Lucasfilm has been kind enough once again to give us a preview of the next episode of Clone Wars.  This one looks far more promising than the last couple of weeks, although they were good, we’ve been in a bit of  a dry spell.

This episode looks to break all that and take us back into the stratosphere we’ve been used to.  The look of this clip feels very “Manchurian Candidate” to me.

From the press release:

She’s BACK! Left for dead after her failed gambit at the end of The Clone Wars’ second season, deadly assassin Aurra Sing has returned – and she’s out to redistribute the balance of power in “Assassin,” an all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, October 22 on Cartoon Network.

Tasked with protecting Senator Padmé Amidala during a political mission to Alderaan, Ahsoka Tano is plagued by recurring visions of Sing’s return. Unable to clear her mind, Ahsoka begins to worry that the stress of war is finally taking its toll on her – until the blood-letting assassin reveals herself with an attempt on Padmé’s life. And after their last confrontation left Sing humbled, humiliated and presumed dead, the lean and mean bounty huntress is only happy for a chance at a rematch with the young Padawan…

“Aurra never dies. She gives what she takes and she kind of enjoys it,” laughs Jaime King (My Bloody Valentine 3D, Sin City, The Spirit), who voices Sing in The Clone Wars. “She does have a bad taste in her mouth [after the events of Season Two], but rather than being bitter and angry, she is doing what she needs to do. It’s a very cut-and-dried thing for her. Everything that happens makes her more intense and ruthless. She says bring it.”

Sing’s cruelty and merciless methods have certainly made her a favorite among fans; fascinating audiences with her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it introduction in the live-action Episode I, she’s since been elevated into the upper echelons of Star Wars icons. Her distinctive appearance – creepy yet seductive – plays into that mystique, giving her a visual flair that complements her ruthless demeanor.

“She’s long and lean and lanky, but she has curves. She’s perfect,” says King. “She’s got those long fingers; they’re spidery like she is. Predatory. Her physicality is very much a part of her, and it’s sexy. There are so many people who aren’t inherently beautiful, but their qualities and gifts make them so stunning. It’s the It Factor, and Aurra’s got It. Men love her because she’s hot and badass, and women love her because she’s strong and badass. There aren’t a lot of strong female characters like Aurra.”

Still, while Sing may be “badass,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s all bad, according to King. She may not necessarily be a friendly, compassionate type, but Sing nonetheless has a backstory that provides the drive behind her bad behavior, But don’t expect a comprehensive explanation of those motivations anytime soon.

“There’s a history we haven’t been told,” says King. “It’s up to George [Lucas] and Dave [Filoni] what they choose to show. I have my ideas, but those are secrets I like to hold on to; those are the layers that inform the character when I’m playing her. I’m never just pretending; it’s my job to understand why she does what she does, so that it comes from a place of truth. Each episode reveals more. It’s Star Wars; it touches lives, and I believe it will last forever. I love that.”

To catch up on season one, order that here.  You can preorder season two here.

I wrote about the launch of Michael Stackpole’s Chain Story back in May and in that time it’s grown into something of considerable proportions.

You might remember Mike from his work in the Battletech and Star Wars universes, and more recently he’s been blogging at his site and Huffington Post about online publishing and how author’s are taking back the reins on publishing from the big publishing houses because they can do it faster, better, with less overhead, and get more money out of it.

One of the primary components to selling material online without the advantages big publishing houses do provide is to build an audience and to bring more and more people to your work.  As one facet of his plan to give author’s back the power we’ve given publishers for so long is to help them connect with the audiences of their peers, hoping to expand the horizons of everyone astute enough to be reading fiction for fun and leisure.  The Chain Story was his way of collaborating with other authors and bringing audiences into one specific place.

The Chain Story is a collection of now 19 stories by different authors that are all framed around fabled adventurers telling their tale in the Wanderer’s Club.  It’s described thusly:

The Wanderers’ Club has long been established as the preeminent gathering place for those brave and select persons whose lives revolve around the quest for adventure. Before there ever was anything so crude as social networking software and sites, the Wanderers’ Club have provided a convivial meeting place and atmosphere in which peers meet and share the camaraderie known only among those who have risked everything and escaped death with fabulous riches, immortal glory, or simply the clothes on their back.

Here among their fellows, adventurers of every age, gender, persuasion and even species are able to share their adventures. Cautionary tales some, farces others; stories which will chill the very marrow and more than leave listeners breathless; there is no end to the variety of adventures spoken of within these walls.

