Warning: This article contains spoilers for Creature Commandos season 1, episode 6.Welcome to the DCU, Batman. In the latest episode of Creature Commandos, Batman is standing on a rooftop, looking down at Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk). The brief appearance of the caped crusader marks his arrival in the DC Universe.Recommended VideosIn an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Creature Commandos creator James Gunn and director Dean Lorey spoke about Batmans inclusion in the latest episode. Gunn mentioned that the first edit of the episode featured more of Batman, something he changed rather quickly.Please enable Javascript to view this contentWhen they first gave it to me, we saw a lot more Batman, and I [was] saying, I am not ready to commit to that. Im not ready to commit to that. Im not ready to commit to that,' Gunn said. So I [was] just like more silhouette, more silhouette, more silhouette.'James Gunn Reveals BATMAN in Episode 6 of 'Creature Commandos'Gunn later confirmed that the Batman inCreature Commandosis the DCUs Batman. This ends the speculation that Robert Pattinsons Batman from Matt Reeves Batman universe would also play the DCUs version of the character. Plus, Batmans silhouette in Creature Commandosis much different than Pattinsons Batman.RelatedFor Gunn, the purpose of Batmans brief appearance is to prove his existence, meaning the character does not need an origin story.He [Batman] already exists in this universe, just like when we come to the Superman movie, we see that Superman already exists. Hes already known by the people in Metropolis. And so, we dont need to hear the origin story again, Gunn explained. Thats just a way to introduce that Batman is a part of this universe. Hes an important part of this universe, and he has an impact on it, including defeating such pretty dangerous, scary people. Like Phosphorus, whos pretty tough.The DCUs live-action Batman is set to appear in The Brave and the Bold. However, director Andy Muschietti recently mentioned that the film has been postponed a bit. Whenever the live-action Batman appears in the DCU, its clear that Gunn has huge plans for the character.This is the DCU Batman. Were going to do great things with him, Gunn added. Hes the most popular superhero in the world, and I cant wait for people to see more of him along with Superman and together.Editors Recommendations

Focus FeaturesTable of ContentsTable of ContentsThe Bikeriders (2023)Abigail (2024)Me Before You (2016)Looking for something to scare you silly? Perhaps a visually stunning, 1960s-set crime drama, or a romantic drama that will bring on the waterworks? Youre in luck! There are three underrated movies on Amazon Prime Video you need to watch in January 2025 that fit these parameters.Featuring stars like Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Dan Stevens, and Emilia Clarke, these movies are all from the last decade, two of them from the last few years. Theres something for every mood, so get the popcorn, maybe some tissues, turn down the lights, and enjoy!Recommended VideosNeed more recommendations? Then check out thebest new movies to stream this week, thebest movies on Netflix, thebest movies on Hulu, thebest movies on Amazon Prime Video, thebest movies on Max, and thebest movies on Disney+.RelatedThe Bikeriders (2023)THE BIKERIDERS - Official Trailer 2 [HD] - Only In Theaters June 21Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus, and other familiar faces star in this 1960s-set crime drama about the fictional Vandals Motorcycle Club. The Bikeriders follows the goings-on among the group members as they battle internally for power, get into dangerous situations with rivals, and deal with personal challenges.Named after the Danny Lyon photo book and inspired by the real-life Outlaws Motorcycle Club, The Bikeriders received decent reviews. Digital Trends Alex Welch calls it light, buoyant, and constantly engaging, adding that it offers an assured fun and supremely cool cinematic slice of 1960s American life.Stream The Bikeriders on Amazon Prime Video.Abigail (2024)Abigail | Official TrailerOf all the horror movies released throughout 2024, Abigail is one you may not have heard of. The horror comedy vampire movie, inspired by the 1936 movie Draculas Daughter, flips the concept of kidnapping on its head. A young ballet dancer named Abigail (Alisha Weir) is abducted by six criminals. But little do they know that she isnt an ordinary little girl, and they are the ones who should be afraid.Our reviewer describes Abigail as a wacky thrill ride with plenty of bite. While its heavy on the grotesque and runs a bit too long, the cartoonish violence is oddly satisfying if you appreciate that kind of thing. The movies specific brand of horror, our reviewer adds, demands that it find the right balance between tongue-in-cheek cleverness and outright absurdity.Stream Abigail on Amazon Prime Video.Me Before You (2016)Me Before You - Official Trailer [HD]Its not uncommon for critics to pan cheesy romantic films that fans absolutely adore. Such is the case with Me Before You, a romantic drama with a sappy, heartwarming, and sweet story. Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) is Louisa Lou Clark, caregiver for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin, Daisy Jones & the Six), a tetraplegic whose life as a successful banker and sportsman has been altered dramatically following a tragic motorcycle accident.Hired by Wills mother, the upbeat Lou is tasked with trying to help lift the understandably depressed Wills spirits and stop him from going through with an assisted suicide. Its easy to figure out where the story goes from here as Will is initially closed off until the two get to know one another better.Warner Bros.Yes, the story is devastating, unimaginable even. Me Before You has so many highs and lows, and its far from being a traditional romantic film. But if youre looking for a bona fide tearjerker, this is it.Stream Me Before You on Amazon Prime Video.Editors Recommendations

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series rumor mill has been turbulent, and thats putting it lightly. An unbelievable amount of information has emerged about this phone, but one debate that was never settled is whether it would use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip or the Exynos 2400 chip. Now we have an answer thanks to leaked benchmarks: its all Snapdragon, all the way.The most recent Galaxy S25 Geekbench results show a score of 2,986 single-core and 9,355 multi-core, a base frequency of 3.53GHz, and two separate processing clusters. The first has six cores clocked at 3.53GHz, and the second has two cores clocked at 4.47GHz, according to Tarun Vats on X.Recommended VideosThe key takeaway is under CPU information. It shows a Qualcomm ARM unit in the international version of the Galaxy S25, which is undoubtedly the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The international model of the Galaxy S24 used the Exynos 2400 chipset, and early on, the S25 was believed to follow the same pattern. This leaked score suggests that Samsung is placing all its bets on the Snapdragon in the next iteration.Please enable Javascript to view this contentBreaking Galaxy S25 (SM-S931B) just surfaced on Geekbench! Powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Processor with 12GB RAM! Single-Core: 2986Multi-Core: 9355 Snapdragon 8 Elite is officially confirmed for Vanilla model in International markets (India, Europe & more)! pic.twitter.com/9ySZFnKxRt Tarun Vats (@tarunvats33) December 31, 2024RelatedOf course, take this with some skepticism. Another leak from November pointed to the Exynos chip as the likely choice for the S25 series in Europe, so until the handset actually releases, we wont know for sure.Both the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Exynos 2400 are quality chips, but Snapdragon tends to be slightly more powerful and more energy-efficient than its competitor. The Galaxy S23 also used Snapdragon for every model in its lineup.The one downside to using the Qualcomm Snapdragon chips is the higher cost. Samsung would be able to reduce costs with the Exynos chip, but Snapdragon is the more popular format for most fans. Opting to use all Snapdragon chips for the S25 series is a smart plan, but it might also account for part of the rumored price increase in the Galaxy S25.Editors Recommendations

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Introducing Chul-Su Meet Squid Game S3s new killer doll After getting 68 million views in first three days, Squid Game's third season is already being teased.. Jennifer Ouellette Jan 2, 2025 12:58 pm | 3 Chul-Su is a new killer doll in S3 of Squid Game Credit: Netflix Chul-Su is a new killer doll in S3 of Squid Game Credit: Netflix Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreSquid Game's hotly anticipated second season debuted on Netflix the day after Christmas and racked up more than 68 million views in just three days. It had already been renewed for a third and final seasonfilmed back-to-back with S2but Netflix ushered in the new year by gracing us with a 15-second teaser on X, introducing a brand new killer doll dubbed Chul-susimilar to the giant "Red Light, Green Light" doll Young-hee.