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WESTWORLD Recap: Your Humanity is Cost-Effective

(Fair warning: This recap contains spoilers,  and we must all look back and smile on perils past.)

The chess pieces all took a giant leap forward this week. “Contrapasso” delivered a stunning amount of information alongside action that was thankfully not explosive. It was also the most vibrantly designed episode of Westworld yet–a tour through old haunts and new ghost towns where the spirits are either alive or stuffed full of unstable liquids.

Let’s get started with The Man in Black (Ed Harris), who is using Teddy (James Marsden) to get to the Big Bad Wolf, aka Wyatt, a villain who he’s never faced before. After a vague encounter with the Little Boy (who really feels like a younger version of Ford), MiB cuts Lawrence’s (Clifton Collins Jr.) throat and strings him up for a quick robo-blood transfusion. It seems to help, but Teddy’s already dragging by the time they reach a saloon where Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) joins MiB for a delightful conversation about self-discovery and the nature of the outside world. More specifically, we get a glimpse of the outside world through MiB’s cynical eyes. It’s an easy life out there without danger or purpose.

But the conversation reveals the true depth of MiB’s despair. If the park is where people come to feel something, he’s an addict immune to the fix. The way he romanticizes the possibility of a deeper meaning to Westworld makes me wonder if there isn’t anything for him at the center of the maze after all.

It’s also hard to tell if Ford is comfortably in control of everything, or comfortable in knowing he can’t control anything. A mad scientist resigned to whatever chaos comes.

This episode asks us to challenge our assumptions about the world in front of us. Yeah, all the episodes do that, but this one was working overtime to present the characters’ desires in a different light than what we’ve seen so far. For one, we assume their goals are achievable. We’re so convinced by MiB’s quest and confidence that we (maybe wrongly) assume that his path has meaning. Maybe he’s painting yet another programmed Westworld adventure with his own imagination instead of standing on the cusp of discovering “something true.”

On the plus side, if you ever need to give your android an energy boost, just quote Sir Walter Scott to him, and he’ll perk right up. Ford dropping that old chestnut about smiling on perils past might indicate that he’s in no way dwelling on the events of 34 years, 42 days and 7 hours ago. After his story about the dog who didn’t know what to do after finally catching the cat, he seems unnervingly comfortable about what he’s built–why pine for discovery when you’ll just ruin it and be lost afterward? He seems to be warning all of us about the danger of chasing after a dream.

The other huge shift comes for Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), who goes from observing the game from the guests’ perspective last week to joining in the game as a guest herself. She’s the one who convinces El Lazo (hello, again, Lawrence!) to let them rob the Union stagecoach, she’s the one who initiates running away when the jig is up, and she’s the one who’s experiencing a rich inner life of hallucinations in the sin city of Pariah.

But are those hallucinations some sort of ladder to consciousness? We’ve assumed that she’s on an upward trajectory toward awareness because we’ve seen the Robot Starts Thinking For Itself story so many times before, but what if it’s just another downward spiral into malfunction? Or, worse yet, what if her journey to self-awareness is all baked into the storyline crafted by Ford? What if her incipient humanity is a red herring, and her life–the one where she’s not a damsel–is still dictated by a loop someone else wrote for her?

It might be part of the plan, especially considering how cleanly she and William (Jimmi Simpson) end up in the exact place they need to be to continue the War Games side quest. Or maybe having a Host on your adventure is like inserting a cheat code.

It seems a shame to leave that hive of scum and villainy out in the desert. Pariah is a gem of a destination complete with its blood fountain, nightly Dia de los Muertos parade, and general rag-tag Eyes Wide Shut vibe. It’s the kind of town where you get living gold trophies for your conquests. And, yeah, this park was definitely designed by dudes, but we finally get a sense of the well-hung options for those who make it outside the vanilla borders of Sweetwater. Still, for all the casual nudity and deviance in this episode, everything is still shot with an anti-sex sheen to it all. Either the nudity is cold and clinical, or its a grotesque parody of sensual rhythm.

After asking Dolores if she’s alright fifteen times, William finally steps up to the plate in order to protect her. The common internet theory is that we’re witnessing him shed his innocence to become the hardened Man in Black, but I still don’t buy it. William, The Man in Black and Dolores are too clearly in the same timeline–something confirmed even further now that Dolores’ whispers bear out before they go into Pariah and backstage where she lies to Ford while revealing that it’s been three decades since Arnold’s death.

