Masters of the Universe: Revelation Gets an Art Book From Dark Horse Comics

Even as He-Man fans await the second half of Netflix's Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Dark Horse Comics continues to expand on this fantastical saga. IGN can exclusively reveal the first details on Dark Horse's newest MotU project, The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation.

Like Dark Horse's numerous other art books, The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a lavish hardcover featuring numerous behind-the-scenes interviews, sketches, concept art and other glimpses at the development of the animated series. Check out the cover art below:

The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation is priced at $49.99 and is scheduled for release on April 6, 2022.

Dark Horse previously launched a Revelation comic book series that acts as a prequel to the show. The publisher also announced the collected edition of that prequel series will hit stores on February 22, 2022.

IGN's Matt Fowler gave Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 1 an 8, writing "Kevin Smith's Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a big take-having, big swing-taking He-Man sequel that superbly flips the script on the mythos and characters. It makes the bold choice that Prince Adam and He-Man should be integral to the story, but not central, allowing them to push forward others' arcs in interesting new ways."

The animated series will return to Netflix for its second half on November 23, as part of a jam-packed month that also includes the debut of the long-awaited Cowboy bebop live-action series.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

John Woo Returning to Hollywood With Action Movie Silent Night, Starring Joel Kinnaman

A new action movie from celebrated director John Woo is on its way, starring Joel Kinnaman.

According to Deadline, Kinnaman, who recently starred in The Suicide Squad, has been cast in the leading role of Silent Night, a new no-dialogue action movie which sees Hong Kong director John Woo return to Hollywood.

The movie, which is said to be “without a word of dialogue”, will be John Woo’s first US action movie in decades, since the 2003 Ben Affleck flick, Paycheck.

According to Deadline’s sources, the plot will revolve around a father who heads into the criminal underworld to avenge his young son’s death. Although little else is known about the movie, industry buyers are apparently “buzzing” about John Woo’s return to Hollywood.

The film is currently in negotiations to be financed by Captone, with John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri, and Lori Tilkin on board to produce alongside Joe Gatta and Ruzanna Kegeyan from Capstone.

Although Joel Kinnaman will presumably take the title role, no other casting news has been announced. However, additional casting is currently underway.

John Woo is perhaps best known for his late 90s action flicks, including Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission Impossible II. Face/Off, which starred Nic Cage and John Travolta in an identity-swapping action caper, is reportedly getting a sequel from Godzilla v. Kong director, Adam Wingard. Originally thought to be a remake, the upcoming Face/Off movie will instead continue the story of John Woo’s 1997 cult classic.

“I would never make a remake of Face Off,” said Wingard in an interview with IGN. “I would never make a reboot. I've seen a lot of people, even after I said that this is a direct sequel, they keep calling it a reboot hybrid sequel or remake hybrid sequel. It's none of that.”

“This is Face Off Two,” he stressed. “And I can't say what that means exactly, but this is either going to be the definitive follow-up to that movie and everything that entails, or I'm not going to make it, because everything's got to line up perfectly.”

Although Wingard confirmed back in February that the script for Face/Off II was almost complete, little has been heard about the project since.

Sega and Microsoft Announce Gaming ‘Strategic Alliance’

Sega and Microsoft have announced that they have agreed to a “strategic alliance” that will see Sega produce games built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

Announced in a press release, Sega explained that the agreement is part of the company’s “Super Game” initiative, which aims to create “new and innovative” games with a focus on global online communities.

“This proposed alliance represents SEGA looking ahead, and by working with Microsoft to anticipate such trends as they accelerate further in future, the goal is to optimise development processes and continue to bring high-quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies,” said Sega’s statement.

A similar agreement was made between Microsoft and Sony back in 2019, which also focused on the use of the Azure cloud system.

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing service. It should be noted that Azure offers a variety of software, platform, and infrastructure services, and so Sega’s use of Azure does not necessarily point to Sega working on games played in the cloud, or a cloud gaming service. The cloud is being used for many aspects of game development, including AI, and so Sega and Microsoft’s partnership has many potential outcomes.

In other news from Sega, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi recently confirmed his departure from the company, and historic Sega games have arrived on Nintendo Switch as part of the Online Expansion Pack.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Ava DuVernay Has Hinted That Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is Why New Gods Was Cancelled

Ava DuVernay, who was set to direct DC's New Gods and write the script alongside Rebirth-era Batman comics writer Tom King, has strongly hinted that Zack Snyder's Justice League was to blame for the film not making it to theaters.

DuVernay, who also directed Selma and A Wrinkle In Time, was speaking to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show when she shared a bit about New Gods cancellation, her experience with DC, and getting the freedom to pick the story she wanted to tell.

