Gully Foyle
After World War II, many veterans suffered post-traumatic stress and other mental illnesses. Now, long-buried documents have come to light that reveal how nearly 2,000 of these soldiers who were given lobotomies in VA hospitals. They were sent home to their families with this "care" pamphlet.
Ballatine has issued a shiny new edition of Sagan's book Cosmos, with a foreword from Cosmos reboot host Neil deGrasse Tyson. We've got an excerpt, which reveals how deeply Sagan was concerned about climate change in 1980 when the book was originally published.
World War Z, the movie that wasn't really about the book it was adapted from, is getting a sequel and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
The Geminid meteor shower is consistently the most impressive celestial light show of the year. 2013's display peaks Friday, and while this year's shower will be competing with a fair bit of moonlight, it's still shaping up to be one hell of a show. Here's what you need to know to spot as many meteors as possible.
Poor Thorin Oakenshield — the would-be King under the mountain just can't get a break. In The Hobbit, Azog the Defiler kills his dad, then he steals the dwarf's favorite shield... and he's not done yet. In our interview with Richard Armitage, the man behind the warrior's hair and nose, we find out just how much further Thorin has to fall. Small spoilers ahead.
As if the zombies in The Walking Dead weren't enough to worry about already, the latest issue of the hit comic book series is teasing they could soon be something even more dangerous.
Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard (plus Tony Moore at the beginning) have been telling the story of The Walking Dead's survivors for a decade now, and they've presented us with an ever-shifting tapestry of survivors, threats, triumphs and defeats. Characters come and go, the tide of zombies ebbs and flows, but one thing has always been constant: the zombies themselves.
Anyone familiar with the traditional zombie paradigm knows what to expect from these creatures. They shamble toward you in their rotten state, wanting nothing more than to tear into your flesh. If they bite you, you get sick and die (or, if you're lucky, just lose a limb), then you return as one of them, moving and behaving in the same way they all do. To "kill" them, you hit them in the brain. That's it. It's not any more complicated than that, right?
Well, that was true until this panel from The Walking Dead #118, in stores today, teased that there may be a new twist coming for these zombies.
That body seems to have turned almost instantly, or at least much faster than the several minutes we've come to expect in both the comic and the TV series. Now, this could easily be Kirkman simply throwing a twist into this individual story, and establishing that it only happens in some situations. But, it could also mean that change is coming to all of the story's undead. Imagine what would happen if survivors who were used to having time to move a body away from everyone else, or to catch their breath, or to clean up, suddenly had to deal with zombies who appeared almost instantly. How many would be caught off guard? How quickly could a survivor community be wiped out by a rapid infection rate? Imagine a zombie world in which a moment's hesitation to mourn a loved one could cost your life as well.
It's a very interesting idea, and it could make serious waves in both the comic and the TV series if it continues to develop. For now, though, we'll just have to keep reading to see if Kirkman sticks to this concept.
(Via Bleeding Cool)
Tom Cruise is cursed to repeat his life in Edge of Tomorrow, but he isn't stuck on Groundhog Day. He's stuck in a weapons-laden powersuit, in the middle of an alien invasion, where he dies... and then he wakes up to do it all over again. The first trailer reveals that if nothing else, the action scenes will be spectacular.
We've been hearing rumors that a couple of Superman villains will fight Supes, Wonder Woman and Batman in the Man of Steel sequel. But not all Superman villains are really up to the task of fighting Superman, let alone the Trinity. Here are 10 Superman villains who really should have picked on a lesser hero.
Sesame Street teaches the invaluable lesson -- how to pass someone politely.
Can there be any question that Sesame Street is both:
a) the best at getting major celebrities to do hilarious things
b) the undisputed champion of the world at using Vine?
We would argue that there is no question, just a silent nod of agreement from the peanut gallery.
Sesame Street continues its reign of indominabtle supremacy with this Vine of Sir Ian McKellan encountering a Puppet Gandalf that insists McKellen SHALL NOT, well, you know the rest. How does Sir Ian deal with the situation?
Fantastic! Just don't ever teach the Balrog this trick, or all of Middle-earth will be in trouble.
(via Jezebel)
Martin Freeman: Talented actor, serial middle-finger flipper, and awesome interviewee answered a few questions for Showbiz 411, and his answers may surprise you. Unless, of course, you already know that Martin Freeman answers most interview questions as ridiculously as possible.
