The closing ceremonies at Star Wars Celebration VI were dedicated to the release date announcement for the 3D theatrical releases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

I was on hand to witness the sizzle reel for both films and I have to say I was pretty well wowed.

We were treated to what felt like five minutes of scenes of Attack of the Clones in 3D on a sharp digital projector and I was blown away. Perhaps it had everything to do with the atmosphere, sitting in a room with a couple of thousand Star Wars geeks will do that to you, but it was stunning. They showed pieces from every major sequence in the film, ending with the battle between Yoda and Dooku, which is still one of the finest moments in Star Wars history.

But, clearly, they saved the best for last.

They showed a large portion of the battle over Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith and I literally couldn’t breath while it was going. The depth and sophistication of that battle set to 3D was enough to make my head spin in all the right ways.

I said when it came out that Phantom Menace was the best post-conversion 3D I’d ever seen, but I was a liar. This stuff is even better.

And I have far less time to wait for them than I would have guessed.

Both films are coming out back to back next fall. Episode II hits theaters September 20, 2013 and Episode III comes October 11, 2013. Which is good news for all of us. Burning through the last of the prequels in one year means we HAVE to be closer to seeing the classic trilogy on the big screen again. After catching The Empire Strikes Back on the same screen at Celebration VI, I’m dying to take my kids to see these movies on the big screen again.

Here’s the official press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox have announced the official release dates for the 3D theatrical launch of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Attendees at the closing ceremony for Star Wars Celebration VI, the franchise’s massive fan event, learned that the epic movies that chronicle the rise of the Galactic Empire will be released back-to-back, with Episode II hitting theaters on September 20, 2013 and Episode III arriving soon after on October 11, 2013.

With its deeply detailed worlds and engulfing action, Star Wars is perfectly suited for the immersive 3D theatrical experience. Episode II and III deliver such captivating locales as the gleaming clone hatcheries of rain-swept Kamino, and the fiery lava planet of Mustafar as well as spectacular action sequences like Yoda’s unforgettable debut as a lightsaber duelist, the explosive space and ground battles of the Clone Wars, and the dramatic showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

Supervised by Industrial Light & Magic, the meticulous 3D conversion was undertaken by Prime Focus, the global visual entertainment services company. With their proprietary View-D™ process, Prime Focus transformed Episode II and III into 3D with the utmost respect for the source material, and with a keen eye for both technological consideration and artistic intentions.

This trailer really blew my mind all 2 or 3 times I was able to see it at Celebration.

Can you imagine how bad things must get for Sidious to come down from his hiding place to deal with something in person? I get the chills, every time.

7 days ago, in a city 2 states away ….. (cue the John Williams)

As anyone who frequents the BSR site knows, last week was the somewhat annual celebration of all things Star Wars in Orlando, Florida. Drew, Spencer, Brian and I made the 12 hour drive from our homes in Tennessee to The Orange State with no agendas, a large amount of snacks, 80 minutes of Skrillex, and the newest ICP album. I would like to take this time to point out that aside from the lack of agendas and surplus of snacks, I had little to do with the aforementioned audio decisions. I blame my friend Brian. Brian is the kind of guy that is hard to get a read on. I can never decide if his actions are deliberate or tongue in cheek. I blame my inability to judge his motives on his insistence to rock horrible eye wear. I have no idea if he genuinely likes looking like an extra from the volleyball scene in Top Gun. He might just think that rocking all the sunglasses that Kanye West didn’t buy is funny. Did I mention that Brian’s nickname is Hell Yeah? The legends lives on….

August 22nd

Me and my three co-pilots left Clarksville, TN all hyped up on energy drink and Funyuns (you throw in beef jerky and you have what is know as “Trailer Breakfast”). Prior to our trip we had blindly selected 12 CDs from the discount bin of our local Wal-Mart. Highlights included a bluegrass tribute to Nickelback, Stevie Nicks, Hank Williams Jr, Good Charlotte, Puddle of Mudd and an edited Eminem album. We figured 1 CD for every hour of driving time. These were to be the only source of music for the trip. So why was Skrillex being played you ask? Because my friends are assholes and they know that Dub-Step gives me panic attacks. Brian, being the good friend that he is, later offered to not play Skrillex the rest of the trip if I downed the small bottle of syrup he had acquired from our lunch at Cracker Barrel. He would retrieve his bottle of syrup many times over the course of the trip in an attempt to use it as a bargaining chip. Because I am insanely stubborn, he still has that bottle.

