Image Comics in the interests of letting you, the reader, sample their titles have deluged us with a bevy of first looks to show you!  We’ve got a total of ten previews for you to check out. All of these books will be hitting the shops this week. Most will hit on May 4th, but a couple will drop on the 7th, for Free Comic Book Day. At any rate, enjoy all of these, are try not to let it overwhelm you!

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ARTIFACTS #7

story RON MARZ
art WHILCE PORTACIO
cover JP LEON, JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
MAY 4

32 PAGES / FC / LIMITED SERIES
$3.99

THE ART OF WAR!
Distracted by the battle with Cyberforce and the android assassin Aphrodite IV, the Artifact Bearers trying to prevent the end of the Top Cow Universe are unaware that,†in a distant corner of the world,†the war might already be lost. The mysterious 13th†Artifact Bearer holds in his hands the power to tip the scales. Has he already been seduced by the villainous architect of the master plan?
From Top Cow Universe architect Ron Marz (Witchblade, Magdalena) and legendary artist Whilce Portacio (The Darkness, Uncanny X-Men) comes an event series, which will literally shake the Top Cow Universe to its foundation. Featuring a gorgeous cover by JP Leon (Winter Men, Earth X) as well as a variant cover featuring Ian Nottingham by John Tyler Christopher (Witchblade).
Each issue will also feature a Top Cow Origin backup written by Marz and drawn by a superstar artist.

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GLADSTONE’S SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS #1

story MARK ANDREW SMITH
art & cover ARMAND VILLAVERT

MAY 4
40 PAGES / FC
$2.99

Welcome to Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, a top-secret academy for the children of the world’s greatest super villains to learn the trade. Join us as Kid Nefarious, Mummy Girl, Martian Jones, Ghost Girl, and the infamous Skull brothers unearth the School’s and their parents’ hidden past.

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RED SPIKE #1 (of 5)

story JEFF KAHN
art SALVADOR NAVARRO & IFANSYAH NOOR
cover MARK TEXIERA

MAY 4
32 PAGES / FC
$1.00

“ADRENALINE”
It’s been over 70 years since the world first began its research into creating a Super Soldier. In 2011, the United States successfully created not one, but two. The latest in US Black Ops, Project Red Spike discovered that through the manipulation and regulation of the adrenal glands the super soldier was one step closer. The first (surviving) successes of the program, two close friends Matt Cutler and Greg Dane, have been proven on the field to be everything that was wanting in the program. But what happens when an adrenaline regulator malfunctions? What happens should one man refuse to follow orders if he finds out the true price they had to pay for these abilities and goes AWOL? How do we stop him? What price becomes too high?

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DARKNESS 2 PREQUEL FCBD 2011 EDITION

story MATT HAWKINS & FILIP SABLIK
art SALVADOR NAVARRO & IFANSYAH NOOR
cover MICHAEL BROUSSARD

MAY 7
32 PAGES / FC
$FREE

In anticipation of The Darkness 2 video game, coming out later this year from 2K Games, Top Cow proudly presents an original prequel comic featuring the origin of Jackie Estacado and the saga of The Darkness video game to date!

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BLUE ESTATE #2

story VIKTOR KALVACHEV & ANDREW OSBORNE
art VIKTOR KALVACHEV, NATHAN FOX, TOBY CYPRESS & ROBERT VALLEY
cover VIKTOR KALVACHEV

MAY 6
32 PAGES / FC
$2.99

In part two of this fast, funny 100% cool new series for readers of all stripes, Hollywood starlet Rachel Maddox plots with her A.A. sponsor “Johnny” to steal a big pile of dirty money from her shady action star husband, Bruce. What she doesn’t know is that “Johnny’s” a hit man, Bruce wants her dead and her brother Billy just made a deadly deal with a psycho mobster called Tony Luciano! Featuring art by VIKTOR KALVACHEV (PHERONE, DMZ, The Incredibles), NATHAN FOX (Invincible Iron Man, Pigeons From Hell), TOBY CYPRESS (Batman/Nightwing), ROBERT VALLEY (Gorillaz, Tron), written by Emmy Award winning screenwriter ANDREW OSBORNE.

RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

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GREEN WAKE #2 (of 5)

story KURTIS J. WIEBE
art & cover RILEY ROSSMO

MAY 4
24 PAGES / FC
$ 3.50

Green Wake claims another mutilated victim and the disfigured body leaves little evidence behind. The secrets of this sleepy town begin to creep through the blood filled cracks when Morley Mack confronts one of its oldest residents. Is the key to stopping another macabre murder in the hands of an insane recluse?

ALL-NEW MINI SERIES! From the creators of THE INTREPIDS, COWBOY NINJA VIKING and PROOF!!

RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

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THE INTREPIDS #3

story KURTIS J. WIEBE
art & cover SCOTT KOWALCHUK

MAY 4
32 PAGES / FC
$2.99

“A MANBOT NAMED JONAH.”
An adrenaline infused look at the early action days of the Intrepids, learning the realities of a world teetering on the brink of mad scientist hell. With the capture of Dr. Koi’s associate, Jonah, the team discover an important clue to the location of their nefarious nemesis.

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PROOF ENDANGERED #5

story ALEX GRECIAN
art & cover RILEY ROSSMO & FRANK ZIGARELLI

MAY 4
32 PAGES / FC
$3.99

“END… ANGERED”
After burying one of his closest friends, Proof finally confronts his greatest enemy. But will he be able to control his temper? Who will be left standing? It’s the end of an era as the critically-acclaimed miniseries comes to an end.

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THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVOR’S GUIDE #2 (of 4)

story TIM DANIEL & ROBERT KIRKMAN
art & cover CHARLIE ADLARD & CLIFF RATHBURN

MAY 4
32 PAGES / FC
$2.99

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the cast of The Walking Dead. The Survivor’s Guide is a handy checklist of all the characters who have appeared in the series thus far, alive or dead. This series is a can’t-miss supplement to the hit comic book series that is now a hit TV series on AMC

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THE WALKING DEAD WEEKLY #18

story ROBERT KIRKMAN
art CHARLIE ADLARD
cover TONY MOORE

MAY 4
32 PAGES / BW
$2.99

Rick has gone over the edge. He’s alienating everyone around him — people he’s come to know and trust, his family, his friends. Rick is becoming more and more isolated within the group. Where he goes from here will test the limits of his humanity.

RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

Game Informer is reporting that the Sony (this time Sony Online Entertainment) was once again hacked last night, hot on the heels of their last major security breach, just over a week ago.

It seems as though the attack was targeted to credit card numbers and approximately 12,700 were stolen. It is believed that 4,300 of them belonged to Japanese customers.

People are having a field day vilifying Sony for these security breaches, but the real bad guys are the criminals perpetrating the attacks. And if this is some half-assed retaliation for Sony working to protect their intellectual property (appropriately in a court of law) that makes all of these breaches twice as childish. Sure, I think Sony is wrong to try to prevent people from changing the software on machines they own, but they are pursuing what they believe their rights to be in a suitable arena. If the hackers wanted to do some good and benefit everyone, they wouldn’t steal our data (and make no mistake, they’re hurting us, not just Sony) they would step out of the shadows of internet anonymity and file a class action lawsuit to protect the rights of users who wish to modify their systems (if that’s what this is even about.)

It’s important to note that Sony should be doing everything it can to protect the data of its users. Even if that means flushing it all down the toilet and asking its users to start over. Sure, that might be annoying to users, but it’s far less annoying than having some thoughtless hacker steal your data and make himself rich with it.

Sony is responsible for not keeping the data better protected, sure, but ultimately it’s the hackers that are doing the wrong here. It’s important to keep that in mind.

While you’re keeping that in mind, I’d be sure to report your credit card number as stolen if you had it kept in the Playstation Network. It’s a hassle, sure, but it’ll be worth it in the long run, just in case.

Here is Gingerbot with her review of the third episode of Game of Thrones on HBO.

It is mere minutes after Episode 3 ends and I already want it to be next Sunday! I am especially excited for what is in store for Daenerys, she is my favorite character in the series, in the very near future. I won’t say anything and spoil it for anyone and I ask that if you comment in this (please leave me some comments though!) please do not spoil anything for anyone. Her journey is just starting and it is so full of twists and drama that I cannot wait to see played out on screen. So if you’re new to the series and you feel it’s slowing down just stick with it cause it’s about to get very good very soon I promise.

