Fantastic Universes

  Article by Adam Ray It's a big day here for all you fine people in the Fantastic Nation. Short version, our Patreon is now live, and we'd be eternally grateful if you pledged what you could right here . Fantastic Universes has been committed to bringing high quality news, reviews, and positive opinion pieces across all of popular culture. Our love of comics is where we've started, but now we have a team that looks in depth at card gaming, PC gaming, tabletop fiction, hard hitting fiction, and that's only some of it! We've been looking hard at what we can do to expand, and the continued readership of everyone out there has been immense. We are so grateful to each and every read, like, and share. Now it's time to level up. Over on our Patreon, we have some truly great perks. Every Patron will get to see posts a whole week before they'd come out here. Depending on the article is, you can see some things a few days, or up to a week early. Those able to pledge ...

" Spider-Man: Curse Of The Man-Thing " Writer: Steve Orlando Artists: Marco Failla and Minkyu Jung Color Artist: Guru-eFX Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles Review by Steve J. Ray Welcome, True-Believers, to the second chapter of Marvel Comics' 50th anniversary celebration of the creature known as Man-Thing. In part one - Avengers: Curse Of The Man-Thing - Harrower rebelled against the group of eco-extremists known as Hordeculture, and all but destroyed the Man-Thing. She tore it apart, and harvested its abilities, in order to wipe out humanity. While Earth’s mightiest heroes, the Avengers, battled towering growths, magically spawned from the stolen Swamp God’s living plant-tissue, Captain America entered the creature’s mindscape, where here he came face-to-face with Doctor Ted Sallis, the scientist whose genius created the Man-Thing, and was absorbed into it... the man trapped inside the monster. Years ago, Sallis used the S0-2 formula on himself, forever transforming him, b...

Writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta created a strange premise for the old school Avenger, Vision. They gave him a family. On paper, Vision with family hijinks sounds ridiculous, and cheesy, but instead it turned out to be a haunting, character-defining master class of comics storytelling. Let's break down 2015's Vision series. "Visions of the Future"  Writer: Tom King Artist: Gabriel Hernandez Walta Colorist: Jordie Bellaire Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles Review by Eric Lee As many people, I was inspired to reread Vision after watching the sublime WandaVision television show on Disney Plus. While the show broadly takes some elements from the comic source, Vision is an entirely separate beast. A Pervasive Subtly Creepy Tone The introduction scene narration immediately casts an ominous tone over the rest of the series. Neighbours Nora and George welcome the Vision family to their neighborhood. The narration is initially very droll and elaborates ...

NEW DC HORROR IMPRINT TO LAUNCH WITH THE CONJURING: THE LOVER, A PRELUDE TO NEW LINE CINEMA’S THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT Five-Issue Limited Series Co-Written by The Conjuring 2 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Rex Ogle Additional DC HORROR Titles Scheduled to Launch  October 2021 Issue #1 Available in Comic Book Stores and Digitally June 4, 2021 Issue #2 Available in Comic Book Stores and Digitally July 2, 2021 Beginning this summer, DC HORROR, a new 17+ imprint from DC and Warner Bros. Consumer Products, will deliver a new level of suspense and terror guaranteed to have fans reading with the lights on, even in the daytime. This new, spine-tingling imprint launches with a prelude to the most successful horror movie franchise ever. THE CONJURING: THE LOVER  is a five-issue monthly limited series that sets up New Line Cinema’s next installment in  The Conjuring  Universe,  The Conjuring: T...

DC Comics Press Release Justice League Infinity : James Tucker J.M. DeMatteis and Ethen Beavers Team Up For An All-New DC Digital First Limited Series Featuring New Stories from the World of the Justice League Unlimited Animated Series Chapter One Available on Participating Digital Platforms  Thursday, May 13, 2021 Issue #1 of 7 Arrives in Comic Book Stores Tuesday, July 6, 2021 Beginning this May, fans of both comic books and animation will experience all-new stories set in the world of the iconic DC Animated series Justice League Unlimited , as DC presents an all-new DC Digital First series, Justice League Infinity . This seven-issue limited series is co-written by Justice League Unlimited producer James Tucker and series writer J.M. DeMatteis with art by Ethen Beavers. This new series stars all of the fan-favorite characters from the revered series – Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern John Stewart, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter – banding together to face ...

DC Comics Press Release DC Comics Proudly Presents ‘Blue & Gold’ by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook! DC’s two favorite underdogs (Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, not Dan and Ryan) get their own eight-issue miniseries! Michael Carter, aka Booster Gold. A scoundrel from the future armed with stolen technology, a time machine and a robot pal named Skeets, is intent on making a name for himself in the past! Ted Kord, aka Blue Beetle. The inheritor of a proud legacy of crimefighting who had no powers to speak of, but who carried on the Blue Beetle legacy with just his wits and his fists…is armed with a whole lot of gadgets and a sharp sense of humor! Together, they’re going to make headlines in DC Comics’   Blue & Gold ,   a limited eight-issue miniseries by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook launching this July! Desperate to regain the spotlight, Booster Gold looks to attract the public’s (and Justice League’s) attention the same way any washed-up, second-rate hero would—social media. The ...

DC Comics Press Release New ‘Shazam!’ Limited Series Arrives July 20 “SHAZAM!”  With a single magic word, the powers of six ancient gods—the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury—are placed in the hands of teenage Billy Batson, transforming him into The World’s Mightiest Mortal! A new  Shazam!  four-issue mini-series from Tim Sheridan and Clayton Henry, spinning out of the pages of  Teen Titans Academy , arrives July 20!   Billy Batson came to Titans Academy looking for answers, but so far has kept his Shazam! identity a secret from his new classmates. Why was the rest of his adopted family cut off from the power of Shazam!? Why are his own powers becoming increasingly unreliable? What has happened to the Rock of Eternity, where is the Wizard, and who can help Billy get his powers back to normal before these mysterious events turn into a full-blown crisis? The answer...

“Hellblazer: Rise and Fall” Writer: Tom Taylor Artist: Darick Robertson Color Artist: Diego Rodriguez Letterer: Deron Bennett Review by Steve J. Ray It’s no secret that, right now, Tom Taylor is one of the hottest writers in all of comics. Just look at his track record: for DC Comics alone he’s given readers the amazing  Injustice  series, some of the finest standalone Batman stories, and the incredible  DCeased  saga. Now, he’s brought his own brand of magic to John Constantine, in the brilliant  Hellblazer: Rise and Fall . This gorgeous hardcover book collects all three issues of the terrific DC Black Label three issue mini-series. A Nasty Piece Of Work I’ve been a John Constantine fan since his very first appearance, way back in Alan Moore’s legendary  Swamp Thing  run of the 1980s, and into his own series Hellblazer, originally written by Jamie Delano. From the opening pages of this book, it feels like Tom Taylor has too. I think it’s poetic, cleve...