After 12 hours of auditory abuse and 1 sketchy Spa visit, we arrived at our Days Inn / International House of Pancakes. The Days Inn we stayed at had an IHOP attached to it. Classy. What it didn’t have was working electrical sockets or pillows that didn’t suck.

August 23

We awoke from our slumber with aching backs and dry skin. The water in Florida is pointless. It’s meant for animals to live in. It’s not meant for humans to bathe in or consume. Doing so will make your skin hurt and your bowels stop. This may be a little too much info for the masses, but the last thing I want to do when I’m trying to get my Jawa on is down some laxatives and hope my rectum doesn’t kick start itself when I’m looking to see how much Willow is charging for his autograph. This happened. Wickett was only asking $25. I passed.

Our first day at the celebration started off with a huge win for me. Before we even entered the building I ran right into Stephen Sansweet. Steven is the curator of Racho Obi-Wan and the author of the super popular Star Wars Vault AND the upcoming Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection. We shook hands, I thanked him for his work, and continued my journey.

We spent much of the first day pointing and walking aimlessly toward things that had only ever existed to us on the big screen. After an hour or so of taking pictures and cruising the over priced merch tables, the 4 of us ventured upstairs to watch the Star Wars Comics panel. Authors, artists, and creators spent a little over an hour discussing upcoming and ongoing stories that will all be happening within different time lines of the Star Wars Universe. Dark Horse plans to launch a new Star Wars title in early 2013 with all the characters from the original saga as the leads. They hope this will provide a good starting point for those not familiar with the Star Wars comics. For any of those who are unsure about adding this new book to their hold, Alex Ross will be doing the covers. Just saying.

The second panel we saw covered the details of the Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection: 35 Years of Characters book to be released this October. Author Stephen Sansweet, joined by his contributors and co-authors, discussed everything that went into deciding which characters made the book, why, and how they determined what constituted a “new figure”. For those who don’t collect action figures this would have been insanely boring. I found it insanely interesting. I thought I knew action figures and molds. I could not have been wrong. It appears that only a handful of people can make a living talking and writing about action figures and unfortunately for me and my fellow collectors, those spots have been taken by Sansweet and friends.

Our last panel of the day was hosted by Timothy Zahn and dealt entirely with his writing contributions to the extended universe. Aside from Brian, the three of us had zero experience with any of Mr. Zahn’s work. After seeing how many novels and short stories Zahn has written, I almost felt as if I had failed as a fan. The theater for the panel was packed with people who knew events down to the page number of specific books. Two of which were a pair of terrifying twins. Note to twins. We get it. You look exactly alike. Stop insisting on having the same haircuts and wearing the same clothes. If your parents did it to you when you were young that’s different. They were the ones being jerks. When you continue to do it as an adult, you’re just being creepy. If I see you wearing the same dress and shoes, I’m going to assume you bathe and shower together. That’s your fault not mine.

Leaving the panel I could see that Brian was on cloud nine whereas I felt as if the force was no longer strong with this one. How could I have NOT been exposed to Zahn’s work? Why did my Dad make me watch the movies over and over and not read the books to go along with them? Oh, because he made me wear short shorts and kick a ball around instead. But I grew up and stopped doing those things. Twins could stand to learn a thing or two from me.

With our panels done for the day we returned to the floor, took advantage of a few merch deals, snapped a few photos, and returned to our room to pass out and not poop.

August 24

Our second day at the con started out much like the first. We did a lot of people watching and sought out any potential panels that may peak our interests. There was an appearance by Mark Hammil scheduled for later in the evening, other than that we were open to anything. Hammil played Cock Knocker in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He’s a big deal at these things.