If you'd like to get into the true spirit of the holidays, you can give donations to causes this year instead of shiny boxes full of electronic circuitry. Luckily, there are plenty of great organizations and crowdfunding opportunities that will help make the world a more futuristic place.
I suppose those toys would make more sense gathered around a nativity scene, but my girlfriend and I are too a-religious to have anything as Christian as nativity set, so in front of the tree they go. Anyway, the Megaman and Godzilla toys are hers and the Jaegers and dinosaurs are mine (duh).
The Eleventh Doctor's time is up, in this brand new trailer for "The Time of the Doctor," the new Doctor Who Christmas special. Including a ton of hints for just how Matt Smith's tragic end goes down. We've also got the motherlode of high-res pics!
Zero Dark Thirty's Jason Clarke is in talks for the role of John Connor in the increasingly good-sounding Terminator reboot. Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke is the front-runner to play Sarah, Schwarzenegger is set to cameo, and it's going to be directed by Thor: the Dark World's Alan Taylor, with a plot that includes time-travel to the future. Could this actually work?
And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain ...
The episode that will finish out a bit of a trilogy (Name of the Doctor, Day of the Doctor, and Time of the Doctor) and see the end to Matt Smith's Eleventh-ish Doctor is coming this Christmas. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long to get a peek. The first trailer is right here, right now. Time to see how the Eleventh will fall on the battlfield of Trenzalore!
Well!
That whole "Silence Will Fall" business doesn't seem terribly silent. Not with the Doctor screaming his head off at the end of the trailer, anyway. Though it is interesting to hear the Daleks saying "The Doctor is regenerating" midway through the trailer. Could we be getting more Capaldi than we thought this Christmas? Only Time (of the Doctor) will tell.
(via Doctor Who TV)
We posted a few great screen shots from the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor earlier this week, but we only had a couple of the “universe’s deadliest species” depicted, and we know, based on the tiny teaser and the synopsis released (refresh your memory below), that more will be appearing.
Now we can finally see more, so much more, in the (HOORAY!) first TV spot just released, along with a whopping 21 new screen shots:
TV Spot: Doctor Who – Christmas Special 2013: The Time of the Doctor
Uh oh, another creepy poem.
Here’s a refresher on that synopsis:
Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars – and amongst them, the Doctor.
Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.
Come on, Christmas! And don’t forget to add a box of tissues to your wish list, for the Matt Smith special and his last episode. Just sayin.
The Doctor Who Christmas special, Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor, starring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, premieres Wednesday, December 25 at 9/8c on BBC America.
Doctor Who: Farewell to Matt Smith premieres Wednesday, December 25 at 8/7c on BBC America.
Behold the Pertamina Energy Tower, a U.S.-designed building that's slated for construction in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reaching a height of a half-kilometer, the tower will harvest its own wind energy through an opening at its peak.
Look, before we get started, let me assure you all that I know the character is called The Doctor, and not Doctor Who. But you can't just have an article headline, even on io9, that only mentions the Doctor, because many people won't realize you're referring to Doctor Who. The same is true in my time, but inevitably some Who-ligan will correct me. The show hasn't aired in 30 years, but these people feel it is super-fucking-important to make sure you know he's only called "The Doctor." It's like, we live in the post-apocalypse, people. Why don't we try to invent running water again before we stress about Doctor Who nomenclature.
Director Matt Reeves (Let Me In) tweeted out the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes website, which is hosting an image collection of apes about to go all Braveheart over some human asses. Hot damn.
We’ve been wondering how long it’d take to learn Agent Coulson’s secret, and now it looks like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be doling out answers very, very soon.
As fans know, Coulson (Clark Gregg) seemingly died in The Avengers, but was mysteriously resurrected to lead the team in S.H.I.E.L.D. The show embraced that mystery and has been feeding us frustratingly tantalizing breadcrumbs throughout the first half of season one.
Now, the first teaser for the series’ 2014 return promises we’ll learn the secret behind Coulson’s resurrection in the back half of season one — but not in the way we thought. Apparently the evil Centipede group wants to know Coulson’s secret, as well, and they’ll go to any length to figure it out.
Check out the footage below:
The back half of year one returns Jan. 7 on ABC.
