Busy sorting...

So, my friends just gave me a bunch of their old cards from VS, so I am busy sorting those into rares and foils for my binders. When I say a bunch, I mean 10+ long boxes of cards, each with approximately 650+ cards. So yes, I am going through over 6500 cards I just got. I know what I'm doing over this weekend!

Bad Grammar

Man, I can't get this song out of my head. My mom is a semi grammar-nazi (not incredibly bad, but still somewhat annoying), so I have followed suit to an extent. I enjoy listening to this song (and a lot of the parodies this guy does).

5/21 Comics

Well, again, I am going to show you what I intend to buy before I actually buy it.

Ultimate Fantastic Four 54


Basic Plot: While the Ultimate Salem's Seven appear, Reed and Sue try and work out their relationship problems as a therapist comes to talk to all of them.

Well, I never knew too much about Salem's Seven other than that they existed and were semi-villainous against the FF. So, I don't know who these new people are, and honestly, I am not really caring. The story was okay, with some humorous moments, and was better than the previous storyline, but that is damning with faint praise. I just keep waiting for it to get better like it was when Millar was writing it. Currently, it isn't as bad, but not one of the comics that was awesome to read with Millar.

Captain America 38


Basic Plot: Agent 13 realizes the revived Captain America is actually the Grand Director and Bucky and Falcon try to take out Arnim Zola and the Red Skull.

Honestly, I think this comic could be good, but I don't think I care about Captain America enough for it to work. After Civil War, I have enough respect for Captain America that I don't think anybody else should be Captain America, even Bucky. With that, I am not all that interested in Captain America stories, so I am not finding these to be as interesting as other people (such as someone who works in the game store I go to) find them. Still fun, but not as good to me as I feel they are to other people.

Ultimate X-Men 94


Basic Plot: When Ultimate Alpha Flight kidnaps Northstar, Colossus and a team go to get him back, but Colossus has a secret...

Oh, two issues in the same week with similar stories. Basically, Colossus can turn his body into organic steel, but does not have super-strength. So, not only is he not super strong and not able to do lots of things it seemed like he could do, he can't even lift his arms because they are too heavy. I think it is interesting, but I do not like it. I like Colossus as a character and Ultimate Colossus was no exception. Also, I think it is cool that Ultimate Colossus is gay, as I feel there aren't enough gay superheroes. Still, I feel this portrays Colossus in a negative light that I dislike. I like Colossus having super-strength, but now he apparently has always gotten the strength from the "Banshee" drug. Apparently, he was good enough at keeping secrets to keep this from both Xavier and Jean Grey up until now. Apparently, he has always carried a bunch along with him wherever he goes as well. Sigh... stupid retcon. Ultimate Alpha Flight is kind of interesting. Hmm, Jubilee and Sunfire on Alpha Flight? WTF? Oh, it is cool that Firestar (Liz Allen) has chosen that as her name (surprise, surprise) and is at the school as well. I love Mark Brooks' art in the issue as well. Aside from hating the Banshee drug being used with Colossus, I loved the rest of the story.

Amazing Spider-Man 560


Basic Plot: The creepy Paper-Doll villainess attacks people who attack her lover.

Okay, kind of creepy. Scratch that, very creepy. That is one weird villain. How do you stop someone like that? Oh well. Just another random weird villain being introduced for the sake of BND. BND is starting to piss me off. I really want classic villains, as opposed to these idiotic weird villains who somehow all have some advantage over Spidey. Meh, I can't wait for the time when the Thunderbolts try and take him out (not in Avengers/Invaders) because the team is led by none other than Spidey's greatest enemy (arguably), the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. And he is still crazy. Can't wait for that, especially since all of this is practically crap.

Fantastic Four 557


Basic Plot: Reed tries to take on CAP.

