Book Review: WAS SUPERMAN A SPY? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed ( Paperback )

There's a new Paperback Book out right now on the history of comic books titled "WAS SUPERMAN A SPY? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed". It is written by Brian Cronin & published by Plume. Bouncing around the Internet I have seen a mention of it here, a review there, so I was curious & decided to check it out. Basically the book is sort of a myth busters-type book where the author explores all the "urban legends" surrounding the long 70+ year history of comic book creators & characters. There have been all kinds of interesting myths & with this book he does extensive research to find out which ones are true & which are false. The book is broken down into 3 parts: DC Comics, Marvel, & Other Publishers. But all the chapters have a lot of extremely interesting stories so even if, for example, you don't like "Marvel Comics", it's still a great read. Now the only reason I felt this book would be possible as a review here at the Bat-Blog is that it does cover a few of the events involving BATMAN. Mainly all the controversy around who really created the character & how much did Bob Kane actually draw the comic book. There's some other interesting information about the Caped Crusader in there too like who created certain characters. For example, "Did Jerry Robinson really create the Joker or was it Bob Kane?" Also, the book covers a lot of other territory in it's 256 pages. Some of the other questions it answers is, "Was the trademark hairstyle of Elvis Presley really based on a comic book character &, if so, which one? Was Wolverine of the X-Men originally meant to be an actual wolverine/animal? Did the creator of the Lie-Detector Test also create Wonder Woman's "Lasso of Truth"? and on & on! It seems that Brian did TONS of research & covers a HUGE amount of material. Overall, I found the book to be pretty entertaining. Brian's writing style is very precise ( he gets right down to business ). It's written to be sort of "conversational" & easy to understand. But he does a good job with relaying a lot of facts like exact names, dates, etc...so that's cool. Now, about the overall design of the book ( which I think is important ). The cover is absolutely amazing! In fact, I'm linking this review to an interview with the Graphic Designer who created the cover, it's that nice. The material used for the cover feels really good in your hands, it's very durable & has a great texture. Plus, graphically it just looks very cool with sort of a retro-style. Now the inside of the book. The font size is wonderful to read, which is something a lot of people don't think about but reading many books lately I've noticed publishers use extremely small font sizes to make books with less pages. They're total hell to read, but not this book, that's nice. My only complaint about the whole thing...some of the inside photos & illustrations. Now, most of the photos are pretty decent ( & there's a lot of them ) but just a few are kinda murky & hard to see. It seems like the editor was a little weak about that ( Sorry Brian & Plume, I gotta be honest ). But really it doesn't distract that much from the book & I seriously enjoyed reading it. I mean, when I started, the experience was so good that I ended up reading about half the book before I put it down. If I had not been tired ( it was bedtime ) I would have read the whole thing all the way through! If you love comic books then I think you'll find it very entertaining & you just might find yourself laughing out loud a little bit every now & then, ha ha! Plus, you'll learn a lot of very interesting facts about the Comic Book business & it's properties. If you would like to know more about the graphic design of the book cover then please check out this LINK for more information. I've also included a link to Amazon, so if you buy stuff from there please use one of our links because it helps to support this page a little bit ( a VERY little bit, ha ha ).

Video: BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM - IGN VIDEO GAME REVIEW TRAILER

From IGN, we get this awesome Game Review for the New Eidos BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM Video Game. All the reports that I have been getting so far are saying that this is the BEST Batman and/or Comic Book Superhero Franchise video game yet!! It's gonna be released on August 25th, 2009, so look for it soon!

Comic Review: Robyn Hood #4

Review: Robyn Hood #4 (Zenescope)
By: Erin DeBorba

The last time we saw Robyn, her and the Merry Men were about to enter the competition that King John wanted to use as a trap. Thinking they would start a revolution, Robyn saw this as her chance to kill the king, and make her way back home after a year of sleeping in Sherwood Forest.