Though we don't know how they'll explain Coulson's big mystery, S.H.I.E.L.D. producer Jeffrey Bell dropped some hints about what's driving their take on the resurrection story — and said it's all about how it affects Coulson's psyche, as opposed to the "whoa!" reveal. Here's what he told MTV about what's coming in the back nine:
"For us, whatever we say, whatever it is, you're not going to get people saying, what! There's no way I could have seen that coming, because there's only a handful. For us, the question has been more interesting, as Coulson comes to an awareness that he's been lied. As Coulson comes to an awareness that he keeps saying, 'It's a magical place.' As Coulson comes to this questioning what's happened, that's really interesting story stuff for our character.
That to us was something that pays off much better than the holy s**t of it, because there's only so many holy s**ts it could be. That said, I hope we have a cool holy s**t."
So, how do you think it'll all play out next month? Life Model Decoy? Asgardian magic? Something else entirely?
(Via Comic Book Movie)
Another holiday season, another journey to the United Federation of Planets -- for presents!
So you've still got gifts to buy, and many of your friends and family members have a Trek obsession. Not to worry. We've gathered together 15 possibilities to make sure you're covered. From uniforms to Blu-rays, from prop replicas to actual official props -- we've got it all!
Take a look and find the gift that's right for your Trek fan. And then buy something for yourself maybe? No judgment.
And be sure to check out the rest of our 2013 holiday gift guides:
12 awesomely elaborate movie and TV box sets that'd make great holiday gifts
Power up the holidays with these 21 awesome sci-fi videogame gifts
21 sci-fi weapon replicas you can add to a friend's arsenal this holiday
28 great gifts to celebrate the holidays AND Doctor Who's 50th anniversary
26 gruesome holiday gifts for Walking Dead superfans
18 irresistible holiday gifts for your geek girlfriend
18 awesome comic book collections that'd make great holiday gifts
Stunning Boba Fett figure + 20 more gifts for Star Wars-loving friends
23 amazing gifts your superhero sidekicks will love this holiday season
20 holiday gifts your geek boyfriend will love you for
14 insanely expensive holiday gifts for super-rich sci-fi fans
16 awesome novels that'll make great gifts for your favorite sci-fi booklovers
29 awesome Hobbit gifts to give your friends a merry Middle-earth holiday
![Scientists are close to solving one of 2013's greatest mysteries [UPDATING]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1992p6aksb22gpng/ku-xlarge.png)
Earlier this year, graduate student Troy Alexander discovered an oddly intricate maypole-like structure in the Peruvian Amazon. Since then, nobody has been able to conclusively say what made it. Now, a team of biologists stationed in the Amazon says it's close to solving the mystery.
A law in Norway has their National Library scanning all literature and then making it publicly available to anyone to anyone coming in under a Norwegian IP address. Pretty cool, if you're in Norway now or in the near-ish future. But it's also pretty awesome for the much more distant future.
This is how it starts, people. First we get our chatbots to sound and act realistic — and then we get them to convince everyone they're actually human. Listen to this crazy conversation between Time's Michael Scherer and a telemarketing robot who refuses to admit her true artificial nature.
After a rocky start, the first season of The CW’s super-powered series The Tomorrow People has finally found its stride — and it’s included quite a few twists along the way. So, what’s up with the latest shocker?
Series star Mark Pellegrino (Lost, Supernatural) opened up to TV Line about the newest development in the series, which found ragtag leader John (Luke Mitchell) captured by ULTRA’s forces, including Pellegrino’s complex baddie Jedikiah. Considering the fact that Jedikiah's homicidal boss is also prowling the halls now, things will definitely get complicated.
As we’ve learned over the past few weeks, John was once Jedikiah’s surrogate son in the ULTRA program, and the two still share a deeply complicated bond because of it. So, what does that mean now that John is in ULTRA’s clutches? Bond or not, Pellegrino promises John could still bite the bullet.
Here’s how he explained the situation, and teased what’s coming next:
“It’s an interesting thing that Jedikiah’s captured John. I’m just speaking from an interpretive point of view here. It’s true, canonically speaking, but it feels like it was accidental almost. Like, ‘I wish it didn’t have to happen, but it happened.’ It happened just because he brought me to the surface and they were tracking me and they got to him. But it’s a regretful thing. And now that John is in the clutches of Ultra, Jedikiah’s got to negotiate some very strange territory. It’s not just him at Ultra now; there’s The Founder looking over his shoulder. So even if he wanted to protect John, he can’t. And then there’s the further complication of me loving somebody who’s a Tomorrow Person, who’s a possible chip in the game that Jedikiah’s caught in between the Tomorrow People and Ultra…
Jedikiah’s shown himself to be a person of very strong will. In his life, he’s acted against his emotions over and over and over again to do the thing that he thinks is right. I think he does have the strength to [kill John], as much as it would break his heart. But he could, if it was for the greater good.”
