Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has had a lot of problems, so why not try to enjoy it for what it is? A total clusterf*%$k.

Monday, January 17, 2011

MvC3 new update

Okay, so they just revealed (at 7:33 this morning) two new characters for MvC3. Akuma is one of them, and I feel kind of meh about him. He's okay, and I realize people like him, but he's basically Ryu, although he has other stuff. More importantly, they released a character that actually bumps Dormammu off of my top 3 list. Specifically, they released Taskmaster.

Now, if you paid attention to some of my other stuff, you'd notice I mostly know Taskmaster from the appearances he's made in Deadpool comics, which is okay, beacuse he's awesome in those. Although I did like when he was in Avengers: The Initiative and was bad-ass in that also, especially his first appearance when he calms the fight between Stature, Ant-Man and Yellowjacket (all giant people) by knocking them all down, then punching Yellowjacket in the neck to knock him out. You had to see it. Taskmaster is a character that's awesome in that he isn't really a bad guy, but he is a hired mercenary, so that makes him the bad guy. He can copy other people's fighting styles (which means in this game, he has some of Captain America's shield charges and some of Spider-Man's swinging) with his powers, and uses a variety of weapons. Plus his costume is awesome.

Okay, so now my team consists entirely of characters that I own in Super Hero Squad figures, since it'll be Deadpool, Kl'rt and Taskmaster. F-ing awesome!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Old art

Well, I thought I'd show some of my older art that I spent more time on than the two I've already put up thus far.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Why did Ultimatum suck? Part 1

Well, why did Ultimatum suck so much that I stopped reading Ultimate comics after it was done?

First off, Ultimates 3 sucked immensely. Now, at this point in time, I'm not saying it's the worst series ever, but at the time it felt that way. See, Ultimates 2 is my favorite series, followed closely by Ultimates. Now, I'd liked Jeph Loeb and was a fan from other things he'd done in the past and so I was excited plus I like Madureira, so that was a plus too. Then, issue one hit. Well, that shot all my expectations to hell. Ultimates 3 was bad because Jeph Loeb isn't a great mystery writer but that's what he tries to do. To an extent, it worked with Hush, although some would argue against that. Ultimates 3 was a murder mystery, but completely insane at the same time. Hell, most of Hulk was wondering who Rulk was. I'm not a mystery writer so I can't say much about how you write it, but let's look at an example. I loved Identity Crisis. Say what you want about the tone and Dr. Light's horrible behavior and whether it was appropriate or not, but it was a great mystery. In Identity Crisis, you didn't know who killed Sue Dibny, but they went after suspects and revealed information about the past and were able to go after different people. In Ultimates 3, it's a complete unknown and, well, none of it makes any sense. The writing's bad and sloppy, the art style didn't fit, the characters were done horribly (such as Hawkeye suddenly becoming horribly incompetent and death-prone), and all subtlety was thrown out the window. In Ultimates 1 and 2, there was hinting that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were more than just siblings, but never went into it beyond that. It seemed like they were just siblings, siblings who cared a lot about each other, like what happened in House of M. In Ultimates 3, Loeb just out and says they're together as a couple. Oh, and that they're together because Scarlet Witch reminds Quicksilver of their mother. Which of course makes it that much worse. What else? Well, the villain was either Magneto or Ultron, who was also somewhat Yellowjacket and a lot more sucky. Oh, and while I realize that this is the Ultimate universe, apparently Thor's hammer sucks completely, and Mags can just use it for himself. Oh, and he got himself a new hammer for no f-ing reason. Oh, but it was Doom the whole time. Wait, what? It was Doom the whole time? It makes it a mystery where you have no idea who it is the entire time, until at the end, it's a completely unrelated character who did it for no f-ing reason. It's like if at the end of Usual Suspects, you found out Keyser Soze was really Osama Bin Laden. Why? Because he's not a good person. Not because he actually made an impact, but because he's the bad guy. Sigh...

Friday, January 14, 2011

DCUO

I'd love to play DCUO, but there are some problems with me getting it and playing it.

