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The DC BOMBSHELLS Join The Funko Dorbz Family This Fall

Over the past several years, the DC Comics Bombshells have gone from a popular product line of the DC Universe’s greatest female heroes, to their very own comic book title and alternate DC Universe. Bombshells is set in an unique world where female superheroes were the ones who came on the scene first during the World War II era, and the male heroes are the ones who followed in their lead. And now the ladies of DC Bombshells are finally joining up the world of Funko Dorbz!

DC Comics Bombshells started out as a line of high-end statues from the publisher, based on the ’40s pin-up aesthetic art of illustrator Ant Lucia. They first came out back in 2013, and were so instantly popular that they quickly evolved into other merchandise, including calendars, stickers, clothing—you name it. It also become an insanely popular thing to cosplay at conventions, especially in groups.

Among the first wave of new Bombshells Dorbz, we’ve got Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Batgirl, and Katana, with a special black & white chase version of Harley Quinn, and a sepia toned chase version of Wonder Woman. Both of these will have a Both have a rarity of 1-in-6. These will all be available in stores sometimes this fall.

Hot Topic stores will also have some great exclusives DC Bombshells Dorbz on the way in November, including badass ladies Black Canary, Catwoman, Supergirl, Poison Ivy, and Mera, the Queen of Atlantis. You can check out the entire line-up of new DC Comics Bombshells Dorbz down below.

What do you think of these amazing ladies finally joining the Dorbz family? Let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Funko / DC Comics

How RICK AND MORTY Trolled Us So Well with Pickle Rick

Raise your hand if you were hyped for “Pickle Rick.”

That hand better be way, way up, because he was an instant cultural icon when the season 3 trailer dropped. It was pretty much an instant meme! It’s the most inane, high concept thing Rick and Morty has done, and Rick’s own enthusiasm for being a pickle jumped right off the damned screen and into our hearts. He already had his own catchphrase, and when the episode landed online, the show tweeted out “The wait is over,” because they knew that this was the one we’d been chewing our nails to get to.

Then, in the cold open, the show did the only thing it could do: use Morty’s reaction to Rick to steal the excitement wind from our pickle sails (these are real things). He’s straight up bored. Rick’s a pickle. So what? He can’t move or do anything except yell about being Pickle Rick. Morty stares not in disbelief, but in disappointment. Rick begs for recognition, appreciation of the intrinsic value of turning oneself into a pickle, but Morty already knows that Rick’s done this in order to get out of family therapy.

It’s a glorious, epic trolling. You wanted the unmitigated hysteria of pickle goodness? Great. Your sloppy hero can’t move, his plan was embarrassingly transparent, and he could fry up on the sidewalk to death. Turning himself into a pickle is undoubtedly the dumbest thing Rick’s ever done; not because it’s risky, but because it’s stupid.

Those first dull moments of Rick stuck as a pickle, alone in his garage, give us what Morty saw of him. Intentional or not, the symbolism of an alcoholic pickling himself is pretty plain, but he’s also helpless and vulnerable. Rick would be dead if not for a random, coincidental change in weather, which makes him something we almost never see in the show: not in control.

Images: Cartoon Network

SHAZAM! Director Trolls DC Fans with Fake Page from the Script

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Brothers and DC Films announced a metric ton of new movies to release over the next several years, including the much anticipated sequel to Wonder Woman and the alternate timeline story Flashpoint. But another announcement they made that flew somewhat under the radar was that Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg will be helming the big screen version of Shazam! for a potential 2019 release date.

Although Shazam! isn’t currently all that popular in the comics, Captain Marvel (as the character was known for decades) was once so successful that he even outsold Superman. DC Comics was so threatened by the popularity of the character that they sued Captain Marvel publisher Fawcett Comics pretty much out of existence in the ’50s for “copying” Superman.

Ironically, after all that, DC Comics ended up buying the Shazam! family of characters and incorporated them into the DC Universe. The character has enough history that Warner Brothers is hoping that his mythology can make for a successful movie franchise.

But what, exactly, can we expect from a Shazam! movie? After all, the character is very whimsical, and the current DCEU is very much not. The comic book character is a 12-year-old boy named Billy Batson who becomes an adult superhero when he says a magic word, and who has an anthropomorphic tiger friend named Tawky Tawny. Are all of those wacky aspects of the comics going to make it into live-action?

Thanks to the folks at i09, we learned that director David F. Sandberg and screenwriter recently trolled fans online by releasing a “page from the script” of the film, which you can view below.

