JJ and his amazing friend Jason realize who they are and the limits that entails. Whooo, this episode brings that to the forefront a couple of times. Two white dudes talking about Black Panther and Get Out as well as a few other issues that feel super white. Still, we are who we are, and I think we do pretty damn well. Also, it is the birth of a new segment! Finally!

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I’m sick and sniffly so I apologise but I just wanted to talk about a bunch of bootleg LEGO minifigures from China! Hope you enjoy!

All of these minifigures were bought on Ali Express.

Within the canon of Marvel Comics, there’s many kinds of enhanced individuals but those born with innate abilities tend to fall into two distinct but similar categories: Inhumans and Mutants. Both gain their powers from traumatic experiences, both are maligned by baseline humans and both have television shows currently airing so I figured I should compare the two for funsies. Don’t worry, no spoilers here!

I’ll be judging both Marvel’s Inhumans and Fox’s The Gifted based on three categories: Story, Characters, and Production Quality. Fairly simple, right? We’ll see!

Inhumans – Story

After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.

It’s Space Game of Space Thrones, essentially, except with shoddy acting and sterile sets. While this shouldn’t be too bad as a concept, we’re thrust into the lives of these extraterrestrial beings with only a fleeting mention of a connection to the Terrigen contaminant we’ve seen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so unfortunately the audience can be kind of lost on initial viewing without prior knowledge of the characters.

The Inhuman Royal Family will be spending the majority of this 8 episode run on the stunning island of Hawaii and the unique cityscape and surrounding nature makes for a nice change of pace to the usual stock sets used in other Marvel productions.

With the cast splintered, we’ll be seeing lots of unique experiences for the relative aliens and maybe some good character development, all culminating in one final show with the main antagonist, Maximus.

The Gifted – Story

Two ordinary parents take their family on the run from the government when they discover that their children have mutant abilities, and join an underground community of mutants who have to fight to survive.

It’s your basic X-Men plot but not one that the Fox X-Men movies have tackled at all and with such a tight focus on two distinct groups of characters, this series aims to put a spotlight on all of the social commentary and allegorical story-telling ideas that X-Men stories are lauded for and in the current social climate, that’s a great thing.

With a Government-backed black-ops group intent on hunting them, the strife that the Struckers and the members of the Mutant Underground find themselves in definitely has echoes of The Underground Railroad or The French Resistance and this will lead to some fascinating character dynamics and some great set-pieces over it’s 10 episode run.

Inhumans – Characters

Let me give it to you straight, there’s only a couple of decent actors and, sadly, one of them isn’t Iwan “Barry Bolton” Rheon. Maximus’s actor struggles to act and put on his ropey American accent and his performance sadly suffers for it. Isabelle Cornish as Crystal is vacuous, uninteresting and your visual bathroom break cue. Eme Ikwuakor and Ken Leung provide decent performances as powerhouse Gorgon and calculating Karnak, respectively.

Rounding out the main cast are Anson Mount and Serinda Swan as Black Bolt and Medusa, the king and queen of Attilan. Serinda Swan is a little stiff in the first episode (much like her hair!) but as we see her adapt to her new situation and act proactively to reunite with her peers, we see that she’s got a little more depth than we first see. Interestingly, she appeared twice in Smallville as Zatanna Zatarra, which is neat. Anson Mount’s stoic Black Bolt portrayal is bang on and I have to admire his dedication to the role, creating a unique set of Inhuman signs to communicate (he hopes to create a functioning fictional language like Klingon or Dothraki). Between that and his quite comical expressions in the second episode, I think he was a brilliant choice for the role.

Of course, the actual best character is the 2,000 pound CGI teleporting doggo, Lockjaw! He’s adorable and he’s the only reason I wanted to see the show in the first place so I’m thankful that VFX company Double Negative did a fantastic job of rendering him, even if he doesn’t exactly fit into most scenes well.

The Gifted – Characters

The characters of this show can generally fall into three categories: the Strucker family, the Mutant Underground, and the jobbers du jour, the Sentinel Services officers.

