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MERA Finally Gets Her Own DC Comics Series

For years, DC Comics’ iconic male superheroes have had female sidekicks and love interests who have grown beyond those limiting roles, evolving into empowering characters with their very own comics. (I’m looking at you, Batgirl, Supergirl, and Catwoman, to name a few.) One of these characters, Aquaman’s wife Mera, has never been given the proper spotlight, much less her own title. But that’s all about to change, as we’ve learned (via Newsarama) that the Queen of Atlantis is finally getting her own series from DC Comics starting in February 2018.

Mera: Queen of Atlantis will be a six-issue limited series written by Dan Abnett (Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy) with art by Lan Medina (Fables). It will be set in the same time frame as the current storyline running in the monthly Aquaman book. Right now in the pages of Aquaman, the kingdom of Atlantis is caught in a bloody civil war after King Arthur was removed from his position as monarch. Now Mera is a queen in exile, and she is doing her best to keep the peace between Atlantis and the surface world.

Mera debuted over 50 years ago in the pages of Aquaman, and was a bit of an anomaly at the time. In the ’60s, superheroes were never allowed to get hitched, and characters like Lois Lane and Catwoman were forever chasing down male heroes hoping they could get them to commit. Aquaman did marry Mera however, and she became and integral part of his adventures. The two even had a child together (who was later murdered, because the only thing comics hate more than superhero marriage is a superhero with kids).

Mera isn’t actually an Atlantean; she’s from another dimension called Xebel, so she is a stranger is a strange land even in Atlantis, which she now rules. That makes her an even more fascinating character to explore. Her “hard water” powers are particularly cool, and maybe–dare I say–even cooler than Aquaman’s. With actress Amber Heard playing Mera in both Justice League and next year’s Aquaman movie, now seems to be the perfect time to give the character her own series. With any luck, it will be popular enough that she will get her own ongoing comic as a result, and not just a mini-series.

Here is is the official solicitation information for issue #1:

MERA: QUEEN OF ATLANTIS #1

Written by Dan Abnett / Art by Lan Medina

Cover by Nicola Scott / Variant cover by  Stanly “Artgerm” Lau

“From the pages of Aquaman comes a brand-new adventure starring Mera, in her own title for the first time ever!

As the brutal Atlantean Civil War rages, Mera must keep the peace between the surface world and Atlantis as its newly anointed queen in exile. But when Aquaman’s brother Orm, a.k.a. Ocean Master, learns of his homeland’s fate, he’ll stop at nothing to return to Atlantis as its king and savior!”

On sale February 28 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T

Are as excited as we are to see Queen Mera finally get her due? Be sure to let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: DC Comics / Warner Brothers

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Does the New STAR WARS Trilogy Mean the End of The Skywalkers?

We’re still over a month away from the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but Lucasfilm is so confident that Episode VIII is great that it’s literally giving writer and director Rian Johnson the chance to create his own Star Wars trilogy from scratch. As in no Skywalkers, and all-new characters. That represents a seismic shift for the entire franchise, and that will probably carry it through the next decade. Today’s Nerdist News is breaking down what the new trilogy means for the Skywalker clan.

Join guest host and the last Midichlorian, Steve Zaragoza, as he uses the Jedi Holocron to forecast the future of the franchise. Of course, it helps when the actors can’t seem to resist sharing a few spoilers of their own. Thanks to John Boyega, we know that Episode IX will be the “war to end all wars” and that returning director J.J. Abrams may be looking to connect all three trilogies in the finale. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has also hinted that we’ll probably see Finn, Rey, and Poe after Episode IX.

Did you notice that Kennedy didn’t say anything about Kylo Ren/Ben Solo/Matt the Radar Tech sticking around? That’s probably because he isn’t going to make it past Episode IX. If there’s redemption ahead for Kylo Ren, it will probably cost him his life. And even if he doesn’t reform, Kylo Ren is still likely to fall in the final battle. But unless Rey is revealed to have been Luke or Leia’s daughter then Kylo Ren really is the last Skywalker. And his death would end the family line.