A few new faces were introduced and a few faces we’d seen already finally got a real introduction and some more screen time. Syrio Forel, Arya’s “dance instructor,” played by Miltos Yerolemou got some good screen time. While his speech, accent, and the way he moved fit the character I had in my mind he’s not physically what I had pictured. I went and did some searching online and I had remembered correctly and he is described as a man with a slight build and a bald head. The Syrio on screen is definitely not bald but what can ya do. It makes no difference really but I know some people will have a problem with the actor not matching the description of the character as closely as they can.

We’d already gotten a glimpse of Petyr Baelish or “Littlefinger” (Aiden Gillen) and Varys (Conleth Hill) but they got some better screen time in this episode. These two characters get very interesting and while they never seem to get billed as “main characters” they have a lot to do with a lot that goes on. Now I don’t know how big of a role they will get as the show continues but in the books you see a lot of them and I know they drag up a lot of mixed feelings but I love these guys. Not always for their actions or who they are but how they help the story along and how they seem to be everywhere. So keep your eye on them, they’re tricky.

I like watching with my mom who provides a fresh look on the show and I always ask if she has any comments or concerns to throw into this review and this week she said she only came away with more questions. Now some of these will be answered as the show progresses and were left open for
a reason but I will address one she had on here that will not include any spoilers it will simply clarify something. Jon Snow made it to Castle Black and has started his training for the Nights Watch. They’ve explained quite a bit but there are a few things they haven’t said yet or at least haven’t explained fully. The Night’s Watch is a brotherhood for life and those that join renounce old titles and leave behind their previous families. If you were a lord or a knight in your previous home at the Watch none of that matters you are now simply a Brother and any post you get you earn while you are there. They are also celibate once they take their vows and if they abandon their post and are caught the only option is death. Now that we saw in the first episode and I don’t think they ever came straight out and said if you abandon your post on the Night’s Watch you will be put to death. Anyway just thought I’d clear that up for anyone who was asking the same questions as my mom. If there’s anything like this you want clarified just comment on here and I’ll try to answer it.

Overall this episode was excellent. It’s beginning to pick up momentum in my opinion but it’s still in that setting the stage phase. I’ve heard a few complaints that it is moving too slowly but I have to stress the importance of introducing characters and places and letting the new viewers time to settle into the world of Westeros. So much happens in these stories and if you don’t know who’s who you’re going to get lost. In tracking down some of the actors names this time around I stumbled upon a new site that looks like it could be very helpful Westeros is associated with the TV series and it provides character lists, episode guides, a Wiki page, forums, photo galleries, and even some sample chapters from the book. And I got all that just by glancing at the home page and there is plenty more so go explore and learn more about the realm.

Greetings mortals! Have you become enamored with the Mighty Thor, thanks to yon celluloid exploits? The noble warriors at Marvel Digital Comics are offering a bargain that humbles e’en the God of Thunder! From this moment until the last day of the month you Midgardians call May, yon yearly subscriptions can be had at 30% off regular price! Zounds! The Odinsword itself could deliver no finer a cut! Such a pittance for over 9,000 comic books!

Thanks, Thor, for that rousing endorsement. It’s true, too. Just click on the image below, and make a note of the promo code when you sign up. I personally think this is a pretty good deal. Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited is a big help to me, when I need source material for my Secret Origins columns. And if you are wanting to get into Thor, Marvel DCU is a good bet. Not only can you follow the earliest exploits on Thor, Loki, Odin, Sif and the whole Asgard gang, you also get critically acclaimed runs like the famous Walt Simonson mega-arc! You can also get some ancillary titles like the Balder the Brave mini series and the Loki mini series. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, you can also follow the exploits of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Spider-Man!

Here’s the ad itself, just click on it and start your reading adventure, or something!

I know there are quite a few of you who are fans of The Kids in the Hall and in honor of the rerelease of the complete series on A & E on DVD, we’re going to be giving away a complete box set.