Because I drive for work, I pretty much live off of podcasts. One of my favorites just happens to be The Nerdist Podcast. Now am I telling you this because I was able to actually meet and talk to Chris Hardwick? Or am I telling you this so when they ask you, “How did Patrick solidify his place in Hell?” you can correctly respond with, “By lying to an old lady to get tickets to the Star Wars Transmission taping hosted by Chris Hardwick.” Both answers are correct. I did meet Mr. Nerdist himself, and we did score tickets to his super small taping of Star Wars Transmissions by lying to an old lady.

Between lying to women and getting a behind the scenes look at how live internet-based television is made, my good friend Donnie joined our team and the five of us formed like Voltron. For the rest of Friday our mission was simple, get Spencer pictures of women in slave outfits. Out of context that is the best sentence I have ever written. Our mission went off with a hitch except for the near miss of a 6 person pile-up at the wheels of Warwick Davis’ ass hauling Segway. As we were leaving the convention floor, Davis sped through an opened door and almost destroyed Spencer’s diabetes stricken feet. Taking notice of the near collision, he looked back and merely waved. Thank you for the concern Mr. Flickwick.

Our second day concluded with the much anticipated appearance by Mark Hammil. Hammil regaled the audience with stories about everything from his audition for the part of Luke Skywalker to his work as the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. One of my favorite moments of the weekend occurred when Mark performed perhaps the Joker’s most famous monologue IN CHARACTER He slipped into it soo easily and read through the lines in a way that would have had The Ledge himself taking notes.

August 25th

Saturday went much like the days before. Get to the convention center, check the panel schedule, and people watch. We were lucky enough to score tickets to another Star Wars Transmission taping from one of the interns on the show. I was happy because I wouldn’t have to dent my karma score two days in a row. The group was happy because the rumor going around was that Scott Evil and the other guys from Robot Chicken were going to be the special guests. Rumor became fact and we got a sneak peak of the upcoming Star Wars Detours. I have been on the fence about this show since it’s announcement and after viewing the footage I’m still trying to keep my balance. I do fear that Seth Green may be Seth Mcfarlaning himself (or wasting his flavor) within the Star Wars Universe. Robot Chicken and all the Star Wars Specials have been solid. I worry that one will suffer because of the over exposure or large load of content that needs to be produced to make all the shows successful. I also kind of cringed when I heard that Seth Mcfarlane was going to be involved. I get that the guy pretty much spit’s success and dollar signs. I just don’t get how.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I as in line for the taping Big Shiny Robot’s Bryan Young walked by us and I didn’t take the chance to introduce myself. Why? Because I’m a chicken shit. I admire the guys writing a ton and appreciate all the opportunities I’ve had to write for the site. I didn’t want to blow any future chances by turning into a babbling idiot and embarrassing myself. I met Henry Rollins and stared at my feet. When I met Kyle Kinane I think I told him he was a cool dude. I hope I never get the chance to meet Tom Hardy or Tom Hanks.

After the taping we killed some time before the NPR panel with more people watching. Within minutes of occupying some couch space, the Warwick Davis appeared again. He was sans Segway and emerged only to disappear into the men’s room. Of course I dared everyone to go ask him for a photo while he stood there mid-piss. Nobody stepped up to the plate and Warwick exited the bathroom and our lives through a door we didn’t know existed. I still attest that he just disappeared because he was in a Harry Potter movie and everyone in those movies is a wizard.

I opted out of the NPR panel on Saturday and I really regret it. Apparently Sam Witwer (Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Being Human) read as one of the characters and that would have been rad to see. Add him to the list of people I don’t need to meet. We also didn’t stay to see Carrie Fisher. I forget the reason. I think it had something to do with all of us yearning for food that wasn’t grease flavored.

August 26th

Sunday was the last day of the celebration and you could see the toll the last four days had taken on the faces of all the people who thought rocking costume make-up for four days was a rad idea. We didn’t really spend a lot of time at the celebration Sunday. We cruised the floor one more time to see if there were any deals we couldn’t pass up and after that we were off. We regrettably missed the “Why We Love The Prequels” panel that featured my web crush Bryan Young. I blame Mother Nature. We were warned by a local that there was a hurricane on it’s way and we didn’t want to test our might against Mother Nature. The universe has a way of evening things out and I had just lied to an old lady.

