Pi's Comic/Vs/Whatever Blog

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

2011-01-18T23:56:00.001-05:00

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.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

MvC3 new update

2011-01-17T14:30:00.002-05:00

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!

Old art

2011-01-16T22:54:00.000-05:00

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.

Why did Ultimatum suck? Part 1

2011-01-15T22:10:00.003-05:00

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...

DCUO

2011-01-14T19:37:00.002-05:00

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).

MvC3

2011-01-13T19:47:00.004-05:00

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.

Comics Coming Out 1/12

2011-01-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well, here we go for comics this week!

Chaos War Dead Avengers #3 (of 3)

Chaos War gets to me, but some of the minis were good. I did enjoy seeing some dead characters come back to life to fight one more time. It's kind of cool. Something that gets to me is why Ant Man isn't there. Why is Scott Lang not there? He was an Avenger and died. Oh well. The series was okay. There was mostly bitching going on between the characters. Maybe because all of the Avengers that died were the ones that were disagreeable or annoying. Sigh...

Deadpool #31

God, this Way arc is annoying. I hate when people call vampires Draculas. It's a pet peeve. Dracula was a vampire, not another name for vampire. Deadpool isn't dumb enough that he'd think they were called Draculas and not idiotic enough to realize that they were really called vampires. Deadpool's intelligence rises and falls so much throughout Way's writing that it really annoys me.

Art Post 2

2011-01-11T14:57:00.003-05:00

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.

Planet Hulk movie in short

2011-01-10T22:09:00.003-05:00

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...

Why do superhero games fail? Part 1

2011-01-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

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.

One of the problems comes from the varying powers of superheroes, I think. Let's look at Batman. Sure, he beats up on everybody from time to time, but mostly he deals with non-super powered people. Sure, you've got your Killer Crocs, Clayfaces and Poison Ivys, but for the most part, you have Two-Face and Joker and Calendar Man. While Batman has faced Superman and won (in Dark Knight stuff) or lost (Hush comes to mind), that he has gone up against Superman is a feat in and of itself. Sure, everybody says Batman can beat anyone with planning or whatever, but really, Superman should be able to wipe the floor with Batman. It shouldn't be a contest. Plus, what would Batman do against Doomsday or Darkseid or even Kalibak. Sure, he'd find some way maybe, but in a straight up fist fight? Please. I like Batman, but that'd be silly.

Okay, let's go away from Batman, and just go with Robin even. People say Batman can beat anyone. Nobody considers Robin could. At the same time, Robin helps Batman and is almost as effective as Batman most of the time, sometimes being better, but most of the time being slightly worse. What about Robin vs Darkseid? Would you even consider that a fair fight? Okay, so Dick has become Nightwing and now Batman, but would you have considered Nightwing vs Darkseid a fair fight?

vs
What about now?

Even without knowing the rules to VS, you can see that Nightwing has higher numbers there, representing his higher attack and defense values. Should that be? Well, from a card game perspective, yes. Definitely yes. You need to make people from different groups able to fight each other somehow, meaning that Superman and Darkseid need to be able to fight with Batman and Nightwing in order for it to work. One way would be to make the numbers that they use pretty arbitrary, so that Nightwing can be a 6-cost character on his team, and Darkseid can have a 4-cost version of himself on his team. Just from a design perspective, if people want to play Darkseid, then Darkseid needs to be able to be available earlier in the game or else you're not using him, you're just using his minions. From a flavor perspective, if Nightwing attacks Darkseid and casually defeats him, then we have a problem.

Now, the flavor perspective is very specifically a problem for franchises where characters are at different power levels. When you want to have a game that includes Robin, Daredevil and the Prowler along with Darkseid, Superman and the Sentry, then how you do that presents a problem. Are all the Daredevil things going to only be useful against street-level thugs and what-not? Then, what about using Superman all the time? Can he only be a really high drop because he has a lot of power? I know people who would want to use Daredevil as their main character and some who would want Superman. Would the Daredevil player have the advantage early on, but when Superman comes out, he would be stopped. Or would the Superman player never get to play her Superman because Daredevil and friends without powers all come out so much earlier that Supes never sees the board?

Heroclix probably has the best representation of power levels in that Daredevil is never going to beat up Superman and so a Superman has a really high defense value and Daredevil's attack won't reach that. It also has everybody out at the beginning, and each character's point value is its own thing. The only problem is that why would you ever use the random punks and thugs or Daredevil if you could just field Superman. In fact, it's pretty much what got me to quit playing Heroclix, in that my friend who liked DC more had his Superman and Green Lantern Corps and what can the X-Men really do against that? Or Spider-Man and various clones of Spider-Man? If I wanted to really face them down, I needed to bring out Thor and Firestorm and big characters, which I didn't enjoy using as much. It makes sense from a flavor perspective, but not from a gameplay perspective.

VS did a really good job at bringing characters that were able to fight each other, in that each team's characters were given point values relative to each other, so that on the Darkseid team, Darkseid could have a lower drop with powerful characters at lesser drops because even more powerful characters are at higher drops, while the defenders of Gotham and Bludhaven, pretty much mostly ordinary people without superhuman abilities, will have Batman and Nightwing really high up in cost because they're some of the more powerful members of their team. You can have a 7-cost Dardevil on the team consisting of Marvel's street heroes and a 2-cost Silver Surfer on the team consisting of the heralds that Galactus uses, since Daredevil is pretty good at what he does on the streets and Silver Surfer can be seen to be about even, but maybe lesser at times than the other heralds. This works from a gameplay perspective, but not from a flavor perspective.

Gameplay is much more important to a game than flavor. A game that plays well is a much better game than a game that's accurate to its origins. Even with that, I think that flavor is really important thing when translating a pre-existing franchise to a game. While I enjoyed VS and think that it was one of the better card games out there, I was really annoyed sometimes when I would have the X-Men lose to Gotham City police officers, or when the Kingpin went after my Silver Surfer and won easily, without the Silver Surfer getting him back. I'm a comic fan first and a gamer second, so flavor is more important to me than some, and while I understand the importance of balanced gameplay and incorporating as many character that they could fit so everyone could use a favorite, it still bothered me. I don't think that's why VS failed, but I think that it is a main problem in dealing with superhero games in the first place.

Join me next time when I discuss other ways that superhero games don't always work.

Spider-Man's Brand New Day

2011-01-08T19:41:00.002-05:00

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.

Idris Elba as Heimdall

2011-01-07T17:40:00.002-05:00

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.

Juggernaut part 2

2011-01-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

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.

Comics Coming Out 1/5

2011-01-05T18:52:00.002-05:00

Well, these are the comics I am getting today:

Ant Man and the Wasp #3 (of 3)

Although I don't have the second issue (as they sold out of it at the comic store I was at when it came out), I'll get this issue and try and find the second. It's an interesting series that I enjoy because the characters are very different and at odds.

And that's it. Wow, that's a really sucky day for getting comics. Hmmm. Well, when I do this other weeks, it'll be more interesting, as there'll probably be more than one comic. Oh well.

Art Post 1

2011-01-04T23:53:00.003-05:00

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.

Deadpool Team-Up #886

2011-01-03T15:35:00.002-05:00

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.

Deadpool Team-Up has always been very hit or miss, which isn't really surprising due to the way that the series is made. As opposed to most series which have a single writer and a single artist for multiple issues at a time (or at the very least, a single writer, which is much more important to the story than the artist), each issue of Deadpool Team-Up is done by a different writer and a different artist. Sure, the same artist has done multiple issues, but not in a row, and the same holds for writers. That means you can't judge any issue by the previous one, so if you disliked the previous issue, that doesn't have any bearing on whether or not you'll like this one.

This issue was great, though. Iron Fist isn't my favorite character, or on the top of any list of my favorites, but he still is a character I enjoy reading about. Not enough to get a comic just because it has him in it, but enough that I'll enjoy comics with him in it. Okay, the story. The story is that Deadpool has been hired to take out this ancient warlord who has come back again. Iron Fist is there to shove him back into whatever jail-ish place he was in (partly because his death only means he is reborn again). They decide to team up to get to him, but both have very different ideas about what to do when they get there.

One of the things I love about the issue is that they reference one of my biggest pet peeves from other people about Deadpool. Deadpool has gotten very big in the comic community, so much so that he's everywhere (or at least was), and was very overexposed. Fortunately, the overexposure is starting to fade, and the people at Marvel are limiting his exposure again. Still, the average person has no idea who he is. Then again, the average person doesn't know most super heroes or villains, so that's understandable. Unfortunately, a lot of people look at him and they think about the character they know who he most looks like, Spider-Man. Now, if they knew anything about Spider-Man, and paid attention for more than one second, it'd be easy to see it isn't Spider-Man. Deadpool has no blue on his costume, he has no web design or a spider on the front. Deadpool has a belt, a bunch of pouches and just carries a lot on him, including swords, guns and knives, things Spider-Man doesn't use. Spider-Man's eyes are a white shape (that can change, but stays similar) with a small black outline around it where as Deadpool's eyes are white, shaped like the slits in a domino mask, surrounded by large black ovals or diamonds (or in between). So, while Spider-Man and Deadpool both wear red masks with white eye holes surrounded by black, anything more than a casual glance will tell you they are very dissimilar.

What this issue does is reference that multiple times, where the bad guys keep thinking he's Spider-Man. At the very beginning, they have him surrounded on a cliff, then say to kill the intruder, who appears to be Spider-Man. Deadpool takes offense to it and shows he isn't by using moves Spidey wouldn't, like a reverse boot to the head, a spinning backwards mitten strike and being overwhelmed by goons, all very non-Spider-Man like. Then, to get into the bad guy hideout below, Deadpool leaps off a cliff, straight through the ceiling and a couple floors, causing guards to ask if a man dressed in red killed himself by falling out of the sky. The other agrees and says that he thinks it was Spider-Man, which Deadpool gets angry at again. I love how Shane McCarthy (the writer) took my pet peeve and turned it into something hilarious.

Also what makes it great are the references, some that most people reading should get, one that only Naruto fans will understand and the humor is there in spades. Deadpool references the movie Cliffhanger, Wizard of Oz, how he sometimes has problems with his little yellow boxes, Peter Pan, and is just funny. Iron Fist tries to deal with it like someone who knows Deadpool, just ignoring it when possible and being confused at other times.

In general, this is just a really good issue. Deadpool Team-Up may be a very erratic series, but the good issues are really good, and this is one of them. It's funny and is a good enough one-shot story.

Juggernaut part 1

2011-01-02T03:15:00.000-05:00

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.

Comic Movies in 2011

2011-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

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.

2011

2010-12-25T03:37:00.002-05:00

Well, I know I haven't posted a lot to this blog recently, but I'm going to try something new for the upcoming year. Being inspired by Here Be Batman, a project where one person has decided to draw Batman (or Batman related art) every single day for a year. As of writing this, she's at 109 days of drawing. It's generally been pretty smooth with just a couple hiccups along the way. Now, I'd love to dedicate a year to drawing Deadpool (or even just characters in general), but the truth is that I suck at drawing. There are pieces I've done that I consider good, but I lack a lot of talent. Instead, I'm going to try to just post something about comics (or comic characters) every day, with art thrown in every week on some day of the week. This is something I'd like to try in 2011, but while I think it would be cool to be able to do this, I have my doubts about my success. Oh well. If I fail, it's not like anyone reads this anyway! So for all my readers (hello me!), I'm going to try to update every day for a year, with art posts every week starting on January 1st.

The Only Thing I Know

2010-12-17T20:05:00.003-05:00

Okay, I realize that this video has been on the web for some time now, since February of this year in fact, but I just saw it today. Now, I realize that the end of it shows "hope" for video games as not just things that entirely waste our time, but... it comes far too late in the video, is not nearly enough and really doesn't even begin to help. I will warn you that this might go on for a little while, as this really just makes me, well, upset.

First things first, one of the comparisons he makes to leveling a character in WoW to level 80 is to reading War and Peace, all the Harry Potter books, etc, basically saying that you could read a lot in the time it takes to level a character. Now, just with that, I have a problem. Somehow, the act of reading a book (or multiple ones) is better than video games. He says he spent so much of his life getting meaningless achievements that don't actually count for anything in the real world. Well, and I mean this seriously, isn't reading a book the exact same thing, well, maybe even worse? If you read through a book, how much accomplishment can you really ever feel? If the subject matter was dense, then you can feel proud at having navigated through it. If the book was long, you can feel proud at your perseverance throughout. A book really doesn't hone your reading skills. Sure, reading one book might make it easier to read others just by getting through that book. Still, all in all, what you get is absolutely nothing physical. Heck, there isn't even something you can show friends to show what happened at the end. You can explain the book, but even with all of that, you can't really prove that you are good at reading a book. Now, with a level 80 character in WoW, what do you get in the end? Well, you can feel proud for battling through tough fights, fighting tough creatures, defeating difficult creatures, finding magical items, etc. You can feel proud at your perseverance at getting through to the endgame of a long game. Now, while you don't get a physical trophy or anything, you can show off your character to friends, either in game, by running around with your level 80 character, take a screenshot of your character to show people outside the game, you can still do things in the game itself to improve your character, etc. My main point is that the end result of the WoW campaign in comparison to reading a bunch of books is much more rewarding than the books. Now, I still enjoy reading, but I'm not going to say that reading books is more important than video games.

Next point: Let's do one of my favorite comparisons because it always works. Sports. Now, I'll often see video games compared to sports, or nerddom in general to sports fandom. There are things I agree with and disagree with when it comes to the comparisons, but in general, in the mainstream culture today in America, sports are recognized as "cool" and video games, while gaining in popularity are not really at the same level, and other aspects of nerddom are even lower. Heck, even comic book fans aren't really cool, even though the movies are. Sigh... Still, the comparison holds pretty well that the two are similar. Let me just go with one for this though. He says that he has spent thousands of dollars and countless hours of time spent playing through games to get absolutely nothing in the end, that what was going on wasn't real and therefore (his words) worthless. Now, I'm a San Francisco Giants fan and have been for my entire life. My parents had game plans when the Giants still played at Candlestick Park, but when they moved to Pac Bell Park (which became SBC Park which became AT&T Park), we shared season tickets with another person, so that we get half of the games at home. Right now, our season tickets cost about $1,500 a year, more so if we get postseason tickets (like we did this year). This has been the tenth year we've had our season tickets for the Giants. Now, it hasn't necessarily been that much the entire time (ticket prices have been generally going up), but still, that's thousands of dollars right there. Now, baseball games are usually about 3 hours long. So with 40 or so games per season, that's 120 hours per season. After 10 seasons, that's 1200 hours, approximately, spent at the ballpark, not even counting the time to get to and from the ballpark and the time we spend there before the game starts (add about 2 hours per game). That's a lot of time. This also doesn't count the time I've spent watching games on TV, going to other ballparks and going to Candlestick before I went to their current ballpark. And hey, best example of all, the San Francisco Giants actually won the World Series this year, they were the champions of the Major League. Now, what did I personally get out of any of this? Well, on giveaway days, we get cards, posters, bobbleheads, hats or other random memorabilia. I personally have a San Francisco Giants jersey for my favorite player (Aaron Rowand) and a Giants World Series Champion shirt. Those were extra though, so that doesn't really count. What I really have is memorabilia that is just fun to have more than anything valuable I get out of it, and a feeling of satisfaction. Now, playing any number of video games, I get a feeling of satisfaction, digital memorabilia, and what's the difference? For the Giants, while I supported them, and cheered at games, supporting the team how I could, the players themselves were the ones playing the game. I was just there watching. In video games, everything depended upon me. Samus didn't run through Zebes by herself, I had to guide her the entire time. Mario didn't rescue Peach by himself, I jumped over Goombas, went through warp pipes and shot fireballs at Koopas with my controller. Lego Batman didn't put Lego Joker back in Lego Arkham by himself. He had Robin and Nightwing and Batgirl, and more importantly, I controlled them to punch the bad guys into pieces, which then bought me stuff. My point is that I didn't do anything for the Giants to win, but did something to win in my video games.

Now, I realize that he did point out that video games are merely entertainment, so I might assume that all entertainment goes under this banner for the poster of the video, so that books (even though they are one of his examples) and sports really would be just as bad for him. Okay, then, he says to do something that has value. Well, how much value can one really have? How many people today have made a lasting impact on people's lives? And by that, I mean people that really have done something that will be remembered in generations to come. Not really that many. Sure, a bunch of people were involved in a lot of things we use, or new developments of things, but really, not that many for big important things. I'm going to say that maybe 10,000 people have been remembered throughout time, so that in, let's say 100 years, those people will still be remembered. We won't necessarily remember the people like Steve Jobs (who really only gave us entertainment, so...) and Apple might not even exist. I think that saying 10,000 people have really affected all of humanity is probably a big leap, and that the number is probably much smaller. Still, let's go with it. Now, these people have lived all throughout time, but let's just put them all in the present, let's say everyone who ever made an impact on humanity itself lived right now. We have about 7,000,000,000 people on this planet. So, your chances of being one of those people is about one in seven hundred thousand. Look at the 6,999,999 people closest to you. One of you is a person who really made an impact on humanity. Now, this is of course assuming that there were 10,000 people (even though I think the number is probably lower) that made an impact on humanity and that they only all lived today. Really, the number that you have a chance at being an important person is much lower. Hey, if you're one of the people that really did change the world for humanity, good for you! It's highly unlikely, but hey, it still as a chance of happening. Now, man, look at the Earth. Pretty big, right? Well, compared to the sun, it's about 1 millionth the size of the sun. Now, something used to measure distance is comparing that distance to how far Earth is from the sun. An AU is a measure of distance about 150 million kilometers. That's how far it is from the Earth to the sun. Now, to get to the farthest planet away from the sun in our solar system, Neptune, it is about 30 AU away, or 30 times as far as the Earth is from the sun, which is 150 million kilometers. Now, in general, take a look at this image: IMAGE. It displays how big objects in space are. We've done what? We've done a bunch on our planet, sure, but beyond Earth? Traveled to the moon? Sent some robots to Mars? Just think about how big that last object is in comparison to the Earth. It's really hard to do, since at that scale, Earth doesn't even come close to showing up as a pixel. Think about how much we've done in all the space there is. It's laughably small how little we've done to affect the universe. Now, let's talk time. Earth is about 4 and a half billion years old (unless you're an idiot who believes that the Earth was created 6000 years ago). Now, humanity popped up about 200,000 years ago or about one twenty two thousand five hundredths ago in comparison to how long the Earth has been around.About 10,000 years ago, we got our first city. It is incredibly unlikely that anything you can do in your 80 or so years of living will matter more than the 4.5 billion years that have already gone by. And again, that's just on this planet, which is already insignificant in and of itself.

So, while you can do something that has meaning, it really doesn't matter much in the long run. The most you could possibly hope for is to be remembered by humanity as a whole, and by itself, that's a wholly insignificant task. That would be like an ant being proud that he found a piece of candy. Sure, you're well received, but it really doesn't matter in the long run.

My main point is that his entire video is bullshit. Just pure bullshit. Oh, and if your'e miserable playing games (as he says once), then stop. Why the heck would someone play games if it made them miserable?

Extra Credits

2010-10-15T09:28:00.004-04:00

On the Escapist, a video game website, there's a show called Extra Credits. It's on once per week and, in the style of someone giving a lecture, it's an animated series delving into the video game community as a whole, and some of the problems they feel it faces. I apologize in advance, but this is probably going to get pretty rambly and I'm not quite sure where it's headed. Ahem...

I disagree with them on a base level. A lot of the things they talk about, I disagree with in some form or another, but really, when it gets down to it, I just disagree with their whole premise.

This week's episode is about diversity in video games. It's a broad topic and while it did go into some detail about gender, race and sexual preference in video games, it was more trying to cover diversity as a whole while leaving specifics for future episodes. Part of it may be me, but, well, it was just wrong to me.

They talked about how there aren't really any video games that pass the Bechdel Test, a test for women in movies. The test asks three quetions: Are there two or more women in the movie that have names? Do they speak to each other? Do they speak about something other than men? A lot of movies fail this. So do video games, but at the same time, I don't think it's necessarily something that is a big problem. First, let's just go with Mario Kart or any sports related game. Should MLB2K10 have women that speak to each other about something other than men? I know that for the most part, a lot of baseball announcers are men, and a lot of the well-known ones are men, and so when choosing announcers for a baseball game, you're probably going to pick men. If a woman is chosen, she'll probably be the only woman. Should there be women in the game itself as playable characters? Well, that's something that falls upon Major League Baseball. There really aren't women in baseball and a video game about baseball, in my opinion, shouldn't add them just because.

Now, sure, sports games don't really count for that, as there isn't a lot of communication in the game in the first place. Heck, the only male characters that talk to each other are the announcers, and you never see them. Still, that's a decent amount of games where the system is irrelevant. See, a lot of games may fail that test, but because it's not a test that really helps in any way. Sure, Halo or Gears of War may fail (I don't know, since I haven't played them), but, well, communication in games is almost always limited to the main character and people he or she comes in contact with. In Star Wars: Battlefront 2, there isn't interaction between characters. Period. Now, the only female characters are the Rebel snipers, but the point still stands (and there weren't a lot of women fighting as ground troops in Star Wars anyway). In Shadow Complex, there aren't a lot of characters in general with names. You pretty much have the main character, his girlfriend, the main bad guy and that's about it. In Spelunky, there's no names given to people period and no interacting. You could say that the game is sexist in that you rescue girls from the dungeon who are there simply to be rescued, but you can also make it so that she is the main character, and she rescues the guy, so, really, not.

My point about this is that a test designed for movies isn't necessarily going to work as well in a video game. They were aware of this, I'm pretty sure, but didn't really discuss that except for adding a component of whether the game has a playable female character. First, that isn't really something either. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you play Link and that's the only character you play as. Still, there is Twinrova, who is two old, evil witches, named Koume and Koatke, who have names, talk to each other and talk to each other about something other than boys. It also has Zelda, the Gerudo, Ruto, Saria, and plenty of female characters, Zelda being incredibly competent and useful as Sheik, and Saria and Ruto being guardians of temples. But it would fail because you can't play as female Link? I know they were trying to do something to make it work, but adding a female character just because is kind of silly to begin with and interferes with their discussion of token characters. In the same vein that I don't want Zelda to be an equal character playable in Zelda games, I don't want some male character equally playable (the "Remember me? guy or Adam Malkovich or somebody in a similar suit) in my Metroid games instead of Samus. I realize men are the main characters in video games a lot more than women and often times the women are used as male fantasies, but, well, the Bechdel Test (which fails in games without communication outright) isn't close to being the answer.

There are other things they talked about that I'd discuss, but this is getting long, so I'll start ranting about the main thing that annoys me about the series, although I do kind of like it. Be warned, as this may be incoherent.

Video games are different from almost every other media out there. The closest I can really think of are Choose Your Own Adventure novels, where you actually decide what happens. What makes video games really different is that you control the action. I don't feel video games, as a whole medium, are art, but for the purposes of this, whatever. In other forms of art, you don't do anything except interpret. The closest would be creating your own art, or maybe in a play, where you can disrupt the play. The people behind Extra Credits are trying to jam video games into the art culture, making video games out to be some kind of artform and not just something in and of themselves.

Problem number one with making video games into art is that, well, for me, anyway, I rarely play games because I want to have a situation where I look at the game and interpret the way art often does. You look at a painting and can think, "Oh, that makes me think of the good old days, when people didn't have cell phones and VCRs were the new cool thing." Somebody else could look at it as "Oh, that makes me think of the time where everything started going downhill, where people started turning to technology instead of people and things started to get all technobabble." I really don't care for that type of thing in my video game. Sports games aside, when I play Star Wars: Battlefront 2, I play because I want to play as Stormtroopers and shoot some rebels, or play as some clones and blow up droids, or etc. Basically, video games, to me, aren't a form of self expression as much as a way of letting me just do things. I don't play Spelunky for some deeper meaning, I play Spelunky because it is challenging, fun, and something that I really want to beat (500+ deaths and I still haven't beaten it once yet). The one time that's closest to something like the situation above for me was playing Braid, which I played originally because it was similar to Spelunky in that I wanted to play because it was challenging and fun, but the end makes you actually think, somewhat, about the entire game and is kind of cool in that regard. Still, I wasn't playing for that twist ending at the end, I was playing because it was fun, and I just happened upon something that also could make you think.

Problem number two with making video games into art is that they are different. Like I stated two paragraphs ago, games are very different from any other media because most media is fed at you, where in video games, you take a controlling role. This may seem like a small difference, especially in very linear games, but it is a pretty big difference.It isn't simply adding another dimension, something like how paintings and sculptures are different, or how books and movies are different. Every single other form is non-interactive and that makes all the difference.

More than anything, though, my first point about making video games into art is my main one. I really like video games. I currently own an XBox 360, a Wii, a DS Lite, a DS, various Game Boys, at home I have a Gamecube, and N64, older Game Boys, look the point is that I like video games. I don't look for meaning in my video games, I look for mindless entertainment. And that's what I get, for the most part. I will play a game if it is fun. That's the only way I'll play a game. I enjoy my MLB2K10 just as a game. I enjoy Spelunky just as a game. I enjoy the Metroid Prime series just as games. A lot of the things that they discuss in the series have nothing to do with making games more or less fun. The way I see it, it is complaining about players' jerseys in professional sports. The jersey's just kind of there, more than anything. Or it's like complaining about the art on a Magic: The Gathering card. The art does nothing to change my outlook about the game. I'd play a card with worse art and a great effect over a card with great art and a bad effect. Most of what they are complaining about seems to me to be complaining about the way it looks, something that's relevant almost zero percent of the time in my video game experience. I really don't care how something looks in most scenarios, heck, in life. In a game, the plot is secondary to the gameplay. In a movie, the effects are secondary to the plot. Complaining about a movie's plot is something that makes sense to me. Complaining about the effects seems stupid (a lot of the time, although movie effects are more integral to a movie than plot to a game). I didn't watch Avatar because of various reasons, one of which was that I heard that the effects were awesome while hearing nothing about how great the story was, mostly hearing that the story was bland and derivative. In that same vein, I wouldn't play Crysis because it looked really good, if the gameplay itself was boring. Honestly, the things they complain about are things that are completely irrelevant to me when picking a game to play.

Anyway, if you stayed to the end of this, holy shit, that's amazing. Seriously, that's amazing. I'm impressed. Sorry, but I had to go off about this to someone somewhere and this seemed like the place to do it.

Pi's Reviews - October 13th

2010-10-13T00:13:00.005-04:00

Deadpool Corps #7 review

Honestly, this issue wasn't as great as some of the other ones, and I think the reason is that I honestly don't know what the heck happened. Although I do like that the flashbacks are all crazy and part of Deadpool's fantasy, such that how much we can trust them is unknown. I do love that the general space public fears or respects the Deadpool Corps as much as they do, based off of how the Deadpool Corps took on the Awareness, and while not respected much on their Earths, they get a lot of respect and fear out in space.

Still, the issue could have been better. I really wish I knew what was going on. I realize Deadpool rushes into things in this series with no plan whatsoever, but seeing that happen while there's this other insanity of not knowing if what he's doing is even what actually happened makes it a little hard to follow. It is good, though, and I do enjoy me some Deadpool Corps.

New Avengers #5 review

At least, we finally know who the villain is, what his plan is and what is going on. It's kind of weird, and a little annoying that it took 5 issues to determine the name of the bad guy, but it still works. There's a lot of Bendis writing in this that makes it work.

While there is barely any action in this (in fact, the only real action is at the beginning, on a two page spread of Wong and Dr. Strange vs the Hand), it still feels good. For me, for a Bendis book, it can do one of two things, and it does it well. It can advance the plot with a lot of dialogue and people talking to each other, which I am fine with because Bendis makes the characters talking to each other interesting, or it can do nothing to advance the plot and just have fighting, with no real resolutions that works well because Bendis can make the characters that are fighting interesting.

Honestly, I love Bendis's work, and this is mostly a good example of Bendis advancing plot through dialogue and a whole lot of dialogue.

The Thanos Imperative #5 review

This issue's ending made sense to me. Thanos has kind of been going along with the Guardians for no real reasons, and it's been a little weird, but the ending of this made sense. I can totally understand all of Thanos' actions up to this point. I like what Thanos is doing in this, because the writers understand Thanos and understand his motivations.

Something that kind of annoyed me about the issue, and the entire series for that matter, is the battle going on at the Fault. There's ships flying everywhere, stuff's apparently happening, but more than anything, it's Galactus and pals kind of standing out in space in front of the Galactus engine, which is apparently a lot bigger than Galactus himself, and is, well, weird more than anything. Fighting's going on, but we don't know anything about it. Most of it isn't physical, although the physical isn't seen anyways, and, well, it seems like it isn't important, when it's probably the bigger fight that's going on. Whatever...

All in all, I like the Thanos Imperative because the writers are good at their jobs, but dislike it slightly because it feels like they are being forced into writing something that they don't necessarily want to write.

Comic reviews - October 6th

2010-10-05T20:24:00.007-04:00

Chaos War #1
I missed a lot by not getting Prince of Power #4. Apparently. I really don't know what to expect from Chaos War. From what it seems, the heroes themselves aren't going to be able to do much, based off of the ending of this issue, so what's going to happen. It seems like the battle is less physical and more of some other battle. It reminds me of Thanos Imperative, where Galactus and Aegis and Tenebrous and all those guys are just kind of seemingly standing there while fighting the Cancerverse. Is that what this is going to be?

While I felt this issue was pretty meh, maybe because I don't really understand what the heck is happening, I did like one part. After reading the last page, which was questions asked of Amadeus Cho and Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King. Amatsu-Mikaboshi responds to all of his questions in haiku (sometimes, you have to stretch to get the syllables to work, like the word "chaos" being pronounced with both one and two syllables). I went back to the issue and where Amatsu-Mikaboshi speaks, it is all in haiku. I'm sure it's something that's always been done with the character, but seeing how little I'd read of the character before, this was an awesome thing.

Deadpool MAX #1
Um, yeah. Okay. Hmmm... Where do I begin? Okay, first, this isn't in the regular Marvel 616 universe, it is in some alternate universe where apparently HYDRA isn't real, Deadpool fought in Iraq and helped to catch Osama bin Laden and Deadpool's not just crazy with multiple personalities in his head, but also is delusional about lots of stuff.

It's a MAX comic so they can swear all they want. And they do. Plus, there's some sodomy involved and some shit involved. And when I say shit, I don't mean events, I mean literal shit, excrement. It is very weird. It has a whole lot of violence and blood and people getting cut apart and shredded. And yet, it lacks something.

