DC

Earlier this month, X-Men fans were treated to Logan, a Wolverine movie … without Wolverine. A sort of adaptation of the comic Old Man Logan (although more in tone than plot), the movie imagines a future where mutants are nearly all dead, and a barely hanging on Logan is low-key doing chauffeur work to take care of a decrepit Charles Xavier. When some bad guys go after a young girl named Laura suddenly in Logan’s care, the ex X-Man takes a road trip to get her to safety --- while killing a lot of people who get in their way.’ While some are comparing Logan to Deadpool, the other R-rated film starring a Marvel hero from the past year, we should be looking at its similarities to another superhero film from 2017 instead; The Lego Batman Movie.

This week, the Flash is good, but Abra Kadabra? He's magic. Also, Caitlin goes into surgery, and Joe deals with a moral dilemma. "Abra Kadabra" was directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado, with a story by Andrew Kreisberg, and teleplay by  Brooke Roberts & David Kob.

Over the past few years, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti have carved out their own little corner of the DC Universe and filled it with some of its weirdest antics and strangest characters. The writing team has been responsible for shepherding Harley Quinn through her most popular years in pop culture, and will soon take on the duties of re-inventing The Jetsons for a modern age. ComicsAlliance caught up with the team, who are also a married couple, to talk about their approach to Harley, their luck with artistic collaborators, and translating millennial fears to a hopeful post-apocalypse.

The Flash made lofty promises that Season 4 would break tradition with a non-speedster big bad, and our first hint toward next year’s villain might get your mind running. A small clue from this week’s “Abra Kadabra” may suggest Barry has a date with “The Thinker” in his future, once Savitar is put to rest.

The season’s storylines start wrapping up in this week’s “Doomworld,” as the team finds itself in a warped alternate reality where things are supposed to be really bad, but they’re only just kinda sorta bad. But then they get really bad after the Legends try to fix it. That’s their M.O. The episode was directed by Mairzee Almas, from a script by Ray Utarnachitt and Sarah Hernandez.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.

The Flash has primarily made use of time-travel to visit the past, but with Savitar’s murder of Iris looming, a trip to the future is in order. As such, next month’s “Once and Future Flash” may finally introduce us to the 2024 Barry, complete with a much more comic-looking costume.

With VR an up-and-coming storytelling medium, all the big studios want in on the action. Gone are the days of 4-D pirate adventures with seats that spit water into your face. The people don’t want to be in the movie anymore, they want to be the movie. The latest studio to get into the biz is Warner Bros., inking a deal with IMAX’s new VR component for virtual reality experiences based around the Justice League.

Because Marvel and DC seem to have gotten wind of the majority of our culture’s at best toleration of and at worst boredom with the current cookie-cutter state of superhero movies, both studios have been looking to bring in some new talent. Many of the upcoming films on Marvel’s slate will be directed by folks who only recently made their indie debuts. Now it looks like the studios are looking for fresh takes on the material in some more unexpected places. Like Aaron Sorkin, for instance.

This week, Supergirl is back from her cross-dimensional musical adventure, and Mon-El’s guest star parents are still floating above the earth in their big spaceship waiting to ground him. Also, Alex meets one of Maggie’s exes! “Distant Sun” was directed by Kevin Smith from a script by Gabriel Llanas and Anna Musky-Goldwyn.