The ride home was a quiet one. Skrillex made another appearance. So did the bottle of syrup. We made a pit stop at a gas station that only carried pornography of an Ebony persuasion and Rebel flag license plates. And you thought never the two shall meet.

All in all the weekend was a success. I met some rad people, saw some rad costumes, and had a rad time with my best friends. I don’t know if I’m aching to go to another Star Wars Celebration right away or if I would prefer going to something like Dragon-Con instead. I’m sure as soon as details get released we will start making our plans and booking our rooms. Although 4 days with just dudes is a little intense. I may have to convince Emily to tag along for whatever happens next year. I’m sure she’s looking for yet another reason to not have sex with me and seeing me wig out over a dude in tights and masks should suffice.

For the last three weeks since its premiere, Adult Swim’s newest show, Black Dynamite, based on the brilliant 2009 blaxploitation spoof of the same name, has hastily been compared to its sister series, The Boondocks, and while the comparison is apt, yes, it isn’t necessarily a fair (or even justified) view of the two shows. While they definitely share the same stomping ground (the antics, tropes, and tribulations of African American society/culture), Black Dynamite and The Boondocks are ultimately two different creatures, and what funny, insightful, and controversial creatures they are. But in order to understand the differences between the two series, we need to come to terms with the difference between parody and satire, the respective comedic aims of both shows that have been misinterpreted and confused for far too long.

Satire is a form of comedy or irony that intentionally exaggerates certain aspects of the human condition to expose/ridicule the vices of that particular facet of society, in some cases, seeking to actively improve the vices that they’re satirizing. Aaron McGruder originally created The Boondocks comic strip for this purpose, and his approach was fresh and highly uncompromising, which lead to it really catching on. Think of The Simpsons’ skewering of the archetypal nuclear sitcom family of the 50s, or The Oblong’s subversive skewering of class relations in American suburbia. In The Boondocks’ case, the target is African American life and culture, simultaneously criticizing aspects that creator/writer Aaron McGruder personally finds annoying, and celebrating what makes the culture unique in the American melting pot, including, but not limited to: black identity, hip-hop culture, interracial relationships, black self- hatred,old school vs new school, celebrities, etc. The satire in The Boondocks, though broad, takes a magnifying glass purely to the people and their effect on the culture (and vice versa).

Just take a look at the three main characters, 10 year old Huey Freeman, a leftist revolutionary misanthropic budding domestic terrorist with roots in many radical political and racial organizations and hair to match, his 8 year old brother Riley Freeman, a rap-obsessed, gang-affiliated youth who is willing to conform to any new fad or position taken up by his fellow gangstas, no matter how hypocritical or silly it may be, or Robert Jebediah “Granddad” Freeman, the boy’s ornery self-centered womanizing grandfather content to hop on the Civil Rights bandwagon and collect Social Security checks in the autumn of his life. All three of these characters represent the most prevalent facets of the African American experience: the revolutionary idealist hell bent on informing/saving his race, despite the resistance and scrutiny that’s put upon him (Huey), the mis-guided hip-hop obsessed youngster bathing in his own ignorance (Riley), and the older generation’s ideals and hang-ups with modern culture personified (Granddad). These are only a few examples of ways that McGruder uses his background and current events to dissect and criticize (and in a way, celebrate) African American culture. Serious-minded, grounded satirical animation is what The Boondocks boils down to.

Black Dynamite, on the other hand, doesn’t take its subject matter nearly as seriously. Unlike satire, parody takes a particular style of filmmaking, writing, or other form of expression and exaggerates it for laughs. Black Dynamite started out as a passion project fake trailer created by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, and director Scott Sanders. Eventually, positive fan reaction resulted in the trio writing a script for a feature, which wound up as a parody of the tropes of the blaxploitation genre, which involved cheaply made feature films that typically spun off regular genres, like action films, westerns, kung-fu flicks, comedies, etc, and featured all African American casts, over-exaggerated action, and a lathering of funk/jazz music for good measure. As a parody and celebration of the genre, Dynamite was very well received, and an animated series was conceived and made for Adult Swim with the help of subsidiary Titmouse Inc. The animated series, only three episodes in, has already managed to take the concept to places that live-action would’ve made very hard, adding ninjas, aliens masquerading as celebrities, homicidal puppets, and tons of campy action and situations to the mix, already overly exaggerating an overly exaggerated premise.