The fact that Johnson is being allowed to move past the Skywalkers strongly suggests that Lucasfilm really might be done with the family once Episode IX comes to an end. This means that the future of the franchise is truly in Johnson’s hands, and we’re going to get a new generation of heroes and villains who aren’t directly tied into the beloved narrative that was set in motion four decades ago.

How do you feel about the new Star Wars trilogy moving away from the Skywalkers? Use the Force to leave a comment below!

Images: Lucasfilm

Watch a GoPro Get Swallowed by Lava (and Live)

Being consumed by lava and subsequently exploded into flames is an experience most human beings haven’t encountered or survived. Getting covered in a blanket of a 2,000 degree Fahrenheit material tends to do quite a number on the ol’ flesh and bone body. But a GoPro camera on the other charred hand, that tenacious trooper can apparently go through an extended and fiery bath in molten rock and come out on the other side smiling and still somewhat functional. And all we have to ask is: Is this little camera 40% dolomite?

Sploid picked up on the video, created by Hawaiian volcano guide Erik Storm. Storm, of Kilauea EcoGuides, told PetaPixel that he put the GoPro in a crack to record some video of the lava flow, but then started a conversation with his group of tourists and forgot about it. The GoPro was quickly engulfed, but Storm still wanted to see if it was possible to salvage it. He pulled it out with a hammer, and once the molten rock cooled and became hard, he hammered it off.

On the SD card was the treat of a video seen in the clip above. And make sure you watch it until the end, because exploding into flames is somehow not even the coolest part of this video (in fact it’s the hottest, heyyyyooooo). The coolest part is when the hardened rock is chipped off the GoPro’s lens, and we get to experience, first-hand, what re-birth (or the afterlife?) is like. Plus now you know that if you ever need to recover one of Fry’s dogs, wear a suit made of GoPros.

What do you think about this GoPro surviving a lava bath? Does this little camera’s extreme durability impress you? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: PetaPixel

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Your Body Will Float on Mercury, and it Will Feel Weird

YouTuber and professional experimenter CodyDon is no stranger to the element mercury. He’s made toilets that flush the stuff, and he’s even put his bare hand in mercury in order to describe how it feels on his skin. In his latest video, the really-not-risk-averse scientist has brought his heavy metal antics to yet another level by filling a tub with 640 pounds of mercury and standing in it. Or at least attempting to stand in it. Apparently standing on liquid is a skill you have to learn.

In the clip, CodyDon builds a plastic tub reinforced by concrete in order to hold six flasks of mercury. What’s initially a bit off-putting is trying to register how heavy small quantities of mercury are. The liquid metal is about 13 times as dense as water, which means that a 2 liter jug of mercury weighs more than 50 pounds.

Because of Archimedes’ principle, which states that “the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces,” density becomes the deciding factor when it comes to whether or not something will float in a liquid. And because we meat bags are much less dense than mercury — on average 1.062 g/cubic centimeter — we’re able to float in it. Although you can, of course, make yourself less buoyant by adding weight, or as CodyDon does in the video, using force to push down into the liquid.

CodyDon notes at the end of the video that the part of the experiment that really excited him was the idea of thinking about how the pressure of the liquid mercury beneath him was continuously changing. He notes that as he added more weight (pushed down), the pressure of the mercury would increase. If he took some weight off, the pressure of the mercury would force him back upward. Which is a sensation that, unlike sticking your bare foot in a tub of mercury, sounds like something that would be fun to experience.

What do you think about this human floating around in mercury? Would you ever try this? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: Cody’sLab

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Apparently Mini Kegs of Ranch Dressing Exist

The annals of history are full of important innovations. Archimedes’ screw moved water from place to place, the printing press revolutionized sharing information, and harnessing electricity continues to further humanity’s quest to illuminate and understand the universe.