The comic opens up with a graduation scene, and Mr. Cal King was granted Valedictorian. Not only does he royally screw up the ceremony by bringing up awful memories, but his conversation with his father doesn't go so well either.

Meanwhile, The king has announced that his Champion, a vicious, brutal man, would be joining the tournament, which makes the Merry Men quiver in fear. Robyn however, thinks it to be more fun. The tournament ensues, and ends up coming down to the first two persons to shoot a bulls eye with an arrow, fight each other in a duel to the death for first place. Coming out on top? Robyn, and of course, the King's Champion.

Once the king has unveiled Robyn to the crowd, and announces the duel, we watch as they fight an epic battle, which leads to Robyn nearly losing, then the Champion nearly losing, and Robyn ending up done and in a jail cell, again.

While in the jail cell, Robyn thinks of ways to escape, but ends up getting a visit from the King himself. As he belittles her and talks down to her, Robyn becomes more and more frustrated, and calls out his flaws, and how scared he might actually be. He leaves her for the night, and she decides to wait it out instead of escaping. Her ultimate goal? To kill the King.

As in every Robyn Hood yet, the story is captivating and eye-catching. The scenarios Robyn finds herself in are not only entertaining, but encouraging as well. The work of Pat Shand is yet again proven to be amazing, while the work of the artists at hand only improves with each issue.

Make sure to check the review of issue 5, coming soon!

Erin

NEW BATMAN DVD REVIEW - THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Season Two, Part One ( 2-Disc Set )

I just got done watching the latest "BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD" TV Cartoon DVD. It's the new "SEASON TWO, PART ONE" 2-Disc Set. Oh man, it was a total blast to watch! I think "Season Two" was when this show was really hitting it's stride. Plus, this DVD took forever to watch, almost 4 hours! Which is a point I'd like to make: Considering that you get 273 minutes of entertainment for less than the price of a regular movie, then it's still a pretty good value. But, back to the greatness of this product, hee hee! It contains some of the best episodes so far. Here's a list, check it out:



Disc 1

• Death Race To Oblivion!
• Long Arm Of The Law!
• Revenge of the Reach!
• Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure!
• The Golden Age of Justice!
• Sidekicks Assemble!
  

Disc 2

• Clash of the Metal Men!
• A Bat Divided!
• The Super-Batman of Planet X!
• The Power of Shazam!
• Chill of The Night!
• Gorillas in Our Mist!

OK, see what I mean. There's some great stuff on this volume. Personally my 2 favorite episodes to watch again were "The Golden Age of Justice!" and "Chill of the Night!". I guess I should also mention that this DVD Set has 2 Languages: English & Spanish. It also has "French Subtitles".

Welcome to the Vitka Zone

In "Independents Day" Nerd Caliber provides short reviews of noteworthy comics and books NOT produced by a major publisher.

Be afraid. Be very afraid... and amused, it turns out.

Space Whiskey Death Chronicles, indie author William Vitka's gripping short story collection finds the edges of classic science fiction and dark fantasy and dives headfirst into the horrible abyss beyond. There are no guarantees of happiness and fewer assurances of safety in Vitka's universe.

His work evokes the best of the "Twilight Zone" and "Tales from the Darkside." It's a completely fresh voice sharing a horror that feels as authentically eldritch as anything Poe and Lovecraft invented.

If you're looking for a nice story that makes you feel good about being a human, look elsewhere. If you want a story with a small epiphany at the end, where everyone is sadder, but wiser at the end, just put this book down.

There's no comfort here. Being a human in Vitka's fiction is like being an insect in a world much larger and more terrifying than we could realize. We cannot hope to influence our destiny. The best we can do is resist, futilely, the incredible forces that will certainly overwhelm us. Somehow in this real world full of science and math that is so far beyond our understanding, his work feels terrifyingly relevant.