"You know, my overall deal was at Warner Brothers and DC is at Warner Brothers," DuVernay said. "So, once I got to Warner Brothers, I was like, 'I'm going in that vault and I'm looking at what y'all got.' And I loved New Gods, which is the project that got axed. The studio decided that they did not want to pursue a certain part of that comic world, based on some things that were going on with another film in that world.

"So, before I even was able to kind of complete my script with Tom King, they axed it. But I had already two projects going: Naomi, which will be on The CW next year, and DMZ, which will be on HBO Max next year."

While she didn't name it specifically, the film she was referring to was most likely Zack Snyder's Justice League, as it was being worked on during the time New Gods would have been and both films have one very big connection - Darkseid.

Darkseid himself is a New God and was the ruler of Apokolips who became obsessed with the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid was teased in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017's Justice League, but he made his big-screen debut in Zack Snyder's Justice League. It appears DC did not want both Snyder's story and DuVernay's crossing over, so New Gods was shelved.

This outcome was hinted at when it was reported that New Gods was cancelled, as "DC Films reportedly felt there wouldn’t be enough space between Justice League and New Gods, which also planned to feature Darkseid as a central antagonist."

Despite New Gods being frozen for now, DC Films and WB are leaving the door open for its return. Furthermore, DC Films and WB have said, were it to go forward again, the project will "remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future."

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Ava DuVernay Has Hinted That Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is Why New Gods Was Cancelled

Ava DuVernay, who was set to direct DC's New Gods and write the script alongside Rebirth-era Batman comics writer Tom King, has strongly hinted that Zack Snyder's Justice League was to blame for the film not making it to theaters.

DuVernay, who also directed Selma and A Wrinkle In Time, was speaking to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show when she shared a bit about New Gods cancellation, her experience with DC, and getting the freedom to pick the story she wanted to tell.

"You know, my overall deal was at Warner Brothers and DC is at Warner Brothers," DuVernay said. "So, once I got to Warner Brothers, I was like, 'I'm going in that vault and I'm looking at what y'all got.' And I loved New Gods, which is the project that got axed. The studio decided that they did not want to pursue a certain part of that comic world, based on some things that were going on with another film in that world.

"So, before I even was able to kind of complete my script with Tom King, they axed it. But I had already two projects going: Naomi, which will be on The CW next year, and DMZ, which will be on HBO Max next year."

While she didn't name it specifically, the film she was referring to was most likely Zack Snyder's Justice League, as it was being worked on during the time New Gods would have been and both films have one very big connection - Darkseid.

Darkseid himself is a New God and was the ruler of Apokolips who became obsessed with the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid was teased in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017's Justice League, but he made his big-screen debut in Zack Snyder's Justice League. It appears DC did not want both Snyder's story and DuVernay's crossing over, so New Gods was shelved.

This outcome was hinted at when it was reported that New Gods was cancelled, as "DC Films reportedly felt there wouldn’t be enough space between Justice League and New Gods, which also planned to feature Darkseid as a central antagonist."

Despite New Gods being frozen for now, DC Films and WB are leaving the door open for its return. Furthermore, DC Films and WB have said, were it to go forward again, the project will "remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future."

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

LEGO Super Mario Luigi’s Mansion Sets Announced as a Halloween Treat

Nintendo and LEGO have teamed up once again to offer fans three new spooky LEGO sets based on Luigi's Mansion.

These three Luigi's Mansion LEGO sets - Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust Expansion Set, Luigi's Mansion Entryway Expansion Set, and Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek Expansion Set - will all be available on January 1, 2022 and will feature other such characters as King Boo, Polterpup, Bogmire, Toad, Professor E. Gadd, and Boo.

These sets do not include LEGO Luigi or LEGO Mario, and those interactive figures will need to be purchased as part of the Starter Courses.

The LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust Expansion Set will cost $24.99 USD and will include the iconic Poltergust that Luigi can wield and attach either a normal nozzle or the Strobulb accessory. By pressing a button on the Poltergust, Luigi can catch a Gold Ghost and "collect a coin reward from the machine in the lab."

The LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Entryway Expansion Set will cost $39.99 and lets you "maneuver your way into the frightful mansion, where you'll need to find a creative way to defeat Bogmire." You can also search for the Golden Bone for Polterpup and run into Boo.

Lastly, the LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek Expansion Set will cost $79.99 USD and will let players "create a gem-hunting, ghost-battling level with rotating hallways to explore." There are hidden gems to be discovered, and builders will be able to connect all of the three new sets together.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

LEGO Super Mario Luigi’s Mansion Sets Announced as a Halloween Treat

Nintendo and LEGO have teamed up once again to offer fans three new spooky LEGO sets based on Luigi's Mansion.