The Struckers (no relation) are your typical family unit but with the added twist of the father being a prosecutor that specialises in putting mutants in jail but this doesn’t go the way you expect. The Mutant Underground are a motley bunch of B-List X-Men, Morlocks and new creations with a nice diverse cast and unique array of powers. Special mention goes to the adorable Jamie Chung (Blink) who is best known as Chi-Chi in the awful Dragonball Evolution and as the voice of GoGo Tomago in Big Hero 6.

From the pilot episode, I feel much more connected to most of these characters than any of the Inhumans cast and I think that’s down to the more grounded storytelling of The Gifted.

Inhumans – Production Quality

As I’ve said before, all the scenes shot in Hawaii are utterly gorgeous and very foreign from what we usually expect whereas Attilan, the Inhuman City on the moon, splits between barren royal accommodation to barren peasant-caste mine areas. Attilan feels sparce, sterile and lifeless. Even the Inhuman haven in AoS had more character to it!

Not only that but the use of Inhuman abilities is very limited. Every one of the Royal Family gets their moment to exhibit them but that’s about it and they’re all mostly underwhelming, lacking the punch I was expecting. The costume designs are a little weird too but I can chalk that up to space fashion.

The Gifted – Production Quality

The Gifted has a more subdued colour palette but more variety in it’s atmosphere than Inhumans does. The night-time opening has harsh neon glows while the suburban family life has a muted sepia feel and the cold blues of the industrial complex and prison facilities all add to the atmosphere in the show and giving it a more film-like quality overall. In terms of powers, The Gifted does not hold back; with each character using their powers offensively, defensively and even in fun/mundane ways!

The show oozes quality on par with it’s kooky cousin Legion and can easily stand up to any Marvel show on visuals alone.

Verdict:

This is purely down to my personal taste and I’ll give my best reasoning for which show I recommend but know that while I enjoyed both shows to an extent, one was clearly superior and that show was The Gifted.

The Gifted feels very much in line with it’s universe and it’s predecessors while Inhumans feels the most disconnected of the Marvel shows so far, mostly due to it’s bizarre subject matter. Not only that but while The Gifted has a lot going for it, Inhumans necked itself out of the gate by being a mediocre TV pilot that was shown on IMAX screens; further highlighting its flaws and thus gaining the infamous criticism that it’s garnered.

I highly recommend The Gifted if you’re a fan of the X-Men, the movie franchise, Legion or all of the above and I cannot do the same with Marvel’s Inhumans.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason are back from what feels like a million billion years between episodes. The pair talk about usual podcasty catching up stuff for the first roughly an hour, then dive into the pool of joy that is Spider-Man Homecoming. (JJ may have spent a lot of time talking about the value of Flash Thompson, but it is the attention to details that make the movie the happy place that it is) There is plenty of spoiler notice, so feel free to listen up to that point if you don’t want anything spoiled.

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Hi guys, and welcome to Game Box; a new series where I look at some of the games I’ve been playing recently since I finally have a console again. First up, I’m coming to be talking about the recent Open Beta for Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes Omega.

Marvel Heroes Omega assembles one of the largest gatherings of iconic Super Heroes, Super Villains, and locations from the Marvel Universe in gaming history for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.

Set in the iconic Marvel Universe, Marvel Heroes Omega combines the core game-play style of Action RPGs and MMOs with the expansive library of heroes from the Marvel Universe. In the game, players can collect and play as their favorite Marvel Super Heroes (including Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America and many others).

Team up with friends and try to stop Doctor Doom from devastating the world with the power of the Cosmic Cube in a story written by Marvel comic super-scribe Brian Michael Bendis.

From moment one, you’re given a gorgeous introduction sequence featuring some pretty good 3D models and 2D animated sections retelling the origins of the more famous Marvel Heroes. A fair few of the cut scenes in-game follow a more motion comic style and while the blend of styles is a little jarring at first, I give the creators credit for trying something different.

The tutorial drops you in the middle of a mission with Captain America and allows you the time to figure out your buttons before setting you against Ultron and his minions. Each of your attacks is assigned to one of the four face buttons and you can bring up a secondary menu by holding L2. It’s an intuitive system to help console players easily access their full range of abilities that’s a staple of MMOs on consoles.

Throughout the tutorial, you’re given the ability to play as Cap, Black Widow and Hulk before they allow you to access the launch roster of heroes. It’s a right Who’s Who of MCU characters alongside more established characters. You get all the ones you know and then you get the likes of Wiccan, Squirrel Girl and Angela, which is cool. Given this is a Free-To-Play game, you’re given the opportunity to try before you buy any of these characters before Level 10 when you have to pick your starter character.

