Fantastic Universes

Chapter Two – “Places We Have Never Known” Writer: Geoff Johns Artists Gary Frank and Brad Anderson Review by Steve J. Ray Warning! This issue contains stolen breakfasts, meetings between like-minded individuals, interdimensional travel, and a last page that is NOT FUNNY! In short, be aware that there are minor spoilers ahead, and the chance of being taken to places we have never known. Welcome to the second chapter of  Doomsday Clock . We left  issue #1  with Superman suffering the first nightmare of his life, and with Ozymandias, the new Rorschach and escaped convicts Marionette and Mime invading the Owl’s Nest. Why did Veidt and Faux-chach break these villains out of the clink? Where  is  Doctor Manhattan? What do Alfred’s pancakes taste like cold? All these questions, and many others will  not  be answered by the end of this issue. Once again Geoff Johns has written an issue that is a cipher, within an enigma, wrapped in a mys...

Article by Adam Ray It's the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas. For every Magic player it's Spoiler Season, the chance to see what the newest cards will be. It's an exciting and wild ride for the few weeks leading into the drop of the newest set. This time around, it's Rivals of Ixalan. The four tribes have found the Golden City of Orazca, and now they fight for supremacy within it's walls. The ancient metropolis has a lifting effect on it's visitors, shown off by the first card I saw today:  Vona's Hunger falls into a long line of "Edict" effects. Forcing someone to sacrifice creatures is not only handy to get around Hexproof or Shroud, but also has the flavour of you killing one of your loved ones at the request of this malicious vampire conquistador makes it feel like a huge blowout. It being an Instant makes attacks suddenly go away if they have to lose an aggressive creature. When you have the "City's Bles...

Article by Scott Hamilton I was recommended the good Professor whilst trawling around Spotify looking for new artists to listen to. I spend a lot of time travelling to and from work each day, so I’m always looking for something new and different to listen to. This splendid chap certainly ended up ticking all of my geek boxes. Professor Elemental is based in Brighton and trades in a very English take on Hip-Hop called Chap-Hop. The only way I can  describe him is a polite Eminem, raised by the Monty Python team in a comic written by Jules Verne and illustrated by Jack Kirby. It’s certainly a niche market. The Professor character, a geeky explorer / inventor who loves to experiment and go on adventures with his orangutan butler Geoffrey, was originally intended for just one album (“Rebel Without Applause” released in 2009) and takes what can only be described as a very English take on a style normally associated with the USA. In fact, his first breakthrough was with the si...

“Fall Of The Batmen” Part Two Writer: James Tynion IV Art:  Joe Bennett, Salvador Regla, Ricardo Jaime, Marcio Loerzer, Jason Wright and Sal Cipriano Review by Steve J. Ray Batman’s Gotham Knights are under fire this issue, and not just from the Victim Syndicate. The second chapter of “Fall Of The Batmen” Sees Gotham City’s Law Enforcers join the attack. In  Detective Comics  #969  we saw Killer Moth begin to form his own team to combat Batman’s. Now, Commisioner Gordon’s own men and City Officials, who previously didn’t oppose Batman when he acted alone, see the collection of Gotham Knights as vigilante-ism gone too far. When you throw the aforementioned Victim Syndicate into the mix, our heroes are seriously outnumbered. Once again James Tynion has woven a thriller of a piece. Tension is high, and the team is still reeling from the return of Tim Drake. There are some terrific action scenes and some beautiful character interactions too. I am in aw...

Article by Adam Ray Whether lighting your dynamite hat, charging the death-ray, spinning the gears, or just mixing lions with snakes, one thing is true: these reactions are unstable. Some heavily creative people churn out around eight sets of Magic: the Gathering a year - not to mention supplemental and side products. With all that mental pressure, the Design and Development team do need a creative release. The third in the longstanding tradition of silver-border sets has come to us, after six years of careful polishing.  Since Unglued was released in 1998, the R&D fever dream came to fruition. With the theme of roosters (no double-entendre there), and the introduction of classics of the silver border genre like Urza's Science Fair Project, the tone had been set for the Un-Set. Short years later, Unhinged arrived on donkey-back with the cheating face of a certain genie. While I personally can speculate very little about how they were to play, I hear from many peers...