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https://blacknerdproblems.com/devil-may-cry-premiere/

The Gates of Hell open April 3, 2025

• Showrunner: Adi Shankar
• Animation Studio: Studio Mir
• Cast: Johnny Yong Bosch (Dante)

Synopsis: In this animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game and from the vision of Adi Shankar, sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.

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For the horror and fantasy fans comes an animated adaptation of one of Capcom’s finest–Dante the over-the-top-hunter of everything that goes bump in the night from another realm–is coming to our screens via Netflix next month! Studio Mir (The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, X-Men ’97 and so many fan faves including certain seasons of The Boondocks and The Legend of Korra) is bringing the heat of Dante’s animated adventures for Netflix fanfare. With Adi Shankar, the showrunner perhaps best known for his work with the Castlevania animated franchise, things are only looking up with knowing that voice actor extraordinaire Johnny Yong Bosch is attached to the project voicing Dante, himself.

Devil May Cry is based on the action-adventure game of the same name, developed by Capcom and created by Hideki Kamiya. The game follows the hunter Dante, who makes it his life’s mission to avenge his mother’s death by killing any and all demons. Dante is such a beloved video character and one beloved by fans everywhere.

There is a lot of hype attached to this Devil May Cry project and big expectations too. I remember watching the opening animated sequence via X (Twitter) a month ago and being stunned by the high energy and the song featured in the clip above. Limp Bizkit???!!! What year are we even in now? It is a song choice that took…perhaps…the internet by surprise and feels like a throwback to an earlier, albeit simpler time. It has set the tone for what this animated adaptation is bringing the fans next month, come April.

As quoted by Shankar to Netflix’s TUDUM earlier this month:

“Rest assured, we are working very hard because we love the franchise and because we want to deliver something great,” Shankar says. Shankar — who was showrunner for Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix — says he and his development partner Alex Larsen have been working on the series, based on the hit video game, every day since it was first announced in 2018. “Our goal wasn’t just to pump out another animated show. My goal is to make one of the best shows on the Netflix platform — period.”

Shankar partnered with Studio Mir (The Legend of Korra, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf), whose portfolio of prior animation work, he says, “speaks for itself.” 

His message to excited fans? “Get hyped.” 

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Devil May Cry will premiere on Netflix in April 3, 2025. Watch come April on Netflix!

About Netflix: Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services, with 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films, and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.

About Studio MIR: Studio Mir Co., Ltd is a South Korean animation studio specializing in the entire production from start to finish. Founded in 2010, they have quickly tapped into the North American market with their strong producing skills in 2D animation sensibility and CGI technology. Among other works, they are best known for [The Legend of Korra], [Voltron: Legendary Defender], [The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf], [DOTA: Dragon’s Blood], and the Korean titles [Lookism] and [Star Wars Visions 2: Journey to the Dark Head]. Their most recent title is Disney+ series [X-Men ’97], further representing K-animation in the global streaming market.

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The post ‘DEVIL MAY CRY’ is Coming in Hot for An April 2025 Premiere appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://nerdist.com/article/dragonlance-books-bundle-for-a-dollar-wizards-of-the-coast/

Dungeons & Dragons makers, Wizards of the Coast, and Penguin Random House are partnering with Humble Bundles to offer a collection of Dragonlance fantasy novel e-books. The most interesting part? The partnership brings an exclusive pay-what-you-want deal for the bundle of books.

The bundle offers readers the chance to delve into 26 best-selling Dragonlance novels with three different price points that buyers can pick between. There is a base price for three different bundle tiers, but as aforementioned, you can opt to pay more. For a bundle of three books, the price starts at $1. For a bundle of seven books, the starting cost is $10. The complete bundle of 25 books begins at $18.

The description of the bundle is as follows:

Embark on an epic adventure through the land of Krynn with the ultimate Dragonlance Collection from Wizards of the Coast. Follow the perilous journey to protect the mystical Blue Crystal Staff from an evil dragon goddess in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Untangle dwarven political tensions, hidden dangers, and long-lost secrets with The Companions in Dragons of the Dwarven Depths. The battle of the gods comes to a dramatic climax in Amber and Ashes. Get 25+ amazing page-turners and help support Room to Read with your purchase!

Dragonlance was a universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman. Tracy and their writing partner, Margaret Weis, then expanded it into a fantasy novel series. Over 190 novels have used Dragonlance as their setting while also being a campaign setting in various editions of Dungeons & Dragons.

Humble Bundles is a platform that sells video games and books in collections, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. The Dragonlance bundles will offer a portion of its proceeds to the non-profit Room to Read organization. Room to Read works on improving children’s literacy and girls’ education across Asia and Africa. To find out which books come in each bundle and more about Humble Bundles, check out their website.