Yet, it is to his credit that his writing moves the reader along quickly, as if some kind of joke that is teasing you toward the punch line. Jack the Ripper is a hero of the world. We are a family running out of oxygen in the deep reaches of space. Gremlins are helpers. All of your preconceived notions of good and evil mean nothing as each tale requires a total shift of perspective.

It's the mark of great stories that even when you can guess the ending that the journey was worth the time invested. This collection meets-and exceeds-this goal every time.

I rate it five Cthulhu tentacles out of five.

Buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Space-Whiskey-Death-Chronicles/dp/162007155X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375211633&sr=1-4

Follow William Vitka here: https://twitter.com/vitka

RWBY: Review and Relations

So I didn't know about RWBY, much to my shame, until a fellow MuseHack author pointed it out. Just another sign of the important of keeping up on things.

RWBY is a cgi-animated series by the famous Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. There's many ways to describe it, but basically it's what you get when a team of people get together with their voice talent, design talent, and modern software, and do an anime-inspired series using CGI. There's a lot of Rooster Teeth personnel involved in this, so if you're acquainted with them, you've heard of them.

(Yeah, you'd think *I* would have kept up on something this professionally geeky. I am filled with shame).

So anyway, what is RWBY? It's a mixture of re-interpreted fairy tale characters in a world where humanity is beset by horrible creatures known as The Grimm. Specialists who stand against them are known as Huntsmen and Huntresses, and humanity's big edge over The Grimm is magical Dust, which powers weapons and provides a numbers of effects. Helping train potential Huntsmen and Huntresses are various academies, including Beacon Academy, where the story kicks into gear.

(A lot to keep track of? There's a wiki already.)

The story centers around Ruby Rose, which as you may guess is a Little Red Riding Hood concept. Only Little Red Riding Hood did't build a giant reconfigurable scythe/sniper rifle under tutelage of her uncle. When she tangles with the criminal gang of charming-but deadly Roman Torchwick, she gets the attention of Beacon Academy and gets moves ahead a few years . . . and you get to meet many fellow students who may seem a bit familiar in some fairy tale ways . . .

So it's a lot of elements we've seen before. But is it good or not?

And here's the odd thing in reviewing it; the best way to describe the series is sincere. There's actually a lot of good stuff here, and there are flaws, but the sincerity really makes it something different. I enjoyed it, but part of the fun was I felt I was having a great time with the people who make it. It connects.

RWBY pretty much bursts with love for what it's doing, for doing crazy stuff, for having a ball with it. You can see lovingly created craziness and little details, stylistic takes, and plenty of references. I consider it enjoyable because the staff is taking you along for the ride. There's a personal, hand-crafted feel to this that adds a special something.

Now it's not going to be for everyone. You may not like the CGI animation, or the use of tropes, or whatever. But I think it's something to appreciate and to check out - also because it's made by people like us.

So to make this review complete, let's list the pros and the cons of the series.

Pros:

• There's a fusion of anime and video game styles here that's very promising, and often reminiscent of Suda 51 s works. I think there's a chance for some real interesting aesthetic development.
• At times it goes utterly artsy - check out the trailer for White, which really blew me away.
• There's plenty of puns and elements on fairy tales, and not just the obvious ones. Just the head of Beacon Academy, Ozpin, has a name that's a reference to less known elements of the Wizard of Oz. This promises to be a fun treasure hunt.
• The story has actual world building and a background. Things are actually going on.
• The sincerity. Again, that goes far.
• Though I note below I felt the voice acting quality is erratic, everyone throws themselves into the role. Special props to the actress doing Ruby Rose (Lindsay Tuggey) for her unbridled enthusiasm, and Jaune Arc (Miles Luna) for having to walk the difficult line of making a character dorky but likable.
• I'm glad to see a series focusing on strong female characters.
• Roman Torchwick is awesome. But I'm biased.