Stackpole provided the first story in the chain, a unique and fun read called “Night of the Rat God“.  There have been many exciting tales in between and I’m proud to let you know that my story, “The Colossus” is the newest in the chain.   The stories are all thrilling adventures, most are very Steampunk in nature.

The art of short fiction is alive and well in the world of online publishing, and it would benefit greatly from your support.  Go check out the Chain Story, read what it has to offer (most importantly, read my story) and if you like it, be sure to keep up with it.

If you’re interested, you can also check out my short story site.  I update it monthly with a new short story.

I also wrote about this for IN Magazine and you can read that story here.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Heatvision Blog is reporting that Disney has struck a deal with Paramount to release “The Avengers” and “Iron Man 3” and they have established a date for the release of the third Iron Man film.

May 3, 2013 is the date you need to write in your calendars.

Though they’ll be paying Paramount a boatload of cash for the right to distribute these films, it makes a lot of sense for Disney, since they own Marvel.  It must really bite at them to see another film company profiting so handsomely from the release of what is now their intellectual property.

Despite the deal, Paramount will still be distributing Captain America and Thor.

This shows a lot about how grown up Paramount and Disney can be and makes me wonder why Fox  and Sony won’t play ball.  It would be to all of our benefit to see Marvel Studios handling all of the other Marvel properties and they can build up a single movie universe out of it (like the fans want). I mean, I would love to see Peter swing by the Baxter Building and get advice from Johnny Storm, and see Nick Fury face off against the Punisher, and Charles Xavier, Reed Richards and Tony Stark hanging out with Dr. Strange and casting the Hulk into space, or whatever.

Fox, Sony, and Lionsgate could still make a killing with their licenses, but give the Marvel movies a life of their own and the potential to be greater than they are.

Click here to read the full report from The Hollywood Reporter.

What do you guys think?  Would it be better for Marvel to have control of all of their properties back?  What would you like to see on film if it could happen?

This week I’m going to delve into an origin that is probably no longer in continuity, but that’s never stopped me before! The story may seem familiar, a young boy’s parents are brutally murdered, and the boy devotes himself to avenging their deaths. Yes that boy is Bruce Wayne, but this article isn’t necessarily the origin of Batman. Today I’ll show you the little known origin of the first Robin!

Such Intensity! D'you think he'll become a dark avenger of the night?

As you may know, Bruce’s story starts with the above scene. What you may not know is what happens immediately after. A young woman named Leslie Thompkins happened upon the scene and did her best to comfort Bruce. Later on, she become one of the Batman’s greatest confidants, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, there is the inevitable funeral, and afterward, Bruce goes to live with his Uncle Phillip. In later retellings, it’s shown that Bruce is savvy enough to get “lost” in the system, having no living relatives. That doesn’t make much sense to me and prefer the irony of this version. The irony is that Uncle Philip travels a lot and Bruce is placed in the care of one Mrs. Chilton. She teaches the lad about honesty and integrity, and comes to think of her as a second mother. It turns out she does this out of guilt, as her son, Joe Chill, is the one who murdered Bruce’s parents in the first place!

Anyway, you may think Bruce may actually live a well-adjusted life and never devote his life to avenging his parents’ murder. You would be wrong. Bruce tried to be at peace, but the fire of his avenging spirit would not be snuffed out until one day he visits a fateful graveside.

Dynamic Rain Effect Copyright DC Comics.

So as anyone who is familiar with Bruce Wayne knows the next part. Bruce trains and studies, studies and trains to become the peak of human physical and mental perfection. There is, of course, more to it than that. Knowing that being a manhunter will require fine detective skills, Bruce decides he wants to study under Harvey Harris, one of the greatest of them all! Young Mr. Wayne is perceptive enough to realize that if he just goes to Harris as Bruce, Harvey will try his best to discourage him, therefore Bruce makes a rather fateful decision.

I shall become... a gaudily dressed eyesore!

That’s right folks, Bruce Wayne, not Dick Grayson is the first Robin. Deal with it. Anyway, the costumed boy goes on to shadow Harris and then ask for his guidance. What he doesn’t bargain for is one of Harris’ enemies about to get the drop on him. Luckily, Bruce was skulking on the rooftops and gets the drop on the thug before he can take out Harris, thanks to one of Silver Age Gotham City’s many, many giant props.

Saved by the bell!

After that, introductions are made, and Bruce makes it known he wants to learn the ways of the detective. Harris, just having his life saved agrees, and then give the ambitious lad his name!

And leggy dames. Lots and lots of dames.