(Spoilers for S1 below; some spoilers for S2 but no major reveals.)As previously reported, the first season followed Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae, seen earlier this year in The Acolyte), a down-on-his-luck gambler who has little left to lose when he agrees to play children's playground games against 455 other players for money. The twist? If you lose a game, you die. If you cheat, you die. And if you win, you might also die.In the S1 finale, Gi-hun faced off against fellow finalist and childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) in the titular "squid game." He won their fight but refused to kill his friend, begging Sang-woo to stop the game by invoking a special clause in their contract whereby they get to live but do not get the prize money. Sang-woo instead stabbed himself in the neck and asked Gi-hun to take care of his mother. Wracked with guilt, Gi-hun was about to fly to America to live with his daughter when he spotted the game recruiter trying to entice another desperate person. He didn't get on the plane, deciding instead to try to re-enter the game and take it down from the inside.S2 is set three years later, and by the end of the second episode, Gi-hun has successfully finagled his way back into the game after winning Russian roulette against the game's recruiter and tracking down game overseer Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) at a Halloween party. The desperate players this time include a YouTuber who launched a failed crypto scam and a couple of victims of said scam bent on revenge. There's also a compulsive gambler and his mother, a rapper addicted to ecstasy, a loud and neurotic self-appointed shaman, a former Marine, and a transgender woman who once served in special forces.Meanwhile, Front Man's police officer brother, Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), has hired mercenaries to track down the island where the game is staged. As in the first season, alliances form and shift as the games proceed, and betrayals abound, culminating in a cliffhanger ending. That's because series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk conceived of S2 and S3 as a single season, but there were too many episodes, so he split them over two seasons.Squid Game S3 will premiere on Netflix later this year. Other than the new killer doll, we don't know much about what's in store for Gi-hun and his quest to destroy the game other than that it will pick up where S2 left off and will most likely end with a final showdown against Front Man. Is the cynical Front Man right about human nature ensuring that the game will never end?Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 3 Comments

shift-p How NASCAR and its teams are embracing 3D printing Both teams and the sport's organizer are using additive manufacturing for parts. Jonathan M. Gitlin Jan 2, 2025 11:50 am | 13 The SAF printed duct is installed on all NASCAR cars in production. Credit: Stratasys The SAF printed duct is installed on all NASCAR cars in production. Credit: Stratasys Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreCarbon fiber, aluminum, maybe the odd bit of titanium here or there: These are the materials we usually expect race cars to be made of. Now you can start adding thermoplastics like Ultem to the list. Additive manufacturing has become a real asset in the racers toolbox, although the technology has actually been used at the track longer than you might think."Some people think that 3D printing was invented last year," said Fadi Abro, senior global director of automotive and mobility at Stratasys. The company recently became NASCAR's official 3D printing partner, but it has a relationship with one of the teamsJoe Gibbs Racingthat stretches back two decades."Now the teams only have certain things that they can touch in the vehicle, but what that does is it makes it so that every microscopic advantage you can get out of that one tiny detail that you have control over is so meaningful to your team," Abro said.Currently, JGR has five printers, which it uses in a variety of applications. Some are common to other industriesadditive manufacturing is a good way to quickly develop new prototypes, as well as tooling and fixtures. But the team also prints parts that go straight onto the race car, like housings, ducts, and brackets."These are elements that are really integral for the vehicle to be on the track. If there are changes they want to make, they throw it to the printer, it prints overnight, and you have a part that can go on a track that's specific to that track. So that gives them a competitive advantage," Abri said.Track-specific parts are nothing new in motorsport, but the speed at which teams can make and iterate them is. 3D printers at NASCAR's R&D center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stratasys 3D printers at NASCAR's R&D center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stratasys A 3D-printed laptop holder, used to hold a laptop for data logging during test sessions. Stratasys A 3D-printed laptop holder, used to hold a laptop for data logging during test sessions. Stratasys The top row has aero winglets, which are placed on the front bumper. The parts on the next shelf are to improve the front fender's aerodynamics. The third shelf from the top is for side aerodynamic features and the floor of the car. The bottom shelf is a 3D-printed driver seat insert. Stratasys The top row has aero winglets, which are placed on the front bumper. The parts on the next shelf are to improve the front fender's aerodynamics. The third shelf from the top is for side aerodynamic features and