Damn @HenryGayden This latest draft is perfect! #Shazam! pic.twitter.com/GTskkWkeBu

— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) August 6, 2017

The script page pokes fun at Shazam being unable to call himself Captain Marvel anymore, and his goofy animal friends like Tawky Tawny. But mostly, the script page reduces Superman and Shazam’s relationship to Looney Tunes style fisticuffs. It’s almost certainly a joke, but hey… wouldn’t it be hilarious if it was real? Actually, I think I kind of hope it is real (but it probably isn’t).

What do you want out of a Shazam! film? Should DC go full on ridiculous, or try to ground it in some type of reality? And do you want to see Shazam beat the snot out of Superman? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: DC Comics

Photos of Last Night’s GAME OF THRONES Are More Intense Than We Remember

Last night’s Game of Thrones featured a battle seven years in the making, and we’re still reeling. Daenerys met Jaime on the field of battle and utterly wrecked his army, Bronn was way out of his depth but handled it well, and Tyrion did a lot of staring in horror. There was fire and blood, and who could want anything more? HBO released images from last night’s episode, and they’re giving us flashbacks to the horrors of dragonfire.

Here we can see the exact moment the Lannister army realized just how hosed they were.

Robert Baratheon once said “only a fool would meet the Dothraki in an open field,” and it appears he was right. Even without Drogon, the Dothraki would likely have overwhelmed the Lannister forces, just with greater casualties.

What Robert should have said was “only a fool would meet a dragon literally anywhere.”

And Bronn is certainly that fool. Not only did he survive the carnage going on around him, he actually managed to get a shot off on Drogon.

A 50% accuracy rating against dragons is not too bad, considering. Though he only wounded Drogon, that’s way more than anyone else managed.

Dany’s not too happy about being grounded by Bronn.

Those people in the back are so caught up in fighting they don’t even realize the DRAGON STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. How insane is it that this battle is so heated that Drogon is a secondary threat.

Drogon’s got Jaime’s attention though. Jaime knows he can’t turn the tide of this battle, but maybe he can take out the enemy commander.

Which Tyrion thinks is a very bad idea. This episode featured an excellent use of the phrase “no, you f***ing idiot.”

But Jaime doesn’t care. He’s all “nah, fam. This is all I got.”

If you want to see all the images together, you can check out the gallery below. Otherwise, let us know what you think in the comments below that.

Image: HBO

A Deeper Look at GAME OF THRONES’ Battle at Blackwater Rush

Game of Thrones just passed the halfway point of its shortened seventh season, and no one can say that the show isn’t pulling out all of the stops. Last night’s amazing episode unleashed some of the most epic moments that we’ve seen yet, when two sides of the war met at Blackwater Rush. Today’s Nerdist News is examining the ashes of the battle to share the smaller details that you may have missed!

There are massive spoilers ahead for last night’s Game of Thrones. If you’ve somehow remained Unsullied until now, this is your last chance to turn back.

Join the only host with hands of gold, Jessica Chobot, as she walks us through the episode’s signature sequence as the Lannister army and their bannermen faced the Dothraki horde and the mother of dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen, as she rode Drogon into battle. A Song of Ice and Fire historians can’t help but notice that this encounter played out in a similar way to Aegon the Conqueror’s Lannister roast when the Targaryen dynasty was founded years before. 

It has to be said that the outcome of the battle was predicted all the way back in season 1. The late King Robert said that “only a fool would meet the Dothraki in an open field.” Jaime Lannister and his followers didn’t exactly have much of a choice. And while they could have potentially prevailed against the invaders, Drogon’s dragon fire proved to be too much to overcome.

Although Jaime sank like a stone in the river during the closing moments of the battle, that could be the incident that forces Jaime to reevaluate everything. It’s not a coincidence that the shot of Jaime seemed to mirror Bran’s fall from Winterfell or even Tyrion’s near fatal drowning experience with the Stone Men. It’s a pretty safe assumption that Jaime will survive, but will he bend the knee to the Targaryen queen and turn on his sister? Possibly, but it’s far more likely that he’ll be even more in his sister’s camp, so to speak, now that he’s seen what Daenerys can do with only a single dragon.

Another important detail that Daenerys seemed to overlook is that her dragon barbecued almost all of the food that was stolen from Highgarden. Considering that the long winter is already upon them, that may prove to be very costly. Without that food, many people may starve. And more dead people will only give the Night’s King an even bigger army.