First some context though. I'm not a huge fan of MMOs, but I do enjoy playing them when I can. I played the WoW trial and enjoyed it. I also played in the DCUO Beta and that was really fun. The DCUO Beta was fun and I enjoyed it like other MMOs, more so than others though because it was DC. Sure, I like Marvel more, but I enjoy DC too and so having characters that could fight with Wonder Girl against Giganta or with Grodd against Flash and "Orginal" (aka Golden Age) Flash was really fun. The DC was what made it more fun than WoW or another MMO.

My first problem with MMOs is just about the entire genre and something that can't really be made better by any game, no matter what, that being that I am not very good with people. I really don't like working with people in general, and especially when I don't know random people in games who can be complete assholes because of anonymity or whatever. I don't like people for the most part so an MMO is a problem with the very concept.

My second problem is the subscription. I don't want to pay 15 dollars a month for a game, no matter what the game. Now, a game like Guild Wars without a subscription fee is perfect in that I can play whenever and not have to pay extra. With DCUO, I'd have to either have somebody else pay my subscription cost or something to get me to do it, although if I decided to get it, I'd probably want to get the lifetime subscription fee (of $200), which sounds unreasonable at first, but when you think about it, 15x12 is 180, so for slightly over a years's worth of subscription fees paid all at once, you can play forever.

Now, if I had the 250 dollars laying around to buy and pay for DCUO, I'd probably get the pre-ordering done for MvC3. Still, if I seriously had the money to buy a lifetime subscription for the game and the game itself, I would probably get it because it is fun and is a great RPG set in the DC universe (even if I do have to deal with other people).

Thursday, January 13, 2011

MvC3

Okay, so today's my birthday, so I'll talk about the one thing I really want for my birthday, Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Specifically, I'm interested in the special edition version available on Capcom's online store. That's the special edition version with the Shuma Gorath t-shirt on it that looks awesome.

Okay, today I'll talk about the various Marvel characters known to be in the game and how I feel about each one being there.

Captain America: Well, Cap is a big enough character that I'm really not surprised. He's never been a character I've really cared that much about, but I respect the character enough to understand why he's there. I probably won't use him much, but whatever.

Deadpool: Duh. Beyond that, though, I'm really excited to be able to use Deadpool. He seems to be an interesting character. His attacks look unique and interesting and he seems to be fun to play, especially with his breaking the fourth wall and references to things.

Doctor Doom: He was interesting in MvC2 and I enjoyed him to an extent, but in this, whatever. I hope Doom has better attacks though, as I hated his super in MvC2.

Dormammu: I am amused by Dormammu as a character as I never read a lot with him, but he seemed totally bad ass when he was there. For example, he was in the Spider-Man animated series and actually was behind the creation of Carnage in that series. He was on trading cards (which I collected) and there were various ways I knew of him without having read a lot with him. Then he was in the Defenders in the miniseries by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire, aka the trio behind the Justice League International (with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, aka the funny Justice League) and then later the reunion of the characters in the Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League miniseries. They made Dormammu hilarious and it is that version I really know, so I'm glad that that costume (which is awesome) is the one used in MvC3. He's probably going to be my third character, after Deadpool and Kl'rt, unless someone better is shown to be in it from the remaining characters.

Hulk: Hulk has never been one of my favorite characters, but like Cap, he's popular and so he's in. Whatever. He was okay in the MvC series, but I never liked him much in those games.

Iron Man: I liked using Iron Man in MvC2 when I completely abused his Proton Cannon attack. It should be interesting to see how he's different, because he should be almost the same but with some minor changes.

Magneto: Mags is a character I like, but one that can never translate that well to fighting games, I feel, because he's too powerful. Magneto should be much more powerful than a lot of people, but he's balanced to be just another character. Oh well. At least Mag-fucking-neto is in the game. Where yo curleh mustache at?

M.O.D.O.K.: Seriously? MODOK? Pardon the lack of periods in his name in the post, but MODOK is silly. It's silly that he is in the game, but whatever. He's very amusing at the very least.

Phoenix: Same problem with Mags, in terms of power. Sigh... At least I like Jean Grey more though.

She-Hulk: Never liked She-Hulk that much. When she broke the fourth wall, she was amusing, but she never really settled into anything. She was either angry or humorous, but has switched back and forth and in general is just one of the bigger examples of a female character that's made because a popular male one exists. Oh well.