And so there you have it, the Secret Origin of the first Robin! That’s it, the end, finito. Oh, fine. I guess I’ll continue from here, but everyone knows this part. Bruce trains and trains some more, and reaches college age. By this point, the young man is Olympic material if he wanted, but he knows he can’t deviate from the path he’s started, so he majors in criminology. In his studies he learns as much as he can to the point of obsession. Everything is going fine, Bruce believes he’ll be a normal, run of the mill detective until one day he attends a law class. This scene actually stuck with me ever since I first read it, and so I am happy to share it with you. This, in a nutshell, is why I like superheroes. They can do things normal law enforcement can’t, and this is why.

F minus minus, Wayne!

Because of this incident, Bruce knows he can never be a police officer, because he refuses to deal with red tape. Good man! He goes ahead and graduates, but is unsure of his path, brooding about what to do. Then we get the iconic panels of the bat flying through the window, like an omen. Of course this is where Batman is born. I would leave it there, but if we go one page further, we’re treated to an awesome John Byrne/Jim Aparo splash page, so that’s what I’ll end this origin on. Until next week, friends!

I just LOVE decking the Joker!

First and foremost, there will be “spoilers” in this review. And by that, I mean I will be discussing some of the boss fights. There is no plot for this game, so obviously I won’t be spoiling any of that.

Sonic the Hedgehog has always been one of my favorite video game characters. My brother and I played through Sonic 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Sonic & Knuckles) a billion times. The games that followed Sonic & Knuckles were pretty atrocious. Does anyone remember Sonic 3D? Yah, it didn’t work then just like it doesn’t work now. Sonic Adventure was a decent title, but it started bringing in all those alternate characters no one gives a shit about.

With this brief history, you can imagine how excited I was to hear Team Sonic returning to their side-scrolling roots and pretending like everything after Sonic & Knuckles didn’t exist. And to be fair, it is just that. Sonic running and kicking the shit out of Robotnik’s goons. The visuals are pretty and all of the acts are throw backs to previous Sonic games. This kinda brings me in for all of my cons.

The controls for this game are sluggish. It takes a good amount of time pushing in either direction to get Sonic to open it up and run. And even after hitting some of the boosts, you aren’t really going that fast. One of my favorite parts of Sonic 3 was running so fast that you passed the camera and it took a few seconds for the screen to find you. The sluggish controls also are a pain in some of the platforming found in the final 3 acts.

In one particular sequence you have to jump onto a series of platforms that are smashing into spikes on one half, and open space on the other. Seems simple enough. But due to the fact that you can’t just bump the analog in a direction to nudge Sonic over, its very difficult. You have to get a running start just to move a few feet.

In a lot of ways, this game feels more like Sonic 1.5 rather than Sonic 4. All of the cool power ups from Sonic 3 and 4 are gone. No more lightning, flame or bubble shield. Just a regular green shield. Your buddies Tails and Knuckles are nowhere to be found. The special stages are just like the stages in Sonic 1. Over all this game just feels like they “updated” the graphics and ported it to Xbox LIVE.

One new feature has been added. The homing attack. But it’s hardly new, and its difficult to implement. Especially in the boss fights. After doing a homing attack you bounce in the air for a few second recovery. Which isn’t a real hinderance until the final fight with Eggman (I’ll get to that in a second). I was also surprised to see how many extra lives were scattered about the game. By the final boss fight I had 20 something lives. Turns out I’d need most of those.

There are 4 regions that you have to get through on this game. There is the classic level, casino world, water labyrinth and Robotnik’s factory. Each region has a boss fight, and they’re all pretty cake. Mostly regurgitations of games past. All of them I easily beat without dying. After defeating Robotnik in his factory, naturally you go up to space with him for a rehash of the Sonic 2 final fight. “>Does this look familiar?

This was by far the most frustrating portion of the game. Up until this point, you could take down the fat guy with 4 hits. Now its to be expected this one will take a little longer… but geez. The first phase involves bouncing off his chest a billion times while avoiding his flying fists and when he slams on the ground. After that, he starts to short circuit and you can no longer bounce off him without going through a few complicated steps. Anyhow… after a lot of trial and error and more error the game throws its biggest cheap shot at you yet.

Robotnik is now beeping and all that jazz cause he’s going to do. His homing attack is all outta wack, so you aren’t sure where he’s going to land. He slams into the ground with his fist making it shake. And then it falls beneath you and you die. WTF. A little more trial and error to find out you have all of 2 seconds to get up and hit him one last time to stop the ground from falling out from beneath you.