The comic is narrated by Bob, an agent for some organization, and is told from his perspective. It doesn't have a lot of actual Deadpool in it. The stuff it does have is decent except for the delusions that he seems to be under which are annoying, but manageable. Really, though, this comic is an excuse to see Deadpool swear and kill and be violent and it doesn't deliver nearly as much of that as it should. There's violence and blood and swearing, but not Deadpool being funny and insane and killing, but mostly Hammerhead being a douchebag and punching or headbutting his people, who apparently can choose whether or not to wear clothing most of the time. All in all, it didn't deliver the Deadpool I wanted nearly as much as it did just swearing.

Deadpool: Pulp #2
Deadpool Pulp is, well, meh... I'm not saying it's a bad comic, just that it lacks something, well, a lot of something. What I love about Deadpool is the insanity and the humor. This lacks that. Sure, there's some violence and some insanity, but most of the humor's gone. Sure, it's Deadpool Pulp and is supposed to be based off of pulps and more so a noir backdrop, so it makes sense in the setting, but, well, it loses a lot of Deadpool in the transition. Pretty much the only stuff that's the same is that he wears part of the mask, has the Loeb boxes and the character names are the same. Seriously, it has two characters who are Cable and Stryfe who have the messed up star around the eye and look exactly the same as one another. It's kind of weird.

Deadpool Pulp is very cynical. It is darker than most Deadpool stuff and tries to be deeper. The stupidness of the Loeb boxes makes the first scene awkward, as it is trying to be dark and silly at the same time. Dark and silly don't match. The comic is trying to be philosophical and ends up being stupid. I'll keep reading for the little Deadpool there is, but it is buried deep.

Taskmaster #2
I love this series. This is a series that I love, despite not being a huge fan of the art. I'm not saying the art is horrible, but it isn't my favorite style. It's not something that would distract me as much as Steve Dillon's art or J. Calafiore's art. It gets the job done and isn't horrible enough for me to hate it.

But I love this series because it is freaking hilarious Fred van Lente is great. Heck, I'd love it even for just the parts with "the Don of the Dead", a Mexican merc who rules Michoacan. He speaks in a broken English with some Spanish and mostly just speaks with an accent that is represented by the way that the words are written. For example, "So. El Maestro de Task. Ju face the Don of the Dead in final combat. What ju say to that, hanh? Si. Si. Excelente. I KEEL JU FACE!!" What I love about this is similar to why I love a lot of Deadpool. It takes the stance that even with killing and violence and bloodshed, it doesn't have to be serious, but can be stupid and silly and fun. Seriously, this is one of the best series I have read. It is awesome.

Uncanny X-Force #1
This was the best comic with Deadpool this week. Seriously. Deadpool MAX was okay, but I wasn't a huge fan of the representation of Deadpool's insanity and more to the point, it didn't focus on him. Deadpool Pulp lacked so much of Deadpool's humor that it didn't feel like Deadpool at all. This, while not focusing on Deadpool made the parts that had Deadpool in them absolutely brilliant. Remender did a great job of capturing Deadpool.

In this, Deadpool was mostly competent, only forgetting to look behind him and thus getting knocked out by War. Still, it took the rest of X-Force (well, kind of) to bring him down, so I'm not really complaining. When he was in it, he was talking the entire time, which is pretty much what I expect and want from Deadpool. The comic literally opens with Deadpool standing on a giant statue that produces a waterfall with a large drop, saying, "Why did the nickel jump off the building but the dime didn't? Dime had more cents," before jumping off the statue onto a rock far below. He is sheer madness, but with some order and a lot of humor. Every single panel he is in (except the very last one where he is in the background), he says something. Every single one. That's pretty darn crazy.

The rest of the issue is okay, mostly dealing with the team itself getting together, having Warren and Betsy together and Logan and Fantomex together, just kind of explaining who they are through what they do. It works really well as an opening issue as it introduces the main characters, who they are, has them fight a villain and, well, it does so much in one issue. I talked about Secret Avengers vs Avengers, how Secret has its plot, and no characterization while Avengers has great characterization while its plot is meh. This is both. It has a plot that works and characterizes well. Plus, I picked up the white variant, so I can get it drawn on at a convention at some point.

Young Allies #5
I don't know how I feel about this issue. I like Gravity, but he seems a lot darker in this series than in any of the stuff before. I mean, in his mini-series that introduced him, he was a cheery guy, even with all the bad stuff happening around him. He seems a lot darker in this. While he hasn't killed anybody yet, he really seems to want to kill people. That just doesn't seem right to me. Whatever.

This series has been merely okay. This issue didn't really do much for me over all. It kind of wrapped things up, but I really didn't understand Superior's plan very much or anything about him really. He just kind of was crazy. Oh, and spoiler if you care, but why was he able to just take apart Singularity? Was it because he helped to give Singularity his powers? Because that kind of makes sense, but considering the level of his telekinesis, he should have been able to do that anyway. Which brings me to the number one complaint I have about telekinesis:

Why, with telekinetic villains in particular, but just characters with telekinesis in general, do they not just win against pretty much everybody? I'm not talking about throwing them somewhere or throwing things at them, I'm talking about going into their body and squishing their heart. Hearts aren't that tough in comparison to most things, and someone with telekinesis should be able to kill them pretty easily. Or their brain. Or just veins and arteries around the heart. Or so many other ways to squish people's internal organs. I think I remember Dark Jean Grey in New Excalibur doing that, and thinking, well, why can't she kill everybody? It really annoys me sometimes, but mostly this issue with Superior and Singularity. Sigh...

Secret Six #26
God, I hate Calafiore's art. I really do. It really annoys me. Everything just looks wrong. It's something that's always bugged me, but never annoyed me that much, probably because I didn't read stuff by Calafiore. But Secret Six really annoyed me. I think it's because, to me, it has so much potential to be one of my favorite comics, even with it being a DC comic, but it is weighed down so heavily by Calafiore's art.

Anyway, the issue itself was decent. The fight between the two teams (which was hyped last issue and didn't happen at all) was only the last couple pages and was kind of disappointing. This issue dealt a lot more with what the heck is going on and why they are going to Skartaris. Maybe it's because I don't know a whole heck of a lot about Skartaris, or maybe it's because this ties in to something bigger (why is Amanda Waller there talking to Spy Smasher about a nuke going off on American soil? I have no idea), but the issue just seems kind of meh to me.

Pi's Comics - September 29th

2010-09-29T03:00:00.003-04:00

Well, I guess we should get started with this week's comics. Let's go!

Wait a second. Okay, let's go through the list here. No...no...god no...hmmm. Okay, so somehow, and I have no idea how, there aren't any comics that are coming out today that I am interested in. Weird. Okay, new plan! If you are reading this before I get back from the comic store, which is likely if you look at this before noon at the very least, then just come back sometime later, like tonight or tomorrow, as I'll have some review done. If you are reading this and there are a lot more words below this, then, hey, my review of Batman: Under the Hood is right there. You can go read it.

Batman: Under the Hood review:

Let me start by letting you know how I first became interested in Jason Todd. My friend is a big Batman fan, and he read Batman Annual #25, which revealed how Jason Todd came back from the grave. While idiotic and completely insane, I do like the story in the sense that it doesn't cheat by saying Jason Todd never actually died, but instead was only seemingly dead until he found his way back, the way that it happens in soap operas and often in comics. No, Jason died at the hands of the Joker during A Death in the Family. He died, was buried in a coffin in the ground and then Superboy Prime got mad. See, in Infinite Crisis, Superboy Prime, the Superboy from a world not unlike ours (he was one of only a couple superpowered people, named Clark Kent ironically) who lived outside reality with Alexander Luthor. When he saw how shitty DC was (in the sense that Wonder Woman would kill people, the darkness of the universe, not the quality of the comics), he got mad and punched reality. He punched reality so hard that it broke. And one of the things that got broken was Jason Todd's life. So it happened that six months after he was buried, because Superboy-Prime punched the walls of reality, Jason Todd awoke in his grave. I would think, and I'm guessing lots of people agree here, that waking up after having been beaten and exploded underground in a coffin would be pretty horrifying. So, while Jason has done some stuff since then that has made him seem crazy and maniacal and whatever, I feel sympathetic for him, as everything from A Death in the Family through his going into a lazarus pit would be trying for anybody, and while he isn't completely sane, he still is trying to do the right thing, for the most part.

Batman: Under the Hood is a really good story in showing with how to mess with Batman. Red Hood knows Batman, knows how he works, knows what he does, and because of that, he can mess with Batman like few others can. While Batfans might have been upset with the way that they brought Jason Todd back, after it was such a big deal for him to die, I don't think that this really undermines that in any way. The way I see it, Winick makes the entire point of the book and the final actions of Jason to be a reference to his death. In Under the Hood, Jason causes a lot of trouble in Gotham, mostly by messing with Black Mask's territory and taking out criminals and criminal activities using lethal force if necessary. While Red Hood and Batman are fighting against Captain Nazi, the Hyena and Count Vertigo, Alfred, through narration, tells a story about Jason.

Master Jason's had a condescending practice of referring to the costumed criminal elements as "dress ups." He also noted that such individuals did not fear the Batman the way the street toughs and mafiosos did. The "dress ups" did not believe that he was a monster. I explained to Jason that he was correct, but only to a certain degree. These individuals with their special abilities...these men who could do the unimaginable...these madmen...they have their own myths. Some believe he is just a man. Others believe he is an army. Some think he can't be injured. Others believe he can't die. But the boy did say something to me that chilled me to the bone...even then. "They all know he won't kill them." I'm not sure what frightened me more. The observation by one as young as Jason...that power could be leveled with the threat of murder. Or the fact that he was most likely correct.

What I like is that Jason confronts Batman about his no killing policy. I certainly have to admit that to Black Mask, Red Hood was a lot scarier than Batman, considering how many of Black Mask's people he took out. It's something that lots of superheroes deal with, an ethical code that keeps them from killing. Some don't care as much about killing, but others strive not to. It is what convinced Iron Man in the Illuminati special to send Hulk to space and to accept registration. If heroes killed, then not only would you get those specific villains off the streets permanently (well, somewhat more permanently at any rate, this is comics we are talking about) to stop them from hurting and stealing and killing, but you also send a message to all the other crazies out there that you're not going to get a slap on the wrist if you do something wrong, you're going to end up dead. Batman, at his best, can convince you he's going to hurt you really bad, and I mean really bad, but Batman isn't going to kill. A normal thug might be scared of that, but the crazies aren't as scared of that. They get sent to jail, to Arkham, whatever, they can usually break out or something will break them out. They'll be back out on the streets again. But some psychopath who kills villains? That's a lot more to deal with.

All in all, I think that Under the Hood really provides a good example of why Batman is the best at what he does, eventually defeating Red Hood and doing it his own way, but it also provides examples to the contrary so that you can see Batman's is only one way of dealing with things and another might work just as well, and perhaps better.

Pi's Comics - September 22nd

2010-09-22T03:00:00.010-04:00

Wheee! A new fun edition. Oh, and I'm adding something. I'm going to review each comic I get here in its own post, which won't be up immediately, but probably should be up before Thursday. The link will be there, but the post might not be up when you check. Check back later and it'll hopefully be there then. Oh, and Superman/Batman Annual #1 is a great comic.

Avengers #5

This comic is one that I'm not sure about yet. The first four issues have been hit or miss for me. I like parts, but I'm not too fond of the main plot, I think. The Bendis dialogue is something I really like, and something that shines in both of his Avengers comics. The time travel is something that really annoys me. I'm not too big a fan of time travel. This story is just really annoying with time travel, but great with characterization. If you want Bendis with Thor, Iron Man and Bucky-Cap, along with Wolverine and Spidey and etc from the Old New Avengers, that's what most appealing in this, I feel. Review here.

Deadpool Team-Up #889

Deadpool Team-Up had a great first issue and has been absurdly hit or miss since then. I understand why, with the different creators. Each issue is written and drawn by a different creative team. Recently, they've been better, though, I feel. Of course, there is no guarantee for this issue. Basically, all I can say beforehand is if you want a Deadpool comic or a comic with Gorilla Man, you can pick this. If you like Jeff Parker's writing, you can get this. Otherwise, there is no way of knowing beforehand. Review here.

Millar and McNiven's Nemesis #3

I love Mark Millar, and I loved Kick-Ass. There was a lot of hype for this series from the ads, and it is a decent comic. It isn't as good as other Millar comics, I feel, but it is interesting. Basically, I look at it as Batman if there were no other superheroes and Batman was a criminal instead of a hero. He has these absurd plots and plans things out really far in advance to further his plots, and it is awkward at times, but still can be fun. I know I enjoyed the first couple issues, but don't buy the hype about how amazing it is from the creators. It is a good comic, but not great. Example from issue 2, he has his armored car, but has a switch which breaks the car apart to have him riding a motorcycle, like in Dark Knight, except it works because this isn't nearly as grounded in reality as that movie was. It has fun stuff, just not great stuff. Review here.

Secret Avengers #5

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this series before, but I don't find it nearly as good as other people, maybe because I'm not a huge Deodato fan or maybe because Nova was a stupid choice from the writers or maybe because the series doesn't really do much with the characters. A team book should, in my opinion, focus on the team. Maybe it focuses on individuals working on a team, or how the team works together or doesn't, but it has to focus on the team, at least somewhat. This feels more focused on the main story, without attaching you to any of the characters. I honestly don't care for any of the characters. Maybe this'll help, but not judging by the blurb. Review here.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #3

I loved Astonishing X-Men when it was under Whedon. When Whedon left, I felt the quality deteriorated, but stuck with it. More than anything, I felt the Ellis arcs were just bleh. Ellis is a good writer, but the stories weren't interesting to me. The characterizations were decent, but the stories weren't interesting. It was like Secret Avengers' opposite. Secret Avengers has an interesting story (well, could be, but I don't find it interesting) with bad characterization. Astonishing has good characterization, but bad stories. The Xenogenesis thing started before the Astonishing X-Men arc ended, so I didn't really care at all when it started, and now I just don't care period.

Fantastic Four #583

I read FF under Millar, and enjoyed it, even while I felt it was dull, which it really was. When he left, I left also. I've heard good things about Hickman's run, but I really don't care enough. The FF have never been my favorite team. I don't know why, but they haven't been a team that I've been interested in. Meh, I haven't read much Hickman, but I've heard good things. After hearing about his plots, they seem convoluted and stupid to me (both SHIELD and Secret Warriors seemed stupid from the descriptions I heard about). People seem to like him, though. Whatever.

Hulk #25

I've already said too much about Hulk, but I'm just going to talk about this again. How powerful is Rulk? He seemed to be able to beat everything in the first few issues, including stupid things. When I read later, Wolverine put up a good fight, which seemed stupid. He also seemed worse as the series went on. I half-want to get this to see Iron Man kick his ass, but I don't want to support Loeb's bad habits (sure, it's someone else, but Loeb created Rulk).

As always, leave a comment below or e-mail me at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com.

Deadpool Team-Up #889

2010-09-22T02:59:00.007-04:00

This was a decent issue. I didn't find it great, maybe because I didn't know the characters other than Deadpool that well. Sure, Borgia Omega isn't in a lot, but I haven't read a lot about Gorilla-Man. I never read Atlas, except for seeing them in random stuff I've read that wasn't specifically about them (there was a Spider-Man thing with them, they were in Thunderbolts, etc).

Overall, the story was decent, and, well, spoilers aren't important for this at all, so they'll be in this. Deadpool goes to an island to protect Lucrezia Borgia, who wants him to save her from Gorilla-Man. Then Deadpool shoots at Gorilla-Man, Gorilla-Man shoots back, and they end up in a Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd at the end of Rabbit of Seville scenario, where each one shoots at the other, then the other comes back with something bigger, as Borgia Omega has left weapons all over the island. Eventually, they get tired, then team-up and flying on lasedactyls (pterodactyls that shoots lasers, obviously), shooting down Borgia Omega's escape plane.

Basically, it was decent, at best. I didn't find anything particularly interesting, and mostly, it just seemed stupid for stupid's sake, like with the Seville scenario and the laserdactyls. It just seemed silly and wasn't really that interesting. I am interested in the next couple, though, with Thing and Thor. Those should be interesting team-up/fights. Since Deadpool shouldn't win those, what will happen to make them interesting?

Nemesis #3 Review

2010-09-22T02:59:00.006-04:00

Nemesis is immensely entertaining. It isn't a great series, but it is entertaining.

The character Nemesis is ridiculously silly. I mentioned in my preview that he had his Dark Knight inspired motorcycle/car thing. In this, he takes on almost 100 riot guards in a prison. By himself. Well, okay, he counts 97 of them, not an even 100, but it wouldn't make sense if they had exactly 100. Still, he fights them. Considering his decision to fight them, I'm going to assume that you realize he's either crazy or Ozymandias-like in his fighting. Oh, that isn't an exclusive or, by the way. And by Ozymandias-like, I mean that he can do stupid things and beat up 97 people whose entire job is to stop people like him from getting away. Then, he frees all the prisoners. Not to help him against the 97 guards, but just after, for the heck of it.

It's stupid, it really is. Kick-Ass was trying to be as normal as possible, with Dave actually being worthless in a fight until he got his deadened nerve endings and metal plates. And then he was only marginally worthless. Which makes sense, because he's never had any training to fight, and is pretty scrawny and his only experience is reading comics. But Big Daddy and Hit-Girl (specifically Hit-Girl) were absurd. By the time Hit-Girl started doing stuff, it became obvious that while not super-powered, they were Batman-like in terms of humanity (a level that isn't something that can realistically be reached). Nemesis didn't really try for reality, from what I can tell, so that's okay. Nemesis takes place in a world where there aren't superheroes, but you can become Batman. Except evil. And silly.

Avengers #5 review

2010-09-22T02:59:00.005-04:00

Before anything about the issue, I just want to talk about the ad on the back. Why the heck is there a Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver ad on the back of this issue? I'm not complaining because I don't think Avengers should have a Pokemon ad as much as I am complaining because the games came out in March.

Anyway, more of what I've come to expect in this series in this issue. The good: The characters are awesome. I love reading Bendis team comics because he is superb at making the characters pop and making them interesting. Everyone acts like an individual as part of a team, rather than just as pawns in a chess game. They are all unique and stay true to what I'd expect from them. The bad: The time travel stuff is ridiculously convoluted and makes little to no sense and I sincerely wish this arc to end. Apparently Hulk and old Stark put fear into Kang, so that he'll listen to them, so when he went to the Avengers, it was because of them. But he's also a dick, so you know there you go.

The art is beautiful, and I really like JRJR's style in this series. At the very beginning, it has a two page, with Thor charging, then flying smack into Galactus' face. It's pretty awesome.

All in all, I like the series, just because the characters are well defined and interesting, but the time travel is getting pretty stupid, so after this arc, we'll have, aw crap. Rulk? FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU...

Secret Avengers #5 Review

2010-09-22T02:59:00.004-04:00

Well, Secret Avengers did exactly what I wanted it to do. With the wrong character. As I talked about in my preview, the emphasis in the series has been less about the team than about the story. I think that can work fine with a single character who's established, like with Captain America or something, but not so much when you have a team, especially one consisting of characters who have never worked together before.

This issue is about Fury, the Nick Fury character helping the villains. It is a backstory for the character, and details how he came to be in general, and then how he came to work for the sinister organization opposing the Secret Avengers. It's a decent backstory that shows a good grasp on continuity, which I always enjoy.

My main problem, like I've said, is that this issue doesn't work as part of a team comic when they haven't established the team yet. If the team hadn't been put together yet, and this was a backstory so that they could team-up, sure, maybe. If the team hasn't really been seen much, though, it falls short.

Let me be perfectly clear. This is a pretty darn good stand-alone story and a decent issue. It tells a good story with good pacing and a good plot, while establishing the chatarcter of the villain Fury (named Max). It just doesn't make me like the Secret Avengers any more. The Secret Avengers still are uninteresting in their own book and I don't feel any connection to them. Even less connection here, since only Steve and Black Widow actually show up in it. That doesn't make for a good team comic.

My iTunes library is stupid

2010-09-18T00:00:00.006-04:00

I have used iTunes for a long time, and accumulated a lot of music in that time. Some of it is stuff I've never even listened to, such as I got a CD for one song, but put the entire CD in, and then never listened to anything else. Still, it is a library that has lasted me many years, and is now up to over 3,400 items. A lot aren't even songs, but could be stand-up or a book or quotes from a movie or something. If I put shuffle on, I get some pretty crazy results. I know that I've seen this somewhere, and it seems stupid, but, well, this is an example of 20 random songs in my library.

1: I Want You Around, by Fountains of Wayne
2: PG Porn Theme Music, by James Gunn's PG Porn
3: Stay Beautiful, by Taylor Swift
4: German Cars, by Sarah Silverman
5: Am Yisrael Chai, by Schlock Rock
6: Cupid's Chokehold, by Gym Class Heroes
7: Speak To Me Bones, by Land Of Talk
8: Theory of Revolution, by A.F.I.
9: You Oughta Know, by The Killing Moon
10: Hate To Say I Told You So, by The Hives
11: Shukan Sentimental, by SCANDAL
12: Weight of the World, by Evanescence
13: The Land of Wrigley, by Stormy Weather
14: Now Get Busy, by Beastie Boys
15: Hello, by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
16: Misguided Ghosts, by Paramore
17: I've Had Enough, by Earth, Wind, and Fire
18: Saving Lives, by Bill Murray (quote from Ghostbusters)
19: Golden Boys, by NOFX
20: The Itchy and Scratchy (and Poochy) theme song, by The Simpsons

This list was inspired by me listening to Soramimi Cake, the opening to Azumanga Daioh, then moving on to Israel's Song by Schlock Rock, then jumping again to I Wanna Rock You Hard this Christmas by the Dan Band. Three completely different songs.

Pi's Comics - September 15th

2010-09-15T03:00:00.001-04:00

Another week, another week of my previews. What fun.

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine #3

This is kind of silly, sure, but it is a fun story. It isn't in continuity, or if it is, involves time travel to the extent where they'll probably return at the instant they left, so it won't matter to continuity. I personally really liked the first two issues. The issues really revolved around what would happen if Spider-Man and Wolverine ended up going through time so that they have nothing similar to home and have to just deal with each other, which as shown in practically everything they've been in doesn't work very well. I like the Spider-Man v Wolverine dynamic because it works so well. Spider-Man is pretty fun-loving, cracks tons of jokes, is very science-minded and despite being around for 48 years, is still one of the "kid" heroes, probably because of his status as THE teenage superhero. Wolverine is serious, mean, a jerk, more into the spiritual and is older than most of the people around today. They are very different, but both popular, so they get stuck together, and they hate it. They get put together because of popularity, and their team-ups are awkward (in a good way) because of their differences.

Deadpool #27

I don't feel the need to explain that I love Deadpool at this point. All I will say is that I like Deadpool, and so I'm going to get this series.

Marvel Universe Vs The Punisher #4

I've already explained multiple times why I like this series, and the only thing I will say is that I was sad MUvTP #3 was sold out when I went to get it when it came out. Hopefully it'll be reprinted and I'll get it, because I'm going to probably wait to read #4 until I've read #3. To sum up from prior points, it is like a cross between Marvel Zombies and The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, and is just fun.

Thunderbolts #148

If they don't f--- up Juggernaut too much in this (which is looking bad for them, although I think ASM has something to do with that), then I'll keep reading. See, Thunderbolts has just changed. I liked reading New Thunderbolts through the renumbering to when Zemo took over, because it was pretty much villains wanting redemption and joining the TBolts. Civil War and post-Civil War was fun to read because it was crazy, psychopathic, homicidal villains who were forced to hold back to pretend to be heroes. After Secret Invasion, it was not nearly as good, and wasn't as fun because it was, well, basically, a sucky black-ops team. I'm pretty sure they succeeded once, although I can't say when for the life of me. Post-Siege, it is like post-Civil War, just without the craziness and the good choice of villains, and putting a leash on the insanity. When Osborn led, they killed, just not on camera. With Cage, they can't. It's just not as interesting and the character choices are just bad, IMO. I like Juggernaut too much to see him neutered and stupid and on this team of Thunderbolts.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Captain America: Patriot #1

I know some of my friends love Cap, but he was never interesting to me. I just don't like Cap that much. I can understand why characters living in the Marvel Universe would like him, but he really isn't as interesting to me, not being a character in the MU. Now, they probably should have named this Patriot and dropped the Cap from the title, since the plot summary seems to say that it's about somebody completely unrelated to Cap, who was just inspired by Cap. If he "becomes" Cap, that's also something kind of stupid. Nobody but Clark Kent can really be Superman. Nobody but Bruce Wayne can really be Batman. Nobody but Peter Parker can really be Spider-Man. In that same vein, and maybe more so as part of the MU, nobody but Steve Rogers can really be Captain America. I don't care if people pretended to be Superman after he died, if Nightwing took on the mantle after Bruce vanished through time, if a clone of Peter became him when Peter was bored and that Bucky took on the shield when Steve went through time. They aren't the original and they cannot be compared to the original. So, if he becomes Cap, that's even worse. Regardless, this doesn't seem interesting to me.

Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp #1

That is a really complicated title. Regardless, Marvel puts out Halo comics. I never was interested in Halo as a video game, and I am especially not interested as a story. I've tried playing at least two different Halo games. Part of it is that I can't play FPS games on a controller very well. Part of it is that it never seemed to be an interesting game. To appeal to me, an FPS needs something. Team Fortress 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 both appealed to me, TF2 because of its cartoony art-style and silliness, Battlefront because it took place in the Star Wars universe, and allowed you to play through as various Star Wars groups. Mass Effect appealed to me because of the large amount of space explored and the RPG elements, allowing for leveling up and an RPG point system as well as an easier controller interface. No other FPS has appealed to me. Basically, this is a mini-rant against Halo, but if you like Halo, whatever, I don't care. Apparently, this is based off of the book based off of the games though.

Thor: First Thunder #1/Thor: For Asgard #2

This is less a rant on the specific Thor issues that I chose and more a rant on Thor comics themselves. I like Thor, I really do. I think he's an interesting character and his Marvel persona is the main reason why I am interested in Norse mythology. I'm not an expert at all, and don't know much, partly because Marvel mythology is more interesting, but I'd rather study Norse than Greek or Christian or Roman mythology because of Thor. But something that Marvel doesn't seem to realize is that Thor is part of a bigger universe and he is most interesting as part of that universe. I am fine with Thor hanging out in Asgard, doing stuff there, but, to me at least, he is best on the Avengers, fighting alongside Cap and Iron Man or Hawkeye, being a god that just kind of hangs out with heroes and fights with them. Maybe it is similar to how I feel about Cap, but the character isn't as interesting by himself, or with his own supporting cast, at least to me. I like seeing Cap with Spidey or other characters, leading them and inspiring them, not by himself, punching Red Skull in the face. I like seeing Thor as a god, but playing the hero on Earth, being far too powerful to be just another superhero, but also out of touch with the common man. Thor was awesome in The Ultimates because he was so powerful, but people weren't sure whether he was a god or not. The way he interacted with everybody was perfect. I read Thor for a little while, but stopped because he was just in Asgard fighting monsters there, not doing stuff with normal people, making him less interesting. Both of these seem to be, along with all the other Thor stuff, about Thor, but don't have anything to do with him relating to normal people, which makes him interesting to me.

Questions/Comments? Drop a comment below or e-mail me at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com.

Pi's Comics - September 9th

2010-09-08T13:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is for tomorrow as Labor Day has pushed back comics to the 9th. Still, I'm putting this up today, as, hey, why not, right?

Deadpool Corps #6
Obviously, I love Deadpool, but I'm going to try to convince you to pick up this issue. If you aren't sold on Deadpool Corps because you hold a fixation on disliking Rob Liefeld's art, then ignore the cover and get this issue. This issue's art isn't done by Liefeld, like the previous issues, so if that is your main complaint, that is not valid. If you don't want to jump in somewhere in the middle of an arc, don't worry, this is the beginning of a brand new story arc. If you think that one Deadpool is enough and that more than one would be impossible to bear, watch this from 7:46 (where it starts) to 10:06 (when the fight begins), and then try out the comic if that amuses you. This is, as I've said, my favorite ongoing right now, and you really should check it out at least once.

New Avengers #4
Very simple here. It's Bendis. If you like Bendis, you'll probably like New Avengers, as it is very Bendis. If you don't like Bendis, you'll probably dislike New Avengers, as it is very Bendis. I personally like Bendis, especially how he does Spider-Man, so I enjoy this series.

The Thanos Imperative #4
I'm really torn about this series. On the one hand, I think that Marvel is milking Cosmic Marvel for all they can, putting out Annihilation: Conquest, War of Kings and this, all of which are to capitalize on Annihilation, one of the best series to come out of a company in a while. Thanos Imperative annoys me in that they put the power levels far too high (while Nova and pals can take on cosmic threats, they aren't close to Galactus level, which is what is going on), and it just is annoying. On the other hand, the writers know Thanos, they know Drax, and they are writing really good Thanos and Drax, two of the main reasons I liked Annihilation (aside from Kl'rt, the Super-Skrull). I think that I recommend the series, as it is better than Conquest or War, but it still falls short next to Annihilation (part of the reason Annihilation was good because nothing preceded it to live up to, maybe?_.
COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Amazing Spider-Man #642
It is coming out the same day as ASM 641. That's pretty annoying, I would guess. Especially since this is the first post-whatever-stupid-thing-they're-doing-to-Spider-Man-now issue. As I've said, I don't care enough. I could read One Moment in Time, but it isn't worth it to me, considering the amount of comics I get already. It isn't fun to read a bastardized version of the hero I grew up loving. Spider-Man just annoys me, as a series. The character is still great in New Avengers or Avengers, but I don't care about the main series. Just like Wolverine.

Daken: Dark Wolverine #1
Let me see if I remember Daken's origin. Daken is Wolverine and Silver Fox's son, that was seemingly killed by Sabretooth, you know, when he gutted Silver Fox, but then grew up to be similar to Wolverine (brooding, claws, healing, horrible haircut), yet wanting to kill Wolverine, right? Did he become good, is he good, or is he still a jerk like in Wolverine: Origins (god, I hate Steve Dillon's art)? Despite some stupidity in X-23's origins also, I like her more, maybe because she started out on the awesome X-Men: Evolution and then went to a comic, and doesn't have hair that is idiotic.