Shuma-Gorath: I'm sad that Shuma-Gorath probably won't be on my main team because he's awesome. For a character that's relatively obscure in the comics, he sure is popular in the gaming world. Seriously, Shuma-Gorath's rise to fame from gaming is silly and amazing. I always loved him in the previous games. I might have to team him with Dormammu or other extra-dimensional beings. Hmmm...

Spider-Man: I've liked Spidey, Spidey's cool. Right now, I'm meh about him. Like Cap, Iron Man and Hulk, he's there because he's one of the mainstays of Marvel. He still is a cool character, but whatever.

Storm: I never liked Storm in the 90's white costume that was used in the animated series. When she was badass and punk, that was kind of cool. For the most part though, she's just another character to me, one I don't like or dislike, but just acknowledge as present.

Super-Skrull: Hell fucking yeah! Kl'rt (his real name) is my second favorite character after Deadpool, but I never get to show my love for him because he's not as popular as Wade. That he's included is amazing and awesome. When I heard he was in, I couldn't believe it. I am super psyched for Kl'rt. Plus, he looks awesome to play.

Thor: I like and dislike Thor. I've liked the character as part of the Avengers and thought he was interesting, but his solo stories, when dealing more with Asgard aren't as interesting to me. Oh well. I hope he plays well, and I love that he's in the more recent outfit which I like a lot more.

Wolverine: See Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man. Still, he's an okay character. My main problem is that all his attacks use his claws, yet he never cuts anything, which I understand from a game perspective, but from a flavor perspective is all messed up (that includes every game he's in)

X-23: Okay, seriously? X-23 is the character I feel strangest about being in the game. I really don't have anything against the character (maybe because I love X-Men: Evolution where she was introduced), but it feels silly having her there. Apparently she's not a Wolverine clone though, so we'll see.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Comics Coming Out 1/12

Well, here we go for comics this week!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Art Post 2

Okay, this time we've got X-Men Evolution style Kitty Pryde. I really liked the X-Men Evolution show, and since Kitty was one of my favorites on the show and is one of my favorite characters period, I thought I'd draw her.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Planet Hulk movie in short

Well, this isn't a long post, but whatever. In the comic series Planet Hulk, Hulk goes to Sakaar, punches a bunch of stuff, becomes the king, then gets betrayed, millions are killed, he gets angry and causes World War Hulk, in which he goes after the Illuminati which sent him there. The movie is very similar, with small differences, some medium ones (such as Beta Ray Bill replacing Silver Surfer and No-Name not showing up at all), and one big one.

The Planet Hulk comics had to lead into something else and eventually, Hulk had to return to Earth. Hulk is too popular to have him rule another planet in his own comic, instead of smashing stuff on Earth with the heroes we know and love. And so they had to have something bring him to Earth again, and it is one of the most important parts of the story, because aside from everything else, it shows how much he cared about Sakaar, his wife there Caiera, and that he was still the Hulk.

The movie doesn't lead to anything else. They don't have to bring the Hulk back, so they can take more liberties. Instead of just having Hulk get angry and come back, they changed it so that the happy ending actually stayed a happy ending. It makes sense in that they son't want to have another movie dedicated to World War Hulk, and so that this won't end in a cliffhanger, but on the other hand, showing him as king was important and this glossed over that section, but more so, Hulk was the World Breaker, and not the Sakaarson in the comics. He united everybody, but his actions led to the planet getting damaged severely. Hulk isn't just a monster, but he believes he is and this ending was too happy for me. It was a happy ending, but kind of sappy and, well, Planet Hulk's ending really drove the comic home for me.

Oh well...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Why do superhero games fail? Part 1

A question I've pondered and dealt with for some time now deals with why superhero games don't ever seem to do really well. I'm more talking about card games or collectible games, but some parts can be applied to video games, although those generally turn out better. Now, to an extent, this can really be said for lots of collectible card games, considering there aren't very many around today that have been around for a long time (MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon are the only ones that really come to mind). More specifically, I'd like to look at superhero games though, since this is supposed to be about comics and superheroes.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Spider-Man's Brand New Day

Well, this is very late, but I'm going to talk about Brand New Day, the Spider-Man storyline that made me lose interest in getting Spider-Man.

