When they came up with the concept and story for Shirtless Bear-Fighter, they probably wanted to call it “Naked Bear-Fighter”, but maybe due to bad personal experiences or some horrifying Google searches, they settled on the name Shirtless Bear-Fighter instead. That they were in any condition to be able to jot down the concept in itself is quite impressive, as I can only assume they were incredibly intoxicated, inebriated, and possibly even wearing the preferred patient uniforms of asylums everywhere. Shirtless Bear-Fighter may be somewhat of an insane idea, and really a bizarre story, but it is definitely a fun one. I mean what’s not to like about a rough and tough mountain man getting it on with bears? Wait, let me rephrase that. What’s not to like about a rough and tough mountain man having punching matches with wild and ferocious bears? There is a little more to the story than that, but only a little, so if you’re looking for the next Will Eisner Comic Industry Award winning masterpiece, in case you didn’t pick it up from the title or cover, this is not the book for you. If you like bears, or hate bears for that matter, or actually are even kind of indifferent about bears but enjoy a fun and funny book that doesn’t take life too seriously, or if you have ever gotten into a debate regarding Flapjacks and Pancakes, well then maybe this is something you should look into reading. When a giant bear starts rampaging through a busy city, Animal Control, the Police, and even the Army can’t seem to stop the wild beast as it tears its way through the streets, wantonly destroying anything in its path and rubbing itself on whatever it pleases. It becomes clear to Director Burke that in order to contain the problem as quickly and cleanly (as in “clean” with few casualties, not “clean” without penises slapping on the legs of naked wild-men) as possible, he needs to fly out into the middle of the forest with an elite team of agents and try to bribe a very angry, very naked, Bear-Fighter with two tons of Flapjacks into saving the world. Although Shirtless is initially against the assignment, holding to the promise he swore to the bear who raised him that he will protect the forest, he eventually decides to come to America’s aid. But what he doesn’t know, is this is no random giant bear rampage, and is in fact a well orchestrated plot to lure him into a trap and defeat him once and for all. As mind controlled bears wreck havoc all over the country, Shirtless struggles to not only keep the assault of fuzzy and furious bastards under control, but to find out why the bears are attacking in the first place. With the help of Burke and his assistant, they discover that magic bacon is being used to sway the bears, and Shirtless now can follow the trail. But is this tempting morsel a little too convenient, and is Shirtless walking into another trap? Probably, but he doesn’t care. Nothing will stand in his way to getting to the bottom of this, not magic, man, bear or pig. Shirtless Bear-Fighter is packed full of little one liners and humorous scenes, in both the impeccably well penned script, as well as the comical and whimsical artwork. This may not be the next Maus, but it is still, in its own way, en excellently arranged story. And funny! It has been said that humour is the hardest thing to write, and if there’s any truth in that, the Shirtless Bear-Fighter writers, Sebastian Girner and Jody LeHeup, must be very talented indeed.

To say that The Last Jedi is divisive is an understatement. Many fans disliked what director Rian Johnson did with the mythology and the characters, while many enjoyed it - and many more still accept that a series about space wizards with laser swords and antagonists with an unhealthy attraction to all black cloaks and masks that muffle their voices has space for inconsistencies and new additions to the "science" and rules that govern the universe. READ MORE: SyFy Cancels Krypton, Lobo Series Killed Off Full disclaimer: I fall into the camp of fans who enjoyed the film, except Canto Bight... that section was unnecessary, except for giving us Broom Boy and that the Force is alive and well outside of the Skywalkers. Before The Last Jedi came out, Disney announced that Johnson would be returning to the universe with a whole new trilogy that would be set in a far corner of the galaxy featuring all-new characters and stories. This was exciting news because we would finally move away from the same familial line and familiar characters and stories into the wider universe. As much as the expanded universe of comics and books added to the mythos, they too fell into the trap of focusing on what was familiar - very few stories were written focusing on other characters and timelines. After the vocal backlash to the film though, rumors have swirled that Disney had quietly canceled the trilogy. But if they have they haven't spoken to Johnson as when asked about it at the Toronto Film Festival, as reported by The Observer, Johnson spoke about his approach to the trilogy. While he is moving away from the Skywalker legacy and their stories, he wants to get to the "essence" of the mythos to create his corner. What that actually means is anyone's guess, but whatever it is I'm excited for the potential to take the series into new, uncharted areas.