There are reasons you never want to piss off a super genius who uses super science. One of those reasons is the Anti-Galactus suit Reed designed. About as large as Galactus himself, the suit contains the most powerful weapons in the world by far, bar none. Kind of scary. Especially since he just took out CAP, who had taken out the Avengers, Young Avengers, FF and all fairly easily. Damn, Reed's scary. I love Millar and Hitch together. They are both amazing and together, they create wonderful things. I wonder how Doom is going to be explained, since Doom appears at the end. Wasn't Doom in jail last time we saw him? He was arrested by Iron Man after the symbiote debacle. Oh well. Mark Millar can explain it. He can do anything.

Avengers: The Initiative 13


Basic Plot: Butterball tries to fit in with the Initiative.

Okay, so who remembers Batwing? Not one of Bruce Wayne's vehicles (was there one named that?), but the character from Untold Tales of Spider-Man. I mean, come on! Batwing? Annex too? Prodigy? What is this? Obscure backup characters from Spider-Man in the Initiative? God, it is bizarre. Anyway, like in Ultimate X-Men, we have an indestructible character who isn't superstrong. Of course, this one is also fat. He is, for all intents and purposes, completely invulnerable to harm. Nothing, not even drowning, seems to hurt him. He can't really do much though. He also has unlimited stamina, which means he can run at 2 MPH forever or lift 20 lbs weights forever without getting tired. A fun story, although I hate the artist. One thing, also about the Initiative. My friend seems to really dislike it, but I like the comic. Not the Initiative as a system, but the Initiative as a comic. Aside from the artist that has been doing the art recently, it is one of the comics I like more.

Incredible Hercules 117


Basic Plot: The God Squad gets together for the first time.

Apparently I need to read more Hercules, or the Ares mini-series, because I didn't know what happened with Olympus. With everything though, this was kind of cool. Basically, I recognize Hercules and Snowbird. The other three are mysteries to me. I like the concept though. The Skrulls are attacking because their gods are commanding them to, so why not have the Earth gods go after the Skrull gods. Awesome idea. I also like the art. Oh, and Amadeus is awesome. This is a very fun series.

Mighty Avengers 14


Basic Plot: How the Skrulls get to the Sentry.

Apparently, Jarvis has been a Skrull for a long time. From at least the time the New Avengers went public, he had been a Skrull, because it was then he started working on a plan to take out the Sentry. Spider-Woman is in fact a Skrull and has been at least recently. I thought it was pretty darn interesting, because obviously, Vision was a Skrull (although I thought it might just be Sentry talking to himself) and used the idea that Jarvis-Skrull came up with, where if you say things are his fault and take the form of the Void, you can make him unstable. Oh, Robert, how silly, you are. Man, if only everybody had that power. Aaaahhh! I'm freaking out! I'll just go to Saturn to calm down. Apparently, the Void has taken over as the dominant personality, but also cares about Lindy. It is confusing. Stuff is weird. Oh well. Still awesome stuff.

Wolverine: Origins 25


Basic Plot: The final battle between Deadpool, Wolverine and Daken.

Daniel Way just pisses me off when writing Deadpool. Maybe it also is because Steve Dillon's art looks like someone threw up, but I am pretty sure a lot of it is Way's writing. Which of course makes me incredibly nervous in regards to the upcoming Deadpool series in September. I like how everything comes to a close, with everything all being an elaborate set-up, and with Bucky getting to do stuff, but I honestly hate how they left things with Deadpool. The best part of this was that they also had Deadpool's first appearance, which, while pretty ugly all in all, was still important, and I am glad I read it. You know what, though? A whole bunch of the images from "40 worst Liefeld creations" are from this issue! Awesome, huh? I do like how Deadpool takes a bunch of guys out before Domino takes him out. Meh, makes sense to me, so okay. Deadpool's series is September better be pretty damn good. Hopefully, Bob will still be his loyal pet/minion.

MUN Preview: Annihilus and Negative Zone

Wow, I feel really lucky. Who would have thought I would get a preview? Anyway, here we go. So, I know people like looking at the cards immediately, so I'll show them to you, then go over them.