Cons:

• The style of the show at times veers. I don't think the game/anime fusion aesthetic is quite settled. I expect this to improve in time but it can be jarring. I felt the Black trailer showed ways that you can fuse the aesthetics very well.
• The CGI is decent, but doesn't always work right for expressions or body language, and I felt sometimes character expressions got lost. There's also times where I wanted more detail and things were "too CGI."
• The voice acting quality was erratic as noted. Again I expect this to improve.
• The series does use several common tropes. I don't mind if they're done well, but this may not appeal to everyone.

So that's my take. Personally, if you're any kind of anime, game, and CGI enthusiast you should check it out. It really is a great example of what people can do when they team up and cut loose, and you might find it's something you've been looking for.

Because it's made by people who ask what'd happen if you gave Little Red Riding Hood a gun-scythe, or armed Goldilocks with wrist-mounted blasters.

You know. US.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

“Massively Effective” is Massively Awesome

Welcome to "Independents Day," Nerd Caliber's short reviews of noteworthy comics and books NOT produced by a major publisher.

"Ever since those captains of virtue, Mass and Effect, re-entered our lives, it has been nothing but countless rounds of humiliation. If I wasn't already mad, our continuous battles would have driven me to the brink."-PhD

After a futuristic tribunal deems "Mass" and "Effect" colossal failures the two superheroes are relegated to a normal life. So it's to the comic book shop for these two b-level do-gooders. But look out! Their rogue's gallery is not content to allow them to stay retired for long.

Written by Marco Lopez and Bryan Ginn, art by Michael Mayne, and colors by Walt Barna, Massively Effective #1 is a super-charged, action-first story that combines Joss Whedon's quippy dialogue with bright, fun artwork. This particular issue is nearly all-ages, but certainly would work for a young teen audience who would be able to keep up with the storyline.

While many comics have opted for a slower pace with less dialogue and large visuals, Lopez and Ginn aren't afraid to give characters single panels filled with full conversations. But they wisely balance this against whole scenes of battles against zombies and a guitar-playing evil lizard. And it hits the right notes for me. Almost like having a really amazing Spider-Man adventure, without all maudlin whining in the film version of Amazing Spider-Man.

Note: apparently Mass and Effect aren't down with the cape and mask look. It's fine. They carry off the "no-costume" style with panache.

In conclusion, if your comic books aren't so fun anymore or the endless companywide crossovers are just (yawn) meh, you owe it to yourself (and your inner child) to give it a try. It rates three out of three unsheathed Wolverine claws.

Preview this issue at http://www.atomicrexentertainment.com/

REVIEW/RECAP: ‘Doctor Who’ Episode 7.1 – “Asylum of the Daleks”

A key reason why I’m such a stalwart fan of the Moffat era of Doctor Who (and do, in fact, prefer it to the Davies era, though David Tennant is still my Doctor) is its ability to constantly upset any sense of a comfort zone we might get as viewers. We’re now in our third year of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and his companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), and despite the fact that we’re now watching the longest continuous pairing of Doctor and Companion(s) in the history of the revived series, nothing about this show ever feels safe. The balance is constantly upset, and that element of uncertainty is even more prevalent now that we know the Ponds are about to make their exit in an as-yet-unknown way. With “Asylum of the Daleks,” Steven Moffat kicked off his third series as Doctor Who showrunner up to all his tricks, throwing plenty of curves into the story, putting the Ponds on already-shaky ground and introducing us to a new face (sort of).

NOTE: I will keep the first portion of this review as spoiler-free as possible, but near the end I’ll want to talk a bit about some major plot points, so there will be a SPOILER ALERT hitting you later on. Watch for it if you don’t want to know about something you haven’t seen.

A message from a mysterious woman ends in a trap for The Doctor, and he suddenly finds himself surrounded by the Parliament of the Daleks alongside Amy and Rory (who aren’t having the best time as man and wife at the moment. But this time, it’s not about the Daleks fighting to exterminate their old enemy (at least, no yet). This time, the Daleks have a mission for The Doctor: visit a legendary planet-sized asylum filled with crazy Daleks (yes, there are things even the Daleks consider to be unreasonable) and deactivate a force field so the Dalek parliament can purge the asylum of all those crazy exterminators. Of course, if he succeeds, The Doctor will probably be killed too, but at the moment he doesn’t have much of a choice.