On the business end, Logan (Ben Barnes) reveals to William that they’re scouting the park as a buy-out opportunity because the park is “hemorrhaging cash”–a sentiment echoed by MiB when he taunts Teddy about the perfect mechanical parts being replaced by flimsy flesh because it was cost-effective. Not to mention the drama we saw last week with Theresa and Ford clashing over the unseen Board of Shadowy Figures who are getting tired of financial problems.

The raid on the Union stagecoach packed with nitroglycerin goes sideways because of Logan–always because of Logan–and Dolores creates the kind of bond with William that leads her to warn him about El Lazo’s double cross. The outside world is calling her, and it’s leading her to make out with William.

Once again, this feels like the kind of staged language that Screaming British Guy might have written. All of it may all be part of the game designed to give William an unforgettable vacation.

Meanwhile, in the basement of 9-to-5 horrors, Elsie (Shannon Woodward) does some Black Mirroresque blackmail work to get access to the star-gazing, head-bashing Host. She discovers some sort of laser-based hunk of technology stitched up inside of him, which really opens up the show to a totally different avenue of complication. Before this, the corporate stuff was all fairly dull, but now someone is smuggling weird weaponry inside humanoid mules?

To add to the pile, the clumsy butcher Felix programs a bird to be a bird, and, oh yeah, Maeve (Thandie Newton) wakes up backstage to freak Felix out. No doubt about it, she’s crossed over. If she hasn’t gained sentience, she’s gotta be confused as hell, but she sits there, naked, bird perched on her finger, in total control. Quite the contrast from the last time she woke up on the surgery table.

While we’ve been focusing on Dolores, Maeve might be the key to everything. At the very least, she’s a wicked game changer.

SOME STRAY THOUGHTS:

There have to be towns on the outskirts of the game where all the Hosts live out their lives without interference by guests, waiting for seasoned players to find them.
There’s an incinerator! Cold storage seems like an even worse idea now!
Contrapasso is a reference to Dante’s Inferno, where sinners are punished by the inverse of their sin. So, what’s Dolores’ sin?
“Creepy Necro-perv” is a solid burn.
Turns out their GPS tracker is located in the Hosts’ chest cavity, which means they’re always…following…their hearts…
Sorry.
But, seriously, if no one makes it to Pariah during the day, there are just rooms filled with unsweaty piles of robots humping each other?

Let’s drink to the lady in the white shoes next week. In the meantime, what did you think of this episode? Tell us below.

Images: HBO

THE WALKING DEAD Recap: King Ezekiel Invites Us to “The Well”

Editor’s note: This post contains spoilers for the season premiere of The Walking Dead! Proceed with caution, survivors. For reals, if you haven’t yet watched this week’s episode, “The Well,” we highly suggest you do so before proceeding. Okay? We good? Let’s go.

Damn you, Walking Dead. We’re only two episodes into this season and already you’re tying my emotions into way more knots than they were ever built to withstand. After making us drink a gallon of battery acid last week, you go ahead and give us something this week that, by the standards of the apocalypse, is a glass of champagne. For “The Well” is an episode that switches out The Walking Dead‘s fixation with misery porn for light comedy, and despair for…dare I say hope?

When we last left Carol and Morgan, my favorite dysfunctional couple had run afoul of the Saviors only to be saved at the last possible second by what looked like a company of knights. That metaphor is only reinforced by this episode’s opening scene, in which these riders on horseback transport an injured Carol to their “Kingdom,” where she’s introduced to their king–the gloriously colorful Ezekiel.

Melissa McBride has evolved into such an amazing actress on this show, and Carol has honed her survival skills to such an incredible extent, that when Carol first meets Ezekiel, McBride almost convinces us her character really is charmed by the tiger-taming ruler. But then it’s not too hard to see why she would be. As played by Khary Payton (best know to comic fans as  Cyborg in the Teen Titans and Aqualad in the Young Justice animated series), the guy’s charismatic as all hell, even if her initial impression of him is that he’s a certifiable loon. But her reaction is entirely justified given the sheer number of cult leaders Carol and her friends have had the misfortune to encounter, all of whom appeared more capable and grounded than than the affected Ezekiel.