Background time! So, to hear his whole origin, you can just go to Annihilus's Wikipedia entry, which lets you in on his life. Basically, he is the self-proclaimed ruler of the Negative Zone, an alternate dimension with different forms of matter (anti-matter) and different rules and Physics and stuff. It's just weird. Anyway, on multiple occasions, Annihilus has attempted to take over this dimension starting with Earth. While Blastaar, another Negative Zone dictator, has often come to Earth and fought heroes here, Annihilus pretty much never left the Negative Zone, although tried to get out multiple times (including one time with Spider-Man and the Frightful Four, in which he was defeated by pulling the power cord out of the wall of Reed's machine). Still, he has been a persistent threat and incredibly dangerous. Recently, he gathered his armies of his bugs, and got lots of Negative Zone warriors and attempted to "conquer" the universe, as he said that it was expanding into the Negative Zone. He was able to, with his army, destroy the Kyln, a prison for cosmic level threats, kill every Nova Corps member except Richard Rider, Quasar, 90% of all the Skrull planets (pissing them off immensely), and countless billions of other people trying to fight him. Eventually, he was defeated when Thanos and Drax freed the Silver Surfer and an angry Galactus who destroyed most of Annihilus's army. Soon after, Nova confronted him and was able to kill him, although Annihilus is able to survive after death (he has done it before) and is currently waiting to be hatched as he is watched over by Ravenous, his loyal servant.

Annihilus has vast powers, which make him a dangerous opponent. Just by himself, he is able to fly, via his wings, and has a fairly invulnerable shell, along with a degree of superhuman strength. Plus, he also doesn't ever die, he just oozes away and comes back. Powerful by himself, he usually also has the Cosmic Control Rod, which is incredibly powerful, granting its wielder the ability to manipulate cosmic energies to transmute matter, fire blasts of destructive power and be totally badass. He is incredibly powerful, being able to have taken on Thor and win, and being able to take on the entire Nova force and Quasar at the same time, ultimately killing Quasar, and gaining his quantum bands, which gave Annihilus even more power, before they were taken by Phyla-Vell, the current Quasar.

Okay, so we have seen Annihilus once before in VS, in MOR, as a 7-drop with the Negative Zone affiliation, who made you lose 15 endurance if you didn't have Negative Zone, and outright stunned a front row character an opponent controlled before you attack. Combined with Blastaar from MOR, they would outright stun your largest character no matter where he was. This time around is not much different.

Let's look at the card. 10/9 with Flight and Range. Not bad for a 5-drop, right? Wait, that's not all? What else is there? When he enters play, if there is no Negative Zone, you exhaust him. Well, that could be a lot worse. It only triggers once, as opposed to every combat phase with the old one. Plus, it's not nearly as drastic. Being exhausted upon entering is annoying, but manageable. What is the other ability? "Activate -> Stun target hidden character. Use only during your attack step." Whoa, hold on there! Activate -> Stun target hidden character? That is pretty darn good, considering how popular hidden decks are currently. Limited to the attack step is kind of whatever. Basically, you can attack, or outright stun one of their guys. It is sad that you don't get both, but he is also a common, and an amazing common at that.

Of course, he is completely and utterly useless on turn 5 if you don't have Negative Zone. Now, currently, there are two versions of Negative Zone. One from MOR with a high amount of discarding cards to KO characters, the other being from MHG and disabling hidden characters opponents control or giving your NZ guys some well needed protection. That's great, but with NZ being a featured team in MUN, they get some more Negative Zones. Let's see...

