Occasional Thoughts ... Sometimes Coherent

Blogging is Hard

2006-01-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

Wow. I really let this thing go. Guess I've been so busy playing Xbox 360 games that I forgot to update. Or perhaps I am boring and have nothing to say. U-decide! Don't know whether to delete the thing or start blogging again so in the meantime... guess I'll leave it up for now.

Spoilers

2005-09-05T14:31:00.000-05:00

One of the things the internet has brought to comics is the introduction of the spoiler. Because solicitations for comics are given out months in advance, occasionally a story is spoiled because the outcome of a story is given in the copy, though the publishers have lately gotten hip to this and are more careful. The big problem comes from retailers copies of books, which are received usually a week in advance of the onsale date. Since many comic geeks spend way too much time in the shop and are friendly with the retailers, they sometimes get to peek at said books and then end up posting about it on message boards.

Thus, instead of it being a huge surprise when Xorn turned out to be Magneto in the pages of Grant Morrison's New X-men a few years ago, most people already knew about it because retards posted it online a week before. It's gotten to the point that you have to be extremely careful when perusing message boards if you want to remain surprised at upcoming books and most boards these days are filled with *spoiler* warnings.

So, it is somewhat disappointing when a comic publisher releases a spoiler in their own book. I recently caught up on some issues of Geoff Johns' new Green Lantern book and at the back of Issue 2 in the Next Issue blurb it says: "The conclusion of NO FEAR. Green Lantern discovers the true nature of this new Manhunter's mission. Plus, Black Hand is back in action and he's out for revenge!" (emphasis added)

Here's the problem: Issue 3 has no Black Hand in it. Or does it? See, the issue ends with a mysterious cloaked figure appearing. Apparently he is the one controlling the Manhunters and is apparently out for revenge against Green Lantern. Not only is he cloaked, he also appears with his hands behind his back. Since Black Hand is especially recognizable by his...black hand (not only that, but it was recently removed by Hal Jordan in Rebirth), it doesn't take a genius to realize who the mystery man is given what the next issue blurb promised.

Of course, they could always say they planned to have Black Hand appear and then changed their mind. Since the reveal of the mystery man is likely quite a ways off they could hope that people will forget by then. Though that would be even more pathetic than letting the spoiler get published in the first place.

I just find it ironic that the comic publishers blame the internet for so much that is wrong with the industry today. Yet, here they are doing exactly what they complain about. Guess DC should just shut the hell up when Rich Johnston publishes his next rumor column.

Xbox 360 Pricing

2005-08-22T19:26:00.000-05:00

So, a lot of folks are pissing and moaning about the Xbox 360 pricing. First they are bitching because MS is offering 2 versions, with and without a HD. Then, they bitch because the price of the premium system (which pretty much everyone will buy) is $399.

Personally, I don't see the reason for bitching. It was always rumored that there would be multiple versions of the 360. In fact, the original rumors talked about 3 versions of the system coming out (which could still be the case, if you add in the HD-DVD system that is supposed to come out later). These rumors weren't rumors in the truest sense of the word, since they were more like unofficial official statements more than anything else. They came from deep inside MS (most likely from Mr. Allard himself) and were not official because at the time there hadn't been a final decision made.

As far as pricing is concerned. Well, shit, look at what the damn thing is made of and it makes sense that it is going to be so expensive. There's some pretty hefty and expensive equipment inside these things, some of which is better than what is currently available for top of the line PC's. $399 is really a bargain all things considered (and the argument will be moot in a few months anyway when the PS3 pricing is eventually shored up...think $399 is expensive? Just you wait).

Look, these consoles have reached the point where they are pretty much home computers specialized to specific functions. The same people complaining about how expensive the 360 is, are the ones who spent 300 bucks on a new gfx card for their computer so they can get 5 more frames per second while playing Battlefield 2. For a few dollars more, you get a graphics card that's more powerful than you can currently buy plus all the rest that allows you to play top of the line games for years to come... and you don't have to worry about whether the fucking game will actually work when you put it in the machine.

$399 is probably cheap.

Yikes!

2005-07-28T20:50:00.000-05:00

Didn't realize it had been 2 months since I last posted. I knew it'd been awhile but thought it was much shorter. Just haven't had much to say and between a minor cancer scare and learning I have high cholesterol (actually had it for years but my last doctor apparently didn't think it was important enough to tell me, thus putting me in danger of a heart attack), plus still struggling to find a job, blogging's not been foremost in my mind.