On the asylum planet, the Doctor finds his two friends squabbling, a problem that seems nearly impossible to solve, and a mysterious woman stranded in a crashed spaceship communicating with him through the Dalek security system (because, apparently, she’s a genius). Oh, and the Daleks have a new trick: they can put themselves in human bodies.

Despite often inventing his own new adversaries for the Doctor, Moffat has said more than once that the Daleks have always been his favorite. But, as with the last Dalek stories he showed us, he’s not interested in exhibiting them in the form we’re used to. Odd as it might seem, there’s an element of raw, painful emotion to these creatures, and here it’s put front and center. Moffat shows us a world where Daleks, a species dominated by a searing hate for things that aren’t like them, can in fact become some overwhelmed by that emotion that even they go crazy. That’s intriguing in itself, but by the end of this episode Moffat has taken the mentally unstable Dalek conceit much, much further, and the result is a deep new layer in Who mythology that’s likely to keep resonating for a long time.

Moffat also shows us a new layer of Amy and Rory that few people could have expected: the unhappy one. Yes, we’ve seen them bicker for two years, but it’s not the same this time. It’s a deeper wound, one that could have big implications for their exit later, and that’s not even taking into account how this affects The Doctor. When these two elements – Amy and Rory and the crazy Daleks – combine, we get an episode that’s equal parts breakneck, plot-heavy joyride and deep-cutting, mythos-altering storytelling.

For me, “Asylum of the Daleks” actually managed to be a better season premiere than last year’s “The Impossible Astronaut” (an episode I really loved), not just because it returned the Daleks to the forefront, but because it set up something bigger than “Will the Doctor die?” which is a question that has a very obvious answer. Something big is happening here that, though we only have a few episodes to explore, could dig into the Doctor’s inner darkness more than Moffat ever has before, and that’s saying something.

Now comes the part where we talk SPOILERS. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet, look away now.

Seriously, I’m not holding anything back past this point, so if you don’t want to know things….

Still here? OK

So, obviously the first thing we have to talk about is the appearance of Jenna-Louise Coleman, the Doctor’s new Companion, a good while before most people expected her to show (a lot of people, including me, were guessing Christmas special). And not only did she show up, but she had a big role to play in this story. It’s interesting for several reasons, but the thing that occurred to me first is that we usually don’t see the new Companion until the old one(s) has gone. Usually the Doctor simply happens upon his new friends in the midst of an adventure, but Moffat promised us something different here, and we definitely got it. And then the big bombshell came: Oswin (Coleman’s character) is only formerly human. She’s been converted into a Dalek, but she’s still holding on to her human identity. So, as it turns out, she’s the craziest Dalek of them all. But she made an impression on The Doctor. Unlike some previous companions, she’s not intimidated by him or blown away by his power (she’s a bit like Donna in that respect). She can hang with him verbally, she’s sassy and smart and funny and she’s definitely got some kind of edge going on. But how will Moffat work around the whole Dalek thing? Time will tell.

Then, there’s the news that Amy and Rory are on the verge of divorce when we first rejoin them, only to be reunited after a very poignant resolution of their issues by episode’s end. That’s all well and good, but really look at what happened there. The big implication is that they probably would never have reconciled had it not been for The Doctor. Last season was all about how The Doctor hurts the ones he loves, even if he doesn’t mean to. Will this year be about the tragedy of Amy and Rory’s dependence on The Doctor? It certainly seems to be skewing that way, and if that’s really the case it could be the seed of their downfall.

