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 I have written a large number of pieces, primarily focussed on gaming and nerd culture. Trading Card Games are a special focus of mine.  I have played Magic: the Gathering since I was 8 years old. I love to explore the ways that TCGs convey emergent narratives through gameplay.

Card Games

Wargamer •

This upcoming Pokémon TCG tournament is thrusting Charizard into the spotlight once again

From the 13th to the 15th of February, Pokémon TCG fans will be converging on the Excel Convention Center in London for the Europe International Championships or the 'EUIC'. This is a three day long tournament not only for TCG players, but also for trainers who play Pokémon Unite, Scarlet and Violet, and Pokémon GO. The mascot of this tournament, to the surprise of no one, is going to be Charizard. More specifically, Mega Charizard X.
We've written before about how the Pokémon TCG is pretty thor...
Wargamer •

MTG movie is still "very much happening" claims director

The Magic: the Gathering movie, which was announced last year, is "very much full speed ahead" according to director Matt Johnson.There's going to be a Magic: the Gathering movie!… Eventually. We've still not seen any sign of The Netflix series, which was announced back in 2019, but maybe the spell slinging card game will have more luck on the big screen than on the small. In a recent interview, director Matt Johnson, who is known for Blackberry and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (yes, tha...
Wargamer •

This demonic new MTG brew is bringing mill to Standard

In Magic: the Gathering, you can either pull off a win by reducing your opponent's life to 0 or by having them draw a card when their deck is empty. You can base your entire game plan around depleting the cards in the other player's deck as quickly as possible, this is known as 'milling' them. Mill decks often exist on the fringes of the competitive meta, but in the current standard format, a new mill strategy has appeared that's seeing some major success.
Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed is happening o...
Wargamer •

Never build around this card in MTG Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited

Every good Magic: the Gathering limited format needs a selection of fun build around cards. Build arounds are cards that encourage you to… Well build around them, taking your deck in new and unexpected directions. Whether it's Waterbending Scroll, from the recent Avatar set, encouraging players to go mono blue, or Mechtitan Core from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty turning into a 10/10 Gundam if enough artifacts are stapled onto it. Not all build around cards are created equal, though, and Lasting Tarfire...
Wargamer •

The release of Ascended Heroes is the perfect opportunity to pick up these Pokémon TCG reprints

Ascended Heroes has given us a selection of reprinted Pokémon cards with brand new art, but the old art still holds up and is much cheaper.Ascended Heroes is a truly massive Pokémon TCG expansion. With almost 300 cards out there to collect, there's plenty here to please trainers of all persuasions. Not all of these cards are brand new, though, Ascended Heroes is packed full of reprints from a selection of recent releases. In several instances, these new releases have caused the old printings of...
Wargamer •

This newly revealed Ninja Turtle cloning MTG card has the potential for all sorts of mischief

The Cloning of Shredder is an upcoming Magic: the Gathering card from the Ninja Turtle set that can clone legendary creatures in monoblack.After accidentally loading several Ninja Turtle rares into Lorwyn Eclipsed prerelease kits last week, Wizards of the Coast offered an apology to Magic: the Gathering players and revealed every rare and mythic card from the currently unreleased turtle-themed expansion. With all of these new ninjas dropping at the same time, the community has had their focus sp...
Wargamer •

This transparent trumpet is one of the cheapest secret rares in the new Pokémon TCG expansion

The Japanese release of the Pokémon TCG set Ascended Heroes has revealed a selection of new full art cards, including an odd glass trumpet.Now that the Pokémon TCG's Ascended Heroes expansion has dropped in Japan (where it's known as 'Mega Dream ex'), we've been able to see every card that the set has to offer. From the majesty of Dragonite, to the adorable stargazing curiosity of Illustration Rare Clerfairy. If you're a fan of the unusual and the esoteric, though, worry not. Ascended Heroes fea...
Wargamer •

One of MTG's grossest cards just underwent a massive price spike thanks to a chaotic combo

Magic: the Gathering cards have all sorts of names. From the poetic, like All is Dust, to the functional, like Lightning Bolt, to the bizarre, like Lhurgoyf. One of the grossest card names out there has to be Saproling Burst, though. Maybe it's just me, but the thought of a little sentient fungus person "bursting" makes me both queasy and a little sad. Slimefoot did nothing wrong, don't go around bursting its friends. Fortunately, despite its unappealing name, Saproling Burst now forms the cente...
Wargamer •

