Tag Archives: comics
Meet the New Spiderman
In another attempt to stir up publicity, Marvel Comics has once again spoiled what could be an awesome surprise for readers by letting us know who will be replacing Peter Parker as Spiderman in the Ultimate Universe. If you have managed to avoid the news and are still unspoiled, then you may want to turn away now. If not, keep reading…
Redesigning the DC Universe
On the last day of Comic-Con, DC unveiled how some of the characters that we’ve come to know and love have been redesigned for the huge changes that are coming to the DC Universe in only a few short weeks. Considering the fact that this is a huge change to the DCU, I’m a tad surprised that some of the changes aren’t more radical. Here are a few of my favorites:
DC has made it clear that Barry Allen is the Flash that they’re going to run with and that they have no immediate plans for Wally West so I’m guessing that the Kid Flash that they’re showing us is Bart Allen. I’m not really OK with this, but since I’m not a member of DC’s brass, what I think doesn’t really matter. This is comics though so I’m sure that Wally won’t be out of the picture for too long.
To check out the rest of the gallery, head on over to DC’s blog.
SD#1 The Saga Begins
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:38:52 — 79.3MB) | Embed
It’s here! Our very first podcast is up! After being around for over three years, we have decided to branch out to new media. We’re still learning, so please give us some feedback!
Hosts:
Zuke, Stark, Zohner, & Schmidty
Topics:
Amazon puts its head in the clouds and it’s finger in the faces of Sony & Apple
iOS might be dropping June 5th . . . without an iPhone?
Intel makes the biggest smallest drives you’ve ever seen!
Google now allows you to spy on tourists as well.
Windows 8 has a wishlist now. Take that Apple!
Kevin Costner is in the new Superman . . . and he’s Middle Eastern?
Viggo Mortensen was dating Snow White, I guess. He’s not anymore. But he’s not Zod!
Wonder Woman from Blue Boutique. Wonder Woman from J-Crew.
Should Netflix save cancelled/endangered shows?
Mass Effect 2 DLC came out. And now I’ve beaten it. Did Bioware just charge ME money to change the end of THEIR game?
Farmville is an example of a mental disorder.
Volkswagon has made a car from a video game!
Zuke’s Favorite: Three Angry Birds
Schmidty’s Favorite: Google’s +1
Stark’s Favorite: Today is a good day to sing!
Zohner’s Favorite: Pimp your router. Aww yeeeeaaa.
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Actual Breaking Geek News
According to the New York Times, Disney has made a bid to purchase Marvel Comics for $4 billion.
Walt Disney Company said Monday it has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment, the storied comic book company that owns the rights to such popular characters as Spider-Man and and the Fantastic Four, in a cash and stock deal it valued at $4 billion. The deal comes more than 10 years after Marvel was at the center of a bruising and highly public takeover battle between two feisty financiers.
Shareholders at Marvel will need to approve the transaction, which boards of directors at both companies have already approved.
If this actually goes through, it will probably mean a few things for us as geeks: first, every superhero movie from here on out will feature a Miley Cyrus, a.k.a. Hannah Montana song. Second, every movie from here on out has the potential to be stuck in the same type of development hell that plagues the DC franchises. And finally, Selena Gomez as the Wasp in the upcoming Avengers flick. On the plus side though, Disney is amazing when it comes to marketing so it’s also possible that we’ll see a lot of great toys and possibly even some more cartoons on TV.
So Many Comics, So Little Time
In 1993 my dad gave me three copies of Superman #75. Two of these were the “black bag” variant that contained assorted goodies and a variant cover all encased in a black poly bag with a bleeding Superman logo on the front. The third copy was the widely available basic newsstand version. In addition to the individual issues, he also gave me The Death of Superman trade paperback which contained the 11 comics detailing the entire Death of Superman storyline. Growing up, I was always been a fan of comic books but I hadn’t read them with any sort of regularity since I was in grade school so I was a bit surprised by this present but I was still grateful and excited nonetheless. Little did my dad know that his seemingly simple gift would send me down the long path to becoming a comic book geek.
After reading The Death of Superman, I couldn’t seem to get enough. Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding had me hooked on Superman. I kept reading the storyline knowing that nobody in comics stays dead (except for Bucky but he’s back now too) and I wanted to see what was going to happen next. I started a weekly hold at the local comic book store and was soon deeply immersed in the world of Superman.