This changes, of course, when she tries to sneak out of the Kingdom; after a hilarious sequence in which she steals a knife, some slacks, and a chocolate bar while his people rehearse a church-hymnal version of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.” He immediately sees through her “sweet and innocent act” and recognizes the fact that she’s smart enough to see through his bullshit. She’s a kindred spirit, so he tells her the truth about his origins. It turns out he was once a zookeeper who saved the life of one of the zoo’s few surviving animals, Shiva. He was also a regional theater actor who’d portrayed any number of rulers on stage, and who channeled his experience into becoming the leader he saw people yearning for in a time of crisis. “Maybe they need the fairy tale,” he tells her. Well, at least his real name’s Ezekiel.

What’s especially appreciated is this episode’s placement in the season. After last week’s physical and emotional slaughter, I’m not sure I could take any more graphic depictions of human suffering, and “The Well” couldn’t be further removed from “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” Ezekiel’s advice to Carol, “Where there’s life, there’s hope,” may be cliched, but the mere thought, directed towards the show’s audience as much as its heroine, is no less welcome at this point in The Walking Dead‘s history.

The question that lingers is whether or not Ezekiel and Carol (because, if that tiny smile she flashes him at episode’s end is any indication, she now has his back) can motivate his people to rise up against the Saviors–because the time is fast approaching when they’ll have no choice. Negan may be evil incarnate, but he’s no dope. So it shouldn’t take him long to realize the guts of those pigs his people were given were filled with walkers.

Undead Afterthoughts

— “I don’t know what the hell’s going on in the most wonderful way.”

— She might find her situation infuriating, but can anyone recall the last time we heard Carol laugh?

— Ezekiel’s Kingdom is an insanely refreshing break from every other community we’ve visited on The Walking Dead. One that offers whimsy and warmth instead of fear and grittiness. Right down to the king’s quotes stenciled on walls in old English typeface.

— “I found a way to deal with the bad by going a little overboard with the good.”

— “I think you’re my favorite person I ever knocked out. Definitely top two or three.” Aw, Morgan. You really do say the sweetest things.

— I gotta be honest… There’s a part of me that would be that would be more than happy to see The Walking Dead, for the remainder of its run, focus solely on chronicling the merry old adventures of Carol, Morgan, and Ezekiel. AMC, if you’re listening, can this please be your next spinoff show?

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter (@JMaCabre).

Images: AMC

Here’s where we think it might be going:

Before the Deadpool Sequel, Catch CABLE in a Cool New Fan Film

There aren’t that many major Marvel Universe heroes left who have yet to make the jump into live-action at this point. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Namor the Sub-Mariner, She-Hulk, Nova, Spider-Woman, and the Inhumans as to what you’d consider “A-list” Marvel heroes that have yet to appear on screen in some form. And by “A-list”, I mean you’ve been able to hold your own monthly comics title for an extended period of time (that’s for the commenter who is sure to say “but what about Wonder Man???)

But arguably the most prominent Marvel hero yet to appear in live-action is the X-Men’s gruff mutant cyborg Cable. Although he has been announced as appearing in the upcoming Deadpool 2, the character of Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, that rugged soldier from the future, has technically yet to appear in any live-action form just yet. But a group of fans just beat Hollywood to the punch.

A group called K&K Productions has released an extremely cool Cable fan-film called “Cable: Chronicles of Hope,” which features the Rob Liefeld  ’90s creation together with his “daughter” Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah. Together they time jump into a deserted X-mansion, which has been attacked by the mutant hating group known as the Purifiers. But it seems the duo have arrived too late to save the X-Men.

Maybe the coolest part of this fan film is the appearance of Kurt Wagner, a.k.a. Nightcrawler, who ends up lending a hand (and a tail) to Cable and Hope against the bad guys in a very kick-ass action sequence. A lot of this fan film has a definite Terminator vibe to it, and hopefully more chapters are on the way. You can watch the entire six-minute film above. And to see a special behind-the-scenes “making of” video, be sure to click here.

What do you think of the Cable fan film? Should the makers of Deadpool 2 just go ahead and cast this dude? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Image: Marvel Comics

While we await Deadpool 2, did you catch everything in the first film?

DOCTOR STRANGE Director Reveals Which Villain Might Be in the Sequel

This week, Doctor Strange will make his big screen debut in North America, and the movie has already written a prescription for success at the international box office, with $86 million this weekend. Clearly, there’s an excellent chance that Marvel’s master of the mystic arts will be getting a sequel. If that happens, Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson already has a villain in mind.