Will hopefully find some more reasons to actually use this thing from here on, though. Otherwise I'll have to change the title, as two months is hardly "occasional".

Xbox 360 vs PS3

2005-05-30T20:40:00.000-05:00

So, E3 is over. The next-gen machines have "debuted" and now we wait and see. Everyone and their mother is debating which machine is better (Nintendo not really factoring into the equation since it's so far out and nothing but a box right now).

Personally, I think there's no real debate. The Xbox 360 has a very clear advantage going into the next-gen battle over the PS3. It's got nothing to do with graphics (both boxes have incredible graphic power and abilities), media (both play all the media you'd want and are HD) or even games (both have incredible games coming out, including exclusives).

I think the next-gen battle comes down to online. Both boxes are capable of providing incredible next-gen games but these days, online gaming is more important than ever. People still like playing single-player games, but for certain genres it is essential to a game's longevity to be able to play it online. When people start thinking about what Hal0 3 is going to be like on the Xbox 360, they aren't thinking about whether the storyline will be resolved. They're wondering whether there will finally be online co-op mode and what new gametypes will be available to play online.

And that's why Xbox 360 has the advantage. Not because it'll have Halo 3, but because it has Xbox Live. Xbox Live has shown that online gaming on a console is more than just possible. It is easy to set-up, easy to use and most importantly, fun. None of the other consoles currently out are capable of doing online as well as Xbox Live does it. The Gamecube's online capabilities are not even worth mentioning. The PS2's capabilities, while passable, are nothing to really get excited by. It's difficult to get working and the experience can be very different depending on the game you are playing and what online functionality the developer built in to it. Yeah, it's free , as opposed to Xbox Live. But well, you get what you pay for, really.

Now, PS3 is promising a lot of things when it comes to online gaming. Though much of it seems to be copying from Xbox Live. So, in the end, Sony is playing catch up when it comes to online gaming on the console and that is why I believe Xbox 360 has a real chance of not only catching up to Sony but even overtaking them in the next-gen wars. They've got some incredible exclusives coming (many of which will appeal to the Japanese market which MS completely dropped the ball on with Xbox), the hardware is phenomenal, and most important, they already know how to do online right and will only build upon what they already established.

PS3 looks cool and all. But Xbox 360 has me really excited.

DC's New Logo

2005-05-09T15:21:00.000-05:00

Newsarama has word of DC Comics' new logo.

I guess they are changing it because with the new Batman movie coming out soon and the new Superman one filming now, plus Wonder Woman and assorted others in the works, they figure they are in prime position to take on Marvel and want a logo that sticks in people's minds.

I guess the logic is that if people see the logo they think of the movies and think of how fun they were and now when they are browsing at the comic shop or book store they'll buy books with the logo.

Personally, I think that's bullshit. For one, most people if they are coming in off the street (i.e. new comic readers) are going to come into the shop looking for specific character books, probably ones based on said movies, rather than looking for a publisher name. Secondly, there have been several very popular comic movies recently that brought in a lot of non-comic readers into the movies, but there is little evidence that they went to the comic shops, certainly not in any real numbers. Finally, your core audience is made up of people who are into comics and know comics and recognize the logo you've already had for the past 30 years. Now you are going to change it and confuse many of them who will think this is a new imprint ala Vertigo or Wildstorm and won't be sure the book they are buying is the one they are used to. Dumbass marketing 101.

Wouldn't suprise me if the "bullet" returns in under a years' time.

Cheaters get the last laugh.

2005-05-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest problems Halo 2 has been plagued with is cheating. Although it was present from the beginning it took awhile for it to become really rampant and a problem to the majority of players. Whether it was using modem standby to lag people out and win, or abusing glitches in the game like pulling flags through walls or sword lunging, playing on Xbox Live started to become a real pain. Bungie did attempt to curtail things somewhat by banning cheaters but with so many people playing, there was no way to catch em all and stop cheating without a big patch to fix the inherent problems.

So, that's what Bungie did. It took a hell of a long time to implement it, but a few weeks ago the patch finally went live and most all of the glitches and problems were fixed. The following week saw the introduction of brand new maps, which was another very welcome change. Unfortunately, Bungie screwed that up by not putting in the matchmaking changes that would allow people to actually play the maps online. Yeah, you could play with friends, but not everyone has someone they can call up to play with or has friends who are online at the exact time you want to play. So, the maps sat mostly useless on many machines.