Well, it turns out that all that innovation was for naught. Humanity stood on the shoulders of giants and produced a thing that should never see the light of day–kegs full of a salad dressing that, let’s face it, hardly ever touches lettuce.

Thanks to an article on Huffington Post, we’re now woefully aware of the dangers of innovation and finally understand Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. This mini keg of Hidden Valley Ranch sells for $50, holds five liters, and comes with “a year supply” of dressing. It’s a bit unclear on what that quantity is exactly but if a serving size is two tablespoons and you’re eating that daily, math tells us that’s about 10.7 liters and that you’ve also got a serious ranch addiction.

The keg is one of a few holiday items for sale that’s perfect for that lovable weirdo in everyone’s life who–for whatever reason–is way too into ranch dressing. The website also offers a number of clothing items and an 18 inch ranch fountain with a 2lb dressing capacity for $110 that screams “waste some money on something you’ll only use once but will smell forever!”

Should your next party need to involve overdosing on creamy dips, we’ve crunched the numbers for you. Five liters of Hidden Valley Ranch will result in about 10 frosty pints to drink or you can hand out 1oz shots for a really gross toast with 169 of your soon-to-be former friends. A serving size has 140 calories meaning your kegger would involve imbibing about 23,670 calories, 1691 mg of cholesterol, and 43,958 mg of sodium. That’s around the sodium content of eating six tablespoons of salt.

Despite the criticism, this writer may have already ordered a keg. How many will you be ordering? Let’s discuss how much we hate ourselves in the comments below!

Images: Flavourgallery.com | Hidden Valley Ranch

Here’s What It’s Like to Train Like Batman for a Month

Batman’s super power is money. But there are plenty of other billionaires in the world who can’t handle themselves in a fist fight or jump from the fourth story of a derelict parking garage. Bruce Wayne takes training seriously, which is what made Michelle Khare’s quest to become Batman over a month so daunting.

Khare, who was recently menaced by an Amazon Echo in the supremely creepy short film Whisper, tackled the physical responsibility of the cape and cowl by learning Krav Maga, training to throw a Batarang with world-class knife thrower Jack Dagger, and getting vital pointers from , who’s been the stunt double for the character in Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League.

In the end, she tests her skills with a sharp, Hollywood-style fight scene (where, oddly enough, she’s heckled once again by an AI assistant). The whole video is very, very cool.

Batman is far from the first superhero assignment she’s undertaken. Khare has driven like Baby, swung like Spidey, and swung a sword like Arya as part of her MK Ultra video series, which she created to combine all of her passions into one nerdy project.

“I created the MK Ultra series as a way to merge my loves of training, extreme living, scripted content, and breaking barriers,” Khare tells me. “It’s always been a personal dream of mine to be in a superhero series or film, but I’ve never seen anyone who looks like me portrayed as a superhero in mainstream cinema. I also wanted to bring light to the incredible hard work that the stunt community does to make the films and actors we love look awesome. Everyone deserves the opportunity to look, feel, and be super.”

Image: Michelle Khare

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THELMA is the Supernatural Queer Coming-of-Age Film We’ve Been Waiting For (Review)

There’s something supernatural at work in Thelma, but despite the fears of the devout Christian family at its center, it’s nothing so sinister as the interference of the Devil. Instead, it’s the indefinable pang of the human heart. There’s no explanation for why we love the people we do, nor for the petty anger we can sometimes bear against those we are meant to love unconditionally. Thelma is similarly devoid of explicit answers, but it’s no less affecting for it.

The bulk of that credit rests on the shoulders of Eili Harboe, who plays Thelma. She’s spellbinding—blank one moment and shattered the next. Whether or not the film works, whether or not we can buy into not getting the answers, relies solely on her performance, and luckily, she’s more than up to the task.