About the same time as Superman was being killed off, Gotham City was facing a new villain named Bane who would eventually break Batman’s back in the Knightfall storyline. The guy at the comic book store gave me a synopsis of what had been happening and I immediately fell in love with the idea of yet another hero facing a force greater than he. I was also fascinated by the idea of a normal person with no superpowers whatsoever fighting crime. Batman was a character that I could relate with – he was smart and had cool toys. While nobody could be Superman, anybody could be Batman given the proper training and resources. I decided that I needed to follow the adventures of Superman and Batman so I added the various Batman titles to my weekly hold.
I believe that there were four Superman titles and four Batman titles being published at the time. The comic shop would get their shipment on Friday afternoons so every Friday night after work I’d stop by and pick up my comics for the week and then spend the evening in my room reading them. Since I was only reading eight titles regularly, my haul would usually be limited to two issues but, on occasion, there would be a special one-shot or variant cover that I would also pick up. It wasn’t long before I realized that there was a enormous universe of superheroes that I was missing out on. Apparently Superman was my gateway comic. I was soon picking up more than 10 titles per week. The artwork was so amazing and the storylines were so compelling that I couldn’t get enough. Add the fact that the comic book guy would tell me about titles that I might like and I was never short on reading material.
In February of 1995 I left on a two year mission to South Africa for the LDS Church. Before I left, Comic Book Guy offered to keep my hold going so that I would be able to catch up on things when I got home but I knew that two years worth of comic books was a lot so I declined his offer. While I was in Africa, I would occasionally see a rack of comics in a bookstore but, knowing that I was out of the loop, I would resist the urge to pick up a few issues. I figured that when I got home, I’d be able to start collecting again and that I could pick up the back issues over time. I was wrong.
Shortly after arriving back in the States, I met my wife and realized that there was no way that I could support my comic book habit and keep her happy so something had to go. It obviously wasn’t her. Over the past few years, I’ve started getting back into collecting comics but nothing like before. She has decided that it’s OK for me to start a hold again but only if I limit myself to one title per month. I’ve chosen Star Wars Legacy as my monthly fix but I’ve also started getting digital copies of older issues that I read on my computer.
I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to get caught up on all of my comic reading for the last 14 years so I’ve been acquiring various back issues from the DC Universe so that I know what’s been happening to my favorite heroes. The fact that my sister is also a comic geek has helped me too because she also gets the trade paperbacks and lets me borrow them as needed.
Right now I’m reading Crisis on Infinite Earths from 1985 and will soon start reading old issues of The Flash dating back to 1987 and Green Lantern from who knows when. I’ll eventually pick up where I intended to, which is just after Zero Hour, but I just can’t seem to focus on just one hero or storyline. It’s funny because I figured that I would just read the collections but it’s turning out to be entire comic runs. I dare say that I’ll be spending hours and hours trying to get caught up. Maybe I should have never canceled my hold…
Wolverine, and other movies coming soon.
This past Friday I saw the movie that claims to start the summer, X-men Origins: Wolverine. For years the back story of Wolverine has been incredibly confusing. However this all changed a few years ago with a min-series entitled, “Origins”. This finally put the beginnings of one of the Marvel universes most celebrated characters. The movie holds close to this part of the story. However when it comes to other bits of Marvel history it is far less faithful. There will be a few “spoilers” but lets face it, no one who goes to see this movie was expecting The Usual Suspects.
Wolvie is treated fairly well, but the same cannot be said for his costars. So many different mutants are put on screen that it is sometimes hard to keep track of them. I think that the only reason I was able to track some of them was due to the years that I’ve spent reading comics. To summarize a few of my fanboy problems I’ll provide a small list. Someone who is not a comics fan would likely find no problem with any of these changes, and would merely enjoy all the fun explosions. However I wouldn’t be a true geek if I didn’t nit pick.
- What the hell did they do to Deadpool? He was the best part of the film’s first 20 minutes then they “kill” him offscreen. I’ve read some stuff online that points to possible spin-offs with his character, and I can only hope they come true.
- While Gambit’s character is introduced in the Big Easy he doesn’t sound like a Cajun. While it’s nice to not see an actor try to Costner their way through an accent I’m sure that they could have found someone to teach him. The accent was a huge part of the characters cool factor from the old cartoon, and was missed on screen.
- Emma Frost is NOT Silverfox’s sister. That was a silly plot point that added nothing to the story and was put in just to irk fanboys. Job well done.
- While I’m on Ms Frost, the diamond form was NOT her primary mutation. She was a telepath only eclipsed by Professor X, and Jean Grey, and a few others. It looked cool onscreen, so that one gets a bit of a pass.