Until yesterday, when the matchmaking update went in. Now, we could finally play the new maps and have fun again. Except, Bungie decided to reset the levels of everyone in order to erase the benefits gained by those who cheated. Levels in Halo 2 are what determines who you play against. It is used so you are matched against players of the same skill level as you and thus makes playing online a lot more fun and less frustrating.

They were virtually meaningless, since if you cheated to get to a high level, you'd end up playing against people much better than you, so when the cheats were fixed you'd eventually level out and go back to where you belong. At least, that's what logic would dictate. Bungie apparently wasn't smart enough to see that logic and decided to just force a reset and start everyone back at level 1.

What this has done is made playing a horrible experience. Now, because everyone is level 1 you are forced to play with an smorgasbord of rejects, retards and noobs. The problem is that you have people who are now level 1 who know that they can't lose their level if they screw around. So, that's exactly what they do. Last night I played 4 games. The first was filled with a bunch of kids who did nothing but babble nonsense and cursing throughout the entire game, while running around trying to kill anyone, including teamates. Next, came a game wherein maybe one other person actually knew how to play a game of Assault, the rest played it like it was a game of Slayer, just running around and killing and getting killed while leaving our base completely open to be scored on. After that I had a game of assault that was filled with a group of idiots who did nothing but try and suicide, team kill, and try and hide the bomb. The final game was halfway decent but suffered from the final problem of the level reset, that is people who would normally be pretty high level playing against lesser skilled players. So, you basically had a draw because few people could survive very long and those who could weren't able to accomplish anything for lack of teamwork.

Basically what it boils down to is that because of the cheating that was so rampant, we are still being punished by the cheaters even though the problems have been fixed. Until the retards get bored and actually try to play for real, you'll continue to have crappy games where people just try and betray you. Until the levels, well, level out, you'll continue to have crappy games of mismatched teams. All because of the damn cheaters.

Well, them, and stupid Bungie for not being smart enough to realize that if they just left the levels as they were, everything would have levelled out by itself without causing any headaches and discontent. Bungie themselves repeatedly state that level is not a status symbol and is meaningless, so who cares if a few cheaters who remain have a high level. They suck and without being able to cheat anymore, their suckage would be extremely apparent as their level continuously dropped. Instead of them being punished, all the rest of us who play just to have fun are forced into frustration. Way to go Bungie!

HighDef is really addicting

2005-04-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

So, right after I got the new HDTV set but before I got the HD Box from Comcast and the HDMI Cable from Best Buy, I watched a commercial. Comcast, through its On Demand system, has a bunch of videos you can watch that are supposed to be a FAQ of sorts on whatever you have questions about. Be it HDTV, On Demand, DVR, or how to use your remote (although how exactly you are supposed to watch a tutorial on how to use your remote or On Demand, if you don't know how to use said items already, I don't know).

The one I watched was on HDTV, because I wanted to know what equipment I needed to take full advantage of the new TV. As I said, it was an advertisement with lots of pretty marketing slogans trying to get you to purchase Comcast's HD set-top box. The two biggest ones were: "It's like switching from black and white television to color" and "It's like watching real life", followed by the inevitable "Once you witness it, you'll never want to go back to regular TV again."

Of course, being the cynical bastard I am, I smelled bullshit. I figured: Yeah, sure it looks a lot sharper than regular TV, but it can't be that big a difference. Since the HD box from Comcast only cost 5 bucks more than the regular digital box, I figured what the hell. Let's give it a shot and see. Unfortunately, to truly experience "High Def" you also need a HDMI cable. This is the only way to get a truly digital signal and get the full experience. You could use a composite cable, but then it wouldn't be digital. Asking price for said cable: 120 bucks for the cheapest Monster version. By this point I figured I was already committed so I shelled it out and went home.