Firstly, I’d just like to reiterate that this feature is on the 2004 version of Doom: The Board Game. There is also a more recent 2016 Doom: The Board Game, which is an entirely different game. The Doom: The Board Game (2004) was designed to run as a players versus monster (player) kind of game, but as the rules and mechanics for the game were incredibly unbalanced, it never really worked well in this way; the monster/ demon side was always much more powerful, and the marine’s side would struggle to be able to meet its victory conditions. That being said, if the game was run as a sort of role-playing game board game, and the player controlling the beasties played it more as a game master instead of trying to beat the players, then it actually becomes a really exciting, intense, and enjoyable game. The board game, based on the Doom 3 computer game from that time, sees a futuristic soldier battling his way past some horrific demonic creatures, making his way through an otherwise overrun Mars base. In the board game, the same basic plot sees up to 3 marines working together (or solo) trying to achieve an objective while fighting their way through the demonic hordes swarming the base. The board game keeps a lot of elements which have become familiar in the earlier Doom computer games, like hunting for key cards, the unique weaponry, and most of all the constantly growing sense of tension and “doom”. That a board game manages to maintain that feeling of suspense and horror is pretty impressive in itself, but the board game ties so nicely into the feel of the computer game, that it plays as almost an extension of that universe. But this time, as a board game, you get to have a much more social experience with your friends, and in many ways, a more strategic encounter. As mentioned above, although the game was designed as a game with two sides and victory conditions for each, in practice the sides were unbalanced and it wasn’t as fun to play it that way. Many people house ruled various solutions to this problem, making the one side stronger or the other weaker, and some, like with my friends, ran it as a kind of dungeon crawl game instead. Either way, the game has really great rules and mechanics, so it is actually worth house ruling it to make it work for you, rather than just scrapping the whole thing as a bad idea. The newer version of the Doom game is likely to have refined a lot of those issues, considering the original Doom board game was one of the first for that sort of style of play, and since then Fantasy Flight Games has brought out many different games with that same sort of design of one player controlling the monsters versus the rest of the players playing the heroes, each time reworking the rules and tweaking any balance issues. But while being similar in some ways, and based on the same franchise of computer games, the board games themselves have very different rules and objectives. As with most Fantasy Flight Games, the production of the game is outstanding. The figures look great, and are even colour coded so it is easier to adjust them according to the number of marines playing, the cards and board are well made and nicely printed, and all in all you really feel like you’re getting your money’s worth in the box’s contents. The 2004 Doom board game is still a favourite for my friends and I. The anticipation and trepidation which the game manages in inspire in the players is really amazing and always makes for an entertaining game, even if the marines get slaughtered and die horribly 9 times out of 10, which just goes to prove that the fun can, and should, be in the game itself rather than in the winning.

In one heck of a coincidence, just as I finished watching Season 1 of Krypton and am about to start Season 2, comes news that SyFy has wielded the axe and decided not to renew the show for a third season. READ MORE: PS5 Announcement Date Leaked Internally at Sony This is truly sad news as the story of Superman's grandfather was, contrary to all expectations, quite good telling a compelling story of Kryptonian society that, while scientifically advanced, was still almost a feudal society with its effective caste system and one that was prone, much like ours, to valuing emotion over scientific fact. While the first season was a relative, for SyFy, ratings juggernaut, the second experienced the dreaded drop in viewers and since this show is produced by Warner Horizon Scripted Television, SyFy only earns money on the ratings performance and not the resale of the show to streaming services and other networks around the world. Given that SyFy is one of the smaller channels out there, it makes sense that they have to be ruthless when it comes to performance as they simply don't have the resources that other networks have to carry beloved, yet underperforming shows. According to Deadline, the deal that was in place to spin-off Lobo into his own show is also dead, in what looks like collateral damage. However, there is hope that Krypton, and possibly Lobo, could be resurrected on the DC Universe or even the HBO Max streaming services. That is however unconfirmed, but it would be nice gesture to the fans to at least allow Krypton to be given a proper ending.