[THIS IS YOUR ONLY SPOILER ALERT! USE IT WISELY]

Sam and Dean investigate a string of gruesome murders and discover the Egyptian god Osiris is behind the deaths. The vengeful god is putting people on trial for their past mistakes and killing them if found guilty. Osiris homes in on Dean’s guilt and decides he’s the next to stand trial. Sam steps in as Dean’s lawyer, but both brothers are unprepared when Osiris calls an unexpected witness – Jo.

The boys get a break from the hell that the leviathans are causing in Defending Your Life. Written by Adam Glass and directed by Robert Singer, this episode is a cleverly disguised clip episode detailing some of the major plot threads that got Sam and Dean to this point.

Dean is finding it bizarre that they have a run-of-the-mill case compared to their recent leviathan woes when he and Sam arrive to investigate a rather ‘normal’ case but find it’s very abnormal to say the least. A car has apparently killed a man in his 10th floor apartment and the only clue the boys have is some red dirt in the apartment. While they are handling the investigation of the car hit, Sam thanks Dean for his understanding about not killing Amy (last week’s episode, The Girl Next Door) which Dean conveniently forgets to mention has been taken care of.

After another man is killed, this time in an apparent dog attack while in the restroom of a diner, Sam and Dean try to line up the clues. Outside of the red dirt, it appears that the two men are dying under curious circumstances that surrounded their lives. The first guy was a sober alcoholic that killed someone in a drunk driving related accident while guy #2 was a convicted man guilty of running dog fighting rings (insert appropriate Michael Vick joke here) who had thus reformed and was an animal rights activist. The red dirt leads the boys to an apple orchard where they encounter a completely spooked man running into open traffic running from a farm where he was just put on trial.

Dragging the man back to their motel room, Sam and Dean hear out the man’s story about an abandoned barn with a man presiding over a makeshift court with no jury and only one true executioner. The judge is even making ghosts appear of the man’s murder victims from a liquor store robbery from 1981 — an act that he served 30 years for and just recently gotten paroled of. Warren the ex-con explains that he was at the same bar that one of the men whose death Sam and Dean were investigating. He got jumped and then found himself in the barn on trial. Dean’s basically had enough of this case because it seems that all the dead people had it all coming to them in the first place, but Sam knows it’s a real case. Offering Warren some protection, he leaves him in the motel room in a circle of salt with the television running and calls Bobby.

Because he’s tired and doesn’t want to devote time investigating the case anymore, Dean decides to check the bar and tells Sam to check out the barn if he wants. Sam gives one warning: DON’T DRINK. Dean, being Dean, goes to the bar, starts getting hammered and begins hitting on his lovely bartender while at the same time starts baring his naked soul to her in earshot of a bar patron that earlier bumped into him.

At the barn, Sam gets a phone call from Bobby who identifies their latest perp: Egyptian God Osiris. Osiris likes to weigh in the guilt of the human heart, being judge, jury and executioner. If Osiris finds you guilty, you’re dead. And Sam just let his own brother, a person notorious for feeling remorse for any and everything he does, go off alone to a bar. Sure enough, Dean gets snatched while waiting to get lucky from the bartender as the guy from the orchard accidentally breaks the circle of salt Sam left him in four his own protection and gets executed by the ghosts of the two people he killed in the robbery. After going into a small panic, Sam gets the news that Dean’s disappeared and heads back to the barn to find Dean before it’s too late.

Osiris (Faran Tahir — Warehouse 13, Star Trek) plays it pretty straight letting Dean know that the chains he’s in are definitely Houdini-proof and that he has a very loose tongue when he’s drunk. As the trial for Dean starts, Osiris calls out Sam who decides the only way to help is to defend his brother in court. Osiris throws his weight around swiftly with threats of death and removal of tongues for contempt of court before calling witnesses to Dean’s trespasses, starting with Jo (Alona Tal).

Having died in the Season 5 episode Abandon All Hope along with her mother Ellen while trying to thwart Lucifer’s summoning of the Horseman Death, Osiris asks Jo compelling questions that pulls out Dean’s feelings of guilt behind her death. Sam cross examines Jo, and they quickly discredit Osiris’ case by proving that the real reason she became a hunter was because of her father, not Dean, and that her death may have very well happened whether she knew Dean Winchester or not. Osiris quickly dismisses Jo and puts Sam on the stand next to testify. Trying to use Dean as the ultimate fall guy for why Sam is the way he is, Sam makes a case by simply saying that Dean is not the reason he would have been pulled back into the life of a hunter.