Which brings us to today. I've had the system all hooked up now for awhile and I've since realized something. That advertisement was completely and utterly...true. I've watched everything from Jeff Corwin in Australia playing with cute and cuddly Koalas to the blood and gore of Ultimate Fighting Championship in "high def" and I've come to the conclusion that everything they said is absolutely spot on. It is like going from black and white to color and it really does look like real life. More to the point, watching programs in high def makes going back to regular television a chore. This was most apparent yesterday afternoon when Game 1 of the Heat vs. Nets playoffs came on and ABC wasn't offering the game in HD. Having already watched several games on ESPNHD, the difference was astounding. Sure, you can still watch the game, but its like sitting in the arena with your glasses all dirty and grimy through the whole game. Not too fun.

It's gotten to the point that late at night, where I used to watch G4TV or flick through HBO and Showtime to find something to watch due to insomnia. Now, I am watching all the HD channels all night. I've seen so many nature documentaries I could probably cite the mating habits of several species and I can tell when Paul Jr. has a new pimple on American Chopper. Hell, I even find myself watching crap like Trading Spaces, rather than putting something else on that is more interesting, simply because it's in HD.

It's almost a good thing that HDTV is still somewhat expensive. America is lazy enough as it is. If HDTV was more easily available, we'd never get off the couch at all.

Crossover Chaos

2005-04-10T16:50:00.000-05:00

So, I've been thinking that lately the comics industry is starting to look a lot like it was 10 or so years ago, except without all the readers.

It started with the return of variant covers. At first this was a slow reintroduction. They told us it was just a special thing to make this issue or that series stand out. But now you have DC putting out variant covers on every major series or book that "sells out" (don't get me started on that bs) and Marvel putting out variants for, well it seems like any new book it releases. We even had the return of the good old foil cover a few weeks back when Ultimate Iron Man #1 hit the stores.

We also have the return of the crossover. Okay, this never really went away. The Batman and Superman books continued to do them throughout the years, but for the most part the age of crossovers had died out. It was no longer like it was back then when you had a crossover "event" happening in just about every single book multiple times throughout the year. Now, we are getting them almost as often again.

DC just finished up the Identity Crisis, though technically not a crossover, it did tie-in with several books. Now, the Infinite Crisis is about to start and along with the multiple tie-in series that are launching, it seems like this is gonna be something that will take place throughout many of the books in the coming months. There's also been word of a new Superman crossover in his books and its only a matter of time before the next Batman one starts.

At Marvel, we had the overhyped and miserable failure that was Avengers Disassembled. This story ran through several books for months and while it was promised that all the stories would make sense once the main one was finished...well, the debacle that is the "Read it again knowing what you now know about Wanda" statement is legendary. Next up is the House of M crossover that is promising huge changes and is running through a slew of monthlies and new tie-in series. Basically, Marvel's redoing Crisis on Infinite Earths and using Wanda's screwed up Chaos magic/reality altering powers to fix any and all continuity fuck-ups and anything else they don't like that fanboys do. There's also already word of some major Spider-man crossover in all of his books and I'm sure its only a matter of time before we see the next chapter in the neverending story of the Infinity Gems.

To top it all off, Marvel's been talking lately of making a concerted effort in the coming year to introduce a slew of new characters. And if some of the hints that have popped up in some recent books are true, it seems like many of DC's current heroes are going to die and be replaced by their younger proteges (at the very least, temporarily). This is almost exactly what happened years ago. Both DC and Marvel tried it when Image was heating up and both failed miserably, with very few exceptions.

It's truly a sad state of affairs for the industry. About the only good thing that can be said is that at least the age of writers is still holding up strong. Back then, artists ruled the roost and books were made solely to sell art. The stories absolutely sucked though they sure looked perty. These days, though the artists continue to kick ass, the writers rule and story is more important. So, the hope is that at least some of this stuff coming up will be not only readable but quite enjoyable.

We shall see. But, I tell ya, at the first sign of a die-cut glow-in-the-dark cover...I fly to New York and shove a stack straight up Quesada and Didio's asses.

I'm Back...sort of.

2005-04-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

Man, moving sucks. Cable was hooked up within a week of our arrival but between unpacking and organizing everything and running around buying new furniture and other essentials, I haven't been able to get online much.

It's all good though. I did get a pretty sweet 30" Widescreen HDTV out of the deal. With Comcasts HD Box and a DVI/HDMI cable...holy sweet god I cannot believe that HD truly lives up to all the hype and then some. Comcast also beats the shit out of Adelphia in services. Not only do we get all the Digital channels but we get OnDemand which basically allows you to watch movies (old and new) and cable programs any time you want and pause/rewind like Tivo. Plus with HBO and Showtime you also get to watch the Sunday shows like L Word and Deadwood any time, so if you miss a few shows (like I did with moving) you can easily catch up whenever you want. Fricking sweetness.