While speaking with IGN, Derrickson said “I really like the character of Nightmare and the concept that the Nightmare Realm is a dimension…I think that’s in the introductory episode of Doctor Strange, and I always loved that.” Derrickson also offered a brief explanation as to why Nightmare wasn’t in the first movie: “We decided not to do that because that’s a bit of a complex idea to try to introduce everything we do introduce and introduce the idea of nightmares themselves as being a dimension. I hope somewhere down the line we do get to explore that, because I think that’s a super cool concept.”

We think that Mads Mikkelsen could have been a great Nightmare, if he wasn’t already playing Kaecilius in the first Doctor Strange film. The dread Dormammu is widely regarded as Strange’s ultimate foe, but Nightmare is right up there with him, and Derrickson was correct about Nightmare’s introduction in the very first Doctor Strange story back in in 1963’s Strange Tales #110, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. However, Nightmare is the undisputed ruler of the Dream Dimension, not the “nightmare realm,” as Derrickson put it. The Dream Dimension is more important than Nightmare himself, as human minds travel to that realm while sleeping. It’s Nightmare who twists those dreams to suit his own ends and to feed on the collective fear of all dreaming beings. Of course, if Nightmare makes it to the big screen, then it would be a great idea to also introduce Dreamstalker, his badass demonic horse.

For casual fans, the closest analogy for Nightmare is that he’s essentially the Freddy Krueger of the Marvel Universe…on a much larger scale, and he doesn’t waste time simply killing teens for his amusement. Nightmare has used his powers to manipulate events in the waking world, and he even brought about one of the Hulk‘s most violent rampages when he caused Bruce Banner’s consciousness to retreat into his own mind. Nightmare has also gone up against Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, and other Marvel heroes; which could add to his value in the MCU if he isn’t simply killed off in his first appearance. That said, death hasn’t stopped Nightmare from returning before, so why should it be any different on the big screen?

There’s also the possibility that Nightmare could be used to eventually introduce Marvel’s other Fear Lords, like the Dweller-in-Darkness and D’Spayre, or even Shuma-Gorath, the Lovecraft-inspired Doctor Strange adversary who is more famous for appearing in the Marvel vs. Capcom games than anything he did in the comics! Assuming that Doctor Strange 2 becomes a reality, Nightmare would be more than a worthy foe for the good doctor’s next big screen adventure.

Do you want to see Nightmare as the villain of Doctor Strange 2? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Marvel

Now you know about Nightmare, but did you know these Strange facts?

SUPER MARIO BROS. IRL Shows Us What Really Happens When You Lose a Life

There are some people that would argue that modern gaming has changed the way we feel about our characters in video games. Endless re-spawns, saves, and check points have allowed us to forget the importance of the old “x3” lifespan of our characters and the dreaded “Game Over” screens. However, as careful as we were in old-school games like Super Mario Bros. there’s something we all still took for granted. What happens to Mario after he dies?

YouTube’s Nukazooka set out to answer that question and what they came up with is… rather troubling. They posit that while we were starting out new life after misjudging a jump across a chasm, the real trials of our jumpsuited plumber were just beginning. Dropping into a sort of Mushroom Kingdom underworld, our hero experiences the horrors of seeing his fallen brethren (clones?) and the twisted nature of everything he’s ever jumped on.

Some may remember the folks from Nukazooka from their nightmarish  Minecraft IRL and how its realism can make an entire gaming world feel fairly messed up if we think of these characters as living, breathing, and feeling beings. Seeing Mario come to grips with his post-game reality, face his fallen foes, and (for some reason) run from a cannibalistic version of Luigi will make us think twice about treating those extra lives with such flippancy. Is this nightmare underworld hellscape the normal staging area for Luigi when he’s not chosen to be played? Has he become that monster because no one ever wants to play as him? What have we done!?

As silly as the subject matter is, the short video does build some suspense to where we’re happy to see Mario hijack a Lakitu cloud and get the hell out of dodge. Who knows, maybe with this newfound freedom, this is the Mario that we finally see in Super Mario Sunshine doing something positive with his life.

What are your thoughts on Mushroom Kingdom hell? What other games would you like to see IRL’d by Nukazooka? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Images: Nukazooka 

Home Geekonomics: Eat These Halloween Horror Treats Before They Eat You!

Home Geekonomics is a series that features the best in geeky home decor, food and DIY. Each week will focus on a specific fandom and highlight the best of geek for your home and everyday life.

This is it: Halloween is almost upon us and while tricks are a given, it’s time we even out our luck with some truly horrific treats. These horror movie-themed sweets are so well done, they easily capture the essence of the movies they represent and come off deliciously devilish.