Next week: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”

Anarchy Reigns – Video Game Review

Anarchy Reigns is a third person beat ‘em up video game for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox360 from Platinum Games. They are the minds behind games such as Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Madworld. Platinum games has a record of making incredible single player games. As a studio founded, and headed by former members of Capcom, the before mentioned titles are over the top, and filled with action. This is the company's first multi-player title, and sad to say, it really doesn't live up to my expectations. Anarchy Reigns was a game built for multi-player, and it is a pity that the single player campaign feels tacked on because of this. To fully enjoy Anarchy Reigns multi-player, you will have to complete single player mode in order to unlock characters to use in multi-player. The main story is told from two perspectives, the white side, and the black side. Sadly both stories are really repetitive, and you'll find yourself doing a bunch of missions while beating down easy enemies of various types.

The missions vary from killing a number of enemies in a certain time, poorly done kart racing, and escort missions. Another sad part about the campaign is the lack of a challenge and a very easy boss battle. The campaign is boring. Given the enemy types, and bosses of previous Platinum Games titles sadly to say I was very disappointed. Music in this game is pretty meh. Less than impressive tracks play as you go through the campaign, destroying everyone in your way. Visuals for this game are very dated. It will not be winning any awards for its graphics. Graphics don't make the game, but looking at poor visuals of this game is kind of a downer. Character models are pretty basic and weird looking. I get what they were going for but the majority of the characters look very early gen. Also the environments are very lackluster, and textures tend to fade in & out at certain parts, and are very low res. This game sadly does not look like a game of this console generation.

As for gameplay, the controls are pretty good. Anybody who has played a beat-em-up before can pick up this game with ease, however newcomers will most likely have a hard time with this game. As I said earlier, this game was made for multiplayer. Each character has their own style and combos. However, to fully involve yourself with a character you'll have to learn their ins and outs. Learning combos, chaining moves, and learning the execution of each character is a must. Utilizing weapons and the environment around you is also a key part of this gameplay. The arena itself is also a factor. These stage events will change the dynamics of the battlefield, such as crashing airplanes, bridges being destroyed, earthquakes, and waves. These arena affects add a more intensity to the battle. However the multi-player is not perfect. The beat-em-up style of this game is infused with concepts, and new ideas that do not work well. The purpose of these gameplay changes were to make the game more unique, but sadly it was a hit and miss.

The traditional multi-player modes are there. There are Regular Player and Ranked Lobbies to choose from, and you have Free For All, Team Deathmatch, Survival mode, tag matches, cage matches, Capture the Flag, and probably the most interesting, Deathball. Deathball is probably the game's most unique mode. It is virtually an over the top Football game, instead of tackling, you kill your opposition. It takes some time to get used to that mode’s gameplay and features but it can be pretty fun.

Now Anarchy Reigns is not a horrible game, the Multiplayer is very fun, however to unlock characters you pretty much have to play the tacked on single player mode. However with dated graphics, buggy gameplay, and the issues with unfamiliar game mechanics, it hurts the game. However at a price point of $30, it is hard to really pass up. If you are in the mode for a unique over the top beat-em-up game, I would recommend it. With all the above mentioned, I give this game 2 & a half stars.

“The Dark… Whatever” – ‘Dexter’ Episode Review

As the seventh season of Dexter continues, we've no more Isaak to act as the running bad guy, so what's a serial killer to do? Well, there are still some family problems occupying Dexter's time. He's got a sister that flip-flops between wanting to jump his bones and trying to throw his girlfriend in jail. He happens to be dating someone who doesn't mind offing people, good or bad. And not to mention there's a nosey LaGuerta slowly following a years-old trail that may lead her to figure out that Dexter is actually the Bay Harbor Butcher. Following last episode's events, the show takes us a few weeks into the future, where a couple new bad guys have shown up to at least give Dex a bit of a distraction.

(read the review after the jump)

A serial killer arsonist is roaming the land, lighting people on fire in public places and watching them as they burn. Dex battles his urge to hunt and kill, trying hard to keep to his agreement with Deb about not interfering in her cases. Ultimately he figures out who's doing all the killing but lets his sister do her job, trying to repair the damage in their relationship.