Thelma has left home to attend college, though her parents are still extremely attentive, keeping tabs of where she is by tracking online course schedules and calling every day to make sure she’s all right. This may seem like too much, but we’re given clues straight off the bat that something’s wrong with her. In the very first scene of the film, a flashback, we see a young Thelma accompanying her father (Henrik Rafaelsen) hunting deer. Initially, he levels his gun at the deer, but slowly turns it to his daughter’s head. He doesn’t pull the trigger, but that immediate unease sets the tone for everything that’s to come.

The more Thelma’s shell breaks, the more often strange things start to happen. As she grows close to a fellow student, Anja (Kaya Walker), she begins to experience seizures that coincide with odd happenings, ranging from birds flying into the windows to— well, I’d hate to ruin the surprise. But let’s just say that, in this respect, the film shares a little DNA with another supernatural coming of age story, Carrie.

It differs in that Thelma’s instincts are less destructive (though, to be sure, they do fall squarely into the realm of horror). Director Joachim Trier is more interested in showing than telling; as such, Thelma’s powers are interesting in what they tell us about how she feels, not in just how much havoc she can wreak. The most potent example of this comes early: she dreams about Anja, and when she jolts awake, she sees Anja standing outside, looking up at her apartment. Anja says Thelma texted her to come, but when she checks her phone, there’s no message there. It’s not the act that matters; it’s the interpersonal bond.

As clinical as Trier’s style can seem, Thelma swells and aches just as its heroine does. The chemistry between the two leads is lovely—and only made “other” when filtered through the lens of Thelma’s conservative parents—and the level to which Trier is willing to lay Thelma emotionally bare is just as heartbreaking as it is harrowing. The supernatural may be foreign, but the root of it—the stirrings of love, the pain of loneliness—is familiar to us all.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Images: SF Studios Norway

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DEADPOOL 2 Lands a “Special” Issue of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

The first Deadpool movie had one of the most inventive marketing campaigns that we’ve seen out of Hollywood. From Ryan Reynolds appearing in costume on a bearskin rug to narrating his own Honest Trailers episode, Fox managed to capture the tone of the Deadpool comics even before fans saw the film. Earlier this week, the Deadpool 2 campaign began with a hilarious Thanksgiving themed poster. And Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth is only getting started.

Via Collider, Deadpool 2 is the cover story for a “special” issue of Good Housekeeping, which gamely played along with Wade Wilson’s signature sense of humor. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be the main issue of Good Housekeeping for December, because we would have loved to have seen the check out stand reactions as unsuspecting readers saw the cover topics. Our favorite is “Turkey Tips: Giving Your Family the Bird.”

Since this is only a special promotional issue, it’s not a full-length Deadpool assault on the holiday season. But it does have real recipes for “D’s Spiced Nuts” and “Creamy Clam Skinny Dip.” Additionally, Deadpool stars in a feature about how to carve a turkey. Spoiler alert: he’s going about it the wrong way.

20th Century Fox will apparently be giving away this special installment of “Dead Housekeeping” in cities across the US, but you can see more scans from the issue over at Collider. If the rest of Deadpool 2‘s PR push keeps up this level of irreverence, then we’re dying to see how it will top the first Deadpool campaign.

What did you think about Deadpool’s journey into the domestic bliss of Good Housekeeping? Let us know in the comment section below!

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All the Levels in SUPER MARIO 64, Ranked

With Super Mario Odyssey charming the gaming public by way of playable dinosaurs and big city flash mobs, that plucky little plumber (he’ll always be a plumber to me, Nintendo) is seated firmly on the brain. Excited though we may be for any new Mario exploit, we feel it is a biological imperative to divert attention back to our favorite Mario entries in Nintendo history. For me, that means Super Mario 64. But while I have few reservations about declaring the game one of the most fun and enchanting I’ve ever played, picking and choosing the most fun and enchanting parts of Mario 64 is a tougher challenge.