X-Men #3
Okay, I haven't been keeping up on X-Men recently, but apparently they rebooted the series, and apparently there are vampires. How original. Oh, and I don't think that resurrecting Dracula could come back to bite you in the ass. I got the thing where they rebooted the mutant gene because of Hope or something. How the hell did it go from, "Yay, mutants are back!" to, "Vampires vs X-Men!" that quickly? Seriously! Sigh... Oh, and more Jubilee. I despise Jubilee. I was so happy when she lost her powers. I was disappointed when she joined the New Warriors. I really hope she dies from whatever "chilling transformation she has undergone" so that they can make room for Armor in Wolverine's life.

Apparently people dislike these, as they have gotten low amounts of stars. If you have actual comments or feedback, let me know below or at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com.

Pi's Comics - September 1st

2010-09-01T03:00:00.000-04:00

Again, you can see these also on read/RANT!

With a new month comes other new things. I just started school this week, and while that shouldn't slow down these, it may. Just remember, I reserve the right to be a hypocrite at any point in time just because.

Deadpool: Pulp #1
I really don't have to explain this one, right? I mean, I like Deadpool, therefore, I will get this issue which has Deadpool. Ah, fine. This one specifically looks interesting because I am somewhat interested in pulp, and while a Deadpool pulp doesn't quite fit the genre exactly, I think he could work. The preview art makes me think that the genre can be something that fits, if not perfectly, and while I think I would prefer Deadpool in the 616, or some other universe where he is more himself, I think it should be good enough. Hey, it may be something fun just like...

Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War #4

This comic mini-series has been crazy. At least being this far in, I know it isn't set in 616 or something even remotely similar, taking place in its own universe. Very much in a similar way to Deadpool Pulp above, this is its own universe, with its own stuff. Stuff such as no superheroes (kind of) and no costumes, so him showing up in costume is something incredibly bizarre, as opposed to 616, where superheroes in their costumes address the UN and no one really cares that they are in outlandish, colorful costumes. It tricked me at first into thinking it was 616, but eventually I figured out it was its own thing. I'm looking forward in this issue to see how they can finish off the story. I really don't think they can end with many people alive, or at least important characters. Seriously, read this series. It is insane.

Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher #3

I don't think this one has Deadpool specifically in it, but he was in the previous two issues and it was fun to see him as an insane zombie-esque character that still keeps regenerating even after Punisher takes him apart. I really like this series, though. It is stupid and insane, but works just well enough to be entertaining. I don't see how they can drag it out two more issues (The Punisher kills the Marvel Universe was one long issue), but hopefully they can keep it entertaining. If you want a fun, zombie killing romp with the Punisher, I seriously recommend this series. It is only 4 issues, and it is really fun to read.

Taskmaster #1

I think I started liking Taskmaster while reading Agent X. Agent X was kind of bad, but Gail Simone did her darnedest to make it work, and part of that was Taskmaster. He was great in it. I like that Taskmaster and Deadpool, while not the best of friends, really, can still get along as acquaintances in murder. Sometimes. Kind of. Well, not really, but whatever. Still, I liked Taskmaster and so when he was in Cable & Deadpool, I enjoyed seeing him there as a competent individual who Deadpool was able to pretty much defeat with his legs bound. Taskmaster still put up a good fight, but Deadpool had the advantage. And I like that Taskmaster accepted Deadpool as a competent fighter, but not a competent individual. His first appearance in Avengers: The Initiative sealed the deal for me, with him taking down all three giant people (Ant-Man, Skrull Pym and Stature), and then punching Pym in the neck with his shield to knock him unconscious. He was such a great character in that series, and the only reason I enjoyed reading it. So, I am looking forward to seeing Taskmaster in his own series. This hopefully will be fun.

Wolverine: Road to Hell #1

I honestly am only getting this because Deadpool Bugle says Deadpool is in it, probably as part of Uncannny X-Force. Wolverine interested me for a while, and while I still like the character, I have to say that he is less interesting to me since it would be impractical to try and keep up with everything he is in, and some of the stuff just got uninteresting. He is still a good character in New Avengers, or Avengers, or Astonishing X-Men (in which he punches old, bald men in wheelchairs), but not somebody that I particularly want to read more and more solo stories of.

Secret Six #25

What? A DC comic? On Pi's list? Well, yes, I do read DC, or should I say, I read a DC comic. I read Blue Beetle because Cully Hamner, one of my favorite artists, was the artist and I wanted to support him. Then, it was a god series, so I followed it to its unfortunate conclusion. Finding myself without a DC comic, and wanting one, the kind people here at read/RANT! set me up with Secret Six and it is a great comic. Gail Simone (whom I mentioned earlier) is a great writer, and while I am not a fan of Calafiore, the current artist, Simone's writing makes up for it. This specific issue? Well, it says how it's the showdown I've been waiting for. There hasn't been any other confrontations that I know of with this "other Secret Six." Have they appeared in something else that I missed or is it something by itself? If anybody out there knows, drop a comment below.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Hercules: Twilight of a God #4

This doesn't necessarily seem bad, just like something I didn't want to pay 16 bucks for. I liked the Hercules stuff in The Incredible Hercules and the stuff leading up to World War Hulk with him in it, but he never seemed as interesting before that, and this is just that, the before all of that stuff happened. So, in that sense, it has a character that I like, just not from a time when I liked him, doing whatever, and it just doesn't appeal to me. If this is good enough, I might pick up the paperback volume when it comes out. If one of you has read it and liked it, let me know and let me know why in the comments.

Incredible Hulks #612

So, World War Hulks is over now? Can they finally stop with the Hulk stuff now? Oh, I mentioned how the "final fate" of the Red Hulk was in some Hulk issue in a previous post and that I wouldn't get it because it wouldn't be the final fate of Rulk, since Marvel wouldn't do that? Well, there are previews for the next issue which has Iron Man beating the radioactive blood out of Rulk. Okay, so now Iron Man can beat him? If so, then maybe they finally toned down Rulk to what he should be (or even down past that, which I'm fine with) or they just went stupid with the writing. This Hulks issue though has all the other Hulks apparently. There are far too many of them right now. Seriously, there's Banner, who's apparently Hulk again, Rulk, Skaar, Lyra, She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, A-Bomb and Korg (who technically isn't the same as the others, but whatever). Oh, and the guy from Son of Hulk is apparently doing something too. I was fine with there being Hulk and She-Hulk. This is too many, especially the other colored Hulks.

Wolverine #1

I mentioned Wolverine having too much stuff earlier in the Road to Hell post. This is mostly repetition of that. Wolverine has too much solo stuff. Is this a new series in conjunction with old ones or a brand new one replacing the other old ones? I don't know and I don't care. I'd honestly rather just not put any effort into looking it up and just completely ignore it. And I shall.

Drop a comment below or e-mail me at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com.

Pi's Comics - August 25th

2010-08-25T03:00:00.002-04:00

(Note-You can also see this on read/RANT!, where I am also blogging)

Welcome to another exciting installment of Pi's Comics, where I'll go over what comics I am getting this week, and what comics I very distinctly am not.

Astonishing X-Men #35

I love this series. Really, I do. Now to be perfectly honest, I liked it a lot more when it was Whedon and Cassaday. While the second arc, Danger, was kind of screwy, the way the X-Men were written was brilliant. I loved the way the characters interacted with one another and I especially loved having Kitty Pryde on the team, as I am a big Kitty Pryde fan. Post-Whedon, I have to say that it hasn't been quite as good. It still is okay, but not as good. Mostly, at this point, I am reading it so that I can still keep track of at least one X-Men comic, although Uncanny X-Force will be something I will get when it comes out (more Deadpool!). eXogenetic was a weird arc, and it came out so infrequently that I can barely remember the last issue. I just remember the giant bio Sentinel and them flying into the lair of the bad guy with all his weird crap. Oh well, hopefully the conclusion will be good.

Avengers #4

I like the Avengers. I wasn't an Avengers fan for a long time, but I've started liking them since New Avengers, and I've gone back to look at some classic Avengers. This is an interesting team. One thing I like is that, on the Avengers, you have characters like Thor and characters like Hawkeye, both on the same team. It is kind of like having Superman and Batman on the same team. This balances it pretty well, I feel. When Apocalypse attacked them, Thor went after him while everybody else focused on his henchmen. Thor just faces the big threats, while the rest take care of everything else, and that is something I feel makes the Avengers work. I like this arc for all the cool things they are having Noh Varr do. I like Noh Varr and I'm going to have to read Marvel Boy (Morrison) pretty soon. I like Bendis's writing a lot, and while I can understand why people might not like it, I feel it works.

Deadpool Team-Up #890

If you're not a Deadpool fan, you might be confused by the numbering on this comic. Well, let me clarify. Marvel printed Deadpool #900 as a parody of all the special #X00 issues coming out, like Captain America #600, or Hulk #600, or any of those, especially where they change the numbering on the book to go back to what it was. Deadpool #900 was followed by Deadpool Team-Up #899, and since then, has been counting down from #899. Yes, it is another Deadpool ongoing series (at the time, it was the third, but when Merc With a Mouth became a maxi-series, it is now the second current one, with Corps being the third). One of the things that annoys me about this series is that it is a different creative team every month. I mentioned how annoyed I was by that with Spider-Man last week. The only saving graces here are that it is Deadpool and that it has nothing to do with continuity. Sure, he teamed up with Frankencastle, but it really has no bearing on continuity. This one looks interesting, as I like Machine Man.

Heroic Age: Prince of Power #4

Amadeus Cho is awesome. I really enjoyed reading stuff with him during Planet Hulk and then World War Hulk. He was a great character then. When he joined Hercules, I was nervous, but he came through even better, becoming a more interesting and more well rounded character. Right now, Amadeus Cho is just one of the best characters around in comics. This series itself has been awesome. What other series ever, and I mean ever, has had a character roofie an incredibly angry Egyptian goddess to turn her into a lolcat? It is that kind of awesomeness that makes Amadeus Cho and this series, well, awesome.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Captain America #609

Captain America has never really interested me. For a little while, during Civil War, I liked him, and at the very least, I preferred him heavily to Iron Man (whom I still haven't fully forgiven yet). Then, I picked up Captain America #25, when he got shot, and read for a while afterward. Let me just say that I now know that I just am uninterested in Captain America. Or at least, I am uninterested in him as a solo character. He just doesn't have any specific quality that makes him interesting to me. Bucky Cap is better than Steve in terms of my interest, but not enough. I think he is too Good, with a capital G. In terms of D&D, he is lawful good, which is the most boring character ever (followed by true neutral) by himself. With others, you get good contrasts, but by himself, it is boring.

Shadowland: Moon Knight #1

To be perfectly honest with you, this is not a knock at this specific issue and more just about Shadowland in general. I'm getting pretty tired of crossover events, as I believe a lot of people are. Now, this isn't as much a crossover, in the sense that it doesn't seem to encompass other comics, just comics with Shadowland specifically in them. Still, it is an event, and one that I am not interested in. I'm not really interested in Daredevil, so this really doesn't seem interesting to me. What I really want to know, but I don't care enough to read about, is what this is supposed to be. Apparently, there is a tower in Hell's Kitchen or something, and Daredevil, who now runs the Hand is doing too much evil or something? And this is in New York City? Whatever. I don't care enough.

Ultimate Comics Mystery #2

Like the Shadowland issue, this is less an issue with the specific issue and more of one with Ultimate Comics in general. The Ultimate universe was great. The Ultimates 2 and The Ultimates are my favorite series, ever. Ultimate Spider-Man was a good series, Ultimate X-Men was generally good with some rough patches and Ultimate Fantastic Four started off really well. Then there was Ultimates 3. I know that series isn't the worst series ever, but it is much worse to me considering how high my hopes were. It came out when I still liked Jeph Loeb and I liked Joe Madureira's work. The first issue was a mess and a bad comic, but considering how high my expectations were, with Ultimates 2 being my favorite series ever and Ultimates 2 #13 being one of my favorite issues ever... Then Loeb blew everything to hell with Ultimatum, which put the nail in the coffin for me with the Ultimate universe. I don't care about any of it anymore.

Comments? Questions? Leave a comment below or e-mail me at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com.

Comics Today

2010-07-14T12:19:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry about the past couple weeks. Work has made me not be able to write posts. I haven't stopped getting comics, I've just stooped posting. This week I'm going to do something different as well. I'm going to let you guess what comics I'm getting today. I'll also make it easier by letting you know it is only Marvel comics today and that there are five of them. You can leave a comment or email me at wadewprojectavatar@gmail.com. First person to get it right gets something. I don't know what right now, but it'll be something. To help you, marvel.com/catalog has the comics coming out from Marvel today.

The Last Airbender

2010-07-02T03:24:00.002-04:00

Okay, let me get this off my chest first. One of the reasons I was not super excited about Avatar (by James Cameron) in the first place was that I was pissed at James Cameron's people not allowing the use of the name Avatar in the movie that M. Night Shyamlan was making. Now, at the same time, I had no knowledge of the movie, except for maybe the ridiculously stupid casting decisions. I was upset at the A:TLA movie for having white people playing non-white characters.

Regardless, I still had some hope. After seeing the teaser, and seeing a white kid with strange tribal tattoos on his head (arrow shaped, but not pure blue) airbend randomly as the Fire Nation closed in with ships, I just lost all hope that the movie would be good.

The Casting: The setting of Avatar is very Asian, mostly influenced by Chinese, but other Asian cultures are there as well. The entire way the show is done is very reminiscent, in both plot and art, by anime. It is a very Asian themed world. So, obviously, the main characters should all be white. Oh, right! The Fire Nation is actually played by Indians. The Water Tribe people have their culture very based off of Inuit designs, just with the living near the poles of the world, so obviously, one of the white girls from Miley Cyrus' "7 things" video is perfect. Seriously. 27 seconds in is Nicola Peltz, the actress who plays Katara in "The Last Airbender." I can honestly say that when watching trailers, I was confused as to who the girl they kept showing was. Eventually, I realized it was supposed to be Katara, only after recognizing her face as Nicola Peltz. The costume was a brown parka (as opposed to the blue ones worn in the show), and instead of having a darker skin tone, she was of course, white. When I first heard the casting decision, I was unsure as to how bad a choice it was. Once I saw it, though, I realized how stupidly the casting was. Oh, and the people in the Fire Nation are definitely not Indian, or appear to be based off of Indians. There's one guru, Pahtik, from Book 2, who is more based off of Indian Culture. The Fire Nation is nothing like that.

The Tone: One of the things that makes Avatar a great show is that it mixes in a lot of small humor in with its epic storyline and battles. There is a lot of fighting in the show and it is very awesome, but at the same time, Sokka is the "meat and sarcasm" guy, as he called himself in an episode. Aang is still getting used to being unfrozen, so when they visit the Fire Nation in Book 3, he acts like they used to in the Fire Nation (if they even did), saying things like "stay hot" or "flam-ie-o." While it isn't a comedy, by any means, it is also not the most serious show ever. There is a lot of humor in it. Plus, the show is very colorful. Aang wears bright orange, the Water Tribes wear vivid blue, the Earth Kingdom wears very green clothes, and the Fire Nation has a lot of red in their armor. Plus, the world is very colorful and bright, even with the war and chaos. I have not seen the movie yet, so I cannot speak of the entire movie, but I can speak from seeing the trailers. The movie is not silly at all, with no humor and no color. It looks grey and dark and dingy, and far too serious. In something I read, it seems that M. Night wanted to take out the lighter elements to make a more serious movie. Avatar has serious moments and a dark undertone, but the main tone is very light. While the whole world is in danger and there was a genocide of Aang's people, it still is not depressing or dark. There are dark moments, like the episode "The Storm", but those aren't the main driving point of the series.

The Look: This deals with some stuff from both of the previous sections, in that it looks dark and depressing, and nothing like the characters, but also, mainly dealing with how the actual stuff in the movie looks. Aang, like all master airbenders from the Air Nomads, has tattoos covering his body, the most visible being the arrow on his head, but the arrow connects to his entire body, leaving him with arrows on his hands and feet, and lines connecting all the arrows, running along his arms, legs and back, all connecting. They designed their tattoos after the first airbenders, the Sky Bison, who have a dark patch of fur on their heads in the shape of an arrow. Now, in the show, the tattoos are blue, and when he enters the Avatar state, his tattoos glow, along with his eyes. Every avatar, when entering the Avatar state, gets the glowing eyes, but only Air Nomad avatars get other parts glowing. In the movie, Aang has tattoos that glow blue when he is in the Avatar state, but are otherwise black and not solid. Sure, a giant blue arrow isn't the most realistic thing, I get that. Still, it is his signature look. Aang is bald, with a giant blue arrow tattoo on his head, and wears bright orange robes. Changing the arrow would be like giving him hair (and not just for Book 3's beginning, where he does actually have hair, but also is trying to look less like himself). It doesn't change the character a great deal in terms of substance, but it does make it look different from the show in a bad way.

The Reasoning: Apparently, M Night's daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween one year, and got M to start watching Avatar. He liked the show and was intrigued. Then, they decided to make a movie, a live action movie based off of the show. I don't know if M Knight asked to make the movie, or they decided to make it, then came to him. Either way, it doesn't answer the question of why they made this movie. And by that, I mean, why did they want to make a live-action movie? I can honestly say that I didn't have any desire to see Avatar in live action any more than I want to see Bleach or Naruto in live action, or Family Guy or Spongebob. More so than any of those, though, Avatar doesn't need to be made into live action because, well, it was fine the way it was, and was finished. When making a movie, you can make it based off of the original, in that it is the exact same plot that you do in the same way, or you can do your own thing with it, basing it off of the original, but in a unique way. A lot of superhero movies fall into the second category, with the individual plots not being the exact same as the comics, but Spider-Man still failed to stop somebody, then his uncle got killed, then he became Spider-Man and fought his best friend's father, aka his worst enemy; Professor X gathered mutants together to fight for mutant rights against those who would do harm to mutants or to stop mutants from doing harm to humans, fighting against Magneto and the Brotherhood; etc. For Avatar, you can either do the exact thing as the series (which seems unnecessary), or you can set it in a different time (pre-Avatar returning which makes no sense as it is about the Avatar, or post-the series which makes no sense as the series ends with peace and there is nothing hinting at excitement or chaos), or you can do what the superhero movies did (which would be horrible, stupid, and completely idiotic, since it isn't as much about getting the character into movies as about getting the story into movies). No matter how you try and do the movie, it doesn't make any sense. It didn't have loose threads that needed to be tied up, it didn't leave a lot that could be explored, it was compact, tight, and worked really well. It seems to me (and at least some of my friends) that the only reason that makes sense is because they were greedy and wanted money.

As of writing this, I haven't seen the movie, but I plan to, not because I expect to like it, but because, despite how bad it looks (and it does have a 9% fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes tomato-meter), it is still a movie based on Avatar. And hopefully (although, it is unlikely), that will be enough.

Comics I'm getting on 6/30

2010-06-30T04:00:00.000-04:00

I said I might do it this week. It could have been done earlier if I weren't so busy. And heck, I'm probably going to get the actual comics on Thursday, when I finally have the day off. Who knows? Oh, and look for an Avatar themed post coming soon.

Astonishing X-Men #34
Is this finally coming out? Because, I've been waiting for a while now. I mean, okay, look at this link here. That's a Deadpool variant. I believe the Deadpool variants were in March. Now, the last day of June finally has this issue coming out (hopefully). Joss's run is one of my favorite series, definitely up there near the top. After that, it's been hit or miss with Ellis, I feel. Ellis is a good writer, but tried too hard to do his own thing and try and keep Whedon's style. It comes out kind of mushy. Oh, well. This should be interesting at the very least.

Deadpool Team-Up #892
I feel Deadpool Team-Up has been the weakest Deadpool series, but it is still a Deadpool series. The first issue was good, with Hercules, but then he hasn't been with anyone major except for Franken-Castle, which is silly in and of itself. This has him with Satana, you know, the lesser-known sister of the C-list Hellstorm? Sigh... If this series had one good writer, as opposed to being different from month to month, it might be better, even if it still was nowhere in continuity (except, again, maybe the Franken-Castle). Whatever. It's Deadpool. I love me some Deadpool.

Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War #2
The first issue was weird and crazy. I loved that he was talking in the flashback to the future, with the mercs he was with were confused by him talking to the future in the past. You have to read it to understand. As for what's supposed to happen in this series? I have no idea. Is this current Marvel, in a continuity not a ways off from the modern one? Is this out of all continuity on its own (which seems to be the case here)? Is this just all in Deadpool's head? I honestly don't know, but the first issue was fun even if it made no sense, so I'm looking forward to this.

Doomwar #5
I was impressed by the end to the last Doomwar issue, with Deadpool finally entering the fray. I can't wait for this series, which has been really, really good. I didn't know what to expect except Deadpool, but this has been a treat. You get to see Doom and T'Challa, both rulers in addition to being superhero and supervillain, really relying a lot on their people, as opposed to doing everything themselves. It's really cool. This should be a good issue.

Secret Avengers #2
What I really want to know is what Nova is doing there, but I'll let it sit right now. More importantly, I really think this has potential, but I don't know if it can live up to it. I thought the first issue was weak, but others disagreed. I'm willing to give this series a chance, but it isn't high up there on my radar.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Marvel Zombies 5 #4
I think I've mentioned this before, but Marvel Zombies was something I liked. The first series is really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. The Ultimate FF crossovers were both good. I also enjoyed the Army of Darkness series and the Dead Days one-shot. I feel it started to jump the shark with Marvel Zombies 2 and with the Black Panther crossover (proving once and for all that Ultimate and regular are in a common multiverse, since both are in the multiverse with the zombieverse). I read Marvel Zombies 3, but I wasn't expecting much by that point. Marvel Zombies 4 I read because of Deadpool and only because of Deadpool, well, Headpool really. Marvel Zombies was a fun concept that has been taken way too far.

New Avengers: Luke Cage #3
I don't know if I had paid any attention to this before this week, but, well, I don't want the spin-offs or mini-series that focus on the characters without a series (Hawkeye and Mockingbird and this Luke Cage stuff). I think Cage is interesting, but not the best solo character. He worked okay in Power Man, but better as Power Man and Iron Fist. He's a strong member of the New Avengers, and is interesting in the team. Outside of the team, he's not as interesting. Also, what the heck can normal people do to Luke Cage? Shooting him is the best option and that does nothing. How is he in trouble in this?

Thor #611
I read Thor up to and one issue into the renumbering. Then I stopped, mostly because I was shorter on money and, well, Thor wasn't the highest up on my list. I can honestly say issue 3 was one of my favorite single issues, just because it shows how badly the decisions Stark made turned out and how Stark looked to, well, people like me, and then Thor kicked the crap out of him. It was awesome. Then it got less and less interesting to me. I don't know why, but it just lost its charm and I just don't care anymore. I'm not going to start post-Siege (although I do wonder how Thor fell back into good graces with Asgard after slaying Odin's father (or whatever).

Comics I got on 6/23

2010-06-24T03:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm a horrible liar. Sorry. I might do it next week (ha, noncommittal statement ftw).

Avengers #2

I already read it, so this is actually a review. Again. Anyway, Avengers #2 was a lot better than issue #1 in my opinion. There was a lot of Bendis talk, with characters just talking with each other about everything that's going on, but there was some good action in it too. Marvel Boy vs Titanium Man, the Avengers vs Wonder Man, and a great final spread of a version of the Horsemen of Apocalypse featuring Spider-Man, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, and what I want to say is Rulk, but I honestly cannot tell. Basically, the Avengers' kids f'ed up time royally, and now time is falling apart. Don't you hate it when that happens? The Avengers decide to do something, so get Noh-Varr to build them a device to view time. Seriously. It's an awesome spread of various alternate futures, including M2 (Spider-Girl universe), Days of Future Past and 2099 (okay, that one sucks). But, there's a problem and time is seriously screwed. A bald future Wonder Man attacks, then vanishes, and the Horsemen show up. All in all, I think a much better issue, with enough action mixed with Bendis' bread and butter to make it interesting and a good read for a main comic in the Marvel universe.

Thunderbolts #145

Not surprisingly, the Zemo thing was a trick, and the Thunderbolts respond in many different ways. Crossbones decides to go with Zemo, Moonstone decides to fight Zemo, Juggernaut decides to just get while the getting is good and Ghost realizes it is all a test. Oh, and as they described, Juggernaut is weakened (again), because of what happened in the ASM issues with him, ones I looked at, but decided not to read because I didn't want to see, "Oh, look! Captain Universe is so powerful that he can beat the Juggernaut, and then Spidey will do something." I love Juggernaut, but not as a generic strong guy. He's an interesting character, and while I realize some people (most people?) hated Uncanny X-Men during the New X-Men Morrison run, I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed seeing Juggernaut with the X-Men, and to me, it made sense. He's been a villain for a long time, but never a "rule the world/pure evil" villain, just a thug who wants money and to hang out with his buddy Black Tom. I mean, he was always the villain until that, but he didn't seem pure evil, he just happened to be a villain, one who hated his stepbrother for taking his father's love from him (which he realized later was actually not true, as his father was a prick who hated both equally), and one who wanted to get even against the brother with the annoying mind powers that always gave him the upper hand. When he joined, it made sense, and it was cool to see him there. Of course, he was depowered because every villain who becomes a hero has to be depowered. Now, it's happened again. The rest was pretty blah, with the only interesting thing being the twist at the end that one of the trolls is actually a girl, or something. Huh? Whatever. I'll read this for Juggernaut, but unless it is villains who honestly want to be heroes or Warren Ellis making everybody crazy, Thunderbolts doesn't work well. I just hate what they've done with Juggernaut.

COMICS I DID NOT GET

Amazing Spider-Man #635

Reasoning mainly having to do with Thunderbolts, I hate that Spider-Man's stupid BND world f'ed up Juggernaut. Way to go, Spider-Man. F%&* you.

Franken-Castle #18

Is it okay to call this stupid after a couple months have passed (only a month?)? Because it is. Frankenstein's monster mixed with Punisher? Stupid. Just stupid.

Secret Warriors #17

I've heard good things about the series, but I honestly don't care. Fury isn't the most interesting character to me, and from what I can tell, it's Fury doing stuff and being Fury. Oh, and there's other characters, the only ones I semi-care about being Phobos and Daisy. Meh.

Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #4

Just that title is horrible. Ultimate Comics XYZ is a stupid way to differentiate from the Ultimate line from before. It's the exact same things with Comics in between which distracts. Regardless, I've talked with friends in San Francisco about the state of the Ultimate universe, and there is agreement that there is no Ultimate universe after Ultimatum. So, f%&* the "Ultimate" series that are coming out.

Comics I read on 6/16

2010-06-22T04:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry about being so late on this post. I would have done it sooner, but I was doing things late Tuesday, was out all day Wednesday and didn't even get comics until Thursday, when I got into a horrible mood, and cleared my head by walking for most of the evening, then I had work all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then I rested Monday. So, instead of showing what I planned to pick up, I'll do some reviews. Wednesday should have previews again.

New Avengers #1

Look at that cover. You've got classic Avengers in Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers. You've got New Avengers with Spider-Man, Wolverine and Luke Cage. Then, there's Thing, which makes very little sense. I was wondering how it'd work, but thankfully it worked well. Demon-possessed Hellstorm attacks Dr. Strange to start it off, followed by Luke Cage buying Avengers Tower from Tony Stark for a dollar. Honestly, it was done well. I like that the team didn't lose a lot in the Heroic Age transition, keeping a lot of the people it used to have. It isn't exactly the same, but it is a good team. Thing is on it, in a, "Sure, you're on the FF, but if you're bored, like Wolverine is a lot of the time, come hang with us!" moment. In fact, Wolverine was right there to talk about all the teams he's on. It was light, with humor, but also had the main plot brewing. I think having Osborn's right hand ma...erhem...woman working with the Avengers is interesting, but neither trusts the other so it is at least believable. All in all, I think it works better as just the next issue, and less as a number one, but whatever, it works for me.

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #4

Ha! Makes sense, I guess, but, well, the main bad guy is a little girl. You see, in the fantasy land where all the creatures come from, children who fall asleep can wake up in the fantasy land, as the ruler, with near omnipotent control of the realm. Usually, that's okay, unless you f*$% it up and let the kid know that he or she is going to have to leave. The little girl didn't want to go, and so set about destroying everything, so she wouldn't have to share, or something like it. All in all, it was more amusing than anything, and in the end, there are absolutely no repercussions, which is just fine. It was a silly series, but I expected that. I honestly want more Pet Avengers stuff (with a bigger focus on Lockheed, which people might know is one of my favorite characters).

Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #12

The series is winding down to an end. What should have been probably one story arc ended up lasting 13 issues. Seriously, this should have been 4 issues, or at most 6, but was dragged out for far too long. I like Gischler, and his work on Deadpool Corps, well, let's just say Deadpool Corps isn't my favorite series for the Rob Liefeld art. Still, this is ridiculous. This issue had some good parts, but it all is just dragging on, and is exhausting. I love Deadpool and Headpool, but Dr. Betty is annoying, the AIM guys are annoying, I've lost track with what the zombiebverse is supposed to be like, and frankly, I just don't care. Absorbing Man turning into tissue paper? Amusing. Dr. Betty pushing the more annoying (if that's possible) other-hot-female-doctor-who's-now-zombified off a building? Also amusing. Everything else? Meh. This series' best attribute was the covers, and the Nirvana Deadpool floating towards a taco by Suydam is brilliant.

Deadpool #24

Way's arcs are too haphazard for my tastes. Bullseye was the best arc, followed closely by the Secret Invasion one. The Hit-Monkey arc and this one are bland and not as good. I guess having Weasel be some "hero" who protects the people of Vegas, but really works for the casinos is amusing, but, well, I've found Weasel to be not the most loyal, but not as backstabbing or tricky as he was. He didn't seem like the way I've read Weasel. And the Grizzly? Did Way know about Grizzly from Thunderbolts and use him anyway, in spite of, or did he just not know? Because I honestly don't know what's happening. Some good parts, but I honestly don't know what's happening in the end.

Comics I'm getting on 6/9

2010-06-09T00:00:00.002-04:00

Yay, first week back in San Francisco! Time to get comics from comic stores I know, and heck, it's much harder to miss stuff because there are so many other comic stores I can go to if one doesn't have what I'm looking for. Anyway, I've mentioned how it works, but I'll look at comics I am getting and ones I am not.