The post Get a Bundle of DRAGONLANCE Books for a Dollar appeared first on Nerdist.

https://nerdist.com/article/daredevil-born-again-season-1-episode-4-recap-revelations-sic-semper-systema/

As we near the halfway point of Daredevil: Born Again season one, Matt Murdock deals with the fallout of the White Tiger case, while the marriage therapy of Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) gets a little more awkward. Here’s what went down in episode four of Born Again, titled “Sic Semper Systema,” which is Latin for “thus always to the system.”

Revelations From Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episode 4, “Sic Semper Systema”

The Aftermath of White Tiger’s Murder

The episode starts with various pieces of Hector Ayala’s personal belongings put into evidence after his death, including his mystical White Tiger amulets. Matt Murdock is at the morgue questioning how they killed Hector, and he’s informed that the projectile that killed him was not recovered, and no casings were found. It’s then that Hector’s teenage niece, Angela (Camila Rodriguez), walks into the morgue demanding to see her uncle’s body, while fighting back angry tears. Angela tells Matt her suspicion that the police killed her uncle, and Matt (unconvincingly) tries to tell her he’s just not sure. “You have to believe someone will find his killer.” But it’s unclear if Matt is trying to convince Angela or himself. He knows as well as anyone that the cops were almost certainly involved.

BB Urich Takes Advantage of Drunk Daniel’s Loose Lips

Meanwhile, we see the serial killer/graffiti artist we know from the comics as Muse takes a body (dead or alive still? We’re not sure) to his lair in the subway tracks. At the same time, at a hipster bar in Manhattan, BB Urich (Genneya Walton) is drinking with her friends, including Wilson Fisk’s young acolyte, Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini). Drunk off his ass, Daniel lets slip to BB that Fisk is going to meet with a new group of tech recyclers. If he hired them, it would break the city’s union contracts. BB is a savvy reporter like her late uncle Ben and realizes this is information she’s going to put in her blog.

Across the street, the police apprehend a man named Leroy Bradford (Charlie Hudson III) for stealing snacks from a local convenience store, while the cops who arrest him literally eat the evidence themselves. It’s not as if they paid for them, but all of this just illustrates how there are two systems of justice at play here. Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) calls Matt and tells him to meet the arrested man in detention. He’s someone with a long rap sheet of small, petty crimes, the kind of hard luck case that she knows Matt can’t resist.

Things Get Tense at Fisk Family Therapy

At another therapy session, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) sits down with Wilson and Vanessa Fisk. They are sitting a little closer together on the couch this time, so maybe things are getting better between the two? She finally gets them to talk about Vanessa’s affair with a man named Adam when Wilson was away. As she talks about this mysterious Adam guy, Fisk becomes increasingly agitated. It only gets worse when Vanessa talks about Adam’s “amazing hands” lustily, and we learn he was an artist. It’s evident she’s talking about him this way to make her husband insanely jealous….and it’s clearly working. Does Vanessa have a death wish?

Vanessa tells Heather that the appeal of Adam was that “he wasn’t part of my husband’s world.” And it’s pretty clear to Heather just what Vanessa means by that. Wilson admits he confronted Adam, and they had “a dialogue.” When Heather asks “Where’s Adam now?,” the couple says “I don’t know” at the same time. It’s pretty clear at least one of them knows where he is, and just isn’t saying. Since Wilson Fisk was famously a mob boss before becoming Mayor, Heather is appropriately spooked. Before the session ends, Heather speaks to Vanessa alone, and asks if she feels safe in her marriage. “My husband is capable of many things. Harming me is not one of them.” Does Vanessa believe that though? We had doubts.

Someone in the MCU Remembers Skrulls Exist

Matt meets with Leroy Bradford in jail who laughs that his lawyer is “the blind dude.” Matt goes over the charges with him, which is petty larceny for stealing five boxes of snacks from a bodega. Leroy says he didn’t do it, but Matt reminds him that all the security cameras caught him doing it. In a rare moment acknowledging the wider MCU, Leroy asks if it could have been a Skrull. This directly refers to the shapeshifting aliens from Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion. Matt quickly shoots that theory down. From an MCU standpoint, this is the first acknowledgment of the Skrull panic that even Brave New World didn’t mention once.

Matt tells Bradford that it’s his rap sheet that’s his biggest enemy, and he needs to take a plea deal. Bradford refuses anything from Matt that doesn’t include probation. Matt doesn’t get him probation, but he gets Bradford down to 10 days by flirting with a lovely woman who works at the station. Once again, Matt Murdock’s sexy charms work in his favor.

Matt Confronts the Crooked Cop He Blames for Hector Ayala’s Death

Matt encounters Officer Powell in the precinct, and flat-out accuses him (or one of his cop buddies) of murdering Hector Ayala. Powell says he had nothing to do with Hector’s death, and Matt can tell by his heartbeat that he’s actually telling the truth. Powell tries to threaten Matt due to his beating the crap out of him, saying that the Bar Association wouldn’t take kindly to a lawyer beating cops within an inch of their lives. A little bit of Daredevil comes out of Matt at this moment when he says that next time, he’d better bring more guys so it’ll be a fair fight. It’s clear Matt is dying to put the suit on again and inflict some pain on the deserving.