The show has taken a patented CW premise and made it something solid by shaking up the status quo pretty regularly, and this latest twist is just an example that the writers aren’t afraid to throw the kitchen sink at it to see what sticks (in a good way).
So, what do you think is going to happen in the fall finale tonight?
(Via TV Line)
There's another new Star Wars casting rumor. Peter Jackson explains why he added elves to The Hobbit, and whether he'll direct an episode of Doctor Who. And Robert Kirkman says you will always know when it's a character's last moment on The Walking Dead. Plus, the first poster from Godzilla. Spoilers now!
Finally! The world gets its first trailer for Hollywood's upcoming Godzilla film. What did you think? You might have an opinion. I might. Japan definitely does.
As the symbolic poster children of science fiction, robots have been served up many ways: as servants, cheap labor, mindless entertainers, and devilish foes.
During the genre’s formative years, stories depicted the robot as not only an altruistic friend, but an equal. By the time the 1950s came around, however, the robot found itself an overused vessel of post-war suspicion; our own anxiety and prejudice began to manifest mechanical psychopaths. In fiction, man maintained retained steadfast ambivalence towards his creation, a misunderstood creature which owed a debt to Frankenstein’s monster, distraught and directionless after being renounced by its creator.
By Jim Burns, from a 1978 OMNI Magazine spread.
The science fiction magazines of the 50s encouraged their proto-machine men to embark on murderous rampages without motive, and so robots joined the ranks of cackling Martian scientists and bug-eyed monsters as moving targets for the pulp hero’s laser pistol. All too often, the robot was seen attempting to elude its human pursuers with a scantily-clad damsel under its arm. Though the formula is a cliché, a gaudy pulp novel cover having little to do with the stories within, it nonetheless disseminated the notion that the robot was a contraption up to no good.
Jim Burns, from OMNI Magazine, 1978.
An anti-machine mentality was intrinsic to mid 20th-century pulp fiction, and explorations of the moral consequences of creating intelligent beings often ended as cautionary tales. Upon activation, the robot was more likely to run amok than sit down to the life of quiet servitude it was designed for.
In this world, man finds but few precious things…he creates the rest.
—OMNI subscription advertising
This convention dictated that it was not if a robot would go berserk, but rather when—a motif which played out ad infinitum on the covers of magazines. Until, that is, the mechanical peril was undermined by Isaac Asimov’s now-famous “Three Laws of Robotics.” Robots, in Asimov’s stories, were man’s caretakers and servants—although it would take time before readers could recognize robots as anything but menacing villains.
A womandroid from the October 1978 issue of OMNI.
Though the fear of machines still exists in fiction, it has evolved into a more general anxiety about artificial intelligence, leaving the now-enfeebled robot to be cast as a victim. As a perfectly unwitting, naïve second-class citizen, the postmodern robot cuts a more sympathetic figure, eulogizing its lack of human emotion, given the lead role in a morality play, and unwittingly cast as an analogue for the misunderstood social minority. We have learned now that the robot never wanted to destroy us: it wanted to be us.
If you built it, it couldn’t be good.
—Harry Harrison
Science fiction artists often have more freedom than their literary counterparts, but their designs are always drawn, in some way, from the technology which surrounds them. Discarding functionality at will, early robots in art were a colorful smorgasbord of right angles, antenna, flashing buttons and dials; the popular robot of the 1950s was a walking refrigerator with illuminated airplane dashboards on his chest. And the robots of an even earlier age were little more than industrial equipment, walking missiles, conglomerations of steam engines, boilers, and pistons.
Robots in science fiction illustration have varied in size from gargantuan levelers of cities to amusingly proportioned, spherical, many-appendaged creatures. Insect-like anatomy has found its way in too, with bug eyes and clawed arms strategically placed to startle audiences.
Angus McKie, from a 1978 OMNI Magazine spread.
But we are entering a real-life robot age, and the reality isn’t likely to kill us, at least not on purpose. Fond sci-fi notions of the robot taking human form have proven to be largely impractical. Instead, diverse real-world applications develop at breakneck speed, and the robot has fragmented into countless disembodied appendages and brains: manual labor, mimicry of fanciful entertainers at parks and resorts, and present-day combat drones, the terrifying prospects of future warfare.