Deadpool Corps #3
My favorite ongoing series right now, hands down. And it has Liefeld art. That should tell you how good the writing is. Now, I know Liefeld isn't the greatest artist ever, but let me defend him. He worked in a time where what he was doing was good, and he did a lot of it. There's a lot of flaws in his artwork, sure, but it still is decent. Yes, he doesn't necessarily draw feet well, or weapons, he loves pouches and blah blah blah. I can read stuff with his artwork and be okay. The characters are what make me love Deadpool Corps, especially Dogpool (who is closing in on Deadpool in my favorite character list) and Lady Deadpool (who is like Deadpool, but somehow even more messed up). It's a series where the Champion of the Universe, a being with absurd strength who fought so many heroes with superhuman strength in a row and beat them all, is mooned by Deadpool, then stranded on an alien world without his motorcycle that he uses to fly from planet to planet, then joins up as an honorary Deadpool and gets stranded a second time by the Corps. It's just awesome.

Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War #1
The second of two Deadpool series coming out this week, WWW is a mini-series that looks interesting, delving into Deadpool's past, kind of. Swierczynski seems to know the character, so I'm looking forward to it. Plus, I like Pearson's art, so that should be good. Besides that, it's Deadpool. Moving on.

Heroic Age: Prince of Power #2
Man, Amadeus Cho is awesome. The last issue was great, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cho at least argue with Thor, if he doesn't come to blows with him like on the cover. Pak and Van Lente did a great job with all the Herc stuff, and I am looking forward to this issue.

Millar & McNiven's Nemesis #2
The first issue of the series was okay at best. I love Millar, but I think some of this "people who dress up like superheroes/villains in the real world" is getting out of hand. Kick-Ass was great and I loved it, but I still find Hit-Girl and Big Daddy unrealistic. I mean, Kick-Ass was very believable, as this kid who just loved superheroes and had this crazy notion put into his head, and he did everything he could to fight crime. And, well, he sucked at it, because he had no powers or training, and didn't even strike fear into the hearts of the cowardly and superstitious criminals. That made sense. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl killing all of those people was not as realistic. Nemesis is like Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, in that he does things that shouldn't be possible in real life, but does them anyway even though it is seemingly set somewhere without powers. Still, I love Millar, and this has potential.

Young Allies #1
I like Gravity. That's it.

Secret Six #22
Hey, the only DC I pick up is coming out! Awesome. Seriously, though, Simone is a fantastic writer doing an amazing job on this series. In general, I'd just recommend this series to anyone who wants some fun characters doing crazy things who are all technically villains.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Avengers Academy #1
I like McKone's artwork. I really do. I think McKone is awesome. But this is basically the continuation of Avengers: The Initiative, just in the Heroic Age, and that series got worse as time went on. The first year was awesome. Then it just went downhill. I honestly didn't care for it that much at the end. So, I'm not going to get this which looks like it has brand new characters, who I care nothing about, and I am not getting all the Heroic Age tie-ins like I did Initiative tie-ins.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #2
Man, I hate typing S.H.I.E.L.D. because of the periods that technically are part of the name. I'm calling it just SHIELD, okay? Okay. I didn't get the first issue because it looked stupid. This feels like Ultimate Origins or whatever it was called, with the origin of mutants in the Ultimate universe, just for regular Marvel, which makes it so much worse, considering all the time-travel and stupid stuff done in regular Marvel. This just shouldn't be. I've heard great things, but it just looks stupid. SHIELD had Imhotep and Leonardo da Vinci? It just looks stupid. Stupid.

X-Men Forever 2 #1
I honestly like Chris Claremont. Apparently, he got worse or something, because I've heard almost nothing good about X-Men Forever, and heard mostly bad things about it. I just didn't care initially, almost getting it because of Kitty Pryde. I just don't care enough to get the first series or this. It just isn't high enough on my radar.

Comics I'm getting on 6/3

2010-06-03T01:49:00.000-04:00

Because of Monday being Memorial Day, comics are today instead of yesterday. Still, it's not a very heavy load for me.

The Thanos Imperative #1
The only comic I'm actually interested in this week. The issue that previewed it really made me excited for Thanos Imperative. This is the cosmic Marvel event I am looking forward to a lot, the most since Annihilation. Conquest and War of Kings were okay, but not great, but this looks like it has the potential to be as good as Annihilation.

COMICS I'M NOT GETTING

Avengers: Prime #1
The preview looked decent, and it has the big three in one comic together. Plus it has good art. I just don't care enough. I'm getting tired of the pre-event, event, then post-event tie-in stuff. This is just post Siege stuff that I don't care enough about. Good job Siege, I barely care about the state of the Marvel universe anymore.

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1
Hmmm, an archer and a heroine who has a bird themed name. Never seen that before. Seriously, though, I didn't even get the mini with them, so why would I get an ongoing?

Hercules: Twilight of a God #1
I love recent Herc, but this is apparently based off of some classic Herc writer doing something, and I don't know nor care enough for the one-shot.

Comics I'm getting on 5/26

2010-05-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

If you don't know how this works by now, look it up in one of the previous weeks.

Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #11
Sigh, yes, it is a Deadpool comic, surprise, surprise. Merc was never my favorite series. I preferred both the named title and Team-Up (on occasion, because Team-Up was very on/off with a different writer each issue). The story was okay, but has been going on for far too long.

Doomwar #4
What, another Deadpool comic? Yes, the second Deadpool comic of the week is the miniseries that is bizarre. I have to say I loved the series for pointing out that Doom wants to rule the world, but also thinks of himself as somewhat noble, able to prove his nobility to the Panther god. Not the first time heroes have gone to Deadpool for help (see Wolverine: Origins #45)

Secret Avengers #1
I don't think weird covers enough ground on this team. Moon Knight is a pretty stealthy character, even wearing full white. He also is pretty much not superpowered at all. Then we've got War Machine, one of the most powerful weapons around out there. THEN we've got Nova, who is apparently back on Earth for the team after wielding the ENTIRE NOVA FORCE and being one of the most powerful cosmic Marvel characters. Yeah, they make sense as a team. Sigh...

The Thanos Imperative: Ignition #1
Sigh, Thanos was fine being dead. Seriously. He was okay with it. He was with his beloved, Death, just chilling and looking happy. He's back? Well, I already read Guardians, so I know he's back, with Drax just saying how unfair it is. I like Thanos, but he really should have stayed dead for a while longer. Oy.

Thunderbolts #144
Did Juggernaut become a villain again when I wasn't looking? I know he was pissed after World War Hulk: X-Men and New Excalibur, but he became a villain? And Man-Thing? What the hell is this group? I'm reading this because I read Thunderbolts before, and I love Juggernaut, but this looks stupid as hell.

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks #3
Is there some third She-Hulk I don't know about, because this says there are a Sensational, Savage and Red She-Hulk. I know there is Sensational or Savage, one of which is Jen Walters, and Red is SPOILER Betty Ross. Is there a third one also? Either way, the whole Fall of the Hulks stuff just doesn't appeal to me mostly because I don't like Skaar or Rulk, so whatever.

Marvel Zombies 5 #3
I loved Marvel Zombies. I really did. The first series was awesome and the Ultimate FF tie-ins were great as well. Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness was also good, as was the one-shot written around that time. MZ2 was decent, but weird. MZ3 was bad. MZ4 was worse. I'm just not reading MZ5. 3 I read because I was still somewhat interested and 4 had Headpool. I have no reason to read 5 at this point in time. Howard the Duck isn't quite good enough to get me to read MZ.

Peter Parker #3
Obviously I missed something in March, when all three of the above series originated (I assume, based on the numbering). I've mentioned not wanting to read Spider-Man right now. Is this another Spider-Man book? Amazing was bad enough, but this is just silly.

Ultimate Comics Enemy #4
Oy, just oy. Is it a secret enemy or just a new one? I honestly want to know. From the previews it seemed like some big boss in a video game sending minions or something or capturing heroes, like in Last Hero Standing, where it took a while to reveal it was Loki, but then they fought Loki. But at the same time, I really don't care, since it is post-Ultimatum Ultimate universe stuff.

Comics I'm getting on 5/19

2010-05-19T00:00:00.002-04:00

Here are comics I am and am not getting today. Unless I'm specifically getting from another company, the list is strictly Marvel.
Avengers #1
Well, it isn't a new series to me as much as a continuation of the Avengers in general. Bendis is still a writer I like and JRJR is an artist I have disliked, but have grown to like more and more. He isn't in my list of favorites, but he still is an artist that can do really good work. Hopefully the new team won't be too bad. The only flaws I see are who leads and who follows. Thor isn't someone who seems like he'd currently be willing to take orders from Iron Man, but who knows what'll happen. Meh, more just another story arc for me than a new series (since all the other Avengers books are cancelled).

Deadpool #23
Do I really need to explain Deadpool at this point? I love Deadpool. End of story. Oh, fine. The issue itself seems interesting. Deadpool has been trying to semi-redeem himself recently, so the Heroic Age isn't something that is horrible for him. I just hope Way can keep him from being stupid. Oh, and I will get the Heroic Age variant, seen here. My first piece of Deadpool art from an artist was from Giarrusso, so I really want his variant.

Galacta: Daughter of Galactus #1
Okay, bear with me here. There is a reason why this comic exists. From the Assistant-Sized Spectaculars last year, the best out of all the stories was this one. It was partly the stunning art which just looked amazing. It was partly the silly, but well done concept. Mostly, though, it was just the character and her Twitter account. It just worked. The Assistant-Sized Spectaculars were fun, but the best one, and the one that rightfully won, was Galacta, Daughter of Galactus. It's a silly concept, to be sure, but one that actually worked. Plus, it's just a one-shot, so it's not some new series to get into. Unless you specifically hated the original, I'd recommend at least getting this or looking through it at the comic store.

Origins of Marvel Comics #1
Sigh. This issue looks...weird. I'm getting it because of Deadpool, but I'm wary. It looks like an interesting issue to help people ease into Marvel or the current state of things, with origins of characters to help people relate with new versions of the origins. Hopefully, it will actually be interesting, and not poorly done. Oh well.

Secret Six #16
I know what you're thinking. Wait a second, didn't you get Secret Six 21 a couple weeks ago? Well, yes, but I only have Secret Six 1-14 in volumes, then issues 15, 17-21. I am still missing 16, but hopefully the comic store I am going to today will have it (a different store than the one from a couple weeks ago).

COMICS I AM NOT GETTING

Age of Heroes #1
Does anyone know if this is an ongoing or just limited? Either way, I'm not interested, as it just seems like a Heroic Age tie-in trying way too hard. It just looks stupid more than anything. I really don't care about Brother Voodoo's date night, or how much trouble Spider-Man can get into in one day. Or how the Avengers need to face their biggest challenge yet, J. Jonah Jameson. Sigh...

Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son #1
I think I missed American Son in Spider-Man, so it must have been somewhat recent. More than anything, this issue just reminds me how stupid bringing back Harry Osborn was. They brought him back at a time where his father had been shown to be the Green Goblin, got arrested, then tried to shoot the Atlantean ambassador during the Civil War due to the nanobots (or whatever) and was a hated person, until he became leader of the Thunderbolts. Harry's death was a big thing, and they waved it away like everything else. And I hate how everybody in Dark Avengers and all that, forgot that Norman Osborn had a son. If he had been dead, that wouldn't be an issue, but he's alive, and...fine, I'll stop ranting about OMD's ramifications.

Enter the Heroic Age #1
Is this just previews for Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers Academy and Atlas? Because that's what the issue seems to be. It looks like different creative teams, but I'm not quite sure what this is, aside from a Heroic Age tie-in to make money. Oy. Cover looks great, though (Hitch is awesome).

Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #2
Just to be clear, Mr. T is the Hulk, now, right? Just checking (look at that cover, then tell me it isn't Mr. T who is apparently the Hulk).

Comics I'm getting on 5/12

2010-05-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Once again, the comics I'll be getting today, along with comics I won't be getting, and some stuff about them.

Avengers: The Initiative #35
Honestly, I loved the first 12 issues. Plus, if you look at issue 1, with Cloud 9, then issue 12, dear Deadpool! They turned this sweet, innocent, girl, who just wanted to have fun on her cloud into a hardened sniper with her own cover, thanks to her clouds. After that, it was weird, and honestly, never nearly as good. Still, I've read the entire series. Recently, it's been amusing with Taskmaster, and annoying with the New Warriors. I didn't start the series to see the New Warriors, but they have become the most interesting thing in the book, and I don't even like them! The series is coming to an end, soon to be replaced with a Heroic Age version sometime in the future. Whatever.

Dark Avengers #16
It was the Thunderbolts, except made to be heroes and the series was never quite good. Thunderbolts in the post-Civil War world wasn't good because of Deodato, it was good with Deodato. Bendis is a great writer, and I like him as a writer, but he didn't write the Dark Avengers as well as it could have been. The finale for another series to be replaced with a Heroic Age version soon just is weird. Oh well, hopefully Heroic Age won't be too bad.

Deadpool Team-Up #893
Hmmm... This was on my list last week too. Well, it apparently is coming out this week instead. Whatever I said then applies here, except that this happens to be the only Deadpool comic this week. Interesting. Oh, but I want to get the Heroic Age version if possible, seen here.

Heroic Age: Prince of Power #1
I read and loved Incredible Hercules. It was freaking awesome. Too bad Herc had to die, or as revealed recently, not die. Silly comics, already starting to bring back Hercules in the FREAKING MEMORIAL TO HERCULES ISSUE. Geez, couldn't they have waited to this for him to start. That was just silly. This issue looks like it has great writers and a great artist though, so I'm looking forward to it.

Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers Unleashed #3
Say what you will. I really don't care. I just love Lockheed, and will pick up comics with him, to an extent. Plus, it has Throg, the Thor frog. What more could you ask for? Sure it is silly, but it is supposed to be, and like all good fluff, it isn't an important event in the universe, and is just there for fun.

New Avengers Finale #1
The finale for New Avengers, well, not really. Mostly, I'm getting it for the Hitch art and the sense of conclusion. Otherwise, not really something I'm super interested in. I just love Hitch's art and I like feeling that something concluded. I really wish they had concluded Wolverine: First Class by actually saying they were concluding it, as opposed to having an issue that just happened to be the last one, with no warning whatsoever.

Siege #4
They kind of revealed some of the stuff already, heck just from the promos for Heroic Age, which is freaking named HEROIC AGE. If the heroes don't win, that's just silly. Oh, and Loki steals the Norn stones back from Hood and uses them to help the Avengers defeat the Sentry/Void. That's just from New Avengers. Oh, and the Avengers win and Luke Cage gets put in charge of the Thunderbolts (who will have Juggernaut, Crossbones and Man-Thing, ughh). Still, I'll see how Bendis wraps it up.Hopefully, it will be satisfying. More than anything, I want it to be over.

Comics I'm not getting

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #1
Warren Ellis is good. Kaare Andrews can be good (I hated the art in Spider-Man: Reign, along with the story, but his more cartoony stuff is stuff I like). The series just doesn't interest me though. I already read Astonishing X-Men and I have liked it less and less ever since Whedon left. I don't feel like picking up a mini-series or one-shot for a series I'm not that excited about. It's nothing against the creators.

Hulk #22
Well, I should actually preface this. If you want to hear my Loeb rant, you can ask. I'll tell you. I'm not going to do it here because that would be pointless. I would only get this if it had Deadpool, which unfortunately is a possibility. So, it may be something I actually end up getting. Sigh... Please don't have Deadpool, please don't have Deadpool, please don't have Deadpool...

Siege: Embedded #4
Unlike Civil War or Secret Invasion or those other events, I decided not to get the tie-ins. If it was a series I was reading, sure I got it, but Siege never interested me enough to get the tie-ins. Aside from being tired of events, Siege's premise never interested me. Sure, I liked Thor. I love the Green Goblin. Siege just seems silly, and still does. So, this is more of a non-get for every single Siege tie-in out there that isn't something I already would have gotten.

Comics I'm getting on 5/5

2010-05-05T00:00:00.000-04:00

Like last week, I'll be listing comics I'm getting, along with comics I'm not, and some commentary for each. DC is included this time for reasons which will become obvious.

Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine #1
A bad way to start, but alphabetical order means this is first. I absolutely loved Astonishing X-Men under Whedon. I've heard people complain (or maybe not even complain, but point out) that Whedon used ideas from Morrison. Well, as I'll mention later in more depth, I don't like Grant Morrison. Either way, Whedon had a great run and the more recent stuff has also been pretty good, although IMO, not as good. This is, from what I've heard, trying to capitalize on the Astonishing success by putting the adjective in front. Either way, Aaron is a great writer and Kubet on art seems like a lot of fun. If this is too serious (which I cannot see happening), this might be dropped, but for now, this is something I'll get. (PS, I mean, look at the Kubert cover here. That looks awesome)

Deadpool Corps #2
Surprise! Deadpool comic! Heck, it's the first of three this week. Even with Secret Six being added on later, in the comics I am getting, the majority are Deadpool. Heck, Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine is more of a toss-up than anything, since I don't have much info about the series. Secret Six is something I've added only this week just because I just caught up. So without those (which I could easily see being a possibility), it would be strictly Deadpool comics this week. Interesting. Anyway, Deadpool Corps has so far been really fun. The first reaction I can hear from lots of people is "Liefeld does the art? Isn't he the guy who did this? How can you read issues with Liefeld art? He's horrible!" Let me just say that there are plenty of artists I dislike more than Liefeld, some of whom other people really like. He isn't my favorite artist, but I honestly don't hate him. Besides, the art isn't the most important part of Deadpool (although bad enough art can make something worse, like Dillon's in Wolverine: Origins), the writing is. Gischler is my favorite current Deadpool writer. He makes the character freaking awesome. Prelude to Deadpool Corps was amazing, and the first issue was also amazing. I really am looking forward to this.

Deadpool Team-Up #893
For those of you who don't know, Deadpool Team-Up started at issue 899 and has been counting backwards. Now that that's out of the way, look at that! A second Deadpool comic. Deadpool Team-Up is absurdly hit or miss. Considering it has no continuity (that I can see anyway) and that each issue is done by a different creative team with a different team-up buddy, it can get wacky and absurd. Which is okay some of the time. This particular one has Captain Britain, which seems like it should be fun. I'm not a huge fan of Captain Britain, but I have read Excalibur (some issues) and New Excalibur (the entire series) so I know the character somewhat well. Him with Deadpool is something I want to see. The artist did a good job in the Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way series with his Deadpool art, so I am looking forward to the art. All in all, looks like fun.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #8
And we come to the third on my Deadpool list. Huat is an okay artist who really needs to work on his lens flare (it is distracting and that is a problem), and did a decent job in the last issue. The story itself was actually fun and one of the better Deadpool comics of the week it came out, showing Deadpool is a mercenary for hire that will kill people, but he isn't fully a psychopath. He was doing the killing for a decent reason, and it was kind of cool. Either way, this looks to be fun and hopefully it will be.

Secret Six #21
Something that was pointed out to me when I got issues 15-20 on Saturday (minus issue 16, which I do want to pick up somewhere) is that Secret Six has had some of the best covers around. And Bob was right. Look at the cover to 21 up there in the link. Look at it. That is really cool. I digress. Wow, it only took one week of this to start into DC. Like I mentioned last week, I read Secret Six in volumes, but on Saturday, Free Comic Book Day, issues were on sale, so I was able to pick up those five issues I mentioned above (15, 17, 18, 19, 20) for under 10 bucks. Now I am caught up (aside from issue 16, which I will get, but I know the general plot of), so I'll continue with issues with Secret Six 21. Secret Six has been absolutely amazing. Gail Simone is one of the best writers in the business and her work is amazing on Secret Six. The Six are completely different characters that are each done really well, with their different personalities bouncing off each other and making for amazing plot and story and fun. Issue 20 was awesome, and this looks to be incredible as well. Seriously, I don't read DC, but I read Secret Six. That should tell you something.

Comics I am not interested in

Amazing Spider-Man #630
The first superhero I really liked was Spider-Man. I've read a lot of Spider-Man over the years, and I like the character a lot. When it came down to it, though, I didn't really read much Spider-Man. Around The Other, I started picking up the Spider-Man series that there were (Amazing, Friendly Neighborhood, Marvel Knights/Sensational). After OMD and BND, I started getting tired of Spider-Man. I am okay with a 6 issue series that takes 6 months to complete and is in one series. I don't like how everything became 3 issue storylines done in a single month with a different creative team every month. It became exhausting, and I gave up eventually. I wanted to maybe try picking up the Juggernaut stuff last week, but it didn't seem good. The Lizard has been an interesting Spider-Man enemy. More than anything, though, he hasn't been the most powerful villain Spider-Man's had to fight. The Lizard's going to take over Earth unless Spider-Man stops him? Um, what about the rest of the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, or the X-Men or the Power Pack? Lizard is not the strongest, not the most durable, and he can control lizards to an extent. Stegron is like Lizard but more powerful because he controls freaking dinosaurs. Lizard is not the villain that seems like he would succeed in taking over the world. The story seems awkward when I look at it that way.

Spectacular Spider-Girl #1
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Spider-Girl popular enough that they decided to reboot her series, but not popular enough to keep it. And this is another attempt? MC2 was kind of cool, but I think letting it die gracefully is the best thing, not letting it resurface again every once in a while. It is more like a corpse bobbing up and down. It may be above water right now, but it still is dead.

Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #2
Oh, right. Sorry about last week. The Avengers must be a completely different team, right? After all, the Ultimates and the New Ultimates also exist, so the Avengers must be unrelated, right? Maybe I need someone who's keeping up with the current Ultimate universe to explain it to me, but this seems horrible. Not selling it for me is Loeb with a good artist. Hmmm, do Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum ring a bell? Loeb with a good artist doing the Ultimate universe. Sigh...

Uncanny X-Men #524
I picked up Uncanny 522 a couple months back because it centered around getting Kitty Pryde back. As much as I enjoyed Astonishing X-Men and Kitty's sacrifice, this comic made little sense. It was a mistake to try and pick up Uncanny in the middle of something, but I tried. This is apparently part 6. It was in other series too, maybe? I really don't know and I really don't care. The X-Men, like Marvel to an extent and DC to an extent, is hard to get into. It's hard to start reading X-Men because even at the start of an arc, you need to know the previous arc and what led into that, with the previous arc and what led into that, etc. I once played Mr. Jansenius in a play, who was a big believer in ignorance. I'd rather be ignorant of X-Men for now.

Batman and Robin #12
Well, time for the hate. I don't want to pick this up because it is part of DC which I really don't want to start getting into (aside from Secret Six), but this one specifically because it is Grant Morrison. I mentioned earlier how I don't like Grant Morrison. Let me repeat that here. I don't like Grant Morrison. From what I've read of his, it seems he has his own style of continuity. Instead of taking the characters as they are and making a story with those characters, he seems to make his own stuff up. Let's look at X-Men under him. The leather outfits: Yes, an actual person would more likely wear an outfit like that than a superhero costume, sure. But for 40 years, the X-Men have worn colorful spandex. Suddenly, everybody decided to wear leather? Was it orders from Cyclops? Was it just some random event where they all realized how silly wearing colorful spandex was? I'll let the movies off the hook because they don't have a continuity with costumes. The X-Men did. It doesn't make sense in terms of continuity. Magneto: Okay, Magneto is not a psychopathic murderer. Or, I should say, he never was before this. Oh, right! It was kind of, really vaguely explained that it wasn't actually Magneto, but Sublime, the sentient mutant mold, controlling Magneto. Do you realize how hard it is to control Magneto? The X-Men fought him many times, and I can't think of a time (except for when Professor X created Onslaught), that Magneto was just defeated by psychics. Hell, without psychic powers, Magneto astral projected and fought Xavier on pretty much equal terms. Magneto is powerful, mentally. He's also smart. While complicated and convoluted (and stupid), the retcon they did makes a lot more sense. Weapon Plus: Who's come out of Weapon Plus over the years that isn't form Weapon 10/X? Cap, Isaiah Bradley, Nuke, Fantomex, the Cuckoos and that big robot thingy (Ultimaton or something) are all I can think of. Who's come from Weapon X specifically? Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Maverick/Agent Zero, Silver Fox, Kestrel, Kane (Weapon X), etc. So, throughout all of Marvel, a few characters outside of Morrison's run came out of Weapon Plus aside from Weapon X. Why the hell is X so successful? Seriously! Somehow Weapon X came up with more well-known superpowered characters than the rest of them combined. It doesn't make sense that there was something behind it that made X just the tenth. Anyway, as I've stated, I don't like Grant Morrison. Bring the hate, if you read this and think Morrison is awesome.

Superman: War of the Supermen #1 (of 4)
The reason I didn't pick up the prelude to this on Saturday was that I only had three free comics I could get and I'd rather not try and pick up something having to do with an event I didn't even know existed until Free Comic Book Day, having something to do with Superman with a buildup apparently from 2008. Just seems weird to me, not knowing DC.

Comics I'm getting on 4/27

2010-04-28T00:00:00.001-04:00

Taking a cue from dclebeau at read/RANT!, I am going to list the comics I'm getting today, along with comics I just don't feel like getting. The more observant of you out there might notice I only list Marvel comics here. That is because the only non-Marvel I currently read are Secret Six (in volumes) and Invincible (in volumes). I don't know enough of what is going on in DC or anything else, nor do I care. With that said, here we go!

Deadpool #22
Wow, what a surprise! Pi likes Deadpool comics! Anyway, Way has done a decent job of writing Deadpool in the series. There was some stuff that wasn't as good, some stuff that was better. The artist makes a difference with Way, since his writing is just barely there, the artist makes a big difference. Huat hasn't done a whole lot, and I've only seen the issue he did of Vengeance of the Moon Knight with Deadpool in it (surprise!). The art was okay in that issue, with the biggest complaint being poor glare. There was a lot of lens flare off of people that was awkwardly done. Oh, well, hopefully this'll be good.

Mighty Avengers #36
So far, the Mighty Avengers series post Secret Invasion, with Pym leading the way, has been shaky. The Siege tie-in so far hasn't really had much in the way of Siege. The Mighty Avengers showed up in the Thunderbolts tie-in to fight them there, and that was somewhat interesting. Pym just annoys me sometimes. He can be a genius, he can do amazing things, but sometimes he just annoys me. Hopefully, Pym can outsmart Ultron (geez, Ultron vs Pym, what a refreshing concept), and hopefully, the Siege part won't just be the same stuff that Thunderbolts went through before.

New Avengers #64
The New Avengers Siege stuff on the other hand has been pretty darn good. It is right in the middle of Siege, with Captain America (who I find cool to be back in his fighting to reclaim Marvel for heroes, who better?) vs Norman and craziness. I like Bendis personally, and New Avengers has always been good for me. Mckone's art is something I am fond of, so more of it is always a good thing. The book looks interesting and hopefully they won't kill Mockingbird off (I mean, she just freaking got back in Secret Invasion).

Thunderbolts #143
Thunderbolts was one of my favorite comics in the Avengers Disassembled days, and got slightly worse as time went on leading up to Civil War. Post Civil War, in the "villains who don't want to be heroes but will be punished if they don't act like them in public" stuff, it got really good up through Secret Invasion. Post Secret Invasion, though, it's been awkward. They are supposed to be an elite black ops team, and they've succeeded something like only one time, to prove to Obama that Osborn is the right guy to head security. Other than that, though, they've sucked as a team and it just is an awkward team that doesn't seem to work. The Siege stuff is fighting the Mighty Avengers, as mentioned above. It's been more of the same, so meh.

World War Hulks: Hulked Out Heroes #2
For me, my second Deadpool comic of 5 comics this week, bringing the total in the month up to 9 Deadpool comics. He's totally overexposed, I know, but this has been at the very least amusing. It isn't the best written or most thought out comic, and Loeb is an idiot (Deadpool was in Hulk before and is part of this because of that, taking a $30,000 job when it has been stated he's taken $1,000,000 jobs and doesn't like doing stuff much less than that). Still, Hulkpool is am amusing character, if not a good one, and the time stuff here is silly, which is how all time stuff should be (but often isn't, sigh...).

Comics I'm avoiding:

Marvel Zombies 5 #2
I read through Marvel Zombies 4. That was enough. I enjoyed the first series, and where they first appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four. Marvel Zombies 2 was going somewhat too far. Marvel Zombies 3 was just awkward and weird. Marvel Zombies 4 was even worse. I really loved Marvel Zombies. I even have a Marvel Zombies poster on my wall (a zombified version of the 1990 reboot of X-Men #1 cover, thank you Amy). I only read 4 because Headpool was in it, and the series should honestly have quit after Marvel Zombies.

Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #1
For me, the Ultimate universe started to die out with Ultimates 3, and was dead to me by Ultimatum. Calling them the Avengers seems somewhat like forcing the name at this point. They were the Ultimates, based off of the Avengers, true, but they weren't the Avengers. Calling them the Avengers seems awkward. Oh, but it's some black ops team? With Ultimate Punisher, who just is basically a sucky version of Punisher (because he keeps getting freaking caught and locked up, unlike the 616 Frank)? Oh boy! /sarcasm

Comics for tomorrow

2010-04-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, a short little thing that I'd put on Twitter, maybe, if I cared about Twitter. Tomorrow will be the first day of the month where I get more comics in them that don't have Deadpool than do. The first week contained four Deadpool comics, Vengeance of the Moon Knight, where he cameoed, World War Hulks, which contained a Hulkpool story, Deadpool & Cable 25, the finale issue of Cable's series, renamed to fit Deadpool in who was in a starring role recapping what happened in between Cable's departure from Cable & Deadpool and his appearance in his now cancelled series, and Deadpool Corps, which as it sounds, is about a corps of Deadpool from different dimensions. The second week, I got three comics, only one of which was not Deadpool oriented, the Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers issue. The other two I got were Hulked Out Heroes, featuring Hulkpool on a journey through time, and Deadpool Team-Up where he teamed up with Punishe...sorry, Frankencastle. This week, out of the six or so comics I am getting, I am only getting two with Deadpool, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth and Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield. Seriously, this is the first week this month where I get more non-Deadpool comics than Deadpool comics. I like the character, and pick things up with him, but he is totally overexposed and hopefully he'll keep afloat and not drift into obscurity.

Tournament Report

2010-04-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

I went to the Rise of the Eldrazi pre-release this past weekend and here's what I have to say about it.