But if I’ve learned anything from Mario, it’s that any challenge can be bested with the right hat. As such, I’ve taken on the task of ranking all of Super Mario 64‘s 15 levels—just the standards; no Bowser courses or secret slides—from worst to best. My only criteria: fun. Surely a more proficient gamer than I could delve into the technical highs and lows of every stage between Bob-omb’s Battlefield and Rainbow Ride, but I mounted this endeavor judging each of Princess Peach’s castle’s varied worlds based only on how good a time I had playing them.

Without further ado, in the words of our generation’s greatest adventurer: Here we gooo!

15. DIRE DIRE DOCKS

Not to toot my own warp whistle, but I’ve got a pretty acute memory when it comes to the varied plains, pipes, and remarkably dense cumulonimbus channels conquered (admittedly, less often by me than by my older sister) during my younger years in the Mushroom Kingdom. But for the life of me, I can’t seem to draw to mind much detail about Super Mario 64’s basement-level water course Dire, Dire Docks. I remember the submarine, likewise the looming threat of the penultimate mission’s eponymous manta ray. But having already spent the sum of my amenability to waterborne gameplay on the superior Jolly Roger Bay, and finding no friend in the course’s unsettling theme music, I maintained a resilient aversion to Dire Dire Docks, braving its current only when I really needed another star.

Best mission: Board Bowser’s Sub

14. LETHAL LAVA LAND

Lethal Lava Land, on the other hand, I remember perfectly. I remember every agitating slip into the course’s boiling sea, and every infuriating toss of poor whimpering Mario, derriere ablaze, high up into the air and right back down into the lava once again… and again, and again, and again, until the guttural chortling of King Bowser ushered us both back into Peach’s castle basement. Even when I did manage to reach a mission’s conclusion, none proved fun enough to justify the headache incurred getting from one point in this course to another. Sure enough, graduation from the castle’s basement to its second floor couriered no greater satisfaction than being able to put those banana-eared bullies behind me for good.

Best mission: Elevator Tour in the Volcano

13. WHOMP’S FORTRESS

The low ranking of Whomp’s Fortress has less to do with any especially frustrating characteristics—most of its missions were kind of a breeze, as a matter of fact—but with the fact that it really didn’t offer much in the way of unique charm. The course’s kickoff mission was something of a rehash of Bob-omb Battlefield’s inceptive brawl, while subsequent challenges shared more than a forgivable degree of overlap. All that said, I’ve always liked the owl.

Best mission: Fall onto the Caged Island

12. JOLLY ROGER BAY

As I may have hinted at earlier, I’m none too keen on water levels in general (chalk it up to a paralyzing fear of drowning), and Super Mario 64’s especially. Still, I appreciate the classical bravura of Jolly Roger Bay, which ran the gamut of everything you’d want in a sea adventure: pirate ships, sunken treasure, terrifying sea creatures, and underwater caves. Granted, some love is lost in trading in the fast-paced fun of the game’s landlocked courses for the more deliberate gameplay of its underwater lark, but Jolly Roger Bay earned some good will in the abstract.

Best mission: Plunder in the Sunken Ship

11. RAINBOW RIDE

Per Super Mario 64’s linear narrative, Rainbow Ride marked our hero’s final treks before his one last face-off with Bowser. In turn, the game seized its premier opportunity to pull gleefully from the Mario franchise’s rich history, all in the interest of an especially enchanting finale. The very nature of the course shared an aesthetic with everyone’s favorite level from the Mario Kart series, and Rainbow Ride’s flying vessel hailed from a tradition first introduced in the seminal classic Super Mario Bros. 3. Truth be told, gems of the sort were charming enough to make up for the fact that Rainbow Ride didn’t have too much going on, mission-wise. Though the conceptual whimsy of Rainbow Ride well outweighed the functional delights of its gameplay, the merits of conceptual whimsy shouldn’t be discounted altogether.