At the run-down and dilapidated Red Hook port, Fisk tells his staff that he’s going to create a new development project on the site. He’s ready to make a big public announcement. He even has a little scale model of what it’s going to look like. He’s quickly reminded by his political advisor Sheila (Zabryna Guevara) that he can’t just announce things into existence. There’s simply too much red tape to go through when it comes to city government. This is clearly the part of being Mayor that Fisk absolutely hates. He just wants to will things into existence by the power of his personality. And that’s just not how things get done in the non-criminal world.

Back at the jail, Leroy isn’t happy with his 10-day sentence. Matt loses his patience, saying probation just wasn’t ever on the table with his criminal record. Leroy gives a painful explanation about how the system has failed him his whole life, and just wanted something like a pleasant dessert for once. ”They’re willing to spend five times more to lock me up than they’re willing to spend to feed me.” Matt knows he’s right.

Fisk Listens to School Kids Sing ’80s Songs, Subsequently Has a Rage Fit

Mayor Fisk has to go to a local middle school, where students greet him with a rendition of “We Built This City.” Fisk clearly would rather die than sit there and hear these precious children and their off-key tunes, and leaves before song #2. It’s pretty hilarious. Some warbling kids are the least of what he deserves. (We’d like to imagine they did another Starship song. Maybe “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now?”) It’s then that Daniel realizes he screwed up big time. Looking at his phone, he sees that BB Urich took the information about Fisk’s plans and ran a story on it calling him a Union Buster, using the information he drunkenly told her. He knows he’s in very deep shit.

Fisk then fully explodes in his office in front of his staff, threatening them all to find out who leaked the information to BB Urich. Daniel steps up in front of everyone and admits it was him. Fisk clears the room, but asks Daniel to stay. Expecting to be fired (or worse), Daniel profusely apologizes to Fisk, and basically grovels in front of him. Fisk is impressed with his honesty and refuses to fire him. “In the fullness of time, you’ll be a better man. But do something like this again, and it’ll be the last thing that you ever do.” Sheila is speechless, because she knows Fisk 100% means what he says. It feels like this is the moment where it truly dawns on her that she’s working for a criminal overlord for whom murder is always an option. It’s not an act.

Matt Murdocks Does a Little Detective Work, and a Punisher Reunion

At night, Matt goes to the scene of the crime, right where someone murdered Hector Ayala. He figures out that the casing went down a storm drain, and recovers it. He then visits a remote location in the city that looks like a bunker, and it turns out it’s the home of none other than Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher. A grizzled Frank attacks Matt, not realizing who he is at first. Castle is popping pills, in rough shape since last we saw him at the end of Punisher season two.

Matt tells him the bullet casing has his Punisher logo on it. Franks knows it’s one of his “fanboys,” most of whom he knows are cops. Matt accuses Frank’s murderous ways of inspiring the wrong people while Frank accuses him of being weak. The two have words before Frank plays the Foggy card. He screams at Matt that he should have killed Bullseye for what he did to his best friend. But instead, he quit and let “the system” handle it. The same system allows Bullseye to still live while Foggy is in the ground. Matt snaps and strikes Frank, but through tears he knows Frank’s right on some level.

Matt Starts Getting His Daredevil Mojo Again

At their mansion, Fisk realizes that earlier at their session, Heather Glenn asked Vanessa if she felt safe with him. Vanessa says she does. “But should I?” Even she knows that the man she loves is just one bad day from hurting her too, no matter what he says. She tells him ”I’m not the same woman I was when you left.” She’s right, as when Wilson was M.I.A., Vanessa took over his criminal empire, and ran it better than he did. All of this only makes his wife even more intriguing to him. Matt and Heather have a romantic night, after which Matt sneaks into his special “Mattcave,” where he has his weapons and his Daredevil masks. He tries out his billy clubs again, seeing if he’s still got it. Turns out, it’s just like riding a bike.

Wilson Fisk Has Dinner with a Guest

Across town, Fisk goes into a dingy basement/bunker where he sits down to eat what looks like a five-star meal. In that very same basement, inside a dank prison cell, is Adam, the man who had an affair with his wife. We don’t know how long he’s been there, but judging from Adam’s looks, it could have been weeks or months. Adam begs for his freedom, but instead Wilson just eats his dinner while listening to the man scream. It seems no matter how hard he tries to do good, Wilson Fisk is a monster through and through. He’s kept his promise to Vanessa to not kill Adam, but he never said anything about not tormenting him. We can guess that’s what caused his bruised and bloody knuckles these last few episodes.