It also includes the movie “The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town“.  Here’s the rundown on the new release:

FROM THE INFAMOUS CHICKEN LADY TO CROSS-DRESSING LUNACY, CANADA’S MOST IRREVERENT (AND BEST-SELLING) COMIC PRODIGIES RETURN WITH 50% LESS PACKAGING, BUT 100% OF THE LAUGHS!

For five groundbreaking seasons, Canadian-bred comic prodigies THE KIDS IN THE HALL stretched sketch comedy to its ultimate limits with hilariously off-the-wall results. With a cast of comic creations only the brilliant– or truly twisted — could imagine, THE KIDS IN THE HALL: THE COMPLETE SERIES MEGASET presents the Kids’ nearly 800 sketches from every single episode of each season in this stunning 22-disc set with 50% less packaging, but 100% of the laughs!

From the infamous Chicken Lady and Crushing Your Head to Buddy Cole and the romantically challenged Cabbage Head, these pioneering, edgy, and ever-charming comedians always managed to land on the stranger side of funny–and look good in floral dresses while doing it.  This best-selling MegaSet, now refreshed with new eye-catching art in a slim, shelf space saving package, includes all five of the groundbreaking, Emmy®-nominated series, plus two bonus discs featuring the new IFC 8-part mini-series “Death Comes to Town.”

Run Time: 42 h, 5 mins. + extras
Format: DVD/22 Discs
Price: $99.95srp
Street: May 24

To enter, all you need to do is shoot us an email at editor (at) bigshinyrobot.com. Make the subject “KIDS IN THE HALL” For an extra chance to win, you can go to our facebook page and invite all of your friends to like us. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Just be sure to mention in your email that you’ve done it.

The contest ends Friday!

To commemorate the contest, I asked some of the other robots to send me links to some of their favorite sketches:

With all of the news of the death of Osama bin Laden’s death, I thought it would be an interesting blast from the past to look back at the time Frank Miller was going to have Batman fight Osama bin Laden.

Back in 2006, Frank Miller announced that he was working on a propaganda piece where bin Laden’s Al Qaida attacked Gotham City and Batman took the fight straight to bin Laden. He was quoted as saying, “It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a piece of propaganda… Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That’s one of the things they’re there for.”

Some criticized the book, including Grant Morrison who said that having fictional heroes fight terrorists cheapened the struggles of those doing it for real.

Miller worked on it for a while before ultimately deciding it wasn’t as much of a Batman story as a new character he created that was more like Dirty Harry.

I think it would have been great to have a picture of Batman punching Osama the same way Captain America and Superman both punched Hitler, but ultimately, it was probably a good thing the book fizzled.

Then there was another time when President Obama did punch Osama bin Laden in comics. I present the cover of Savage Dragon #145:

Trying to stay as apolitical as I can here, but what do you guys think about real world threats appearing in comics as propaganda?

Digital Spy is reporting that shooting on The Avengers has been delayed.

The cause of the delay? Apparently, Samuel L. Jackson’s script had been leaked and they want to rewrite compromised scenes.

There is no word about how long this delay will last, but the film has been shooting for less than a week. It’s bad news for all parties involved, anything to make the film behind schedule risks the integrity of the film Joss Whedon has been wanting to make.

How drastic will the rewrites be that would require a complete production halt?

This is not heartening news. Will we get a substandard script because of these leaks? On the other hand, could this mean a better script? Could the leak be a ploy to give Whedon more time to turn in a better script?

Anything is possible. We’ll keep you updated.

It’s a little hard to believe we’ve done 26 of these, but here we are.

We feature a convention sketch here every week. We’ve got a whole pile of our own, but we want to see yours, too. Email us convention sketches you want to show off and let us know what website you’d like credited for it. (bigshinyrobot(at)gmail.com)

This week, Sean Leslie from the Wednesday Warriors podcast sent in this sketch of Thor he had done by Olivier Coipel at Comic Con ’09.

I thought it was fitting since Thor comes out this week and I expect every single one of you to get out to see it. It’s a really incredible film.

I must start this off with a warning, this review does have quite a number of spoilers so if you haven’t watched the episode yet, turn back now.

Those that know my TV tastes know that even before I started watching Doctor Who, I thought Steven Moffat was a genius. Now that I’ve been through Doctor Who I think he’s a super genius and any episode written by him I make sure I have no distractions. Also for anyone who didn’t read the review on the first episode you can find it here.

