Spidey-Obama

I finally got this issue. I don't appreciate that I had to get the 3rd printing of it, but I slightly understand. People are interested in Obama in general, so anything with him is going to do well. When it is Spidey and Obama, it is going to do well. Unfortunately, a lot of people are interested in it only as a collector's item. That means that poor me had to wait for a longer time. Boo hoo. Oh, well.

The actual story was interesting. It was a one-shot about Betty Brant, narrated by her. Thank Deadpool it was a one-shot, since 584 came out last week. It really has little to no significance on the plot as a whole, but it does exist, and it is relevant and fun. Betty talks about how she is a friend with Peter Parker, who isn't always dependable. She is looking forward to the end of the week, when her birthday is, and she can hang out with a whole bunch of her friends. Peter seems to be organizing a party, talking to his aunt, Robbie, Harry Osborn, etc, while in Betty's company. When the time comes, though, all that happens is that Peter shows up with take-out and a movie. Apparently, her staying at the DB! means that everybody doesn't like her. For example, Aunt May doesn't like her as she had to write a damning article about F.E.A.S.T. Robbie doesn't like her because when he quit, and took a whole bunch of people with him, she was the only major person who stayed. Peter had to defend her in front of everybody, and convinced her that while she may not be liked now, she will later. It was a nice story, and I did enjoy it. It was amusing. As I said, the story wasn't important to the main storyline in ASM, but it was still fun. There is also a short back-up story about Obama, where Peter is a photographer at Obama's inauguration. When a limo crashes and Obama pops out, people are confused by there being two Obamas. Eventually, the Chameleon is revealed to know nothing about Obama, and he is taken out by Spidey. Obama and Spidey shake hands, and Obama goes on to not mess up the oath (meaning this is completely and utterly a different universe, ha ha). It was cute, with good art, and amusing. All in all, this was an okay one-shot issue that I really don't think needed to be part of ASM, which literally could have been a one-shot. I would have preferred that, as I wouldn't have gotten it. I thought it might be important, but it wasn't. At the price, I still don't know if it was worth it, but whatever. I got it, and I enjoyed it.

Official Announcements

Well, VS is officially no longer being made by UDE. This is sad news, but I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted. For a couple months, I have been waiting for news, and it drove me a little crazy, as anybody who knows how I get when I have to wait knows. Now, I can just play the game for fun, and not care at all about tournaments, because they no longer matter. Sure, it's sad. At least Deadpool was a legend before it ended. Still, this may seem corny, that this is a new beginning, where only the people who really love it can go play.

EDIT: The two articles are here and here.

Blog posts

My work load this semester is somewhat intense so I won't have as much time to update my blog, as much as I may want to. I'll generally still read things, but my blog won't get updated as much. it's not you, it's me.

VS

Well, it certainly isn't looking good for VS as a card game that will continue for much longer. I love the game, and I will certainly still play, but I have to admit that I won't be as happy when UDE is no longer making VS cards. This isn't meant to be defeatist, and I don't want to seem pessimistic, but, well, let me refer to an X-Men comic. A while ago, there was this guy, Arkon, who was trying to save his world. He got the X-Men to help him. While on his planet, Cyclops wasn't being optimistic, saying that everything was going to be all right and that they were going to win, and when he was confronted about this, Wolverine mentioned how Cyclops, like Wolverine, was a realist. Looking realistically at the situation, it looked very bad for the X-Men, who were vastly outnumbered by the Badoon, even aided by Arkon and his people. That is how I look at VS. I want VS to succeed, and I never have said that it is definitively failing, but look at it people. There was a set released a month ago, and nothing from the company about whether there will be a new set? I'd expect to have at least heard from them that there is going to be a new set if I was expecting one. I don't want to seem like a downer, and I love VS, heck it's in the name of my blog, but I don't see it doing very well in the future. I have never seen anyone where I am currently that is interested, and even the people I knew from home have abandoned their cards. They gave up a while ago, and recently, over the summer, they gave me literally every single common and uncommon they could find, along with a whole bunch of rares. I had never bought a DC Origins booster, and might have had a random few cards, but I easily have 8+ of each common from that set now, and most of the rares. Same goes for Man of Steel. They bought a lot, and played VS, but eventually, there wasn't enough support. Now, I love VS, and bought a lot of MEV, but even at the time, I knew it could be the last set. It looks like it will be at this point, unfortunately. I honestly wish it wasn't, but I can't see VS doing much better in the future than how it is doing now.