More details to come later. Should hopefully be fully back online in the next few days. Just need to re-setup the network so the Xbox and laptop works.

Been checking out the Left Behind series of books. Needed something for the long drive here to Texas and haven't been able to put them down since. My comics are even piling up because of it. It's a cool series, whether or not you are religious (which I'm not). I am into religious history and studying them though so maybe I'm more open to the idea behind the books. Regardless, it's a really interesting series dealing with the Apocalypse and how it might happen. Has a real fantasy/action adventure feel to it. Anyway, I'm almost done with Book 3 now and about to start 4.

More later.

Hulk Smash!

2005-03-08T23:30:00.000-05:00

IGN has a preview of the upcoming Hulk videogame and it looks pretty damn good. The best part:

This is not a sequel in any way. Ultimate Destruction has an original story penned by none other than the award-winning Paul Jenkins . . .The story and the game are true to the Marvel universe and to the Hulk's history. It is firmly rooted in the Hulk comic heritage but we did not stop there -- in a videogame first, the story from Ultimate Destruction is actually forming part of the Hulk continuity. We have worked closely with Ames Kirshen, the director of video game development at Marvel to ensure that we have created the most authentic Marvel and Hulk experience possible in a videogame.

See, this is what comic book games and even movie tie-in games should be. Not a game where you are on a track and following scene to scene. They should be games that take place in the setting but follow their own particular story.

Spider-man 2 was a decent start. Sure, you still followed the story of Spidey vs. Doc Ock, but you got to play around in the Spidey universe and just be Spider-man for awhile. That was fun. If I want to watch the movie, I'll watch the movie. When I play a videogame, I want to have fun playing a game not playing a movie. This new Hulk game looks like a great evolution of comic book gaming and hopefully the other companies with comic and movie licenses are finally taking notice and we'll see a slew of actually good tie-in games in the future.

Besides, this is just too damn cool:

Silver Surfer Mini

2005-03-07T20:48:00.000-05:00

Noticed this bit over at JMS' board:

The Silver Surfer mini is proceeding apace...art is coming in, I'm
three isses into that one as well, but I don't know when it's going to
be coming out because they want to get a bunch of the art under their
belt before they pull the trigger. (It's all *painted pages* not just
drawn and inked/colored...and it's spectacular, gorgeous stuff.)

Don't recall seeing anything about this before. Coupled with his upcoming run on Fantastic Four, along with continuing Supreme Power ( plus related minis) and Spidey, JMS is quickly becoming as busy as Bendis. Two new sci-fi related series from him is good news.

Waid on City of Heroes

2005-03-05T15:37:00.000-05:00

In this month's issue of Wizard Magazine, Mark Waid gave out some hints of what's coming in the first arc of his City of Heroes comic:

Look for the first three-issue arc in May to star Statesman, as well as Freedom Phalanx members Manticore, Synapse, Positron and Sister Psyche. "We get to learn what their lives are like behind the masks, and why they do what they do," reveals Waid. "Moreover, we'll be introducing for the first time anywhere certain key elements of the CoH universe that will come to fruition in the City of Villains game release in 2005."

Sounds like fun and is exactly what the CoH comic should have been like from the start. I also hear that Waid actually plays CoH, too. If true that should definitely help in making sure the comic fits well with the game.

DAN SLOTT SIGNS EXCLUSIVE WITH MARVEL

2005-03-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

Newsarama has news that writer Dan Slott has signed an exclusive with Marvel. Great news, as he is a brilliant writer.

His work on the Spider-man/Human Torch mini is genius. It's not only as funny as you'd imagine it should be, but it also does an excellent job of fitting in with the time periods each story is set. The art and most importantly, the dialogue, actually fit and make you feel like you are reading an older comic. And his run on She-hulk has been brilliant, as well. Earning high praise from critics and fans, alike, though unfortunately its' sales have not been indicative of its' quality.

So, this news is welcome. However, there is some good news/bad news with this report. She-hulk is apparently on a pause and not cancelled (good news). However, the pause is quite a long one as it is reportedly not returning until October (bad news). The one really interesting bit of news from Dan himself:

“This August, I'll be the writer on a new "secret" monthly book for Marvel, starring one of their top-tier characters. I don't know if we can let the cat out of the bag just yet.”