Three months after the events of the last episode we find Canton Delaware The Third pursuing each of the members of the Doctor’s Team. (Cool trivia moment: Did you know that the two people who played Delaware Are W. Morgan Sheppard and Mark Sheppard, Father and Son playing the same role, just the different ages.) Each of them are all marked up with numbers, written by themselves anytime they witness the silence.

They’re each taken back to Area 51 (tee hee hee) where the Doctor is being held (and he has a beard!). Turns out is was all a plan though as when they’re locked up in an alien box they’re able to go out and figure out what to do with the Silence.

We find Amy and Delaware heading out to one of the spookiest houses ever created. Can I just say the creepy horror of that place was perfect. An orphanage only manned by one man, messages written all over the walls and no one else in sight. Having them click their hands with a recorder was an added bonus because you could every once in a while see their hand glowing and I know I got excited. But the big spoilery detail of this spawning ground for Silence was in the possibility of who the little girl was. Do you have any ideas? Because it seemed pretty likely that somehow Amy Pond’s daughter was living there. What do you think of the pregnancy issue? The Doctor at the end of the episode scanned her and had one of the coolest moments where we found that she was simultaneously pregnant and not. No one’s ever been pregnant on the TARDIS before, at least not to my recollection so perhaps that’s what could cause this? And in my personal favorite moment of the episode the final sequence where we might possibly have Amy Pond’s daughter being a Time Lord? Oh man I was in chills.

But what of the Silence? An alien race that has seemingly taken over the entire earth? I had been thinking all week of how you beat a race of aliens you can’t see. Even during the episode I was thinking, should I be carrying a pen around with me and see if I encounter any of them standing around? Well the Doctor is just more clever then I am and in a stroke of genius they set up a connection with the moon landing, the one piece of video which is most commonly held to be the most watched piece of television ever, and splice into it a message of one of the silence ordering each of us to kill them. Oh the chills were back, now we’re all secretly fighting a war we have no idea is happening. Maybe this is why people are struck by lightning? I dunno, just a thought.

But there’s one more thing, the most bittersweet moment of the episode. I have been loving River Song’s entire story line, but we’re all experiencing he story through the Doctor and not the other way around. She had talked about how for her it’s all going backwards, each time she meets the Doctor he’s encountered less and less, and the end of the episode really sealed the deal, it was an exciting moment because for us it was The Doctor’s first kiss. I loved his reaction, flopping around like a fish, but yet for her it was officially her last kiss with the Doctor. It was one of those perfect moments for me, which means we’re going to get them flirting a lot more from now on and she’s going to be a lot happier, but now I want to go back and watch the rest of her episodes, she knows she has lost him as far as a partner goes. Did you experience the same thing I did?

What did you all think of the episode? I thought it set up some amazing things for the season and if done right this could be one of those seasons that people will be talking about for years. I think it could possibly end up with as good an ending as season 3’s Last of the Time Lords. Maybe I’m just overly optimistic but I’m really happy with this episode and with what possibly could be coming up.

So what do you think? Excited for what’s coming up? Have any unanswered questions that you want to mill about?

If you grew up at any time between 1975-1996, you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of trading cards. For a quarter, you could get a pack of 10 or so cards of your favorite licensed property, along with a stick of gum that can double as a deadly projectile. Arguably, some of the best ones were based on the burgeoning summer movie blockbuster. I remember poring over my collection of cards from Tim Burton’s Batman all through the summer of 1989-90. Sadly, aside from a few holdovers like Batman Begins, they are few and far between nowadays. And even when they do surface, they simply aren’t as pure “fun” as the cards of yore.

An Example of the Batman (1989) cards.

I have to give huge props then to Blaine Hefner. He took this year’s slew of blockbusters and made his own cards, via the power of the internet and graphics programs! Originally done for the Salt Lake Tribune, these cards look so authentic, that if I didn’t know they weren’t real, I’d be hard-pressed to figure it out on my own. Be sure to check Blaine’s blog for a scan of the actual article from the Tribune, but he was kind enough to share some of the individual card images as well. In out gallery below, you can see what cards from Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Conan, Cowboys & Aliens and many more would look like is Topps was still as prominent now as they were then.