Pokémon card gacha machine installed in the Pentagon

You can now play the Pokémon TCG adjacent to Washington D.C, because of an odd new feature that’s now provided at the Pentagon's food court.If, for some reason, you're ever eating lunch in the Pentagon food court and you've got a big wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket, you'll now be able to pick up some Pokémon cards. A Lucky Box gacha machine was recently installed right in the heart (or rather right in the stomach) of America's military headquarters. This electrical dispenser offers tra...
Wargamer •

Some MTG Lorwyn prerelease kits accidentally have ninja turtles hiding inside them

Players at the prerelease for the new Magic: the Gathering set Lorwyn Eclipsed have been surprised by some ninja turtle cards sneaking in.The prerelease for the new Magic: the Gathering set Lorwyn Eclipsed was last Friday. Lorwyn is the first release of the year, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles due to follow it in March. At least that was supposed to be the plan, but Magic: the Gathering players have been reporting all across social media that instead of the mystical fey that live on Lorwyn, t...
Wargamer •

One of the new Pokémon TCG World Championship decks is named after a Hip-Hop artist and YouTuber

The 2025 World Championship decks are due to release this April, and one of them contains an unexpected reference to a famous YouTuber.The 2025 World Championship Decks for the Pokémon TCG were revealed earlier this week, and one of them just wasn't quite like the rest. "KSI's Gardevoir" is a variant of the Gardevoir ex deck that's currently got the whole of the standard format locked in its Psychic Embrace, at least until rotation comes for Gardevoir ex in April. Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatu...
Wargamer •

The power armor from the new MTG Fallout Secret Lair may be the weirdest reprint of all time.

Let me welcome you to the exciting world of overlays in Magic: the Gathering. Sometimes unofficially called "skins", overlays are the official term for those cards with two names, one fake flavor name written across their title bar, and their second actual name written just underneath. The recently announced Fallout Rad Superdrop features one of the strangest uses of an overlay in MTG's history.
Typically, cards are reskinned to allow characters that exist outside of Magic's multiverse to have t...
Wargamer •

New Mega Starmie ex Pokémon card hides its most iconic feature… its terrifying legs

Mega Starmie ex has been confirmed for the upcoming Japanese Pokémon TCG expansion Nihil Zero, but its scary legs are nowhere to be seen.Now that the Pokémon TCG has entered the Mega Evolution series, we're seeing all kinds of beefed up mega Pokémon make the journey from screen to tabletop. From Mega Dragonite, with its adorable head-mounted wings, to the hauntingly powerful Mega Gengar. There are some Megas, though, that I would honestly rather not think about. Mega Starmie is infamously uncann...
Wargamer •

Magic: the Gathering's newest five color commander is a callback to a classic card

Mass of Mysteries is MTG's latest five color legendary, if it seems familiar to you that's because it's a reference to an older elemental.Mass of Mysteries is the backup commander from Dance of the Elements, one of the two new commander decks from the Magic: the Gathering set Lorwyn Eclipsed. It costs one mana of each color, has first strike, vigilance, and trample alongside a 5/5 stat line. It also grants an elemental you control myriad (an effect that enables a creature to clone itself when it...
Wargamer •

The blight mechanic in Lorwyn Eclipsed demonstrates a change in MTG's design philosophy.

It's rare to see a Magic: the Gathering mechanic with a downside in 2026, making the Blight mechanic from Lorwyn Eclipsed highly unusual.As the power level of Magic: the Gathering has risen over time, we've seen fewer mechanics with downsides make their way into the game. In Magic's early days, they were relatively common, from Cumulative Upkeep that forced you to pay an increasing fee to keep your cards in play, to phasing that caused creatures to blink out of existence every other turn. Blight...
Wargamer •

MTG and the Jim Henson Company to collaborate for a Lorwyn puppet preview

This Monday, Magic: the Gathering will collaborate with the Jim Henson Company to put on a short Muppet movie about Lorwyn Eclipsed.The Muppets are coming to Magic: the Gathering. No, this isn't a new Secret Lair or the announcement of an upcoming Universes Beyond crossover set. Instead, this Monday, we're going to see Wizards of the Coast partner with the Jim Henson Company to put on a short film to kick off spoiler season for Lorwyn Eclipsed, which will release on the 23rd January.
This collab...
Wargamer •

Several fossils set to return to the Pokémon TCG for the first time since 2018

A Nihil Zero reveal shows that Tyrunt, Tyrantrum, Amaura, and Aurorus will finally be getting new Pokémon cards after a long absence.Six new fossil Pokémon Cards have been revealed for the upcoming Japanese set Nihil Zero. New cards for Tyrunt, Tyrantrum, Amaura, and Aurorus have been shown off. There are also cards representing the fossils associated with them, the Jaw Fossil and the Sail Fossil, respectively. This is the first time that cards depicting these Pokémon have shown up since 2018, w...
Wargamer •

Lorwyn Eclipsed is going to pack all of the chaos of Magic: the Gathering's spoiler season into a single week.