First off, the Eldrazi are freaking insane. I realize they are expensive, but with the set, getting them isn't extraordinarily hard, and this is coming from Sealed. In Sealed, you can run 9-costs (yes, plural) and expect to play them. They are unbelievably powerful, and annoying as hell to face. I went 2 wins, 2 losses and dropped the first day, but 3 out of the 4 wins I got were from Eldrazi. That's how good they are. Sealed runs really slowly, as you might guess considering the high drops you can run. There is a lot of stall to get there, with lots of walls just to tide you over to your giant creatures. It makes the set interesting. I think that getting Eldrazi will be easier outside of Sealed (more Spawn token producers and just easier to build to it), but that they might get overwhelmed quickly in Constructed, just because people are able to build a lot faster and clear things, making it harder to get to your Spawn tokens, just killing your Spawn tokens or anything like that.

The levelers are really good also. The second day, I ran levelers and was consistently building threats early, which is the main advantage to the levelers. It may be expensive to get to the final level, but along the way you can beat face. There is a 2 cost Green creature that's 2/2 to start, but with 2G, he becomes a 4/4, and paying the cost three more times gets you a 6/6 Trample. So, turn 2, get a 2/2 out, turn 3 make him a 4/4, then beat face until eventually you get the mana and make him a 6/6 Trample. Technically, over the course of the game, it costs 14 (9GGGGG) to get a 6/6 Trample, but it is worth it.

Also, I despise tiebreakers. Our tournament Sunday went 6 rounds, and I went 4 wins, 2 losses. Because my tiebreakers were apparently worse than other people, I ended up in 9th place. There was prize support for, you guessed it, top 8. 1st got something like 30 packs, and 2nd got less, 3rd and 4th got less, and 5th-8th got 5 packs each. Somebody who had the same record as me got 5 packs while I got nothing. Stupid tiebreakers...

Kick-Ass revisited

2010-04-15T22:40:00.000-04:00

Because of not being in a city with a movie theater within easy reach I have to really plan my trips to the movies. That means that since I have classes tomorrow and two pre-release tournaments for M:TG Rise of the Eldrazi over the weekend, I probably won't see it until Wednesday, when I have no classes. Until then though, I am extremely nervous.

See, when they announced it, I was kind of unsure, but as it got closer and closer, and they released the first trailer, I was blown away. Everything I've seen and heard has been ridiculously positive and therefore I am really nervous. Kick-Ass was the bloodiest comic I have ever read and one of the most amazing, and also one of the best to adapt to a movie, just because there aren't super powers to do CGI with and you don't need tons of continuity to make it good and make sense. The costumes are a little annoying since they are different (except for Kick-Ass's costume, but it doesn't bother me as much as it normally would, maybe because the costume is actually really insignificant for the characters as opposed to Spider-Man where it is essential (and arguably the X-Men, where the leather was the thing I hated most about the first two movies). Big Daddy doesn't have all of the fame in being in the costume he was in in the comics. He was in a different costume, but for under 8 issues (more like 4 or 5 or something, right?), so it isn't as iconic for him. Kick-Ass's costume is slightly, but everybody else's is just some costume. Also, and slight spoiler alert if you haven't read the comic, I am annoyed by them having Red Mist displayed as one of the four main heroes. Watch the movie or read the comic to understand why.

The thing is, that my expectations for this are absurdly high. Just absolutely absurdly high. The trailers are awesome, the small scenes look awesome, it seems to have the feel of the comic and all the reviews even before it was officially screened for people were amazing. I haven't found bad press for it, which means that my expectations are not just through the roof, but jutting off into space and approaching the moon. If the movie isn't the greatest thing ever, then with those expectations, I am setting myself up for major disappointment.

Fortunately though, I have friends who understand. My friend knows how bad expectations can be and so helped me by letting me know the entire movie is just 2 hours of a chicken walking around in circles. Nothing else, just two hours of a chicken walking around in circles. With that in mind, I think I'm good.

Turn Coat

2010-04-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

If you didn't already know this about me, I love the Dresden Files series. I just absolutely love it.

My mom had recorded the first episode of the TV show and that was a really good TV show, if short-lived. In the opening credits, they mentioned it was based off of the book series by Jim Butcher, but I didn't really pay any attention to that. Eventually though, thanks to the Science Fiction Book Club that I got mail from, I bought the first omnibus to the series, with the first three books in it. And let me tell you something, the show is crap in comparison. The first book was just really good, but possibly the worst of the series. Butcher hadn't quite gotten into a rhythm with the series, so it was good, but a little too happy at the end. The rest of the series' ends aren't nearly as happy.

The twelfth book just came out last Tuesday, but I just finished the 11th tonight. Jumping onto the bandwagon a little late, I never really caught up with the series. I will soon, but it took me some time to go through the books. I went through the omnibuses pretty fast, reading through the 1st through 9th books quickly, but since there hasn't even been a fourth omnibus containing 10 and 11 yet, I had to get those separately. In general, it is easier (and cheaper) to buy the paperback rather than the hardcover. Plus, it is easier to take it places, as it is smaller. Still, the hardcover comes out around a year before the paperback, so the time also factors in. I got the 10th as a paperback, but not wanting to wait a few months for the paperback of the 11th, I just picked up the 11th in hardcover form, although I was reading other books at the time. When the paperback finally did come out, I hadn't started the hardcover yet, making me feel bad about that money waste.

This, though, is about the 11th book in the series, Turn Coat, and how amazing it is. Well, I really don't like spoilers, so I'll just try and give vague feelings. It starts out with a really big open and then picks up steam from there. There are plenty of twists and turns and it is an amazing book to read. Harry once again proves how crazy he is, this time invoking a Sanctum Invocation, making a place his sanctum. Oh, and he faces off against something way more powerful than him (again). Other than that, there is a small running gag in the book alone, in that there are people at his house who don't get along. He leaves by himself and comes back to find a "bizarre tableau." Three times. It gets silly, but in a good way. The series is both really good at making deep stories that are amazing, but also at realizing that a little humor every now and then goes a long way, with funny little asides and just enough snark from Harry to really make it feel right. The climax of the book went on for arguably 94 pages (maybe shorter, depending on what you want to consider the climax), and I think I read the last third to last half in one sitting tonight, just because it was so unbelievably good.

If you haven't read the series, I highly recommend to read the first book, then the second one if the first one felt a little stilted, as the writing and stories get better. If you just didn't like the concept, well, the second one won't help for that. Still, if you want to also see the series, do that first. It's available on Hulu (the entire thing) and it is really good. If you read, then watch, the show will seem bad. If you watch, then read, the show will be its own thing that was on its own (not as good, but different and a decent series if not something that's related to the books in any real way). So, to get the full experience, watch the show, then read the first book, the second book if the first's writing is just not quite there. It is an amazing series.

And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad

2010-04-12T15:37:00.003-04:00

Here's a story I wrote for a creative writing in fiction class that I thought might be enjoyed by people who would possibly read this. If you find it hard to read, I can send you the .docx file that it is in. Just leave a comment asking for the original.

And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad
by Alapai Michels

    Okay, reader, let's get this started. Yeah, I know you're there. Hey, just because I'm a character in this story doesn't mean I don't have to know about my status as a character. Nv'mzt, stop antagonizing the reader. The reader doesn't often read about characters that know they are characters, so give the reader some slack. Fine, but I'm warning you, I know what you're up to, reader. Where was I? Oh, that's right.

   Okay, reader, let's get this started. You want to hear about my tales of heroism? Being heroic means actually being like a hero, not saying you are like one. Oh, shut up, voice, you're not helping. They hadn't read about me before, and already, you're making me look bad. Thanks a lot. And I've lost my place again. Geez, this is already starting out horribly, and we haven't gotten anywhere yet. And whose fault is that? You've done most of the talking. Oh, sure, blame me. You're the one that keeps interrupting. Okay, last time starting this story.

    Okay, reader, let's get this started. Oh, wait, I already said that. Twice before, actually. Shut up. Let me talk. You're doing all the talking anyway. Except when you keep interrupting. Oh, great, we're having the same argument as before. The reader is going to get bored soon and read some other story. That story won't be as interesting as ours. And the reader would know that how? You keep stopping me from starting the story. Let's just jump in.

    I was cruising along, looking for some, um, what was I looking for again? Fun, you were looking for fun. Oh, and to kill new and exotic people. Hey, that was from the trailer with the guy whose healing factor I have. Well, he didn't have it, then. Let's just ignore that movie for the sake of the reader. And everybody. And Wade. Good point. Anyway, I was looking for something fun.

    I had barely gotten out of the Milky Way, as you humans call it, when this guy started freaking out. I wasn't freaking out, I was merely kept enraptured by Hey, stop spoiling it for the reader. Anyway, voice over here ^ was freaking out, and kept demanding we turn away. I only felt that continuing in the direction we were going wasn't in our best interest. Hey, right now, I'm pretty much freaking immortal. You freaking out wasn't going to stop me. Hey, let's just act it out again, so it seems more present tense and less like we are merely recapping it. Finally admitting my acting talent? Fine by me. I'm just trying to get you to stop complaining about things in the past. After all, it worked out, didn't it? Now, who's spoiling it? Aw, go play in traffic.

    I just got out of the Milky Way. I'm heading for parts unknown. Well, Nv'mzt, I'm not sure if we should head in that direction. It seems [dramatic pause] ominous. (Stupid voice using a dramatic pause. Doesn't he know it is in a story, and therefore just visible as directions? Hey, get out of these parentheses and get on with the story. Fine, fine.) Oh, silly head voice, look at the scanner, nothing is over in that direction. It's perfectly fine. I don't know. I've got a bad feeling about this. Hey, don’t quote Star Wa Shhhhh. Do you want to get sued for copyright infringement? Oh, right. Don't quote a movie series that had three good movies, then three bad ones, and then got even worse, the main theme of the series being about space battles won over sword fights. We don't want to seem like we are stealing from somebody else. Well, Alapai is copying ideas in all his mmmmpphh, mmpphh… Yeah, no, I'm not going to let you bad mouth me in my own story. And my ideas are loving homages to the stories I stea…, er, rip of…, er, reference. Wait, did you just interject in your own story, Alapai? Now, that's crazier than any of the things I've done. No, it isn't. Hey, stop dragging me into all this. Just get on with the story. Oh, and head voice, don't try bad mouthing me again or we're going to have to go get the serious voice.

    Anyway, let's just keep going forward. You're going to regret it. I just know something bad is going to happen. Man, you're a buzzkill. Come on, where's your sense of adventure. Exploring the unknown, to boldly go where no man has gone be…FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Look what you've done! Now, I'm quoting things! Ignore it, let's just keep going. Ahem. Well, if something bad happens, don't say I didn't warn you. Sigh… Okay. Come on, head voice! Onward I go.

    So, anyway, I headed off. Voice was supposed to be watching to see where I were going, but… ANYWAY, voice was guiding me, and instead of going off into empty space, which I wanted to do Hey, don't blame me! I was watching the sensor. Nothing was there! It was really well cloaked or something.You wanted to have fun. You admitted as much earlier. Stop trying to lie to the reader. Fine, instead of going off into empty space like I had pretty much planned on doing, I almost ran smack into a planet. The planet came out of nowhere and almost killed me. Like I said, it didn't come out of nowhere, it was cloaked. Whatever. Anyway, I made some quick flying moves, did I mention how awesome I was in flight school. I was flying circles around the other Skr Yeah, you can't say what race you are. There's a copyright on it. But it's my own damn race! Doesn't matter, a company owns the rights. Well, what am I supposed to call myself then? Hmmm, I'll call myself a Llurks. Does that name work? I guess it does since I wasn't censored before saying it.
    Okay, so I was a great pilot at Sk…, ahem, Sollurks' flight school. And that's off topic. Sorry. Those were good days, back in flight school. I was all ready to become a soldier in the, sigh, Llurks army. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. My quick flying allowed me to land safely on the planet. You know, it's not nice to lie. You didn't land safely as much as get pulled in by a tractor beam. Hey, this is my story. I'll tell it how I want to tell it. Anyway, I landed safely.

    Suddenly, I was surrounded by a bunch of aliens. It wasn't sudden as much as you shot the one that tried to greet you, then waited for the others to all show up. Psh. Whatever. So, there I was, surrounded by aliens, and that's when I decided to bust out my weapons. See the main problem with the guy whose powers I have is that he has two arms. Thankfully, I'm a S… Llurks, so I can just shapeshift into myself with more arms. So, while Wade deals with two swords OR a sword and a gun OR two guns, I can have two swords, two guns, AND a rocket launcher. You didn't even load the rocket launcher! It was just there to show off! Well, it worked, didn't it?

    I mean, this wasn't much of a challenge considering my initial test after getting my powers. That was a tough fight. I mean, sigh… Super-Llurks with the powers of Enirevlow, or Acirema Niatpac, or Nam Nori, or the Dog of Rednuht, Mighty Roht. Oh, come on, we're taking the backwards names a little too fa… Shhh, we can't let them know that. Otherwise, they will sue us. It has to be the way it is. Otherwise the reader won't be able to get it if we're too subtle. After all, not everybody knows these characters like the writer up there. Hey, leave me out of this. Whatever. Anyway, back to what I was saying, I'm pretty sure, we fought guys with powers from the competition! Guys like Namrepus or Nomaw Rednow. That was subtle, right? First off, they wouldn't have used non-Levram characters in a Levram comic. What about the crossover with the Namrepus slash Nam-Redips homage from Egami? Hey, stop interrupting my interruptions! Anyway, I think we can get away with it. It isn't subtle, by the, sigh, Llurks gods, it isn't subtle. But, this isn't done to make a profit, and somewhat parodical, right? Sure, that's what we'll tell the lawyers. And hey, reader, don't go blabbing to CD and Levram about this. I mean, it's a harmless story, right? Well, I mean the story itself is harmless. Obviously I did a lot of harm to others in it. But the story itself They get the point, Nv'mzt, move on already. Okay, fine.

    Long story short, I found out the aliens hadn't been found by other races because they were unknowingly cloaked from detection and unknowingly emitting a signal that subtly drives away intruders. It makes people not want to go there sub-consciously. Of course, my sub-conscious didn't want to go there I'm not really your sub-conscious as much as an artificial construction of your own imagin Aw, cram it, voice. Ahem, I just don't listen to my sub-conscious because IT COMPLAINS TOO MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING. Anyway, I Hey, why are you wrapping up? I just noticed you're wrapping up. There was a lot more to talk about from that journey. Yeah, but it didn't involve as much me kicking everybody's ass, so it wasn't as interesting. Besides, we're aiming for under 2000 words here, and if I started talking about that, well, that was a long time to find all that stuff about them out and you would just keep derailing me on tange… Oooh, shiny… Yes, well, I hope you enjoyed the story well enough. I hope Nv'nzt wasn't too much of an unlikable character and that I wasn't too charming and Alright, voice, that's enough.

    So, yeah. Ahem. Um, I don't really have anything else to say about the story, I came, I kicked ass, I left. That's the plot. It kind of got a little buried, but I hope you were able to get enough of it out of this mess of words. And whose fault is that? You get distracted by things like chimichangas and you've never even been on Earth to have them. Oooh, chimichangas… No, focus, focus! I may find it hard to focus, but people still like me. No, seriously, they do. Well, my creator likes me. Well… this was fun and all, but, I like the guy you're based off of more than you, so… Aw, what do you know? Anyway, I… No, wait. Don't cut me of

Silliness

2010-04-05T17:55:00.002-04:00

Outside, on my way to class, I felt a few drops of rain from above. By a few, I mean barely any. They existed. You could see them on the ground. They weren't plentiful, though. There were only a couple. Still, the problem with that is that the sun was also in my eyes.

Damn it, nature! Stop being hypocritical! If it's sunny, it isn't supposed to rain. If it rains, it isn't supposed to be sunny. Let us say that S(sky) means the sky is sunny and R(sky) means the sky is raining.
S(sky) → ¬R(sky)
R(sky) → ¬S(sky)

Now, it is sunny and rainy
S(sky) ∧ R(sky)

This leads to a contradiction
S(sky) [∧ Elim]
R(sky) [∧ Elim]
¬R(sky) [→ Elim]
⊥ [⊥ Intro]

Therefore, nature just produced a contradiction. DAMN YOU, NATURE!

Hypocrisy

2010-03-31T00:37:00.003-04:00

I can be a little loud at times. I've been known to project. I've acted, and in productions where we don't have microphones to blast our voices over speakers, I had to project myself. People have mentioned how loud I can be. But most of the time, I try to be quieter. When I get more tired and less in control over every little thing I do, then I can get louder, and I know this. I apologize to people I've kept up by being too loud. But, and this is a big but, I realize I am loud, and after a realization, I generally try to keep my voice down with conscious effort.

Then there's this guy I know, let's call him Hal. Hal is very loud. All the time. His regular voice is projecting. I live in a suite in my dorm where I share a room with my roommate that is connected to another room via a bathroom. Hal lives in that other room. Now, the walls in this dorm aren't the best constructed things. Heck, the whole place sometimes feels like it's going to fall apart. But, I digress. Hal will often just speak loudly.

Now, I know this is not some rule that everybody has to follow, but this is my general guideline for wakefulness, maybe more specifically to my dorm than somewhere else. If the next day is a weekday (aka school day), then loud stops by 12:00 midnight. Probably would be better for more like 11:00, but 12:00 generally works fine for the people I know. If the next day is a weekend, then loud stops by midnight more as a guideline than a rule. I'll probably try and stop by then, but don't feel incredibly bad if I don't. If the day is a weekday, then noise can begin around 8:00 or so. Some people have class at 8:00 (poor souls), and more than anything, it is probably when I should get up. If the day is a weekend, I won't make noise before noon if possible. I like to sleep in when possible. So to lay it all out:
Stop on Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs night = 12:00 AM (maybe 11:00 PM)
Stop on Fri, Sat night = 12:00 AM (more guideline)
Start on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri morning = 8:00 AM
Start on Sat, Sun morning = 12:00 PM

Now, I know people don't have to follow this, but it seems somewhat like a common courtesy. I don't follow it exactly, and I'm sorry I don't. Hal seems to think that some school days are more important than others. Maybe it's when he does and doesn't have class that things change. I don't know and I really don't care. What I do care about is how loud he is. Sunday nights or Monday nights, he could be up at 1 AM or even later, talking in his normal, overpowering, loud voice about anything, it doesn't matter, and falling asleep will be nigh-impossible. But tonight, literally slightly after midnight, instead of asking politely, which I'd still take slightly hypocritically, he bangs on the wall to get me and my roommate to be quieter. Okay, so I'm assuming that's what the banging was for, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Just last night, at the same time, no, probably later, he was talking in the hallway on his phone. There is a room that if you close the doors, it is somewhat soundproof. If you don't, you're just in the hallway, and in a room, you can hear what is in the hallway pretty darn well.

So, I'm sorry for keeping people up slightly, but dear Deadpool, Hal, if you want to complain about me, get your own sound level under check first.

More on Kick-Ass

2009-12-22T13:42:00.001-05:00

Not for the kiddies, this is the ridiculous new Red Band trailer for Kick-Ass. Full names aren't required, but you need to put something in every box, and a date that does make you old enough to see the trailer.

Gifted

2009-12-16T15:14:00.002-05:00

Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon is amazing.

The first arc, Gifted, had a lot that was taken from it for the third X-Men movie, but don't let that scare you away. The comic itself is a lot better. You may need to know some comic stuff about the X-Men and about Marvel in order to understand everything, but for the most part, it is its own stand-alone stories. Hulu has right now the first 4 issues of Gifted available to view as part of a Marvel Motion Comic, adapted by Neal Adams, with John Cassaday's help, into an animated series. I highly recommend the comics, but the motion comic isn't that bad. The faces and their motion can be a little disconcerting, but other than that, it is great.

Kick-Ass the Movie

2009-12-06T04:11:00.002-05:00

Just wow. This just barely beats out Iron Man 2 for the movie I most want to see next year. At first, I was somewhat meh, but now, with the trailer, it looks a lot like the comic (albeit a lot less bloody, although it was an all-ages trailer, and I hear the movie is supposed to be rated R, so that gives me some hope. They definitely seemed to capture that it is an action movie, with action in it, but that it also is humorous and ridiculous.

Gurren Lagann

2009-11-28T09:24:00.002-05:00

I just finished watching the complete series of Gurren Lagann and want to just give my fresh impressions. First off, I watched it all in one sitting. From episode one through episode twenty-seven, for a total of about 10 and a half hours (virtually no comercials and skipping the intro and outro each time). So, yes, I am a little tired, and the amazingness of Gurren Lagann might just be exaggerated because of the tiredness I feel. Anyway...

Gurren Lagann. Where to start. Okay, so basically it starts with some kids who live in an underground town, and who dream of seeing the surface. But, the surface is forbidden to them and they are stuck beneath the ground. When they get up to the surface, though, they find the surface under constant attack from Gunmen, which are giant mechs with faces in the middle, where you get into them through the mouth. Aside from Lagann, Simon's mech, the mechs are all massive. The mechs are the work of the beastmen, who try to eliminate humans that make their way to the surface. After Kamina decides to steal a mech he liked, the road is set for a full revolution and overthrow of those who would keep humans underground. Beyond that, I'd have to spoil a fair amount.

Okay, without spoiling anything, it makes me, basically, feel like the work Michael Bay has tried to do. I've heard people criticize Bay for the amount of explosions in his movies and some gratuitous scenes, well, Gurren Lagann blows anything he's done away. Not just in terms of sheer numbers of explosions, but also in scale of the explosions. Now, yes, this is a mech show, but he did Transformers, which is a mech movie (okay, giant robots, but close enough). Plus, one of the main characters wears pretty much only a bikini top and short shorts all the time, so, um, yeah. Just in terms of the sheer explosions, though, well, let's just say that Gurren Lagann, straight up Gurren Lagann, is absolutely miniature in comparison to some of the things that explode. In other words, a normal giant mech is tiny in comparison to other things. Just how tiny I won't spoil, but, just believe me when I say tiny.

The main thing that makes Gurren Lagann awesome though, is that it does not take itself seriously in the least and almost every single episode has at least one person making a ridiculously overdramatic speech, with the phrase, "Just who the hell do you think I am?!!" appearing in one form or another in, again, almost every single episode. Plus, there is a lot of talk about Simon's drill being "the drill that will pierce the heavens!"It would be corny if it were done once or twice, but the amount that the overdramatizations take place makes it absolutely silly and ridiculous. Which in turn makes it amazing. Especially since there is also ridiculous amounts of damage and explosions and fighting. The amazing combo of humor, action, explosions and drama make Gurren Lagann truly a brilliantly done anime.

Borderlands

2009-11-16T10:43:00.003-05:00

Borderlands is an interesting blend of genres. As a FPS, you control a mercenary who shoots his way through the bandits that infest the planet, the animals from the planet and a corporation's army that is trying to take over the planet for its own nefarious scheme. As an RPG, you have an adventurer who goes forth, looking for the mysterious Vault, trying to get riches and power beyond your wildest dreams, gaining levels and completing missions to get more powerful to get to the end. Now, I was confused when I heard the premise, in that it is an FPSRPG (a First Person Shooter Role Playing Game), but it truly lives up to that premise and does it, I think at least, fairly well. Now, sure, in RPGs one of the things that always bothered me was people who are weak bosses at the beginning and then people who would be their subordinates later being more powerful or just random guys being more powerful, simply because it's later on in the game. For instance, some of the bandits at the Dahl Headlands are said to be pissed and crazy specifically because of Sledge's death, but they are equal level to him or higher. Also, attacks that should kill or horribly injure are weaker as you are a lesser level. Now, in FPSs, that has often been the case, where you aren't going to die just because you've been shot, but this takes it to extremes in that you can take your three high-powered sniper rifles and shoot a guy in the head with a bullet that sets him on fire, a bullet that secretes powerful acid and a bullet that shocks and paralyzes him and you still haven't killed the guy. I'm not even specifically referring to a boss, but Bruisers (Brutes on the second playthrough) can take ridiculous amounts of damage without dying. And while I thought RPG stat systems wouldn't apply well to an FPS, they actually did it really well, in the guns. Plus, the damage system actually works well, once you get over the things that should have been kills, but only injure the guy.

The story, I think, is not the deepest, but is executed fairly well and I actually like it. Now, people who have played the game have bitched a lot about the ending, but I think it made sense and worked well. Spoilers ahead for those who are actually interested in the story of the game. So, you've been sent to find the Vault for money, fame, power, etc. Along the way, you're guided by certain people and things to get there and you eventually do get there. Basically, you made the key, but then Commandant Steele steals the key and you chase her to the Vault where she opens it and is immediately killed by the Destroyer, a being from another dimension sent here to destroy everyone. Once you kill the Destroyer, then the guardian angel that guided you to the Vault explains she knew that the Destroyer was in the Vault and is sorry she couldn't tell you earlier. It is also revealed she is a satellite up above Pandora, the planet you are on. See, I think it is cool and does explain things well enough. Sure, there is a lot you can speculate about her origins and how she knew, etc, etc, but I don't think that it is necessary or important. I never really cared about who or what she was originally, so finding out she was a satellite isn't that big a deal for me.

Otherwise, the game was pretty darn cool. I mean, basically, you have a post-apocalyptic-type world, with tons of crazy characters that are cool and interesting, with cel-shaded graphics that make the game look interesting. The game is fun, and I think I probably could beat the game without dying, although dying isnt' that bad. Basically, if you die, then the enemies you didn't kill are all back at full health and shields, just like you are, and you lose some money. The only place it is incredibly annoying is against the final boss, where you have a tiny room and you respawn right against it. It is incredibly awkward. Still, the respawning is explained, and works well with the premise. The second playthrough is basically just more, tougher enemies that are ridiculously difficult to kill and is incredibly difficult, even with your enhanced weapons and stats. Still, there is enough to do that you can play through the game with each character and it would be different each time and interesting each time. It is a really fun FPS especially if you like RPGs and an interesting RPG that you can like if you like FPSs.

New Video

2009-10-26T16:13:00.001-04:00

So, I made a video for a class of me drawing Deadpool, and I thought I'd post it on this blog. Enjoy!

And for those who never saw my other video, Marvel Zombies, here it is, too.

Pixelicious

2009-10-08T14:11:00.004-04:00

Because of one of my classes, I am learning different ways to make art on my computer. One of the early ones was making pixel art heads, and in doing so, I've learned how to make pixel art versions of images. Now, sure, I have only done myself so far, but in various ways. I think I'm going to make various other images of mine and make them pixelated. Anyway, I thought I'd just put a picture of myself, as Deadpool, in a tux, at my prom, in pixel art.

MUA2 Revisited

2009-09-24T13:58:00.002-04:00

Okay, I've played through Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for Wii on Anti-Reg (naturally), and, well, I'm kind of confused. Okay, so here is the plot with spoilers, and if you've read the comic and were planning on playing the game, the first spoiler is that it isn't the same. So, if you don't care, here you go. It starts with you controlling Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine and Iron Man as you invade Latveria. Nick Fury has uncovered that the current leader, Lucia Von Bardas, is working with the Tinkerer to make supervillains with enhanced suits (Shocker, Scorpion, etc) more powerful. Fury takes you in to stop her. After running around for a while, eventually Wolverine and Spider-Man split from the rest of the group to find the backup team. From there, you choose your characters, and try to help Fury's main team get to Von Bardas. After blowing some stuff up, eventually, you take down Castle Doom. Flash to the present day, and there are terrorist attacks caused by a not dead Von Bardas, who is attacking New York City in an act of vengeance against Fury and the superheroes that attacked Latveria. After taking out Von Bardas, you are left with the aftermath, and rubble and destruction, caused by her attack. Iron Man and Captain America discuss how this is going to look bad for superheroes, considering the amount of damage caused, and Fury goes into hiding. Iron Man mentions how one more superhero accident could cause drastic consequences. Of course, then the New Warriors try to take down some villains on TV, including Nitro, right in Stamford, Conneticut, and when he blows up, he kills hundreds of people. From there, I chose Anti-Reg, and will follow that storyline, but I am pretty sure the exact same storyline is with Pro-Reg. First, Cable's base gets raided by Pro-Reg forces and you help clear them out, and then Cable lets you know of a chemical plant that is in danger. Cap leads his forces there, but it was a trap sprung by Iron Man, meant to get the Anti-Reg heroes to talk, or if necessary, fight. During the course of the battle, some of the villains that Iron Man had infected with nanites to keep under control go haywire and they plant bombs, with which they try to kill people. Yes, this is where the game breaks off from the comics. Apparently, the nanites went sentient and created a hive mind, called the Fold, that they tried to use the villains for craziness. You join up with Fury who plans to use the break-in Captain America planned to try and free his guys from 42, the Negative Zone prison, where pure nanites are being kept that can be used to stop the Fold. As you break in, you go through the prison, eventually finding the nanites, but the place goes haywire, and you need to help people get back to Earth. You run into Captain America and Iron Man, who agree that they need to put their differences aside to fight the Fold. In doing so, you fight some nanite mutants until the portal back to Earth comes back online. Fury is able to get the portal back online just before the place explodes, but he is left back in the Negative Zone. The heroes meet to determine how to beat the main threat, when they learn that Wakanda is under attack, most likely for its Vibranium. After you help Black Panther fend off his own people who are infected, you learn Stark Tower comes under attack, and the whole world comes under attack by the Fold, who plan to take over with their nanites. The teams then head off to stop the Fold, attacking their main headquarters, and uploading the program they needed to. Then, after a fight with a nanite-controlled Nick Fury, you stop the Fold, and win the day. My end had the SRA repealed due to their defense of Earth from the Fold, and victory.