Russell Mills, from OMNI Magazine, 1978.
Visual evolution has swapped clanky, stiff construction for streamlined agility. The robot of the 21st century seeks to emulate nature—Uncanny Valley notwithstanding. It’s a diverse panoply: automated assembly lines, the far-out creations of Boston Dynamics, Japanese entertainment robots like Honda’s world-famous ASIMO, and Actroid, itself a remarkable human impersonator. The reality of the robot is anything but humanoid. It’s disappointing that the mild-mannered domestic robot butler of the 1950s may never come to pass—but, thankfully, neither will the gargantuan invader with laser cannons for arms.
Ed: These images were all published in OMNI Magazine in 1978 and are culled directly from our archives. For those interested parties, many were drawn from the semilegendary “Illustrated Manual of Science Fiction Hardware” Mechanismo, written by Harry Harrison.
The post From the OMNI Archive: Robots appeared first on OMNI Reboot.
Welcome back to the series of posts here at SciFi Mafia that we’re calling Web Series Wednesday where we devote a space to the wonderment of the web series. Every Wednesday we’ll cover an awesome web series and give you all the info to get into it.
If you’ve got a favorite web series you’d like us to cover, head on over to the Contact Us page and shoot us your request. To catch up on past Web Series Wednesday posts click here.
This week we’re covering The It’s a Small World.
You either really love the It’s a Small World ride at Disney World or you really don’t love it. Regardless of how you feel personally, it’s an iconic ride. And I love it, so there. This web series based on the ride from Disney and Rosetta Stone encourages kids to discover the world around them and maybe learn a few new words in a different language while they watch the short videos. It launched last week and already has a few videos up on the site. Check out the linked video below for the intro song (which isn’t “It’s a Small World“).
It’s a Small World Animated Series Pilot on Disney Video
I’m looking forward to these. They look very cute and less annoying than the current language driven shows available for kids these days. I’m looking at you, Dora.
I give It’s a Small World Five out of Five Stars.
While the theatrical trailers focused more on the human story leading up to the display of Zeus begotten powers, this TV spot for The Legend of Hercules highlights those out-of-this-world talents. Kellan Lutz stars as our hero Hercules in this new flick from Summit Entertainment. Check out the TV spot below.
TV Spot: The Legend of Hercules
The Legend of Hercules starring Kellan Lutz is slated to hit theaters in January 10th, 2014.
This week on our favorite LIVE comics radio program, Where Monsters Dwell welcomes comics artist Marco Rudy to the Monster Cave. You’ve seen Marco’s work on such books as Superman/Batman, The Shield and Swamp Thing. His latest project is Marvel Knights: Spider-Man for Marvel comics.
He joins Remington J. Osborne and Monster Mike to chat about all this and more, so if you have a question for the guys or for Marco Rudy, you can to post it on the WMD Facebook wall or give them a call during the show (in Canada) at 506-452-6056.
In addition to a great guest the guys also have an exclusive guest announcement from The East Coast Comics Expo. They will be announcing their first major guest for the May 17th event in Moncton, New Brunswick. If you plan on attending, tune in to find out who you will get a chance to meet there.
If you do have to miss tonight’s live show, the guys are cool enough to post their shows as podcasts, so you’ll be able to listen to the show when it posts later this week, either from the Where Monsters Dwell website, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Thanks guys!
We’ll also pop a link onto this post as an update, so you can check back here later as well.
And just in time for the holidays, the perfect gift for all fans of discerning taste – logo stuff! Help support the Monsters by purchasing some of their swag at the awesomely named WEAR Monsters Dwell!
Where Monsters Dwell broadcasts live at 8:30/7:30c tonight for at least an hour, right here.
The complete list of titles is available here.
Here is everything we know so far about a massive freshwater lake on Mars, which existed about 3.5 billion years ago. It was pretty damn muddy, and may have harbored life.
Nothing could terrify the dragon whose scales were made of titanium, and whose mouth dripped with toxic smoke. Well, actually, there was one thing. He could not abide flocks of butterflies.
New leaked documents from Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA and British intelligence have been spying on people in World of Warcraft and other online games. And Neal Stephenson's epic spy novel REAMDE predicted this whole mess back in 2011.
Today, author Charlie Stross, from this month's book club selection, joined us for a Q&A, where he filled us his thoughts on how new writers get traction, the skyrocketing of ebook sales (from 1% to 50% of his sales in the last five years), and gave us the first line of his new book coming up in July.
