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16 Dec

Best Books of 2021

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It’s been a difficult year for the publishing industry, as global supply chain issues, as well as labor and paper shortages, have led to delays. But many wonderful and nerdy books have made it over those obstacles to make it into the world and into our eyeballs and brains. As we reflect back on 2021, here are 20 books—from horror to fantasy to science fiction—that meant something to Den of Geek staff and contributors over the past year. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix 2021 has seen something of a slasher renaissance in film, with the Fear Street…

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16 Dec

Star Wars: What The Book of Boba Fett Trailers Might Be Hiding

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Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett is only a few weeks away, marking a major turning point for the fan-favorite character who was originally “killed off” on the big screen in 1983. But now Boba Fett‘s back (played by Temuera Morrison) and teaming up with assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) to take over Jabba the Hutt’s old criminal empire on Tatooine. According to the trailers released so far, the prime focus of the seven-episode series will be Boba and Fennec’s adventures on the dangerous desert planet and their quest to reunite Jabba’s captains under their banner. But could there…

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16 Dec

Hawkeye Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Marvel Comics References

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This article contains Hawkeye episode 5 spoilers, as well as potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU. Hawkeye Episode 5 It’s Yelena Belova’s world, we just live in it. Or maybe it’s Wilson Fisk’s. Either way, the two characters everybody’s gonna be talking about after Hawkeye episode 5, “Ronin” for once, aren’t Clint Barton or Kate Bishop. It’s a “light on Easter eggs” kind of episode, but there’s still some cool connections to be made. And as always, we’d love to hear from you about anything we might have missed! BLACK WIDOW We get a lot of ties…

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15 Dec

Spider-Man: No Way Home Originally Had a Civil War Cover Story

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The secrets of Spider-Man: No Way Home have escaped into the ether, thanks to a plethora of advance reactions (including our own review) and even some leaks, but most moviegoers remain enthusiastically unsullied going into this weekend’s wide release. While this is arguably a testament to Sony’s ability for keeping crucial secrets, the studio originally had loftier plans when it comes to the film’s marketing strategy, according to Tom Holland. Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which the threequel’s heralded multiverse villains served as a surprise plot twist. Sony Pictures has spent months inundating us with Spider-Man: No Way…

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15 Dec

Ben Affleck Being Done with ‘IP Movies’ Puts Final Nail in His Batman’s Coffin

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Ben Affleck just gave one of the best performances of his career. All preening entitlement and sneering arrogance, his performance in The Last Duel, which he co-wrote with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener, revels in an almost cartoonish level of debauchery. Yet it somehow works. If the film had been as warmly received by audiences as previous Ridley Scott-helmed epics like Gladiator (2000), one might even wonder if the turn could be a dark horse contender for awards season—alongside Jodie Comer’s devastating lead performance. But The Last Duel was not received at all, warmly or otherwise, by audiences since the…

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15 Dec

Why Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker is the Best MMO Expansion Ever

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In a year that saw Final Fantasy 14 steal so much momentum (and so many players) from World of Warcraft, there was a slight amount of trepidation surrounding the release of the MMO’s latest expansion, Endwalker. While many FF 14 fans certainly trust the game’s developers at this point, we’ve seen too many recent game releases ruin too much goodwill to not at least be aware of the possibility that Endwalker could derail this RPG’s incredible year and remarkable comeback. Instead, Endwalker is a triumph. It’s not only the best FF 14 expansion yet, but there’s a strong argument to…

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15 Dec

Willem Dafoe on Noir, Fate and Geeks in Nightmare Alley

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Willem Dafoe is having a moment. Four of them, actually. With this weekend marking the release of both Guillermo del Toro’s cynically bleak noir, Nightmare Alley, as well as the high-flying adventures of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the four-time Oscar nominated actor is at polar ends of the cinematic landscape: a chilly and cerebral awards-bound prestige drama with an Oscar winning auteur, and a superhero movie thrill ride that sees him reprise his arguably most popular role after nearly 20 years—the Green Goblin. And that’s just two of the four electric flavors he’s offering this fall when one considers his…

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15 Dec

Riverdale’s 100th Episode Is a Multiversal Celebration of All Things Archie

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This Riverdale review contains spoilers. Riverdale Season 6 Episode 4 “I know, it read it in the comics” For its 100th episode, Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa scripted what is easily the show’s most audacious episode. “The Jughead Paradox” had the unenviable task of wrapping up the entire “Rivervale” saga and setting the stage for the rest of the series’ sixth season — which will air when the show returns in the spring. That alone would be enough of a challenge for any writer to tackle, yet Aguirre-Sacasa ups the creative ante by having the installment also become a meta funhouse…

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15 Dec

Link Tank: The Best Individual Movie Scenes of 2021

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The bus fight in Nobody, the bus fight in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and more of the best scenes from 2021 films (not all of them are bus fights). “Today, we’re getting a little more granular on this rapidly elapsing, pandemic-shaped year for the cinema by looking at the movies within the movies: those unforgettable moments that served to either fortify the greatness of the films that contained them or offer a silver lining for the less-than-great ones they momentarily improved. These were the best scenes of the year, and they hailed from blockbusters and indies, musicals and action flicks,…

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15 Dec

Hawkeye Episode 5 Review: Fianchetto

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This review contains spoilers for Marvel’s Hawkeye Episode 5. Episode 5 of Marvel’s Hawkeye, “Ronin”, finally let most of our intrepid not-quite-heroes discover that they are just pawns in a bigger game between very some strategic players. It also saved its last shot for the reveal that fans of Netflix’s Daredevil have been waiting for: the return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, in his very first MCU appearance. But before that, some conversations needed to be had, and these extended chats occasionally found me checking the remaining episode time. Not because I was bored – far from it…