Hmm, top-tier and Dan's propensity for writing comedy...Spider-man, anyone?

Costume Party

2005-03-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

Newsarama has a photo-report of some of the costumed attendees to this year's MegaCon. Some standouts:

Set repulsors to Gay!

Methinks, Thor hath constipation.

Oh dear God, please end this misery.

Marvel/DC Crossover

2005-03-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

Despite DC Comics hatred of Joe Quesada, the Marvel/DC Crossover event of 2005 went off as planned.

Titled "Access Denied" and apparently about superheroes coming out of the closet, it should hit stores this summer.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

2005-02-28T20:25:00.000-05:00

Joe Quesada held a "Cup o'Joe" Q&A session at MegaCon and answered some questions that many have wondered about for awhile. On whatever happened to the Thor relaunch:

"If our plans are correct, then we will see Thor near the end of this year," said Quesada. "I keep promising Thor fans there is a reason for the wait and it is a great reason. We know that Ragnarok has happened, the Gods are dead and the cycle has to begin again."

Of course it was last summer that Joe told us Thor fans that we would all love his ass by the end of year, that year being 2004. So, I take this with a huge grain of salt.

He also mentions She-hulk plans:

"There is a good possibility that She-Hulk will be paused, not cancelled," said Quesada on the topic of when the jade giantess will return to her own title.

Wait, I thought She-hulk was being relaunched with a big marketing push? Why would the word "cancelled" even come up at all? Later he says:

The Marvel line is getting so strong that we can pull Spider-Man and Wolverine back a little bit. 'Young Avengers,' 'She-Hulk' and 'Black Panther' are getting hot and that relieves tension on the remainder of the Marvel cast.

So, wait, on one hand there's a hint of possible cancellation and yet it's "getting hot"? If it's "getting hot" why was it even paused in the first place? Why not just promote the damn thing in the first place?

Look, there's no doubt that Joe Quesada is responsible for bringing Marvel and comics, in general, back to life. He's done and still does a lot of good things, but there are times when the things he does and says just boggles. (See previous post)

City of Heroes gets a real Comic

2005-02-25T15:12:00.000-05:00

It's a pretty obvious choice. You have a MMOG based on comic books, so put out a comic book based on the MMOG. Unfortunately, that book wasn't so good. Although it was based on the characters and mythologies from the game, which made it interesting. The writing was not particularly very good and the storylines were kind of blah. Hell, I am obviously a huge comic book reader, yet there's a pile of CoH comics sitting on my shelf unread.

Rejoice, for we are now going to be getting an actualy good comic book, as it was announced that Top Cow is taking over the book. Not only that but the new writer is former Fantastic Four writer and current Legion of Superheroes scribe, Mark Waid. Thankfully, the comic will remain a free mailer for those who subscribe to the game.

MARVEL REVISES RATINGS SYSTEM

2005-02-25T14:52:00.000-05:00

NEWSARAMA - MARVEL REVISES RATINGS SYSTEM

I'm not really sure why this was necessary. I've not known anyone to decide whether to purchase a book based on its rating. And I've only once seen an actual parent of a young child in the comic shop asking about comics for their kid. I guess this is more of a way for Marvel to continue to do without the Comics Code Authority and avoid congressional repurcussions when Luke Cage has unlawful carnal relations with Jessica Jones. Although given the state of the industry, a few congressional hearings might be just what is needed in order to perk up interest and bring new readers in.

Cold Season Sucks

2005-02-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

Especially with two kids in the house passing germs back and forth. Blech.

Waiting for the Trade?

2005-02-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

While I don't "wait for the trade" myself, there's always times when you want to catch up on a favorite creator's run on a book, or hear about a story and want to read it but can't afford back issues.

The Trade Paperback List is a very useful site for finding those TPBs. Although the site design seems strange and cumbersome, at first. It actually works out pretty well once you start using it.

And if you do "wait for the trade" (shame on you!) the site's helpful for upcoming stuff as well.

Wonder(ful)Con News

2005-02-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

And it's official. CBR reports from WonderCon:

Whedon announced that he and artist John Cassaday would be continuing their run on Marvel's premiere mutant title for an additional 24 issues. The duo would produce twelve issues, followed by a short break, and then get back to the title with an additional twelve issues. No word on whether the title would simply take a break or if fill-in creative teams would participate.