After all this trouble I’m looking forward to a sweet ending. Sure, the game has been very plot thin compared to the previous two Sonic games. A huge disappointment by the way. But maybe just maybe he’ll do one of those (previously) cutting edge jumps to towards the screen and make some kick-ass pose. Nope. He runs to the left (the left?!) past a bunch of critters and rings (I know nerds, you’re supposed to try and get all these for that not-so-alternate ending) and stops. Strikes a pose. Game over.

That is unless you want to go through all those grueling special stages and find all the secrets for a lack-luster alternate ending. Sonic 4 was disappointing for me. Especially for 1200 points. For that kinda cash you should just download Sonic 1, 2, 3 or the real 4 to get your nostalgia kick. And that’s really what this game makes me want to do. It’s nice to see Sonic Team going back to it’s roots, but I think they went a little too far.

This week’s episode of Clone Wars sends us back to Mandalore where Ahsoka Tano has been given the assignment to teach Mandalorian students in the Academy about corruption and for some reason that would lead her to investigate corruption that for some reason would help eliminate the corruption on Mandalore.

I know, I know.  It really is as contrived as it sounds.

The first two acts of this episode are preposterous.  For some reason these students are inspired to investigate the food shortage and find that the government warehouses are full of food and they happen to stumble upon a black marketeer making a deal with “off-worlders.”  They make a holocam recording of the whole affair, but are quickly discovered and chased.  Fortunately, these teenage students somehow escape from the personal police escort of the hooded bad guy and decide they need to go to the authorities about this corruption.  One young Mandalorian lad, Korkie, happens to have an aunt that is actually Duchess Satine.

They go to her for help, but she acts incredibly suspicious and sends the children on their way.

“She must be in on it,” they assume.  And then Korkie drops another revelation, “I’ve known the Prime Minister all my life, if my Auntie Satine won’t help, let’s go talk to him!”

After a quick call with the Prime Minister of the entire planet of Mandalore, he tells them to meet him in a darkened plaza, alone, with everyone who knows of the plot of corruption.  You know, because it’s totally reasonable to have the Prime Ministers phone number as a young Cadet in school, and it’s even more reasonable to think nothing is afoot when he asks to meet you in a dark alley.

See where this is going?

These kids need a healthy dose of stranger danger.

Ahsoka gets involved and they realize that Satine has been captured also.

There’s a commercial break and then I really started to enjoy the episode.  The last act reveals the villains, has some really well-played action, brings all of the political brinksmanship of the last episode that had no pay off to a head and kind of fixed things on Mandalore.  And it really brings Ahsoka further into her own, which is something we needed to see heading into the rest of the season.

And seriously, Ahsoka fighting off a bunch of Mandalorian police with binders on?  That’s worth the two preposterous acts of set up with Korkie and the Mandalorian Mystery Machine.

I do not want to give you the impression that I’m the guy who needs action at all times to sate my desire for Clone Wars.  I realize the last episode was “boring” and a lot of people assumed it was because there was no action (even though the entire last act was a firefight).  It’s because of lazy writing.  This episode was written by Cameron Litvack, who also wrote the last episode.  (Coincidentally, it was also directed by the same fellow, Giancarlo Volpe.  I’ll be wary of seeing their names together on any future episodes.)

The situations in the last two episodes have been contrived, the scenarios preposterous, the characters acting erratically…  It felt like he hasn’t been watching the show.  As a writer, it really frustrates me to see lazy, bad writing on Clone Wars.  This is the best show on television and they should be holding their writer/director teams to a higher standard.  I’m sure these episodes are playing better to kids, my son was wrapped up in it completely, but they know we’re watching and they know we pay attention.  And they know we’re going to invest more thought and care into it than apparently Cameron Litvack is capable of.

Having said all of that, I really did enjoy this episode a lot better than the last one.  It had an ending that I was actually happy with and I’m hoping this is the end of us seeing Mandalore for a while.  Which is sad for me to say, because last seasons exploits on Mandalore were some of my favorite.  It ended on a high note and left me eager to get to next weeks episode.

After watching this episode, though, my son said, “That was one of the best ones yet, right dad?”

“If you say so.”

“But tomorrow, can we watch Bombad Jedi?  That one is the best.”

“Yes we can, Anakin.  Yes we can.”

To catch up on season one, order that here.  You can preorder season two here.

ROBOTtyson is featured in this clip

I’ve been given the opportunity to interview Danny Trejo about his upcoming stint at a local Haunt-

The Castle of Chaos, a premier haunted house establishment celebrating ten years of scaring Salt Lakers to death, will mark its “Ten Years Ten Fears” anniversary with an unparalleled special appearance by cult movie actor Danny Trejo.  Trejo, a former convict turned successful actor, who is known for his tattooed body and aptitude at playing violent villains and assassins, will participate in a haunt experience deep within the depths of the Castle of Chaos from October 28^th through 31^st.