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15 Dec

Spider-Man Movie Villains Ranked from Worst to Best

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Your hero is only as good as your villain. That conventional bit of Hollywood wisdom has been disproved by many a superhero movie in the last decade. Nevertheless, there’s still something exciting about a comic book movie villain who does work. The kind that offers a performance as big and exciting as anything the do-gooders get up to. And in the realm of superhero movies, few characters have had a stronger roster of such baddies than the Spider-Man movies. Despite existing across three continuities, and three vastly different interpretations of the Web-Head, popularity for the best of Spidey’s rogues can…

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15 Dec

The Flash: Armageddon and the Secrets of Mia Queen’s Return

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The following article contains The Flash: armageddon spoilers. The Flash Season 8 Episode 5 Though Barry Allen managed to successfully thwart Eobard Thawne’s attempt to rewrite the timeline in the penultimate installment of The Flash: Armageddon, things aren’t quite back to normal just yet in Central City Not only does Team Flash have to stop Thawne once again in 2021, but they’ve also got to decide what to do with him afterward. The question of whether the monster that did them all so much harm is worthy of their mercy is precisely the sort of moral conundrum that superhero stories…

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14 Dec

Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker: Every Class Ranked Worst to Best

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While many Final Fantasy 14 players have spent most of the time since Endwalker‘s release staring at a queue screen, you will eventually get the chance to actually play this incredible expansion which means that you’re probably going to want to know a little about the best classes in the game. To be clear, Final Fantasy 14 has always excelled at the often tricky art of class balancing, and that trend continues in Endwalker. When we talk about one FF 14 class being better than another, we’re often talking about degrees of differences. More often than not, the best FF…

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14 Dec

The King’s Man Has the Best Action Scene You’ll See This Year

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This article contains mild spoilers for The King’s Man. It doesn’t matter what you thought of the previous Kingsman movies directed by Matthew Vaughn. Nor is it particularly important what you think of the new film’s trailers and overall concept about a goofy spy adventure set during World War I. Believe it or not, the one crucial thing you need to understand about The King’s Man is it has the most delightfully batshit fight scene you’ll see at the cinema this year. And that, dear reader, is worth the price of admission. The sequence in question involves Ralph Fiennes’ dapper…

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14 Dec

The Acting on Star Trek Is Good, Actually

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In the new multi-part History Channel documentary, The Center Seat, actor Armin Shimmerman — famous for playing Quark on Deep Space Nine — makes a poignant observation: Star Trek is really popular, but it’s not “beloved in Hollywood.” Shimmerman wasn’t throwing shade at the Hollywood establishment in general, but the point he was making was a little more nuanced: Despite being the most long-running, multi-faceted, and socially relevant science-fiction franchise in the history of both TV and film, Star Trek doesn’t get nominated, nor does it win, mainstream acting awards… like, ever. This fact is intellectually offensive when you start…

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14 Dec

Link Tank: Nicolas Cage Almost Played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings

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Sean Connery, Russell Crowe, Nic Cage, and more actors who almost landed roles in the iconic The Lord of the Rings trilogy. “This year marks the 20th anniversary of the cultural juggernaut that is Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which started with the release of The Fellowship of the Ring on December 19, 2001. The movies could have been a lot different, though, and not just because one executive apparently had Hobbit murder on the brain. Here are 11 actors who were almost cast in the blockbuster fantasy series.” Read more at Mental Floss The director of Sonic the Hedgehog 2…

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14 Dec

Spider-Man: No Way Home Review – Tom Holland Soars into the Multiverse

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For months now, the hype surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home has been inescapable. Ever since the massive cliffhanger ending of 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which the MCU version of J. Jonah Jameson both framed Spider-Man for the death of Mysterio and simultaneously revealed his secret identity, fans have been wondering how Peter Parker (Tom Holland) would confront the worst possibility he could imagine. How would he survive no longer being anonymous? Also, just who is this version of Jameson and why is he played by J.K. Simmons again after 14 years away from the role? It’s no spoiler…

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14 Dec

The Best Murder Mystery Roleplaying Holiday Gifts From Hunt A Killer

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This article is presented by Hunt A Killer True Crime aficionados want more than just documentaries during the holidays. They want murder corkboards of their own. Hunt A Killer is role-playing police procedural in a box. Each game is structured like a TV show, each episode uncovers a new breakthrough in the case. The Winter holidays are a perfect time to crack into a case. Here are the games that we recommend: Hunt A Killer E-Gifts Hunt A Killer has the ideal solution to last-minute gifts. After December 15th, most orders will not arrive before Christmas. But e-gifts can be…

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13 Dec

Shatner in Space: What William Shatner Learned During His Trip to the Final Frontier

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William Shatner has not lost his sense of adventure, wonder, or humor. But he has a serious message. The actor who originated the role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek may not have gone where no man has gone before, but he has touched the sky. His view from Blue Origin’s NS-18 suborbital flight that launched and landed Oct. 13 opened his eyes to a world he thought he knew, but he now worries about its fragility. Jeff Bezos’ $5.5 billion project which launched the New Shepard capsule flight may well be the most money ever paid for a documentary…

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13 Dec

Halo Infinite: What’s Next For the Game’s Story?

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This article contains spoilers for Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite‘s story may rely on nostalgia at times, but the game’s mysterious ending will almost certainly leave you wondering what is next for this franchise. While recent rumors strongly suggest that Halo Infinite will utilize a live service model (meaning that future Halo Infinite chapters will come in the form of DLC updates rather than entirely new games), pretty much everyone agrees that Microsoft and developer 343 Industries are very interested in continuing Infinite‘s story in one way or another. So while we don’t know what form the next chapter of Halo‘s…

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