Unlike The Boondocks, Black Dynamite, being a blaxploitation project, has nothing to say about the culture that it represents; it is playing with conventions of the genre of film for laughs, not at African American’s expense: the straight-faced, no- nonsense bad ass leader (Black Dynamite), the right hand man who rhymes within meter (Bull Horn), the slightly effeminate second hand man (Cream Corn), and the sexy mama who struts her stuff as only she can (Honey Bee). All four of these main characters (and the one-shot characters that permeate the series) are archetypes at the service of the show, nothing more and nothing less. It doesn’t have anything to say about the state of the culture in the 1970s or beyond, it just puts these characters and filmmaking techniques in front of us and asks us to revel in how ridiculous, and funny, this given material is.

Let me make myself clear, here: I’m a huge fan of both shows. They are both insightful, whip smart, and devastatingly funny in their respective approaches to facets of African American culture, I just don’t think it’s fair to compare the shows to each other. In terms of visuals, Boondocks has a muted color palette and more grounded and static animation style as opposed to Dynamite’s saturated, varied color palette and more stylized animation. In terms of humor, both share a writer/executive producer in Carl Jones and voice actors such as Cedric Yarbrough and Michael Jai White, but current events and societal satire still dominate Boondocks, while Dynamite focuses on the tropes of the film genre that birthed it. Both of these shows are incredibly funny portrayals of a culture and form of humor that many people think that they understand. I think comparing a serious-minded satire like The Boondocks to a silly parody like Black Dynamite is fair, but by no means accurate. They’re different projects from some of the same people. Arguing over which is better is pointless (especially this early into the series). Just take the Freemans and the Black Dynamite crew as they are, lop on that grain of salt, and enjoy some of the most intelligent and biting commentary currently available on the air.

Dylan “Rastaman0318” G., who is an ecstatic film, television and pop culture geek, contributed this article to Big Shiny Robot!

Well this is it. The week long web series has finally come to a close, and it ends on such a down note. What could the end of this episode mean for the season premier? Well luckily we only have to wait a day to get our full dose of the Doctor and the Ponds. Well without further ado here is the final episode of “Pond Life.”

I’ve got to say, I absolutely love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well duh, right? I’m a red-blooded American male in his 20-30’s who grew up with the antics of Mike, Leo, Don, & Raph. That being said, I can’t really watch any of the original cartoon (aside from the earliest episodes) without realizing nostalgia is better left as such. After I outgrew the turtles though, I discovered their adventures on the printed page and fell in love all over again. These much more violent (I’m not going to say mature, because come on) tales made me realize that the Turtles were highly adaptable, and there is room for multiple interpretations of the characters (Michael Bay notwithstanding). With that in mind, when IDW launched their new comic version of the TMNT, I was intrigued. The main reason for this is that while things are somewhat drastically different in the IDW-verse, there are many concepts that stay true to my childhood & adolescent memories, or even improves on them, which brings us to TMNT Micro-Series #7.

Ostensibly taking place between issues #12 & #13 of the main series, the issues opens with the Turtles along with April riding in her van. It’s a nice shot that establishes the current status quo. It would be a perfectly serviceable story if it just focus on the turtles and their current lot in life, but since this one-shot focuses on April, she gets to shine. Some worrying from Donatello galvanizes April to go to Stockgen, and disable anything that Baxter Stockman & Krang may be using to track the turtles. It’s a long story, see the current series to catch up.