Best mission: The Big House in the Sky

10. SHIFTING SAND LAND

In contrast to something like Whomp’s Fortress, Shifting Sand Land packed plenty of frustration—traversing its quicksand landscape could drive you damn near batty—but boasted a nearly unparalleled caliber of diversity among its missions, unlike what you’d find anywhere else in the game. Though every one of the dizzying course’s obstacles proved at the very least interesting, the single-minded nature of a handful of its challenges made for incredibly irritating repeat attempts. As such, frequent detours elsewhere in the castle were necessary for patience reboots between endeavors to mount the four pillars or get my damn hat back from that freakin’ vulture.

Best mission: Inside the Ancient Pyramid

9. SNOWMAN’S LAND

Snowman’s Land held distinction as the Super Mario 64 course I always most wanted to love but never quite could. How could the likes of a gigantic talking snowman or an igloo obstacle course not make for a regular riot? But Snowman’s Land suffered gravely from the erosion of its own novelty; though early expeditions may well have lived up to the joys of its frostbitten follies on paper, repeat plays quickly hit a point of diminishing returns. (My friend Matt would like you all to know that this was one of the best courses in the game and that I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about.)

Best mission: Snowman’s Big Head

8. BOB-OMB’S BATTLEFIELD

I’ve wrestled with the misgiving that it may be a copout to rank the game’s introductory course, its simplest and broadest, above more polished and pointed successors. But damn it if Bob-omb’s Battlefield wasn’t just a powder keg of joy. The typically safe terrain allowed for easygoing exploration, which was made all the more fun by vibrant coloring, stupefying sideshows—gotta love Chomp Chomp—and a small but resourceful community of friendly pink Bob-ombs. Basic though the game’s first adventure may have been, its generous sprawl and varied nooks and crannies kept it well outside the blast radius of the dullards.

Best mission: Footrace with Koopa the Quick

7. TALL, TALL MOUNTAIN

I’ll be straight with you, everybody. I really just liked this one for the monkeys.

Best mission: Mystery of the Monkey Cage

6. HAZY MAZE CAVE

The closest thing Super Mario 64 offered to its plumber protagonist’s longstanding tradition of surveying the pipe-peppered worlds down below, Hazy Maze Cave went the extra mile to live up to its subterranean lineage, laying down a hybrid of grit and funk rivaled no place else in the game. The course also set out to introduce new kinds of challenges to Mario 64 players with poison gases, unnavigable terrain, and unique monsters for a one-of-a-kind adventure. Hazy Maze Cave may not have been the best level in Super Mario 64, but it certainly earned rightful claim to the title of “coolest.” (Well, by one definition of the word, anyhow…)

Best mission: Swimming Beast in the Cavern

5. COOL, COOL MOUNTAIN

The classics are the classics are the classics. Cool, Cool Mountain is the first great level we were treated to in Super Mario 64, and moreover the course we all seem most inclined to grace with repeat visits. Why? The combination of stunning design, fast-paced gameplay, feasible and teeth-gnashingly-tough challenges (it always took me ages to get that poor snowman his head back), and—of course—that delightfully annoying baby penguin with the infectious caw. God only knows what kind of damage those relentless “Ah! Ah! Ah!”s did to the collective grey matter of the children of the ‘90s.

Best mission: Li’l Penguin Lost

4. WET-DRY WORLD

Far and away the strangest and most brand-divergent course in the game, Wet-Dry World felt like it’d have been more at home as an Ocarina of Time temple than as a Super Mario 64 level. Nevertheless, this haunting tribute to amphibious living was always a welcome corner of the castle’s otherwise sun-basted second floor, swapping out merriment for mystique and challenges in hand-eye coordination for those in puzzle-solving. Plus, the chilling implications of Mario’s excavation of an underwater city in ruins really let the imagination run wild.

