3.5 Razors

Castle – The Human Factor

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Castle – The Human Factor
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Castle - The Human Factor

Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle’s (Nathan Fillion) latest investigation is stymied when Homeland Security closes the crime scene of the car bombing. Without a body or a crime scene, Beckett continues the investigation by talking to the victim’s widow (Catherine Dent) and son (Shane Coffey) who believe he was killed for his whistleblowing website which revealed highly damaging documents concerning corporations, politicians, and several government agencies. Things get even more interesting when they discover their victim was killed not from a car bomb, but by an unmanned aerial drone. Despite Castle’s assertions that the drone may have achieved sentience and attacked on its own, Beckett begins looking into where the drone came from and why it was used as a bizarre method of murder.

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47 Ronin #4

/ / Comics

47 Ronin #4The calm before the storm finds the ronin of Lord Asano scattered across the land working as farmers or laborers, or, as in the instance of Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio, shaming any lasting respect they might have by playing the role of a town drunk. After months of planning, Kira Yoshinaka has finally been lulled into a sense of security and begins to fire some of his guards and spies as he plans to move into his new palace.

Hearing the news they have been waiting for, the group finally gathers to fulfill their vow to return the honor of their fallen lord and exact their vengeance of Kira. Oishi joins the group, after taking care of a spy who has glimpsed his drunken buffoonery is nothing more than an act, setting up for what should be an action-heavy final issue next month.

Writer Mike Richardson and artist Stan Sakai’s retelling of the classic Japanese legend has been heavy on story and character, but that should change with the series’ finale. (And, even more importantly, it will free Sakai to return to doing what he does best – write and draw Usagi Yojimbo.) Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $3.99]

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Detective Comics #20

/ / Comics

Detective Comics #20The Emperor Penguin storyline comes to an end as Batman battles Ogilvy, the self-proclaimed new crime king of Gotham who stole the Penguin‘s money and operation for his own. Underestimating his opponent, Batman arrives to discover Ogilvy has been busy by combining the stolen Man-Bat serum along with a version of Venom and a little contribution from Poison Ivy to craft himself into a legitimate super-villain threat.

Although I think Ogilvy is made too much of a threat too quickly, the fight between the would be king and Batman works well (even if it does require the Penguin to save our hero). It also gives us one of the better original New 52 villains. Batman makes up for the ass kicking he takes by putting down Ogilvy in short order, but he can’t take away Ogilvy’s short-lived victory.

The issue also includes a back-up story involving Ogilvy’s transport to Blackgate Prison and look at his origins. The story also brutally foreshadows the fact that the new Bat-villain is only getting started. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Doctor Who – The Crimson Horror

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Doctor Who – The Crimson Horror
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Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror

Presented mostly from the perspective of Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart), “The Crimson Horror” follows the Silurian detective and her companion, along with their (always amusing) Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starkey), on their investigation of a number of glowing red-skinned corpses in Sweetville, the private community of self-professed savior Winifred Gillyflower (Diana Rigg). Given an image captured in the latest victim’s eyes at the time of his death, Vastra believes The Doctor (Matt Smith) may be connected somehow to the troubling events and sends Jenny in undercover to find him.

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XIII – Gauntlet

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: XIII – Gauntlet
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XIII - Gauntlet

Following his only lead to one of the elusive Tesla letters, XIII (Stuart Townsend) heads back to New York to crash a 24-hour birthday party thrown by an insane Russian national Andrej Kalishkanov (Steve Bacic), a private collector who Dr. Westlund (Kenneth Welsh) told XIII was in possession of one of the three letters. Borrowing an invitation from a TV producer XIII makes his way into the party, but he isn’t the only uninvited guest as Mozambique (Wole Daramola) smuggles Betty (Roxane Mesquida) into the party inside a giant Chinese statue.

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