Great news, indeed. Read Issue #8 last night and I honestly believe that this is a better run than Morrison's and comes close to topping the Claremont/Byrne days. Personally, I was a bit concerned when Whedon was first tapped for this project. I was never a fan of Buffy and was worried that this was just a case of putting a big name on a book just to have a big name, especially after Morrison left the way he did.

Astonishing is definitely one of the best books out there right now and always the first book I read on the Wednesdays it comes out. Although Brubaker's Captain America and JMS' Supreme Power come really close in terms of quality, along with Vaughn's Ex Machina. No wonder I spend so much each week.

Astonishing News?

2005-02-18T15:16:00.000-05:00

CBR has the solicits for Marvel's May books and what could be confirmation of what many suspected and hoped:

ASTONISHING X-MEN #11
Written by Joss Whedon
Pencils & Cover by John Cassaday
"DANGEROUS"

The penultimate chapter to Whedon & Cassaday's first year of ASTONISHING. In this issue...everything comes crumbling down. Part 5 (of 6).

Hopefully this is true, as Whedon has been absolutely phenomenal on the book.

Xbox Recall

2005-02-17T20:56:00.000-05:00

Since my Xbox is affected by this, I figured I would pass along the information in case others are in the same boat. If you have a Xbox that was manufactured prior to October 2003, your Xbox power cord is in danger of causing a fire. Microsoft will replace the cord free of charge if you happen to have one. You can find out when your Xbox was made by looking at the sticker on the bottom of the Xbox. More information here.

If you smell, what the Surfer is cooking!

2005-02-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

In an IGN Filmforce interview, The Rock answered a question about whether he'd ever do a comic book movie:

Before The Rock left, a final question was thrown out as to whether he had ever considered doing a comic movie, such as The Silver Surfer. "Yeah, it's funny. Abby was talking to my guy about Silver Surfer. I talked to him about Silver Surfer too."

Wonder how he's gonna do the People's Eyebrow without eyebrows.

Countdown to...Countdown

2005-02-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

RUCKA, JOHNS, & WINICK ON DC COUNTDOWN

For some reason this whole thing reminds me exactly of Zero Hour. Maybe it's because of the return of Hal Jordan and Parallax. Or perhaps it's the Countdown logo that debuted in the back of last week's books that is very reminiscent of the ZH logo. Or it could be the fact that this is all leading to a big company wide crossover.

I don't know, but with Rucka, Johns and Winick writing and covers like this:

Well, the geek in me just can't pass it up. Doesn't hurt that the thing is just a dollar for 80 pages.

Windows 98th Street

2005-02-14T23:51:00.000-05:00

Wonder if there's a BSOD down the block.

The Pet Professional

2005-02-14T22:33:00.000-05:00

Scott Kurtz posted about a new web comic made by one of his friends over at PVP. It's called the Pet Professional and is apparently about a hitman who kills the pets of criminals rather than the criminals themselves. Scott' warns:

NOTE: If you are a politically correct, overly sensitive animal activist...do NOT read this strip.

Well, I'm not politically correct by any stretch of the imagination. I'm hardly overly sensitive and I am in no way an animal activist. Yet, I cannot for the life of me see the humor or entertainment value in this strip. Okay, so the guy goes around killing pets who presumably (though it isn't readily apparent in the first strip) have done something wrong deserving of such a fate. Yeah, umm, so where's the funny?

I can see if this was a strip that just deals with random irony in the world. Then it might be worth a chuckle. But as an ongoing strip dealing with the story of a professional animal killer? I don't know, maybe I'm just getting older. Although, I honestly don't think I'm alone in the opinion and doubt that the strip will have any success.

Unless, of course, the above warned "politically correct, overly sensitive animal activist(s)" read it and start some kind of campaign. Hmm, methinks I stumbled upon the reason he chose such a topic. Pretty funny joke, afterall.

I Pity the Fool...who buys this crap.

2005-02-14T17:12:00.000-05:00

MR. T RETURNS TO COMICS

Words cannot truly describe the insanity that is a Mr. T comic book in the year 2005. So, I'll let the picture speak for itself...

Halo, I love you. Won't you tell me your name?