Starpocalypse is coming! You chipped in over $76,000 in the Kickstarter for Starpocalypse, the zany science fiction webseries from the sketch-comedy masters SMBC. Now at last, it's coming out this Christmas. Rejoice!
Press Release:
Judge Dredd Takes On Mega-City Two
New Mini-Series Debuts From IDW
San Diego, CA (December 10, 2013) – This January, duty calls Judge Dredd to the West Coast, in the destructive new miniseries Mega-City Two: City of Courts! After entering a partnership with Rebellion/2000 AD, IDW has explored Dredd’s past in Year One, and taken him “Into the Cursed Earth” in his ongoing title, but with a truly unique creative team on Mega-City Two, Dredd will go up against the unfamiliar and depraved like never before!
Mega-City Two marks the comics-writing debut of Eisner Award-winning journalist and Dredd aficionado Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics). Art chores will be handled by powerhouse Ulises Farinas (TRANSFORMERS: Heart of Darkness, Catalyst Comix), whose precise linework showcases the oddities of Judge Dredd’s world in stunning detail. Rounding out the creative team, colorist Ryan Hill brings the incredible structure in Farinas’ work to life. Mega-City Two will also feature homage variant covers that pay tribute to iconic films, with art by Joe Corroney, NAR!, E.J. Su, and more!
In the year 2094, a secret mission puts Dredd behind the wheel of a Lawcruiser in Mega-City Two, the West Coast megalopolis that sprawls around what was once Los Angeles. And he’s about to discover that the rules—and the laws—are very different in a city where image is everything…
“Ulises, Ryan and I are going to show you a vision of Dredd’s world that you’ve never seen before,” Wolk says. “We’re yanking the East Coast’s toughest lawman out of his element, and plunging him into the bizarre, sunlit depths of post-apocalyptic California. There’ll be studio stars and cycle cultists, cartoon predators and beachfront terrors—plus, of course, ultraviolence, musical numbers and the occasional thrill-powered salute to Joan Didion.”
“Mega-City Two remains a criminally underexplored facet of Dredd’s world,” said 2000A.D./Rebellion Editor-in-chief, Matt Smith, “and Doug and Ulises are having a ball crafting an environment, not only geographically, but ideologically the opposite of MC-1. Dredd is the proverbial fish out of water, and a lot of the fun comes from seeing that East Coast mentality clash with the laid-back attitudes of MC-2. Dredd fans shouldn’t miss this really quite unique mini-series.”
Judge Dredd has had a busy year at IDW in 2013, and 2014 already looks to be filled with boot-stomping action with Mega-City Two!
About 2000 AD
2000 AD is the legendary multi-award winning 32 page, weekly anthology – an explosive cocktail of sci-fi and fantasy, infused with irony and wry black humour.The home of iconic characters such as Judge Dredd, Halo Jones, Strontium Dog, and Rogue Trooper, it launched the careers of some of the top names in global comics, including Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Steve Dillon, Jock, and Peter Milligan.
2000 AD, its monthly sister publication The Judge Dredd Megazine, and its extensive range of graphic novels are available to buy online, from major magazine retailers in the UK and Europe and from all good comic stores across the US.
Visit the online home of 2000 AD at www.2000adonline.com, ‘like’ us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/2000-AD/146588986365 or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/2000AD
About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE and MY LITTLE PONY; Paramount’s Star Trek; Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; 2000AD’s Judge Dredd; The Rocketeer; Toho’s Godzilla; Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons; and the Eisner-Award winning Locke & Key series, created by best-selling author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints, Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio, and the multiple award-winning Artist’s Edition imprint.
IDW’s critically- and fan-acclaimed series are continually moving into new mediums. Currently, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Disney are creating a feature film based on World War Robot; Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Warner Brothers are producing a film based on Ashley Wood’s Lore; Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes and Sony are bringing Zombies vs. Robots to film, Kurtzman/Orci are producing a movie based on Locke & Key at Universal.
Actress Ming-Na Wen is kicking butt these days, literally, at least on ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Her character, Melinda May, is the mysterious expert pilot and martial artist on the team of non-super agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and her role isn't exactly a typical one for the actress, whose peers are playing judges, doctors, moms and grandmothers.
“A lot of my Twitter fans love using the word 'badass', which I love. I love that title. I love it. It's the best description. I don't think I've played many characters where that is the constant description,” said Wen in an exclusive interview with Blastr.
