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A Robert Kirkman idea scripted by Nick Spencer?  Don't mind if we do!

Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat. Thief Of Thieves #1 is not a Robert Kirkman book. Yes, the celebrated creator of Walking Dead has his name first on the cover, but it’s just his idea. The actual writing went to Nick Spencer whose most recent turn out was the exceptional Spider Island: Cloak & Dagger mini-series. I’m not trying to bust balls here; I just want our intrepid readers to know they’re not getting a Robert Kirkman book. That being said, don’t turn your back on Thief Of Thieves, you might regret it.

If the sometimes stale and repetitive superhero genre has you down, then Thief Of Thieves could be right up your alley. The story is a simple one. Take a master thief named Redmond, a charming loner who is the hero to so many in the underworld. Open the comic with him masterminding a brilliant heist. Add in a beautiful assistant who wants him and creates enough sexual tension to make our hero uncomfortable. Then sprinkle in an upcoming job being bankrolled by a criminal mob type. The whole thing is behind schedule, off budget and people are getting antsy. So what does Redmond do? On the very last page he announces he’s quitting forever.

What will the fallout be? Why is he quitting? Will this turn into apprentice against master? These are the questions Spencer lays out to tempt us into the first story arc. Thief Of Thieves isn’t the most original story idea ever and Redmond certainly is an amalgamation of past characters. This issue rises above its foundation simply by being an entertaining slice of fiction. Spencer isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or break comic boundaries; he’s just giving us a good time.

Are there problems with the first issue? Undoubtedly. To set up the story, we’re given bits and pieces of it through a current storyline and flashbacks. The switches between the two aren’t exactly seamless, coming across a bit jarring and sometimes confusing. The dialog is a little too “of the genre” and feels really pat. What Spencer does well is pacing and character development. By the end of the issue, you’re interested in these people and curious as to what happens next. If Spencer can punch up the dialog and the next few issues hand us some curveballs, Thief Of Thieves could become an exciting property. Kirkman, though only the idea man, is the master of curveballs so I have hopes for this series.\

The artwork from Shawn Martinbrough (currently penciling the ill-fated Black Panther) is solid enough. I won’t lie, I don’t love his style but he tells the story well enough. The main issue I have is how Martinbrough draws faces. Sometimes they’re fine but usually they carry goofy looking expressions or, at the very least, the same expression over and over. For Thief Of Thieves to reach its excitement potential, Martinbrough is going to have to work on panel placement and jazzing up the layout of the book. As an inaugural issue, Thief Of Thieves works well enough to give it the benefit of the doubt. Let’s hope Kirkman and his crew work out the kinks soon.

CRAVE ONLINE RATING: 6/10 (3 Story, 3 Art)

Here's some more shots of superheroes fighting each other and - wait, what does Mar-Vell have to do with this?

Well, we know the Phoenix is coming to Earth, and the likely target is Hope Summers (although if you ask me, she's a big red-haired herring), and that would seem to be confirmed by some of the new covers Marvel has released for Avengers vs. X-Men and the surrounding tie-in issues.

But, for some reason, Secret Avengers #27 is sporting Captain Marvel.  Is the Phoenix gonna bring Mar-Vell back to life?  And who's that Kree Soldier dude?  Dare we hope to get Genis back, too?

Here's a look at a bunch of covers you'll see during the Avengers vs. X-Men saga.

Get a glimpse of the new and returning characters from HBO's hit fantasy series!

"The cold winds are rising."

On April 1, "Game of Thrones" season 2 will return to HBO after several months of anticipation from the series' growing fan base.

Based upon George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel series, "Game of Thrones" will primary follow the events depicted in the second book, "A Clash of Kings." And with the second season just under two months away, HBO has released 17 new photos from the upcoming episodes which provide us a look at our returning favorites and some of the intriguing new members of the cast.

Starting off with the main leaders of the War of Five Kings, we have Robb Stark (Richard Madden), the new King of the North.

Next we have, King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), everyone's favorite villain to hate.

Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) and his adviser, Mellisandre (Carice van Houten) appear in the third photo. Stannis was the eldest brother of the late King Robert Baratheon, and he may have the strongest claim for the Iron Throne.

But that doesn't stop the ambitions of Stannis' younger brother, Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony); who wants the Iron Throne for himself.

Balon Greyjoy (Patrick Malahide) is sometimes overlooked as the fifth king in this conflict. But that would be a very deadly mistake.

Balon's son, Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) is conflicted by his loyalties to his father and to the house of Stark; whose interests may no longer align with his own.

Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) has her own destiny to fulfill, as the only one of Ned Stark's daughters to escape from King Joffrey.

Her sister, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) is less lucky, as King Joffrey seems willing to use her life as leverage against her brother, Robb.

