This week is a big week for everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as he takes center stage in Avengers vs X-Men, where he might be the last Avenger standing, and has two of his own titles to keep his head above water in. All this while he tries to celebrate his 50th anniversary.

I have not picked up the team-up book that is Avenging Spider-Man, but it is nice to see him finally getting the spotlight and respect as an Avenger in the Marvel Universe. Peter Parker: Spider-Man is a series that hasn’t had a new issue since 2003 and this special point one combines the issues from the first volume/run and its second run for a new issue count.

Avenging Spider-Man #10 (above left)
Boston! Prepare to have your sox knocked off! A 50-ft tall red-headed madwoman versus an army of privatized mecha-police! Care to guess who’s caught in between? Spider-Man and Daring Damsel Carol Danvers, the new Captain Marvel!

Peter Parker: Spider-Man #156.1 (above right)
Celebrating 50 Years of the Great Responsibility of his Great powers, The Spider-Man 50th Anniversary Series collects the Webbed Wonder’s greatest heretofore secret history! Spanning from his earliest days as a hero to the heyday of the heralded Big Time era and everything in between, a collection of Marvel Legends, venerated comic creators and awe-inspiring artists shine the spotlight on everything that makes Spider-Man the World’s Greatest Superhero!

Avenging Spider-Man is written by Kelly Sue DeConnick with art/cover by Terry Dodson. Peter Parker: Spider-Man is written by Roger Stern with art by Rob De LaTorre and a cover by classic Spider-Man artist John Romita Jr. Both of these issues and Avengers vs X-Men #9 hit stands and the digital marketplace on Wednesday, August 1st.

If you were lucky enough to attend the San Diego Comic Con, than you might have attended the panel for Felicia Day’s Geek & Sundry YouTube channel. The online video network gets close to a million weekly views with such shows as Table Top starring New Generation’s Wil Wheaton, the digital book club Sword & Lazer, and The Flog, a video blog starring Day herself. At the con, they revealed a slate of upcoming new programming.

The Guild Season 6 (Coming Fall 2012) The sixth season follows Codex as she tries to balance her new job at The Game with her duties to the Knights of Good. The season will also include weekly Behind-The-Scenes featurettes.

On The Table (Coming August 2012) On The Table is a high-octane tabletop gaming news show that will air bi-weekly. The show covers all that’s new and great in the world of war gaming, role-play, board games and more.

Pat Rothfuss’ Authors’ Roundtable (Coming August 7, 2012) New York Times Bestselling Author Pat Rothfuss (The Name of The Wind) leads lively monthly discussions about the craft of writing and creativity with a rotating panel of notable authors from literature, film, television, comics and the web.

Vaginal Fantasy (Coming August 14, 2012) Join Felicia Day, Veronica Belmont, Bonnie Burton and Kiala Kazabee for a gathering of wine, women and smut as they discuss and dissect a new romance novel each month.

Penile Code (Coming August 21, 2012) In this monthly hangout, Sean Plott (Day9) and friends discuss the confusion and puzzlement they share with geek men everywhere regarding the fairer sex while simultaneously enjoying excellent imported beer and playing old text and video games revolving around the conflict between the sexes.

Frontiers of Geekage (Coming January 2013) Geek & Sundry’s first ARG! Host J. Keith Van Stratton (Beat The Geeks, Best Week Ever) investigates the people who are pushing boundaries and exploring new frontiers in art, science, technology and more while simultaneously providing clues for a covert and elaborate alternate reality game.

Learning Town (Coming January 2013) Nerdcomedy music duo Paul & Storm battle villainous hipsters, cantankerous ghosts and flammable puppets as they attenpt to revive the flagging educational show of their childhoods in this offbeat comedy musical.

Geek & Sundry also just launched Written By A Kid, which is one of the most inventive web shows that I have ever seen. With a mix of animation and live action, the series brings stories made up on the spot by children to life. Joss Whdeon stars in the series premiere, “Scary Smash”, which you can watch below:

Are you excited for Geek & Sundry’s upcoming new programming? Itching for The Guild to return with all new episodes? What else are you watching online? Click here to check out all that Geek & Sundry has to offer.

YouTube’s recent changes and updates have been pretty extensive, they include adding a ton of full length movies that you have to pay to watch and adding dozens of free web channels and providing talented creators like Felicia Day with the budget and resources to make some awesome content. In addition to the movies that you have to pay for, one really cool thing is that they greatly expanded their database of free movies that you can watch online also. Today I’m going to focus on three of these free movies (all of which include our favorite green monster).