BND started earlier, with Civil War. In Civil War, Spider-Man, siding with Tony Stark and being pro-registration initially, decided to show his support by revealing his secret identity to the world. This led to a lot of problems, the most important being that an assassin working for the Kingpin ended up shooting his Aunt May, coming close to killing her. Somehow, nobody in the Marvel Universe could save her from a gunshot wound, including Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic, Tony Stark, or even Dr. Doom or villains, he asked everyone he possibly could before giving up. Then Mephisto shows up. Mephisto decided to make him a deal. He would bring Aunt May back if Peter gave up his marriage to Mary Jane. Peter and MJ agreed and then the world forgot Peter was Spidey, he and MJ never married and Aunt May was never shot.

In the Brand New Day, there were a lot of new villains, like Menace (the Gray Goblin wannabe), Freak, a new Kraven, Mr. Negative and Paper Doll, as well as having some old enemies like Hammerhead. In general, it was meant to be a return to old Spidey with him having money problems, girl problems and just being in over his head.

Problem 1)
Different creative teams every month. Now, at 3 issues a month, it meant that there were 3 issue story arcs that lasted for a month and then the next arc began. Some were pretty good, and I enjoyed them. Some were pretty darn bad and some were awful. The main reason that happened was because it wasn't consistently done by the same creative team. Different artists from month to month will be weird, but manageable. The artist is important, I realize, but doesn't affect the story nearly as much as the writer. What the writer does is really set the tone and the mood as well as tell the story. Two writers could get the same basic concept, the same artist and make stories that feel completely different. Two artists could get the same script and make it feel different, but not too different. Sure, the art matters, but much more than the art, the story matters, and with a different writer every month, it feels really awkward.

Problem 2)
Harry Osborn. Now, I guess it's been explained what happened when Mephisto changed things, but it really doesn't make much sense to me that Harry returned from the dead. Sure, it's comics and people can return all the time, but this was more like he died, people were sad and then a few years later, he shows up and it's like nothing ever happened. Apparently he just never died and was in Europe. Or something. It's pretty stupid. Oh, and because of the memory wipe of his identity, I really don't know how he would have died in the first place. How does Harry remember when he almost died as the Goblin? Because what happened before One More Day and BND was that he took a new Goblin formula, fought Spidey, and during a final fight, he paralyzed Spider-Man and set the house to blow up. When he realized MJ, his wife and his son were still in the building, he flew to them and flew them out. MJ was furious that he left Spider-Man inside, and realizing Peter was his friend, goes back in and saves him. Unfortunately, the formula is unstable and kills him. So what now? He just went back in to rescue his enemy who he fights for no reason because his wife's friend/his ex-girlfriend said to rescue her friend. Because they weren't even married any more, remember? Ughh. It's just stupid.

Problem 3)
Merging the three comics into one. Now, when there were three different Spider-Man series, I could get all 3 and not feel guilty because if one started to suck, I could drop it and still get my Spider-Man fix. I personally liked Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Sensational was fun, with Amazing being the one grounding them in current continuity. They were different Spider-Man books with different feels that all worked. When they got merged, then suddenly to keep up with Spidey, you had to get three books month and if one was bad, the next month could be good, so you would keep getting it. It got really frantic because, well, let's compare it to Deadpool Team-Up. They both have a different creative team every month, but Team-Up is limited to one issue, while ASM has three, and Team-Up is loosely tied to continuity while ASM is right in the thick of it. Team-Up is easier to deal with because the stories are lighter and limited to an issue every month, while ASM had much darker storylines, engrossed in continuity with three issues per month, giving you no breathing room in between stories. Having lots of different Spider-Man comics means you can read lots of different storylines at the same time, but not get overwhelmed by any one storyline, whereas with one tri-monthly, they hit you with it and hard. Oh, and you are specifically limited to three issue storylines. Most creators have more leg room, but they have to make it exactly three issues.

In closing, I'd just like to say that I tried BND for a bunch of months, but just stopped caring with the really bad new villains and just hating all of the stupidity of the deal with Mephisto leading into all of it.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Idris Elba as Heimdall

In the upcoming Thor movie, Idris Elba is going to be playing Heimdall, one of Thor's god buddies. In the comics the movie is based on, Heimdall is generally pretty stoic, just standing and watching over the rainbow bridge, the bridge between Asgard and Midgard (Midgard being Earth). He's stronger than some gods, just in terms of pure strength, but generally is just the guardian of Bifrost.