Back in Winterfell, Bran Stark ( Issac Hempstead-Wright) and Hodor (Kristian Nairn) may find that the horrors of war could be closer than they suspect.

Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and the rest of the Night's Watch search for answers about an ancient enemy that may threaten the entire seven kingdoms.

Following the death of her husband, Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) will be looking for revenge from someone she used to trust.

As noted by her brother, Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) may find it difficult to rule the kingdoms when millions of people hate her.

Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) is the new Hand of the King. But he may not enjoy dealing with his unstable nephew Joffrey, who doesn't seem to know how to rule with any finesse.

Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) is one of Stannis Baratheon's most loyal knights, despite his growing misgivings about Stannis' actions...

Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) is a fierce warrior in the service of Renly Baratheon. She also seems to be infatuated with Renly, which can only lead to heartbreak.

 
In the East, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) continues her rise to power despite some struggles ahead.

And finally, Daenerys during a more vulnerable moment.

Don't miss "Game of Thrones" season 2 on HBO, coming Sunday April 1st!

A Gus Van Sant movie they didn't tell you about, and should have probably kept to themselves.

I was surprised to learn recently that director Gus Van Sant has a new movie out on DVD and Blu-ray from Sony Picture Classics called Restless, featuring Henry “Son of Dennis” Hopper and Mia Wasikowska from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland as a pair of star-crossed teenage lovers attempting to balance the awkward fumblings of a first romance with the painful realities of terminal brain cancer. Considering Van Sant’s track record, it’s pretty weird that his latest release has been getting so little press – his last film, Milk, was a darling of the 2009 Oscars, and was voted AFI’s Movie of the Year. Despite good intentions and plenty of atmospheric intensity, Restless suffers mainly from a tedious and highly derivative screenplay, drawing heavily on the conventions of a filmic subgenre that’s already badly overplayed and laden with trite melodrama.

Hopper and Wasikowska play Enoch and Annabel, a pair of wayward youths who serendipitously meet one day at a memorial service – like Bud Cort in the similarly plotted Harold and Maude, Enoch likes to attend funerals recreationally, even though he doesn’t know the deceased. Annabel and Enoch befriend each other, and Annabel soon reveals that she is suffering from an untreatable brain tumor with only three months to live. The rest of the movie chronicles their brief relationship, with Enoch struggling to come to terms with Annabel’s condition, and Annabel mostly projecting a childlike, innocent aloofness about it.

The visual and aural trappings of the film are seductively well balanced. It was shot in Oregon and is filled with beautifully composed shots of golden, grassy fields, decaying bridges, and rainy suburban neighborhoods. Danny Elfman collaborated on the score, and although it’s not as bombastic as the work he’s best known for, the soft warmth of the film’s soundtrack is never cloying. The disc includes a silent version of the film with title cards (apparently an experimental afterthought, resulting from a frequent conceit of Van Sant’s calculated to enhance non-verbal aspects of his actors’ performance), a context which makes Wasikowska’s antique wardrobe, and many of the film’s other exaggerated mannerisms appear to make slightly more sense. The dialogue and characterization are so forced, however, and the plotting so aimless, that it’s impossible to really identify with the movie at all on a narrative or personal level. All of its themes are awkward retreads of familiar stories and character arcs that were mostly overwrought to begin with, and the lackadaisical execution only makes it worse.

The disc boasts a respectable number of standard, arbitrary behind-the-scenes mini-docs about the making of the film, the development of the characters, and the process of getting the project produced. The weirdest thing about the movie, for me, is that it was co-produced by Bryce Dallas Howard, but that’s just my own personal viewpoint. Restless is hardly Van Sant’s greatest achievement, and it probably deserved to go straight to Blu-ray despite his honorable involvement, but for whatever it’s worth, it did make me really want to watch Harold and Maude again.

CraveOnline Rating (Film): 4/10

CraveOnline Rating (Blu-ray): 5.5/10

Ten years of Smallville wasn't enough for you?  Then read some new comics and get even more of it!

Well, what worked for Buffy The Vampire Slayer can work for Smallville, can't it?

Following in the footsteps of Joss Whedon continuing his popular series in comic book form, DC has announced that, after Smallville ended after its tenth season on TV last year, the eleventh season will happen comic style as well.

Bryan Q. Miller, who wrote the show, will be handling this project, which will be a digital-first series starting April 13 and published weekly, with a print version coming out in May.  Each version will have different covers, too.  Gary Frank will do the print cover, while Cat Staggs will handle the digital covers - and the interiors will be illustrated by Pere Perez.

“Six months after Clark Kent donned the cape and took to the skies to save Earth from Apokolips… enter Season 11!” says Miller.  “New allies abound!  New enemies afoot!  And old friends return where they’re least expected!  Pere and colorist Chris Beckett have done a fantastic job of capturing the look of the show and the players, and Gary and Cat are knocking it out of the park on covers. I couldn’t be more excited to help give seasoned viewers and new readers an all-access pass to Clark’s first year in the cape.”