This may have been a very one-sided battle, but our favorite mercenary, Bronn, proved that Qyburn was correct. The dragons are not invincible and they can be hurt and killed. As skilled as he is, Bronn was only able to land a glancing shot on Drogon. Presumably Qyburn will have considerably more anti-dragon measures in place by the time that Daenerys turns her towards King’s Landing. The foreshadowing of the scene between Cersei and Qyburn earlier this season seemed to suggest that at least one of Daenerys’ dragons will die. We definitely think that Cersei won’t go down without a fight, and she’ll try to make Daenerys’ march of destiny into a Pyrrhic victory at best.

What did you think about Game of Thrones‘ Battle at Blackwater Rush? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Gorillaz’s ‘Strobelite’ Takes Them Into the Real World

Earlier this year, Gorillaz returned to the world of music with the release their first album in seven years. In that time, technology has also advanced enough for the virtual band to truly step out into the three-dimensional world with some sleek new looks. And what better way to show off those new looks than with the official video for their new track, “Strobelite.”



The new song comes from their album Humanz that was released in April and comes just in time for their appropriately-named schedule of live shows titled, Humanz Tour 2017. The decidedly dance-able track features the vocals of Peven Everett (a prominent figure in Chicago’s house, soul and R&B communities) and is chock full of the 3-D dance moves of Gorillaz members 2-D and Noodle while Murdoc looks on with more than a little disdain. This jump to three dimensions is pretty cool considering the band is able to complete similar effects in real time as demonstrated a few months back in their first live interview where 3-D Murdoc and 2-D answered questions in an interview conducted by an actual human.

The band is currently on the North American leg of their tour and the new 14-track album Humanz is available on CD, vinyl, and digital download. There’s also a 19-track 2-CD Deluxe edition and a number of special editions you can pre-order directly from their site’s store.

What do you think of the new Gorillaz track? Is it too creepy to see the band interacting in the real world? Let’s discuss when Murdoc’s teeth will dip too far into the uncanny valley in the comments below!

Image: Gorillaz

Our Council of Experts Breaks Down GAME OF THRONES’ Explosive Episode

Monday means Game of Thrones hangovers, for which there is only one remedy: talking about Game of Thrones! Today’s Nerdist News Talks Back has hatched from an egg into the beautiful dragon known as All Kings Considered. Joining Mother of Dragons Jessica Chobot are Kyle “Chaos is a ladder” Anderson, Alicia “I don’t need a bigger sword” Lutes, and Amy “Where’s Ed Sheeran?” Vorpahl. Even with 8 minutes less runtime than most episodes, this week was insane, so let’s get straight into it.

Because Thrones has been playing so much with time this season, we’re going to start at the end. Holy Mother of Dragons was that insane. The Dothraki Horde has finally met the Lannister army on the field of battle. Oh yeah, also a dragon. Drogon wrecked house last night by roasting the red and gold (minus Bronn and Jaime). Other than Drogon, though, Bronn was the star of this skirmish. Featured in a tracking shot akin to last season’s “Battle of the Bastards,” Bronn braved the bloody burning battle and barely managed to batter Drogon with a big bow. I’m so sorry. Jaime had his moment of bravery, too, when he attempted to charge Dany, but his was short-lived. Jaime underestimated how quickly a wounded dragon could move, but Bronn was there to save the day once again. We’re waiting for the Game of Bronns spinoff.

Moving north, all the trueborn, living Stark children are back in Winterfell for the first time since early Season 1, though the kids have changed. Bran is an all-seeing, Charles Xavier-type, Arya is one of the best swordsmen in the realm, and Sansa has more political savvy than most rulers. What hasn’t changed is Littlefinger’s scheming. We don’t know why he gave Bran the Valyrian Steel dagger that was meant for his throat, but we do know that Arya’s got it now, which might spell trouble for little Petyr Baelish.

While the Starks had a happy, albeit strained, reunion, the Lannisters didn’t have a great few days. The Iron Bank will only help Cersei as long as they expect her to win, which is up in the air after this episode. That may leave the Golden Company, a mercenary army across the seas, as her best hope. On the other side of the war, Tyrion’s advice hasn’t been working, and he just watched his brother face down a dragon. Jaime will most likely survive and be used as a political prisoner, as long as Tyrion can convince Dany not to execute him.

Some of our friends got a little bit less love this week. Jon showed Dany the startlingly accurate cave drawings of the White Walkers (even though the other drawings were stick figures) and met up with Theon, who he hasn’t seen since he betrayed Robb back in season two. Unseen this week were The Hound and the Brotherhood Without Banners, Euron “I’m everywhere at once but not here for some reason” Greyjoy, and Sam Tarly’s gross-out moment, but we’ll probably see them next week.