This version of April is a scientist, but she’s no slouch in the action department either. She infiltrates her work, finds out that Stockgen is much more evil than it turns out to be. Using guile, pluck, some fighting skills learned from Casey Jones along with pure luck, April manages to escape from the evil lab with her mission accomplished and her skin intact. It’s a fine story (Barbara Kesel knows her way around a script), but those aspects are not why I love this book. I’ll tell you, but it’s kind of spoiler-y, so I’m going to giver some spoiler space before i reveal it.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

OK. Still here? Good. This issue not only introduces a version of Slash, the “Evil Turtle From Dimension X”, it actually makes him a plausible character, and one whose continuing story I really want to know more about. You see, during April’s shenanigans, she caused a power outage. During this outage, there are a few obvious looking cloning chambers. I don’t know if that’s what they actually are, but let’s go with it. Anyway, due to the outage, the tanks fail. It’s unknown what happens to the majority of the tanks, but out of one, a very turtle-y creature appears. He’s probably not all there though, again, due to the fact the the cloning (or whatever) process wasn’t complete. The emerging turtle has deformed fingernails, which could be considered claws, two different colored eyes, and a penchant for palm trees. That last bit could be considered silly, as it was a hangup of Slash from the 80’s cartoon, but in this incarnation, he seems to have fragmented memories of April caring for the original turtles in their tank (they were originally Stockgen experiments, but April got attached and gave them their names)which happened to have a palm tree. For me, this bit was worth the price of admission alone. TMNT Micro-Series #7 is available now at you local comic shop, and also digitally for $3.99.

From this…

To this…

Pond Life is a five part prequel to the upcoming season of Doctor Who, which starts this Saturday. We will get one episode a day starting today going through Friday. This first episode isn’t really more than the Doctor keeping Amy and Rory up to date with his adventures. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!

Here at Star Wars Celebration VI, we were given the privilege of watching the Season 5 premiere of The Clone Wars.

I did the red carpet and interviewed many of the actors and crew behind the show and we’ll see those appearing on the site over the course of the next few weeks. Then, we were led into the Digital Stage and were shown three episodes back to back. The first two we saw were the season finale episodes involving Darth Maul from Season 4. (You can read my review of those episodes here and here.)

Then we were shown the first episode of Season 5.

Darth Maul and Savage Opress had no problems escaping their entrapment on the abandoned ship where Obi-Wan and Ventress left them. They are marauding around the galaxy, causing as much havoc along the outer rim as possible.

Maul, taking cues from his old master, The Phantom Menace himself, begins hatching a plan to lead the Jedi to him, to bring them out and become a major player in the larger conflict. To that end, he seeks to subvert Hondo Ohnaka and his pirate men to marshal the beginnings of an army.

Obi-wan and Adi Gallia are sent to deal with the situation.

I’m not sure how much more I want to say beyond that as far as the story of this episode goes.

Fights ensue, and they are amazing. Obi-wan faces down with two lightsabers against Maul and Opress and it was one of the most impressive fights I’ve ever seen on the show. It was clearly choreographed, it was exciting, and the stakes of the episode were raising the stakes on the entire series.

Obi-Wan and the heroes spend half of this episode on the run, outmatched by a superior foe. Filoni has said many times before (and he reiterated this time in the Q and A afterward) that the episodes where the good guys are on the run are always the best and this episode was no exception.

The show is getting even better and more mature than we’d seen. And, from the looks of the trailer for the rest of the season, this episode is only the tip of the iceberg.

We also were treated to a new model build of Yoda. When I spoke to Tom Kane on the red carpet, he promised Yoda was going to find himself in some action situations in Season 5 and afterwards, Filoni said the new model was a hint that the character is going to be doing lots more. It looked great.

As far as this episode goes, Aaron Goins pointed out that there will be another Even Piell level of continuity outcry concerning Adi Gallia. I’m sure that by the time next season rolls around, everyone will go back to not caring. Again, I don’t think it’s a big deal, Star Wars is what you make of it, but others will be livid. Particularly fans of the Dark Horse comics.

And did I mention that Snaggletooth has an appearance? It was great and the crowd loved it.

This episode premieres on September 29th. The Clone Wars is moving to a new time slot with that premiere: Saturday mornings at 9:30 am. I’m not sure how I feel about the change. I really like the feeling of watching something like a movie in the evening, but the morning doesn’t give the same feeling… Maybe if it were a matinee at a movie theatre, then I’d be on board.

After the episode, Filoni answered some fan questions and there were some interesting tidbits of information. For one, Tikkes will not be appearing in this season, though we will be seeing Muuns. Stories involving Muunilist are of great interest to me.