“She is really a special character. I am really thankful to have been given this opportunity. It's one of the more challenging roles for me to play, to play someone who in the beginning ... I mean, she's speaking a lot more, but someone who doesn't say a lot. Everything that she did say had to have some weight to it but at the same time be 'Whedonesque', shall we say. It has to have a sense of humor even when she's not smiling, she's not laughing, she's not even smirking. It's an incredible challenge,” she said.
Melinda May's past is slowly being revealed, but we do know that she's legendary within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization and that she's saved lives and taken them. And she has a special nickname she's not fond of.
“I just love having that title to her character. The Cavalry. It evokes such fun and mystery and a strength of character. That's great,” said Wen. “This character is definitely quite different from anything I've ever played.”
The actress has had a rich and varied career and been involved in several notable projects, including Stargate Universe, Eureka and ER, and voiced Mulan in the film. But Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is special, and not just because of her lack of dialogue.
“It's the toughest show I've ever had to do, because of the physicality. That definitely is something that I'm really, really proud and happy that I have some muscle memory from the training days in college and high school for all the stage combat stuff that I used to do and some of the martial arts that I did. There's definitely muscle memory. The muscles are getting stronger, thank goodness. They haven't atrophied yet. So I'm really enjoying that part of it. But it's very tiring,” she said.
Beyond her challenging character, she's been thrilled with the series itself, which comes from Joss Whedon, his brother Jed Whedon, and Jed's wife, Maurissa Tancharoen. The series is set in the universe of The Avengers, which Joss Whedon wrote and directed. However, the focus is on a team of non-superhero heroes who protect the ordinary from the extraordinary.
“I understood her character really well from the beginning. Somebody who has been traumatized, and she decides to go a different path with her life. And then Coulson comes and rescues her, in a way, gives her a second chance to really put her back on the right track, because that's where her skill and really her passion lies, in being this amazing super agent. I think all of us have gone through that. You get knocked down by life or you have a traumatic experience where you just don't feel like you can get back on your feet, and you have that good friend or family member who comes and kind of boosts you up. That part of it, I really related to her. That's the part that I think is the crux of her character. Once she's there, she's there. Because I'm a Scorpio and loyal to the core. She will do anything for Coulson. But she won't just blindly follow him, either. She's got her own set of opinions about things,” she said.
While May has become the person Coulson confides in the most on the team, “she's the only character that Coulson ... not quite fears, but walks on certain eggshells with every so often if he's kind of crossed the line with her,” said Wen.
“There's definitely some moments where it's been jaw-dropping. For me, I'm so excited to have those episodes air. I want to see what the audience reaction is going to be to it. There will definitely be a lot of surprises down the line, and yet at the same time just bringing in all these new – well, maybe not to the Marvel world, because there's definitely a lot of characters that the Marvel fans will recognize – but for the average viewer who's just in it because they want the fun and the adventure. It's going to be really fun for them to discover these other characters and this bigger conspiracy storyline of who the Centipede organization might be. I think those all have some payback later on, down the line,” she said.
“I would love to see where they take Agent May and her relationships and her past. She's got this very dark and secretive past. It's quite a mystery. They're unfolding it very slowly, little by little giving hints to it. But no one really knows. It's like Coulson's death. No one really knows the full story yet,” said Wen.
“We have the action and we have the humor, but at the same time it's also about this particular family that Coulson's put together. How they relate to each other and whether or not we can trust each other. What if May decides to give it up again? If she's re-traumatized? Who knows? There are so many different ways to go with this,” she said.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
How do you think Melinda May stacks up when it comes to badass TV characters?
This past weekend, the IEET hosted the world's first conference dedicated to the topic of nonhuman animal personhood. Energized by the NhRP's recent initiative to have captive chimpanzees legally recognized as persons and not property, the event brought together legal experts, scientists, philosophers, and futurists from around the world. Here's a recap.
The trend of horror television will not stop — hooray! Entertainment Weekly reports that the classic 1968 movie Rosemary's Baby is getting a rebooted as a four-hour, miniseries on NBC.
If Ernest can do it, I don't know why Krampus, the legendary child-terrorizing European Christmas demon can't — but will he? You'll have to pick up Image's Krampus #1 to find out. Meanwhile Iron Fist, Doc Savage Parker and many others return in this week's comic releases!
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Last updated: 2013-12-11@20:07 UTC
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