I eventually chose She-Hulk and upon entering the game proper, I noticed a cute quirk this game has. Depending on the characters in the vicinity, there are unique snippets of dialogue from both your character and those of other players. This gives the world a little more connectivity and hearing Shulkie interact with Gambit in the moments in the mission worlds or at the HQ is pretty fun. The voice cast for this game is exhaustive too, bringing in all the voices you’d associate with these characters from various animated shows as well as bringing in actors such as Clark Gregg and Keith David, voicing Agent Coulson and Nick Fury, respectively.

Being a FTP game, more heroes are unlocked through Founder’s Packs of various price points, by using Eternity Splinters or by accumulating the specfic in-game currency to buy them or unlock additional costumes. You can get an additional hero for nothing though, by downloading Daredevil for free and the additional Man Without Fear costume for free if you are a PS Plus member.

You can customise your heroes with character-specific loot drops for defeating enemies and augment their abilities through levelling or attaching Medallions from defeated super villains.

Given the amount of FTP MMO games on consoles at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just another but the game plays like the X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games, taking an isometric view of the action but adds the MMO component and the whole package feels a little like that Avengers Alliance game for its breadth of characters and customisation potential.

If you’re looking for a quick and fun MMO to get into or are jonesing for a Marvel game that isn’t on mobile (that’s me) then I recommend giving this game a shot. Marvel Heroes Omega is currently available for Open Beta on Playstation 4 and will be officially released on June 4 2017. For more details and updates, head over to the official website and be sure to follow the game’s Twitter.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason are under the weather. They are both feeling just fine, but at the end of the episode, weather conspires to rush things to a close. They also talk about Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, but not until the end and give a sizable spoiler warning. Mainly the two just try to get back into the podcast groove and talk about how JJ bought a toy in a way that was cutting edge…back in 2000.

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As opposed to The Flash this week, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. remains on form with an emotionally powerful episode with action, drama and emotional investment.

In the fallout of escaping the Framework, we see most of the cast in some form of emotional turmoil or another. Except Coulson and May, who are half-flirting, half-catching up on events while fighting Robo-Russians. Because Iain De Caestecker and Mallory Jansen can carry the traumatic emotions no problem. We also see Yo-Yo’s reaction to Mack staying in the Framework and she’s PISSED. So much so that the fiery latina fucks herself by diving into the Framework and awaking strapped to a gurney in a fiery room. Good job!

But yeah, the main focus of the episode is with Fitz and Ophelia/AIDA because they’re both fucked up! Fitz is struggling with dealing with all the bad stuff he did in the Framework as well as Ophelia being a super-creeper who can’t control her emotions and it’s just not his day when Simmons nails him with an Icer. Poor sod can’t catch a break but you feel for him every step of the way and that’s a testament to good writing and a good actor.

Ophelia/AIDA is also killing it; figuratively and literally. From playing an emotionless Life Model Decoy for most of the season, we get to see Mallory Jansen practically explode with emotion, running from delightfully happy, frightened beyond logic, a pretty cool Big-Damn-Hero moment and then seething with rage. It’s a fantastic showcase for her acting ability and for the freshly Inhuman Ophelia. She showcases teleportation, lightning generation and healing so I have to wonder what other tricks she has up her sleeves heading into next week’s finale.

With an enemy that powerful, as well as a possible army of Robo-Russians, the Team is on the backfoot with little to no back-up but miracles come from the most unexpected places and, within the demolished SHIELD base, the Darkhold portal ignites and Ghost Rider returns. Fuck. Yes.

Come back next week for what promises to be an explosive finale as magic, technology and superpowers collide in World’s End!

It’s been almost three years since I reviewed a set from the first LEGO Guardians of The Galaxy theme and doesn’t time fly? As of writing, I have not seen Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and I don’t even know what the synopsis is so I’m going into the latest LEGO sub theme completely blind.

Why are the Ravagers attacking? No clue! But what I do know is that I’m digging the changes LEGO has implemented in this new sub theme and I’m going to flarkin’ review this set!