- Liev Screiber is one of my favorite actor’s working today, and he did as much as he could with his role as Sabertooth, definitely more than Tyler Mane did in X-men. However there just wasn’t that much for him to work with. He kicks the hell out of Logan, then Wolvie gets cutlery for claws and is unstoppable? Yeah that didn’t make much sense to me either.
- He was called Logan by several characters, but they never explained why. It’s a small thing but an example of the lazy approach they took to the story.
- And most important of all, What the hell did they do with Deadpool.
As I said non comic fans will probably enjoy the generic summer actionness of the movie. Comic fans will find plenty of room to gripe, but its a slow comic summer so we’ll let that go.
7/10
Other movies coming up, and quick thoughts on them.
Star Trek: It’s gonna be great, we all can’t wait to enjoy the geekgasm that will erupt this Friday.
Angels and Demons: Dan Brown’s book is superior to the more lauded Da Vinci Code, my hope is that the movie will follow. Also Christians, and Catholics need to relax. Really all you’re doing is providing free advertisement.
Terminator Salvation: I’m not sure if the world was really crying out for another Terminator movie, but this one looks like it should deliver on the action front. Christian Bale hasn’t made many bad movies so I’ve got high hopes. It’ll probably be the only Terminator we get cause the TV show is on the chopping block.
Transformers 2: Should be good action. ‘Nuff said.
UP: It’s Pixar, it’s gonna be great.
Public Enemies: Johnny Depp stars as real life bank robber John Dillinger. It’s directed by Michael Mann, who I’m a huge fan of, so you know it’ll be good. If there was ever a better time to root for the guy who’s ripping off the banks I don’t know when.
Harry Potter 6: Will also be great, but really we’re just waiting for 7 at this point. All this one will be is filler.
Inglorious Basterds: Tarrintino’s look at WWII. It stars the man of both mine, and my wife’s list Brad Pitt. Should be fun and ultra violent
Julie & Julia: The bio-pic of famed chef, and professional alcoholic, Julia Child will be what my wife goes to while I’m reliving my childhood in G.I. Joe. Then I’m sure I’ll see it a few weeks later, cause lets face it I’m fan of both Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.
G.I. Joe: The one I’m most excited for after Star Trek, and also the one that no one is really talking about. I know it doesn’t come out till August, but I’m really looking forward to this one. Any chance to see Christopher “Doctor Who” Eccelston chew up the screen is a rare treat.
Did I miss anything?
KOTOR MMO On The Way
For years we’ve heard rumors about a third installment in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series. After a while, these rumors evolved into rumors of a KOTOR MMO. Now it appears that there is starting to be some basis for these rumors. I present the following as evidence.
On July 3, 2008, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars: Sagas, and Star Wars: Legends were all registered by LucasFilm Licensing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Nothing too special in an of itself. These could relate to just about anything out there: books, comics, etc. But when combined with information that Portfolio.com is reporting, things get very intriguing.
N. Evan Van Zelfden in Los Angeles warns, watch out World of Warcraft. In an interview at E3 this week, Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello said that EA is working on the next version of Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic, and it will most certainly have a massively multiplayer online component to it.
“We’ve got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development,” said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. “And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about — in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it.”
Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? “Yes,” he said.
Now if you take that information and add it to what the guys over at CVG are reporting, it looks like we’re in for some serious fun with lightsabers.
LucasArts and BioWare look set to lift the lid on a KOTOR MMO within the next 30 days.
While it’s not official yet, based on the rumors that are flying, this is a done deal. Hopefully it will be a good game.
What kind of crack are you smoking?
I’m fairly convinced that 90% of the people who work in advertising are high as a kite while at the work place. Either that, or it’s actually a very small minority that is high, and they just happen to be the ones making most the ads we see. Maybe they’re cheaper, I don’t know.
I know I’m not the only one who’s thought that, I’m sure. I’m sure not the first person to bring up how dumb some ads and logos and such are. A great example would be a couple strips from Real Life Comics by Greg Dean
It so happens that certain Native American tribes are allowed the use of peyote for religious ceremonies since they’ve already been doing so for thousands of years. I honestly wonder if there are other laws that protect people in certain occupations in a similar manner. Something along the lines of “All bonafide advertising agencies may enjoy the use of crack cocaine for inspirational purposes.”
Want an example?
It’s like they thought “Hey, this was a really great idea while I was out of my gourd. Maybe we can recreate the experience for the viewer!”
I’d like to see a list from everyone on the WEIRDEST commercials you’ve seen. The ones that make no sense at all, that leave you wondering if you should feel a little insecure or offended about what you just saw.
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