How the X-Men Can Get Their Mojo Back
There was a time when the X-Men franchise was the biggest gun in Marvel's superhero armory. In the early '90s issues of books like X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and X-Force would routinely sell hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies per month. X-Men: The Animated Series and the eventual live-action movies helped give the characters a much broader, mainstream appeal. But lately, it seems as though the furor has died down. The Avengers are now the dominant franchise at Marvel - not just in comics, but everywhere. Looking at the recent May 2015 solicitations, the X-Men franchise is being reduced to just a handful of comics in the wake of Brian Michael Bendis wrapping up his All-New X-Men/Uncanny X-Men work. Surely Marvel has plans to relaunch the franchise, either during Secret Wars or shortly after. But as they prepare for that relaunch, the time has come to look at what makes the X-Men resonate with fans and why that connection has begun to diminish over the years.
Is Privacy Now A Thing of the Past?
Alaina, Alex, and Mark Ryan convene to discuss this week's biggest news: privacy breaches on both the government and private corporation fronts, in the form of hard drives infected with NSA spyware and laptops shipped with man-in-the-middle adware that compromises encrypted browsing sessions. The Tech Fetish crew also chats about the latest space developments (fireball over Pittsburgh, y'all), hints that Sony could sell off its audio and video divisions, and why you should pay really close attention to what software you're downloading before manually updating firmware.
Teen Titans Go/Young Justice Crossover Gets Serious
While Teen Titans Go! is a successful show with over 80 episodes so far, many fans still lament the cancellation of the acclaimed Young Justice, which took a more mature, serialized approach to its depiction of young DC Comics-based heroes than the fanciful, comedic Titans series does.
Next week's new episode of Teen Titans Go! looks to tackle this head on, as Young Justice (well, a few of them at least) guest star on the show.
Teen Titans Go! “Let’s Get Serious” Images:
In the episode, which looks fairly meta, Young Justice calls out the Titans for their immature, goofy approach, as you can see in this clip featuring Aqualad...
Aquaman Costume Breakdown
With director Zack Snyder giving us our first glimpse at Jason Momoa's Aquaman as he will appear in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, we've broken down all of the key elements of the look.
It's the same trident seen in the current New 52 Aquaman comics.
Peters Talks Quicksilver’s Return
With shooting for X-Men: Apocalypse starting in April, news continues to roll in on the film, including a new image from director Bryan Singer and an update from Evan Peters on whether Quicksilver will make his return.
Singer posted a new image on his Instagram, which depicts designs for Professor X's Cerebro helmet with the caption, "Working on designs from home a month ago. Getting ready for the long-haul in Montreal."
Via Bryan Singer's Instagram
Remove Superfish Adware With Windows Defender
A new update from Windows Defender can get rid of the Superfish adware pre-installed on Lenovo laptops.
Lenovo came under some fire recently after it was discovered that some of their laptops were shipped with invasive software intentionally installed by the company itself.
It's important to note that Windows Defender disables itself if you have third-party antivirus software installed alongside it.
According to Ars Technica, some Lenovo computers come packaged with trial versions of anti-malware programs, so you would need to end these before you can run Windows Defender.
Apple Offers Free MacBook Pro Repairs
Some users have reported that their older MacBook Pro laptops have been having trouble with video and unexpected system restarts, and now Apple is offering free repairs to help get these machines back in working order.
The affected systems were sold between February 2011 and December 2013, and Apple confirms that a small percentage have been producing errors like "distorted or scrambled video" or even no video on the screen or external display even when the computer is on, and in some cases the computer will restart unexpectedly.
As of today Apple will repair affected machines free of charge in the US and Canada at Apple Stores and Authorized Service Providers or by calling Apple and requesting a postage-paid box be sent to a local Apple Repair Center.
Is the New League of Legends Champion a Bard?
A new teaser page from Riot drops some hints about League of Legends' next champion.
The champion preview page, titled "The Wonder Above," depicts a group gathered around a campfire on top of a rocky mesa. (Take note, the page contains audio.)
In the sky, a narrative about the nature of stories, truth, and plenty of League lore unfolds below animated constellations.
The final paragraph of the campfire tale provides the following hint: "Those of us from the floating villages know of an older name, a name that speaks of a universal truth. The name we took for our kind: Bard."
Iron Man’s Dark Future, Alien 5 & the Oscars
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel! In this week's podcast, Jim Vejvoda, Roth Cornet, and Chris Carle bring you the latest in movie news.
This week's topics include Captain America: Civil War, Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Alien 5, X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool, our Academy Awards predictions, and more.
Finally, we also wager whether Fifty Shades of Grey will remain champ at this weekend's box office.
Download Keepin' It Reel, Episode 278!
Ferrari’s F1 Concept Car Looks Incredible
It's the start of the Formula 1 season and the teams have unveiled the cars that will carry their drivers through the season. Ferrari however, has decided to show off an extra car.
Ferrari's Formula 1 Concept Car has arrived on the web and, since it's still on the drawing board, the legendary team is asking for feedback from fans. The idea is to help make Formula 1 cars more aesthetically pleasing while sticking to the rigorous design rules imposed by the sport's governing body, the FIA.
The Concept has the look of a classic Ferrari supercar while keeping the basic frame of a Formula 1 car. It's got a much smoother line that conceals a lot of the suspension and could be considered to blur the line between the open-wheel specifications of F1 and the sleek aerodynamics of Le Mans racers. Even the driver's helmet is sculpted to blend with the back of the cockpit.