People have gotten upset over the casting of Idris Elba as Heimdall because he's black and Heimdall wasn't. It's a move that, well, makes some sense but in other ways doesn't. If we lived in a world where Prince of Persia had actual Persians and not Jake Gyllenhal or a world where the cast of Last Airbender was actually much more diverse, where one of the darker characters, Katara, isn't played by a little white girl (something that made me not realize who she was through the trailer until the end, when it dawned on me just how much of a difference it made), then casting Idris Elba as the traditionally white Heimdall would be a bad thing, just like those other things. But we don't. Instead, we live in a world where people wore black face and where Aang, Sokka and Katara are all played by white people. So, just casting someone of a different race is something that's done, so I don't see a problem from that perspective.

Now, should Heimdall in general be played by somebody not white? I don't think so if we were following the comics completely. But on the other hand, we're using the Ultimate version of Nick Fury in these movies, aka Samuel L. Jackson, so we obviously aren't copying the stories completely. Now, in the recent issue of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, they put in a black Heimdall, the first time a version of Heimdall has been black. In general, that's okay with me. It's an alternate universe of Marvel where an alternate version of Heimdall happens to be black instead of white. It's also fine in the movie. As long as the character is pretty much the same, I don't really care if he's white, black, orange or green. If he still acts the same and would do everything that regular Heimdall would do, then that's okay with me.

I didn't like Blackheart in Ghost Rider because he was kind of pathetic and stupid. He didn't seem a lot like the Blackheart I knew. Sure, he looked very different and didn't have his most recognizable form, but more than that, he was a different character. That's what made him unlikable to me. If they can make Heimdall the same character, whatever. If they make him a different character too, then it's completely idiotic. If he looks the same, then a different attitude is somewhat okay, if not good. If he looks differently, but acts the same, that's better, if not perfect (from my perspective). Hopefully, idiots will stop complaining and just watch the movie and try to enjoy it as a movie, not point out that Hogun the Grim is Asian and that Heimdall is black.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Juggernaut part 2

Back to discuss Juggernaut again, this time I'll go over what happened during Chuck Austen's run on Uncanny and why I liked Juggernaut so much more after it.

At the beginning, the X-Men get a distress call. They go to the source of the call, when their plane crashes and Juggernaut appears. While the X-Men try to fight off Juggernaut, he gets right up to them and lets them know he was the one who sent the distress call and that he actually does need their help, with Black Tom Cassidy, whose secondary mutation is killing him. There's a fight and in the end, Juggernaut falls into the ocean, and with his powers diminished from some fighting with Cyttorak, he starts to drown. Sammy "Fishboy" Pare saves him and brings him to Xavier's X-Jet. Juggernaut agrees to go with Charles for the time being.

He then grows to be close friends with Sammy and with another kid, the new nurse's son who is eventually revealed to be a mutant. Over the course of the run on Uncanny X-Men, Juggernaut joins with Northstar to fight some werewolf mutants to annoy Iceman, then realizes he likes having a home to go to with no X-Men chasing him or police, somewhere he can settle down. So he asks to join the X-Men. Nightcrawler and Havok agree to let him be on the team, but he doesn't join them for a couple of missions. Instead, he wants to go see Sammy, whose mother had requested that her son be taken away from Xavier's because of Juggernaut's presence. Juggernaut confronts Xavier and they discuss the past, and how they blamed themselves for Cain's father (Xavier's stepfather) beating them and how they disliked the other for whatever reasons (Cain didn't like Xavier because Xavier was some new guy who his father seemed to like more and then because Xavier kept winning at everything, which he realized eventually was because of his mental powers, and Xavier disliked Cain for beating him up and then for being a jerk in general). They eventually come to an understanding of the other, though, and Xavier allows him to go see Sammy, who also had an abusive father.