On the home front, Dex tries to explain to Hannah the concept of his "dark passenger". She's skeptical at first, being the more practical sort of murderer, but Dex manages to convince her, at least for a time. His own self-examination causes Dex to doubt the reality of said evil presence causing him to kill, eventually arriving at the conclusion that the whole thing may be nothing more than a story he tells himself so that he doesn't need to take responsibility for his actions.

And since things can't go two minutes on the show without getting complicated, Hannah's father comes-a-calling. He claims he's trying to make peace with her for all the shitty stuff he did when she was a child, but in reality he's just looking for a hand-out. He threatens to let loose some incriminating information about one of Hannah's earlier kills if she or Dex doesn't hand over a pile of cash. After Dex has to give up his kill on the arsonist, he instead goes after the father even though it doesn't meet his code. Unfortunately for Hannah, Dex is a bit too late and dear daddy has already left an anonymous tip with the police, sending Deb on the hunt again as she tries to put her brother's love behind bars.

In the meanwhile, Quinn resolves his problems with the Russian mob while creating even more. He finds out that bad guy George is going to send his lady to work in a sex club and takes a trip to deal with the situation. Things get out of hand, some bullets are exchanged and the show is minus one strip-joint owner. Quinn frames it up to make it look like self-defense, but Angel is there to doubt him. Still, Angel keeps Quinn’s secret despite his suspicions, even going so far as to let Nadya bolt instead of hanging out to act as a witness. In addition, LaGuerta steadily pursues her leads, making even more connections between Dex and the framing of Doakes as the Bay Harbor Butcher.

This latest episode harkens back to earlier seasons of Dexter with more of a cop show feel. Dex is hunting like he used to, albeit with more complications in his life to make his routine less than optimal. There's a bit of a break from the heavy psychological development that's been permeating the first half of the season, but there's still a major turning point in Dexter's self-realization about his dark passenger not being quite what he thought.

Dexter's changes will no doubt pan out over the course of the next and final two episodes of the season. He's broken his code and relinquished his excuses for killing, potentially sending him into a transformation that could make him just as bad as the people he normally hunts. Add to that a girlfriend that makes no excuses and Dex could be in for a very bad ending. Eventually, the confrontation with LaGuerta will have to happen and when it does Dex might be willing to start taking out anyone who gets in his way.

Downward spiral coming? We shall have to see how it develops over the next two weeks and then wait another year to hear the punch-line. Until then, keep rooting for Dex, for we may be saying goodbye to all his humanity in the near future.

REVIEW/RECAP: ‘Doctor Who’ Episode 7.1 – “Asylum of the Daleks”

A key reason why I’m such a stalwart fan of the Moffat era of Doctor Who (and do, in fact, prefer it to the Davies era, though David Tennant is still my Doctor) is its ability to constantly upset any sense of a comfort zone we might get as viewers. We’re now in our third year of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and his companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), and despite the fact that we’re now watching the longest continuous pairing of Doctor and Companion(s) in the history of the revived series, nothing about this show ever feels safe. The balance is constantly upset, and that element of uncertainty is even more prevalent now that we know the Ponds are about to make their exit in an as-yet-unknown way. With “Asylum of the Daleks,” Steven Moffat kicked off his third series as Doctor Who showrunner up to all his tricks, throwing plenty of curves into the story, putting the Ponds on already-shaky ground and introducing us to a new face (sort of).

NOTE: I will keep the first portion of this review as spoiler-free as possible, but near the end I’ll want to talk a bit about some major plot points, so there will be a SPOILER ALERT hitting you later on. Watch for it if you don’t want to know about something you haven’t seen.