It has become a recurring joke that the spoiler season for Magic: the Gathering never truly stops. A constant cavalcade of cards keeps the community in a perpetual state of hype, ensuring that they'll never disengage and wander off to play Yu-Gi-Oh! instead. Despite this, the festive season of 2025 was reasonably muted. The Fantastic Four, and a selection of other cards from the upcoming Marvel crossover, were revealed on the 9th December. We also got a handful of Lorwyn Eclipsed previews that w...
Wargamer •

Budew conquers the Pokémon TCG's online client

A Budew themed event will be running through January on Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, celebrating the strength of the little green plant.Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, the Pokémon TCG's online client, has been completely overtaken by Budew. The little sprout has enwrapped the entire game in its tendrils and spread its roots all over the app.
If you're wondering why Budew, of all Pokémon, was chosen to be the new face of Pokémon TCG Live, it's all thanks to its incredible power. Yes, you read...
Wargamer •

The most popular MTG commander of 2025 is this magical cat girl, and it isn't even close

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is the biggest Magic: the Gathering commander of 2025 with more than 28,000 decks to her name, let's discuss why.Every year Magic: the Gathering's Commander format gets a massive influx of new legendaries, all competing to be the most beloved by card gamers across the globe. This year, Y'shtola, Night's Blessed came out on top, utterly stomping the competition as more than 25,000 players built around her.
According to data from EDHREC, currently 28,344 players have made...
Wargamer •

Vivi's back on top thanks to the new Final Fantasy MTG scene boxes

Vivi proves their persistence by returning to the world of Magic: the Gathering once again as part of the Final Fantasy IX scene box.Given that Vivi Ornitier was banned in Magic: the Gathering's Standard format more than a month ago, you may have thought that you had seen the last of the small but mighty spellcaster. Well, for better or worse, that's not the case, and Vivi's returning with a vengeance thanks to the Final Fantasy scene boxes.
 Just what are these "scene boxes"? Well, Final Fantas...
Wargamer •

The next Japanese Pokémon TCG expansion is all about Zygarde

Nihil Zero will be the next set of Pokémon cards to be released in Japan, this expansion will focus on the legendary dragon Zygarde.The next Japanese Pokémon TCG set has officially been revealed. Nihil Zero is due to release in Japan on January 23rd. It highlights Zygarde, the legendary black and green dragon and ground type, who is also the mascot of the recently released game Pokémon Legends Z-A.
Currently, only a limited amount of information about the set is known. Zygarde will get a new ex...
Wargamer •

New Voltorb ex Pokémon card gives the sassy sphere the respect it deserves

A shocking Japanese Pokémon tcg card has just been revealed, Voltorb ex comes out in Japan later this month and internationally in January.In the Pokémon TCG, there aren't many mons that give off more of a smug, self-satisfied energy than Voltorb. This pissed off Pokéball Pokémon constantly shoots out the angriest glare that you've ever seen, and somehow manages to scowl despite having no mouth. Fans of this furious little sphere will be delighted to hear that Voltorb is finally getting its own...
Wargamer •

Upcoming Marvel MTG set introduces new card type that feels strangely familiar

Plan cards make their Magic: the Gathering debut in in the Marvel Superheroes set next year, but they borrow a lot from a past mechanic.The upcoming Marvel Superheroes MTG set will introduce a brand new enchantment subtype. Even if you were paying close attention to the Marvel cards that have been revealed so far, you'd be forgiven for failing to notice it, though. Doom Reigns Supreme is the first plan card in Magic: the Gathering, but is it just me, or does it seem that we've seen similar cards...
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Gaming

SUPERJUMP •

How Changing One Mechanic Elevated Reus 2 Beyond Its Predecessor

Reus, designed by Abbey Games, is a simulation game about gods, giants, and growth. You start with a barren planet and gradually fill it with life. First, you place down biomes like swamps, forests, oceans, and deserts. Then you fill these wild spaces with animals, minerals, and plants. When humans come to settle the land, you support the development of their communities so that they can flourish, but you also need to ensure that you don’t give any one group too many resources too quickly, other...
Wargamer •