Reaching Canada and Sammy's house, he sees that Sammy is beaten up (partly from the father, and partly from the other bullies who are anti-mutant), and loses his temper and attacks Sammy's dad. When Alpha Flight shows up, he fights them until he sees how scared Sammy is by him after some debris hits Sammy's mom (who Sammy actually likes). He gives up and surrenders to Alpha Flight. While being detained, Rhino breaks loose and starts messing things up, trying to escape. He eventually breaks things to free Juggernaut and after all the guards fail to stop Rhino, Juggernaut intervenes, grabbing Rhino, one of the guards' guns and shoots Rhino in the mouth, where he is actually vulnerable. The guard then asks not to be hurt, and points out the exit that is available (walls broken during the fight). Juggernaut looks at the outside, then gives the guard his gun back and surrenders to him. Then, Sammy's mom shows up and pleads for Juggernaut. While she was initially afraid of Juggernaut because of his reputation, she had made complaints about her husband beating her and her kid and the police even once told her to "honor her husband." So when Juggernaut showed up, it was the first time somebody fought back for them. It eventually convinces the lawyers to cede custody of Juggernaut to the X-Men.

Why I loved Juggernaut before was because he was just a no nonsense bad guy who wasn't so much evil as just wanting stuff for himself. Nobody could get in his way and the only way you could possibly stop him was to take his helmet off and use mental attacks, something very specific, because you couldn't defeat him physically. Magneto was a terrorist fighting for mutant rights, using whatever means necessary, Dr. Doom mostly just wants power (partly because he is trying to bring his mother back), the Joker wants anarchy and insanity, Lex Luthor wants to be recognized and powerful. Juggernaut just wants revenge on his stepbrother for various reasons (mostly justified) and sometimes to rob banks. He's been used by other people, like Black Tom, for other purposes, but he doesn't really care and that's what makes him awesome. The others all have some specific plan or purpose and that's why they are the bad guy. Juggernaut just likes being more powerful than everyone else and beating people up.

After Austen, what made me like him was that he still was kind of the same guy as before, but with a deeper understanding of himself and he had to look at things more closely and really examine them. Before, only a few people were really able to just outright beat him, so he never really took much seriously. Sure, others slowed him down, and telepaths were able to beat him but with way too much effort. During Austen's run, Cyttorak diminished his power, so he was weaker and more vulnerable. He was still the Juggernaut, but a lot weaker and had to actually be careful. It also made me understand what makes him tick, with becoming strong because of his father beating him and his hatred of Xavier. Then he went from being a strong guy who doesn't take shit from anyone to being a guy who bullied, but is realizing how wrong bullying is, and so he is trying to make himself a better person.

Chuck Austen's run turned from just some guy who beat people up (and was still awesome), to someone who beat people up for a reason. He became more three-dimensional and a more interesting character.

For why I hate Thunderbolts right now, you'll have to read part 3.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Comics Coming Out 1/5


Well, these are the comics I am getting today:

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Art Post 1


Here's my first art post, a picture I did of Deadpool. It's cartoony, in a sort of chibi-esque style. That's probably one of the main ways I'll draw over the year.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Deadpool Team-Up #886

This isn't a new post exactly, but one that went up a few days ago on read/RANT!, where I've been posting occasionally. It's about one of the better Deadpool Team-Up issues.


Sunday, January 2, 2011

Juggernaut part 1

Now, I wasn't really reading comics weekly when Grant Morrison had his run on X-Men, I started picking them up by the time it had changed to Astonishing (and even then didn't pick up Astonishing until post House of M), but I still occasionally picked up volumes, and some of my favorites were, bear with me here, the Uncanny X-Men run by Chuck Austen during Grant's run. Now, I could, and probably will at some point, rant about Grant Morrison and his run on X-Men, but this is about Juggernaut.

I've always liked Juggernaut as a villain. I'm not sure when it started, but he's been my favorite villain for a while. Maybe it was when I was still a big Spider-Man fan (while still young enough not to weekly get comics) and Spider-Man was at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for people to take pictures and get comics. I got an issue of Peter Parker: Spider-Man, issue #84, where Juggernaut is in it fighting Spider-Man. It's a great issue that I love because it shows off Juggernaut at his finest. Spider-Man, who has faced Juggernaut a few times before, sees him and realizes that he shouldn't be fighting Juggernaut. A lot happens, but basically, it all boils down to Juggernaut selling a ridiculously valuable sword in order to help pay for Black Tom Cassidy's medical bills. One of my favorite parts is when he lets Spidey know how valuable the sword is by telling him that he could have busted a whole bunch of banks to get the money, and he could have done it (Spidey believes him), but this is easier. A kid tries to stand up to Juggernaut because Juggernaut's the villain, but Spidey tracks him down and convinces him to give Juggernaut the sword back, because you don't want to mess with Juggernaut.