I thought the game was pretty cool at first, in that it followed Secret War and Civil War pretty well. Sure, Iron Man wasn't part of Secret War and they had their stealth costumes. And sure, they had their memories wiped of Secret War so that when it came back to bite them, they were confused as hell, especially Luke Cage, who was hurt badly. Then, with Civil War, they kind of skipped some stuff, and glossed over others, but up to the chemical plant ambush, it was pretty darn faithful to the comics. Only when the villains went haywire did the game start to be, well, awkward. Oh, and I really wanted to know what happened to Goliath. I mean, he was important, and he should have died to Clor during that battle, but who knows. They just skipped that. When they introduced the other storyline, well, that was kind of taking the easy way out. As opposed to actually showing a final battle, where you invade 42 or defend 42, and then a big fight in NYC, where at the end, Cap surrenders (which was horrible, but part of the story), they ignore all that and make their own end that is much happier. They saved Earth, and therefore they repeal the SRA? Um, did the people who made that end read the ASM prelude to Civil War, where Tony goes in front of the CSA (Commission on Superhuman Activities) and lets them know how many times Earth was saved by superheroes? I mean, it was something like 50 times. And I believe that was skipping the major galactic conflicts. The Fold, while dangerous, shouldn't have been something to change the CSA's mind on registration. And did people just forget all the times they were saved by heroes before that? Was this a more personal thing or what? It really didn't make much sense. Still, again, the way they did it was a wimpy way to go. I read that they dealt with the aftermath of Civil War in the game. Now, if more of the game was Anti-Reg vs Pro-Reg, where you had different conflicts that might have been minor conflicts or something that weren't in comics, sure. With this? No. Okay, the reveals at the end of each issue were pretty cool. 1-Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Yellowjacket agree to help hunt down Cap-In the game. 2-Spider-Man reveals he is Peter Parker to the world-Not involved. 3-Clor makes his first appearance before it is revealed he is a robo-clone-Not involved. 4-The new Thunderbolts with Green Goblin, Bullseye, Venom and Lady Deathstrike first are shown to be with Tony-It is kind of there in the sense that the villains under Tony's control are there. 5-When "Daredevil" is captured, he lets Iron Man know that they think he is like Judas (yes, that Judas)-Not there, and 42 is just kind of mentioned as existing and not looked into at all. 6-I believe it ended with Cap's forces being freed, as Cap prepares for a final showdown-Not even close, as there is no final showdown. 7 is irrelevant, as again, there was no final showdown. Now, something that the game did that annoyed me that makes sense because it is based off of something else, is that the characters weren't unlocked originally. I believe it is worse in the other versions, as there are more places to fight characters in game to have them join your side, but it still exists here a lot. In X-Men Legends, a problem was that if you wanted to have, let's say, Colossus on your team, you couldn't until later in the game. At that point, he was a few levels behind everybody, so it was awkward. They fixed that in XML2, with everybody playable from the beginning except Deadpool, who you got upon completion, Professor X, who you got upon beating all the Danger Room missions and Iron Man who you got from collecting homing beacons in each level to unlock portals in each level to get Iron Man after the last beacon. In MUA, they did a similar thing to XML2, with only a few characters having to be unlocked. In this, there are a lot of guys to unlock and some of them you can't get until near the very end. I want to use Green Goblin the entire time! Unfortunately, that is a definite impossibility, especially considering you have to fight him at one point. Oh, and my biggest complaint is from the fact that I have the Wii version. The versions of MUA for current generation systems were almost identical, with the Wii version having more motion-controls, but otherwise being almost exactly the same. Aside from not having Juggernaut in the Wii version, Iron Fist isn't in the Wii version. The third biggest guy in Anti-Reg is Iron Fist (as Daredevil in the comics), and he isn't included. I don't even want to use him, but I want him to be there. Plus, half the levels are taken out and half the enemies are taken out. I don't even want to start on the differences between the different versions. It really makes me want to get an X-Box 360 or PS3 just so I can get the game the way it was meant to be played, not a port of the game as done by a developer that decided to half-ass it. A small thing that just bugs me is the cut-scenes. They are beautiful and I want to see them again, but I can't. The other ports have it and MUA had it, but I can't access the cut-scenes in the Wii version.

Still, despite all my complaints, the game was fun for the most part (dying a lot was annoying), and while I didn't get to use the characters I necessarily wanted to through most of the game, I got by. I honestly don't recommend getting the Wii version, especially if you have an X-Box 360 or PS3. If you don't have either of those systems, the Wii version is more disappointing than anything, especially when looking at the other versions.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

2009-09-21T14:00:00.002-04:00

Oh, Civil War. Such a silly storyline that somewhat worked, although ended poorly. The game basically is the Secret War->Civil War storyline. Now, I just got the game in the mail today (it came out last Tuesday), so I haven't fully played through the game yet, but right now, I'm both incredibly disappointed and incredibly impressed. First, why I am disappointed. The game was developed for Wii by a different company than the ones for X-Box 360 and PS3. Now, I can understand to an extent, but I am still sad about that. Oh, and I get to use Cyclops, Psylocke and Blade in my version, whereas I could have gotten Juggernaut in the others. I would much prefer Juggernaut to any of those others. Oh, and if you want Juggernaut, you have to have preordered the game from Gamestop? That's just not cool. Otherwise, the game is different from the first one. Okay, the Wii controls didn't transfer perfectly from Gamecube, from X-Men Legends to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but for the most part, what I was holding on a GCN controller in XML was transferred to what I was holding in MUA. In this game, all of that goes out the window, and they rebuilt the controller from the ground up. For example, to rotate the camera (when the game allows you to), you use to have to rotate the nunchuck, which worked pretty well. In this, you have to hold down 1 and rotate the Wii remote. It honestly is much harder to do in the format you are in. Also, it is a lot harder to grab, and I'm not even sure you can grab items anymore. The menu is somewhat hard to navigate, and also is annoying that 2 is the menu button. I also don't like the system for character switching and for fusions. Character switching is no longer hitting a button and switching, but going either clockwise (-) or counter-clockwise (+) around the screen. Fusions take place when you hold down Z and shake the nunchuck, then point the controller at a character other than the one you are controlling. If the game required you to point at the screen the entire time (Metroid Prime 3 or something), then that'd be fine with me. As is, I have to play, then remember to point at the screen, find the pointer, and then move it to the characters at the corners of the screen. Also, there are times the game takes control of the camera and usually does it poorly. Running down a corridor, it'd be really nice if I could see what I am running towards as opposed to making it a side-scroller at a diagonal.
Now that's all the things I have found in a short amount of time playing, without finishing the game. Also there were great things. Deadpool breaks the fourth wall all the time. Almost every single line he says is something that breaks the fourth wall. For example, when he is taking out enemies, he talks about how you are button mashing. When he is leveling up, he talks about the experience points. When you start missing with his guns, he recommends replaying the level so you know where the enemies are. When he uses a fusion, he mentions how they are so cool that fusion should have been in the name of the game (MUA2 was originally Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Fusion).Speaking of fusions, while I miss X-Treme attacks (just being able to do an awesome attack by yourself), fusions are amazing. I wouldn't have beaten Multiple Man without Spidey webbing up dupes and Deadpool blowing them all up.
As I get farther into the game, I'm sure there's more and more that will both irk and awe me.

Movies!!!

2009-09-18T00:00:00.001-04:00

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy did a great job last year, with using Iron Man, Hellboy, Hulk and Batman in his videos comparing their movies. Iron Man came out pretty early, and TDK came out pretty late, so he had material the entire summer, as he had a lot of movies, with a lot of material. This year, the only two superhero movies were Watchmen, which came out in early March and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which came out in early May. While he was able to do a lot of videos in between then, after Wolverine came out, then died in the box office, he had no more superheroes to do anything with. So, he made do, and had Spider-Man dream of the Marvel/DC crew being in Star Trek, basically making an amalgam of the trailers, along with his own twist. So, when in the trailer, Pike tells Kirk he couldn't believe it when the bartender told him Kirk's name, in IJSRG's version, Superman (Pike) tells Peter Parker (Kirk) the same thing, with the bartender then saying, "Dude, that's Peter Parker," and Superman responding with, "I can't believe it." After Star Trek, he decided to do more, as he had nothing else to do. So, he did Terminator: Salvation, and then did some more with the Hangover, Up, Drag Me to Hell, The Proposal, Transformers, Inglourious Basterds, District 9 and GI Joe. Why am I so in love with these? Well, after using Deadpool in a Watchmen/X-Men Origins: Wolverine parody, he used him more and more, with him in every single one of the trailers above except Drag Me to Hell and District 9 (well, Transformers and GI Joe were both Spidey complaining about how Marvel no longer owns the rights to them now that they are doing well in theaters, and not actually parodies). Thus, my love for them. If you want to relive the summer movie season or just missed it, then I recommend these parodies of the trailers. Plus, he's done some other good Deadpool stuff, so check out the Deadpool/Watchmen video, the cast vs cast of X-Men/Watchmen, the Disney-Marvel video and the Green Lantern-Deadpool video for some more good Deadpool videos.

Planet Hulk

2009-09-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

February 2010 is bringing Planet Hulk to DVD and Blu Ray, in an animated movie. While Planet Hulk is an amazing story and one of my favorite stories in comics, this feels wrong for a few reasons.

First, the Illuminati and why he is sent away. So, in the comics, what happened was that Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange and Black Bolt decided to send Hulk to another planet. After fighting the FF in Vegas, Maria Hill asked Stark why he didn't do anything. A SHIELD agent asked her when Spider-Man could be blamed for the Green Goblin's crimes, after Spidey beats him up, then leaves him in jail where he breaks out, then kills more people, and Spidey beats him up, etc. Iron Man decided it would be a good idea to send Hulk away to a planet where there was no sentient life, and he could finally be left alone and not hurt anyone. Iron Man wanted a choice that large, though, to be discussed, so he brought it up with the Illuminati, minus Professor X, who was in space at the time. Namor was the main one opposed, but the rest agreed that they should send Hulk into space. So, they tricked Bruce Banner into going into space to stop a rogue satellite, then told him what they were doing and sent him away. By going crazy, and smashing the equipment, the ship went off course and landed on Sakaar. In the trailer, which is at the end, you can see Iron Man and Dr. Strange clearly, but not the other two. One looks like it could be Mr. Fantastic, but I'm not fully sure, and the other is impossible to determine. Plus, as opposed to just being on board, they apparently locked him up on there.

Second, his allies. First, let's start with Korg. Korg is a tribute to Lee and Kirby, by bringing back the stone guys Thor fought in his first appearance. In Journey Into Mystery 83, Donald Blake was on vacation, saw an alien ship, hid in a cave, and found a stick. By striking the stick against a boulder blocking the entrance to the cave, he was turned into Thor, who easily lifted the boulder, and tossed it away. Then, he fought the aliens, who retreated when they fought Thor, thinking all humans to be like him. Korg is one of them. There was an issue, where they went over their origins, and Korg, as a young rockling, was included in the invasion. How will that be referenced, or will it be? Second, we've got No-Name. No-Name (which isn't actually a name, as much as it is a reference that the Brood drones don't really have names) was on the Brood homeworld when it blew up, but being encased in some crystal thingy, survived, along with some of his brethren. Her brethren died in the initial fight, but she went on to fight with Hulk. Okay, so in this, is the Brood going to even mention humans, and having fought the X-Men. Are they just not going to be brought up? How are they explaining how No-Name got there? From looking at the trailer, it looks like No-Name isn't even there, but Arch-E is instead. Sigh... Then, we've got the Silver Surfer. I'm sorry, the Silver Savage. The end of the first arc of Planet Hulk ends with Hulk and the gladiators going up against Silver Surfer, known to Sakaar as the Silver Savage. After Hulk pounds him hard enough, the obedience disk on Surfer is broken and he is able to use the Power Cosmic to free the rest of the slaves in the arena. Because of that, Hulk becomes free and goes on to do things. Is Surfer going to be in this, which would be amazing, or are they going to skip that and give some other explanation as to how they break free?

Third, the length. So, Planet Hulk was a year's worth of issues long, just as a stand-alone story, disregarding all the continuity beforehand. It was broken up into 4 parts, 3 4-part stories and a 2-part finale. In other words, it is long. Think of Watchmen, which was 12 issues. Sure, Watchmen in arguably deeper, and requires more time, as its issues are deeper, blah, blah, blah. Planet Hulk is a long story that has a lot to cover, and to force it into a film could be bad. Breaking each part (except the 2-part which can be included in the 3rd section) into its own hour long movie could work. Otherwise, I think it would be 2.5+ hours to tell the story well.

Fourth, the ending. At the end of Planet Hulk, after he is made the king of Sakaar, the ship he crashed into Sakaar in gets displayed in the main city as a tribute to Hulk, but when the warp drive gets compromised, the ship explodes, damaging the already weak planet (which Hulk had to shift the tectonic plates back together by force), and killing all the people in the capital city, including his wife, Caiera, and his unborn son. He is upset about the situation, and wants to just sit there and die, but his Warbound convince him to take his fight to Earth to fight the Illuminati who sent him there and who put the ship, with the exploding warp drive, on the planet. This leads directly into World War Hulk. In the movie, they can do it like in the comic, leading into a World War Hulk movie also, or they can ignore it and do...what? Does he just stay there as the leader forever and ever? I mean, sure, it works as the movie in that they don't need to make more in the series, so having him lead a planet peacefully works better in a one-shot, but still...

Fifth, continuity in general. Okay, this isn't specifically about Planet Hulk, but about comic book movies that try to take a certain storyline into account. Something that the comics have that the movies don't is lots of continuity behind them. Unless you start all the way at the beginning, a movie about a specific storyline is going to be missing out on something. Even then, in a shared universe, you need to take every comic in that shared universe into account. For example, if a character crosses over from another comic, you probably don't have to do the whole origin and motivation and powers for that character in the comic, but if all you have is the single story, well, let me put it this way. If you want to do the first arc of New Avengers as a movie, you'd have to take Avengers Disassembled into account. Also, you have Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage and Sentry to take into account. Oh, and all the villains from the Raft, along with Daredevil, along with SHIELD. If you did it exactly as the comic, then so much would be confusing to people who hadn't read comics.

Okay, aside from that, I think it can be cool. There isn't a lot of continuity to take into account, despite a lot of what is written above, and you can easily just explain things in different ways. The sending him away doesn't need to go into depth. Korg's origin doesn't need to be explained as much. No-Name can be replaced with someone else. As long as it keeps the general idea and feel for the original, I think Planet Hulk can be amazing. Anyway, here is the trailer.

Star Wars Battlefront II

2009-09-14T17:00:00.001-04:00

I have to admit, I wasn't fully right about FPS's. Before Team Fortress 2, I had only played the Metroid Prime series, which is more a First Person Adventure game, where you happen to also shoot things, rather than specifically a First Person Shooter, and a few multiplayer games against people who really knew how to play on consoles, where I wasn't really interested in the first place. Halo and CoD didn't really interest me all that much. I was able to watch people play FPS's, including some who really liked playing them, so it wasn't that I was just completely ignorant. Mostly, I just didn't see the point. Then, along came Team Fortress 2. I've talked about TF2 before, but basically, it is a simple multiplayer FPS that is incredibly cartoony. It also is hilarious and on a weekend, TF2 went on sale for $10. I wasn't really that interested at first, but looked into it a little, discovered the "Meet the " videos, and fell in love with the game. Trying to be more instinctive than usual, I got the game and installed it. It turned out it was really fun. Unfortunately, over the summer, I wasn't able to play much, mostly because I had a lot of work, and then after work, no really good place to put my computer to play. The main point though is that I finally bought an FPS and really enjoyed it.

This year at school, my suitemate got Star Wars Battlefront II, a Star Wars FPS, where you can be with one of four teams, the CIS (droids), the Galactic Republic (the clones), the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Each has regular units, that use rifles and pistols, heavy troopers, who use rocket launchers and pistols, snipers, who use sniper rifles and pistols, and engineers, who use shotguns and welding tools that allow them to put up turrets, fix vehicles or break into enemy vehicles. Each team also has two special units that are unique to that team. The Rebels for example have Bothan Spies and Wookie Soldiers, whereas the CIS has Droidekas and MagnaGuards. Each team also has heroes that are units that instead of having health, have time, where they don't die, but instead just run out of time to help you and leave (therefore Yoda doesn't die helping the Wookies on Kashyyyk. For space battles, there are also regular pilots that can fix their ship in flight (which is handy, as you can just fly away to fix your ship), and troopers that are meant for landing parties, with better weapons for fighting and blowing up equipment in person.

The first person campaign follows the 501st, the elite group of troopers that became Vader's fist, his personal stormtroopers. It starts out with them as Clone Troopers, serving the Galactic Republic against the Trade Federation during the Clone Wars. After the war, they help the Galactic Empire build and help fight against the Rebels (along with squashing a few Clones and droids that were anti-Empire). In the campaign, you have a limited number of troopers to help you finish a certain objective. If you ever run out, you lose. The enemy has an unlimited amount of guys (lots of fun, let me tell you), but can only win if they kill all of you. You get more guys after completing each objective, and once you complete all of them, you beat the mission. It allows you to see the Star Wars universe from the perspective of grunts, which is interesting. For example, you see them take on CIS droids in space after Palpatine was kidnapped, as they stall for Anakin and Obi Wan to get there. Also, you see them and their feelings when the Rebellion blows up the Death Star (they killed lots of my friends and are anarchistic nutjobs) and when they take Hoth (the Rebellion is pretty much finished, only a couple of ships got away).

You can also do instant actions which take place on a specific planet and you and the enemy fight it out. In Conquest, you get equal amounts of troopers and you fight for Command Posts. If you ever capture all the Posts and hold them for 20 seconds you win the game. If you kill all the enemies, you also win the game. Also, the AI is horrible, and you do feel like a main character, the way you go around killing so many people, but usually, the teams remain balanced, as the enemy AI is just apparently better than your team's, as you can get 50 kills (out of 150) and still lose badly. There is also Capture the Flag, which is what it sounds like. A favorite is Hunt, where you choose a planet where natives are (Endor has Ewoks, Hoth has Wampas, Tatooine has Jawas, etc.) and an enemy (the Empire against Ewoks) and see who can win. I have to say, killing Gungans over and over is incredibly satisfying. Also there is Assault, which takes place in Mos Eisley, where you count to 180 points, as you go around as heroes or villains, killing each other with lightsabers (or guns in the case of the Fetts, Chewie, Han Solo or Leia). I have to say that General Grievous is pre-Episode III Grievous, with 4 lightsabers that all do the same amount a single would. So, if you go up against, say, Obi Wan, Ki Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura and Yoda, if you are just swinging all your lightsabers (which is just mashing the first mouse button), you can take them all out. In Space Assault, you are trying to see who can get to 180 points first, where you can get points by killing enemies, blowing up ships and taking out key components on the enemy ships (like engines, bridge, sensor relay, life support). Different things are worth different amounts of points, so while in the same time you could blow up some fighters, you could also destroy the engines, the engines might get you more points all in all.

There is also Conquest mode, in which you choose a side and face your rival, conquering planets. You start with only a few planets where your enemy starts with many more. You also get a fleet, and some credits. Every turn, you can buy bonuses or units (you only start with the basic trooper) with your credits, you can construct a fleet (which costs 1000 for each fleet you own, and only over a planet you control), and then you move. If you move into contact with an opposing fleet, you have a space battle with that fleet. If you are over a planet that you don't own, then you assault the planet with what is your typical instant action, and you fight it out over the Command Posts. If you are over an enemy planet and a fleet is over it, you have a space battle to determine if you have a regular battle. After winning a battle, you get credits, which you can spend at the beginning of your next turn. You also get credits, less credits, but whatever, when you lose. You win if you capture all the planets, which is difficult, as it requires not only winning on every planet you didn't get to begin with, but also fending off attacks, and losing means even more fighting.

Now, what makes Star Wars Battlefront II fun to play? Well, I haven't even fought against any of my friends in multiplayer yet, but I still enjoy just blowing up guys. I enjoy killing Rebels as Stormtroopers, and using droids to kill clones. Plus, it actually is challenging. While it doesn't seem challenging in the sense that you can easily get 10+ kills per life, it is challenging in the sense that the enemy AI is often better than your AI. If you sit somewhere and do nothing the entire time, your team will most likely lose, not just because your team is down one guy in fights, but because the team in general isn't as good. While not all places are as fun to fight for (stupid Yavin 4 and the team starting in the back at Polis Massa), in general, it is a lot of fun to go around the Star Wars universe, shooting Rebels, Stormtroopers, Clone Troopers or Battle Droids. It's also fun to get into an X-Wing and start shooting down TIE Fighters, or getting into a TIE Bomber and bombing Mon Calamari ships. The thing that makes the game most fun for me is the atmosphere. It really feels like you are a trooper in the Star Wars universe, visiting locations like Mustafar, the Death Star, Coruscant, or the Tantive IV. The game is also incredibly balanced, in the sense that no one group is better than any other. In general, you all have the same type of troopers (with the generic Super Battle Droid being the biggest in difference with a mini-rocket launcher as opposed to a grenade), that can do the same things. The heroes are all vastly overpowered (but not used often), but that isn't surprising. The game is fun for Star Wars fans who like thinking about the generic troopers and their battles, or for people who like having big battles in FPS form.

Samurai Champloo

2009-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Starting fairly recently, I've started to watch anime. Most of the ones I watch, though, are the subtitled ones, both because I like getting the original language and actors and because I don't mind reading. Plus, it's gotten to the point where I am actually able to recognize certain words or phrases that I can pick out at any given time. Sure, I've seen different Miyazaki movies as released by Disney (aka with dubbing by American actors and actresses) and seen NGE in dubs, but for the most part I'd prefer to watch the subtitles. With Samurai Champloo, I actually wanted to watch the dub, mostly because I liked Steven Blum's voice in Hulk vs. Wolverine, and he voices Mugen in Samurai Champloo. Funimation has, on their site, a lot of different episodes of a lot of different anime, including the entire Samurai Champloo series (26 episodes, a simple, small series), which I started watching, and am now almost done with.

Basically, it is set in the Edo period in Japan, although in an alternative version of the period, which has a lot of changes, such as hip hop. For some reason, there is hip hop and breakdancing in the show. The basic plot is this: Jin and Mugen are two expert swordfighters who fight, succumb to the smoke of the burning building they're in, then get freed by Fuu, a waitress who wants their help to find a samurai who smells of sunflowers. Jin has a very traditional fighting style and is very calm and relaxed, wearing glasses, and just does everything as politely and traditionally as possible, whereas Mugen is very untraditional, incorporating lots of things into his style, including swordfighting, breakdancing, and other people's moves, and is very rash and just wants to fight everyone he can. The general plot of the series is them looking for the samurai who smells of sunflowers, but that usually plays only a minor role in the stories. While the main reason they go to the places is to search for leads on the SWSoS, the stories themselves are standalone. You could watch pretty much any episode, and not be lost, except for the various two part episodes, of which there aren't many. It doesn't really take itself seriously, which is good, as it is a ridiculous show with lots of silliness involved. Basically, Jin and Mugen are ridiculously good swordfighters who are better than almost everybody else in the show (except for maybe like two people). In one-on-one combat, neither is often defeated, but they sometimes get overpowered by sheer force and strength in numbers, or being tricked or ambushed. The show mostly is amusing, and fun to watch. Being only 26 episodes long, if you want, you could spend a weekend watching the entire show, or just watch as you want and still would be fun.

War of Kings

2009-08-16T16:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so War of Kings had issue 6 come out last week, which means that the series is over. Well, it is supposed to be. Let me just go off about War of Kings for a sec here.

War of Kings suffered from the same problems that Annihilation: Conquest suffered, just on a greater scale. You see, how this Cosmic Marvel stuff had a resurgence was from Annihilation, one of the best storylines to come out recently. Annihilation took characters that had been doing nothing, who were all Cosmic Marvel characters, and made a giant epic war. It was self-contained in a Drax miniseries which lead to the Annihilation prologue, which was followed by 4 4-issue miniseries, featuring Silver Surfer, Nova, Ronan and Super-Skrull. Then, there was the Annihilation event, followed by two Heralds of Galactus issues after. The only parts that had any reference to then-current Marvel was Nova, who basically just flew into space before Civil War. Other than that, all characters who weren't doing anything else. They made Nova big and important and they made Cosmic Marvel interesting and brought it back. Unfortunately, they then tried to capitalize on the success of Annihilation with Annihilation: Conquest, which, while good, suffered from continuity issues to an extent, and from trying too hard. Now, I'm not saying it was bad, just that it was awkward. See, at that point, they had to take into account Nova's ongoing series, along with what was happening in Mighty Avengers (considering Ultron, the main villain, was just in Mighty Avengers), both things that made it feel more awkward. See, with an ongoing series, the character is much less likely to die or just vanish. Yes, I know, Captain America, but other than that, it really doesn't happen much. So, Nova's fate wasn't really up in the air as much as it could have been. If Nova hadn't had an ongoing series, he could have died, been fully transformed by the Transmode virus, or any number of other things. With his series, you're pretty sure he's going to come out of it alive and as himself. When they took Ulton into their story, well, it's kind of funny that all these cosmic beings couldn't really stand up to Ultron when characters like Ant-Man and Black Widow did just fine. Sigh... Oh, and when you look at what went into Annihilation: Conquest, there was a prologue, 4 4-part stories (3 mini-series and 4 issues of Nova) and a 6-part story. So, basically, the same format without the mini-series beforehand, and the two issues after, but, while the main series was happening, Nova was off doing other things, which had something to do with the story, basically, with Nova fighting off the Transmode virus, while being hunted by Drax and Gamora, two who had been infected, searching for a way to get rid of it, coming accross Warlock, who then helps in Annihilation: Conquest (meaning that the technically not tie-ins are actually tie-ins).

War of Kings is much more full of continuity that drags it down, and feels forced a lot of the time. With Annihilation, Nova became more powerful and got his own series, in which he did a lot. Now, Nova is an important character. With War of Kings, they are trying to do the same thing with Darkhawk. Now, it isn't that I dislike Darkhawk, I mean, I probably have 1/2 to 2/3 of his series. It just is that with Nova, he grew into it and it felt natural, with his being a big part of the prologue, but not the entire thing, with his mini-series, which was one of 4 mini-series, and with his leading the forces in Annihilation, his eventual series seemed natural. With Darkhawk, they gave him a lot that had nothing to do with the main plot. Plus, his series runs alongside, which makes sense in the story, but is not as important to the story. War of Kings also fails, when you take all the players into account. We have the Shi'ar on one side, with the story of how Vulcan came into power being important and having the entire X-Men: Deadly Genesis, which leads into The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire, which leads into Emperor Vulcan, which leads into X-Men: Kingbreaker, which leads into War of Kings. There is a lot of backstory to cover. Sure, not knowing any of that, you can still understand a lot of it, but it really helps to understand Vulcan. For the Kree, well, I guess if you start with Silent War, some parts of World War Hulk, with the Illuminati, then Secret Invasion, leading into War of Kings. You'd probably want to have read the Secret Invasion stuff, for which you'd want to have read the other stuff. Besides just both sides having lots of backstory that affects it, there is also all the other characters involved. Now, the Starjammers were dealing with Vulcan, so they are covered, and the Guardians of the Galaxy also are involved. Plus, Nova's series is involved, and with Darkhawk also, it just is really awkward. Plus, I hate how the end isn't even an end. It is an abrupt stop, so sure it ends, but there is so much to cover still. Sure, there will be aftermath issues, but dear Deadpool, that is just silly! Now, I have to admit that I really wanted to like War of Kings, and it wasn't horrible. But, and this is a big but, it wasn't really all that good. Darkhawk was forced, you needed to know a lot that made it awkward, all of these different characters being involved needed multiple tie-ins that didn't help. I guess it felt more like a generic cross-over, and less like the Cosmic Marvel crossovers that were Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest.

Magic 2010

2009-07-28T01:07:00.002-04:00

Well, first off, let me start with this: Magic 2010 should never have been made.

Magic 2010 brings back a card that I use, but don't think should be back, Lightning Bolt. Okay, here is my opinion on Lightning Bolt. The designers of Magic: The Gathering made Lightning Bolt, and then realized that it was too powerful, not so much so that it needed to be banned, but enough that they needed to get rid of it in Standard. So, while they had never banned Lightning Bolt, they didn't want it around, and thus created Shock, a card that is strictly worse than Lightning Bolt. For the exact same cost, you do 2 damage instead of 3. Still, Shock is a really good card, so much so that it was used in lots of decks and reprinted in core set after core set. There was literally no reason to bring Lightning Bolt back. Absolutely none. They had let it die before, and now they brought it back. Since the last time Shock was printed was in 10th, with 2010, Lightning Bolt is in Standard, where Shock isn't.

Magic 2010 brings back a concept that was used in the few Portal sets, making a card that does the exact same thing as something else, but has a different name so that you can then have more than 4 of that card in any given deck. Now, most people will recognize cards like Grizzly Bears or Remove Soul, which are commons that appeared in core sets. Grizzly Bears is a 1G creature that has 2 power and 2 toughness, with the creature type "Bear". Remove Soul is a 1U instant that reads "Counter target creature spell." Now, both are not game breaking, but both are very simple and straightforward, and good in any generic green or blue deck. With 2010, we got Runeclaw Bear, which is a 1G creature with 2 power and 2 toughness with the creature type "Bear" and Essence Scatter, which is a 1U instant that reads "Counter target creature spell." To me, who started around the time 7th edition came out, and even stopped before Mirrodin and got back in Ravnica, Grizzly Bears and Remove Soul were cards I knew and recognized and was fine with. I just didn't realize that they were also cards that were remakes of other cards. Grizzly Bears also has counterparts named Bear Cub, Balduivan Bears and Forest Bear, that all are the exact same card as Grizzly Bears, with a different name. Remove Soul also has counterparts named False Summoning and Preemptive Strike, that are all the exact same card as Remove Soul with a different name. So, while at first, I was just horrified at them creating more of that same card, I realize that it was something that was done before, and doing it now is just silly, and maybe allows reminiscing (and the best deck ever, which people I know will soon have to face, mwa, ha, ha, ha!)

They also brought the concept of making something better, with cards like Warpath Ghoul. See, in prior core sets, there was a card named Scathe Zombies, which is a 2B Zombie, with 2 power and 2 toughness. The card has been in every core set, starting with Alpha (being in Beta, Unlimited, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th), all with the exact same flavor text even. Warpath Ghoul is a 2B Zombie with 3 power and 2 toughness. The card costs exactly the same, with the exact same effect, except 1 more power, which makes it better. Warrior's Honor was a remake of other cards (like Remove Soul was), specifically, Virtuous Charge and Warrior's Charge, which are all 2W Instants with "Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn." There was, in Mirrodin, before they had printed 10th, a card called Roar of the Kha, which was a 1W Instant that was "Choose one - Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn; or untap all creatures you control. Entwine 1W (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost)." Even without the entwine, it is outright better, as it is cheaper for the same effect, but with the entwine, it is outright better. Why they reprinted Warrior's Honor is beyond me, but they didn't in 2010, replacing it with Glorious Charge, a 1W Instant that does everything Warrior's Honor did, except for 1 mana less.