76079 Ravager Attack consists of two bags of assorted parts (around 197 pieces), an instruction booklet, sticker sheet and a comic that helps with the context of the set somewhat. Apparently Taserface (who knew that was his name?) usurps leadership of the Ravagers from Yondu and hunts the Guardians on behalf of the golden Ayesha. Neat!

As always, we’ll check out the minifigures first and we have Mantis, Taserface and Rocket Raccoon. The newest member of the Guardians, Mantis, doesn’t have any accessories but has a unique hairpiece featuring antennae and an alternate angry face. Speaking of faces, Taserface’s is one of the ugliest I’ve seen depicted on a LEGO noggin. He’s got a cool top knot-long beard combo and has a big brick-built stud shooter bazooka. This is my first time handling a Rocket minifig and while he’s pretty big for such a small character, his unique head/shoulders sculpt is impressive and he even has a tail waist piece. He comes with two assorted blasters.

The first bag and half of the second consists of Taserface’s M-ship, an odd name but maybe that’s just the class of ship that it and the Milano belong to. The first bag contains the top half of the ship, building most of it’s impressive wingspan which actually accounts for the majority of the ship.

It’s a deceptive little build, making the final product appear much bigger than it actually is, at least to my mind. It’s like a reverse TARDIS, way bigger on the outside compared to the underslung cockpit. I really dig this sly little ship and it’s simple yet robust build.

The latter half of the second bag builds up the tree and gatling stud blaster. It’s simple but flourishes this small piece of forest with a splinter of the Milano’s hull plating and the make-shift cannon built by Rocket and Mantis to give it some pop and make it part of the story.

The M-ship, gatling launcher and Taserface’s bazooka all fire their studs super-effectively, enough to  warrant the extra studs that came with the set.

The 76079 Ravager Attack set, for being the gateway GoTG set that retails for £19.99, offers a lot of play value, three unique minifigs and a very interesting build for it’s price point and I doubt any LEGO or Marvel Superheroes fan would be disappointed. You can find this set at most good retailers, instore and online and also on the LEGO shop.

We’re racing toward the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four finale and what better way to build up some momentum than to have our primary antagonist achieve her goals and lose some of our main cast along the way?

Farewell, Cruel World! sees the end of the Framework arc, and while it’s been immensely enjoyable to watch, we needed to get back to the real world eventually and we finally get going on that plan. Daisy, Coulson, May, Simmons and Mack head off in search of Radcliffe’s backdoor (phrasing) and have to deal with a lot of emotional turmoil along the way.

But first, since this may well be the last time we get BJ Britt, we have some hilarious moments with him that really drives home that we’re missing a hilarious and sincere character in the main cast. Trip has some fantastic scenes with Daisy and Mack and is taking the whole idea of the world being wrong in stride, though he is disappointed that his other-world counterpart apparently has no game whatsoever.

It’s good to see there’s still something between Coulson and May as he encourages her to take a leap of faith and is rewarded on the other side with May admitting he’s cute. Awwww!

Less cute is Mack’s… departure? Is that what you’d class this as? It’s certainly emotional and understandable and while Mack staying in the Framework with his daughter is unsurprising, it’s a little hokey from a logistical standpoint. I mean, how long does he expect them to just leave him in there? Does he really think Yo-Yo is just going to let him stay there? Who would look after him and keep the Framework going? I guess they’ll explain it in the following episodes but Henry Simmon’s supposed final appearance is bittersweet to say the least.

As usual, Iain De Caestecker is killing it as both a cold-hearted HYDRA head and as the repentant real-world Fitz. This guy can act rings around everyone! Without Simmons there to support him, and Coulson not being that effective, his fragile mental state is easy prey for the now human AIDA/Ophelia who tearful reunites with him and TELEPORTS AWAY. The fuck!? When? How? What? Is her new body Inhuman? Is that tech-based? WHAT.

Questions need answers and we can only hope we get them when we return next week with… The Return.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason have not been drinking enough water. It doesn’t really play into the news of the week, but JJ talks about how driving to the most boring place EVER (no hyperbole.) leads him to wake up kinda thirsty. The duo also tries to talk about some of the recent trailers and some cool items on Netflix, but they get sidetracked and Thor himself seems to make it hard for Jason to record.

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