Freddy Krueger Cookies by Sugar Buff

One, two, these cookies are coming for you. These Freddy Krueger cookies are a little too lifelike for my taste. They look like they’ll actually eat you from the inside out but seeing as how they’re sugary sweet, it’s probably all worth it.

Creature From The Black Lagoon Cupcake by Danielle Henry

I love Instagram because a simple hashtag search can lead you to some fabulous amateur bakers. Yes, my cache is filled with searches for #horrorbaking. This Creature From The Black Lagoon cupcake is awesome because the layered fondant perfectly captures the monster’s familiar features and still looks inviting enough to eat.

Carrie Princess Cake by Not Quite Nigella

Princess doll cakes are all the rage for parties, but come Halloween time why not transform your sweet doll into a living nightmare? This sickeningly sweet Carrie cake is made with edible blood and gumpaste and is the perfect centerpiece for a terrifying Halloween bash.

The Shining Twix by Lou Lou P

Lou Lou P is known for her off the wall sugar creations and there’s something marvelous about this Shining-inspired treat. Obviously there are two candies and obviously they should be The Shining twins. It’s creepy. It’s tasty. It’s perfection. You’ll never look at Twix the same again.

Have you seen any tasty sweets that make great Halloween-themed treats? Share us your links in comments.

Images: Sugar Buff, Danielle Henry, Not Quite Nigella, Lou Lou P

Light Up Your Entire Neighborhood on Halloween with This 5000W Pumpkin

With Halloween this coming Monday, everyone is getting their houses ready for trick or treating. From zombie decorations to pumpkin carving, homes will be ready for the onslaught of children (as well as those four or five teenagers that just don’t know it’s time to move on) sure to come knocking at the door in search for sweets.

Photonicinduction has taken decorating to a new level, and a dangerous one at that. Reported by Gizmodo, the above video shows what happens when a pumpkin is illuminated with a 5000w lightbulb.

To put that into perspective, the light bulbs I use in my house use about 60w. Suffice it to say, the light and heat are certain to be a tad more intense. After a few times turning the bulb on and off, the pumpkin begins to smoke from the heat. For Halloween, this would make for an awesome effect. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be able to last very long.

The bulb in the video burns out fairly quickly after not getting enough air into the pumpkin to cool it down, resulting in yet another display of how a pumpkin catching fire. While I certainly don’t recommend trying this on your own unless you are fully prepared, this should give you enough inspiration to step up your decorating game.

You can check out more videos from Photonicinduction on their YouTube channel here.

So what do you think of this mega-bright, albeit dangerous, Halloween display? Let me know on Twitter or sound off in the comments below.

Image: Photonicinduction

Stephen Colbert Proves the PRICE IS RIGHT THEME Can Make Anything Happy

In an era where the TV theme song has somewhat gone by the wayside, it’s good to know that some things will never change. On a recent episode of Late Night with Stephen Colbert, The Price Is Right host Drew Carey stopped by to not only answer hard-hitting questions about the long-running game show, but also to help prove a theory about its iconic theme.

Reported by Vulture, the above clip starts off with Colbert and Carey reminiscing about Colbert’s appearance on Whose Line Is It Anyway, and how Drew made him do the ONE thing he specifically asked him not to: rap. They then did a rapid fire session with questions from Colbert’s graphics department, ranging from the wheel to Plinko.

Colbert then went on to show Carey that the iconic theme from the show can turn any sour moment into a happy one, and helped prove it with scenes from The Godfather, Wicker Man, and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. (Not sure why Colbert used that last clip. Is he a fan? If so, I haven’t heard). Now, while I don’t think ANYTHING can make The Wicker Man better, it was nice to be able to tap my foot happily while Sonny Corleone was getting riddled with bullets.

So what do you guys think? Can the The Price Is Right theme turn any sad moment into a happy one? How many of you are queuing up last Sunday’s Walking Dead to take this theory to its limits? Let me know on Twitter or sound off in the comments below!

Image: CBS Television

DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY: “Lost and Found” (Recap)

After two episodes of Max Landis‘s adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, it’s beginning to feel like the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. There’s a lot to like about it, and there were plenty of good scenes and performances in this second episode, “Lost and Found.” Still, somehow by hour’s end, it didn’t seem like it all came together the way it should have.