Osiris reveals that people want to be judged for their actions and that their feelings of guilt measure their lives. Sam gets Osiris to concede to letting Dean take the stand and gets Dean to realize that he’s not really remorseful for the people who have had bad done in their life, just that he feels deeply for what has happened. Osiris manages to bait Dean into succumbing to his feelings of guilt by dangling the possibility of calling Amy to testify and sentences him to death.

Bobby comes through with a solution that’s temporary, but will definitely keep Osiris off their trail for the rest of their lives and Dean knows that Jo’s coming to execute him. While Sam hunts down Osiris, Dean and Jo have a conversation and Jo tells Dean that it’s not all his fault for how any of it turned out. Unable to really shake the fact that he seems to be at the center of so much personal loss, Dean is ready to die when Sam makes his play for Osiris, ending the game. Jo disappears and Dean’s life is saved.

As the episodes closes out, Dean tells Sam that he would have probably made a decent lawyer, all things considered. Dean still doesn’t fess up to the situation with Amy, but in the end, it’s Sam that tells him that he doesn’t really feel guilty about his past because it’s behind him and that he has to move on.

Next week, Dean and Sam encounter a pair of witches having the mother of all domestic disputes in the coming episode Shut Up, Dr. Phil.

All week, THQ games are on sale upwards of 75% with a giant mega pack containing 15 titles (including Darksiders, Red Faction, Metro 2033, etc.) at half-off for $49.99. With a new special every day, check out the THQWeek2011 page at Steam.

Sony has issued an alert to all customers and subscribers of their services detailing “detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (“Networks”) services to test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database.”

Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer, Philip Reitinger explained that login and password information used was obtained from “one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources.” Reitinger also assured customers that credit card numbers are not at risk. Sony has temporarily locked those approximate across 93,000 PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment accounts and sent e-mail notifications to the account holders requiring them to reset their passwords.

You can read the full statement in a post on the EU PlayStation blog.

[THIS IS YOUR ONLY SPOILER ALERT! USE IT WISELY]

The ending of last week’s episode Hello, Cruel World left Sam and Dean in one terrible mess. Bobby’s gone, a leviathan tore them a new set of hind parts and to make matters worse, they were being ushered to leviathan central headquarters. It only gets worse from there…

Slipping in and out of consciousness, Dean realizes that he and Sammy have been separated while doctors are rushing to set his broken leg. After being slipped a morphine cocktail and following a small coma, Dean wakes up in a hospital bed and realizes he needs to shag ass quickly and find his brother — hopefully alive — before they’re toast. It’s only after taking a tumble off the bed that he quickly realizes he’s in serious trouble. A broken leg is the worst way to make an evac when something’s out there that literally wants to eat you. Not sure how he’s going to get out of this, Dean suddenly gets a surprise visit from one and only Bobby Singer! In full FBI-dress.

Bobby reassures Dean that he’s not dead and motivates him to get it together so they can find Sam and slip out of the hospital but the hounds have already been alerted and are on the loose. After managing to wrangle up Sam, Bobby hijacks an ambulance and Dean makes it just in time for the leviathans to show up and miss their chance to slay the Winchesters. Thus begins The Girl Next Door…

If you were like me, you knew Bobby wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. Without Castiel, if Bobby goes, the brothers may as well have checked out as well. Bobby gets the boys to a new safe house thanks to fallen hunter Rufus (who died in last season’s episode …And Then There Were None) and the men finally get a chance to recover and try to make sense of what has gone wrong. Three weeks later, Sam is still dealing with the hallucinations though a lot better than when Castiel first broke him open. Bobby has learned that more and more leviathans are cropping up with hunters reporting disastrous results from every encounter. Dean is chomping at the bit to get his cast off.

After having a small discussion on what to do next, Bobby sets off to collect his books that he has scattered all over while Sam goes on a food run. At the counter paying for his stuff, Sam notices a newspaper with a disturbing headline that is too peculiar to be coincidence. As Sam’s credit card is being processed it generates a hit at a credit monitoring center that immediately alerts the leviathans to the possible whereabouts of the hunters. As antagonists for the current season, the leviathans are proving to be a lot more cunning than pretty much anything else that’s been on the Winchester’s scent to date…

Remembering back to a case he worked when he was younger, Sam waits for the opportunity to ditch Dean and Bobby and steals the Impala taking off for Lincoln, Nebraska to see if his hunch is certain. Having been waiting for the other shoe to drop, Dean wigs out, removes his cast from his leg and takes off to find his brother who, for all he knows, could be tripping once again with the devil on his shoulder.