Best mission: Top o’ the Town

3. TICK TOCK CLOCK

Tick Tock Clock matched the likes of Wet-Dry World, Shifting Sand Land, and its third floor neighbor Rainbow Ride in conceptual ambition, but topped the lot by so expertly weaving its concept with dynamic gameplay. Even in absence of its standout feature, the creative bent to the course’s conditional speed, Tick Tock Clock would rank as one of the most charmingly idiosyncratic stages in Super Mario 64. As a side note, the epiphany accompanying my discovery of which hand positions corresponded with which tempo ranks to this day as one of the most exciting moments of my life.

Best mission: The Pit and the Pendulums

2. BIG BOO’S HAUNT

Ever since they were first introduced to the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario World (with precedent as boss forts in Super Mario Bros. 3), Big Boo’s ghost houses have reigned as some of the most titillating, challenging, and sincerely spooky elements of the Mario canon. Super Mario 64‘s take on the trope carried the torch with pride, employing the same kind of brow-raising trickery (and then some!) we had come to expect from the protoplasmic kingpin. The combination of Big Boo’s ostensibly omnipotent eye and impromptu interjections with a few classical horror elements, like a ravenous piano and eerie carousel music, made for the game’s most unpredictable and invigoratingly unsettling course.

Best mission: Secret of the Haunted Books

1. TINY-HUGE ISLAND

What exactly made Tiny-Huge Island my favorite of Super Mario 64‘s 15 levels? Was it the perfect marriage of Mario classicism with the (then) new flare of 64-bit design, or the fantastic application of a relatively simple core concept to a bevy of inventive adventures? How about the existential mind-warp that came with exploring the same territory from two strikingly different physical perspectives, or the carnal rush of stomping flat an oversized Goomba? Yeses across the board. Every facet of Tiny-Huge Island called me back to play again and again, always delivering on the craved dose of pure joy you’d want and expect from any Mario outing. It may not have been the toughest, the strangest, or the most intriguing of Super Mario 64‘s courses, but it sure was the most fun.

Best mission: Five Itty Bitty Secrets

What do you think our final standings? You’ve no doubt got gripes, so chime in with your own preferences!

Images: Nintendo

Michael Arbeiter is the East Coast Editor of Nerdist. Find Michael on Twitter @micarbeiter.

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Will Marvel TV Shows Thrive Away from Netflix?

With their own streaming service launch on the horizon, Disney has announced they will no longer develop new Marvel series for Netflix. On today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we discussed if that will be a good thing for the future of MCU TV shows, along with a whole litany of pop culture goodies, and what microtransactions mean for Red Dead Redemption 2.

Once again SourceFed’s Steve Zaragoza filled in as guest host, and he was joined by Nerdist editors Dan Casey and Kyle Hill, along with Geek & Sundry‘s Amy Vorpahl. They began with reports that Disney will not develop any new Marvel shows for Netflix, although the current lineup will continue. Does this make sense for the Mouse? Will being on their own streaming service give them more freedom or less? And which current Marvel Netflix shows do we enjoy?

From there they went through a smorgasbord of great pop culture odds and ends that have us excited, including their thoughts on super adorable baby porgs, that family Deadpool 2 Thanksgiving poster, and Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who wardrobe.

Finally, Red Dead Redemption 2 will have lots of microtransactions, even more than GTV 5, and those reportedly brought in a whopping half-a-billion dollars for Rockstar. Are we okay with this so long as it brings new content to the game, or would we prefer a different payment method like a regular subscription? Are we more excited for the single or multi-player mode? And are we building the game up so much it’s bound to disappoint?

Remember you can join in on the conversation with us every weekday at 1:00 p.m. PT when Nerdist News Talks Back airs live on our YouTube and Alpha channels. It doesn’t matter where they air them, we’ll always be talking about Marvel shows. Yes, even Iron Fist.

But we still want to hear your thoughts on all of today’s many topics, so talk back to us in the comments below.

Featured Image: Netflix/Marvel