Finally, we find that Muse has brought another victim, a male, to his murder lair. He’s alive and tied to a table, shades of Dexter, while the masked killer begins draining his blood. If anything is going to bring the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen out of retirement, it’ll likely be a serial killer in New York City. But we can’t imagine that Mayor Fisk will take kindly to a serial killer running loose in “his” city either.

And that is our recap of the fourth episode of Daredevil: Born Again. More revelations will surely arise for Matt Murdock’s long-awaited return next week.

The post DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN Season 1, Episode 4 Recap, New Revelations from “Sic Semper Systema” appeared first on Nerdist.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/shoresy-4-part-2-review/

If you were to tell me that a spin off focused on a bit character of a Canadian sitcom about a town of less than 5,000 people that we never saw the face of was going to be one of my favorite shows of the 2020s, well there is a part of me that probably would have believed you the moment you mentioned it was primarily about a hockey team. But there would be a bit of incredulity behind my eyes.

After being introduced to Letterkenny back in 2019, once I got past Fartbook, I was entranced by an utterly hypnotic depiction of Canadian small-town life: the Hicks, the Jocks, the Skids, the Natives, the Memonites, and the occasional out-of-towner. The was a cleverness in the writing, a delightful droll in the delivery, and all around, it was good at endearing you to the quirky members of the town. I also very distinctively remember the brilliant cold open of the season 1 recap that opened season 2.

It was in this two-minute stretch that I became convinced of the creative genius of Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney. Over the next several years, Letterkenny season drops on Hulu became appointment television. It led to much lamenting when the series ended in 2023 and much rejoicing when the spin off was announced. Omar dropped a review on the first season back in 2022, and honestly, we’ve done the world a disservice by not talking about the Sudbury Bulldogs even more. So, we’re gonna fix that now…admittedly, a couple weeks after season 4 aired stateside on Hulu, but sometimes it takes a second to reflect upon greatness properly.

Part 1 of Shoresy, which is chronicled between Season 1 through Season 3, details a fairly familiar sport arc drama. A team on a losing streak determined to never lose again, eventually losing at a critical moment before resolving to not let the momentum go to waste and to press forward despite the physical and mental tribulations ahead. When the season 3 end credits rolled “End of Shoresy… Part 1”, I fist pumped into the air, knowing that I’d get to spend more time with this lovable hockey team and knowing that the series was going to be fundamentally different.

A major arc in the third season was the titular character Shorsey coming to terms with the fact that after a lifetime of making hockey his life, his body could not handle the physical taxation that came from the sport. The final game of the tournament, of the season (both in and out of universe), would be his last game as a player on the ice. And this is a man whose entire identity is centered around hockey. His love for the game, for his team, has sustained him and given him a purpose, and it is also actively killing him.

This is not the first piece of sports media to delve into such a character (Hajime No Ippo, another Omar approved piece of sports fiction, also famously delved into such) having to reckon with life after a professional career is finished, but there is such a specific intimacy we get to see witnessing Shoresy go through. This is a man who we met through trashtalking teammates through bathroom stalls to seeing a very complete and complex life adrift. Trying to find opportunities in media, trying to maintain his relationships with his teammates, trying to pursue love in more seriously, and trying to find this new version of himself. In classic Letterkenny/Shoresy/Jared Keeso fashion, a recurring sentiment is the call of “You’re good at coaching Shorsey” to the response of “I don’t think I can go coach. I’d just want to jump onto the rink and do it myself.”

Season 4 of Shoresy invites us to follow in a bittersweet revelry. The Sudbury Bulldogs are celebrating their win and coming to terms with the fact that the heart of their team is no longer going to be there in the same capacity. And it’s brilliant between Jared Keeso, Tasya Teles, Jonathan-Ismaël Diaby, Terry Ryan, Ryan McDonell, Andrew Antsanen, Camille Sullivan, and the rest of the cast bring their best comedic and dramatic chops to tell an off-season story that is just as compelling as the tournament arcs of yesteryear.

This is a season about what it means to mentor, about what it means to go where you are needed, about the work required to love something, love someone one, and how that work/love changes you. Jared Keeso’s writing is as a quick-witted as ever, and Dan Skene and Sean Skene behind the camera direct each episode with as deft hands as you’d see during a hockey math, combining brilliant cinematography with an absolutely pitch perfect music accompaniment. It is inspiring and heartwarming in all the right ways, with just the right amount of crass and abrasiveness.

It is fantastic, tight television. A vision of serialized storytelling that you should be watching if you have any inclination towards hockey or just good media. You can watch the entire season over the weekend if you haven’t already. I would implore you to do so, because I desperately need more Shoresy in my life, and you probably do too.

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The post Weeks Later, I Am Still Thinking About the Start of ‘Shoresy’, Part 2 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.