A message from a mysterious woman ends in a trap for The Doctor, and he suddenly finds himself surrounded by the Parliament of the Daleks alongside Amy and Rory (who aren’t having the best time as man and wife at the moment. But this time, it’s not about the Daleks fighting to exterminate their old enemy (at least, no yet). This time, the Daleks have a mission for The Doctor: visit a legendary planet-sized asylum filled with crazy Daleks (yes, there are things even the Daleks consider to be unreasonable) and deactivate a force field so the Dalek parliament can purge the asylum of all those crazy exterminators. Of course, if he succeeds, The Doctor will probably be killed too, but at the moment he doesn’t have much of a choice.

On the asylum planet, the Doctor finds his two friends squabbling, a problem that seems nearly impossible to solve, and a mysterious woman stranded in a crashed spaceship communicating with him through the Dalek security system (because, apparently, she’s a genius). Oh, and the Daleks have a new trick: they can put themselves in human bodies.

Despite often inventing his own new adversaries for the Doctor, Moffat has said more than once that the Daleks have always been his favorite. But, as with the last Dalek stories he showed us, he’s not interested in exhibiting them in the form we’re used to. Odd as it might seem, there’s an element of raw, painful emotion to these creatures, and here it’s put front and center. Moffat shows us a world where Daleks, a species dominated by a searing hate for things that aren’t like them, can in fact become some overwhelmed by that emotion that even they go crazy. That’s intriguing in itself, but by the end of this episode Moffat has taken the mentally unstable Dalek conceit much, much further, and the result is a deep new layer in Who mythology that’s likely to keep resonating for a long time.

Moffat also shows us a new layer of Amy and Rory that few people could have expected: the unhappy one. Yes, we’ve seen them bicker for two years, but it’s not the same this time. It’s a deeper wound, one that could have big implications for their exit later, and that’s not even taking into account how this affects The Doctor. When these two elements – Amy and Rory and the crazy Daleks – combine, we get an episode that’s equal parts breakneck, plot-heavy joyride and deep-cutting, mythos-altering storytelling.

For me, “Asylum of the Daleks” actually managed to be a better season premiere than last year’s “The Impossible Astronaut” (an episode I really loved), not just because it returned the Daleks to the forefront, but because it set up something bigger than “Will the Doctor die?” which is a question that has a very obvious answer. Something big is happening here that, though we only have a few episodes to explore, could dig into the Doctor’s inner darkness more than Moffat ever has before, and that’s saying something.

Now comes the part where we talk SPOILERS. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet, look away now.

Seriously, I’m not holding anything back past this point, so if you don’t want to know things….

Still here? OK

So, obviously the first thing we have to talk about is the appearance of Jenna-Louise Coleman, the Doctor’s new Companion, a good while before most people expected her to show (a lot of people, including me, were guessing Christmas special). And not only did she show up, but she had a big role to play in this story. It’s interesting for several reasons, but the thing that occurred to me first is that we usually don’t see the new Companion until the old one(s) has gone. Usually the Doctor simply happens upon his new friends in the midst of an adventure, but Moffat promised us something different here, and we definitely got it. And then the big bombshell came: Oswin (Coleman’s character) is only formerly human. She’s been converted into a Dalek, but she’s still holding on to her human identity. So, as it turns out, she’s the craziest Dalek of them all. But she made an impression on The Doctor. Unlike some previous companions, she’s not intimidated by him or blown away by his power (she’s a bit like Donna in that respect). She can hang with him verbally, she’s sassy and smart and funny and she’s definitely got some kind of edge going on. But how will Moffat work around the whole Dalek thing? Time will tell.

Then, there’s the news that Amy and Rory are on the verge of divorce when we first rejoin them, only to be reunited after a very poignant resolution of their issues by episode’s end. That’s all well and good, but really look at what happened there. The big implication is that they probably would never have reconciled had it not been for The Doctor. Last season was all about how The Doctor hurts the ones he loves, even if he doesn’t mean to. Will this year be about the tragedy of Amy and Rory’s dependence on The Doctor? It certainly seems to be skewing that way, and if that’s really the case it could be the seed of their downfall.

Next week: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”