There were some great highlights this week, like the scene of Todd (Elijah Wood) and Dirk (Samuel Barnett) escaping the house of the kidnapper/”supreme being,” as well as following bridge-set scene—the best scene of the episode. The overarching mystery and its accompanying insanity (the best part of the show) also got some interesting explanations: The opening blood bath in the premiere seems to have been because of a hammerhead shark, the almost-definitely-not-human bald guys with the tattoos were the ones who kidnapped Farrah, and Lydia Spring may actually now be a dog. Meanwhile, a few new questions were raised to draw us in further: Who is Lux Du’Jour the missing musician? Who was the guy pretending to be a morgue worker? Who really took the bodies of the bald guys? And what do the Rowdy 3 want with Amanda?

But there are also some headscratching decisions that can’t be ignored. Why are two characters (the kidnapper and the female murdering-version of Dirk) using unbearably annoying voices? It’s one thing to have one character use a totally obnoxious voice, but to constantly bounce back and forth between multiple gets tiresome, especially when this interpretation of Dirk himself is equally annoying and exhausting in every scene.

The backstory about Dirk (and, presumably, murder-Dirk who is apparently named Bart Curlish) feels like an unnecessary addition to a mystery that already has enough going for it. This seems to have something to do with why Dirk gets “dragged” into these types of cases, and why he seems like such a sad person. Still, wasn’t he also hired by the now dead George Spring? Wasn’t the motivation enough? Solving the mystery of the show is fun enough without dedicating time to the mystery of Dirk, which no one asked about.

Outside of her grating voice, the indestructible Bart and her reluctant partner-in-crime have been a lot of fun, especially since Bart seems strangely competent and right about everything, even if she is a killer. Watching the parallels between the two of them and Dirk and Todd feels like it will lead to a great payoff. Good enough without a backstory, even!

As for the bald guys, we may have got an answer to what exactly the Rowdy 3 were doing in episode one, because the supreme being threatened Todd and Dirk by saying they would “burn the souls” out of their bodies. That certainly looks like what the Rowdy 3 did after killing Todd’s landlord. Are those two groups allies, or are they enemies?

Also, while Dirk’s complete and utter incompetence doesn’t exactly instill confidence in his abilities, they did use it to get the funniest line of the episode (Dirk saying he brought a knife to the bridge because they knew the kidnapper had a gun). The madness of what’s going on with the connected weirdness is what makes the show entertaining, but it would benefit from having even more laugh-out-loud moments like that.

Just like the premiere there were lots of individual moments and scenes in the second episode of Dirk Gently to like. The nutty plot is glorious mayhem and knowing that anything can happen next is exciting. The cast is pretty stellar from top to bottom; even the three actors who are inherently annoying have a quality presence to them. And yet it didn’t feel like a great hour, as problems do seem to persist in the writing and direction. It just might be that that their are too many pieces pulling in too many directions. The good news is that as they come closer together some of those problems might be fixed naturally. Hopefully by season’s end the whole will be as good as the parts.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Connect with us in the comments section below.

Images: BBC America

Hot Toys’ New SUICIDE SQUAD Joker Figure Displays Its Alex Ross Influence Proudly

With Nerdoween just around the corner, most Suicide Squad fans are putting the finishing touches on their Joker and Harley couples costume. Thanks to Hot Toys‘ latest release, whoever is dressing up as the Clown Prince of Crime will now have a better idea of what their final product should look like.

Here is the third version of the Joker (portrayed by Jared Leto) from Hot Toys’ Suicide Squad line—fourth if you count the exclusive where the Joker is wearing his own version of Batman’s costume. Here, we see the Clown Prince in his full tuxedo, which, if you saw the movie, you know definitely took influences from the now iconic Alex Ross vision of him (minus the receding hairline).

The Joker comes with a full cloth tuxedo, a gold plated machine gun, a pistol, a cane, an acetylene torch (I don’t think it actually works, so you’ll have to figure out how to torture your other Hot Toys on your own), three sets of hands, and a stand.

The Joker is such an iconic and important villain that it was odd to see him relegated to a supporting role in Suicide Squad. With an influence taken directly from the comic books, I hope someday we get a classic Batman/Joker showdown within the DCEU.

You can check out more pictures of the Joker in the gallery below, and you can pre-order the figure for $219.99 on Sideshow Collectibles website here.

So what do you think? Will you be picking up this version of the Joker? Do you still feel that no one in their right mind will be able to top Heath Ledger? Let us know!

All our favorite Suicide Squad Easter eggs:

Images: Hot Toys, DC Comics