Rahul Kholi as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti delivers dialogue to great effect, and I would love to see him become more than comic relief - I would love to see more back story on him. So far, all we really know is that he was fired from the CDC because they thought he was a whackjob. Yeah. Bet they regret that now, huh? And if Ravi finds a cure, you can bet your ass they will be calling him back to Atlanta and Rick Grimes will be all over that! 
• Malcolm Goodwin (guest appearances on "True Blood," "Bones," Elementary," and a regular on "Breakout Kings") as Det. Clive Babineaux is a little more laid back than what I'm used to seeing from other TV show cops, and it's pretty refreshing. To me, he comes off as a a real, normal human guy who happens to be a cop instead of the cop with the attitude. He's not Horacio Kane, and that's a good thing.
• Robert Buckley is Major Lilywhite, Liv's ex-fiance. Yes. That is his name. Why? I don't know. But I'm sure there is a joke from the writer's room in there somewhere, and I'd love to hear it! I'd also like to see Major become a bigger part of the team, 
• David Anders  ("Once Upon a Time," "Vampire Diaries," "The Revenant")  is well-cast as Blaine DeBeers (and I'm sure that there's a writer's room joke somewhere in there about this name, too). Hopefully he's not just a single season bad guy. Blaine is already being compared to Spike, which I don't think is really fair. I mean, granted - both Blaine and Spike are undead, and they are both blondes. But that's where the resemblance ends, in my book. Blaine is already so much more than Spike... he's becoming a crime boss, with plans to take over the city - Spike was never so ambitious. I can't wait to see what happens next with Blaine!
• Aly Michalka (Aly & AJ, "Phil of the Future," "Grown-Ups 2," "Hellcats") is Liv's best friend and roommate Peyton Charles. I really would like to see more back story on her, and how it fits in with Liv's story. They're best friends - Peyton seems to know Liv's family and Major really well. And having someone who works for the DA's office could come in handy for this team.
• Nick Purcha ("Spooksville," "R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour") is Liv's little brother Evan. So far, he's just a recurring character who doesn't seem to really have a purpose yet. I'm sure that there will be ways for him to get into trouble though. Liv won't be able to hide the fact that she's dead from him very much longer. 

Check out the recap after the jump, and tell us what you think in the comments!

Your Wallets are Doomed: Lego Enters the Skylanders Game

"Wait," you ask, "Is that a picture of Marty McFly running from Golem and the Wicked Witch in Oz?"

Yes, yes it is.

First, Skylanders lured you in. Then Nintendo and Disney gave you the bug. And now, LEGO has decided to put the final spike in your addiction, by building a Skylanders style game of their own. On September 27th, they'll unleash the starter pack, allowing you to take Gandalf, Wildstyle and Batman (with his trust Batmobile) through a portal into a story of an evil villain ripping holes in different LEGO universes. The only way to save them is to team up the heroes from franchises like Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, DC Comics, The Wizard of Oz and, we imagine, many many more in LEGO Dimensions.

The starter pack, pictured below, will cost $69.99. After that, they'll take the rest of your paycheck at, we imagine, $15 a figure.

The game is developed by TT Games, who've created all the incredible LEGO games of the past few years. This is exciting in itself - while the toys in Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and the Amiibo line have been cool, the games built around them don't have the kind of fun pedigree the LEGO games have.

The really cool thing about this is that it looks like many of the additional props, like the Batmobile and the portal itself, are actual LEGO toys you'll have to build. Here's hoping they find a way to incorporate giant playsets and other LEGO accessories. Hit the jump to see the reveal trailer, with a surprise guest.

Rumor mill: Is there an Agents of SHIELD spinoff coming?

According to Entertainment Weekly, who's usually one of the more reliable sources out there, Marvel and ABC are considering a spinoff to their recently-popular series Agents of Shield, from Executive Producer Jeffrey Bell (Angel, X-files) and SHIELD writer Paul Zbyszewski, who also worked on Lost and Hawaii 5-0. There's no word yet on what the spinoff might entail, only that it would spin off of "certain ideas and themes" from this season of SHIELD. Rampant speculation is, of course, ill advised, and there's no guarantee this is even happening.

With that out of the way, let's get to rampantly speculating.

The major "theme" of this season, so far, is the introduction of the Inhumans to the MCU. So far, the show has avoided showing any parts of the Inhuman mythology that might show up in an eventual movie, except for brief hints of Attilan, their capital city. They've instead chosen to make these "gifted" individuals more of an analogue to the X-men - something that Marvel has been doing in recent years in order to stave off Fox's stranglehold on the X-men movie and TV rights. So if that's the big theme of this season, and we want to do a spinoff, I'm gonna go ahead and speculate hard that this will be about a team of superpowered individuals. Maybe SHIELD sponsored, maybe rogues - in fact, rogues would be better, as they could then come into conflict with SHIELD on the weekly crossovers.

While I doubt they'd move Skye over to another show permanently, there are a few characters, like Raina and Eyeless-Guy, who would fit perfectly into a demographic like that, and it would satisfy the itch to have an X-men-like show on TV.

Daredevil's Final TV Costume Revealed!

Earlier this morning, there was a teensy little leak on Netflix, that accidentally blew the lid off of what Daredevil's final costume on the new TV show (premiering this Friday!) would look like. It was a low res image, but Marvel's used to dealing with leaks by now and always want their content represented in the best possible way. So they responded by giving us all a peak at the final costume, and it looks fantastic. Comic inspired, but still feeling gritty in a real world way. Hit the jump for the reveal video, and a full look at the new Daredevil.