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
“In this epic entry in the classic series, a strangely glowing Godzilla must battle the gigantic, winged Destroyah. It is discovered that Godzilla is suffering from an over-radiated heart and has only a short time to live. But can he save the people of Japan from the malevolent Destroyah before his passing.” Watch Godzilla vs. Destoroyah for free!

Godzilla vs. Mothra
“A greedy developer unwittingly hatches a gigantic baby moth upon Tokyo, while Godzilla strikes once again.” Watch Godzilla vs. Mothra for free!

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
“Director Masaaki Tezuka follows up his debut feature Godzilla vs. Megaguirus with another movie starring everyone’s favorite giant lizard. One of at least three films in the history of the Godzilla franchise to find the merciless reptile pitted against his mechanical counterpart, Godzilla x Mechagodzilla finds humans under attack by the green beast. With little hope left, they build the giant man-piloted robot Mechagodzilla to defend the world.”  Watch Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla for free!

What is your favorite Godzilla movie? What others would you like to see put online to watch for free?

1000 episodes. Every week since January 11, 1993. It’s an achievement worthy of celebrating. How will WWE handle it?

They began with an amazing promo heavy on celebrities, recently retired wrestlers and Eddie Guerrero. Eddie certainly deserves it. Vince had to start the show to get his own standing ovation, but he soon brings out DX. Lots of DX as X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws eventually join the fun. They are interrupted by a rookie superstar who goes by the moniker of Damian Sandow. He’s a guy who thinks of the others as common trash while he brings intelligence, enlightenment and saves us from ourselves. So of course, he gets beaten down by the legends doing their old antics.

And therein lies the problem with most of the show, nostalgia winning out over current events. Jim Ross doing guest commentary is all well and good and I’m sure it was many an RoH fan’s dream to see CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and The Rock in the ring all together. The problem is The Rock was made to look like the best of them. The Rock is usually off shooting movies. These other guys bust their asses for you over 200 nights a year. Why make them seem lesser?

We get plenty of 1993 trivia (the year RAW went on the air), Charlie Sheen doing commentary when he clearly knows nothing about the product, and all kinds of social media tweets, trends and touts. Twitter is clearly a sponsor, part of a relentless wave of product placement throughout the show.  And WWE has the audacity to introduce their 100,000,000th social media follower. But that’s across all platforms and we all know how much duplication there is across social media platforms. And how would you single out one person joining at one exact point across all platforms. I think they just took a guess and the lucky guy got to come to the show.

Big events? Stephanie McMahon convinced Paul Heyman to let Triple H (two more aging “Superstars”) fight Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. The Miz defeated Christian for the Intercontinental title. AJ left Daniel Bryan at the altar to instead become the  new RAW General Manager. The Rock gets a title shot at Wrestlemania for the big shiny belt. The Undertaker returned to save his brother Kane from a beatdown by six random heel jobbers. Yep, two old guys beat 6 new guys. I can understand throwing Heath Slater under the bus by having him lose to Lita since that’s about all he’s good for. It was nice to see the double Tombstone one more time though.

All this left 15 minutes for the main event, and even then it was slow paced. John Cena cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to face CM Punk for the WWE Championship. CM Punk again showed he’s an amazing technical wrestler while John Cena showed how he can keep a crowd involved in a match no matter which side is winning. There was a good old fashioned ref bump and Cena should have pinned Punk. Then Big Show interfered to attack Cena and land the knockout punch. A reluctant CM Punk pinned Cena only to have him kick out. Then Big Show attacked again, but this time in plain view of the ref. Thus the main event of RAW 1000 ended in a DQ.

And really, that’s why I’m giving up. Three hour RAWs every week is too much. Add Smackdown, NXT, Superstars, TNA (who are rumored to be getting another two hour show) and RoH (who would love to expand to two hours) and it’s all too much. Wrestling quality today is not high. They are letting their past stars dominate and only a select few new ones can work hard enough to earn a spot at the top. After ten years, I say goodbye to professional wrestling* and move on to new horizons.

Results of all matches:

• Rey Mysterio Jr., Sin Cara and World Heavyweight Champion Seamus defeated Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio in a Six-man Tag Match.
• Brodus Clay squashed Jack Swagger
• The Miz defeated Christian to win the Intercontinental Championship
• Lita defeated Heath Slater with the help of the APA in a No Disqualification, No Count-out Match
• John Cena defeated CM Punk by disqualification after Big Show interfered in the Money in the Bank match. CM Punk retains the title.

Guest stars included:
X-Pac, New Age Outlaws, APA, Lita, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Mae Young with her grown up hand son, Dude Love, Trish Stratus, Slick, Bret Hart, Howard Finkle, Vader, Road Warrior Animal, Psycho Sid, Rikishi, Sgt. Slaughter, DDP, Doink, Roddy Piper, Bob Backlund, Fozzie Bear and Gene Okerlund.