These three Luigi's Mansion LEGO sets - Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust Expansion Set, Luigi's Mansion Entryway Expansion Set, and Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek Expansion Set - will all be available on January 1, 2022 and will feature other such characters as King Boo, Polterpup, Bogmire, Toad, Professor E. Gadd, and Boo.

These sets do not include LEGO Luigi or LEGO Mario, and those interactive figures will need to be purchased as part of the Starter Courses.

The LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Lab and Poltergust Expansion Set will cost $24.99 USD and will include the iconic Poltergust that Luigi can wield and attach either a normal nozzle or the Strobulb accessory. By pressing a button on the Poltergust, Luigi can catch a Gold Ghost and "collect a coin reward from the machine in the lab."

The LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Entryway Expansion Set will cost $39.99 and lets you "maneuver your way into the frightful mansion, where you'll need to find a creative way to defeat Bogmire." You can also search for the Golden Bone for Polterpup and run into Boo.

Lastly, the LEGO Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Haunt-and-Seek Expansion Set will cost $79.99 USD and will let players "create a gem-hunting, ghost-battling level with rotating hallways to explore." There are hidden gems to be discovered, and builders will be able to connect all of the three new sets together.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

See a Powerful New Zombie Enchantment For Magic: The Gathering’s Crimson Vow Set

The next Magic: The Gathering set, Crimson Vow, is launching on MTG Arena on November 11 in the U.S. (Nov 12 in ANZ), with the physical edition available in game stores globally on November 19 (with prerelease on Nov 12). It takes players back to the gothic horror-infused setting of Innistrad. Where the last set, Midnight Hunt - which also took place on this plane - was themed around Werewolves, and introduced a cool day/night system, Crimson Vow has Vampires as its central focus, including a number of cards inspired by the one and only Dracula.

Of course, that's all well and good, but classic horror is more than just Werewolves and Vampires, and today we have a new card to reveal that will help elevate one of the other monstrous creature types that was present in Midnight Hunt and is now being expanded upon for Crimson Vow - Zombies. That card is Necroduality:

Anyone who has dabbled with the many variations of Dimir (blue/black) Zombies decks (such as this one) over the last couple of months would know that Zombies already have the potential to really snowball, and this enchantment represents a great way to double down on that, or to help swing the board back later in a game.

"Necroduality is one of my favorite types of cards in Magic," Product Architect Mike Turian told me. "A card that you pick up and once you read it, the card makes you go back and reevaluate a whole class of cards to find the perfect ones to best take advantage of. In this case, with Necroduality creating a copy of each nontoken Zombie that enters the battlefield under your control, this changes the impact of every Zombie creature, reanimation spell, and cards that alter creature types in Magic. That is a lot of awesome cards to combo Necroduality with! Crimson Vow has a nice number of Zombie creatures that immediately get better. When you consider that many of the Zombies have Exploit and other powerful sacrifice effects, Necroduality will provide good fodder of creatures and powerful combos! I don’t want to spoil all of the fun our players are going to have but I bet they will be starting their own zombie apocalypse in no time!"

I also asked Mike about how the team approached the task of following on from Midnight Hunt while also standing apart. "Midnight Hunt was such a great set and our players loved coming back to Innistrad," he said. "We knew that the fan favorite plane of Innistrad was going to be a hit once again so with Crimson Vow, we were looking to bring in pieces of Midnight Hunt while also innovating and making Crimson Vow its own set. The switch of focus from Werewolves towards Vampires is one way that we were able to both continue what was awesome about Midnight Hunt while giving Crimson Vow space.

"Another way we set the sets apart is by introducing some new gameplay mechanics that weren’t available in Midnight Hunt. For instance, Cleave opens up brand new space in how you think about casting a spell. The introduction of Blood tokens for Vampires to feast upon let us have Vampires do something completely new and different as well!" You can read all about those new mechanics here. And you can see the cards that have been revealed so far here.

Crimson Vow is shaping up to be a fun return visit to Innistrad, so be sure to see what this Vampire-filled collection of cards have to offer on the official website.

Cam Shea has worked at IGN since the before times, has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game and writes about CCGs regularly. He's not really on Twitter.

See a Powerful New Zombie Enchantment For Magic: The Gathering’s Crimson Vow Set

The next Magic: The Gathering set, Crimson Vow, is launching on MTG Arena on November 11 in the U.S. (Nov 12 in ANZ), with the physical edition available in game stores globally on November 19 (with prerelease on Nov 12). It takes players back to the gothic horror-infused setting of Innistrad. Where the last set, Midnight Hunt - which also took place on this plane - was themed around Werewolves, and introduced a cool day/night system, Crimson Vow has Vampires as its central focus, including a number of cards inspired by the one and only Dracula.