This just brings me to the part that I hate the most (well, aside from Lightning Bolt). The rules changes that were made were just annoying to me. Let's go over them:
1) Simultaneous Mulligans - No reason to exist, as mentioned in the article, most people did that anyway. Doesn't change much.
2) Terminology Changes - Again, pointless, and only a few cards actually are affected.
2A) Battlefield - Annoying, as it is a longer, clunkier word, that doesn't help me (although could help others, maybe?)
2B) Cast, Play, Activate - Meh. I'm fine with play. Sure, I guess it helps some people could get a benefit between playing and casting, but honestly, not worth it.
2C) Exile - Again, annoying. I am used to "remove from the game" as it is just a term used. Exile just feels weird to use as a term. Oh, and while it affects almost nothing the wish cards (that could get cards from outside the game) can no longer get exiled cards, as they are no longer outside the game.
2D) Beginning of the End Step - The only one I am okay with. I understand end of turn, and was even able to explain it to my mother (who doesn't play M:TG) such that she gets the basics of it. Still, it is a confusing concept (where things that trigger at end of turn trigger before the turn actually ends).
3) Mana Pools and Mana Burn
3A) Mana Pools Emptying - Not something I really care about, but it can be annoying, if you have effects that add mana and you have to use it before points in time that you normally wouldn't.
3B) Mana Burn Eliminated - Annoying. While I don't like mana burning myself, I appreicate that the concept exists. So, when my friend uses his Elves and adds 14 mana to his mana pool with one card, he had to spend it all or take damage. Makes sense to me. Well, now it just doesn't matter. So, with my Naya deck, that gets too much mana occasionally, it doesn't matter, and I can let it go to waste, as opposed to getting guys like Spearbreaker Behemoth or Beacon Behemoth that have a 1 colorless ability that can be used any number of times.
4) Token Ownership - It actually makes sense, but for most of the time, will do nothing, but when it does, helps stop silliness. I approve.
5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack - Dear God, this is complicated. Their explanation is 6.5 pages long (sure pictures are involved, but still), for crying out loud! Now, I get where they are coming from, design-wise. It doesn't make sense that a guy throws a punch, vanishes, then the punch hits somebody, in terms of the story of games. Now, it does affect certain things, such as that I now have to try to kill as many things as possible (before, if you didn't want to, you didn't have to, provided that there was enough toughness, aka, you can spend your damage however you want to, putting it all on a guy who just got protection from your creature, because you don't want anything to enter the graveyard, or something), and now Mogg Fanatic (and other such cards) are much worse off. Honestly, it is just annoying, and I don't like it.
6) Deathtouch - Yes, it is simpler now that it is state-based. But, now it is also more annoying, as you can't get hit with deathtouch and then respond, you have to respond before. Not much changes, but annoying.
7) Lifelink - Sigh. Yes, it can now save your life in a game, as it is state-based, and so when you take the damage, you gain it at exactly the same time, still, I miss having multiple lifelinks, like with Battlegrace Angel. Now, I might take some out of my Bant deck, because I only need a couple in there, because I only need one now, and the others are just expensive Exalted creatures.

In short, I hate Magic 2010 because it has done stupid things. Sigh...

San Francisco

2009-07-01T10:34:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was amazing. Okay, so I grew up living in San Francisco, and never felt the need for a driver's license, considering how I could use public transportation to get where I needed in the city. When I went to college in Troy, NY, well, let's just say that the public transportation there is not dependable. You want examples? Fine.

When my friends and I went to see Iron Man last year, we decided to take public transportation to get from RPI to the Latham Crossgates Mall. When we looked at the bus schedule, we saw there was one that would leave at 10:10 AM and every 55 minutes. We thought, "Okay, we can catch the 10:10 bus and get to the mall around 11:20 AM, so that we can have some lunch, see the movie, and get back to Troy well before 5 PM, so that I could get to the one comic store in Troy before it closed, so I could get my free comic books for Free Comic Book Day. Well, we got to the bus stop before 10 AM, and then left the busstop around 11:05 AM, when the bus that was after the one we wanted took off. We eventually got to the mall, and were able to see Iron Man, have my friend buy a video game he wanted (after way too much hassle at Best Buy where he couldn't and it ended up being stupid, so we had to at GameStop or EB Games, I can't remember which), then headed back to take a bus back to Troy. We were ready to go at around 3:00, and got to the busstop at the mall, and at around 1 hour later, a bus came and we were able to get back to Troy. I was able to get my comics, although I got there 5 minutes late. The people at Aquilonia were nice enough to let me in and get what free comics I wanted, although the All Star Superman was gone, and it was basically just the things people weren't quite as interested in.

So, aside from running only every hour, which is a long time in between buses, they didn't even run that often, and ended up running every 2 hours or so. If we had a car at that point, it would have taken 20-30 minutes max to get to the mall. Instead it took us a couple hours in each direction, including the waiting. So, while there is public transporation in the Albany area, basically, it sucks horribly.

Yesterday was my first day off in 6 days, so I could have a break before having to go to work for 4 more days straight. I had gotten my first paycheck, but hadn't been able to deposit it, considering that the bank I go to has two branches in San Francisco, one downtown, and one on the other side of Golden Gate Park, about 20 blocks from where I live. Neither one would be possible to get to before, during or after work, so I had to go yesterday, or wait until next Saturday, which would be the next non-Sunday I have off, which would also mean I'd be depositing two checks, as my next one would be there. I also wanted to get Magic: The Gathering cards, commons, for the '07 Pauper tournament that was later that day. Basically, the Ravnica and Time Spiral blocks, along with 10th edition and Coldsnap were legal for play, but only the commons from those sets. I had designed a deck that I needed a few more cards for. I then needed to get to Gamescape, where I would play against friends, and then be in the tournament. So, I took the 44 from near my house through Golden Gate Park to 9th and Lincoln. From there, I was able to catch the 71 and take it down to 23rd and Irving, walk to 24th and Irving to deposit my check, then walk back to 22nd and Irving to catch the 71 going the other direction to 19th and Lincoln. From there, the 28 took me through the park to Park Presidio and Geary, where I took the 38 to 17th and Geary so I could get to Cards and Comics Central, in between 18th and 19th on Geary. I bought the commons I needed, then went down to 19th and California, where I took the 1 down to Divisadero, where I walked to the Cheesesteak shop to get some steak fries. From there, I took the 24 to Oak, where I walked half a block to Gamescape. Total amount of time taken, including the stopping for depositing, buying cards, buying steak fries, walking to and from stops and waiting around for the bus to show up? Under 2 hours. Sure, it took me a couple hours to get from my first destination to my last, but I had three separate stops that were not near each other, and I had to pick up a bus 7 times. Still, I was easily able to make it to my destination in under the amount of time it took me to get from one point in Troy to one point in Latham from one bus that would normally be well under 20 minutes in a car. The public transportation system in this city is amazing, and I love living here in San Francisco. If I want to get from Point A to Point B, it is amazingly simple, and easy, and even if it takes multiple buses, I should get there fairly quickly.

Kick-Ass

2009-06-25T14:50:00.002-04:00

So, something silly that I just love is that the movie, Kick-Ass, that is supposedly coming out sometime later this year, is coming out when the first arc in the comic isn't even over yet. Now, I love Kick-Ass and think it is an amazing comic. Sure, it isn't subtle, just like everything else Millar does, but that doesn't mean it is bad. Hitting you across the face like a ton of bricks is good for what he is doing. Having a subtle story wouldn't work nearly as well. Hopefully, Kick-Ass will finish its first arc before the movie comes out and that the story will end with a nice finish with bloodshed and people getting brutally eviscerated. Mmm, evisceration...

And hopefully, the movie will live up to the comic in both fun and brutality, so that there is a nice, bloody comic movie that isn't Blade.

Terrorism

2009-06-12T10:20:00.003-04:00

Ha, a new post so soon after saying I wouldn't be doing many more posts this summer. Still, this is something that has been really annoying.

Looking up the word "terrorism", the first definition that popped up was:

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

Okay, so that seems simple enough, right? Now, I don't like getting political, but I think I'm going to have to. No matter how you feel about abortion, I think you should believe it is wrong that Dr. George Tiller was murdered a short time ago. He provided late abortions, and was one of three doctors in the US who did, and for what he did, was shot by a radical anti-abortion agent. Now, whatever my personal beliefs about abortion, I believe murder, for any cause, is wrong. If I believed that Tiller was murdering babies (which I don't), that would be wrong, but it doesn't make it right to kill him. Especially since the law is on his side. Now, let's look at that word again: terrorism. Since September 11, 2001, there has been a lot of talk about terrorism. The radical Al Qaeda members and other groups from the Middle East have tried to intimidate the US and the West in general, in order to further their own agendas. The current look of "terrorist" in our minds is a robed, turban-wearing, Arabic man, with a beard, who uses suicide bombs to kill innocent people in order to get into heaven and have lots of virgins waiting. But, that isn't the only terrorist around. There are also home-grown terrorists. The radical anti-abortion people used violence in this case, and lots of threats in others, to intimidate and coerce the pro-choice movement into stopping giving abortions to women who do not want to have children. Very simply, what they are doing is terrorism. They are terrorizing the men and women who, obeying the law, have been providing their services in performing abortions. Basically, the radical anti-abortion movement are terrorists, in using threats and violence to get their way and terrorizing people who have different beliefs. Whether or not you believe that abortion is wrong or right, at least try and see that murder and terrorism aren't the best way to get what you want.

Summer

2009-06-11T03:58:00.002-04:00

Summer updates are horrible with me, and I know this. Partly, it comes from me just not being at my computer as much, and also, it comes from just doing other things, because I have more time. Plus, with friends, I can discuss my feelings with them, and I'm not as obligated to go to the internet to share my thoughts. Plus, I now have a job, which will take a lot of my time, so over the summer, don't expect much. There might be some stuff, but definitely not on a regular basis, at any rate. I still am picking up every Deadpool issue that comes out, and I have to say that Deadpool 11 was awesome.

Garfunkel and Oates

2009-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my dad watching "Sex With Ducks", a song by Garfunkel and Oates, I've been introduced to the duo and they are amazing. They are a folk-comedy duo, singing ridiculously funny songs. Now, be warned, they do have swearing in their songs, so if that offends you, I wouldn't recommend listening to them. Below is the short film "Imaginary Larry" which stars Garfunkel and Oates. It has some songs in it, and it is kind of weird.

Larry from Erika Lindhome on Vimeo.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-17T17:19:00.002-04:00

Okay, so my Deadpool review came right after seeing the movie, but I decided that I am going to also just talk about the movie, in a non-specifically Deadpool format.

Well, first off, I want to say that the ads are very confusing. There have been a lot of trailers and TV spots and lots of hype and it confuses. First, I saw one and it looks like the entire movie is going to be about him growing up, finishing with Weapon X, just based off of the teaser. Then there is one, where it looks like it is about Weapon X hunting him down for the entire movie. Well, basically, it is like this: Little James Howlett growing up, learning he has bone claws, accidentally killing his father, then running away before being joined by Sabretooth, who tells him that brothers (of which they are in this) have to do. Then, there is an amazing opening montage of Victor and James going through wars in history, fighting in them. At the end, Victor and James are tried and executed for killing a commanding officer. Stryker visits them to let them know he can help them out and get them out of there. They join Team X with Agent Zero, Blob, Bolt, Wade Wilson, and Kestrel. In Africa, they are looking for a chunk of metal, and end up almost killing innocent people, before James steps in and demands they stop. Then, 6 years later, James is enjoying life in the Canadian wilderness with Silver Fox, when people from Team X start dying. Sabretooth then kills Silver Fox, enraging Wolverine who goes after Sabretooth only to lose. Stryker tells James he can improve him, and make him be able to defeat Sabretooth. They go to a lab, where James becomes Weapon X, the tenth of a line of weapons, where they coat his skeleton with the metal that was found in Africa, adamantium. After implanting the metal, almost killing James, he overhears Stryker saying to erase his memories, which enrages him and he escapes. He finds a nice old couple, who let him stay with them, and then the husband gives Wolverine his jacket. After Agent Zero snipes both of the couple, Wolverine fights off some soldiers sent after him, eventually killing Agent Zero from the helicopter that was chasing him. He then visits Kestrel who is running a boxing ring/gym? where he is getting Blob back in shape. After fighting Blob, Wolverine learns of the island where Stryker and Sabretooth have been taking all the mutant kids, and that only one person, Remy LeBeau aka Gambit, has escaped, going back to New Orleans. Wolverine and Kestrel go to ask Gambit where the island is, and as Kestrel guards the back, Sabretooth shows up, killing him. Gambit sees Wolverine's dog tags, and thinking he is with Sabretooth and Stryker, knocks him through a wall. Outside, Wolverine takes on Sabretooth, being victorious this time, only being knocked away by Gambit, who Wolverine defeats. Then, Gambit takes Wolverine to the island, where he learns that Silver Fox is alive and that it was all to get him to agree to the bonding process. He leaves, but returns when Sabretooth threatens Silver Fox. They fight again and Wolverine wins again. Then, Wolverine and Silver Fox free all the mutants that had been taken by Stryker, including Cyclops and Emma Frost (who is Silver Fox's sister), and on their way to escape, run into Weapon XI, who is Wade Wilson with Baraka-style adamanitum blades, teleportation, healing and optic blasts. As Wolverine loses to Weapon XI, Silver Fox takes the kids another way, where they get help from a telepathic voice. Sabretooth then joins Wolverine in fighting Weapon XI, since they are brothers, and together, they are able to win. Then, Gambit shows up again, and Wolverine sends him to check on the kids. Wolverine runs into Stryker, who shoots him with adamantium bullets, which apparently cause memory loss so severe his healing factor doesn't recvoer it. Gambit discovers the kids have gotten to a helicopter that Charles Xavier has waiting, and runs back to help Wolverine, who now has forgotten his past.

Well, what was wrong? (Alliteration FTW) Okay, so Silver Fox and Emma Frost are sisters? What? That makes no sense. Oh, and Cyclops at the very least met Sabretooth earlier, but probably others also, and then he forgets? When does Sabretooth forget Wolverine, because in X-Men, he doesn't seem to know Logan. The magic adamantium bullet thing was pretty stupid also. I'd have loved to see him not knowing anything from the beginning as opposed to him knowing the entire movie and forgetting at the end. Oh, and they are brothers? Really? Oy. Oh, so Victor is upset about Logan leaving him with Team X after Team X started becoming more nasty and less humane. Sure, you can see Victor getting more violent over the course of the montage, and then he gets more violent when he tries to rape the girl, and sure, killing random innocents would have been bad, but, seeing as they are brothers, Logan should have tried to get help for him. As opposed to abandoning his brother after 100+ years, he should have instead tried to get Victor to leave with him, maybe try and take him to a therapist or something. I totally understand why Victor would be pissed. I am disappointed that the Blob was just a superstrong/invulnerable guy as opposed to a guy who can make himself attached to the ground, who also happens to be really strong and invulnerable, also due to his body and bulk. Agent Zero? Okay, so Maverick isn't my favorite character of all time, but I have to say, I recognized Maverick throughout comics, and basically knew he was part of Weapon X with Wolverine and Sabretooth. I didn't quite make the connection between the Maverick-Chris Nord card and Maverick-Agent Zero card from VS, but recognized Agent Zero as a name. In the movie, Agent Zero (as the only name he is known by), basically has superhuman speed and accuracy and is very proficient with guns. In the comics, yeah, no. Little kid Wolverine and little kid Sabretooth were silly more than anything. See, you see a little kid trying to be angry and Victor Creed and it doesn't work. You see a little kid mourn his father (not actual father, but doesn't know at the time) and then pop little bone claws out of his hand, then roar and attack his father (actual one, but didn't know at the time). It was very silly. A little kid trying to berserker rage like Wolverine is more cute than terrifying or awesome.

Now, yes, Deadpool was fucked up in the movie, but surprisingly, it isn't my biggest complaint. My biggest is probably about Gambit. See, both Wade and Remy were kind of long cameos. As opposed to being important characters, they were just kind of side characters. Which can be okay. If they had only had the Wade Wilson stuff at the beginning, Deadpool fans would have beein incredibly happy. Sure, he didn't have cancer, or the costume, but was still awesome and hilarious. Instead, they stretched his appearance out so that he was Weapon XI. A horrible idea. With Gambit, a lot of ads have had Gambit because, well, Gambit is a popular character. Not one I like, but one who is popular. In the movie, Blob talks about Remy, and itis kind of cool. Then, in New Orleans, you see Remy, and it is neat, but when Gambit knocks Wolverine through a wall, what you are expecting is a Gambit/Wolverine fight. Instead, Wolverine sees Sabretooth and they fight. Remy walks out to attack and gets elbowed in the face. When Gambit finally attacks, the hype for him is gone. Instead, you are invested in the Wolverine/Sabretooth stuff. Then there is a small, but satisfying Gambit fight, but that would have worked better had it been earlier. I think if they had cut the Sabretooth fight there, and just had two in the base, it would have been better. Oh, and then Gambit flies Wolverine to the island, which makes him in it longer, but then Gambit starts to seem more important, which again, he isn't. At the very end, he saves Logan from falling debris, then as Logan tells him to watch after the kids, he runs after them, sees Professor X with them, smiles, then runs back to help Wolverine. It is pointless and makes Gambit less interesting. With just a smaller part, then fans would have gotten Gambit, and not have had to see him be lame and do nothing except run in circles for a long time. Fans who wanted Deadpool or Gambit got much more horrible returns for their investment.

Still, I enjoyed the movie. As with comic movies, as I've mentioned before, I just try to have fun. Sure, if the movie is amazing, I'll like it more, but I try and enjoy even if it's bad (I still enjoyed Spider-Man 3 while watching it).This movie, as noted above, has many flaws, but it is still an action movie, and it delivers. There are a good amount of fights and the fights are fun. Sure, the Sabretooth stuff gets a little dull (3 fights in the movie, really?) but is still entertaining. After the small intro with James and Victor as kids, you get the best part of the movie, the montage opening credits, followed by the Team X stuff. After Team X, it goes a little downhill, but is still enjoyable. I have to say that I enjoyed the Weapon XI fight, just because it was Wade Wilson kicking Wolverine's and Sabretooth's asses. That was enjoyable to see them having to team up to stand a chance. Sure, the character was done poorly, but at least he kicked ass. All in all, I did enjoy the movie, which is all I really ask for in a movie. Now, sure, for a story with Weapon X and Wolverine's origin, I recommend Hulk VS. Wolverine above X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Sure, you don't get him as a kid or going through wars, but you get the story fairly similar to the comics (and much more than the movie) with a good Deadpool, and no boring romance in an action movie. You have Weapon X, you have Wolverine, you have Deadpool and you have Sabretooth. Plus, you get awesome Hulk Vs. Wolverine fights with more blood than you'd expect from a cartoon. But, again, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was fun and I did enjoy it. Wade Wilson was amazing, and Wolverine had some nice fights. In the end, I don't really want much more.

Deadpool review #5

2009-05-14T00:00:00.001-04:00

Well, this isn't what I expected to do next, but since it isn't something I have right in front of me, I should probably talk about it while it is still fresh in my mind. So, here is my Deadpool review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Oh, and in case you were wondering, spoilers ahead, since this has to talk about Deadpool in the movie.

What you need to know: Nothing, really, since it is a stand-alone movie. It might be nice to have seen the previous three X-Men movies, but I don't think it is an absolute necessity.

The plot: Wolverine was growing up with his brother, Sabretooth, when they joined Team X. Logan left because they were going too far. Victor starts killing old members of the team 6 years later, as Wolverine has found love with Silver Fox. Silver Fox dies, and Wolverine needs to defeat Sabretooth, and thus has adamantium bonded to his bones. Then, as they want to wipe his memories, he breaks free, and looks for Sabretooth and Stryker, eventually learning that they are collecting mutants. Stryker is creating Weapon XI to kill mutants, and Wolverine frees all the kids being held captive before fighting Weapon XI, and Sabretooth helps Logan. Then, Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with magic bullets, making him lose his memory.

Deadpool's part: Wade Wilson is a part of the team Stryker assembles in the beginning, along with Wolverine, Sabretooth, Agent Zero, Blob, Bolt and Kestrel, and uses his swords to defend against many people shooting at him, and then deflecting bullets back at people and cutting bullets in half to hit multiple people on the other side of him (in what is incredibly bad-ass). Then, Sabretooth mentions him being dead to Bolt. Later, it is revealed that Wade is now Weapon XI, who has a whole bunch of mutant powers in him, designed to take out mutants. He fights Wolverine using his fighting ability, which is amazing still, the sword/claws that pop out of his hands, a healing factor that is ridiculously fast, teleportation and optic blasts, eventually also having to face Sabretooth as well, who wants to be the one to eventually kill Wolverine. As he is taking down Sabretooth, Wolverine is able to get behind him and chop his head off, and he falls into the top of the nuclear cooling tower. In one of the secret endings, his hand finds his head, which then has his eyes open, look directly at the camera, and he whispers "Shhh..." to the audience.

Humor involved: Wade talks about his relationship with his sword and that was funny, and then when trapped in the elevator, with Team X, has some good remarks. Given that he wasn't in a lot of it, he didn't have much to say, but what he did say was funny.

Worth seeing?: If you are a Deadpool fan, you should see this movie. Even if you have to leave halfway because the mere thought of Deadpool as Barakapool (as he has been dubbed by some) turns you away, Ryan Reynolds plays an amazing Wade Wilson. When seeing some of the stuff at The Deadpool Bugle, a concern people have with Deadpool is that writers don't make him bad-ass enough. Wade Wilson in the movie is bad-ass. In fact, I am going to say he is the most bad-ass character. Sure, Wolverine and Sabretooth fought in a lot of wars and did lots of crazy things, but, well, this is the Team X stuff. So, every member of Team X (except for Wolverine and Sabretooth) has to show off when they are introduced. In their mission, Agent Zero shoots a whole bunch of guys, throws his guns in the air to reload them, kills some more guys, shoots a guy with a turret gun that turns the turret as he goes down to shoot some more guys and is done. Blob punches a tank in the barrel, making it explode. When the elevator's power gets turned off, Bolt turns it back on. After Wade's stuff, Kestrel stops one of the bad guys from reaching for a gun and shooting Stryker in the face. What Wade does is, as soon as they get to the top floor where they know guys are waiting, is start busting out his swords, blocking the bullets with his swords. Then, he spins the swords around, moving forward into the room, and through spinning and amazing acrobatics and sword techniques, along with timing, is able to cut a bullet in half that is heading for him to make it hit two guys behind him, then deflect a bullet straight back into them, doing some spinning stuff in the air, and just generally looking cool. See, Agent Zero might have taken out more guys, but he was fighting long range with long range. Wade was fighting long range with short range, and making it look easy. Okay, the Barakapool stuff. Yes, it was not Deadpool, not at all. But, and I know this sounds surprising, I didn't think it was horrible. The thing that bothered me the most was the optic blasts. Everything else can be semi-explained. He has the healing, the claws are like swords, the teleportation is a much easier version of some of the gadgets he's had. The optic blasts make no sense. Now, something cool is that when he uses them, the area around his eyes gets darker, making a Deadpool like black diamonds around his eyes (he's had them be diamonds as opposed to ovals). That was kind of cool. Now, he still is bad-ass, like in the beginning with Team X. It takes both Wolverine and Sabretooth teaming up to win against him, and for a while, he was kicking both their asses at the same time (almost literally with the teleporting). He kind of becomes a one-trick pony at the end, though, fighting with only optic blasts. Now, to be fair, it fit in the movie. Stryker says Wade would be the perfect soldier if he shut up and at the end, Stryker sews his mouth shut and makes him an ultimate soldier. So, it fits in the movie. Plus, he was created as someone to fight Wolverine, not to be the Deadpool we know and love. It was a Wolverine movie, not a Deadpool movie, so they try and keep Wolverine as close as possible to the comics, and let everyone else slide a little (a lot). Deadpool is the biggest example, but it just fit into the movie. So, while it was still a poor decision and made me sad, it still fit into the movie, and at least Wade kicked ass. So, my final verdict is that it should be watched, but not taken immensely seriously.

Deadpool reviews coming soon

2009-05-07T14:02:00.000-04:00

I have had some work, this being my finals week and all, so I haven't written the reviews for Deadpool 10, Marvel Zombies 4 #2 or Cable 14 yet, but they will be up sometime soon. In a few hours, I'll be flying home, where I'll be over the course of the summer. Just thought I'd let people know that the Deadpool reviews are coming.

Deadpool review #4

2009-05-02T19:56:00.003-04:00

Well, no. This isn't a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Deadpool, it is a review of Cable 13, which I finally got today, when I celebrated Free Comic Book Day (it wasn't free, just finally available).

What you need to know: Cable is trying to protect the first (and so far only) mutant born after M-Day, and Cyclops sends X-Force to help him out. Bishop and Stryfe are working together to try and stop Cable and Apocalypse. Deadpool showed up to help.

The plot: Cable sees a fortress that looks like Apocalypse's. Wolverine asks Deadpool what is going on, and Deadpool tells his story, how he was trying to put down a rebellion, but when things turned bad, wanting to avoid nukes, hid in a fridge, but then got locked in. After 800 years, they open the freezer and Deadpool discovers Stryfe, joined up with him, then, when he saw X-Force, wanted to team up. Meanwhile, Bishop thinks about how he and Stryfe are going to betray each other. Then, Stryfe's army shows up.

Deadpool's part: Surprisingly, most of it. Like above, he describes his part in this madcap future, and tries to inform Cable and X-Force into what is going on.

Humor involved: When seeing the Apocalypse-looking citadel, remarks how Apocalypse is "...the old boss. The very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very old boss." When about to tell his story, wondering which version to tell, breaks the fourth wall, wondering if he should tell the Previews-catalog-solicit-blurb version. There is a lot of humor while telling his story also. After, he mentions how, "But then you guys show up, and I get to thinking...it's just like old times. We're the X-Men! We can take him together!" After Wolverine reminds him he was never an X-Man, he calls Wolverine a continuity stickler. Then, at the end, as Stryfe's army attacks "forgot" to mention that they existed. "My bad."

Worth getting?: Even without the other parts, this one explains everything nicely, and contains a lot of good Deadpool. Plus, I'm a big fan of Olivetti's art. Sure, some of it is ridiculously buff, but it still looks really, really good. So, yeah, I'd recommend it, even without the other parts, which are still important.

Before I leave you, I just wanted to share something that brightened my day. I have always loved "Hi, I'm a Marvel...And I'm a DC" and was worried about a Deadpool one. See, he is good, but I wasn't sure if he could make Deadpool work. Fortunately for me, though, he did and it is amazing. Check it out below.

Deadpool review #2 & #3

2009-04-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

This edition of Deadpool review is for Thunderbolts 131 and for X-Force/Cable: Messiah War Prologue.

What you need to know: Deadpool, on a mission for Nick Fury, stole intelligence about the Skrulls, which Norman Osborn intercepted. Then, he used the intel to kill the Skrull queen, making him immensely popular and now is head of HAMMER, the replacement SHIELD. Deadpool learned about this and wants to be paid and recognized for his part in making Osborn so powerful. Osborn sent his new Black-Ops Thunderbolts after him. Now, Deadpool, working with Taskmaster, is trying to take out the Thunderbolts while trying to score with Yelena Belova, their leader, the second Black Widow (the blonde one).

The plot: The Thunderbolts captured Deadpool, but as Headsman is about to chop his head off, the actual Deadpool shows up, armed to the teeth. He frees Taskmaster, who was masquerading as Deadpool before, then they fight the Thudnerbolts, causing Norman Osborn to flee. Deadpool is able to get onto the ship, but Norman goes crazy and attacks Deadpool, causing the ship to crash. Black Widow shoots Deadpool in the heart, and then Headsman finally does something, chopping Deadpool's head off. Norman tells Yelena to burn the head, and walks away. Taskmaster then is embarrassed to be at an ATM, getting his money, considering he is "world-class." Deadpool, it seems, stole Norman Osborn's credit card while they fought, and had his head sown back on, he assumed by Taskmaster, but actually was Black Widow.

Deadpool's part: Well, the entire thing, pretty much. Read the plot, since this was specifically a Deadpool story.

Humor involved: As he shows up to rescue Taskmaster, he talks about how he couldn't decide which weapons to bring, deciding upon all of them. As he tries to get rid of Ant Man, who climbs into his outfit, he shoots himself a bunch of times. When he gets shot through the heart, he starts singing, then asks for last words from Yelena, who is threatening to cut off his head. As he realizes who sowed his head back onto his body, he is incredibly happy, and believes Yelena really does love him.

Worth getting?: If you've read the other parts, then yes. Otherwise, still yes, but I recommend that your read the other parts first. It is a fun storyline, and I enjoyed it. The current Thunderbolts, like the team from directly after Civil War, are horrible at teamwork, and don't work together well at all. It leads to some interesting dynamics. Plus, Deadpool is good in this. He isn't all silly all the time, but he does make things fun. The art isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

____________________________________________________________________

What you need to know: The one mutant born after M-Day has been flung into the future to live with Cable. Cyclops knows Bishop is after them, so he decides to send X-Force to help.

The plot: Cyclops recalls what happened while Bishop talks to a mysterious man in a bar who killed everybody else there. As X-Force gets sent into the future to help Cable out to protect the child, they come under attack by Deadpool, who unlike everybody else who had to time travel to get there, he just survived. Deadpool joins up with X-Force, who find Cable, and then learn that Stryfe is ruling the world at this point, with him being the person Bishop talked to.

Deadpool's part: He shoots at X-Force, then as they wonder what he's doing there, cracks some jokes, and joins up with them, as he is also looking for Cable.

Humor involved: Sees Domino and semi-remembers her, mentioning how he knew someone who looked exactly like her 1000 years ago. He then claims he's the emperor of North America, and can be called "your majesty." After Logan pops his claws through Wade's head, he says he feels Logan inside his head and wonders if Wolverine is a telepath now. Then, he comments on how he likes having his brain scratched. Then, he looks around and, seeing everybody, says, "Wolverine! Thunderbird II! Domino! Other people I don't know! I missed you! Where did you go? I was waiting for you! For a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaly long time." After they get to where Cable is, he, Domino, Elixir and Vanisher are told to wait outside, at which point he asks if they want to play Travel Connect Four, which he brought with him. Oh, and Stryfe's file for him is great. You can see that here.