Mother Talzin was another topic of discussion, especially given some of the visual cues we were shown when Maul or Savage took damage in their fight. “We won’t see much of Mother Talzin for a while,” Dave Filoni said, “And she’s tricky in a way Grievous didn’t understand.” He went on to explain that the Nightsisters are not so easily defeated. “They have an older magic than the force. They’re nature wielding creatures.”

Filoni also said that we’d be seeing lots of odd pairings and alliances this season.

A question was asked about Ian Abercrombie, the late voice of Palpatine/Sidious, but Dave assured the audience that Ian completed almost all of Season 5 before his death and there will be no announcements or discussions of his replacement until the entirety of his work on The Clone Wars is released.

Then… We were shown a trailer for the rest of season 5.

Saying that it blew my hair back would be an understatement. It seemed as though there were many episodes we were given tastes of. There appears to be an episode where Artoo is given an entire squad of droids to infiltrate the Seperatists on a secret Mission. Maul’s story seemed to be taking him in different places, and we saw him going to Death Watch, offering to start Civil War on Mandalore. But we were also shown footage of Maul fighting Pre Viszla. Filoni has long talked about Mandalore being the powder keg of a planet, like Europe before World War I, and it seems as though Darth Maul is the spark they need.

There were many shots of two characters in disguise. Whether it means those two characters are teaming up (which would be incredibly fascinating) is beyond me, but it certainly places them on the run from someone. Those two characters? Asajj Ventress and Ahsoka.

There could be some fascinating stuff there.

There were also many shots in the trailer of Anakin being angry and tossing people about, but there seemed to be Padme in the shots or the context… I can’t be sure because the whole thing moved so quickly… And it seemed like they’d be addressing more of his jealousy and rage issues.

But, the piece de resistance?

This trailer truly sets up the idea that the political nature of the Clone Wars are shifting. Maul has created so much strife and a second front of war for both the Republic and the Separatists that he’s interfering with Sidious’s machinations. At the end of the premiere episode, Palpatine insists to the Jedi council that dealing with Darth Maul is a distraction from the war, and to a large degree, I think he’s right.

But when Sidious comes to take care of business?

He does so with a lightsaber.

The brief glimpses of him fighting Darth Maul were breathtaking.

I get the idea that this is truly going to be the best season yet.

I can’t wait for you all to see it. Hell, I can’t wait for me to see the rest of it.

I have been trying to get information out of Seth Green and Matt Senreich about their Star Wars show for years. Literally.

In fact, it was pumping them for information at the season 3 premiere of The Clone Wars that George Lucas interrupted us and heckled the interview.

But now, they’ve finally unveiled the first trailer for their new comedy show: Detours:

As you can see, it looks different. It’s a totally different take on Star Wars and one I’m really interested in seeing, to be honest. These guys are funny and since it’s not like a sketch show in the sense that Family Guy is, we’re going to get some great stories.

It’s set during the Dark Times between Episode III and Episode IV and it’s set in three primary locations. The first is the first Death Star that is still under construction and since it’s a giant secret, everyone is told it’s a giant mall. The stormtroopers there, Killer and Super Ace (voiced by Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison), are disappointed with their mall cop duty. And the one voiced by Donald Faison has dreams of becoming a mattress salesman.

Yes. It’s that off the wall, but somehow charming.

At the Clone Wars premiere, I talked to Dee Bradley Baker about his new character, Basher, who is an older clone and sounds like a lot of fun. There’s also a character named Jeff, the IT guy that was added at George Lucas’ insistence.

Palpatine and Vader are constantly around as well. Along with “The Emperor’s Foot”, Major Steel…

Here’s the clip they showed:

Lots of smart Star Wars jokes, lots of just crazy off the wall stuff.

Then, the next part of the show takes place on Coruscant around Dex’s Diner… Described by Seth and Matt and everyone else at the panel as sort of like the Cheers of the galaxy. Everyone pops in to eat there “from Ishi Tib to the Emperor.” It sounds like there are lots of guest stars in that corner of the show.

The TMZ-like newscaster in this clip was voiced by Joel McHale from Community and The Soup.

