Community - Basic Sandwich

Concluding the show's Fifth Season, "Basic Sandwich" finds the Save Greendale Committee searching the campus for the hidden computer lab of the college's founder (Chris Elliott) who disappeared in the 1970s (along with an entire wing of the school) while doing research on computer intelligence capable of emotion. Realizing that the circuitry of this creation was made almost entirely out of gold, the group searches frantically for treasure which they could use to stop Subway from buying the campus.

Re-Released on Home Video: Mallrats

I know some who believe Mallrats is Kevin Smith's best film. I don't. Although I think you can enjoy the slacker young adult comedy for what it is, Mallrats hasn't aged all that well. The film stars Jeremy London and Jason Lee as best friends hanging out at the mall attempting to win back their girlfriends, one of whom (Shannen Doherty) is now dating Ben Affleck and another who (Claire Forlani) is a contestant on a dating game show taking place that night in the mall.

Filling out the cast with an assortment of odd characters the likes of slacker drug dealers Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) as well as Stan Lee (playing himself), Michael Rooker (as the overprotective father of Forlani's character who ropes her into performing on the dating show causing the break-up), Priscilla Barnes (as a low-rent psychic), and Renée Humphrey (as a sexually experienced minor whose sexual adventures play a major role in the final sequence of events).

Astro City #11

The latest single-issue tale of the new Astro City offers a glimpse into the daily life of the assistant to the most powerful magic user in the realm of Astro City - the Silver Adept (a powerful sorceress with a bit of both Dr. Fate and Doctor Strange thrown in).

Although the Adept makes appearances throughout the issue, Astro City #11 focuses almost entirely on the sorceress' assistant who keeps the mystic warrior's house in order, tries to rearrange an impossible schedule allowing the Adept to appear when needed, and, when called upon (as she is here) step up for the missing Silver Adept to reconcile issues for very powerful other-wordly creatures.

Writer Kurt Busiek and artist Brent Anderson have a flair for telling this kind of story focused on those on the periphery of the super-powerful individuals and eventful moments in the world of Astro City while continuing to deliver one of the best monthly comics available. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $3.99]

Arrow - The Man Under the Hood

With Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) missing, Thea (Willa Holland) still pissed at him for hiding her parentage, his family facing potential financial ruin, Officer Lance (Paul Blackthorne) in prison, and Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) in complete control of Queen Consolidated, Oliver (Stephen Amell) and his team turn their attention to an enemy they can fight: Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett). Bombing his former company's applied sciences wing, Oliver, Sara (Caity Lotz), Diggle (David Ramsey), and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) prevent Slade from getting his hands on the equipment he needs to synthesize the super-soldier serum and create his new army.

Star Wars #16

With a grounded and disgruntled Luke heading off with some of the locals to change a fuel cell on a mountain outpost the latest issue of Star Wars shows us the farm boy from Tatooine and his friends are hardly the only ones with serious doubts about Leia's impending wedding and the new alliance between the Rebels and Arrochar.

As Leia fights pressure to act in a manner more befitting a princess from both her fiance and the aristocracy of the rich world which will make a powerful ally for the Rebellion, Luke spends time with the locals who are far less convinced that Arrochar should shed its isolation and get involved in a conflict which hasn't concerned them until now.

Continuing to foreshadow the betrayal of Leia's betrothed and Arrochar, the latest issue also gives us a glimpse at an Imperial Probe Droid making it a good bet that the Empire knows exactly where the leaders of the Rebel Alliance are to be found. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]