You can watch and interact live with Nerdist News Talks Back every weekday at 1:00pm PST and All Kings Considered on Mondays on YouTube and Alpha, and catch up with the archives just after the show!

Image: HBO

Did Gendry’s GAME OF THRONES Return Get Spoiled by IMDb?

Seven warnings to you friend, because this post contains potential spoilers for next week’s Game of Thrones . So if you want to avoid them best not cross the Narrow Sea of this intro.

 

All the way back in the season three finale of Game of Thrones‘ a young handsome blacksmith and the last living bastard of King Robert Baratheon got into a rowboat at Dragonstone and fled certain death. His rescue by Ser Davos warmed our hearts, because it meant he wasn’t going to be warmed by Melisandre’s flames. But little did we know as we watched him leave that morning he was going to sail out of our lives forever, and ever since we’ve been asking the same question over and over, even of the cast: “Where’s Gendry?”

Well finally, after four seasons, we think we might have found him. Turns out he’s been hiding on the IMDb page for next week’s episode.

That’s right, after 34 installments without Gendry, actor Joe Dempsie is listed as part of the cast for season seven’s fifth episode, “Eastwatch.” While we’re shocked that HBO would let such a reveal slip by, especially since they’ve only been giving us Mad Men-style previews of new episodes, we’ve been waiting for Gendry’s return all year. Even more than before we mean.

Our long held hope that he would return to the show was ratcheted up when Dempsie appeared at the show’s season seven premiere, but HBO wouldn’t let him talk to us or anyone else that night. Why keep him from the media unless they were afraid to give something away? Ever since our renewed anticipation for his return has been at a fever pitch.

Now yes, we understand this could be an innocent mistake at IMDb, and we also realize this is certainly not the first time we’ve predicted a Gendry comeback. I mean, we did sorta kinda think that Gendry would be the one to rescue a shipwrecked Theon from the Narrow Sea after Euron’s attack. But this is different! Probably. Maybe.

But we promise we’re not the website who yelled “direwolf” (or since he’s a Baratheon bastard the website who yelled “stag”), but if Gendry is showing up this week here are some guesses as to where he might be and what that might mean:

Near King’s Landing: Gendry is from Flea Bottom in King’s Landing, and even though the gold cloaks were once looking for him it’s the only real home he’s ever known. He understands how to survive there, and it’s not hard to remain anonymous in a big city when no one knows you moved back. He might have been hiding right under our noses this whole time.

Unfortunately the city is an especially dangerous place now, since Daenerys just decimated the Lannister forces just outside of King’s Landing. It’s like the old saying goes, right out of Melisandre’s pot, right into the dragonflame.

Near Dragonstone: Gendry didn’t know how to sail when Davos freed him on that rowboat, so it’s possible he never got far despite the danger he was in at Dragonstone. The mainland wasn’t much better though, since that’s where the gold cloaks were looking for him, and the Brotherhood Without Banners gave him over to Melisandre who wanted to sacrifice him. A quiet existence on a small, sparsely populated island nearby would have been a great hiding place.

It’s also likely to be in the middle of where Euron is about to bring his ships, now that the Dothraki have landed near King’s Landing. A giant naval battle would probably make his quiet life considerably less so.

Near Eastwatch-by-the-Sea: The Wall during winter is not an ideal place for anyone to be, let alone a Southern-born bastard, but it is as far away as he could get in Westeros from the many people who want to kill him. And since “Eastwatch” is the name of the episode it makes it a real possibility.

Unfortunately that seems to be where the entire White Walker army is heading, and that’s not exactly an ideal situation for Gendry. Or anyone really.

Of course, he’s been gone so long he could turn up anywhere for any number of reasons. All we know is Jon Snow needs to turn dragonglass into weapons, and Gendry is a skilled blacksmith. Hopefully wherever he’s been he’s safe and stays that way so he can help forge weapons to fight the White Walkers.

He’s no use to us on an IMDb page.

What do you think Gendry’s return could mean? Where might he pop up? Tell us your best theories in the comments below.

Images: HBO

Incredible RICK AND MORTY Posters for Every Season 3 Episode So Far

Squanch you, Peter Slavik.

This wonderful artist has brought season 3 of Rick and Morty to glorious life in epic poster form. So far he’s delivered posters for “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” “Rickmancing the Stone,” and “Pickle Rick,” and he promises to drop a fresh poster as each new episode premieres.

Slavik, who does background art for the show, also had a very good reason for creating these one-shot wonders.