Danny Trejo is most recently known for his role as Machete in Robert Rodriguez’s B-Revenge flick of the same title- but he’s that sort of actor that everybody recognizes-

“Danny Trejo may not be a household name, but once you see his image, believe me – you know this guy,” stated James Bernard, owner of Castle of Chaos. “Danny is a horror film favorite, a cult classic, and a truly unforgettable figure. Danny’s appearance is the perfect way to top off our 10 Years 10 Fears celebration.  We have spent the past ten years providing over the top thrills and terror to our visitors; and Danny Trejo will bring a new level of horrific excitement and entertainment to the Castle of Chaos.”

In my interview (which I’ll be posting here on the Big Shiny Robot!) I am also given the opportunity to ask him anything else I’d like! This got me thinking… I want to gear my interview with him to his fans. To the people that adore and KNOW Danny Trejo…

SO- if you, the reader have a question you’d like me to ask Danny Trejo in my upcoming interview- post it in the comments below and I’ll try to get to as many of them as possible! This is your chance to ask a cult film icon the questions you have always wanted to ask!

First we got news that David E Kelley would be developing a Wonder Woman series (which we can only hope has a unisex bathroom on the Watchtower).  I guess because remakes of 80s shows are doing well (Hawaii Five-0), and to celebrate the merger of Marvel and Disney, ABC, not to be outdone, is going back to the well with an Incredible Hulk series.

I’m really, really confused.

We’ve had three different Hulks since 2003 (Mark Ruffalo, Ed Norton, and Eric Bana), but most people still think fondly of Bill Bixby.  Since I doubt Ruffalo will take a TV gig (although I would watch religiously if he did!), that means an average of a different Hulk once every 2 years.

I want to see this happen.  It could be soooooo great.  But doing a show where a CG Hulk smashes things every week is going to get really expensive.  Does ABC have the stomach for this?  Or will they go with a huge bodybuilder to play the Hulk?  Or a pro wrestler?

And given ABC (Disney’s) ownership of the Marvel rights, how likely will we be to see various other Marvel characters showing up?

According to this press release… ahhem, independent news story from ABC News, while Hulk has a “Showrunner wanted” placard around it, they are also looking at several other properties for TV development, including the already announced Cloak and Dagger for ABC Family:

Marvel began narrowing its list of possible TV adaptations in May with a presentation on the Disney lot. Executives presented ABC suits with a list of titles they identified as possible series:

• “Heroes for Hire” (focusing on ex-con Luke Cage offering to take on bad guys for a price);

• “The Eternals” (a race of superpowered beings live amid humanity in secret, inspiring legends);

• “Agents of Atlas, Alter Ego” (private investigator Jessica Jones takes on cases involving superhumans);

• “Moon Knight, the Red Hood” (a low-rent criminal discovers a cloak that gives him superpowers);

• “Ka-Zar” (a Tarzan-type and his saber-toothed tiger must journey to the concrete jungle to seek justice);

• “Daughters of the Dragon” (a dynamic female duo, one with a bionic arm and the other a granddaughter of a samurai, open a private-detective agency); and

• “The Punisher” (one man wages a war on crime; already adapted as two feature films).

Supposedly The Punisher is also on a list for possible cable development.  Unfortunately, it looks like ABC lacks an appropriately themed cable network, and since ABC Family and Lifetime look like bad fits… unfortunately, the words “FX” were not in the mix, as having a hard-boiled Punisher show a la The Shield would be epic, and FX is owned by Fox.  AMC has also shown major promise with Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and now Walking Dead, and being owned by Cablevision rather than a major entertainment company, might be a great place to go.  Perchance to dream?

What we could really hope for is a good Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, etc show.  I’m still crossing my fingers for that one.

But we’ll get the Hulk.  This has the potential to be great.  It also has the potential to be terrible.  What do you think? What should ABC do?  What should they avoid?  (Red Hulk storylines?)

I await comments on the next Geek Show Podcast from Hulk super-fan Shannon Barnson.

Big Shiny Robot! has a weekly column in the Salt Lake City alt-weekly IN Magazine and every week we bring it to you on the site.

This week, we review the collected edition of the RED miniseries, published by DC and Wildstorm, and written by Warren Ellis. We also preview the movie which hits theatres on Friday.

If you live in the greater Salt Lake area, you can pick up a copy of IN Magazine up from one of their ubiquitous newsstands, and we would highly suggest that you do.

You can read the online version of the story here.

Click on the image below to read the article as it appears in print: