Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com

PTG Episode 63 is brought to you by roller coasters. You know, those things we (well, a good number of us, anyway) love to ride because they leave us with our hearts pounding, our throats sore from yelling, and our sense of equilibrium temporarily compromised due to all the rises, drops, twists, turns, inversions, and yeah, that last sudden slowdown at the end before the car pulls into the station that makes your brain wish momentum didn’t exist? Yup, those things! As you may or may not know, there are quite a few good ones here in the Central Florida area, spread out between the Universal Orlando Resort, the Disney Parks, Sea World Orlando, and Busch Gardens Tampa, but there are SO many more great ones in other parts of the country that must be seen and experienced to be believed. Now we here at PTG can’t claim to be the most daring and adventurous of coaster enthusiasts. Speaking for myself, I’ll only go as far as Dramamine will allow me to, and I do wonder how effective said motion sickness drug might be, if at all, in the face of some of the mightier coasters in other parks across the U.S.. But my limited experience did not stop us from having a fun conversation about our favorite coasters during this hour. Got a favorite coaster, or an idea about what makes a great coaster? Please feel free to share by leaving a comment here or on our message board over at somacow.net/forum. We’d love to hear from you!

And speaking of comments, want to win FREE passes to a movie sneak preview JUST for leaving a comment about Prime Time Geek? If you’re one of the first TWO PTG fans to leave a comment and feedback over at the iTunes Store for the Prime Time Geek podcast, you’ll receive a pass for admission for two to a special SNEAK PREVIEW of The Fourth Kind, the new alien abduction thriller starring Milla Jovovich. ALL you have to do to get the passes is go to the iTunes store using iTunes on your computer, search for “Prime Time Geek”, and leave us a comment. THEN send me an email at felix@primetimegeek.com and let me know that you successfully left the comment. We’ll verify that the comment is there and once we’ve done that, we’ll email you to let you know that the passes are yours! The sneak preview is TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH AT 7:30PM (that’s a correction from the podcast–during the show we said 8PM), so DON’T WAIT to do this if you want the passes! So, again, here’s what you have to do:

1) Using iTunes on your computer, go to the iTunes store (if you don’t have iTunes on your computer, go to apple.com and download it for free);
2) Search for “Prime Time Geek”;
3) Rate the podcast and leave a comment;
4) email me (Felix) at felix@primetimegeek.com and let me know that you’ve rated/left the comment; we’ll then verify that the comment is there, and once we do, the passes are yours!

Good luck, and we hope to hear from you! (Oh, and please DO say nice things about us in your comment … that should go without saying, but hey, just thought I’d mention it. )

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com

PTG Episode 56 is brought to you by Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, now on blu-ray and DVD. (Support Prime Time Geek by purchasing it through Amazon with the link provided!) Well, I’ll say this much for Warner Premiere’s latest direct-to-video animation offering: it’s by FAR the best of the bunch, especially in terms of how well it brings to life the source material, in this case the bestselling comic series and graphic novel by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness. Trouble is, of course, that calling it “the best of the bunch” isn’t saying a whole lot. Be sure and check out this weekend’s live broadcast of PTG from Heroes Landing in Clermont, FL for our full review of the feature, but I’ll just say this one last thing about it for now: if you were a fan of the Superman and Batman animated series of the 1990s, and you recall with as much nostalgia as I do the iconic renditions of Supes and Bats by Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy, respectively, then there’s much to enjoy for you in this movie.

So Episode 56 is all about Superman, because in my opinion its a great time to be a Superman fan. Yes, I know, there’s no Superman feature film even remotely on the horizon, but aside from that, with the great ongoing writing and artwork to be found in the current line of Superman and Superman-related comics, as well as Smallville returning for its 9th Season (yeah, I know, maybe not such a good thing) and the aforementioned “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” now on store shelves, there’s lots out there to enjoy and be excited about. In this hour we cover a great deal of all that, plus talk a bit about the images of Nicolas Cage’s supposed “costume test” for the thankfully-never-filmed “Superman Lives” project that producer Tim Burton threatened to unleash upon movie audiences in the 1990s, a project that certainly would have had us Superman devotees and aficionados fleeing theaters in droves while trying to tear out our own eyeballs to make the burning stop. IF the image that made its way around the internet is, in fact, genuine, (see below!) then its even more proof that we were all better off with this nightmare never taking flight, and those folks out there who decry Superman Returns might wish to be a bit more thankful that THAT was the movie we got a few years later, rather than Burton’s “vision.”

Chilling, isn’t it?

Prime Time Geek Episode 26 is brought to you by Tate’s Comics in Lauderhill, Florida. Well, not exactly brought to you by Tate’s, since they’re not a sponsor, but they are REALLY cool. We here at PTG wholeheartedly recommend you check out their website, and if you’re in South Florida and love comics, toys, anime, gaming, or just about anything pop-culture related and you haven’t been up to Tate’s, shame on you. Get in your car, Google the directions, and go. Right now. Put the podcast on your iPod and take us with you, ’cause we’d love a return trip over there.

[NOTE: The correct address of Tate's Comics is 4566 N. University Dr. Lauderhill, FL 33351--during the podcast I erroneously located the store at 4555 N. University. I apologize for any confusion.]

Now, if you live in and around where Tate’s is located down there in the Lauderhill/Sunrise/Plantation area of Broward County, Florida, the name “Past, Present, and Future” might also be familiar to you, and might seem a strange choice of title for an episode of PTG during which much time is spent going ga-ga over Tate’s. But aside from being a store name held at one time by a store quite close to Tate’s, Crossroad Comics and Games, “past, present, and future” is very much a theme running throughout this entire hour of PTG. In the literal sense, it relates to both of the comics we spotlight in this episode: Batman #687, which ushers in a new era for the Caped Crusader as Dick Grayson takes on the mantle of the Bat; and Buck Rogers #1, which shows the beginning of an exciting new envisioning of one of sci-fi’s most venerable time-traveling heroes. In their own ways, Batman and Buck Rogers are characters whose appeal defies the passage of time, and no consideration of their new adventures can escape some form of comparison or contemplation of what has come before.

But Episode 26 is also very much about memories and change. After all, a trip to South Florida for me is a trip down “Memory Lane”, an opportunity to drive along the streets that my friends and I back in the day cruised upon as we quested for gaming books, for new anime, for Battletech miniatures, for rare toys, and just about anything else that we might have fixed our sights on back in the day. Trips into that area require that I reconcile those memories of past experiences with present circumstances, such as the fact that the store my friends and I referred to as “The Shrine” (the aforementioned Crossroad Comics) due to its sheer size and its vast selection of geekly distractions has since changed ownership twice and is now most certainly the second option for geek shopping in the area. “Going home” means recalling the past, reconciling it with changes in the present, and contemplating the future–it’s simply unavoidable, especially if you have someone with you who is seeing it all with fresh eyes. More often than not, those places that are so special in our memories as childhood haunts and playgrounds lose some of their lustre once they are stripped of the veil of nostalgia and seen under the present’s harsher light. Time is often unkind … often but not always.

Yes, the store in North Miami Beach where I bought my comics all through high school, the store I knew as “Super Heroes Unlimited,” is now known as “Villains” and is a fundamentally different store than it was 20 years ago, before the advent of Collectible Card Games. And yes, “The Shrine” may have been eclipsed in greatness by the awesomeness that is Tate’s Comics. But the very landscape of Geekdom in South Florida is changed beyond belief, simply because it is visible and vibrant, whereas in my day one could argue it was non-existent. This is very good thing in my mind, and though I might look back fondly on the way things were when I was younger, I certainly can’t argue that its a very good time to be a geek in South Florida, and I can’t imagine it changing for anything but the better in the future.

Amazing how things change.

Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 22 is brought to you by all the movies I pulled sound bytes from in order to create Mad Mario’s intro, which kicks off the podcast. Be the first listener to comment on this episode and list the correct titles of each of the films from which I pulled material to create Mad Mario’s intro in the order they’re used in the intro and WIN two passes to the Florida SuperCon Convention in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida June 6th-8th, courtesy of Bad Apple Comics! Again, the FIRST comment posted on this episode with the correct titles in the correct order will win the passes. Contest ends Saturday, May 30th, at the start of the next show. Good luck!

So Terminator: Salvation dropped into theaters this weekend, only to get dropped in the fight for box office supremacy by another sequel, Night at the Museum 2: Battle for the Smithsonian. According to the Associated Press, Terminator: Salvation took in $51.9 million, while Night at the Museum 2 took in just over $70 million. Salvation’s three-day weekend total, $43 million, is actually LESS than the franchise’s last cinematic outing, the fan-derided Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, made in its opening frame ($44 million in 2003). Having seen the movie, it’s not hard to imagine what the word of mouth effect was on the film from those who might have ventured to midnight showings during the previous week, nor it is hard to foresee a HUGE drop-off in ticket sales going into its second week of release. Of all of this summer’s geek-centric movie releases, only Star Trek has shown the resilience to forestall greater-than-50% decreases in ticket sales over successive weeks. Over Memorial Day weekend, Trek’s third weekend in release, the film brought in another $29 million, good enough to place third behind Night at the Museum 2 and Terminator and bringing its domestic box office gross total to $191 million. Pretty damned impressive for a Star Trek film, I think most everyone would agree.

Special guest co-host Mad Mario, PTG’s Highlord of Home Theater, and I discuss the merits and shortcomings of Terminator: Salvation first thing in Hour 1, then move on to discussing DC Comics’ “Batman: Battle for the Cowl” series in its entirety, and wrap up the hour with Mad Mario’s reviews of Resident Evil 5 for the XBOX 360, Killzone 2 for the PS3, and MadWorld for the Nintendo Wii. Enjoy!

Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 21 is brought to you by the opening scene of Weird Science. Why Weird Science, you ask? Well, admittedly, it doesn’t work nearly as well for Hour 1 as it does for Hour 2, which features an ‘Eat More Geek’ segment and is led off by the infamous ‘greasy pork sandwich’ line. For Hour 1, well, okay, I admit it: I couldn’t think of a better clip to use, so in it went.

First and foremost, allow me to apologize to those who came to the live show and didn’t get to see a whole lot due to technical difficulties. I certainly appreciate everyone’s patience for those who stuck around in the chat in the hopes that we’d get back on the air, which we did sporadically throughout the evening. There were some folks who stopped by who were baffled and highly amused by the fact that I kept on going with what I was talking about despite not being able to be seen or heard, as though I was unaware of what was happening. To those folks I say, “Well, if I had stopped, then you wouldn’t have this podcast to listen to, now would you?” Rule number one of performance: no matter what happens, keep going.

Hour 1 features the usual segments: DC Comics Spotlight focused on Secret Six #9 (pictured above) and Green Lantern Corps. #36; Summer Movie Review focused on Angels and Demons, and the Smallville Smackdown featuring thoughts on the Eighth Season finale, “Doomsday”. But what might get the MOST attention in the Hour were the digs I took at some of other shows currently on the SomaCow Media Network, so I feel the need to preface your listening to the episode with a few small caveats:

1) Though PTG remains “the new kid on the block” as far as programs on the SomaCow Media Network, we’ve been around long enough to know that stirring the pot a bit sometimes is good for generating a little bit of dramatic interest. This is by no means done out of disrespect for the great entertainment both JPP and SomaCow put out on a weekly basis–it’s all in good fun, and I hope it is taken as such; and

2) I fully expect reprisal in the form of some sort of “proportional response.” You don’t swat at the wasp’s nest without expecting to get stung, and by no means is PTG safe from ridicule–in fact, sometimes it seems to me there’s more to make fun of on PTG than anything else.