It's not unique, which is very good, as it means that you can get multiple Negative Zones up and running so that a single Have a Blast! doesn't completely destroy your deck. Prison Alpha? Ooooh, a reference to Civil War and the Negative Zone prison there. Well, to flip it, you still need to discard a card (man, Negative Zone locations really don't want you to flip it for free), although this time it has to be a specific card, either a Negative Zone character card or a S.H.I.E.L.D. character card. Yes, since it is technically S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prison, they get to use it too. What is the effect of it? Wow, moving one of their characters hidden. Works great flavor wise, as when you get sent to Prison Alpha, you are put away in a place where people cannot get you and you are so hidden from the world. Plus, hey! Combo with Annihilus! Move one of their largest characters hidden to outright stun them with Annihilus, who while great by himself, is somewhat limited.

Negative Zone looks like a fun team to play. Hopefully they will get some characters below 4 who don't need Negative Zone to exist. Oh, and this is the first 5-drop Negative Zone character, previously only having a 1-drop army character, a 4-drop, 2 6-drops, a 7-drop and an 8-drop. The cards look amazing and fun, with great abilities and great art that just makes me want to get these cards in drafts and to build regular decks off of.
See you tomorrow for comics (if you want to, that is)!

EDIT: Okay, so I made the article before Monday, so I didn't see the other Annihilus or Negative Zone before I wrote this. I am a little disturbed by the fact that at least 2 out of 4 of the Negative Zones are rare, since rares are so much more difficult to get these days. Still, multiple Negative Zones sound fun. Other than the fact that Annihilus requires a Negative Zone, this doesn't necessarily fit with the Annihilus in my article, since he exhausts from the beginning without, or having it, he can't use his ability. Oh well.

Essential X-Men vol 8

Essential X-Men vol 8 came out recently, and I thought that it was pretty good, although I was very disappointed when I realized something. Half of the book is collected in Inferno, which was a good story, but something I already had. Well, as to the stories in this volume: In this volume, it starts off with the X-Men being dead, as near the end of Essential X-Men 7, they had died, then came back, but only they knew they were back. In this volume, they continue to go about helping people, but nobody realizes it is the X-Men helping out. Something interesting is that Sinister from Ultimate X-Men has a similar power to what all the X-Men have. Nobody can see them (in all the various forms, including smell or hear, etc) unless they are right in front of the person. Otherwise, they are completely invisible to all forms of detection. It is cool, how Genosha is introduced, with the Magistrates, and so are the Reavers, although they are thoroughly and efficiently defeated. Still, with everything, it is a good volume. It is fun to see how much the X-Men changed from Essential 1 to Essential 8. Heck, from Essential Classic X-Men 1 (originally Essential Uncanny X-Men) to this volume is an even bigger difference. The X-Men took on a whole new tone from when they started. I'm not sure exactly where it began (maybe with the Brood, the first time), but they became much darker. Maybe it was after Dark Phoenix saga, and things started going darker and darker, but by Brood, they started being really dark. Still good stuff, but not nearly the same as the original stuff.
Be back here tomorrow for my previews! WOOT!

Oops

Sorry I didn't post yesterday (I guess it is yesterday now), but for me, I was busy with getting my stuff together. My packages arrived from school, and in really hot temperatures, I had to carry all7 boxes up 3 flights of stairs. It was annoying and sweaty. But now I have almost all my stuff (1 more coming next Monday), so we'll see what happens next.

Baseball

Many of you probably do not know this, because I mostly talk about VS and comic books, but I am a big baseball fan, specifically of the San Francisco Giants. Ever since 1992, I have been a fan (going to games since 1989), and while recently, I have turned most of my attentions to other things (like more comics and VS), I still enjoy the game. I know many people find baseball dull as people stand around for a lot of the game, but I find interesting and exciting. I don't find people running back and forth, up and down a field or court or rink nearly as interesting as the intricate ways that things happen in baseball. My parents own half of a season's worth of season tickets (together with someone else, they own the whole season), so we go to a lot of games generally, and it really is fun. Just thinking about baseball a lot because since i have been back, I have gone to two games (Sunday and Tuesday) and am going to the Giants game today. Truly, I do enjoy baseball, even if I don't think of it as much anymore.