*Except for finishing running my Know Your Role campaign and writing two sourcebooks for Wild World Wrestling. Heck, I might as well make some money out of this.

First NBC announced a Munsters reboot, Mockingbird Lane, and a Hannibal Lecter prequel named Hannibal, both of which are from Bryan Fuller. Well, now NBC has revealed that they have ordered 10 episodes of a Dracula reboot starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the title role. Official description: “…series introduces Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There’s only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife.“

DC Comics is getting ready to reveal more of their “New 52” universe’s history in September’s The Phantom Stranger #0. The book promises to reveal new parts of the elaborate backstory of our favorite heroes and villains. The Stranger has appeared already in the “New 52”, in a story in the Free Comic Book Day special. The new series will be written by Dan DiDio with art by Brent Anderson.

Over in Marvel Comics, this week sees the long awaited (at least for me) meeting between Kitty Prde and Colossus. It has been a year since these two ex-love birds have been together since the “Schism” between Cyclops and Wolverine that broke the X-Men in two over a year ago. Be apart of their date today in Wolverine and the X-Men #14.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit is very close to changing from two films into a trilogy of films. Jackson toyed with the idea at Comic Con, maybe getting people ready for the official announcement? It should be interesting how much of the movies will follow JRR Tolkien’s actual book, which was much shorter than the Lord of the Rings books and aimed at kids. The report says that Jackson worked from more than 125 notes that Tolkien was using to rewrite The Hobbit after the success of Lord of the Rings. The whole project is very interesting and I’m sure the success of the first movie will help determine the future of the series.

Fans of online shopping might be interested in dealfun.com reviews for info on the shopping/auction/deal website.

Well, they should call these guys the “All New, All Different” X-Treme X-Men as writer Greg Pak  and artist Stephen Segovia spin this new book directly out of Astonishing X-Men. This book joins past titles like Exiles and Mutant X in taking us on a journey out of the main Marvel universe/dimension and exploring new worlds. The cast, which includes new takes on Wolverine, Emma Frost, and Nightcrawler is inspired- finally a way for Wolverine to be on another team, yet done in a believable way. With the main Nightcrawler still six feet under, I’d jump at the chance to see any version of him still among the living. I wonder who else might join them? Blink? X-Man? Maybe in their journey they can pass by one of the alternate reality futures that Bishop is stuck in and take him a long for the ride as he looks for redemption (it will not happen, but wouldn’t it be fun?).

Official Description for X-Treme X-Men issue #1: Spinning out of the pages of ASTONISHING X-MEN! Travel the multiverse with Captain Howlett, Kid Nightcrawler, and Emmeline Frost. Which X-Men will be lost between dimensions… with no guaranteed way home?

The issue hits stands and the digital market place on Wednesday, July 25th with covers by Salvador Larroca (top left) and Julian Totino Tedesco (top right). Will you be following the new X-Treme X-Men wherever they may go?

This past week at the San Diego Comic Con, fans of Twilight got a treat with a panel that featured author Stephenie Meyer, and cast members including Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Green, Jackson Rathbone, and new to the cast Mackenzie Foy. During the panel they introduced footage from “Breaking Dawn Part 2”. Included in the footage was Bella (Stewart) dealing with being a vampire and the bloodlust that comes with it. She also hunts down a mountain lion.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the Twilight series and while it has had a positive effect of bringing vampires back in the spotlight, these are not vampires in any classic sense of the word. They go out in sunlight (and sparkle), have reflections, and none of the classic weaknesses (ugh). Pardon the pun, but the vampires of Twilight are completely toothless.

Thankfully we do have reasons to care about vampires again! With Twilight going away, the doors will be open for some good vampire movies and fiction to return.

It’s funny how easily it is to forget that Shia LaBeouf is actually a good actor. The three unwatchable Michael Bay Transformers made him into a laughable caricature of himself, but this is the same kid who starred in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Disturbia, and Holes. He has talent, he just isn’t able to show it that much. Hopefully Lawless changes that trend.

In the movie, based on the book The Wettest County in the World, LaBeouf co-stars with Tom Hardy as the Bondurant Brothers. The brothers are two bootleggers in Prohibition-era Virginia who are threatened by authorities who want in on their profits. The movie’s awesome cast includes Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, and Guy Pearce.

In addition to Lawless, Shia LaBeouf also has an illustrated book of poetry called Let’s Fucking Party. With no more Transformers in his future, let’s hope Shia is able to rebuild his credibility.