After Sam gets all of the clues together, he’s certain what he’s after. It’s a kitsune that’s on the loose. It’s also the same kitsune he encountered when he was 14, a girl named Amy (the adult version being played by the all grown up Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis alum Jewel Staite). Sam manages to track down Amy before she has a chance to claim a new victim and the two catch up. After seeing flashbacks of what happened in 1998 the first time they met, Sam needs to know why Amy is on a killing spree, especially after what they did together as teenagers.

Dean manages to track down Sam (of course) and after all the history is spilled, Dean understands what Sam was going through, despite the newfound trust issues. But trust issues is at the heart of the very matter and people are who they are. Dean manages to lose Sam for a moment and then tracks down Amy and does what Sam couldn’t do for nearly 13 years. The episode ends with a total shout-out to Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and a leviathan chowing down on a cheddar cheese snack…

Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin and directed by Jensen Ackles (his second director credit for the show) The Girl Next Door has us back to a more regular pace that the past seasons of Supernatural have seen before. Even though I love the pacing the past few episodes have had with cliffhanger endings starting with last season’s The Man Who Knew Too Much and following through with this season’s Meet the New Boss and Hello, Cruel World, it’s definitely welcome entertainment for the show to be back to a sense of normalcy back to the show (for however much Supernatural can be normal). The leviathan situation is going to be a really big problem for the boys, but if the past season is any indicator, much more is coming.

Be back for Defending Your Life, next week’s episode.

(By the way, where in the hell is Ruby’s knife at?)

DC’s 52 issue re-launch is officially in the bag and today moving on with second issues being released even as I type this. What are the lessons we can all take away from this?

People like first issues (and surprises):

Yes, that’s true. I have three issues of Spawn #1 to bear this out. First issues allow you to get in on the ground floor of things. Of course, most folks will always want to get in on no-brainers such as Batman #1 but what it really did and should be is help you find new characters and creators. Of all 52 titles initially released, I’d have ranked Animal Man very low on my “BUY” list. WRONG! Oh, how wrong I was. Having read Animal Man 1 & 2, it is a comic you deserve to be reading. It is smart, well-drawn and has a plot that dares the reader to not follow-up. The true success of Animal Man was that not only did it make me add the title to my pull list but it made me seek out other things by AM writer Jeff Lemire such as Sweet Tooth and Essex County and I’m glad DC opened that particular door.

People (me) don’t like it when you Yoga-tize a smart, capable woman of color who was OK with not being rail-thin:

DC, you’d better bring back my capable, fat, black Amanda Waller who scares Batman and reminds me of my own mother.

Do it NOW.

DC, whenever you would massively screw something up, I could always point to Amanda Waller as the one thing you’d gotten right from the get-go and kept it right. From her first appearance on, I always loved that Amanda Waller had no problem with who she was. She was a short, fat black woman who through years of hardship and hard work, earned the right to be whoever she damned well pleased. I appreciated that in at least one instance in the DC Universe, someone had thrown out the cookie cutter and asked of the artist to draw what needed to be seen. Let Amanda Waller eat again, DC.

People, nailing a face to a wall doesn’t say, “Detective:”

In Detective Comics #1, the end comes with a fairly well-known Batman antagonist having his face nailed to a wall. Maybe it’s just me but this plays more as “Saw” Comics than “Detective” comics. For a better use of the “detective” theme, see Batman #1.

People (Men) don’t draw women like ladies:

Having read Catwoman #1, I can see what others have been going on about. Yes, when you see Catwoman for the first time you may think, “Wow, the new Catwoman comes with less head,” due to the artist’s drawing her as a flashing series of ass and boob shots before we even see her face two pages later culminating in a four page sex scene where she gets her fratboy on and pretty much sexually assaults Batman. This scene is gratuitous and does not honor the characters at all. They deserve better and as I read this issue, all I could think was,“ When did Catwoman become “Crazy Nasty Ass Honey Badger?” Get it together, guys. Everyone deserves better.

That said, what did YOU take away from DC’s 52 #1?

There’s something to be said for local and unsigned bands. Be it their passion to get their names out or the spirit of the message they deliver with their music, I’ll stand behind any ‘up and comer’ band almost immediately compared to your every day signed act. Enter Alternative Rock group Aduro, a local act hailing from Norfolk, Virginia.

With already one EP under their belt, Aduro (whose name is latin derivative from the term ‘set ablaze’) is poised to set the world on fire with a sound that has to literally be heard to be appreciated. It could be their energy, or even their sound, but my betting money is on their personality. Every group has their calling card and Aduro’s personality is a signature that is truly unique to experience. Every track from the band’s current EP ‘Listen…‘ resonates with a musical vibe that’s a combination of edge, feel good and inspirational.

Lead singer Travis Heath’s vocals deliver a soulful sound that elevates the music to a level that’s quite past the humbling alternative demeanor of their music but completely complimenting the overall sound of the band. With the talents of Mujtaba Habib on guitar, William Manley on drums, Shannon Farrell with keys and vocals and Jason Durso on bass, Aduro’s sound isn’t cookie-cutter at all. The opening track House of Cards grabs you immediately with its playful guitar, mellow drums and rich vocals and before you know it, you’re experiencing a different taste of rock that most of today’s alternative bands can’t begin to compete with.

Based out of Norfolk, VA, Aduro is currently in the studios wrapping up production on their second EP release which is slated for release in November. The group is also planning for an East Coast concert tour and are currently competing for a spot in the Live at Aloft Hotels: 50 Days of Music competition to open for Daughtry, O.A.R. and other bands in Napa, CA. You can learn more about them via Twitter@aduromusic and follow the group on Facebook.

Check out Aduro’s EP Listen…  at http://aduro.bandcamp.com/ and swing by the Live at Aloft Hotels: 50 Days of Music website and grab a free track from them just by voting for the group in the competition.

Recently, I was asked the question, “What was your first ever comic?”

It’s odd how much joy this question brought me because until about a month ago, I’d completely forgotten what the exact comic was. I knew that I just simply loved comics. I mean, does a fat kid remember his first slice of pizza? Does a furry remember the first time they… you know, I wouldn’t even know.

With comics, you just know that somehow, you got to this place and that, to this day, you still enjoy it.

The comic shop, as we know it, is a strong and mighty thing.

So was the record industry. And much like the record industry, digital threatens to take a substantial bite out of the industry pie.

We’ve heard the arguments:

“Comics cost too much.”

“They’re doing too many crossovers. Who can afford to keep up with them all.”

“Comics haven’t been very good lately. Why should I pay for something I may not want?”

“Digital.”

Sure, alot of the blame could and SHOULD lay at the feet of the comics publisher but you know what? I’ve never published a comic so I can only talk about what I know: selling comics in a comic book store.

Reactions to the revealing of a young biracial teen as the new Ultimate Universe Spider-Man have, quite frankly, not surprised me. Not even a little bit.

I have to say Marvel Comics has a steady stream of hits for the conversion of their properties from printed medium to the big screen. Blade, X-Men, Iron Man, and now Captain America: The First Avenger has all reminded fans what they love about their heroes. Captain America follows on the heels of a ring slinging space cop and the boy wizard to make its stamp on this superpower packed summer, and it delivers with this genuinely exciting and fun superhero period piece.

If you are an avid comic reader, as myself, then you know the story of scrawny yet full of heart Steve Rogers.  A sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into Captain America to help the war effort. To revitalize this point The First Avenger delves deeper into the selection process of how Rogers was chosen for the Super Soldier project. Much emphasis is placed on the type of man Rogers’ is prior to receiving the serum, the fact that it’s his heart and determination that’s his true power. A little sappy I know but it comes across more inspiring than preachy.

Chris Evans gives a stellar performance as the good captain and I was only too happy, not to see a hint of Evans’ portrayal of the Human Torch show up. Evans played Captain America through and through and wasn’t anywhere near as one dimensional as some of the other actors portraying more than one type of comic character. Tommy Lee Jones’ Chester Phillips added a heavy dose of legitimacy to the war scenes to insure that the spandex wouldn’t overrun the movie. Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull came across as a little flat and nowhere near as terrifying as I thought the Skull should be. Of course what would a Marvel movie be if it wasn’t loaded with Easter eggs. Long time fans will recognize the Howling commandos, Uncle Stan and plenty more cameos and references.

With all comic properties a certain amount of changes can be expected when being translated to film, some good, some bad, and others just awful. The changes made to the First Avenger actually accentuate the story and the death (or lack there of) of two major players hint at the possibilities that we as fans can only hope for in future installments. Lastly Captain America satirized the country’s ability to hero worship in making him the pitchman for war bonds by the government where he knocked out a phony Hitler from city to city which lead to recruitment posters, movie rolls and even, dare I say it comics.

If you think you’ve had your fill of this superhero summer then you will miss out on an impressively solid film, that doesn’t fall into the cliché of other superhero films. Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Captain America: The First Avenger premiered in Hollywood on July 19, 2011 and is scheduled for general release on July 22, 2011.

B+

LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.