“I was under contract not to talk about how awesome the season was,” he told us. “I loved how great the design work and writing was, and needed a way to vent my excitement, so I expressed myself the only way I knew how, art! It was pain every time we would read a script, watch an animatic, or hear an amazing voice like Danny Trejo as Jaguar. It is a job within itself to not be excited about something so awesome!”

Yes. This is how we’ve all felt since first laying eyes on Pickle Rick in the teaser.

You could just as easily see these hanging in a dorm room as you can as the cover to a graphic novel, and it’s impressive to see the style variance in each. “Pickle Rick” gets a sci-fi action slant, “Rickmancing” has a slight Frank Frazetta comic book vibe, and scheming Tammy looks like’s straight out of Tron in the “Rickshank” poster. All of them expand the show’s mythology or make the characters loom even larger than they already do within the show’s aesthetic. I can’t wait to see the rest.

To see more of Slavik’s art, check out his twitter and Art Station page.

How many schmeckles would you pay for these? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Peter Slavik

GAME OF THRONES’ Video Shows the Fiery Making of the “Loot Train Attack”

Fire and blood.

Never before on Game of Thrones have the ominous words of House Targaryen felt so tangible and terrifying as they did during last night’s stunning final sequence. When Daenerys finally let Drogon loose on Westeros against the Lannister forces, the result was lots of crispy fried soldiers and one of the most amazing moments in television history. But if you think fighting both a Dothraki horde and a dragon the size of an airplane was difficult, wait until you see what went into making it.

In this behind-the-scenes featurette from HBO, the show’s creators and crew talk about the massive amount of work that went into the fiery attack the maesters will be writing about for thousands of years. They’ll probably need that long to wrap their heads around how they managed to have hundreds of soldiers and 27 wagons bathed in dragonflame, a process that required numerous cameras to capture. That includes a camera that can zip through the air at 70 miles per hour, another attached to a “souped up drone,” and one on a tricked out pickup truck.

The only downside to this entire battle is that HBO has named it the “Loot Train Attack,” which doesn’t really capture the moment as say Aegon the Conqueror’s similar “Field of Fire” attack does. But it’s okay, since it did include them breaking the all-time filming record by setting 20 men on fire for one single shot.

Seeing the entire sequence, which was filmed in Los Barruecos Cáceres, Spain, from behind the camera makes it somehow feel even less believable they were able to pull it off. Although, now that they have figured out a way to get an entire cavalry of crazy warriors to stand on their horses and shoot a bow and arrow we’re not going to accept anything else. The bar has been set!

As insane as all of this is–from the pyrotechnics, to so many extras being set on fire (I really love the whole “you need to stay calm when you are engulfed in flames and make sure you don’t breath” insight), to the various ways it was all filmed and how practical effects were seamlessly mixed with VFX–the most surprising bit of news here is how season six of the show only featured 11 shots of Emilia Clarke riding Drogon, whereas this one single battle had over 80 of them.

It had to be frustrating for her to be filming those shots in Belfast against a green screen, especially now that she can see how amazing the whole sequence looked, from both her and Jaime’s point of views.

Speaking of the Mother of Dragons, there was one bit of potential insight here amid all of the technical prowess. Early in the video she explained how and why Daenerys came to this moment of mass dragon destruction.

“Every time that something goes wrong, more Targaryen comes out. She starts to take matters into her own hands.”

Questions about Daenerys turning into the “Mad Queen” like her fire-loving father seemed to have been answered last season, when she spared most of the soldiers in the Battle of Meereen, and Cersei seemed to take the mantle by blowing up the Sept of Baelor with the Mad King’s cache of wildfire. But watching Daenerys melt men in their suits of armor in a wave of dragonflame reminded us just how House Targaryen first came to power, and why we should always be worried about her becoming the real Mad Queen.

She has always tried to be a benevolent ruler, but that attitude resulted in her foolishly locking up her dragons, the Sons of the Harpy terrorizing her city, rebellions in the other cities of Slaver’s Bay, and it ended up with her quickly losing her allies in Dorne, the Iron Islands, and the Reach. Tyrion desperately tried to keep her from unleashing dragons on Westeros, but when she was backed into a corner she turned towards the greatest weapon the world has ever known.

And it worked.

What will she do now if something else goes wrong? What if she suffers another setback, especially one as bad as Drogon being killed? How much more Targaryen will come out then? Because when Targaryens takes matters into their own hands it can only mean one thing for everyone else.

Fire and blood.

What about this sequence most impressed you? Bend the knee to our comments section below and set it on fire with your thoughts.

Images: HBO