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The epicenter of the genre world is July's annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. And leading up to the big dance of everything sci-fi, horror and hip comedy, the DVD distributors are getting their biggest con-friendly titles out into the marketplace.
As Wired.com preps for its exhaustive Comic-Con coverage next week, we take a moment to look at some of the best new DVDs to get you San Diego dreaming.
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Season 1.1: From the halcyon days of 1983 come the poorly animated bloodless war between G.I. Joe and Cobra. While the new live-action flick, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, might not suck as much as its trailers indicate, it'll never be as cool as 20 minutes of impossible villains fended off with weapons that never kill anyone.
Doctor Who: "The Rescue/The Romans" and "Attack of the Cybermen": The BBC is bringing David Tennant and Russell T. Davies to Comic-Con this year -- perhaps to make some franchise-shaking announcement. And the Beeb's home video division is continuing its classic Doctor Who series of releases with stories from the First Doctor's and Sixth Doctor's eras. William Hartnell stars in two episodes on one set from the show's earliest periods, "The Rescue" (a straight sci-fi adventure) and "The Romans" (a lighter historical story). Colin Baker's "Attack of the Cybermen" brings back a classic enemy in a violent adventure that looks back at the show's history.
Family Guy: Volume Seven: The latest release from Seth MacFarland's first TV family includes the second half of Season 7 and the first half of Season 8. It seems a confusing format, but who cares? This franchise runs behind only the eternal Simpsons and South Park in the animated TV prominence race.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 15: The latest four-disc set includes episodes from both the Joel Hodgson and Michael J. Nelson eras of MST3K, including the movies The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy, The Girl in Lovers Lane, Zombie Nightmare and Racket Girls. The DVD set includes the "Scrapbook" series of behind-the-scenes looks at MST3K's production.
Lost: Seasons 1, 2 and 3 on Blu-ray: ABC is taking its surreal mix of adventure and drama to Comic-Con this year, and the network updated its complete Blu-ray catalog of Lost with fresh editions of the show's first (and perhaps best) three seasons.
Callan: Set One: For most American TV viewers born before 1980, Edward Woodard will always be Robert McCall from The Equalizer. But the early 1970s saw Woodward own British TV as the brilliant antihero Callan. A spy series dealing with a paid assassin for the British government, Callan is taut espionage drama without a bit of sentimentality.
Transformers: The Complete Series: With Revenge of the Fallen chasing down $400 million at the international box office, the franchise is unleashing this impressive Shout Factory complete series set with all 98 remastered episodes, a book and collector's magnets. Before now, a complete set of episodes was available on DVD only overseas -- and not necessarily legally.
The Invisibles: Series One: Finally, we have on DVD Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Merlin star Anthony Head playing the head of a criminal family trying to go straight in U.K. action/comedy The Invisibles.
The retail distributors of all the above-mentioned DVDs will be on the Comic-Con floor. If you attend, snag what you can afford.
Images courtesy Shout Factory, BBC America
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