2005-02-13T16:25:00.000-05:00

One of the overlooked pitfalls of the rampant cheating and glitches in Halo 2, is that many people who are tired of getting screwed over in ranked games are turning to the Training Rooms to get their playing time in. While this might seem meaningless, it does cause quite a few problems. Not the least of which is people who are ranked quite high playing against lower ranked players.

Now, I'm not a terrible player but, neither am I that great. I also tend to play Training games a lot because it's the only place you can have Guests and my nieces both like to play the game. They aren't bad, either. The problem is that even if you are fairly decent, it is very difficult and often frustrating to play against someone who is ranked level 15+. Nevermind playing against a party of 4 of them. Add in the fact that many of these folks are not, generally, humble folks and you have a recipe for disaster.

Even though fixing the glitches and the cheating won't completely do away with this problem, it would certainly help a lot. These folks are playing in the Training games because they are tired of losing rank because of cheaters and like to take out their frustrations on lesser players. Stop the cheating and most of these folks will happily go back to playing ranked games against people their own skill level. Hopefully, Bungie's upcoming Downloadable Content is not too much farther off and we can all get back to having fun again.

Wha huh?

2005-02-13T00:39:00.000-05:00

Newsarama just finished out a week wherein they gave over most of the site to Joe Quesada, Editor-in-chief of Marvel comics. It was actually a pretty interesting week of articles and certainly worth checking out. However, there was one article in particular that struck me as odd: an interview with Greg Pak.

Greg Pak, for those unaware, is a new writer for Marvel comics. Actually, he isn't. He's apparently written quite a lot for Marvel in the last few years, but only two books have actually seen print. One was Warlock, which received some critical success but had extremely low sales. The other is X-men: Phoenix - Endsong, which has earned both critical success and very good sales (selling out of its first two issues pretty quickly).

Greg is actually a very good writer. Endsong was a book that most people, myself included, thought was going to suck. None of us believed we needed yet another book resurrecting Jean Grey and the Phoenix. And yet, it is a fantastic story. Which is why it is so surprising that nobody has heard of Greg before, especially in light of Joe's comments in the article:

People have been hearing me speak of this hot new writer named Greg Pak for a couple of years now. Things like, “He’s written more unpublished scripts than anyone I know,” are the just the normal things people learn about this young scribe whenever I rave privately about him. Arguably, Greg has been writing for Marvel for almost three years now. He’s been asked to write many an unpublished project yet never once complaining. Seemingly, sucking up as much knowledge as possible all the while biding his time, waiting patiently for his shot. I guess patience is really the one word that I think describes Greg best.

Good for Greg, bad for us. Later, Greg gives us the reason we've never seen any of those scripts:

A Marvel editor would solicit a pitch from me about a specific character or storyline. I'd get very excited, do a ton of research, and work up an outline. The editor would get very excited and send me fantastic notes and suggestions. I'd get even more excited and work on revisions. And then the editor would get even more excited and send me more notes, and we1d both feel we were on the verge of something really amazing -- and then we'd learn that for various business-related reasons beyond our control, the project couldn't proceed. Rinse and repeat, four or five times over the course of a year. Whew.

And that's the odd part. See, here is the editor-in-chief saying how great this guy is and in the same breath saying how so many of his scripts have never been published. Why is this the case? You would think that someone at Marvel would have come up with some idea to get this guy working on that would actually see fruition rather than waste his time and talent on things that more than likely were longshots at seeing print. The guy can obviously write and write very well. The EIC is giving him such high praise and has been doing so for quite awhile now. Yet this guy gets put on one book that gets mostly overlooked for lack of promotion by said EIC and another which luckily had an extremely talented and popular artist put on it, which is what got people to buy the book and see how good a writer Greg really is.

So why isn't Greg Pak writing an ongoing for Marvel? Hopefully there aren't more like him at Marvel. Being praised for their talent and yet barely, if ever, seeing their work printed. It's no wonder the comic industry isn't doing as well as it should given the success of the movies.

First Post

2005-02-13T00:12:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so this is my first post and my first blog, as well. Given those caveats, the purpose of this blog is to occasionally put forth some ramblings on what I like. Mostly this will be posts about comics and video games. Though there could be some other interesting things popping up at times, as I do tend to find a lot of strange things while perusing the Internets. Most likely nobody else will give a damn and that's fine with me. If you do manage to Stumble on this page and like what you read, you are more than welcome to leave a comment letting me know.