My favorite board game of 2025 was this symphonic space opera

Usually, Sci-Fi board games involve epic battles waged across the stars. From Twilight Imperium to Arcs, chances are that if you're playing a tabletop game set in space, you'll be spending your turns blowing up fleets of enemy battlecruisers. Philharmonix takes a decidedly different approach. Instead of conducting full scale interplanetary warfare, you'll be conducting an alien orchestra. Philharmonix is slightly bloated, maybe a bit too complex for its own good, and it's my favorite board game...
SUPERJUMP •

I Tried Out the New Stranger Things D&D Module… Even Though I’ve Never Seen the Show

Can you still welcome yourself to the Hellfire Club if you've never seen an episode of Stranger Things?

When I was a university student 10 years ago (oh dear, I am getting old), I was on the committee of the adventure gaming society. We were a small, but lovable, group of geeks who gathered together every Saturday to play board games and tabletop RPGs of every persuasion. We played a lot of Fantasy Flight’s Game of Thrones board game, which is at its best and bloodiest when you can get a whole...
Wargamer •

We uncover a treasure trove of D&D history with TTRPG researcher Shannon Appelcline

Shannon Appelcline talks to us about Dungeons and Designers: Origins, his series that tracks D&D’s transformation from a passion project into an international juggernaut.Shannon Appelcline is an ENNIE award winning historian of tabletop roleplaying games. He's authored books on RPGs of all kinds, from the star spanning Sci-Fi epic Traveller, to the eldritch Lovecraftian horror game Call of Cthulu. His latest project documents the early history of Dungeons and Dragons. Appelcline has already writ...
SUPERJUMP •

Skygard Arena Review

Whatever else Skygard Arena may be, it’s undoubtedly ambitious. It aims to unify the character diversity of a MOBA, like League of Legends, with the turn-based tactical combat of something like XCOM. The game doesn’t quite succeed in reaching its loftiest ambitions, but it makes a valiant attempt.

Skygard Arena is the debut title from French studio Gemelli Games. For a small team, they’re attempting a pretty vast undertaking here in creating a potential eSport. Players can build teams featuring...
Wargamer •

Winnie the Pooh detective game now in development?

CrowD Games have announced a board game, that will be releasing in November, where Winnie the Pooh and friends become serious detectives. Thanks to the US copyright on the original Winnie the Pooh story expiring in January 2022, several enterprising creatives have attempted to use the character to tell new tales. We can all grimly recall the two Blood and Honey horror films that reimagined the adorable bear as a fluffy yellow Jason Voorhees. Now, CrowD Games (the publisher of En Route and Barrag...
SUPERJUMP •

Stewpots and Space Travel: An Interview With Takuma Okada

Takuma Okada is a tabletop game designer based in Portland, Oregon. Going by the title “No Road Home” on itch.io, Okada has been designing games about identity, isolation, and exploration since 2018. Their works include Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern, a game about retired adventurers settling down and opening up a pub, which has been nominated for the 2025 ENNIE award for “Best Family Game”. They also created the Alone series, a selection of three solo-journaling games about exploring wond...
Wargamer •

Look out Wingspan, a new birdy board game just launched on Kickstarter

Isle of Feathers has arrived on Kickstarter - a tile-laying puzzle board game where players compete to build their vision of an avian paradise.Ever heard of a Sandy Gallito, Varied Tit, or Chatham Shag? No, these are not 19th-century innuendos, but birds in the new Kickstarter board game Isle of Feathers, which arrived on the crowdfunding platform on September 28.
Isle of Feathers has the tagline 'A Love Letter To Strange Birds', and as you'd expect, it's absolutely full of feathered freaks. In...
Wyrd Science •

Girl By Moonlight: Hope, Transcendence, Transformation

Hope can be a powerful thing. The desire to believe, to push on in the face of adversity has been the subject of countless stories. From Star Wars, which asserts that "rebellions are built on hope", to Warhammer 40,000’s more cynical message that "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."  Discussions about the strength, or the futility, of hope have rumbled on for as long as people have told stories. Whatever other vices may have burst forth from Pandora’s Box, or jar if you’re fee...
SUPERJUMP •

Galactic Glitch Review

Galactic Glitch, by Crunchy Leaf Games, is a sci-fi shooter with a roguelike progression system. You’ll be blasting your way through space, getting blown apart, and then returning to action stronger and ready to progress just a little bit further.