Of course, that's all well and good, but classic horror is more than just Werewolves and Vampires, and today we have a new card to reveal that will help elevate one of the other monstrous creature types that was present in Midnight Hunt and is now being expanded upon for Crimson Vow - Zombies. That card is Necroduality:

Anyone who has dabbled with the many variations of Dimir (blue/black) Zombies decks (such as this one) over the last couple of months would know that Zombies already have the potential to really snowball, and this enchantment represents a great way to double down on that, or to help swing the board back later in a game.

"Necroduality is one of my favorite types of cards in Magic," Product Architect Mike Turian told me. "A card that you pick up and once you read it, the card makes you go back and reevaluate a whole class of cards to find the perfect ones to best take advantage of. In this case, with Necroduality creating a copy of each nontoken Zombie that enters the battlefield under your control, this changes the impact of every Zombie creature, reanimation spell, and cards that alter creature types in Magic. That is a lot of awesome cards to combo Necroduality with! Crimson Vow has a nice number of Zombie creatures that immediately get better. When you consider that many of the Zombies have Exploit and other powerful sacrifice effects, Necroduality will provide good fodder of creatures and powerful combos! I don’t want to spoil all of the fun our players are going to have but I bet they will be starting their own zombie apocalypse in no time!"

I also asked Mike about how the team approached the task of following on from Midnight Hunt while also standing apart. "Midnight Hunt was such a great set and our players loved coming back to Innistrad," he said. "We knew that the fan favorite plane of Innistrad was going to be a hit once again so with Crimson Vow, we were looking to bring in pieces of Midnight Hunt while also innovating and making Crimson Vow its own set. The switch of focus from Werewolves towards Vampires is one way that we were able to both continue what was awesome about Midnight Hunt while giving Crimson Vow space.

"Another way we set the sets apart is by introducing some new gameplay mechanics that weren’t available in Midnight Hunt. For instance, Cleave opens up brand new space in how you think about casting a spell. The introduction of Blood tokens for Vampires to feast upon let us have Vampires do something completely new and different as well!" You can read all about those new mechanics here. And you can see the cards that have been revealed so far here.

Crimson Vow is shaping up to be a fun return visit to Innistrad, so be sure to see what this Vampire-filled collection of cards have to offer on the official website.

Cam Shea has worked at IGN since the before times, has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game and writes about CCGs regularly. He's not really on Twitter.

Natural Resources on Mars Could Produce Rocket Fuel, Say Researchers

A new study has discovered that future astronauts who find themselves on Mars may be able to use its natural resources to help make rocket fuel that could assist in getting them back to Earth.

As reported by Space.com, scientists have detailed their findings on the matter in the journal Nature Communications and have shared certain proposals that could save billions of dollars in the mission to get our astronauts home.

As it stands, NASA plans on using rocket engines that are fueled by both methane and liquid oxygen to depart Mars. The problem? Neither of these exist naturally on Mars, meaning that "30 or so tons" of methane and liquid oxygen would be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars for the return trip. NASA estimates this part of the process could cost upwards of $8 billion.

NASA has explored the idea of reducing this cost by using chemical reactions to produce liquid oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, but methane would still be needed to be transported from Earth to Mars.

These aforementioned scientists have proposed an alternative solution that would not only let astronauts produce methane and liquid oxygen from Martian resources, but the process would also provide extra oxygen for them to use.

Instead of transporting tons of methane and liquid oxygen, astronauts would bring with them two microbes on their trip to Mars. The first - cyanobacteria - would "use sunlight to create sugars via photosynthesis after given carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and water taken from Martian ice." The second - a genetically modified E. coli bacteria - would "ferment those sugars into a rocket propellant called 2,3-butanediol, which is currently used on Earth to help make rubber."

2,3-butanediol is weaker rocket fuel than methane, but Mars' gravity is only one-third of Earth's, which would make this solution a good option for take-off.

"You need a lot less energy for lift-off on Mars, which gave us the flexibility to consider different chemicals that aren't designed for rocket launch on Earth," study senior author Pamela Peralta-Yahya said in a statement. "We started to consider ways to take advantage of the planet's lower gravity and lack of oxygen to create solutions that aren't relevant for Earth launches."

Enzymes would also be needed to be brought from Earth that could digest the cyanobacteria and free up their sugars and industrial seperation techniques would need to be utilized to "extract the 2,3-butanediol from the E. coli fermnetation broth."

A proposed rocket fuel plant on Mars that would span roughly "four football fields" would be built, and it would "use 32% less power than the strategy that involved shipping methane from Earth and generate 44 tons of excess oxygen to support human crews. However, it would weigh three times more."

The scientists note that further optimizations could increase microbial productivity to use 59% less power and weigh 13% less, all while "still generating 20 tons of excess oxygen."

"Given the distinct advantages that the biological process provides, such as excess oxygen generation for colony formation, we should start thinking about how to engineer microbes for their safe use on Mars," Peralta-Yahya said.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.