No More Heroes

Wow. Okay, this is the first M-rated game I have ever gotten, and let me tell you something. It certainly is violent enough, and has enough swearing. I really don't care about the rating most of the time when getting a game, but I usually get T or E rated games. Not because I don't want to play a more violent game, but just because I like playing games that are fun to me, and most of the games that are fun are rated E or T. I don't find games like GTA, Halo, Call of Duty or Gears of War fun. They are mostly just violent, with gameplay, but the main thing is that they are simply violence and bloodshed. No More Heroes is a lot more than just a game that is just violence and bloodshed.

No More Heroes is the story of Travis Touchdown, an otaku who is down on his luck, and looking for some money. They best way to do that is to become an assassin, so he uses his beam katana (purchased at an online auction) to kill Helter Skelter, becoming the 11th top-ranked assassin in the USA. The game starts with you going to Death Metal's estate, where you kill a whole bunch of random guards/people before making it to Death Metal, the 10th ranked assassin. The whole point of the game at that point is to become the number one ranked assassin. To do that, you have to kill all the ones ahead of you. It costs a lot of money, which means you have to take smaller jobs first. Jobs such as collecting coconuts, picking up trash, cleaning graffiti or mowing lawns. Before each ranked fight, you get to do a smaller job, which allows you to unlock many better assassination jobs. Once you have enough money, you deposit it in the ATM, and make your way over to the fight.

The thing that makes this a great game is that it isn't serious. And by that, I don't mean just the cel-shaded graphics (which I love). Look at the main character's name: Travis Touchdown. That is such a stupid, alliterative name. It's awesome. You have your beam katana (which is really just a lightsaber wanna-be that they don't have the rights from Lucas to call a lightsaber), and you do silly things. After you kill somebody when you are going for a ranking fight, you have slots run on the bottom of your screen. If you get all the slots to line up, then you unlock a Dark Side mode, which make you super powerful for a short time. You could get Strawberry on the Shortcake, which makes you move super fast, and get one hit-kills, Blueberry Cheese Brownie, which allows you to shoot giant balls of energy from your katana, or one of the other Dark Side modes. It is all ridiculous and silly, and that is what makes the game awesome. All the ranked assassins are crazy and funny. Destroyman is probably the best example. He is the 7th ranked assassin, who delights in dressing up like a crazy 70's super-villain, with different attacks, all with the word "destroy" in front of them. He has attacks like Destroyspark, or Destroycannon, or my favorite, which shoots out of his huge, glowing codpiece, Destroybuster. He is such an over the top villain, it is hilarious. Everything in the game is silly. Hell, it even breaks the fourth wall occasionally. At the end of the game, they mention how if a certain secret is told, it would jack up the game's rating, and we wouldn't want that. It would make the game take longer to come out and they don't want it to be called "No More Heroes Forever" (an attack on Duke Nukem Forever, which was first announced in 1997, and has been near completion for years).

No More Heroes succeeds where it is supposed to. It never tries to be a serious game. The ranked battles get harder as time goes on, and the enemies get more powerful, but it is also a game that you can complete. I died a couple times (especially against the final boss), but all in all, I didn't really die much. I like a game where it is a challenge, but you still can find a way to win. I can see people just winning battles outright (for stupid reasons), but that shouldn't happen much. I think the 2nd ranked battle (for rank 2, not the 2nd battle) was easily the creepiest, and it was also fairly difficult. The humor was top-notch, with me laughing hysterically multiple times. There's a lot of strangeness (like on your way to the 4th ranked fight while on the the subway train). It isn't the type of game I would get if it wasn't as funny as it is. The humor is really what makes the game unique and a game worth having. I leave you with the Zero Punctuation review of the game, which like most of his reviews is very true to the game.