One of the major characters on Coruscant, though, is a young Princess Leia and all of her decoys, voiced by the wonderful Cat Taber (who voices Padme on The Clone Wars.)

She also voices an ADORABLE baby tauntaun.

It’s important to note two things about that clip:

1) Yes. That IS Billy Dee Williams. He’s playing Lando on the show. Anthony Daniels is playing Threepio on the show (obviously) and Ahmed Best is reprising his role of Jar Jar Binks. Matt and Seth and the rest of the panel assured everyone that this is going to make Jar Jar awesome for people who hate him. Or give those people new reasons to hate him. Since I don’t mind Jar Jar in the movies and have loved what they’ve done with him in the cartoons, this works for me.

2) Max Rebo is described as the Gene Simmons of the Star Wars Universe. He owns chains of everything and it sounds hilarious.

The last clip is of Han and Chewie, which centers around the third major location of the show: Tatooine. It was supposed to just be Jabba’s palace, but the concept expanded to include the entire planet.

And Han and Chewbacca are literally an old married couple.

Watch and see:

It’s absurd and hilarious.

As far as other bits from the panel:

Chris Mculloch from The Venture Brothers is writing episodes and playing Tarkin. He also created a character named Biff Tarkin. Jane Espenson and Zeb Wells are also writers among many, many others.

“Any grievance you have with midi-chlorians you need to talk George about it. It makes sense.” Seth Green

Lando seems like a total grifter, even presenting Jabba with a pyramid scheme.

Weird Al, Felicia Day, and Zeb Wells do voices on the show.

The show is being run by a fellow named Todd Grimes who is called “The Filoni of the show”.

There still doesn’t seem to be a station, network, or premiere date for this show. Which is disappointing because I want to see more of it. There’s at least a whole season done but nothing to be done with it.

As soon as there is word, we’ll have it for you. Even if I have to stalk Seth Green’s office.

If nothing else, you can say the people at Archie have no problems being experimental with their properties. Case in point, this week’s issue of Archie (#636) has all of the principle characters swapping sexes. In a world where you have things like a time-traveling length of road,  dogs that think like human beings, and a literal teenage witch otherwise unbelievable things like this happen more often that not. That being said, going to the well of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch to make fantastical things happen has been used very often as of late. I do think it’s forgivable this time, because not only does writer Tania Del Rio has an established track record using Sabrina (She wrote her solo title for a respectable 40+ issue run), it’s also just too much fun.

A big part of the enjoyment I got out of the issue is of course, how the character’s interactions/designs are turned on their head. While sexes are reversed and the gang are all in slightly different situations, they are all still recognizable as the characters we know and love. Case in point, Ron (Veronica) and Billy (Betty) still vie for Archina’s (Archie’s) affections, but in this case it’s a show of physical strength rather than feminine wiles. Regina (Reggie) is still an unrepentant jerk/prankster and JJ (Jughead) can still pack away the calories without it showing (though the famous crown has been traded in for a hairstyle that still evokes it).

While the writing is top-notch and clearly shows a love and understanding for the Archies and their motivations, the real star of this issue is the art by Gisele. Her renditions of the group both pre and post magical MacGuffin and a refreshing change up from the usual Archie house style, while still maintaining that flavor. I especially like her rendition of Sabrina, which brings back the widow’s peak hairstyle and slightly mischievous look the character had in her original appearances.

So now the question I have to pose is “What now”? I think this was a very nice one-off, but I can certainly see the potential for an ongoing series, much like the alternate futures presented in Life With Archie. It would give space for these versions of the Archie crew to be further fleshed out, and the story possibilities are endless. You could even take the serious tack and tackle relevant social issues like LwA does. Plus, we’d have a chance to see sex-swapped characters not in this story, such as Kevin (Kevina?) Keller, Big Ethel (Ethan?), Chuck (Chiquita?), Nancy (Nathan?), and Pop (Ma?) Tate.

Archie #636 is in stores and digitally now, and even if you’re the slightest bit curious, I highly recommend you check the issue out. I daresay you won’t be disappointed! For more from Tania Del Rio, check out her website, and for more of Gisele’s lovely art, check out hers as well.