So Geoff, Mickey, J, Gary, Nova, CR, Tits, or whoever chooses first to step into the batter’s box and take a good cut, do me one favor: Tell EVERYONE on Twitter or Facebook or whatever that you’re doing it, and tell others to download this hour, follow suit, and THEN go to justpushplay.org or somacow.com and comment that you hath avenged the honor of your beloved show by slapping back at the upstarts over at PTG, or better yet, go to their live shows (Monday night 8-10PM EST for JPP, Friday night from 7-10PM for SomaCow) and TELL them you did it.

They’ll love for it, and believe it or not, so will I.

PTG Episode 16, Hour 1 is brought to you by this clip, courtesy of MTV, from the upcoming Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams. The audio of the clip starts off the podcast, and you can listen AND watch the clip in its entirety below. In it, well, little Jimmy Kirk (no, he’s not quite James T. Kirk, not to me, not yet) succeeds in impressing Cadet Uhura with his knowledge of xenolinguistics, but makes much less of a favorable impression upon her would-be Starfleet Academy chaperones. Certainly explains why later we see him with a bloody nose and a split lip. Hour 2 will feature another released clip from the new Trek, so be sure to check back here at primetimegeek.com for that.

Hour 1 gets in gear by presenting all the rumors and stories surrounding Joss Whedon’s slow-to-catch-on new series on FOX, Dollhouse, and the question of whether or not it will actually return for a second season or instead become the latest chapter in the ongoing saga entitled, “Joss Whedon: The Broadcast Networks Hate You.” Now seriously, the stories behind Dollhouse and the other ill-fated Whedon-crafted TV series that met their ends before their times, Angel and Firefly, could not be more different, but when the end results are the same, does it matter? The man is a gifted craftsman of character drama with a talent for quippy, pop-culture aware dialogue that is a perfect fit with today’s 19-39 demographic, yet FOX continually shows nothing but ineptitude in terms of handling and marketing his work. Friday night, running after the terminally-ill Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, THAT’S the best time slot idea they could come up with, really? The web was abuzz with negative premonitions once that was announced, and that was weeks before the series even debuted! Here at PTG we humbly submit that Whedon would be best served by the folks over at NBC/Universal, specifically their cable networks: Sci-Fi Channel (soon to be SyFy), USA Network, hell, even Oxygen at this point, would treat a Whedon property with a whole lot more respect, and in today’s television landscape, probably bring in better Nielsen numbers, to boot.

The DC Comics Spotlight falls on Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2, and boy, is this book turning out to be a letdown. Yes, the writing is at fault–Tony Daniel, for all this ability to draw great scenes, is no master of dialogue or characterization–but one must look to the editorial leadership at DC and the decision to put a first time writer in charge of a heavily-hyped series that will at its end produce a replacement for one of the company’s most popular and well-known characters. The issue itself isn’t bad, and the pretty art helps make it passable, but it’s simply not GREAT, and this series, above all the other Battle for the Cowl tie-ins, needed to be a home-run for fans to even consider embracing the “next” Batman, who we all know will only be filling the bat-cowl for a short time, anyway.

And finally, we wrap with the first installment of the new segment on PTG, “Felix is Fuming” (sound byte intro to come), where I rant and rave about something in the comic book world that truly pissed me off in that particular week. Wait, me ranting and raving about something? How is that any different than any other segment, you ask? Apparently, not much, but hey, you might hear in these segments a few “colorful metaphors” get bleeped out from week to week.

(and yes, this entry might be record-setting in terms of the number of hypenated words used in the text …)

Hour 1 of PTG Episode 12 is all about DC Comics, on video, in print, and on prime time television. On video, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies appears to be the next mainstream DC storyline to be adapted into animated form as part of Warner Premiere’s DC Universe Animated Feature line, and I say “appears to be” because the story comes from Harry Knowles and Ain’t It Cool News, or AICN.com and has yet to be confirmed with a press release from Warner Premiere. Regardless of that uncertainty, we here at PTG ran with it as fact for this episode, and covered the reasons why this feature, if done right, should be a great success in this form, as opposed to more recent entries in the series, most notably Wonder Woman. (If you haven’t read it yet, you can find PTG’s review of the Wonder Woman feature on blu-ray HERE .)

In print, Battle for the Cowl #1, which if you recall was one of two titles DC’s head honcho Dan Didio recommended to yours truly back at MegaCon a few weeks ago, hit stores this past Wednesday, and it’s a mixed bag, at best. Yes, lots to enjoy here, lots of things going on, pieces moving into place, and it can feel a bit scattered at time, but the real problems lie in certain easy coincidences and poor characterization of key characters that point to inexperienced writing on the part of first-time writer Tony Daniel. Daniel’s art, as always, is top-notch in this first book, but some of the narrative decisions made to set up the story are real head-scratchers. Listen to the podcast for more details. [UPDATE: To answer SomaCow Geoff's question about Captain Marvel/Shazam! that I so POORLY flubbed during the live broadcast, the powers that young Billy Batson gains when he calls out the Wizard Shazam's name and becomes Captain Marvel are: Wisdom of Solomon ('S"), Strength of Hercules ("H"), Stamina of Atlas ("A"), Power of Zeus ("Z"), Courage of Achilles ("A"), Speed of Mercury ("M"). All those make him easily the match of Superman and the more physically powerful people in the DCU.]

And finally, on prime-time television, Smallville returned with a new episode entitled “Infamous” last Thursday night, and wow, was it a STINKER. I’d love to blame it ALL on guest-star Tori Spelling (pictured above), reprising her role as gossip-reporter-turned-murderous-meteor-freak Linda Lake, but in truth, the whole plot feels like filler and builds-up to an ending that might as well be labeled “reset button” and rendering the events of the episode a moot point, at best. This episode would be best forgotten when the book on Season 8 is closed, but I fear it will actually stand out amidst a season of relatively strong episodes as INFAMOUSLY poor, and a really bad start to the final stretch of new episodes leading to the season finale.

Enjoy this hour, and check back here at primetimegeek.com for Hour 2 on Wednesday!

DC Comics’ Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio released this teaser image on Christmas Eve as part of his regular feature on www.newsarama.com, giving fanboys something to go crazy over while opening their Christmas gifts.

This is the sort of thing that DC has become very proficient at in terms of stoking anticipation, the big teaser image with lots of little details that provide clues … or red herrings. So, for starters, the obvious stuff – the “Batman” on the left is Tim Drake (the current Robin)-the staff in his hands is the giveaway. Second from the left I’d wager is Dick Grayson (currently Nightwing), and the only reason I’d guess its him is the utility belt–it resembles the belt used as part of the “Red Robin” uniform first seen in Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ “Kingdom Come”, worn by an older version of Grayson, and later worn by Jason Todd during “Countdown to Infinite Crisis.” Third one over–god help us–looks like Two-Face/Harvey Dent, and the fourth I’m guessing is the villain Hush from two clues: this Batman is carrying two guns, as Hush does, and his face is completely concealed, and Hush in his villain identity had his head swathed in bandages.

Other little details, like the supporting cast members in the image (Harley Quinn, Alfred, looking very British Special Forces, Batwoman, Damian (son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul), and someone who looks A LOT like Bruce himself, as well as the backwards J on the Joker playing card at far left, have far more inscrutable meanings. This image should go a LONG way towards undoing the apathy towards the Batman R.I.P. storyline fostered by Grant Morrison’s byzantine storytelling and get people talking … hell, I took one look and I was more interested and excited by what I saw there than I felt the whole time I was reading Batman R.I.P.!

Thoughts? Comments? Let the speculation begin!