The game attempts to differentiate itself from other roguelikes through its physics-based combat. You’re able to lift destructible space debris and even smaller enemies, and bombarding opponents with them.

All of Galactic Glitch’s sci-fi shootouts ta...
SUPERJUMP •

Now Playing at SUPERJUMP, Issue 33

We're back with a brand new Now Playing, and we've reached the third-of-a-century mark!! Some of us are playing more games than usual, and some are sticking with the games they've been hooked on for a while. No matter what we're playing, we want to share with you and maybe send you down the path to try something new. Let us know in the comments what you're playing and what news has you excited for the future!

Magic: The Gathering recently crossed over with Final Fantasy. While this move was cer...
SUPERJUMP •

Synergy Invites Us To Question Our Assumptions About City Building Games

From RPGs to action games, every genre carries its share of baggage.

The exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination necessary to progress in Civilization and other 4X games define success in rigidly specific form. To win the game, a player’s civilization must prove itself superior to the competition. Rivals must be crushed militarily and outstripped scientifically. Their competing religions must be consigned to history, and the player must develop a hegemonic global culture that en...
SUPERJUMP •

TTRPGs Can Help Build Positive Communities

Tabletop RPG characters are constantly thrust into dangerous situations. Whether they’re vanquishing a dragon, navigating a dungeon, or dethroning a tyrant, the lives of the characters that we dream up are always fraught with risk. But that danger should always be restricted to the realms of our imagination, and everyone gathered around the table has the right to feel secure and comfortable while they play. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. The internet is rife with horror stories about...
Card Gamer •

StarVaders Review - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of Pengonauts
Invaders are attacking the earth, invaders from beyond the stars. StarVaders, if you will. Using mech and a deck you’ll fight to save the world in this deckbuilding robo-roguelike, from Pengonauts.
Slay the Spire has inspired countless successors, and players are spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing a new roguelike deck builder these days. Does StarVaders blast open a niche for itself, or will it end up engulfed in a swarm of similar titles? Does it rise to...
SUPERJUMP •

An Interview with the Developers of Microtopia

An interview with Cordyceps Collective on how real insect behaviour inspired their design and much more

There is more overlap between video games and insects than you might expect. Satoshi Tajiri was inspired to create Pokémon by his time hunting bugs as a child. Hollow Knight shows us that insects can be as central to a Metroidvania game as vampires and space parasites, and Animal Crossing would just feel incomplete without the trusty bug-catching net.

Cordyceps Collective are a Netherlands-...
Card Gamer •

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection Review - Card Gamer

Images courtesy of KONAMI
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, which releases today, is a compilation of 14 different Yu-Gi-Oh! games from the late 1990s and early 2000s. KONAMI is making a clear appeal to nostalgia here. This collection puts the original Duel Monsters anime in the spotlight, embracing the game as it was before the modern complexities of Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, and Link summoning.
The duels you’ll play here will be clashes of old cards like Ocubeam and Uraby. There are some grea...
SUPERJUMP •

2024 Games of the Year

Welcome to SUPERJUMP's annual Games of the Year celebration. As always, I like to introduce these awards by expressing gratitude for the year gone by.

Thank you game developers. You are creating marvels of art and science - important cultural artifacts - under increasingly difficult circumstances. Whether you work for a large studio or you're a solo developer: thank you. We are all living in an increasingly dangerous and intolerant world, where the moral pendulum appears to be swinging in a vio...
SUPERJUMP •

Dungeon Inn Review

Inns in RPGs are truly miraculous.  However bruised and battered your adventuring party may be, if they rest up for the night at an inn then they will emerge the next day fully healed and ready for more.  Dungeons, meanwhile, serve the opposite purpose. A fresh and ready adventuring party delves down into a dungeon and emerges exhausted and beaten, but hopefully with huge loads of loot.

Dungeon Inn is a game all about running an RPG inn of your very own, located conveniently at the entrance to...
SUPERJUMP •

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Embraces Silliness

There’s a single moment, roughly a quarter of the way through Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the game. The party is delving into a mystical forest dungeon called the Proving Grounds. An enigmatic cloaked bandit known as Hurstwine cuts through the murky woods ahead of them, the heroes in hot pursuit.

Both the player characters and Hurstwine are seeking a primal lens, an ancient and powerful artifact that lies at the heart of the dungeon. It’s a race...
SUPERJUMP •

Potionomics: Bring Your Best Brew

Potions are the lifeblood of all RPG adventuring parties. No one would get beyond the first floor of any dungeon without guzzling down a frankly unhealthy amount of brightly coloured magical goop. Potionomics puts the player into the shoes of a potion vendor, ready to provide the heroes of the world with the colourful healing concoctions they so desperately need.