Worth getting?: It's a crazy storyline involving the future, Cable, Stryfe, Bishop and a time traveling X-Force. It's silly as hell, but made all the sillier with Deadpool. Seeing as it is a storyline which had a lot of Deadpool in it (surprisingly so), I reccomend it to Deadpool fans. To non-Deadpool fans, well, if you like all that time travel stuff or seeing stupid amounts of violence (reading X-Force), then sure, otherwise, I'd say to avoid it.

Look this Friday or Saturday (again, hopefully Friday) for my review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with a Deadpool review coming also.

Deadpool review #1

2009-04-27T00:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my new series, Deadpool review, where I review whatever there may be that I pick up related to Deadpool. For this first article, I'll be going over the issue last week that had Deadpool in it, X-Force 14.

What you need to know: Cable has been trying to protect the first mutant born after M-Day, and he entered the timestream. Cyclops sent X-Force after Cable to help him out. Bishop has been trying to kill the mutant, who he believes will be responsible for the extinction of mutantkind. Currently, they are in the future, where Stryfe, Cable's clone is ruler, and wants Cable dead.

The Plot: X-Force, Cable and Deadpool have to fight off Stryfe's soldiers, as Bishop lands in the future, allying himself with Stryfe to take out a weakened Apocalypse. X-Force is able to take out the soldiers. Then, Stryfe attacks, taking lots of them down. Archangel discovers the beaten Apocalypse, who greets his former horseman.

Deadpool's part: In the future, Deadpool never died, instead living long enough to reach whenever they are. He helps Cable and X-Force out along the way. During the fight against Stryfe's men, he takes almost all of them out by shooting them and is the first to notice Stryfe coming to attack them.

Humor involved: While describing his group, when he gets to Wade, he remarks that their fates seem intertwined. "God help me." Deadpool also just yells while shooting wildly in the air. Deadpool shoots a guy in the head repeatedly, yelling out, "Bang! You're dead." each time, telling Domino after she asks him to help them out more, "But what if he's a zombie?!" Then, he yells, "Buuulleeeetttssss!!" as he mows all the remaining enemies down, before going back to shooting the one guy in the head, yelling, "Die, zombie! Diiiie!" Later on, talking to Domino, he remarks how his "...pants are an open book." Then, as she asks what he isn't telling them, "[What I didn't tell you was] that Stryfe just launched from his citadel, and is flying through the sky right now and coming this way I think to probably kill you all. But to be fair, I was only keeping that from you for a few seconds."

Worth getting?: I'm going to say yes. I only read X-Force's first volume in issue format, and while I thought it was kind of silly (and it still is), the story wasn't too hard for me to follow. The characters and plot are introduced right on the front page and everything is explained fairly well. Clayton Crain is still an amazing artist, whose art, while very dark, especially with black on black on dark grey is hard to see, is still really good. Craig Kyle and Chris Yost are great writers and the issue is good. I'm not reading Messiah War (well, aside from the issues with Deadpool. Still need Cable 13), and while the story is somewhat cheesy, it still is worth it, at least I think so. Plus, Deadpool is written well in this. He has a good amount of page time considering he isn't the main character, and is a back-up character to the back-up character. Still, he proves his skills in combat, and he still is funny.

Look this Wednesday or Thursday (hopefully Wednesday) for my Deadpool review of Thunderbolts 131, the final issue in Magnum Opus, the Deadpool/Thunderbolts crossover.

Giving thanks

2009-04-25T13:02:00.002-04:00

No, I know it isn't the 4th Thursday of November, but I still feel thankful. I don't know why, but today, I just want to be thankful. This is specifically about VS.

As you may know, as VS was coming to an end, they had more interactions with the fan community than ever before. Part of that consisted of them having longer preview periods before sets with more cards revealed, plus they gave preview cards to some of the people in the blogosphere, me included. Late March of last year, Ben Seck PM'd me on VS Realms, letting me know that he wanted me to preview cards for Marvel Universe on my blog. As you can imagine, that was a big surprise and I was ecstatic. I know my blog hasn't been the biggest or most popular for VS. I mostly started it to rant about my comics that I picked up as otherwise, I had nowhere to direct complaints or appreciations. Since there were other VS blogs going up, though, I made mine have VS also. Anyway, I got picked to preview Annihilus's 5-drop incarnation and the Negative Zone location based off of the prison from Civil War. I did so, using my specific writing and personal skills, going over the comics and Annihilus's history, which amuses me. If you can't remember, the article is here. I loved the Annihilation storyline a lot. It was spectacular, sensational and amazing. Getting to preview Annihilus was awesome. Sure, I would have preferred a Skrull card (like the Kl'rt from that set), but Annihilus was a great character, and my MUN deck was based off of him. When the time came around for MEV, well, I knew Deadpool was in it, and I desperately wanted Deadpool. When TBS game me Blink to preview, I was incredibly disappointed, as while the Exiles are cool, and has been a good series from time to time, I mean, come on! I love Deadpool more than I like certain friends of mine. Not just people, but actually friends. Heck, even some family members I like less than Deadpool. Sure, writing about Blink was fun, and it is a cool card. You can see my preview for Blink here. I started to get my hopes up, though, when I saw other people were getting to preview two cards. So, yes, when Weapon X was previewed, I got to preview a Deadpool card. Extended Monologue is an awesome card and I am so happy that I got to preview it. The card itself is a perfect tribute to Deadpool and perfectly encapsulates a Deadpool fight. He may not be the biggest threat ever, but he'll be the person you go after first, even if there are more powerful people to deal with, just because he is so darn annoying. Plus, with his healing factor, that makes him even more deadly. So, being able to only target Deadpool makes perfect sense. Oh, and you can find that article here. So, to sum up this long paragraph, I want to thank UDE and VS for allowing me to preview cards (probably one of my favorite aspects of the TCG world) and especially for allowing me to preview a Deadpool card.

What else? Well, there have been great community forums for VS. When I started paying attention to VS online, I got accounts at VS Realms, VS Universe (TCGPlayer) and VS Paradise, probably the largest of sites (well, maybe not as much Paradise). Paradise was where I spent most of my time originally, because, well, the people there were less often mean, and they also had less annoyances. I got my first experience with fan cards there, which was fun (and something I took over to TCGPlayer) and had a great time talking with the people there (who were almost all from Australia). Even at TCGPlayer, in the fantasy card section, I made a little name for myself, mostly being one of the people who was more critical than most, trying to make everything make more sense and fit into the game. So, I'd criticize 3/3 Army 1-drops with no drawbacks, whereas other people might get really excited about them. Still, it was fun and I hung out there some too. Eventually, for reasons I forget, I left TCGPlayer (still have the account, just didn't do anything), and Paradise kind of fell apart after they got no support in Australia, so I hung out on Realms, and there were lots of cool people there as well, once you got past some of the more annoying people. I still haven't migrated to Dot Org, and might, but I'm not sure. Either way, the point I'm trying to make is that VS allowed me to meet lots of interesting people, some of whom I met in person, others not so much, but still, the community, for all its faults, was a great place, and I am thankful that I was part of it, while it was still bigger.

In general, VS was a really fun game. It still is, although it is sad that there aren't any more cards being made. I have always loved being able to control characters I love. It is part of why I play TCGs and video games. After enjoying OverPower and HeroClix, VS was, well, better. It is a more balanced, better game that allows for lots of craziness, silliness and lots of characters to do lots of things. OverPower was weak in that you had 4 characters max, and lots were just outright better than others, both in terms of stats and abilities. Also, the Strength, Fighting and Energy cards as attacks were kind of lame. Yay, I get to attack you from Spider-Man using Sauron. Wait, what? HeroClix worked better to an extent. First off, it was cool to have figures of characters although some of them were kind of awkward (paint-wise or sculpt-wise). Still, you could have lots of people, and your amount depended upon how powerful the people you chose were. So, Superman or the Hulk would take more points than Black Cat or Catwoman. Also, while there were teams involved, very few teams were so good that the best strategy was to pick that team, so you get horrible team-ups. Plus, power levels made things tricky. Sure, if my opponent has Superman, it would be hard to fight him. But, well, I want to actually be able to fight him. Sure, I might get a Critical hit on a 12 (two 6-sided dice for attacks), but with his invulnerability, I am doing jack squat. It got awkward and frustrating. VS isn't perfect, but it is the best collectable game out there with superheroes. You can include anybody, but teams make things better, by getting more powerful team-specific cards and being able to team attack with and reinforce teammates. Plus, there get to be so many more characters. Also, while Superman might do well, you can also do well with an army of characters, which makes lots of different strategies viable and fun. VS was a fun game with a lot of different ways to play and, well, had good Deadpool and Kl'rt stuff. So, I give thanks to VS for being a good superhero game that let me use Deadpool and others effectively.

Deadpool Cubeecraft

2009-04-17T00:00:00.004-04:00

I have made no effort to hide the fact that I love Deadpool. Some time ago, I discovered Cubeecraft and since they didn't have a Deadpool, decided to make my own.

Click for template

To use the template, cut out along the edge of the shapes, and along the white lines. Then, just connect each letter to its counterpart (A to A, B to B) and you should have yourself a Cubeecraft Deadpool.

As featured on The Deadpool Bugle.

Suspense

2009-04-15T18:43:00.002-04:00

I am the wrong type of person for suspense/slasher movies. At least, I think I am. I don't know what the intended audience is, but I am fairly certain I am not in that audience. I came to realize this when I watched Disturbia. Or maybe it was when I watched The Wicker Man. Well, let me tell you the stories, anyway. My "friends" and I theater-hopped a fair amount. I wasn't too fond of it, but whatever. They were my own age and I played VS with them and my parents wanted me to hang out with people my own age. So, we'd get a bunch of us and using two tickets, get into a movie theater, then go from movie to movie. I was somewhat opposed, but whatever. We had seen some movie, Eragon maybe, and we decided to see some more. So we went to The Wicker Man. Let me tell you, that was a horrible movie. Just absolutely horrible. While it is bad from the beginning, the end is where it really stands out in my mind. See, Nic Cage plays this cop who has a daughter on this island populated only by women, and he goes to find her there or something. Eventually it is revealed that this is all a trap for Nic, as they actually want to sacrifice him. See, they had a bad harvest and when they have a bad harvest, their religion/cult demands they sacrifice a man to their god or whatever. So, it's some trap to get Nic to the island where eventually they surround him as he realizes this was a trap. He takes out his gun (he's a cop), which they took the bullets out, then as it doesn't fire, starts punching and kicking the women. Yes, Nic Cage starts beating up ladies. Through sheer numbers they overpower him and put him in a sack. As they carry him away, he rants at them as he says they are murderers and that "killing [him] won't bring back their goddamn honey." Then, as they break his legs, he yells about how they just broke his legs. My thoughts are that as they neared the end of production, they realize how bad it was and decided that it didn't matter anymore so any effort they had put into it vanished. Ah, but it is supposed to be scary or something, and instead I was laughing like crazy.

Later that night, we saw Saw II and Silent Hill at one of the kid's houses. I wasn't fully paying attention as I was also playing VS, but, well, it just seemed silly. Both just seemed silly. Again, I was just laughing at the movies rather than being scared.

I watched Disturbia with a group of friends (that are actually friends), and well... Basically, it is Rear Window with Shia LeBeouf. He sees murders through his window and then tries to warn people kind of. It tries to make it seem like he isn't a murderer, but eventually, the movie reveals he is in fact a guy who is just killing people. When Shia finally goes in his house, bodies literally just start falling everywhere, and while my friends were slighty freaked out by it, it was so ridiculously over the top that I couldn't take it seriously at all. As we walked out, I was laughing at how silly it was and they just looked at me as if I were crazy.

Recently, I watched two movies on Hulu, My Little Eye and Bad Reputation. Both are suspense/horror movies and both were horrible. I watched both and was just amazed. Still, keeping on track with who I am, I laughed a lot at both. My Little Eye is about this "reality show" where 5 people live in a house for 6 months and if they succeed, they get a million dollars at the end. Eventually, they realize it is a snuff site, and not a reality show, and everybody dies. Oh, wait. I spoiled it. Well, you could guess that easily anyway, just from the description given. It was trying to be serious, I think, but it was just stupid. Bad Reputation was just as bad, but a lot funnier. I don't know how serious the creators of Bad Reputation were trying to be, but they ended up making what is pretty much a parody of hte genre. There are so many cliches everywhere. Basically, it is Carrie, except that she was raped instead of having blood dropped on her, and she doesn't develop telekinetic abilities, instead relying on other methods. The main antagonist is some football star and he has his friends and they all have girlfriends and are the "cool people" where the protagonist is nerdy, but obviously hot. Without giving too much away (why would you care anyway), the death scenes are hilarious. One aspect that is great is the sounds. It sounds like 20 tomatoes are being squished when she stabs someone. Yes, apparently, stabbing makes a squishy noise. A really corny one. Speaking of corn, red corn syrup looked horrendously fake in the second murder. Really bad. Oh, and don't get me started on obliviousness. A word of advice: When you are at a party, and somebody is dropping little while pills in everybody's drink, don't drink. I still don't know, though, whether or not it was supposed to be a parody of the genre or just ended up being one.

Anyway, my point is that I think that horror/suspense movies are meant for people who want to be scared or shocked, not people who laugh out loud (LOL) every time somebody dies. Am I wrong, though? I honestly don't know many people who like the suspense genre, so I can't say what the target audience is. Is it for people who genuinely like the movies or is it actually for people like me who think the movies are silly and laugh at them?

Comic Review

2009-03-27T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, one of these? I haven't done this in a while. There are a few I want to go over, though.

Ultimatum:

Well, Ultimatum 3 and Ultimate X-Men 100 were released last week, and were, well, interesting. This was the final issue of Ultimate X-Men, which is sad for me, considering I liked the series, even through its extreme bumpiness due to the different creative teams popping in and out. The Mark Brooks art is gorgeous, and he is such a great artist, and I think he needs more credit. With what he has gotten to do, he's done really well. The story is amusing, but very violent. Nearing the end of the Ultimate universe (for all intents and purposes), they have decided that anybody can be killed off at any time for any reason. With that in mind, they had Magneto use Multiple Man create lots of dupes and make them all suicide bombers. Madrox kills a lot of people, including people at the Frost Academy of Tomorrow, and in the Morlock sewers. Oh, and all those Captains from Ultimates 2 (Britain, France, Italy, etc) when he blows up Parliament. Really, it is kind of silly, but whatever. Magneto's already gone crazy. All in all, it is kind of annoying, in that there was so much left that they could have done, especially considering the Hellfire Club's secret had been semi-revealed, but not explored. I was waiting, but now it doesn't matter because they all died. Maybe that is what has me on edge about the Ultimatum event. There were lots of storylines that were hinted at, but never got to happen. Oh well. Ultimatum 3 continued the Ultimatum pile of shitfest. Apparently, Blob was in his right mind when he ate Wasp. Hmmm... Well, okay, then. Oh, and Hank bites Blob's head off. Right, that makes sense. Then, Hank takes Wasp's body back to the Triskelion where he discovers Multiple Men attacking. He gives Wasp to Iron Man, telling him to start project Jocasta (to get Wasp's mind into a machine). Then, he lets the Multiple Men kill themself and him by getting them to jump on top of him (why they all do that I don't know), then walks into the water, where he blows up. Huh. Oh, and Thor sacrifices himself so that Cap and Valkyrie can come back. Really? Get rid of the most powerful member for Cap and Valkyrie. Sure, Cap's smart and more powerful than 616 dead Cap, but Thor is, well, Thor. The freaking Norse God of Thunder. We already went over this in Ultimates 2, how Thor really is the actual Thor. Oy. Personally, I never cared about Valkyrie, as there has been nothing with her except for the craptastic Ultimates 3 and a panel or two at the beginning of Ultimatum 1. So, to lose Thor for Valkyrie is just stupid. Oy. Oh, and now Cap is determined because Wasp is dead. Honestly, this whole event is just annoying as hell. I still hate that Thor's hammer is being used by Magneto. I know it isn't the Mjolnir from 616 that only obeys Thor, but, well, it should be. Mjolnir in mythology was Thor's weapon and only Thor's weapon. It was so heavy that only Thor, wearing a special belt, could lift it. In the comics, that was changed to the worthy being able to lift the hammer, and in the Ultimate universe, to only those wielding the belt could wield Thor's powers. But, now Thor doesn't seem to have that belt, and Magneto seems to be able to wield the hammer just fine. Sigh... I guess Ultimate War had Magneto stop the hammer, then throw it back into Thor, but I hate the idea of Magneto having a weapon that powerful, although considering it isn't the same hammer (how many hammers does Thor have? why does he have multiple Mjolnir?) who knows what it can do. Sigh... Only two more issues of Ultimatum and two more Ultimate Spider-Man issues and that is it for me. No one-shots or the future Ultimate events. I am riding out the Ultimate universe, remembering when it was still good and keeping that intact (with runs of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men, while letting Ultimatum bring them to a horrible close).

Deadpool: Games of Death

This was fun. One thing that is going on in Deadpool at the moment is hearing multiple voices in his head, and having Deadpool-vision. Both are concepts by Daniel Way, who has gotten much better at portraying Deadpool from the time he was in Wolverine: Origins. I'm fine with it, because honestly, it is amusing at this point, considering how he also is showing how he isn't stupid. Like so many people, he acts stupid, but unlike a lot of them, he isn't. Sure, he acts crazy and does things that are stupid, but he isn't. He knew what was going on when he got hired, but feigned ignorance all the way through. Also, he was able to win, and considering the people involved, that is no small feat. This was a fun one-shot that reminds me why it is great to love Deadpool, especially at the moment. He is getting a lot of publicity and it means he has guest appearances and his own series, a one-shot and a mini-series. How awesome is that?

Deadpool/Thunderbolts: Magnum Opus:

Speaking of the crossovers Deadpool is getting, Deadpool 8-9 and Thunderbolts 130-131 are part of a 4 part story called Magnum Opus. It really isn't a "great work" but it is amusing as hell. See, back at the beginning of Deadpool's new series, he manipulated his way into a Skrull compound, got info on how to kill the Skrull queen, then tried to send it to Nick Fury, his employer. Along the way, though, Norman Osborn intercepted the data and used it to kill the Skrull queen himself, getting Nick Fury/Maria Hill/Tony Stark's old job in the process. Deadpool just learned about this and wants revenge for having the money and credit stolen from him. Unfortunately for him, the Thunderbolts are on the case, and after Deadpool. All in all, I appreciate the story more than anything else. Thunderbolts has been a consistently good series since Civil War (I liked it before that, since New Thunderbolts, but whatever) and it is great to see Deadpool guest star in the series. Also, the story is awesome and helps Deadpool out. I mean, it is Deadpool versus an entire team of "heroes" which is fairly impressive. All I can say is that this storyline is fun, amusing, and I love Deadpool.

VS

2009-03-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

There is a new main VS website following the announcement that VS was no longer going to be produced. What was once Steve Garret(Kamiza)'s own hub for VS is now VsSystem.org. A lot of people have moved to the new site from other sites, such as Realms and TCGPlayer, but I haven't gone. There are many reasons for this. The main point of this though, is to explain my thoughts on the current state of VS as much as I possibly can.

I love superheroes. I have loved them for a long time. I also love TCG's and have for a shorter amount of time, but a fair amount of time nonetheless. I played Overpower with a friend of mine for a long time, as we both were superhero fans. He had a lot more than me, and I didn't spend nearly as much as on other games, partly because I didn't have the money to spend and my parents weren't going to buy me cards. Either way, with him stopping, I literally had no one to play against. I found Recharge, which I played for a short amount of time with him, mostly though by myself. I found it cheap at Toys 'R Us, and wanted to complete the sets, so I went to Cards and Comics Central near my house. When there, the guy behind the counter asked me if I'd be interested in VS, seeing as it was a new game that was actually starting to grow whereas Recharge, well, never really started to begin with. I bought a couple packs and the X-Men/Brotherhood starter and liked the cards. New art, a new game and it looked fun. For a while, I was playing wrong, but eventually I found other people who actually knew how to play and I had a lot of fun. My deck was horrible, but somewhat consistent and surprised people and was able to win. I bought more of Web of Spider-Man, and was excited for Marvel Knights. I'm definitely not a DC fan, and was less of one then. I never got DC Origins or DC Man of Steel, but got a little Green Lantern (because I was interested in the GLC). I got a bunch of cards from new sets, even going to the DJL, MXM, MHG, DLS and MTU pre-releases and the 10K SF and Pro-Circuit SF (although just for side-events). Playing VS was lots of fun for many reasons. Getting to use favorite characters in battle is a concept I always have liked (I played HeroClix, love superhero video games, etc) so this was fun for me.

As I have stated before, I am a realist. I try not to be too optimistic or pessimistic, but sometimes I am seen as pessimistic, which is unfortunate. When UDE announced they were going to stop making VS, that was bad. VS, as a game, is dead. They are not making cards for it, and to me, that means it is dead. Now, that doesn't mean I am going to stop playing it. The game is fun, and I still know people I can play against, so I am going to continue to play. But, honestly people, VS is dead. No, that doesn't mean that people have to throw all their cards into a fire and forget it ever existed, and they don't have to do other stupid, crazy things. When I say VS is dead, I specifically am referring to the card game, which is no longer going to have any cards made for it. I am not referring to the players, who are extremely loyal and love to play the game. There are people who aren't going to stop playing because the cards are no longer being printed. I am among them. Still, the card game is dead.

I was a big fan of VsParadise, when it was still up and about, as they were an incredibly friendly and great community. Sure, I had accounts on Realms and TCGPlayer, but my main support was for Paradise. They had a fantasy card contest, which is where I first designed fantasy cards. I believe that I had seen fantasy cards before, but never really paid attention to them. I got incredibly into fantasy cards, and tried to make realistic, balanced cards. I also hung out on TCGPlayer in the fantasy card section, helping people out and giving people feedback on cards they had designed. I have made a lot of fantasy cards. That includes a couple sets, where I made entire teams and concepts. I believe I also made hundreds for Spidey and friends, including about 20 different Spider-Man, when I just wanted to have fun and make clone a viable deck (as that was one of the first decks I liked a lot). I love creating fantasy cards and helping others to create them. I am fairly good at determining balance on cards and am fairly good at getting wording that works. I may seem a little nitpicky when it comes to wording, but I feel that fantasy cards should be like real cards. Still, I designed my cards for fun. I never intended to use them. I have never been a big fan of using cheats in video games, and that applies to everything. Using fantasy cards, to me, is like cheating. They created a certain thing, and you just take it and change it up to fit your own personal needs. I love fantasy cards, don't get me wrong. I just don't think that fantasy cards should ever be used as actual cards. That concept doesn't sit well with me.

In the time after UDE announced they were going to stop making VS, Ben Seck went on Realms and said that he thought there should be some kind of "player council" that the players have to do whatever. I am not a fan of the idea, but others are. CarlosTheDwarf started looking into creating a "player council" at the very least to start things off, and it could move on from there. He also planned with Kamiza to create a new site, especially considering the shaky behavior of Realms after it went down. He also worked with Flashback who got the only non-UDE employee copies of the last cards of MEQ to share the cards with the world. With all of these different things happening, seemingly taking place with Carlos' idea, being that he was pushing for a council, then having secret discussions with Flashback and Kamiza about unrelated things (that wasn't clear as they were secret), I mistakenly lumped all of them together. With that, I was against the new site, as I thought it was a "player council" thing, and as I am against that concept, I was against the site. When I said that I had issues, and tried to explain them, people from the site lashed out at me, which was annoying. I don't support a "player council" because I don't like the idea of a group other than the people who created VS running what is going on in VS. Sure, I don't have to follow anything they say, but it still is a bunch of people discussing what they think is best. The way that things had been going, I was also assuming that they were just meeting in secret, then making decrees and handing them down to us. I now know that isn't fully correct, but I didn't at the time. Still, the point remains that I don't like the concept. It doesn't sit well with me. It won't sit well with me. I understand people want it, so if people do something, I am not opposed to people following a council, I just don't want to have anything to do with it. I wholeheartedly support VS and love the game a lot. The way I was treated, it felt as though I was all for burning VS cards in the street in my underwear, holding CarlosTheDwarf's head as a trophy under my arm. When Carlos explained the new site more in depth to me, I was more for going there, but at the same time, I like Realms and wanted to stay there, just because it was familiar. That also didn't sit well with people. Now, I know CarlosTheDwarf personally and he is a great guy. He wasn't rude at all, and was very level-headed, as I believe I was. Unfortunately, there was such a negative reaction from the people at VsSystem.org that I still really don't want to go there. It was an elitism, where they proclaimed they were better because of the new site, and I didn't like it. I may stop in at VsSystem.org in the future, but presently I can't see myself joining the group, considering how much I don't want to associate myself with some of the people there.

I don't even know what to say at this point. Once I start ranting about something, I keep going and going, repeating myself, becoming redundant and repeating myself. Still, I love VS and had a lot of fun over Spring Break when I played with my cousin. I only wish that I had a better community I could play with. Oh well. To everyone who actually made it to this sentence, if you think I should head over to VsSystem.org, let me know because honestly, it does matter to me what certain people think.

Watchmen Review

2009-03-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

As you might be able to tell from the smiley face above, this is a review for Watchmen. The movie came out the day that I went on Spring Break, and unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to see it (because of where I was) until the 10th, the Tuesday after it opened. I would have seen it earlier if possible, believe me. I also would have reviewed it earlier if I could have. I shared some thoughts on read/RANT, but here is my full review.

I am not a big fan of Watchmen. Sorry, people, but that is something I have to say. I've read it, and frankly, it was okay, but not the greatest thing in the world, at least in my opinion. I have lots of complaints about it, but those are not really all that relevant to the review. I just feel I have to mention that before I start talking about the movie. So yes I have read Watchmen, but I wasn't as enthralled as everybody else seemed to be.

The movie was good. It was fun and enjoyable. Yes, it is incredibly long, but honestly, it didn't feel as long to me. You know the saying, "Time flies when you're having fun?" Well, when something is somewhat enjoyable, time moves somewhat quickly, and definitely not at a slower pace. The movie faced a lot of challenges. As with all superhero movies, and in fact all movies based off of something that was made beforehand, a big problem is how well the source material is respected and adapted. So when Uncle Ben was killed by Sandman, that was a problem. When the Joker didn't have a backstory and was merely insane and anarchistic, that was good. With Watchmen, maybe more than any other superhero work, there are going to be people who are incredibly nitpicky. For them, I have to say that I think they did a great job at adapting the comic. No, not everything is perfect, but considering how dense Watchmen is, to include everything would have taken a lot of effort. Plus, when you consider that a comic is a medium without sound and movement, adding it in can be awkward. I've seen comics where there is a voice that speaks and you can't see who it is speaking, but you can see the word bubbles. With a movie, that is a lot harder to do, considering that it actually has to be a voice. With a voice changer, sure, you could make it ambiguous, but that would be incredibly awkward. Also, things can be much more ridiculous in comics (squid) that don't necessarily translate well to film. So, while it didn't get everything in Watchmen perfectly, I think it works really well with what was taken.

I have some complaints. One is that there is less into the psychology of Rorschach with Dr. Long at the prison. In the comic, Rorschach sees the rorschach blots, contorts his face as he thinks about what he actually sees, then, totally calm, he says that it is something that sounds normal. This happens for the session, then later, on another day, he decides to actually talk about what he sees. So when he sees the same blot, he contorts, then mentions waht he actually sees in the exact same manner that he mentioned the normal things. So, completely deadpan talks about a butterfly in the exact same deadpan talking about killing the dogs that the child murderer had. It was great, especially since Dr. Long started freaking out after he realized he didn't know Rorschach at all. Plus, I can't say for certain, but I seem to remember it this way, he didn't kill the guy with the cleaver, but left him chained to the furnace with the cleaver, set the house on fire, then walked out. He waited to see if the guy came out, but he never did. I think that was much more badass than just killing the guy, and I think that would have been more interesting. If that isn't what happened, then yeah, it was fine, but I seem to recall it playing out in the comic like that. Also, while somewhat time consuming and probably pretty non-important over all, I enjoyed seeing how Rorschach found the material to make his mask which was in the comic, but not the movie. Other complaints come from the costume department. Yes, obviously Ozymandias has a horrible Joel Schumaker Batman and Robin-esque costume, but, well, I like seeing superhero movies where the costume is pretty much exactly the same. Nite Owl looks like he's almost in a movie Batman like costume also. There seems to be too much leather in general.

Still, even with complaints, like I mentioned in the previous post, I went in trying to enjoy it. What happened was that I unfortunately went with my grandfather, who isn't a big superhero fan and has very old fashioned tastes. In what is somewhat stereotypical, he doesn't like the music and movies that kids listen to today, instead preferring the old stuff. He hated Watchmen. More specifically, he said, "I don't know if I can say it's the worst movie I've ever seen..." I didn't mention it earlier (but it is fixed by this point), but your opinions can easily change and get blown out of proportion. I remember this English class where people were debating what should happen to this person who did something wrong. There were 4 places to sit, those in favor of the harsher penalty, those more strongly in favor of the harsher penalty, those in favor of the lighter penalty and those more strongly in favore of the lighter penalty. I believe I was in favor of the harsher one, but everybody started out just in favor of whichever one they believed. As people argued back and forth, people started to want to win more than anything, moving to the more strongly section of the area they were in. As people just yelled at each other, both groups were horrible at convincing the other. I didn't move, and I was actually somewhat able to convince one of the other people, speaking more rationally than my colleagues, and in a few more minutes, he probably would have joined my side. What I learned was that when you have an opinion, even if you don't feel very strongly about it, when people act stupidly and the debate becomes less about the issue and more about insults, you feel much more sure of your opinion. This has happened to me multiple times (especially with my grandfather in trying to convince him that things today aren't all horrible), and I think it happened with my grandfather. I liked the movie, but in hearing him complain about it with his only genuine complain being that it was long, I felt a much stronger need to defend it. I did like the movie, but I don't think it was the greatest movie ever. Like the comic, I think it is good, but not great and the best thing ever. I actually liked the movie more than the comic, which doesn't really happen often with any movie that is based off of something. Still, I enjoyed Watchmen a lot. Without my grandfather, I probably would have enjoyed it slightly less (as I wouldn't have felt as great a need to defend it), but that can work either way, which is why I don't recommend it.

All in all, I think it was a fun movie. I don't think it was quite as deep as the comic, which to me is a good thing. I think that if you enjoyed reading Watchmen, you probably would enjoy watching it. If you didn't read it, I think it might be slightly harder to follow and slightly worse, but still not a horrible experience if you have an open mind. My final advice? Watch the Watchmen. It's worth it.