the floor of the car. The bottom shelf is a 3D-printed driver seat insert. Stratasys A 3D-printed laptop holder, used to hold a laptop for data logging during test sessions. Stratasys The top row has aero winglets, which are placed on the front bumper. The parts on the next shelf are to improve the front fender's aerodynamics. The third shelf from the top is for side aerodynamic features and the floor of the car. The bottom shelf is a 3D-printed driver seat insert. Stratasys Parts that aren't expected to have a rough life are printed from polymers like ASA and ABS. Components that are expected to experience a lot of forcelike an air duct or aerodynamic louversmight use a thermoplastic filled with chopped-up carbon fiber, which adds strength for very little weight penalty, just the way it does in other composite materials. Some parts of a race car can get more than a little warm, so bits that are intended for use in the engine bay or by the brakes will use a different thermoplastic called Ultem."And then they had a unique use case where there's some of this tubing that NASCAR came back and said, 'Hey, we need you to make that tubing out of clear material because we don't know what the teams are doing inside of [it],'" he said. For that, JGR turned to "a polycarbonate material that prints in a semi clearI would not call it like lens clear, but it was clear enough for this application where you can see that there isn't anything sinister going on," Abri said.NASCAR, like most racing series, mandates the use of many spec parts to keep the playing field level and costs (mostly) in check. Usually, this means the sport picks a supplier and tells all the teams, "You have to buy this specific item." But not alwaysit's also now using 3D printers to make some of those spec parts itself. These include a windshield duct that wouldn't have been possible with injection molding and a NACA duct printed in Ultem that goes under the car."That's a standard part; they've made 1,500 of them," Abri said.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 13 Comments

My husband and I lived in the DC metro area for nearly 20 years before we left.We grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Pittsburgh so we could save for and buy a house.Although the DC metro area was great, we're happy being homeowners in the Pittsburgh suburbs.Although we grew up in Pennsylvania, my husband and I spent nearly 20 years building our lives in the Washington, DC, area.We loved it and thought we'd live there forever, but our plans changed when we got married in 2021 and started looking to buy our first home.We soon realized we couldn't afford much in Rockville, Maryland, where we'd lived for eight years, or any other part of the DC metro area.After pricing some homes, it dawned on us that we'd be about halfway to my hometown in Pittsburgh before we could even think about affording a decent house.At that point, we thought, why not go back to our roots? So in 2022, after two decades in the DC area, we packed up our apartment and moved four hours north to Pittsburgh.It was hard to save for a home when we lived in a high-cost-of-living area Washington, DC, is quite walkable and has numerous public-transit options. Richard T. Nowitz/Getty Images Although we loved living in a big city with plenty of choices for everything from grocery stores to transportation to museums and theaters, we struggled to save for a down payment while living in the DC area.After all, those perks and walkability came with a fairly high cost of living. DC is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the US. Rockville was no bargain, either, with the cost of living there estimated to be 37% higher than the national average, according to Paycale.Even ordering food or going on a dinner date was pricey we couldn't have a night out without spending at leastOn the other hand, Pittsburgh has long been considered one of themost affordable citiesto live in and buy a home in.When we left the DC area, we lived in an apartment in Pittsburgh for a year and a half and were actually able to save money while house hunting.We also found way more houses within our budget here. According to Realtor.com, themedian home price in Pittsburghis about $259,000, compared to $619,000 in Rockville.We're now in our first home in a Pittsburgh suburb, and we love itEventually, we found a ranch home in a cozy neighborhood about 20 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh.Although there's not as much to do here as there was in Rockville, Pittsburgh has continued to win us over.Our neighborhood is made up of a series of cul-de-sacs, and we were pleasantly surprised to see how close the neighbors on our street are.We were welcomed with open arms and have enjoyed getting to know the friendly couples, sweet pets, and adorable children who live nearby.Plus, it's been great to live closer to more family members and attend more birthday parties and holiday gatherings without having to travel far.