The game is a bubbling melting pot of various genres, mixing business management elements with deckbuilding-based haggling gameplay a
SUPERJUMP •

Total War: Attila and the "Dark Ages"

Total War: Attila portrays the collapse of the Roman Empire as an unmitigated tragedy. How does this depiction measure up to scrutiny?

These words are gruffly recited by the narrator of Total War: Attila towards the end of the game’s introduction. This quote paraphrases two verses from the book of Revelations which describe Conquest, the first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, being unleashed upon the world. Accompanying this narration is footage of a pitched battle being waged at night b
SUPERJUMP •

Are Golden Endings Always the Right Path?

One thing which makes video games unique is their ability to tell stories with branching narratives. This is something that isn’t possible using other mediums, outside of experimental choose-your-own adventure stories like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The interactive nature of video games makes it possible for them to have multiple different endings depending on the path the player takes through the story. This means that players can get endings tailored to the
SUPERJUMP •

Storyteller Review - A Tale Worth Telling

Storyteller is a puzzle game created by Daniel Benmergui, an Argentinian game developer who is probably best known for creating the adorable art game I Wish I Were The Moon.

In Storyteller, the player is given a magical book that they need to fill with insightful tales. Every level is an individual story that the player needs to bring to life. Each story provides the player with an objective that needs to be accomplished by utilising a series of different characters and scenes. For example, pla
SUPERJUMP •

Dragon Ball: The Breakers Review

The Dragon Ball series is famous, or perhaps infamous, for its bombastic battle sequences. Shirtless space aliens, with absurdly sculpted physiques, scream and launch energy blasts at one another. Villains loudly monologue about their invincibility, before the heroes eventually bring them down after a five-minute-long transformation sequence. All of the attacks have wacky names which fans can recite by heart. Because the series is extremely action-oriented, there have been innumerable Dragon Bal
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Other Articles

South West Londoner •

Review: See How They Run

See How They Run is a comical whodunnit, which lovingly spoofs the murder mystery genre with the care and affection that only a sincere parody can provide.

There are some great laughs, but it builds towards a disappointing conclusion. The film is certainly funny, but it’s hardly a mystery of Agatha Christie’s calibre.

Our leading duo consists of the eager and excitable rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse

Ronan) and her boozy superior officer Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell).

The pair have a d
South West Londoner •

Thor: Love and Thunder proves lightning does strike twice

There have now been four Thor films and their quality varies wildly – but Thor: Love and Thunder is among the franchise’s best.

The Original Thor (2009) was a perfectly serviceable superhero origin story, that did a fine job of introducing Chris Hemsworth’s titular character without excelling enough to be truly great or being inadequate enough to be truly terrible.

Thor: The Dark World (2013) ranks among Marvel’s most forgettable films, as it features an utterly generic plotline performed by a
South West Londoner •

Elizabeth II: The Queen & history's other longest reigning rulers

In February of 1952 Queen Elizabeth II became the queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Her platinum jubilee, in June of 2022, marks the official public celebration of her 70 year long reign.

Elizabeth II is one of history’s longest reigning rulers, however, she does not have the longest reign of all time.

Several other rulers have had reigns which have rivalled, or even exceeded, her 70 years.

Here are a few of their stories…

Louis XIV ruled France from May 1643 to September 17
North West Londoner •

Labour keeps control of Enfield but Conservatives make gains

Labour kept control of Enfield council on Thursday after holding the 38 seats they took into the 2022 election, but the Conservatives had a successful night gaining seven councillors and shutting out any other party from the area.

The election results mean that all of Enfield’s 63 seats are held by either Labour or Tory councillors, after the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the Independent Community First Group, a group of former Labour councillors, lost their two, one and seven councillors r
South West Londoner •

Fundraiser launched for injured Croydon swan

A fundraiser is in progress to assist the treatment of a swan from Croydon who was hurt in a dog attack.

Wayne the swan was injured on the afternoon of the 7 February after a dog bit him on the beak.

The Swan Sanctuary is a wildlife rescue service based in Shepperton, specialising in treating swans.

The sanctuary took Wayne into its care on 8 February.

In a Facebook post The Swan Sanctuary announced: “Wayne was attacked by a dog and has suffered a life changing injury to his beak.”

“We are