Secret Invasion: War of Kings

War of Kings. The new Cosmic Marvel event. See, during Secret Invasion (the prelude), we saw that Black Bolt was replaced by a Skrull in a meeting of the Illuminati. During the Secret Invasion: Inhumans mini-series, the Inhumans went looking for their former king. They went tot the Kree for help, and by the end, had gotten Black Bolt back, and he was pissed. And when Black Bolt is pissed off, that is a bad thing. They pack up their entire city, and fly off (by that, I mean, the entire city takes off) into space, going after a Skrull ship. The issue was really good and shows why you don't piss off Black Bolt. You don't want to get on his bad side. He has held back for such a long time. He doesn't speak, doesn't attack people, just waits in peace. He's finally had enough and is going to war. The issue was great, with good art and a good story, and it is the first in the lead-up to the next Marvel Cosmic event, War of Kings (which doesn't have Annihilation in the title).

War of Kings is looking really good so far. I don't know if I've ever really seen Black Bolt work with Maximus to do things together. Each is really powerful (Black Bolt physically, Maximus, mentally), and combined, they are ridiculously powerful. I am excited about War of Kings. So, you have Black Bolt, and the Inhumans, pissed off and wanting to make a name for themselves in the universe. You also have Vulcan, leading the Shi'ar empire. This looks like it is going to be another Kree/Shi'ar war, especially since Black Bolt is now leading the Kree. Two kings leading nations that they aren't really a part of. How interesting. Plus, you have such powerhouses as Vulcan and Black Bolt that things can get really intense.

So confused...

Nurr...

Okay, I have asked people multiple times to respond if they actually read this. And I know that some people do. But when nobody responds, I get confused. Most of the time, I feel I am doing this all for myself. I enjoy ranting, and the internet is a great place to let loose. Still, though, I get very confused. Apparently, some people do read this, letting me know through other things that they do, but they aren't able to respond to me. Maybe...

My AIM is DeadpoolSkrll. If you want to mention to me in private (not in public on the internet where everyone can see) that you read it, I'd appreciate it. In general, I want to know who's actually reading this. My counter at the bottom keeps going up, so I know people have read this to some extent. I just want to know what extent.

Grant Morrison

Okay, this isn't something you should expect all the time, but I feel I have to say this.

I don't really like Grant Morrison all that much. Sure, I haven't read a lot by him, but what I have isn't near the top of my list of favorites. The first volume of JLA is something my cousin had, and I eventually got from Green Apple for 2 bucks or something. It is amusing, but I don't really like the art and I think that how it's done is kind of stupid. In reality, Batman isn't God. The closest is Superman. Somehow, it is Batman who saves the day. He is able to take out a whole bunch of Martians, when nobody else is able to take out any. It was pretty stupid. Amusing, but stupid. New X-Men. Ah, New X-Men. I haven't read it fully, but from what I have read, I have disliked it. First off, the costumes are stupid. Leather doesn't work for the X-Men. Weapon Plus is pretty lame, and I hate how they made Wolverine's program X as in 10, as opposed to X as in X-Men, X-Gene, Xavier and everything else is stood for. Fantomex is amusing, but stupid. Magneto isn't Magneto (okay, so it was Kick/Sublime influencing him, but that was stupid also).

Here's what I don't like about Grant Morrison that Jeph Loeb also does. They both write whatever story they want to, without any regard for continuity. Let's make the X-Men wear leather. Let's make Magneto a mass murderer without compassion. Let's throw in a stupid reason for why he became a murderer. Let's give Professor X a twin sister he tried to kill in the womb. One of my friends really likes the last New X-Men volume, Here Comes Tomorrow, and he got it for me for Hannukah/Christmas/holidays. I read it, and it was fun. The thing that made it work was that it had nothing to do with the X-Men. Sure, you have tiny amounts of continuity, but for the most part, it is him doing whatever he wants. It is amusing and fun, although kind of stupid. Still, the reason it almost works is that it has nothing to do with the X-Men. Sure, you got Wolverine, Jean Grey and Beast, but really, this is a silly alternate future. It is fun, and that's about it. Morrison fucked up continuity so bad that Marvel had to pull a full 180 and retcon most of what he did. The leather vanished, Magneto was actually Xorn pretending to be Magneto, etc. If Grant Morrison wrote his own universe, I'm sure it'd be okay, but as he is writing in Marvel and DC, I hate his blatant disregard for other peoples' work.