Basically, this is the back-story for Juggernaut. Professor X's step brother, Cain Marko, was kind of a jerk and they never got along. When they were fighting together in Korea, Cain hides in a cave. Xavier follows him in and sees him in front of an altar where there's a ruby. Xavier warns Cain away, but Cain ignores him, picks up the ruby and recites the words engraved upon it, triggering a cave collapse, trapping him inside, but Xavier escapes. Eventually, Cain, now with the demon Cyttorak's power behind him as the Juggernaut, surfaces to get revenge on his step brother. Juggernaut's powers are his insanely power super strength, with a ridiculously high upper limit of strength, a degree of invulnerability, but also an insane healing factor if you are able to actually injure him, something not often shown. He also is capable of generating a powerful force field around him to shield him from harm. He also doesn't need to eat or breathe, being capable of walking along the ocean's floor just fine without any support or being trapped in concrete for a while and when he eventually breaks out, doesn't need food. His power level has fluctuated over time, most notably when he is a good guy he has been weaker (like most comic book villains).

Next part, I'll talk about Chuck Austen's run and why it made Juggernaut even better a villain for me than before.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Comic Movies in 2011

Well, this year is going to bring some interesting comic movies. Now, this isn't a full list, but more a list of the ones that I personally have some interest in.

Green Hornet:
I honestly never got interested in the character, probably because he was introduced way back in the 1930's and has never really been that big since I've been born. Still, I'm interested in the movie, probably because it looks funny and I like Seth Rogen, and the character isn't somebody I care about, so whatever they do with him is okay with me.

Thor:
Well, this looks amazing. Seriously, I am really looking forward to the Thor movie. It's really going to be the first to integrate itself into the Marvel movie universe. The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man both came out around the same time, and Iron Man 2 is just a sequel, so there hasn't really been a new entry into the universe ever. They had the hammer at the end of Iron Man 2, and Agent Coulson is in the movie (along with Fury), so it will be interesting to see how it fits. Honestly, I can't say much though, other than how much I am looking forward to it.

X-Men: First Class:
I really haven't seen anything about this movie. And by that, I do mean that I haven't seen anything about it. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, I saw that they were filming and intended to have it out by sometime this year and also says that it is still being filmed (as opposed to the Captain America, which is in post, due out late in the year). I was able to enjoy parts of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so I guess that's something. I really don't know what to expect at all, though.

Green Lantern:
Well, I really like Ryan Reynolds. As an actor, in general, he has done pretty well, and I enjoy what he's been in. Still, even more than any of that, I love that he likes Deadpool and is going to play him. I'm sad that Green Lantern has pushed Deadpool back, but I like GL too, so we'll see how that is. In general, with the film, though, it looks silly so far, with a lot of Ryan's deadpan sense of humor in the midst of insanity. I don't know how that feels with Hal Jordan, considering I've always seen Hal as a very serious individual for the most part and just trying to be a space cop, but I love that Killowog is in it and all the GL characters in it. I enjoyed the trailer and am looking forward to the movie.

The First Avenger: Captain America:
All I really know is that it is Cap in WWII with Bucky and fighting the Red Skull and Arnim Zola. Chris Evans as Cap is an interesting choice, and I really hope that much more so than Ryan as Hal, he is serious in the role. While Cap can have a sense of humor, what I've seen of Chris Evans has been him being silly, and while that's fine and worked well for the Human Torch, won't be the same for Captain America. Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull is interesting too. I think Weaving can play the Red Skull well, but I'll have to see a trailer for the movie before I can say any more.

All in all, I'm excited about most of the movies coming out this year. While I'm most excited for Thor, then GL, Cap's movie interests me and Green Hornet is something I want to see. X-Men First Class really needs to step up their game and do something, because right now, it doesn't really make me interested.
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