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 18 is brought to you by a classic moment from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Got a chance to see this again on the big screen last weekend, thanks to the wonderful folks at the Universal Cineplex at Universal Orlando’s Citywalk, and it was just all sorts of awesome. So many favorite Trek moments in that film, but this one is near the top of the list, and I just happened to have it recorded in a sound drop, so there it seemed to me the perfect way to kick off the night.

Now, for those wondering about the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT I mentioned on Twitter a few hours ago, here it is:

Be sure to catch this week’s LIVE broadcast of Prime Time Geek, as twice during each hour I will be giving away a pair of AMC Theaters Gold Experience movie tickets, courtesy of AMC Theaters and Bad Apple Comics! In the first hour I’ll be asking trivia questions on the subject of Wolverine and the X-Men, to tie into the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine film opening on Friday, May 1st, and in the second hour I’ll be asking Star Trek-related questions. The first caller into the show to answer the question correctly gets a pair of AMC Gold Experience tickets, which can be used for ANY movie showing at AMC Theaters, even new releases! Of course, we hope you’ll use them at Citywalk for either Wolverine or Star Trek, but it’s up to you, and you’ve got to win them first.

The highlight of Hour 1 was our chat with the owner of Cool Stuff Games in Winter Park, Florida, Jerry Sumkin. I talked to Jerry about his store, about how the recent economic woes have affected his business, and about new board games coming over from Europe that have been popular among his customer base, but mostly we talked Magic: The Gathering and its latest expansion, Alara Reborn. Being a long-retired Magic player myself, I found my curiosity piqued by what the new expansion has to offer, I admit. And of course, that’s just what I need–something else to consume my paychecks besides comics, video game and movie rentals, and … well, eating. Nevertheless, I hope to have Jerry on again next month to keep PTG listeners up to date with what’s going on in the gaming world, so keep listening in the coming weeks for that and spread the word–Card Gaming Geeks: PTG is coming for you.

Also in Hour 1, reviews of Batman: Detective #853, Part 2 of Neil Gaiman’s soon-to-be classic “last” Batman story, “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” (which is getting rave reviews from multiple review sites besides PTG) and Smallville’s latest never-to-be-considered-classic episode, “Stiletto.” About the only thing “classic” about that was how great Erica Durance looked in skin-tight vinyl. Thank goodness this season is ending in two mercifully short weeks.

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!