Jeph Loeb

Wow, have I complained about Jeph Loeb. Let me make my position on Loeb as clear as possible:

The first thing I really read by Loeb (with the knowledge that Loeb was writing it) was Batman: Hush. It is amazing. One of my favorite DC storylines. It is really good. Other than that, I've known he's written other things, but I never really paid that much attention until Ultimates 3 was going to come out. Ultimates 2 is my favorite storyline ever, followed closesly by Ultimates. I loved Millar and Hitch. Going into Ultimates 3, I was excited. I like both Loeb and Madureira. Madureira was interesting, as I like his art, but don't feel it was appropriate for something like the Ultimates. Loeb I felt could pull off Ultimates based off of my expectations following Hush. Well, Ultimates 3 was bad. It wasn't as horrible as I originally was saying, but it was bad. With the expectations I had, it felt so much worse. It took me 2 issues to start downplaying the expectations which allowed me to tolerate issues 3 and 5 (not 4). Ultimates 3 failed for so many reasons, the main being the storyline, another being that the art didn't fit. Hulk came out around the same time, and following World War Hulk and Planet Hulk, I was really excited about Hulk. Loeb? Well, at that point he had written Hush, but he also destroyed the Ultimates. Hulk was amusing at first, but not great. Then, he ruined continuity to such extremes that I was forced to drop the book before I started hurting people (me, for buying it, random strangers for reasons unknown, the people who sold me issues, for not stopping me). Ultimatum has sucked so far although that also could have to do with me being upset about the general concept (and not being a huge David Finch fan) although it does have a lot to do with the story.

Loeb infuriates me so much because he's written stuff like Batman: Hush, Superman/Batman, Fallen Son, Emperor Joker, and Heroes. All things I've liked a lot. Then he's done stuff like Ultimates 3, Hulk, Ultimatum, and Heroes. All things I despise. If everything he did was like Ultimates 3, Hulk or Ultimatum, I wouldn't care, as I'd then expect bad things from Loeb, but with the other stuff he's done that I like, I get ridiculously confused. I'd be fine with him if what he did always sucked or was always mediocre and sometimes amazing. Instead, he does nothing mediocre and instead makes everything awesome or sucky. It is ridiculous.

What does Loeb do? Well, he lives in his own world, where he feels he can do whatever he wants. In everything that I mentioned (aside from Fallen Son, which was also somewhat a group effort), he decides that what has taken place is irrelevant and he is going to make it up as he goes. Take Hush for example. He makes every character act strangely and differently, he throws in a brand new character, with Hush, who (spoiler) used to be Bruce's childhood friend. He does explain it all, but along the way, you are very confused. The good thing is that Batman recognizes how strangely they are acting (which means it was on purpose), so you can be sure that Loeb has his own plans. Sure, I enjoyed it, but he threw his own stuff together and tried to cram it into continuity. Hulk has so much wrong with it. First off, you have Hulk Red and Abombination Blue. If gamma radiation had turned people other colors aside from shades of grey and green in the 65 year history of the Hulk, I'd be fine and say that it was fine to have a red Hulk. Since almost every character has been green, and the others have been grey, I'd have to say a bright red Hulk and a bright blue Abombination don't make any sense whatsoever. The Wendigo is an individual, but Loeb's turned the Wendigo into a pack. How stupid. Uatu is ridiculously powerful, as are all Watchers. They are also careful to not interefere, meaning they wouldn't get involved in battle, and if someone attacked them, they'd teleport or phase or something else to not interfere (as much as possible). Only the worthy can lift Thor's hammer because of magical properties, not physics, which means that someone not worthy cannot carry Thor by the hammer into space, where he then proceeds to hold and wield the hammer. Loeb likes making his own stuff up. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

I don't hate everything Loeb has ever done. I hate the disregard for continuity, but can live with it. But his good stuff makes his bad stuff suck even more, and makes me hate his bad stuff all that much more.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2009 now. Have a great year.

Looking forward to:
Hulk Vs. (for the Hulk Vs. Wolverine w/Deadpool as part of Weapon X)

Apprehensive about:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (for the Deadpool as part of Weapon X)

Upset about:
Ultimate Universe (I liked the Ultimate universe, so destroying it kind of sucks)

May Deadpool be with you!