After the one week hiatus at the start of June, X-Men: Second Coming is back in full swing as it enters the final act. The next four chapters are the final issues of each of the titles crossing over before the finale, and first up is Uncanny X-Men #525. Spoilers to follow.

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Who knew there was a zombie sub-culture out there? Obviously, zombies are getting a lot of attention in films and comics, and the upcoming Walking Dead TV show on AMC is only going to add to that, but “live” zombie events like the Zombie Beach Party are completely new to everyone here.

Held at the Trocadero on Friday Night, the Beach Party was the official opening night event for Wizard World‘s 2010 Philadelphia Comic Con. Read more of this article »

Saturday and Sunday’s World Cup games are in the books, six games with five winners.

June 12, 2010

So with Group A all knotted up at a boring one point, Saturday brought us something we were lacking:  A winner.

GROUP B – FIFA Rankings (#)

South Korea (47), Argentina (7), Nigeria (21), Greece (13)

South Korea 2 – 0 Greece

I’ll make sure I post the FIFA rankings for the first week of play, but after that… well, they don’t mean anything. Greece was dismantled and humbled by South Korea. Read more of this article »

Editor’s note: Since Ryan is the only one around here that knows a thing about soccer, we’ve enlisted him to keep us all up to speed on the World Cup. Teams are broken into groups of four and they play each other once. Wins are worth 3 points, ties 1, losses 0. The two teams with the most points (ties are settled by goal differential) in each group move on to a single elimination tournament, which does not feature ties (at least I hope not) and leads to a 2010 World Cup Champion. –ptb

Friday, June 11, 2010

GROUP A – FIFA Rankings (#)

France (9), Uruguay (16), Mexico (17), South Africa (83)

Game 1 – 10 AM

Mexico 1 – 1 South Africa

In terms of finding out what happened, you can read a match recap.

What I took from this match was that there is such a thing as home field advantage, or at least for one game the crowd can cause a team like Mexico fits. South Africa played about 8 men tight in the back (near the net) and left Mexico little space to take shots. It is a strategy that works if you score first or maintain a tie. If the opposing team scores first, then it makes a team like South Africa take chances. Do not expect a result like this against France or Uruguay. They will push hard for an early goal. Once South Africa gives up one expect more to follow. Their defense is not talented enough to play the opposing team when down a goal. I would bet that this is the only point South Africa gets in this group.

France 0 – 0 Uruguay

This match started off with so much promise. It was back and forth with more scoring chances in the first twenty minutes than the first game. You can tell that France has the most talent in the group, though Uruguay is quite good and comparable to Mexico in terms of scoring talent and passing. Anyway, back to the game: After halftime, both teams appeared to play for a tie. They would rather get one point and take their chances that they could beat South Africa and tie Mexico. First place could come down to which team beats South Africa by more goals. It is pure conjecture, but I see Mexico with a tie in all three games. There is no way France or Uruguay will play to win when all they have to do is beat South Africa and move on.

So, yeah.  Mexico is in trouble.

This was a creepy episode. There’s just something about a mysterious little town, a graveyard and something running around in the dark that makes for a fun show. Spoilers to follow.

It was great to see another classic villain return in the new series. The Silurians aren’t top tier like Daleks and Cybermen, but they have a history going all the way back to Doctor #3 in 1970 and this was a perfect way to reintroduce them. All the pieces fit together nicely and the conflict being based on unintended harm made for a better story here than an invasion or anything directly hostile. Of course, before the episode finishes it’s clear that there may be some hostile intent yet to be revealed.

I liked seeing Amy removed from the central action to allow The Doctor and Rory to interact more directly. In fact, Rory actually had a much larger part in this episode than any other this season and I actually have a lot more interest in the character because of it.

I always enjoy when a “to be continued” takes me by surprise. The idea that The Doctor has to convince his enemies (and his allies) to see the best in humanity really drives the story into part two next week. I’ll reserve judgement on the episode until everything wraps, but this was a good part one of two.

More on Doctor Who 2010:
Amy’s Choice / Cold Blood