Here's the Cat Staggs cover of Smallville: Season 11 #1.

Who managed to separate Banner and the Hulk successfully?  This is where we finally find out.

When last I read The Incredible Hulk, I said I was done, that I couldn’t read another page of the slop being hurled about by Jason Aaron. My largely more positive editor, Andy Hunsaker, said that issue #5 was the tell all issue. That #5 would be the one where we found out exactly who separated Banner from the Hulk and we’d get to see the serious throw down between the two. I figured I’d give it another shot. Perhaps Aaron had a trick up his sleeve that I wasn’t ready for.  Issue #5 could be the one where The Incredible Hulk, one of the best written titles of the past fifteen years, got back on track and we could party down green skin style.

Yeah. No.

The Beastie Boys once had a lyric that went “When I wrote graffiti my name was Slop”. Well, Jason Aaron writes comic books and his name should be slop. The Incredible Hulk #5 is the biggest pile of useless garbage I’ve ever seen cobbled together. This has nothing to do with my dislike of Jason Aaron’s writing, this is purely on the merits (or lack thereof) of issue #5. Let downs galore. Bad writing in spades and let’s not forget that we still don’t get to see Banner and Hulk fight. I’m not sure what Jason Aaron was thinking with issue #5 but it feels like his own creation has gotten wildly out of control.

First, let’s get the big “whodunit” out of the way. After two pages of long-winded exposition, it’s revealed that Doctor Doom is the man behind it all. Really? Doctor Doom? Seriously? All the other inventive and interesting ways this could have gone down and Aaron hands us Dr. Doom? I also have to say the splash page where Doom is revealed has one of the worst penciled Hulks ever. The green goliath has this look on his face like he just farted or got blown in a soiled bathroom. It takes away any impact from the already lackluster reveal.

Jump ahead and we’re back to the exhaustive and boring jungle battle. Aaron really loves to draw things out until they lose all meaning. This war on Banner’s experimental island getaway wasn’t exciting to begin with and now it’s painful. I was particularly loathsome of the Hulk’s confrontation with all of Banner’s genetically mutated monsters. Instead of a big knock down drag out, Hulk lectures them on the evil of Banner and the creatures, who have been calling Banner father and serving him loyally, suddenly see the error of their ways. In fact one mutation actually says “I was such a beautiful tiger once”.

Anybody else blowing chunks yet?

Then Banner and Amanda Von Doom (who has no relation to Doctor Doom, a joke Aaron has beaten to death here) mix it up and a crazed Banner announces he doesn’t like his brain being stolen. Cut back to the past and Doctor Doom performing the brain surgery that will separate Hulk and Banner. Apparently, that’s all it took to separate the two, a little brain operation with a magical lit-up chainsaw. The best part is by the end of the operation a fully-grown Banner lays on a table next to the Hulk as if he’d been yanked out of Hulk’s skull like some weird magic trick.

What the hell is Jason Aaron doing? Does he even care about continuity or the stories that make up the legend of the Hulk? The rest of issue #5 doesn’t fare much better. We also get hysterical knee slappers like a monkey throwing irradiated feces on the Hulk and the apparent betrayal of Amanda Von Doom, which is shoehorned into the story. The final insult is the last panel, which depicts, yet again, Hulk and Banner running towards each other. Oh, I get it; the NEXT issue is the big face off. Virgins on prom night have done less procrastinating than Aaron has in this series. It’s maddening how bad issue #5 is.

The only thing that could have saved the Hulk was art from Marc Silvestri, alas that is not to be. For whatever reason, Silvestri isn’t on the Hulk anymore and now we’re stuck with Whilce Portacio trying to be Marc Silvestri. It’s not that the art isn’t solid, but nobody is Silvestri so Portacio trying to be him doesn’t work. I was really appalled by Portacio’s Banner. Why he decided Banner needed to look like a skinny emo kid with a giant head is beyond me. The rest of the stuff is hit or miss. All the pencils during Doctor Doom’s scenes are wonderful, the rest just seem like a bad copy of a better artist. If Marvel is going to keep this travesty of a series going, they should at least find one great artist with a style completely outside of Marc Silvestri and allow him/her to take over. Granted, it’s a band-aid on a bullet wound, but at least the miserable slop of the current Incredible Hulk would be fun to look at.

CRAVE ONLINE RATING 3/10 (1 Story, 2 Art)

Finally, a great solution to that pesky zombie apocalypse!

Welcome to the second episode of Weekly Shorts Showcase, bringing you an awesome new short film every Thursday. This week's short takes the form of a hilarious informercial spoof that would come in handy come the zombie apocalypse. Check it out only if you can stomach the impressively disgusting effects-

Tune in every Thursday for more world-class short films. A preview of things to come-

Have a short film you'd like to submit? Check out our submission guidelines and info.

A young Cleveland team is exceeding expectations at this early stage of the season.

Rebuilding in any sport is a grueling and sometimes long process. It takes the right head coach, the right players, and most importantly, the right kind of owner. Without these three thing, you end up in a rebuilding limbo that just never seems to take hold, ala the Cleveland Browns of the NFL. The Browns seem to never be able to get the right combo to get out of the gutter of the AFC, a fact that grates on their fans, some of the most devoted in sports.

Luckily for them, the other professional Cleveland team seems to be making a fast track with their rebuilding.

That other team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, have been a pleasant surprise this year for a fan base that is used to disappointments and underachieving. Sitting at 10-14 in the early going of this reduced season may not seem like much, but considering they went 19-63 just a season ago, well, you can get where any growth would be met with applause.

This years Cavaliers team isn't the one that's supposed to make them contenders but it does have some pieces in place for the future. The most notable one is rookie point guard Kyrie Irving. Irving, drafted number 1 overall, has far exceeded what even his best supporters thought he could do in the early going. At only 19 and with only 11 college games under his belt, Irving has stepped onto the court in the pro's and looks like he was born there. Averaging 18 points a game and 5 assists while playing smart ball and not turning it over much, Irving justly merits All-Star consideration, even with this being his first year.

A good point guard, like Irving (who has the potential to be great), is perhaps the most important piece in building a contender. Like a stud Quarterback, a point guard, a true pg, is in control of his team and elevates the play of those around him with his reads and good decisions. That's what Irving does and that's why this team is going nowhere but up in the near future.

With that position secured, the major decisions for this franchise is before them with players like Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson, Antawn Jamison and Anderson Varejao. All of these players are prime contributors at this present time but most aren't viable pieces for the Cavaliers moving forward. The team is trying for good and young and while the majority of these guys aren't that aged, their value to the team could be more on the trade market. The next couple of weeks will be interesting in this department.

All that being said and whatever changes may befall this team this season, one thing is for certain. The team is heading in the right direction, one that the Browns should take note of and emulate with the drafting of quarterback Robert Griffin III.

But that's an article for another time.

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

The results of this comparison aren't quite what you'd expect.

Kyrie Irving, the Cleveland Cavaliers second number 1 draft pick this past decade, comes into the Cavalier franchise with some pretty big shoes to fill. Those shoes belong to the former number 1 draft pick that Cleveland had, LeBron James. James, practically since birth it seems, has been the golden child of the NBA and with the exception of recent mood shifts against him, has been it's go-to guy for bringing in fans.

A talented athlete without par in that regards, LeBron left a legacy at Cleveland that nobody thinks, or expects, Irving to fill. The thing about that, however, is that the 19 year old Irving is actually exceeding the 'King' at this stage of his career, when compared to LeBron at this stage.

As hard as that is to fathom, below is the comparison of the two athletes at nearly the identical point in each of their young careers. For LeBron, these are his stats after 22 games in the NBA. For Irving, it's 23. By no means does this represent what the finished product of both their careers are going to reflect but just for now, these numbers may surprise you.

They did me.

By the Numbers: Irving vs LeBron

Field Goal %

Edge: Irving. His 49.2% average edges out LeBron's 39.9%

3-point %

Edge: Irving. His 41.3% edges out LeBron's 31.6%

FT %

Edge: Irving. His 83% edges out LeBron's 71.7%

Assists

Edge: LeBron. His 139 edges out Irving's 117

Turnovers

Edge: Irving. He has the fewer TO with 73 to the Kings 80

Points Per Game

Edge: Irving. Edges LeBron with his 18 ppg to his 16.8

The Early Winner: Kyrie Irving

Irving is showing, in the early going, that he is more than capable of doing for this team what LeBron did for the Cavs when he came to the pro's. Irving has also shown a flair for late game heroics, something that James has shied away from his whole career.

Like I said before, though, this may be nothing more than some interesting facts at this stage of the game but the numbers don't lie.

And neither will the future, which is pretty bright for the newest young Cavs star.

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Erik and Joey find out who comes out to play when Batman is out of town.

We’re headed to Gotham City for this week’s episode of Watch Us Play. Join Erik Norris and Joey Davidson  gear up for team “Bats” to take the fight to the “Jokerz” while Batman is out of town on business.

For anyone that doesn’t know, Gotham City Impostors is a wacky first-person shooter from Monolith Studios set in the Batman universe that plays a lot like Team Fortress 2 with a heavy emphasis on unlocking new gadgets and equipment. We give you the rundown on all of these things in this week’s show.

Watch us play Gotham City Impostors in HD.

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